Feliz Año Nuevo!

Feliz Año Nuevo!  Happy New Year!  

First of all, we apologize for not writing a blog last week.  When we sat down to write last Sunday we realized that we had not taken one picture all week because we had spend everyday at our little chapel searching for lost members.  A long quiet week of detective work!  So, we just sent a letter to our kids. Were back this week and hope this blog finds you all well and happy. 

Walking on frosty mornings is so very beautiful. We often have to wait until after our studies so we won’t freeze, but it is so crisp and invigorating.  The colder it gets the faster I walk to try to get my blood pumping.  We haven’t had any snow yet (the locals are telling us they are suffering from a drought) but the ground is covered with “hoarfrost” which is intricate crystal formations of ice frost everything.

Invigorating morning walk

Frozen Creek

Hoarfrost

Between New Year’s Day last Sunday and “Los Reyes” (Three Kings Day) this past Friday, the entire city come to a screeching halt which makes the third straight week of holiday celebrations, so the work has been really slow.  One beautiful, winter morning, we decided to walk the calles (roads) of Le Seu to see if we could find someone to talk to and share our message .   Shops, banks, post offices were all closed and walking through the town was eerily quiet.  We wander down a few streets that we had not found before.  We found an interesting old grist mill that was driven by the diversion of the river, so interesting. We also discovered the Diocese Seminary Building on the far edge of town that was built in the 16th century.  It was enormous, but empty. It was closed because the Catholic Church simply cannot recruit priests any more.  We engaged in a conversation with one very feeble, old Catholic priest who explained that there are no longer students in this academy.  Very sad! We have found that this scenario aligns with the attitude of the general populace towards organized religion...they simple don’t seem a need God in their lives.

Diocese Seminary

Millstones

Old Wooden Mill Wheel hidden in the center of Le Seu

After last week’s work of extensively searching out lost members, we had a very clear picture of the potential of future stability and growth in our branch.  Jesse, you would be so proud.  We spent a couple of days “crunching” the data so that we could present a report to the Stake President.  We had been deeply concerned about our little flock and decided to seek advice about next steps.  Just the day before we were to meet with the Stake President finally got notification of the APPROVAL of the ANDORRA GROUP!  We had waited so long to hear that we could start a dependent group in Andorra,  that you would have thought we would have been ecstatic, but actually we were concerned.  How could our little struggling branch support another  group in Andorra if they could barely manage their own affairs?  We made it a matter of prayer with open minds  hearts when we drove the two hours to meet President Hernandez.  He is truly an inspired leader and we left the meeting knowing exactly how to proceed.  So we have been tasked with opening a whole new country to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after a nine-year absence.  ANDORRA here we come!

Address to the future location of Andorran Group

Now our little old farmhouse is always cold, even thought we have a gasoil, old-school radiator “calefaction” heating system.  If we keep a fire burning in our stove, we get along just fine.  But Friday night, just before we went to bed we noticed that all the radiators were cold and it was not working.  We knew we were in for a cold night.  We bundled under the covers and slept fine, but woke up to a house that was so cold we could see our breath.  We were able to arrange for a repairman to come check it out to find out that we were just out of fuel.  We immediately ordered some gasoil, but it won’t be delivered until tomorrow.  Muy frio!

Only source of heat!

What an amazing Sabbath we had today!  After a couple of weeks of very slim attendance we had hopes that our members would again join us after their holiday.  Just as we were about to start our meetings, two families, the Youngs and the Dennings from Utah walked in with their 11 children expanding our Sacrament meeting attendance to 40!    Unfortunately, our Primary leader moved this week and forgot to tell us, and we had 17 children in the primary, which is normally 2.  Brother Denny, taught seminary (which I had prepared) and I diverted to primary to pinch-hit a Spanish/English lesson there. The night before, I had decided to make clay to supplement the activities in primary.  It truly saved the day!

17 Niños in our tiny Primary Room...800% Increase!

Choose the Right (Haz lo Justo)

Clay...Saved Primary

On a whim, I decided to invite the two families to the farmhouse for Sunday dinner since they had a driven 1.5 hours from France to attend our meetings.  So I pulled together a huge pot of spaghetti, a salad and several dozen cookies, all of which disappeared.  We past a wonderful afternoon with the Andy and Janelle Young  and their four children and Greg and Rachel Denning which have seven children. We even celebrated Aaliyah's birthday with candles in a cookie.  Two amazing faithful families that evidenced their devotion to their Savior, by making sacrament meeting attendance a priority even while vacationing in a foreign country.

Young and Denning Families Join us for Dinner

Sunday Night Cookies

 Le Seu sunset...

Glorious!

 Mucho amor,

Los Fowers