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”.
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Temple Ready Names for... Raul |
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Ana Maria |
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Maria Luisa |
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Maria Teresa |
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Rui |
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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.
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Feasting... |
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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.
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Añyos Mountain-top Church |
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Another Quaint Church |
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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.
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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.
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Penance Processions |
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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.
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Enjoying Mexican Buffet |
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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
Carry on, carry on.
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