Last Barcelona Zone Conf



We are now officially into June. That's crazy! This week went by pretty fast. First off, we had to get the Mini-MAV fixed. It turns out that the electronics of the car were messed up because the "TIWI" was connected. The TIWI is the device that tracks the vehicle and allows the mission to know who is driving and what they are doing wrong. It is also a major annoyance as you get to hear things like "Aggressive Driving!" or "Unknown Driver!" or "Check your speed!" at various times as you drive. I must admit when the dealer told me that they had to disconnect it to get the car working right, It  was all I could do to keep from smiling! I know that it will probably have to be fixed and re-connected at some point, but at least I will not have to listen to it in the meantime. 

 We are starting to get to the point of dealing with "lasts". This week we experienced the last zone conference for the Barcelona and Granollers zones. It was a little different getting things set up, getting the food ready, and other logistics ready. There was the normal last minute details, but it was weird because this was also the last zone conference for the Heckmanns in those two zones. Usually, we sing the mission hymn as the closing number before kneeling in prayer at the end. This time, it was the opening number so that they could have the missionaries sing "God be with you 'til we meet again" at the end.  Another tradition is that they usually ask the missionaries who will be leaving before the next zone conference to come to the front and bear their testimonies. As President Heckmann calls out the list there are always gasps and "NOs" after each name. This time that list included us and the Heckmanns. It was touching to feel the love of the missionaries as they protested us leaving. As we went up one at a time, Hermana Musser went before me. Her sweet testimony got me emotional before I could even say anything! She has given her heart and soul to these missionaries, and they know it. It was hard to say goodbye to those missionaries, and the kicker is that we will have to do that again when we go to the Hospitalet zone conference next week!

On Thursday, I got quite the shock as the Johnson's told us that they weren't going to be to Institute on Friday. They attended the temple with a recent convert from Valencia and didn't realize until Thursday that he needed me to teach the institute lesson for him. There was a little panic as I read through the material on how well I'd be able to do on short notice. I decided that since I was pressed for time, that I would give AI a try and asked "Claude" to build me a powerpoint presentation on the lesson. It went out to the church library, found the manual, read the lesson, and built a very nice presentation to last an hour. I went through and edited the presentation to focus on the points that I thought were the most important, and it all went well. I normally don't like powerpoint because you are then limited in being able to take a side journey if the class needs you to. I probably won't use it very often, but it was a lot slicker than I thought it would be.

Next week we will be going to Stake Conference to hear a couple of General Authorities. It will be great but it will be the last time that I go to our stake center here in Barcelona. Not sure I am liking all of these "lasts". One thing I do know though, and that is the Lord is in the work. President Heckmann told me that both he and his wife had spiritual confirmation that the mission needs new mission leaders. It will be wonderful to see what the Newitts will bring to the mission and to the work. However, I do know that we are in for a whirlwind when the changeover happens. Not only will we need to do what we can to get the Newitts settled, but I was informed that right after he gets here we will get audited! I was hoping to avoid that, but Bring it On!

We love you all dearly. Have a great week.

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