God's Handywork

Querida Familia y Amigos,

As in real life, all things change...that means transfer week, so things are changing for our Elders.  Elder Barron is finishing his mission this week and returning to California.  As they say in South Africa—“Go Well!”  He has been with us for just one transfer, but he will be missed.  We are continually amazed by the spirit and devotion of our Elders.  Our Brigham City boy, Elder Bown will be staying with us for another transfer to take the lead in expanding our Andorra group along with our new Elder Dominguez from Brazil.

Goodbye Elder Barron (2nd from left)

We decided to have one last adventure with Elder Barron on our preparation day.   We took yet  another byway up a winding, steep mountain canyon. headed to the the village of Os de Civis.  Along the way we spied a little old church, Sant Esteve de Bixessarri built in 1701 and stopped to snap a few shots, even though it was reality modern!.  

My Elders on Prep Day Adventures

Sant Esteve de Bixessarri, 1701

Amazing carvings and craftsmanship.

We continued up the arduous switchbacks until we arrived at the village of Os de Civis. We explored yet another church, Sant Pere d’Os de Civis, that was built by the ancients in 1312 A.D.  This beautiful old stone church has stood on that mountain-top for more than 700 years.   (I decided that when we get home, I am going to make coffee table book of all the old churches we have visited here in Spain and Andorra. We think the number is approaching 30.)

Rugged Mountain Peaks

Os de Civis

Quaint Walkway up to Church.

Capilla en Os de Civis

Later in the week we had to drive a nearby community of Organyà so that we could pre-pay for the bus that we are planning to take to Madrid for our temple trip.  After exploring their quaint little "old town" and local church, we headed home.  

Organyà Church

Beautifully crafted Asap

Charming Old Town

Catalonian Flag of Independence

Older than any building in the United States

 On a whim, we decided take a diversion to discover what was at the end of another incredibly steep mountain road.  We found the ruins of the village of Tost, and of course, yet another magnificent edifice, Sant Marti de Tost, that evidenced the ingenuity, tenacity and faith of these rugged mountain folk.  The only building still standing was the church, while 10-12 other buildings had crumbled into ruins.  We took an hour to walk back in time and imagine what it must have been like in 1030 A.D. when this church was constructed.  A side note:  Across the valley, perched on the mountain peak, was a huge dairy farm with terraced pastures carved into the mountainside. Elder Fowers was dreaming about purchasing it.

Sant Marti de Tost, 1030

Last Wall Standing

Explore Ruins of Village

Mountain-top Dairy Farm

Wednesday night, we had another killing frost. It got down to -3 degrees C (23F)  Elder Fowers and Jose Luis, were out in the garden until late trying to cover the tender seedlings in an attempt to save as much as they could.  We should have followed that old wives tale and waited another month to plant.

Back in the day of Prophet Joseph Smith, he organized the “School of the Prophets” to broaden the knowledge and testimony of those early brethren.  Well, we have organized the “School of the Farmhouse” to continue to strengthen and nourish our new and reactivated members.  Again this week, we invited different members to the house for both physical and spiritual nourishment.  We have found that we often gain more from the experience than they do! The light and energy of their revitalized testimonies fill the old farmhouse with a sweet feeling of joy.

Elder Fowers’ calendar this week has been filled with temple recommend interviews with both youth and adults help prepare for the temple.  We have many that will be attending the temple for the first time, so he wants to make sure they fully prepared for the experience.

We don’t often get the opportunity to sit in on lessons with our young Elders.  Last night, while Elder was doing interviews, I was able to join them for a lesson with a 20-year-old, young man who has developed a relationship with one of our young women from Andorra. She has openly expressed her beliefs and encouraged her boyfriend to meet with the missionaries and learn about her faith.  He is a quiet, respectful young man who listened carefully to the message.  I came away from the lesson amazed at the skill, power and testimony of our young missionaries! The future of the church is in good hands.

We rejoice in God's handywork everyday.  Sometimes, it is from a mountain top vista, or the details in a tiny spring flower.  Sometimes it is a subtle thought or impression that guides our next steps with one of the members or brings comfort after a disappointing day.  God is at the helm, of this we testify. This is His work and His glory. We are grateful to offer our hands and hearts in the work.

Have a wonderful week.  Remember to count your blessings.

Mucho Amor,

Elder and Hermana Fowers

Spring Wildflowers are in Full Bloom

Madrid or Bust

Querida Familia y Amigos,

We had to say goodbye to Bette this week, but not without one last training.  We had made plans to take her see the Sagrada Familia on her last day in Spain.  The Stake President caught wind of our plans and requested that we stop by the Manresa Branch (about an hour out of Barcelona) to teach a family history workshop.  We expected just a few members but Bette, with translation help from Elder Fowers, taught a very informative workshop to a very attentive group of 14 members from that little branch. 

Giving a mini workshop at Manresa

After making arrangements to stay at the mission home, we just barely made our 4:00 p.m. reservations at the Sagrada Familia.  The afternoon sun shining through the stained glass window was breathtaking.  It was a very special way to show our appreciation for all the Bette did to service the members of our little branch.  We then took a bit of a tour of the town in a Pedi cab, which dropped us at excellent Italian restaurant on the waterfront—a perfect day for Bette to complete her whirlwind two week mission! 

Bette at Barcelona Cathedral

Beautiful Stained Glass Windows

Sagrada Familia~Stunning!

Pedi Cab to the Barcelona Harbor

After placing Bette safely to the plane on Tuesday we took a leisurely drive home with a spontaneous side trip to the ancient city of Bellver.  We spent an hour or so exploring an old fortress and church that was perched on the top of a cliff overlooked a pristine river valley. It was like walking into the past with new construction wrapped around the ancient structures.

Exploring Old Bellver Church

Spanish Civil War cave hideout (1930's)

Bellver is surrounded by the Pyrenees Mountains

In a nearby field, we watched newborn colts nurse their mothers amid the green spring pastures.  Most of these meat horses will be shipped to France.

Spring pasture for the meat horses

After our intense work, we caught our breath and regrouped; returning to many of our weekly routines.  A home-cooked meal at the farmhouse goes a long way to open the hearts of the members to gospel truths.  We have a couple of standing appointments each week.  Wednesday night we have a special priesthood training session with Rui and Jose Luis after a hot dinner.  On Thursday, we invited Shane and the missionaries for lunch after which we discuss gospel topics.  Somehow the doctrines of the gospel are sweeter when served up after dessert!

The feast at the Fowers Farmhouse

Remember the sweet little baby chicks that a friend gave me for my birthday?  Well, they have GROWN!  We ended up with two hens and two roosters (which will likely end up in the soup pot). We moved them in with laying hens this week and oh my what a cock fight!  After about an hour, we decided to build a little enclosure to protect the smaller hens from the our aggressive “Big Red” hen. 

Baby chicks are now "teenagers"

Jose Luis and Elder Fowers spend several hours planting last week…tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, onions and etc.  Well, the temperature dropped way below freezing a couple of nights this week and froze all the peppers and tomatoes.  The old wives’ tale here is that you “Don’t plant until May 40^th, which is actually June 10. We planted way too early, so we will give it another go in a couple of weeks.  Veronica and her children came and put in a few rows of plants yesterday, so we have our fingers crossed that they will survive.

Helping the members plant their gardens

Today is St. George Day.  The legend goes that St. George slayed a ferocious dragon and saved the Princess.  A red rose grew from the blood of the dragon and so St. George gave it to the Princess.  So on St. George day, you are to give your sweetheart a red rose and she in return should give you a book.  What better book than the Book of Mormon.  After church services in Andorra this afternoon our missionaries handed out about 50 free Books of Mormon on the street! 

Elder Barron spreading the word

Elder Bown placing another BoM in downtown Andorra

To conclude this week I want to share a few more details about of temple trip miracle.  As I mentioned, Bette’s family history mini-mission was a direct result of a very specific inspiration I received when I was praying about how to help our branch.  Her work here has truly been miraculous…but the story doesn’t end there.  After building enthusiasm for family history and getting the members excited about our upcoming trip to the temple, we were then concerned about financing the trip.  It appeared that it was going to cost about 65-75 euros per person to charter a bus to the Madrid Temple.  Even though many of our members had found their ancestors and prepared names for ordinances, we knew that many of them would not have the money to pay for the trip.  Out of the blue, we received an email from a couple dear family members (who wish to remain anonymous) informing us that they felt strongly that they needed to contribute more to our missionary efforts, so without consulting with us, they made a significant deposit in our bank account.  It was enough to cover the entire cost of the bus!  God truly does work in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.  We are deeply grateful for the generosity in both time and money to make this trip possible…MADRID or BUST!

We are grateful to be serving in this little outpost in Spain/Andorra.  Sometimes it is difficult and we wish we could change peoples hearts faster. Each has his own agency and all we can do is invite, testify and promise blessings to those who respond to our invitation. Some have responded to our message, which give us incentive and hope to press forward.  May we all press forward and "lift where we stand" as we prepare the world for His Coming.

Much Amor,

Elder and Hermana Fowers

Weary in Well Doing...

Querido Familias y Amigos,

Feliz Pascua a todos! Happy Birthday to Bella today and Amy tomorrow! We hope you each have a very special day.

I don’t remember being so very tired anytime in our mission.  We have been going non-stop all week with multiple “family-search” appointments with members every day.  Poor Bette, not only have we been working her to death with never-ending, late night appointments but her body clock has not fully reset so she is still suffering the effects of jetlag.  As exhausting as it has been it has been equally wonderful, joyful and inspiring work.  To date, since her arrival on April 5 we have met with 18 different family groups (some multiple times). With Bette’s expert guidance, we were able to identify and prepare temple-ready cards for more than 225 ordinances for about 45-50 individual “antepasados”.

Temple Ready Names for... Raul

Ana Maria

Maria Luisa

Maria Teresa

Rui

Lourdes

We shared a meal or two with a few of our dear friends…our favorite chef Aitor, prepared a beautiful meal of salmon with shrimp with delicious sauce and all the trimmings.  But the sweetest moment of the evening was the joy of finding her distant grandmother and preparing her name for the temple!  Day by day, we have been intimate witnesses as the “hearts of the children, turned to their fathers” but even more… the hearts of ours members have turned to righteousness as they prepare themselves to enter the holy temple.

Feasting...

Temple Ready Name for Cecilia

Everyday we would try to squeeze a bit of sight seeing in between appointments to give Bette a true cultural and historical experience.

Añyos Mountain-top Church

Another Quaint Church

ARFA Church

After a very late night of family search we woke to the sound of a tractor in our front yard rototilling the soil in preparation for the branch garden.  Jose Luis and Elder Fowers even bought seedlings from the Saturday markets and got them planted.  Hopefully our branch members will find time to participate.

Morning Wake-up Call, Tractor in the Yard

Thursday morning we departed early for Zaragoza, a 3 ½ drive, to prepare the meal for the zone conference.  We decided to go a day early so that we could show Bette a few sights before she returned to the States.  Little did we know that we would be visiting during the “High Holy Week” of Pascua (Easter).  Within minutes of arriving in Zaragoza we were immersed in a crowd of worshippers, beating hundreds of drums and wearing different colors of pointed hoods and capes.  They were marching slowly through the streets caring their sacred statues of Christ representing different scenes from his last week.  Hundreds of thousands of the faithful worshippers thronged the streets in the "Penance Processions"  and we were right in the thick of it.  We were blessed to spend a few hours touring the El Pilar Cathedral and other sites including an old Roman wall that still stands in the center of the city. The only issue was that the processions wandered through the streets with their drums all night long.  We were awakened at 2:40 with drums pounding in the street below our hotel window.

Penance Processions

Spanish Traditions of High Holy Week

We prepared and served a Mexican Food Buffet, which included 15 pounds of prepared taco meat and turkey fajitas.  Needless to say, we all went away well fed, both spiritually and physically.  We always rejoice when we spend time in the service of our beloved missionaries.  They truly are the valiant warriors of this day.

Enjoying Mexican Buffet

Zaragoza Zone

Attendance was down at our Easter Sunday services with several families out of town visiting relative for Easter.  However, there was a sweet spirit present as we remember Christ's resurrection.  Our small and quiet celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was in sharp contrast to the traditional boisterous marching processions all around us.  I asked myself how could the spirit dwell in such an irreverent environment?  Rui continues to take big steps in his return to activity.  He is so happy to have Bette help him find and prepare his ancestors temple work.  It has cemented his comeback.  Today he passed the sacrament for the first time in many years.  The Andorra group is small but strong.  The members are starting to care for one another.  Through Bette's genealogical help they have each been given a renewed purpose to their membership.  As she leaves us, her work on this "mini-mission" will be appreciated on both sides of the veil. 

Mucho Amor,  Los Fowers

"Antepasdados"...Lost and Found

Querida Familia y Amigos,

For our prep day last Monday we decided to explore the abandon grain mills located on a creek near the mountain top pueblo of Civis.  We had accidentally discovered the first mill on an earlier exploration, but this time we returned with more time to hike further up the steep mountain creek.   We ascended up the creek side cutting through brush on long abandon trails passing several rushing waterfalls along the way.  The first mill still had the water wheel in place but the grinding stones were lying in the creek.  We estimated the mill to be over 100 years old.  We continued up the trail and found 6 more abandon grain mill buildings in various states of disrepair.  We felt like Indiana Jones finding the lost city.  Way cool!

Water Slue and Wooden Wheel

Hoorah for Israel!

Elder Bown and Barron

Rui and Jose Luis continue to attend their meetings with excitement to be back in the church again.  We taught them a priesthood lesson at our home and Hermana Fowers bribed them with a delicious meal.  Their presence in Priesthood meeting is still a small miracle as we try to build the little twig we call the Andorra branch.

We had a funny story this week.   Elder Mayall from England was returning on the bus to Lleida after a missionary exchange here in La Seu.  Well, the bus ride to Lleida is two hours with a transfer in Pons to another bus.  Elder Mayall was napping and woke up just as the bus arrived in Pons.  As he was getting his stuff to get up and leave, the bus driver with only 2 passengers on the bus forgot about him in the back and left for coffee, locking the bus and Elder Mayall inside.  The Elder yelled but to no avail.  About two minutes later the bus from Lleida came and left as Elder Mayall was yelling and pounding on the window for some one to let him out.  Needless to say he missed the bus and the next one was not coming for 5 hours.  The bus driver soon returned to his bus and upon seeing the Elder locked inside said “Oh Madre Mia”!  Luckily he had a phone and called me. I drove to Pons to rescue the stranded Elder.  Yes we do a lot of rescue work with members and missionaries.

For some weeks now we have been preparing for the visit of Bette Spiekerman Molgard, a childhood friend who has been training to be a professional genealogist.  In answer to a prayer about how to help our members to progress in their faith, I had a prompting that I should invite her to our little branch to help them do family research and prepare the names of their “antepasados” for the temple.  Slowly, the energy for our temple trip and Bette’s visit has been growing.  Finally the day of her arrival into Barcelona arrive.  We took a brief peek at the Sagrada Familia and then headed to Le Seu to tuck Bette into bed after an exhausting trip.

First Day in Spain

Friends for 50 Years

Since her arrival we have not stopped.  We have had several extended appointments everyday, trying to helping members set up their family search accounts, enter their family data to begin to build their family trees as we search and verify statistics.  There have been special, sacred moments when we have felt the powerful spirit of joy as individuals have found long lost ancestors.  

Bette, helping any and all.

To share a couple…Ana Marie, a dear, sweet elderly sister in Andorra, was looking forward to our visit with great anticipation. She was well prepared and had carefully written all of the family data in a little booklet.  When we arrived her face dropped when she realized that all the work would have to be completed on the computer.  She had no technological skills and was overwhelmed at the prospect.  Quickly she invited her less active daughter and grandson to come and help her.  Before long her 12-year-old grandson Lluis was a pro, sitting right beside her, entering data and patiently coaching his grandmother.  Ana Maria had no death dates for her parents.  Within just a few minutes, with the coaching and help from Lluis, they found both!  Ana Maria was happy beyond measure as the tears welled in her eyes. 

Bette and Ana Marie

Lluis, Expert Help

Later that same evening we went to visit Sonia, a member that we had found through facebook after many years of inactivity.  She had lost a husband to a terrible accident a few months before the birth of their first child.  She had a great desire to do his temple work, but we had overlooked entering the marriage date…we struggled for an hour until the spirit nudged us to correct the error and finalized the temple papers.  She was thrilled.  She said, “ I don’t know much about the temple, but I feel so happy.  I don’t really know why.”  Through another small miracle, she was able to find the death date for her father when she searched through a box of old papers looking for his funeral program.  She told us that she had just searched it a few days before with no luck, then while we were there she took one more look and there it was!  Angels (or ancestors) attended the work that day!

Sonia & Bette

We love Sundays even though we scurry from one block of meetings in Le Seu in order to get to another group meeting in Andorra.  The spirit was profound today, and we see His hand in the work.  We even had the Morgan family visiting from Idaho, attend our little Andorra group and triple the attendance.  They are on a 20-week adventure around the world. They joined us in the farmhouse for cookies and milk.

Earlier this week, when the Elders took a wrong turn while searching for an address, they happened upon a person who said she knew a person that would be very interested in the message they had.  It turned out to a “special features” newspaper reporter for the national paper of Andorra.  She promptly contacted the Elders asking if she could do a feature article about the Mormons in Andorra.  The following day we spent several hours with her along with our young elder in an interview setting answering questions about the purpose of our missions and basic doctrines of the church. Then she followed the missionaries in their work in the streets of Andorra for a few hours.  She sent a photographer to our little group meeting last Sunday for more photos.  Today a two-page center article was published in the “Diari d’Andorra” newspaper which is the major paper in Andorra.  The only problem is that it is written in Catalan and we have not been able to completely decipher the text, but it appears to be a positive article about the sacrifice and service of the missionaries in Andorra.

Front Page

Mormons in Andorra make the news!

We have had an incredible week trying to rescue His children on both sides of the veil.  We love you all so much and feel your support and love.  We pray for you everyday.

Mucho Amor,

Elder and Hermana Fowers

Le Seu Sunset