February is the Month of Baptisms

More and more families are coming into the church. It is such a blessing to the members here in Spain and it takes a lot of work on the part of the missionaries. Elders Hamilton and Allred worked so hard in Cartagena. They were aided by the members and Elder Bradley and Elder Mendoza in Cartagena with them.

A week before they had another baptism. Cartagena is happy.

Elche has also enjoyed the fruits of hard working Elders. Elder Hunt and Estrada have been doing a mighty work in Elche.

Here they are again. Just after these baptisms Elder Estrada moved, but we are sure there are many new members that are grateful to him and Elder Hunt for being such incredible missionaries to bring the gospel to everyone.

Sometimes we just feel like we are on top of the world here in Spain. Of course, everyone can't be in the best mission in the world!

Yes Elder West, we are #1. Elder Gomez is feeling pretty good about being here in Spain. Elder Gomez and Elder West love it in Jaen.

Another scripture bag has been given out in the mission. These bags are adorable and very much loved.

Elder Hamilton sent this picture and asked me if anything great happened in 1986? As you can see on the license plate it says 1986 CLG. That's the closet thing to Clegg in Spain! Well many great things for sure.

Look who Elder Bennett found in Murcia. Yep, that's our former Elder Basurto, now home and is now Alberto Basurto alog with his mother.

And yes, he is the ward mission leader for the Hermanas in Murcia. Now that's a great calling for him now that he is home.

Hermana Vasquez and Hermana Bozeman are enjoying the sun in Badajoz.

I am not quite sure who the Elders found on their p-day, but hey, I guess there are some Hawaiians or New Zealanders in Spain???

Elder Hales mom made this greatest quilt for him. Wow, we all want one of these!

I guess you can go swinging on p-day. Elder Allred is trying it out.

Hi Elder Hamilton. Looks like you enjoyed that when you were young!

This week we had concilio with the Zone Leaders. Elder Birmbaumer and Elder Pedersen are leading the way in Granada.

Elder Waite and Elder Hafen are all smiles in Sevilla.

Elder Hall and Elder Peterson are loving LaMancha.

Elder Peterson and Elder Ferguson are all thumbs up and smiles about Malaga.

Elder Manning and Elder Lignell are hearing the music in Alicante.

And Elder Shaver and Elder Biamont are making things happen in Murcia.

Elder Blanch and Elder Pratt couldn't be happier or working harder than they are in San Fernando.

We love our ayudantes, Elder White and Elder Alejandre.

As well as our "ayudantes in the office" Elder Staples and Elder Thronley.

And boy do these Elders eat!!

These were the biggest potatoes we have seen ever in Spain.

Yes Elder White, that is one potato. We were all fed well both for the body and for the spirit at this Concilio.

Hi Mom, we are just getting ready for our picture out back.

Elder Pratt was ready while Elder White is looking for everyone else.

Here they all are. Great looking Elders who really care about all the missionaries in their Zones. They have all committed to do even better.

That's right Hermana Clegg. We all love Elder Thornley. Elder Biamont just wants to make sure he is eating enough.

Who did you say was coming?

It's the District Leaders. We had a District Leader training after the Zone Council. The favorite place in the mission home is in front of the transfer board.

They are also ready to eat before we get started with the training. Are we all here?

Everyone but Elder White. He was busy making some last minute arrangements before we started our training with the District Leaders.

3 days feeding 20 people each day gets a little crazy. But with all the help of the Elders and Pres. Clegg washing dishes, we did great. Feeding missionaries can be kind of fun.

After the evening training you have to go out and enjoy one of the beautiful sunsets that we always have in Spain. Elder Mockler and Elder Bradley are just trying to take it all in.

Here you have Elder Jones and Elder Jones. Boy it is hard to keep up with the Joneses!! (Is that how you spell that?)

For the first time ever it was too cold and too windy to eat breakfast outside so we ate in. It actually went well. We are now ready for the rest of the training. Many of the District Leaders were given assignments to teach and they were fantastic.

Hey that's right Hermana Clegg. It was awesome, says Elder Bradley.

Elder Dangerfield and Elder Barahona have matching ties. Elder Hales has one too but they didn't tell him to wear his. Now Elders!

It was still so windy and cold that we decided to do the group shot indoors. What a great bunch of District Leaders.

But everyone wanted to run out and try a few photos. Everyone of these Elders have either served in LaMancha or are there now.

These are Andalucia serving Elders.

Well these are too, but they have served in other areas of the mission.

And like the end of every meeting we have, we have to sing our mission song. The best mission song in the church.

Friday we took the train up to LaMancha in Ciudad Real. Hermana Carter is saying good-bye to Hermana Vega who is moving to Sevilla.

She is saying good-bye because Hermana Meldrum finally arrived after being a visa waiter who's passport was lost by the American Consulate.

So we did all her orientation in Ciudad Real. She was brought down from one of our favorite couples in the mission.

Yea, we got to see the Cleggs for a few hours. They had to come down to do a little bit of residency work. Hermana Carter and Hermana Meldrum are excited to go to work. We had to say good-bye to the Cleggs as they returned to the CCM in Madrid where they are interim Presidents. It was a very busy week in the mission, but when is there not a busy week?

February is Full of Faith

We are so full of Faith in the mission! We are seeing miracles like these that happened in Lorca. Elders Wright and Taylor along with Elder Gibson and Avellar had two wonderful baptisms.

Getting ready for baptisms can be a lot of work. Here they are filling the portable font that is in many of the churches in Spain. They can be a little tricky, but we are grateful for the ones we have.

And so the light is shinning forth on the land, especially in our mission. January was a great month for baptisms and February is setting itself up to be even bigger and better. Many baptismal dates are set for February. It will take lots of work and faith and prayers to see them all come to pass.

We wish a huge amount of success to Elder Melgarejo. He served in our mission for 3 months while he waited for his visa to come to go to Puerto Rico. From left to right Elder Forrest and Elder Shaver, along with his companion Elder Bennett sent him off on the bus to Malaga where he flew off to Puerto Rico. We loved having him here and know he will continue to be a great missionary in the Lord's army.

This picture is for you Hermana Stevens. She is in charge of helping the missionaries get their 3 day supply of food and water. Elder Avellar has done just that and knows he will not starve!! You go Elder!!!

And the cute scripture covers are getting out to many new converts in the mission. The 3 Martinez sisters who joined the church a few months ago in Badajoz show their covers. Thanks again to the wonderful young women from Fillmore, Utah who sent us these bags.

Elder Gibson and Elder Avellar gave a bag to this young women in Lorca. Your love is being felt all throughout the Malaga Mission.

The San Fernando Zone had a fun p-day of playing football. This is as close as we are going to get to the Super Bowl in Spain. Well at least Spain won the World Cup two years ago.

Hey, they just want to show us they were having a fun time. Be gentle Elder Crawford!!

This past week we went to Nerja to be in their District meeting. Elder Barahona held a great meeting and Elder Crespo and Hermana Woodward and Hermana Gibson along with President and I learned a lot. Then we had a little lunch to enjoy the sun by. The weather in Spain is beautiful this time of the year.

Wait a minute, what is that new doorway doing in the office. This picture is taken from over by Elder Staples desk. Take a look at the next picture and you will see what is going on in the mission office. Another change, but this should be the last.

President Clegg is talking over things with Elder and Hermana Stevens. This is taken from the Stevens side. You can see into the secretries office. This will be so wonderful! No more walking around and through the hall to get to the other side of the wall. We are excited about the change and it should be all finished shortly. When it is we will take pictures of the entire office so everyone can see how great it looks.

This weekend was a special weekend in Spain and Portugal. We all had Stake Conferences held to hear a broadcast from Salt Lake made especially for the Saints in Spain and Portugal. Here we are in the Malaga Capilla with some of the missionaries. We were even able to hear it in English. Elders Lyman, Thronley, and Nally, followed by Hermana and Elder Stevens, and Hermana and Elder Massaro with Elder Dangerfield peaking in while President and Hermana Clegg round out the group. It was a great broadcast and we all grew from seeing it.

So it's a slam dunk that things are going great in the Spain Malaga Mission. Just had to show two little grandkids practicing their dunking style!

And two of our three pregnant daughters. Lauren on the left is our youngest son's wife and they are having a girl, their first baby in April. And Nikki, our second oldest daughter is having her 5th, a boy in May. We are just missing our Rachael. She is our oldest son's wife who is having her 4th in March. They live in Washington and were not in Utah for this picture. This will be 3 new grand babies before we come home in July. Great blessings keep coming to our family back home. We are feeling so blessed and grateful for our wonderful children both in the States and here in Spain.