Day by Day...Giving Thanks

Querido Familia y Amigos

We have learned our lessons…first of all, never leave your computer in the hotel and never go two weeks without writing the blog!  So much has happened in the last two weeks that it is rather overwhelming to try to decide what to write about. So we have decided to create a timeline that will give you snapshot of what fills our days.

November 22:  Attend a Catholic Funeral and High Mass for the mother of a sweet member, Maria Teresa in Andorra, who died at the age of 101 years.  It was a rainy, wet night and we only had a few hours warning, so winding our ways through the heart of Andorra de Valle to find the cathedral in a down pour was a miracle unto itself.  We understood little of the service because it was conducted entirely in Catalonian.  There were a few heads turned to try to read our badges and figure out why the Mormon missionaries were attending their services.

Funeral in the Andorra Cathedral

November 23:  Journal:  “I spent the morning studying and preparing for both my Seminary Lesson and visuals for primary music. I asked God for his help before I started and I could really feel his presence. I have come to love my quiet mornings of study as a sweet treasure.”

November 24:  After much searching, I finally found some turkey parts (a leg and a breast) and Amy sent me some sage seasoning so we were able to pull off a pretty authentic Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a bit more challenging this year because nothing come from a box or can.  Everything was made from scratch including the mushroom soup for green bean casserole.  We shared our feast with our missionaries and Shane our new member.  It never ceases to amaze me how much these young missionaries can tuck away!

So THANKFUL!

November 25:  Thanksgiving #2.  We drove to Lleida (two hours to the south) to help the Hermana’s there prepare an American Thanksgiving dinner for their branch.  Thank goodness I made the dressing ahead and had it in the crock pot, because all the prep for the meal was done on one tiny stove.  With a lot of help from the sisters in the branch, who cooked the chickens and some magic with stacking food five-deep in the mini-oven to try to keep it warm, we manage to serve a tasty meal.  What was to be 25 turned out to be 45 people that attended their activity!  There was a great spirit, which was felt by the many members and  investigators that participated.  We fell into bed exhausted!

American Thanksgiving including the Stuffing

Happy Hermanas after successful activity!

American Thanksgiving!

November 26:  We took off for Barcelona for Seminary training at the crack of dawn and managed to leave our computer in the hotel room!  (Thus the reason for no blog last week.)  We didn’t realize it until two hours later—PANIC MODE!  After much angst and maneuvering, and a lot of help from the local missionaries we were able to get it secured but had to wait another few days to get it back.  A miracle and a blessing!

November 27:  This was a Sunday.  So many of our members are young in their faith and have never had the responsibility of a calling, so we generally go prepared to help out wherever we can to bring the spirit into our meetings.  Last Sunday Elder Fowers spoke, and lead the music while I played the piano.  Then we taught Seminario together the second hour. The third hour he taught Young Man (we only have one) while I taught Primary and with my limited Spanish… it was really challenging!  The highlight of the day was that Shane received the Priesthood and was ordained to the office of Priest.  What a great young man.

November 28:  There is a little chapel called Saint Antoni, on the hill near our house that we decided we would hike to for preparation day.  It was a cold, overcast day but was so beautiful as we saw in emerge from the distant mist. In our travels that day we also visited the ancient city of Cerc just a few miles from our house.  Its centerpiece at the top of a steep, winding road was an old chapel built in the 9^th century.  I am always so in awe of what they were able to construct without any power tools or machinery?  I would love to have had a bird's eye view to watch that construction.

Morning Mist

Exploring St. Antoni

Still standing after ten centuries!

Bell Tower

Ancient Foot Bridge

Top of the World

November 29:  Sometimes as missionaries, we think that everyday we should have some amazing interactions and spiritual experiences, but that is not really the case.  Most days are pretty normal filled with the routines of life.  The spiritual experiences happen very rarely, but when they do, it is enough to keep you going.  The joy of that occasional bright light and joyful heart makes all the redundant work worth it!

December 1:  One of our greatest assets is the farmhouse, so we decided that we would invite individual families to our house for a holiday dinner.  In the past week we have had three families join us for a feast.  It gives us the opportunity to love and serve them on a more intimate level and testify of Jesus Christ.  “If you feed them they will come…”  has become our mantra. 

One of many Holiday Meals

December 3:  Saturday morning we had pigs ears for breakfast. We were invited by our farmer neighbors to join them for their annual pig slaughter.  We missed the first day when they were dressing out the beast, but joined them on the second day.  They traditionally serve the pig’s ears and feet that have been boiled all day for breakfast the following day…So there I was sitting next to Juan at the breakfast table and he was scooping the delicacies onto my plate.  I could not bring myself to eat them…but Elder Fowers gave it a go.  We spent the rest of the day up to our elbows in bins of ground meat and fat helping them make miles of sausage that were encased in cleaned intestine.  They will then hang and age them for six months. Luckily we had a afternoon appointment so we miissed the blood sausage production. What a cultural experience.  Elder Fowers explained it precisely when he said, “They eat everything but the oink!” 

Mixing Sausage by Hand

Making Sausage in the Slaughter Room

Miles of Sausage

As you can see.  We keep ourselves very busy. The people of Spain are beautiful. Not only our sweet members, but the kind people we meet on in our Le Seu community. Each day as we interact we try to see them as Heavenly Father sees them.  Not as they are at the moment, but what they may become.  We are humbled and thankful for the blessings in our lives, especially each of you.  May you all be blessed during the holidays.

Mucho Amor,

Elder and Hermana Fowers

Hermana helping neighbors move their cows.