Fiestas de Navidad

The best place to start is at the top, and that is where we started this week.  For our prep day, we rode the ski tram up the mountain to the Vall Nord resort.  Snow fall this year is light thus far, but the bunny hill was busy with kids and their parents. The European mountain biking competition was held at this resort last year and there are biking trails everywhere.  Elder Graham is from Florida and had never experienced mountains of snow before so he enjoyed slipping and sliding all over.

Top of the Mountains

Endless Vista of the Pyrenees

Wednesday we left early for the Zone Conference in Zaragoza, which is a 4-plus hour drive.  On the way we stopped in Lleida to inspect the Elders and Hemana's apartments. It is always interesting to hear all the creative reasons elders invent to explain their less than stellar flats. We helped the Rohdes (another senior couple) prepare the Christmas feast for 26 elders and Hermanas.  This is always a challenge for Hermana Fowers, in that all the church buildings in Spain have super small kitchens with tiny ovens. We had three pork loins to bake, so I scoured the empty lot next door for broken bricks which we cut with the tire iron and used them to stack three layers of pork in the little oven.  The Rohdes brought warming thermoses, to keep the potatoes warm while Hermana made gravy in the crock pot.  I think we should get a silver beaver merit badge for inventive cooking.  As always, the meal came together nicely and nothing was leftover.

Rohdes & Hermana Making Final Preparations for the Christmas Feast

President Dayton lends a hand.

Happy Missionaries

Zaragoza Zone

We stayed the night in Zarangoza near the city center.  I have never seen so many ancient cathedrals in one place.  The magnificent "El Pilar" was beyond words in the misty fog. Some of the structures evidence architecture dating from the Moors. There are the remains from a stone wall built centuries ago by to Romans.  We snapped a few pictures in the  misty fog with Christmas lights added to the mystic.

Magnificent Clock Tower

Spire of El Pilar

Enjoying the Holiday Decorations in the Pilar Square

We returned to La Seu and began preparing for the Andorra Branch Christmas Fiesta planned for Saturday night. We planned a semi-live nativity scene, a nice meal and some games with gifts for the kids. The Elders were able to fashion an impressive stable scene out of cardboard.  We borrowed straw and shepherd sticks (cow prods) from our neighbor Juan. We used a couple of the chicken nesting boxes from my chickens for the manger.  Luci made the best looking angels, and shepards from an assortment of random clothing, in true Fowers tradition. We had about 40 in attendance which included several investigators and a couple of less active members.  Not a crumb left over.  There was a blessed spirit of joy and fellowship among the members!

Our Live Cast of Investigators and Less Actives

Joyful Spirit of Christmas

We are entering a phase now where we are trying to teach the members themselves to step up and lead.  They are too accustomed in setting back to watch the missionaries and the senior couple do everything.  That will be our challenge and our goal moving forward.  How do you create strong, motivated members who will lead this branch into the future?  That is our goal for the coming year.

We have visited every members home with a tin of cookies and one simple, sacred message.  Jesus Christ should not only be at the center of our celebrations, but in the very center of our lives.  May it be so with you and yours.  Take time to truly consider God's gift to the world...His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  Nothing else really matters!

Feliz Navidad,

Elder and Hermana Fowers