Final Zone Conferences

There is nothing better than a baptism to start your mission.  Elder Peters is excited along with his trainer, Elder Banbury.  Two great missionaries doing all they can to preach the gospel in Utera.

The Hermanas in Dos Hermanas are at it again.  Way to go Hermana Meldrum and Hermana Letendre.

Jerez is growing and the Elder are loving it.  Especially when you have a member by the name of Paco who is always sharing the gospel.  Just ask Elder Valenzuela and Elder Keller.  

Another baptism in El Puerto.  Way to go Elder Lopez and Elder Salmeron.

Everyone loves the members in Alicante.  They are always willing to help in the work of the Lord.  Elder Shrewsbury and Elder Meneses can vouch for that.

Malaga 3 had some miracles happen there.  Elder Birnbaumer and Elder Gomez love miracles.

This is there second miracle.  But actually, every baptism is a wonderful miracle.

Elder Norton and Elder Jones seem to be saying "Don't mess with us."  But we know these two work very, very hard and are seeing success in Huercal Overa.

Looks like some of the missionaries are enjoying their new found soccer shirts.  Looks great Elders and Hermana!!

Elder Banbury and Elder Peters are showing us a little bit of their work.  Hmmm, interesting.

Look who came back with his family to visit the mission.  Why it is Elder Ferguson. We enjoyed meeting his family and seeing him again.

We also enjoyed a family home evening and a wonderful dinner with our friends in Sevilla.  Pres. Blanco and his wife Reyes and his 1st Counselor Juan and his wonderful wife Maria.  Such great people.  They will be friends for life. 

Companions can be friends for life.  Elder Shrewsbury and Elder Meneses think this will be the case.

What??

Oh good, the hats are not permanent.  

This week brought our last gathering with all our wonderful missionaries.  It was a week with many tears but it has made for wonderful memories.  We started off in Sevilla with the San Fernando Zone and the Sevilla Zone.

When all the missionaries stand up and sing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again", the tears come easy.

We have such wonderful missionaries.

In Murcia with the Murcia Zone and the Alicante Zone we must have our great music leader Elder Pearce at the helm.

It's hard to let go and say good-bye when all the missionaries are so great.  

Lot's of bear hugs and even for Alberto, the former Elder Basurto who came to say good-bye.

Another beautiful rendition of "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." Yes, more tears.

You say who is coming to Malaga?  

The Elders from Africa arrived on the boat in full attire.

What is this? Presidente Clegg is not sure about this. We are not sure if this is missionary approved attire. We send our boy's to Africa and they come back looking like this!! I think their great.

Another wonderful Zone Conference.  

The Hermanas sang like the angels they are.

And Elder Manning ended with a wonderful rendition of How Great Thou Art.  Every Zone Conference was special and we will never forget our missionaries.

O.K., with all the tears, we had to make you all laugh.  We had asked Elder Bailey and Elder Alejandre to find us each typical clothing from Africa.  What do you all think?

The next day we had the wonderful pleasure to attend the wedding reception of one of our wonderful missionaries from Bilbao.  Along with seeing him and his beautiful bride, we enjoyed being with Hermana Calderon and her family and her cousins, who are also our friends in San Fernando.  We have some wonderful friends throughout this mission.

Our wonderful former Elder Jose Cepeda and his beautiful bride, Ligia.  It was a beautiful evening at a beautiful Golf Course-club house outside of Jerez.

Beautiful!

She had a beautiful dress.  They will be sealed in the Madrid Temple next week.  A beautiful evening for two beautiful, happy people.

This is for all of our fathers.  

And one more wonderful meal with one of the great families in Malaga.  Ana Belen and her Husband Jose and his sister and parents and daughter Natalie.  We have great members in the Spain Malaga Mission.  We love them all. They currently have a son Juan Carlos living in Bountiful, and we will see him soon as well.

June Joys

Nothing like baptisms to bring joy and rejoicing to a ward and to the missionaries who worked so hard to find and teach and baptize.  Elder Salmeron showed one of our newest missionaries, Elder Lopez how it is done.

The baptisms are continuing in Lorca where Elder Wright and Elder Tenney have been teaching and preaching to all.

One of our miracle baptisms that helped us reach 50 for the month of May.  Jerez has been a happy place as Elder Mambo, Keller, Valenzuela and Forrest can attest to.

The Hermanas in Dos Hermanas are continuing in their success.  They love the ward and are doing all they can to grow the membership and increase in the priesthood there.

A sweet baptism in Chiclana.

 The combined efforts of Huercal-Overa and Almeria came into play to see this baptism come about.  Elder Mervai and Elder Cortes were happy to see it to the finish.

 The last two miracles of May came to us from Chiclana.  Elder Peterson and Elder Fowkes worked with all their heart and might to help these people feel the spirit and make the change in their lives.

 We think we are going to give the most original award to the Hermanas in Ciudad Real.  Look at these two, sweet, kind, Hermana Moreno and Hermana Brimhall decide they want to treat their leaving companion, Hermana Carter to a parting gift of something wonderful to drink.

 Hermana Carter loves it and drinks it to the last drop.

 But the last drop happens to be Hermana Carter.  What did these two, sweet, loving and scheming Hermanas come up with?

 Concentrated Gluten to Hermana Carter who has a GLUTEN INTOLERANCE!!  Now that is a low blow:)

Just kidding, she is o.k.  We wish Hermana Carter the best as she left us along with 12 others last week to move on after serving with all her heart, might, mind and strength.

 When Presidente Clegg and Hermana Clegg were in the Bilbao mission they took a p-day one day to the northern most point of Spain.  So to be fair, they are now standing on the Southern most tip of Spain.  Yep, you've got it, that is Africa you are looking at along with the Straits of Gibraltar.  Ceuta is to the left and Tangier is to the right.

 On Hermana Clegg's right is the Atlantic Ocean, on her left is the Mediterranean Sea.  The interesting thing about this point is that when you face the Atlantic, it smells like an ocean (salty).  When you face the Mediterranean is doesn't smell at all.  The small town behind is the city of Tarifa.  You can catch a 1/2 ferry ride to Tangier from here.  But we better not see any missionaries doing this because Tangier is out of the mission.  But a beautiful place to see along the Straits of Gibraltar.

 Just so you can believe us, this sign is telling us that this is the Atlantic and that is Spain in the background.

 Behind Hermana Clegg is Africa and the Mediterranean.  

 And as the sign states, this is the most southern point in Europe.  Wow, we have interesting places in our mission.

 We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and evening saying good-bye to our Stake Presidente and his wife, Pres. Lopez of the Cadiz Stake. 

 They are two wonderful, faithful people.  This room in the restaurant is below the sea level and this restaurant is over 250 years old.  It was amazing.

 Talk about amazing.  In Jerez is where they train the beautiful Andalusian Horses.  This is their performing stable.  The entire school for Horses was amazing to see. 

 We also said good-bye to Fina.  She has worked in the mission home for over 17 years.  She won't be working their anymore.  We will miss her.  We enjoyed some time visiting her little farm.  This is some beautiful boganvia that grows all over Spain.  Fina takes care of this yard as well.  She is amazing.

 It is a time full of good-byes.  We enjoyed a wonderful evening at the home of Thomas and Eva Hanni with their darling 3 children and Eva's parents.  This is a dynamic couple, he's Swiss and she is Spanish.  They speak fluent German, Spanish as well as English.  The children speak Spanish and German.  A lovely, wonderful family who serve and do all they can to build the kingdom in Spain.

 We spent our Sunday over in Melilla attending church in the new location, a wonderful hotel there.  The small group was so happy for visitors.  They treated us great.  We know we will be seeing miracles soon.

The airport there is not too big and our plane sits in the background as we are getting ready to board.  With the Mediterranean and the city of Melilla in the background, we say good-bye for the last time here.

 And just so you know, missionaries do a lot of things.  Along with teaching and baptizing they do a little service now and again.

 They let their "light so shine" in many different ways.

And they shout for joy that they are missionaries in the Spain Malaga Mission where we find and teach and baptize and confirm many worthy converts.  We love it here!