Sunday, September 12, 2010

Visiting Authorities

Our week in the New Spain Malaga Mission has been absolutely wonderful! We were honored to be visited by Bishop Edgley of the Presiding Bishopric, Elder Teixeira of the Seventy and our Area Presidency and Bro. Joe Worthlin, our area physical facilities manager and their wives. It was a choice day in the mission. We had a morning meeting with the missionaries from the San Fernando and Sevilla Zones and a member fireside in Granada.
Here we all are after our wonderful 2 hours of being taught by these wonderful men and their wives. We are pictured in front of the new Stake Center in Sevilla. This building has been ready for almost one year but last Friday the city finally gave the occupancy permit and we were the first meeting to take place in the building. Such a special honor for us!
We have a few pictures of baptisms sent to me from Elder Travis. This one took place in El Puerto with Elder Han.
This was another baptism with Elder Wells in El Puerto.
We also sent home a wonderful hermana this week. Elder Solari is holding the gate for Hna Nelson. She served valiantly and returned home to Idaho this week. We will miss her so much.
We also sent Elder Ponce home to his home in Sevilla. He started his mission in the Barcelona Mission but we were so fortunate to have him for a few months in the New Malaga Mission. He is such a kind young man and a great missionary. We are excited because we can see him in Sevilla.
This is a beautiful picture of the coast in Almeria. The Mediterranean has a beautiful coastline.
The 4 hard working Elders in Almeria are checking out the bull ring. Elders Fagersten, Marchello, Adams and Hurley. Hey Elders, no watching the fights!!
We are also so excited to welcome Hna Frandsen to the mission. She has been "visa waiting" for over 2 1/2 months. Oh what a happy day to have her arrive this week.
The ayudantes are filling her in on details of the mission along with the secretaries. Presidente is watching with interest.
Where is Hna Frandsen going? Sevilla to serve with Hna Cluff. They will be an awesome team.
No, these are not our Hermanas! I just couldn't resist taking a picture of these young budding flamenco dancers. It is festival time in Mijas, a little white hill town just a few miles away from the mission home.
Oh Elders and Hermanas, this is what you have to look forward to when you return home!! Pictured here is the former Elder Castellon who was a missionary with us in Bilbao. He is with his lovely wife, Stefania. Manuel Castellon lives in the Elche Stake and so we were able to go to his reception. We were honored to be there and they asked us to speak at the reception. What a great experience for us. They will travel to Madrid the next day to be married in the Madrid Temple.
We were so excited see our former Hermana Sanchez, who lives nearby in Alicante. She was a great Hermana in the Bilbao Mission with us. So fun to see our former missionaries.
This is the former Elder Ruz, who served in the Malaga mission with his mom. His sister, Hermana Ruz is currently in the Barcelona Mission, but we welcomed her to the Bilbao Mission just a few months ago. It is so wonderful to meet the families of these incredible missionaries who serve in their own country.
And we couldn't leave Elche without seeing our Elche missionaries. Elders Serrano and Moss and Hermanas Brown and Bentley. Yea for the New Malaga Spain Missionaries!!! Now remember, no dancing!

Can anyone tell me where this picture is taken from? It is in the lovely city of Antequera. What a wonderful city with many wonderful historic things to see. We passed through here on the way home from Elche.
Finally, at the end of a very busy week, we attended Stake Conference in Sevilla. This is inside the lovely new Stake Center. 5 returning missionaries bore their testimonies, and one of them was our Elder Roldan, who served with us in Bilbao. This is his beautiful family and they all live in Dos Hermanas. A week filled with many reunions, a very special week for us. We also heard Elder Ponce's testimony. We saw all of our missionaries in the Sevilla Zone. They looked great.
We were invited to the home of Presidente Blanco, who is the Stake President of the Sevilla Stake. He is a wonderful man. His wife, daughter and one of his sons are pictured here along with Mike and Marilyn Staffieri who were in Spain for a few days to see us. We just took them along and we went all over the mission. The two sons of Presidente Blanco were two more of the missionaries reporting home. Daniel Blanco, who is pictured here, served in the Salt Lake City Mission. The great thing here is we met him before we came to Spain last year. Little did we ever think we would see him again in his home in Sevilla. The world is small within the church.
As the sun sets on another week in the New Malaga Mission we can only share with everyone our excitement for the work and the love we feel for the people of Spain and for all the wonderful missionaries who work really hard to serve the Lord. We love them all and know that as long as they stay close to the Lord, and feel his love, they will continue to bring forth his kingdom here. And remember, we BAPTIZE in the New Spain Malaga Mission.

3 comments:

  1. A stake center in Sevilla! What a wonderful sight to see!

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  2. I can't believe that Elder Castelleon got married already. I was there when he went home.

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  3. Wonderful updates and amazing pictures! And you couldn't possibly have been talking about Elder Moss (a.k.a. Paden) about no dancing....right?

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