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.
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| First Day in Spain |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Bette and Ana Marie |
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Front Page |
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| 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
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| Le Seu Sunset |
Luci & Clarke,
ReplyDeleteYour adventures and experiences fill my heart to full.
Grateful for your service and fine examples to me. Much Love, Beth