Sunday, February 26, 2012

Baptisms with an Anouncement

Elder Hoyos and Elder Rodriquez are busy bringing a family into the church. What adorable children all dressed in white. Malaga 3 is growing by 3.
Elder Seely and Elder Shrewsbury are thrilled with their baptism in Huelva. Huevla has seen many miracles lately.
The Hermanas in Almeria, Hna Sypherd and Hna Moreno have been very busy bringing families into the church. Almeria is a happy place where new converts are welcomed warmly.
Hna Bascope and Hna Perera are always smiling. Especially when they have a beautiful baptism in Alicante.
Lots of Hermanas having baptisms this week. Hna Torres and Hna Sturgess are excited about their most recent convert in Malaga 1. We have the best Hermanas in this mission.
A baptism is such an exciting time for the new convert as well as her teachers. Happiness and the light of Christ is evident in the eyes of everyone here.
Elder Hatch and Elder Mervai are always working hard in Alicante. They have another well prepared convert that accepted baptism.
They also had another baptism in Alicante. A missionary who knows and understands their purpose can't be stopped. And these two know and understand their purpose.
Our office secretaries not only run the mission, they also are baptizing. Great work Elder Thornley and Elder Staples.
Elder Hunt is at it again. This time with Elder Triana. Elche has seen some real growth over the past few months. Great Elders, great members, great converts. This was especially sweet as the man who baptized this new convert is a recent convert himself.
Talk about happy, smiling faces. Hermana Bascope and Hna Perera are always smiling. Look at those beautiful eyes. They are the eyes of two wonderful daughters of God who love to serve.
Talk about adorable!! Elder Masterson's mom sent this side by side picture. On the left, Elder Masterson is saying, "I hope they call me on a mission." And on the right, our own hard working Elder Masterson is saying, "I love my mission! I never want to leave."

Help, missionary on the wall! Elder Taylor and Elder Pallas are showing the Massaro's their spiderman imitation. They are currently working in Utera, which is next to Dos Hermanas.
Hermana Letendre and Hermana Collett have been working in Dos Hermanas finding and teaching many investigators. These four missionaries had a surprise for Hna Massaro. It was her birthday on the 26th and they gave her something special.
Root Beer!! This is her favorite drink. Now where do you get Root Beer in Spain? At the American bases.
We thought everyone should get a small tour of the Mission Office. Welcome in to the reception room. But no one is here, that's because they are busy working.
Not very often, but once a week you might find President Clegg in his office signing letters and getting ready for our once a week office meeting.
The ayudantes, Elder White and Elder Alejandre are normally in the office only on Monday like President Clegg. They put together the numbers of the previous week and report them at the meeting. They are two very hard working Elders who carry a lot of responsibility.
The Massaros are in the office on Mondays and sometimes other days. They are our health missionaries. Both of them are registered nurses, serving the Lord in Malaga in so many ways. They help the missionaries with health problems, inspect the apartments and help the missionaries keep them in order, they help with the branch in Nerja, and do just about anything else that the mission might need help in. They are great.
Elder Staples is busy paying bills and rent and anything else financial. He has a lot of work but he is always on top of everything. He quietly goes about his work in the office and then works hard in the streets as a missionary. He is amazing.
Elder Thornley is busy with reservations, and residency and travel plans. It is a never ending job, and like Elder Staples, he is amazing. We love how our office missionaries serve all of us.
"Hey Hermana Clegg, why don't you come on our side?" Elder Stevens and his wonderful companion are in the other room that is connected by our new opening. We love this.
Hermana Stevens handles a variety of things from correspondence, to orders from the missionaries to baptismal records. She is busy and effective and organized. She is wonderful.
Elder Stevens helps with re-embursements and orders and phone bills and cars and besides that, he is also the Branch President of the Mijas Branch. They are always happy and smiling and ready to do whatever is necessary for the success of the mission.
And for our announcement. We want to introduce you to President and Hermana Deere, who will be coming in July to be our replacements. We told them they won! They have been called to the best mission in the world. They are from Utah and are so excited to come and serve. President Deere served his mission in Guatemala and will be ready to go from day one. Don't they look great!!
This is a picture of their wonderful family. They have one son who has served a mission, another son on his mission and their two youngest will be coming to Spain with them. That will certainly be a wonderful experience for them and for all the people they will influence by their presence. The Lord has called a wonderful family to serve here. We are excited for them and we won't talk about our mixed emotions to start to realize that we too, will be leaving. But that is not for 4 months. There are miles to go before we sleep!!!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Our Hearts are Turned to the Lord

Two of our Malaga Elders, Elder Hoyos and Elder Rodriguez are enjoying the fruits of their hard work, a baptism.
We are enjoying the fruits of missionary work, and the crowning fruit is baptism. Elder Blanch along with Elder Pratt are doing a mighty work in San Fernando. Finding many souls to Come Unto Christ.
Huelva is experiencing miracles daily. Elder McGarry and Elder Walton can tell you about miracles. This dear sister, Maria del Mar, went through many trials but knows that the gospel is true. She is following the example of Jesus Christ in her life.
Our dear little branch in Caseres keeps on growing. It's not little anymore. Elder Fetzer and Elder Barbosa are doing all they can to teach and preach and find the elect.
Another wonderful baptism in San Fernando and Juan, the recent convert, was now doing the baptism of his daughter. Elder Pratt and Elder Blanch were delighted and pleased to see another soul enter into the waters of baptism.
Just an experiment, but isn't this a beautiful birds eye view of a beach near El Puerto. Thanks Elder Estrada for the photo. Hope you didn't get any closer!

Yes, we celebrate Valentines Day in Spain as well. Elder Fowkes and Elder Hales dropped in on the JAS activity with an investigator and just had to take a group picture.
Elder Hales????


Mmmmm, His Zone Leaders and Hermana Clegg aren't quite sure about that picture.

This dear brother is going to be baptized as soon as the weather warms up in San Fernando. Elder Pratt and Elder Blanch are praying for warmer weather!
They are also busy doing service in San Fernando helping in the church to fix up a few things.
Elder McGarry wants Hermana Stevens to know he has his 5 day emergency supply of food. I just don't have the heart to tell him that it was supposed to be nutritional food.
And Elder Walton thinks he is going to live by the good word alone! Well he must have a lot of faith because he will be fasting for longer than he may want.
Hermana Sypherd was feeling a little blue the other day on p-day. Hermana Moreno was doing all she could to help her hold on.
Just as she turned around to breathe the clear air Hermana Moreno seemed to have a change of heart? Not our sweet, kind, loving Hermana Moreno? You know, a picture is worth a thousand words, and right now I am speechless:) OOPS!!!!!
We shall just move on to ZONE CONFERENCES. We love Zone Conferences because we get to see all the missionaries. We started in Murcia, where we are doing role-plays to practice the Zone focus. Elder Wright and Elder Taylor are teaching Elder Allred, while Elder Hamilton is watching.
Across the room, we see another group practicing. We had many wonderful practices that help us to be better teachers.
Of course we always have lunch. Missionaries are always hungry.
Looks like everyone is getting fed. Thanks Zone Leaders for all your great work.
And what would a Zone Conference be without recognizing the birthdays and singing to all.
Alberto (aka Elder Basurto) dropped in to say hi.
Hermana Perera and Hermana Bascope say thumbs up to everything.
Elder Hunt's smile is always so genuine and brings us joy.
The great Zones of Elche and Murcia had a wonderful conference.

Oh, just needed to let our hair down for a second.
Our next Zone Conference was held in Malaga. The Hermanas treated us to a wonderful musical number. The angels were singing.
Such a great looking group of Elders don't you think so?
More happy smiling faces, always eager to do the work of the Lord. Look at their wonderful smiles. Elders Rodriguez, Gomez, Birmbaumer, Rencher, Rodriguez and Hoyos to name a few.
4 Elders from LaMancha. Yea for Elders Jones, Barney, Fagersten, and Hall. We love all of you!
Happy Hermanas are bringing such joy to the mission.
We love our missionaries!!! Every one of them!!!
And they love the Lord and serving Him here in Spain.
More birthdays in the Malaga, Granada and LaMancha Zones.
Great photo, great group, wonderful lessons learned.
And a little merriment.
Smiles from Sevilla. Hermanas Vega and Rojas are always greeting us with their beautiful smiles.
Elder Velasco is working hard with his studies of English. All our native Spanish speakers are working on receiving their certificate of graduation from a well recognized English course. So when the Americans study Spanish, they study English. It works for everyone.
Elders Estrada, Jordan, Pratt and Hales are all excited about our "prayer" book marks. The Massaros helped us design a book mark with 4 easy prompts to saying a simple prayer. The missionaries love using them to help their investigators learn to pray properly.
Elder Hafen is our newest Zone Leader who realizes there is a lot to do to prepare for Zone Conferences. He did a wonderful job.
Elder Brown and Elder Seeley enjoy their flan for desert.
Everyone seems to love Flan. Elders Crawford, Mockler, Pearce and Barrett are happy.
Elder Brown is being patient while his companion Elder Estrada finishes his flan so they can return to El Puerto to work. A rare moment when Elder Brown doesn't have a smile on his face. Give that Elder some more flan.
Hermana Letendre and Hermana Collett are doing great in Dos Hermanas. They loved Zone Conference and made sure they had time to eat their flan!!!
We even had a chorus line for the birthday song. We love birthdays.
What a great group of missionaries. Like the other Zones, we left Sevilla feeling fed by the spirit and uplifted by the words and teachings.
We work hard but we also have fun in the Spain Malaga Mission.
We had a wonderful Fireside in San Lucar. We had so many young people in attendance. But Elder Kirkham, where is your companion?
See mom, we can't leave a missionary out. So the same picture with a different Elder. The week was wonderful and the work moves forward with faith and prayers and lots and lots of work.