¡Concilio!

The new month begins with mission council - the Ayudantes, the Zone Leaders, and an invited companionship of Hermanas joined us for the March council meeting at the mission home on Tuesday morning. Actually, they began with a brief session on Monday evening conducted by the Ayudantes. Hermanas Gum and Brown came in from Zaragoza for the council.

As is our custom, Tuesday morning began with a hearty breakfast prepared by the Hna. Hinckley and the Ayudantes. Pancakes and maple syrup (thanks, Mapeline!) are a treat for our American missionaries!

But the real fun began after breakfast. We had a wonderful discussion about the progress of the mission and revised our Standards of Excellence to reflect the higher performance of missionaries over the last several months. We have remarkable young mission leaders who have a great spirit about them and who demonstrate great faith.

This year we have a specific focus each month on one aspect of Preach My Gospel. In January, we worked on becoming "world-class" planners (Chapter 10). We saw many miracles as our missionaries worked on making more meaningful plans to help investigators.

 In February and March our focus is on using the Book of Mormon more effectively (Chapter 5). Again, we had many stories reported in the council about how directing investigators to find answers to their questions in the Book of Mormon created miracles. The Hermanas reported on an investigator of theirs who just didn't believe that God could ever forgive her of her sins. They asked her to read the story of Alma the Younger and think about how this might apply to her. She returned with a new understanding of the Atonement and the faith that she could put the past behind her and be free from sin.

Just for fun, we did a little Book of Mormon quiz with the council members - the President would give a short description of a Book of Mormon event or key doctrine, and the missionaries were to name the corresponding chapter. He was unable to stump the panel! The scriptural knowledge of these young missionaries is impressive!

 Seated: Hnas. Gum, Brown, Hinckley, Pte. Hinckley

Standing: Elders Jensen, Raban, Lammi, Davis, Millard, Burton, Morales, Groves, Wilcox, Evans, Miskin, Gogarty

 Why is this woman smiling?

We left the council having been fed the Spirit and with a greater vision of how to lift the work in the coming year!

"We Need a Miracle"

 Our missionaries often teach investigators who are not married. In many cases, these are couples who have lived together for an extended period of time and are raising a family, but local laws make it difficult and expensive to obtain a legal marriage, especially if one of the individuals is an immigrant.

One of our zone leaders was doing an exchange with another Elder this week. As they were walking towards the home of a prospective investigator, the missionary told the zone leader that this couple would probably get baptized if they could just get married. But knowing how difficult and time-consuming it would be for the couple to get a marriage license, he was not hopeful. As they approached the front door the missionary said to the zone leader, "We need a miracle."

They rang the bell and woman answered the door in her wedding gown - they had just been married two hours earlier!

"Ask and ye shall receive."

Andorra

In addition to Eastern Spain and the Balearic Islands, our mission includes the Principality of Andorra, high in the Pyrenees between Spain and France. There has been a small branch of the Church in Andorra for many years. For the past few years, the branch has actually met not in Andorra but in La Seu, a town in northern Spain where we rent a small store-front location for a chapel.

It is about a 3-hour drive to Andorra from Barcelona, and because we have no missionaries assigned to the branch, we had not visited the branch until last week. Between Zone Conferences we arranged to drive up and visit the branch over the weekend.

 

 We had ten adults and 5 children in attendance - two Bolivian families, a Paraguayan family, a Peruana sister, and a couple of Andorra natives. It was a wonderful meeting with a great spirit. These are faithful Latter-Day Saints a long ways from a stake or even another branch who meet together every Sunday in a Sacrament meeting and then hold an abbreviated Primary for the children. It was wonderful to be with them!

Zone Conferences - Elche and Valencia

We finished up the February Zone Conferences with the Elche Zone on Tuesday and the Valencia Zone on Wednesday. It is a 7-hour train ride to Murcia (where we hold the Elche Zone Conference, so we went down on Monday afternoon.

The Elche Zone in the Murcia Chapel

A recent convert (of one week) joined us for the last few minutes of the conference and shared her testimony briefly with us. This sweet sister somehow found the address of the Sister Missionaries on the Web - she went to their apartment four times before she finally found them home (the fact that they were there the 4th time was one of many miracles).

Hnas. Monte de Oca and Bowen with their recent convert, Hna. Alba and Hna. and Pte. Hinckley

After Zone Conference we headed on the train up to Valencia to get some sleep and prepare for the Valencia Zone Conference on Wednesday.

 Arriving at the Valencia train station

 The Valencia Zone - small in number, great in power!

After conference is was back to the train station and home to Barcelona. One of the great things about traveling by train is you can keep working during the travel time.

Elders Gogarty and Jensen taking care of business on the Euromed, somewhere between Valencia and Barcelona

Zone Conferences - February 2010

Palma on Tuesday, Barcelona on Wednesday, Hospitalet on Thursday. We have had wonderful conferences, learning how to better use the Book of Mormon, reviewing our improved planning skills, and talking about how to be more effective and powerful missionaries. It is always a wonderful experience to be in Zone Conference and feel the great spirit of these wonderful missionaries!

 

In the Palma chapel

 

The Barcelona Zone

The Hospitalet Zone

2009 was a remarkable year in the Spain Barcelona Mission, and our missionaries have set goals for this year that far surpass anything in the past. They are full of faith, they are obedient, and they work very hard! As a result, we see miracles every day.

At Zone Conference...

On Saturday we drive to Andorra, where we will spend the night and then meet with the members in our small branch on Sunday. Then on Monday it's the train to Murcia for the Elche Zone Conference on Tuesday, then up to Valencia for Zone Conference on Wednesday.

Hna. Montes de Oca Arrives!

It's true that we lost several experienced missionaries during the week, but as always, we were not left destitute - we received a new powerhouse missionary fresh from the Madrid MTC: Hna. Montes de Oca (who actually spent most of her life in Okinawa - her father was in the Marine Corps).

At the airport with Elder Jensen (who recently returned to Barcelona to serve as a new Assistant)

Getting ready to head to the train station - Hna. Montes de Oca has been assigned to Murcia with Hna. Bowen and they are already setting the place on fire!

So Long, Farewell

In spite of everything we do to prevent it, we have transfers every six weeks - which means saying goodby to some of the very best!

 

We enjoyed a little farewell fiesta with Elder Laney by walking over to Tomas de Sarria and having what are considered the best patatas bravas (think fries and fry sauce) in all of Spain.

 

Hna. Grimm at Plaza Catalunya where we "sing for the angels"

Hnas. Alfieri and Olson in the mission home on their last day

 

Elder Melgarejo in the mission home

Elder Peña

Elder Laney

Hna. Alfieri's parents - now we know where Hna. Alfieri gets that flair - from her mother!

Hna. Alfieri giving a "thumbs up"

With Elder Laney and Hna. Grimm at the airport

Last night in the mission...

Hna. Olson, Hna. Grimm, Hna. Alfieri, Elder Melgarejo, Hna. Jackson, Elder Peña, Elder Laney