Visitors from Abroad

We had a wonderful visit from Bishop Richard C. Edgley and Elder Jose Teixeira in early September. They were joined by Joseph B. Wirthlin, Jr., the Director of Temporal Affairs and were spending 4-5 days in Spain to assess building needs and related issued.

 In front of the Barrio 2 chapel

We picked up our visitors at the airport on Monday night (6 September) and drove them through two hours of traffic to their hotel! Tuesday morning we picked them up and drove them across town to the Hospitalet Stake Center for a meeting with all the missionaries in the Barcelona area. We had a wonderful missionary meeting, then visited the Barcelona Barrio 2 chapel where Elder and Sister Hadley gave them a tour of the Center for Young Single Adults.

Follow the Barrio 2 tour we returned to the mission home for a delicious paella lunch, then gave our visitors a little break by taking them to see the Sagrada Familia. From there we drove over to the new Barcelona Stake Center - recently completed but not yet occupied as we wait for the occupancy permit from the city. It is a stunningly beautiful facility! We then dropped our visitors off at their hotel for a brief rest and some dinner, then picked them up and drove back to the Hospitalet Stake Center where they spoke to a standing-room-only crowd. It was a full day, especially for those who were still suffering from jet lag! It was a grueling couple of days for our visitors, but a wonderful day for us, for our missionaries, and for the members!

Wednesday morning we drove them to the airport and said goodby. Then it was off to the train station to pick up new missionaries arriving from the Madrid MTC. But that's another post!