La madre de todos los traslados

This was indeed the transfer of transfers - 19 missionaries completed their missions and headed for home, while 10 new missionaries arrived.

Because 22% of our missionary force was leaving, including one Ayudante and six zone leaders, and only 10 new missionaries were arriving, nearly every companionship was affected (only six companionships remained unchanged). Elder Atkin, our faithful secretary, and Elder Parry, who is taking over the his duties, worked for weeks to plan every detail so that everyone would be with a companion while traveling or while left in the field. It was a complex and impressive piece of work. For their next project, I suggest they consider launching a satellite into space - it couldn't be much more complicated!

TRANSFERS BEGIN

Because of the complexities of travel, we announced all of the transfers on Friday. Interviews with the departing missionaries were held on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Between interviews on Monday we also welcomed two young people from the Vitoria Stake serving "mini missions" this month. We are glad to have them here!

 Hno. Cantos with his companion, Elder Pando - they are serving in Sabadell

 Hna. Cabrejas in the office before heading south to Valencia to work with Hna. Snow

While the president was interviewing the returning missionaries, the office staff was doing their own short interviews of the missionaries and recording them to produce a short video of advice and counsel for the arriving missionaries.

Elders Raban, Ashby and Atkin taking a break at the piano between filming

  

 The Ayudantes (including Elders Morales and Ashby, going to other assignments, and Elder Southwick who is newly assigned) prepare notes for their training meeting with the trainers and the new missionaries

 NUEVOS

Tuesday at noon we headed to Estacio Sants (the train station) to pick up the ten new Elders. Because of the tight schedule, we brought them directly to the office (rather than making our traditional stop at Montjuic) where the office staff was primed and ready. The Ayudantes had already had a training session with the Zone Leaders, and were training the new trainers. Elder Bowers collected the passports and began scanning them. Hna. Belnap had already made luggage tags for everyone. The Lunds directed traffic outside the office; the office Elders had already stored the luggage of outgoing missionaries in the spare bedroom of the mission home, leaving room (barely) in the office for the 40 pieces of luggage of the the arriving missionaries.

 Repacking...

Storing luggage to make way for the arriving missionaries

 The nuevos arrive and attache name tags to each piece of luggage. We used two vans and the Toyota to transport them back to the office.

 Newly arrived on the AVE from Madrid!

Taking luggage out to the cars

We ushered the new Elders upstairs to the mission home where the tables were set and Carolina, with the assistance of Hnas. Lund and Belnap and the Ayudantes, served lunch. Lunch was followed by a brief orientation. The Lunds briefed them on finances and pisos, Elder Bowers walked them through the next steps in registering with the government, and the Ayudantes briefed them on some key guidelines in the mission. Meanwhile, President Hinckley conducted a brief interview with each of them and finalized their assignments.

The nuevos gathered in the mission home for lunch and orientation

The trainers gather in the hallway before coming in to meet their new companions!

 Orientation continues with the nuevos and the trainers

After completing the interviews and orientation, President Hinckley announced the assignments, and the new companionships went down to the office for final fotos and prayer, and they were then off to their areas of service at 4:15, just 3 1/2 hours after arriving at the train station!

VIEJOS

Thirty minutes later the next event of the day began: dinner with the 19 outgoing missionaries, followed by a meeting and testimonies. In total, Carolina orchestrated preparing and serving 35 meals during the day. She prepared the chicken enchiladas (nuevos) and lasagna (viejos) earlier, but each plate, as always, was set as a piece of art.

We had a wonderful final meeting with the viejos. As always, the office staff had prepared souvenir books for them (containing contact information, instructions on going forward with life, a place to write goals, and a copy of the transfer board card). The meeting concluded with each missionary sharing their testimony. It is always a somewhat bittersweet meeting - they are sad to leave and we are sad to see them go, but we know that while they may have had the best two years of their life so far, the best is yet to come!

The 19 viejos and Hna. Hinckley pose for one last foto

CANTANDO PARA LOS ANGELES

The conclusion of the day was the traditional "Singing for the Angels" at Plaza Catalunya. Missionaries and members from around Barcelona gather at Portal d'Angel to sing hymns, make contacts in the street, and say farewell to the returning missionaries. Three of our missionaries had parents in town to pick them up, and they met us at the Plaza for the singing. The missionaries made several contacts and had a chance to say goodbye to friends.

Missionaries and members singing hymns in front of the artists' shops on Portal d'Angel

 Elder Cook writes down an investigators address while Elders Keller and Gerber continue teaching

 Elder Ashby makes another contact on his last night

 

 Elder Southwick explains the Restoration

 Hnas. Patten and Johns teach on the street

 Hnas. Oliphant and Roerig teaching in the street

 Hnas. Diehl and Brown on their last night in Barcelona, teaching a shopper in front of Zara

Hnas. Brown and Diehl sharing the message

While at the Plaza, and email arrived notifying us that our 11th grandchild had just been born. We are excited and grateful for the safe arrival of little Tessa Charlotte Lesan!

After Singing for the Angels, all returned home for a few hours sleep: the three hermanas stayed at the mission home, nine Elders slept at the office (we have beds for six...), and four slept at a hotel just up the street.

Early (6:45 a.m.) Wednesday morning everyone was up, dressed, and packed. Elder Atkin had all the luggage in the entry to the office in alphabetical order, ready to take to the street and load onto the bus. We chartered a tour bus to take the missionaries - and their 64 pieces of luggage - to the airport. President and Sister Hinckley road in the bus while the Lunds and Elders Parry and Atkins drove a van (for us to return in). It was the first time we had used a bus (transfers are not usually this large) and it worked great - it got everybody and their luggage to the airport at the same time and was no more expensive than renting vans or taxis.

Loading luggage...

At the airport, it took about 45-60 minutes to get everyone through the line and luggage checked. We had a final farewell abrazo at the security line and said goodbye! We hope to see them all in a couple of years!

Today we have a few hours to clean up, wash sheets, put down the tables, and regroup. Tomorrow we drive two missionaries up to Andorra where they will spend three weeks in a little branch that hasn't had missionaries for over a year. Friday we have driving class (still working on getting our Spanish driver license, akin to taking the bar exam). Then on Monday we have Zone Leader Council followed by Leadership Training on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. In the meantime we continue to see daily miracles and wonderful baptisms!

Miracle on San Vicente Martir

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The missionaries tell us that investigators fall out of the sky in Valencia, and we learned for ourselves that it's true. On Monday evening we arrived at the Valencia train station, checked into our hotel, and then took a little walk to get some late dinner before retiring. We stopped for some tapas in a little restaurant on San Vicente Martir. As we were selecting our tapas from the counter, a young waitress behind the counter looked at our chapas and asked if we were with a church. Was it a Christian church? Did we have a card or something with the address of the church? We were fresh out of pass-along cards, so I gave her my business card and wrote the address of the chapel and the telephone number of the zone leaders. She wrote down her name and telephone number so we could contact her.

The Hermanas in Valencia subsequently reported that they visited her and gave her brief overview and shared the story of the First Vision with her. She agreed to come to church tomorrow with the sisters and to have them come back and teach her more.

This is a work of miracles!

More Help Arrives - Elder Harris!

Elder Harris had been working temporarily in the California Los Angeles Mission waiting for his visa. It is always a good day when a new missionary finally arrives!

 On the castle ramparts at Montjuic

 Elder Harris in the president's office

 Elder Harris is being trained by Elder Ames in the Inca Branch on the island of Mallorca. Because the airlines only allow one bag on the flights to Mallorca, Elder Harris did some quick repacking before leaving the office (we store his other bag at the office).

 Elder Atkin, who once served on the the island, gives some packing tips to Elder Harris

Help Arrives - in the form of the Belnaps!

One of the great benefits of the recent boundary change is that Elder and Hna. Belnap (from Glendale, AZ), who served in the office in the Spain Bilbao Mission, have now come to Barcelona! While we were driving up to Vitoria to meet our new young missionaries, the Belnaps were driving down to Barcelona - we think we passed each other on the freeway somewhere near Zaragoza!

Most of their time will be spent helping us get some of our missionary apartments, which have suffered some neglect, up to standards. They are off and running - yesterday they made their first trip to IKEA and purchased new bunk beds and mattresses!

A very warm welcome to the wonderful Belnaps!!

Elder and Hna. Belnap in the office (Hna. Lund is smiling because help has arrived!)

Welcome to the Bilbao and Vitoria Zones!

 

On 1 July 2010 the long anticipated boundary changes went into effect. We said goodby to the remarkable missionaries of the Elche Zone on Monday (see below). Then on Wednesday we hopped into the VW Transporter and headed out to parts of Spain we had never seen before to meet missionaries (most of whom) we had never met before.

It is about a 7-hour drive from Barcelona to Vitoria in the Basque Country. On Thursday morning we met for the first time with the incredible missionaries of the Bilbao and Vitoria Zones.

 A handsome and impressive group of missionaries!

 The hermanas: Hnas. Ruz, Patten, Culverwell, Roerig, Stosich, Gonzales, Johns

 Elders Morales, Southwick and Atkin on the streets of Vitoria

Hydrangea at the entrance to the Vitoria chapel

The old medieval center of Vitoria

 Elder Ashby and Elder Raban become acquainted at the gas station...

Elder Morales seems concerned about the cost of diesel!

As noted above, the new Spain Barcelona Mission not only has 88 incredible missionaries, but an entire mountain range (the Pyrenees - at least the Spanish Pyrenees), two seas (the Mediterranean and the Atlantic), three islands with organized church units (Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza in the Mediterranean), and four great stakes. We also have 4 of the best ten restaurants in the world - not that we have the time or money to eat at any of them!