What happens when you have 4 wonderful Spanish women in the kitchen and one American watching? Well, you get a great lesson on the art of Spanish cooking. These wonderful women are the wives of 3 of our Stake Presidents in Andulucia and the wife of the Director of Seminary for all of Andulucia. We had our quarterly Coordination Council at the mission home on Saturday and while the men met and talked, the women cooked and talked. It was a great morning.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal of Gazpacho, Pasta Salad and Spanish Tortillas with potatoes, onions and peppers. I threw in my French Lemon cake for desert and we had a feast. It was the first of many such meetings. Elder Faustino Lopez is our Area Authority who presided. Presidentes Blanco, Munoz, and Lopez and their wives and Pres. Marmol from the Elche Stake and Bro. Morales and his wife who is over the Seminaries of Andulucia and Bro. Parreno who is over the Seminaries of Elche, LaMancha and Badajoz.

Also this past week my youngest sister Carolyn came to visit. We had a wonderful, but short time together. We could only spend a day with her and had to leave her and her son and daughter-in-law alone while we went to Lorca for the weekend. But they did great and had a wonderful few days. They left for France on Monday for a family wedding that is taking place this weekend.

Here are Andrew, his wife Whitney and Carolyn in the beautiful town of Ronda. A great place to visit.

Monday was transfer day and all the mission is in a flux. Elder Birnbaumer and Elder Larsen are getting on their bus for their move.

While the Hermana's are in Sevilla waiting for buses and trains. It is a busy, difficult day, but they all did great, getting to new areas and meeting new companions. Change once in a while is good for everyone in the mission

Back at the ranch the two ranch hands (ayudantes) are busy helping me get the food ready and then cleaning up. We have 8 missionaries that are going home and we want to make the night special. I caught Elder Solari sneaking a little extra while Elder Halverson is washing the dishes. Now Elder Solari, don't eat too much!

Here is our wonderful group that have served well and are having many wonderful, little bit frightening thoughts as they pass their last night in the mission field. They are Elders Wiehe, Serrano, Hna's Eberly and Bentley, Elder Andersson, Hna Gum, Elder Going and Hna Ball. A great group.

The sunset was beautiful so we decided to take our picture by the pool

Then they decided to try to throw Elder Halverson in the pool. He was suppose to go home with this group, but that has been postponed till next transfer. Hey guys, don't get him wet!

After a 4:00 a.m. wake up to get the 8 off to the airport, we readied ourselves for the arrival of Elder Alejandre from Barcelona. We are so glad to get a native missionary. He is the first one we have received since we have been here and we are so excited. His Spanish is of course perfect, his English is wonderful and he will definitely be a great missionary in the New Malaga Mission. We loved him from the first moment we saw him.

And guess who this is? Elder Bullen, our newest office Elder. He is coming in the office to replace Elder Goodman. He is eager to learn everything and we are so happy to have him here. He is a great Elder and we know he will learn everything fast. Welcome Elder Bullen. Hey, guess what Elder Bullen did before the mission? He became a pilot!

Elder Aljeandre is the first missionary in his family. He is the oldest and setting a great example for the rest of his family.

And he is showing you that he is going to Motril to be trained by Elder Kusseling. He is so lucky to get our Frenchman to train him. They are going to be a dynamic pair in Motril.

The office staff, Presidente, and Elder Alejandre. Makes for a great picture.

This is my spanish daughter, Ines Faci. She really isn't but I love her like one of the family. We got to know each other as she helps me with my Spanish. She lives in Zaragoza and we chat by skype. She and her wonderful husband, Johann came down for a little get away from their two children to have a little vacation. We were so happy to have them come and say hello.

They are two of the finest young people we have met. They are leaders in Zaragoza, Johann serving as the District President and Branch President of both of the branches in Zaragoza and Ines serving currently in the nursery but she has been President of the Primary among other things. They both speak fluent German, Spanish and English.

We almost surprised Presidente by pushing him in the pool. Johann, don't push so hard! We loved their visit and off they went to Nerja and Granada before returning home to Zaragoza. Now you might be wondering why I published this blog a little early. I mentioned earlier about a family wedding in Paris. I have been given permission to attend the wedding of my cousin's daughter as my whole french family will be gathering in Paris this weekend. I haven't seen my aunt's and uncles and most of my cousins for over 18 years. This is going to be a special weekend but it will be so full I knew I wouldn't get the blog off if I waited for the weekend. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend listening to conference. I will be watching it by computer between all the wedding activities. A toute a l'heure!