Interviews in Palma and Bilbao, and Fullfilling Our Purpose

Wednesday, 4 April 2012: Flew to Palma in the evening to interview the missionaries in the Baleares Zone. Mallorca is a magical place for missionaries - wonderful members, wonderful people, beautiful island. I arrived late at night but took a quick walk through the neighborhood of the hotel before going to bed. It was a beautiful evening!

Santa Eulalia at night

The next morning was equally beautiful when I went out for a run.

Park alongside the Born

But better still were the great missionaries! We have two sisters and 6 elders on the island, as well as Elder and Sister McArthur. It was a great day!

After interviews, I flew to Bilbao where I began interviews that evening with missionaries in the Vitoria Zone.

View of the Guggenheim and the new Iberdrola tower

Following a half dozen interviews, there was a baptism scheduled in Bilbao for the Orozco family. The Orozcos were religious but had become dissatisfied with the church to which they belong and were looking for something else when Bro. Orozco had a conversation with Bishop Gonzalez who invited him to Church. He came with a friend but left before the missionaries could talk to him. But the next week he brought his wife and two children with him, and they have attended each Sunday since. As they met with the missionaries, question after question they had about spiritual matters was answered. As they read the Book of Mormon, attended Church, and prayed, their faith grew. After a few weeks they asked what they needed to do in order to have their 9-year old son baptized. Wednesday night in Bilbao Elder Johnsoned baptized their son and Bishop Gonazalez baptized Brother and Sister Orozco. They are preparing to go to the temple in one year!

Bp. Gonzalez, Pte. Hinckley, the Orozcos, Elders Johnson and Pericle

What do we do? "We baptize worthy converts and their families"

Concilio and Leadership Training

Our monthly zone leader council (Concilio) was held on Monday, 26 March 2012. The next day we had a full day of leadership training, which included all the zone and district leaders and all the trainers - 45 missionaries! We had two wonderful days of training and learning and being taught by the Spirit!

Elder Allphin takes notes during leadership training

Hna. and Elder Dalton really are brother and sister, and both are trainers!

Hnas. Reeder, Cruz, Dalton and Fernley are all training

Thank you, Elder Rhead, for taking the rug back to the office!

Even during training meetings there is other work to do:
Pte. Hinckley signs a new lease agreement for Elder Reeves
during a break in the meeting.

During the training meetings, the missionaries finalized new goals for the mission: 60 convert baptisms in April and 600 during the year 2012! There was a great outpouring of the Spirit as we move forward during this second harvest!

Another Missionary from Mallorca!

Sunday I made a quick trip to Palma to set apart Elder Sebastian Cortes of the Levante Branch as a full-time missionary! Elder Cortes entered the Madrid MTC on Wednesday and will serve in the Spain Malaga Mission.

Elder Cortes with his family at the chapel in Palma de Mallorca

We have two more missionaries to set apart in Palma during the next two months, and two more who are putting in their papers!

Barcelona and Hospitalet Zone Conferences

On Friday, 23 March 2012, we held conference with the combined Barcelona and Hospitalet zones. It was a big group - including the couples we had 50 missionaries! We met in the beautiful Barcelona stake center, but unlike most zone conferences, we were not able to sit at tables (the group is just too large). But even though we were in the chapel pews, we were able to devote much of the time to doing "prácticas" (role-plays).

Combined Barcelona and Hospitalet Zones

Elder Middleton teaches about the "little things."

A few of the Elders pose on the steps in the stake center

One of the highlights of the conference was a violin trio with Hnas. Reeder and Eyre and Elder Dixon. The quality and spirit of the music was unforgettable!

Traveling troubadors - Hnas. Reeder and Eyre with their violins

 Hnas. Reeder and Eyre are companions and actually take their violins with them some days and offer to play for people in their homes! It is an unusual contacting approach, but it works!

Up North

The day after returning from Ibiza, we took a long drive up north. Elder Middleton (from England) is getting pretty good at driving on the right side of the road, so he did a lot of the driving. We arrived in Vitoria, capital of the Basque Country, in the evening and held zone conference with the great Vitoria zone on Tuesday, 20 March 2012. Four of our newly-arrived missionaries are serving in the zone, so it was great to see them again!

The Vitoria Zone

 From Vitoria we drove down to Lleida on Tuesday afternoon. Fortunately, the rain held off and we had a pleasant drive. Wednesday morning we had conference with the Lleida zone. It was a another great conference with a great group of missionaries! This zone includes Elder and Hermana Church who drove down from Zaragoza with the Zaragoza hermanas. They add great strength to the zone!

The Lleida Zone

Musical number in Lleida

"I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea" - 2 Nephi 29:7

Last Saturday night we flew to Ibiza, arriving at 10:00 p.m. A member met us at the airport and whisked us away to spa in the city of Ibiza where we were able to attend the baptism of a new convert.

Arlene at her baptism

With no chapel and no font, the baptism (the third in the past few weeks) was held at a local spa. They allow us use of the facility after 10:00 p.m. and charge only 5 euros for each person who enters the water! It was a wonderful service. Arlene encountered the missionaries about three weeks ago and has made great changes in her life to become a Latter-day Saint. She was baptized by Hno. Julio, who was baptized as a child but was never active in the Church until about three weeks ago. He was ordained a Priest last Sunday so he could perform the ordinance on Saturday night.

It would be almost impossible to recount her the string of miracles that have happened since Elder Allphin and Elder Roco flew to Ibiza 8 weeks ago. This was our first visit since their arrival, and they were anxious for us to meet the members and investigators.

Three months ago we had a little group of ten people meeting in a member's apartment on Sunday mornings. For our visit on Sunday, the elders set up 40 chairs in their apartment (it was a tight fit!) in deference to one of the great miracle stories of the beginnings of the Church in Barcelona.

A few of the 40 chairs in the Elders' apartment

The miracle is that a total of 48 people were in Sacrament meeting! Eleven of them were investigators and 33 members on the island (plus the two missionaries and Pte. and Hna. Hinckley). That is bigger attendance than several branches in the country that have been in existence for years.

Sunday after church

Most of those in attendance are members who have been less active for many years, mostly because they had no way of finding any other members on the island (no branch, no chapel). In case after case, they have found the missionaries in miraculous ways and are excited to now have a place to attend church and again partake of the sacrament.

Last week the elders on Ibiza taught 20 lessons with a member present (a record in the mission) and are so busy they are struggling to keep up with everything. We hope to be able to send some reinforcements in the next few weeks! The Lord truly does "remember those who are upon the isles of the sea."

¡Hola!

Transfers were a little complicated this month. After saying goodbye to 10 missionaries on the 6th, we had to wait ten days before receiving any of our new missionaries (the ever-present visa delays). But when they came, they came like an army: 16, including two couples, in the morning, and #17, Elder Schindler, late that same night!

Excited to finally be in Barcelona!

At Montjuic

Elder and Hna. Thompson with the Ayudantes

Elder and Hna. McArthur (yes, they really are that young!)

Through a series of extremely complex logistics organized and carried out by our incredible office elders, all 16 of the missionaries who arrived on the morning train made it to Montjuic, back to the mission home for lunch, then down to the Barcelona 2 chapel for orientation and to meet their new companions, then off to work by 5:00 p.m. It took 3 cars, the van, and a couple of taxis to get the job done, but it worked! And just in time to get back to the train station to pick up Elder Schindler, introduce him to his trainer, and get them bedded down (briefly) before taking a 6:45 train to Girona. Meanwhile the Thompsons and McArthurs accompanied the Browns to the JAS (YSA) activity on Friday night.

Saturday we hosted the quarterly Correlation Council Meeting at the mission home with the four stake presidents, district president, and a few guests at the mission home. After serving a late lunch (this is Spain), we had time to pack our bags and take the 8:30 pm flight to Ibiza. A full couple of days!