Zone Leader Council

On Friday, 24 July 2009 - Pioneer Day - we held our Zone Leader Council at the mission home in Barcelona. The Zone Leaders came in on Thursday evening and met with the Assistants, Elder Watkins and Elder Lee. Friday morning we gathered for breakfast, followed by two hours of training, a short snack break, and another two hours of training and testimonies. Afterwards we had lunch together before taking the accompanying photograph.

This is an extraordinary group of missionary leaders! They come from Spain, Slovenia, Germany and all across the United States. They are dedicated, mature, able and faithful! They will meet with the missionaries in their Zones next Tuesday to teach the things which we discussed on Friday.

This week we also held individual interviews with all of the missionaries in the 3 Barcelona Zones. They are outstanding young men and women, firm in the faith and dedicated to the cause. During the last transfer (6 weeks) we were blessed with 49 baptisms in the mission, the second highest number (just a few below last transfer) in many years. Great things are happening in Spain!

Welcome

Welcome to the Spain Barcelona Mission blog! This blog is for the families of currently serving missionaries and others who are interested in what is happening in the mission.

Last week we had transfers - 10 wonderful and remarkable missionaries went home, and we miss them dearly! Pte. Hinckley had interviewed each of them; the Hinckleys then had dinner with them at the mission home, followed by some words of counsel and a wonderful testimony meeting. After dinner, all went down to the Plaza Catalunya where other missionaries and members were singing hymns and contacting. It has been a long-standing tradition to sing at the plaza the night before missionaries return home and, as always, it was an emotional but enjoyable event. Everyone was up early the next morning and off to the airport!

In the meantime, Sister Church (from Fresno, CA) arrived from the Madrid MTC. Her new companion is Sister O'Neill and they are working in Valencia. We are thrilled to have this outstanding new sister in our mission!

On Saturday we had we a surprise treat - Sister Snow arrived from the Madrid MTC. She had arrived in Madrid on Tuesday with 11 other missionaries assigned to Barcelona, but she is bilingual (her mother is from Spain) and was able to come almost immediately to our mission. Another outstanding sister, she is working with Sister Farnsworth in Zaragoza.