Couples Conference

Querida Familia y Amigos,

We had a whirlwind, not-stop week.  In fact, I was so tired after our double meetings last night that I just could not stay awake to write the blog. 

The first big event of the week was our Married Missionaries Conference that we hosted here in Andorra.  When other plans fell through for another venue, we volunteered to have the 11 other couples that are in our mission (including 2 senior sisters) join us in exploring the wonders of Andorra.  With that said, you can imagine the weeks of planning before they arrived…hotel reservations, meals, travel arrangement and etc.  Our farmhouse was filled to the brim as we rejoiced together in our service.  Here is a quick picture walk through a glorious three days…

President Dayton instructing us during training.

Juan and Carmen's antique collection

Exploring ARFA Chapel

Ringing the bell, inside the ARFA Church

Inside the Ice Well

President and Hermana Dayton by ARFA Bridge

Joy of being together.

Gourmet Dinner catered by Aitor

Exploring Añyos Church

Ensign to the Nations

Mountain-top Picnic

We have been blessed with a new Elder at this last transfer, Elder Squires from Pleasant Grove joined us in our work here in Andorra.  He is a pioneer in his family, he is the first to ever serve a mission.  We can already tell that he is a obedient, hard-working, determined Elder.

Meet Elder Squires

Our dear, sweet Hermana Lasley has been with us for more than a week now.  She has been right in the thick all of our responsibilities as missionaries and adventures with the senior couples.  I am not sure how I would have survived the week of food preparation without her help in the kitchen!  She fit right into our group and even joined the Elders in early morning scripture study.

Hermana Lasley studying her Sunday School Lesson 

Earnest Study

Our three Dominican sisters, Daiana, Dariana, and Arianny (try to say those three names quickly!) invited us to join them for their mother’s birthday party.  She is a kind and loving mother and it was fun to watch their interactions.  She is fully supportive of her daughters’ new church.  Perhaps one day, when she is not overwhelmed with the demands of life, her heart may be open to listen to the message of the gospel.

Feliz Cumpleaños

They had a big holiday this week to celebrate Sant Joan.  What a wild celebration it was with fireworks, exploding firecracker and bon fires with flames 20 feet in the air.  Apparently it is the night of the witches, so they burn the fires to scare away the witches.  We were a bit confused about how the all night riotous celebration honors the Lord’s beloved apostle John.

We were just chatting last night, about the changes we have seen since we have been here.  We have quietly watched the evolution of our members as their hearts have changes in subtle ways. The change has been so slight, that an outsider would not be able to see it, but we feel it everyday.  But the greatest changes is in our own hearts. We know that we are guided and helped in the work... the angels go before us.   

Con Mucho Amor,

Los Fowers

The Mission Experience

Querida Familia y Amigos,

Feliz Día de Padre to Elder Fowers!  It is a great blessing for me to serve beside him.  He has such a generous spirit and is beloved of many. Besides being an awesome Dadd, he is a devoted Branch President. I volunteered to write the blog so that he would have time to chat with his kids.  I bought him this little keepsake to remind him of our Spanish farmhouse…

Tractor/Cow Tic-Tac-Toe

It was a very quiet week for us with a lot of prep work at home, so the blog might be a bit short and boring today.  I not sure how we could make our daily missionary tasks sound exciting, but for us they are.  The quiet hour or two that we find in the morning to study the scriptures, prepare talks and take time to thank God for the blessing of being here are a great treasure to us.

We have volunteered to host a Married Missionaries Conference at the farmhouse this coming week, so we took some time last week to organize some sight seeing.  We decided to check out the Sant Climent Church that we had never visited before which has an interpretive center for Romanesque architecture in the little mountain village of Pal.  We decided it was to far out of the way to go there with a caravan of cars, put it was really interesting.  Beyond that we spent a great deal of time preparing menus, shopping, gardening, making reservations and preparing for the gathering of the 11 couples that serve in the Spain Barcelona Mission.

Delicate little wildflowers growing in crack of a rock.

Stone walkway to the Sant Climent Church

Yup, yet another Romanesque Church (12th century)

Sant Climent

Hermana Lasley arrived on Thursday morning early.  For those of you who do not know her, Jeanette Lasley was our neighbor and good friend when we lived in San Diego.  She is a 4’9’’ fireball at the age of 83! We extended an invitation to her several months ago, to come to Spain and have a mission experience with us, especially since she speaks Spanish.  After much consideration, she accepted our invitation to join us for three weeks.  After we picked her up, and found her awake and ready to go, we made a quick drive into the Montserrat Mountains to see the Montserrat Monastery and a bit of sight seeing on the way home. 

Rugged Montserrat Mountains

Our Sweet Friend, Hermana Lasley

We put her to work right away.  She has already been visiting teaching with me, helped me plan menus and given a talk in both of our sacrament meetings.  We are keeping her busy! We have been so delighted and blessed to have her with us.

Hermana Lasley speaking in our Group Meeting

Here is the garden report.  The lettuce is coming on strong and the zucchinis are already taking over the world.  We have to sneak zucchini into our members’ church bags just to get rid of them!  Jose Luis, our member/neighbor is an amazing gardener and come over everyday to watch his garden grow.

Wow, how does the garden grow!

Bountiful Harvest,  Elder Fowers and Jose Luis

Yesterday, our beloved Andorra Branch President, Elder Fowers drove 2½ hours one way to take 6 of our youth to the seminary graduation and dance.  After our modesty class last week, President helped our three sweet, new Dominican sisters get some skirts so that they could attend.  They were more than thrilled and it was so important that they have the opportunity to interact with a big group of youth from three stakes to experience the church on a much grander scale than our tiny branch.  He got home long after midnight, so he was a bit drowsy in church today.

Dominican Sisters~ Arianny, Daiana and Dariana

The highlight of this week for us was the opportunity to watch two of our newly returning members, both of which have been less active for many years, give talks in church today. Jordi discussed the critical role of fathers and our Heavenly Father. Anita spoke of the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives. We were in awe of her understanding of the doctrine and the depth of their preparation. We felt like proud parents as we were taught by their renewed light and faith.  God is at the helm and is the master of all we do.

Happy Fathers' Day to all the amazing men in our lives!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder and Hermana Fowers

Points of Interest...

Querida Familia y Amigos,

Monday, our preparation day, we had a very knowledgeable tour guide who is a lifetime resident of Andorra—Lluís, our newest member in Andorra. He had a day off of school so he volunteered to show us many of the historical sites in Andorra.  We spent that day scurrying from one interesting point of interest to another.  Here is the picture tour:

Andorran tour guide, Lluís

Buddies with  Elder Bown and Domingues

New Discoveries in Andorra

Boys on the Bridge

Font de Roc Del Metge, thermal spring.

Magnificent view of the capital city, Andorra la Vella

Elder Domingues y Lluís--foot race...guess who wins?

Casa de la Vall, built in 1580

As you recall, I got four of the most adorable baby chicks for my birthday.  It turned out that 2 of them were roosters.  Since they weren’t contributing to the egg production we decided that it was time for them become dinner.  With the help of Jose Luis, Elder slaughtered our two roosters and Oh my, they were BIG Birds!  The larger one weighed more that 3 kilos (7 lbs.) Enough with five at the table we only ate half of the big old bird!

One BIG Bird!

Here are your churches of the week… after all, we simply can’t publish a blog without a few ancient churches that we have discovered.  Keep in mind we don’t spend our time looking for them they just seem to appear during our wanderings.

Sant Miguel d' Engolatsers

Sant Creu

Santa Maria de les Peces

Lluís received the priesthood today—the first and only Deacon in the entire country of Andorra. He was ordained by Elder Bown and passed the sacrament for the very first time.  After the meetings he said his last goodbye to Elder Bown, one of his HEROS.  The tears came, and he turned to his mom for comfort. Soon we were all wiping away a tear or two.  Since the time that Bette sat in his Grandmother’s living room and shared the beginnings of our Heavenly Father’s great plan with him, his life has changed entirely!

Saying Goodbye 

Speaking of Goodbye,  Elder Bown is really leaving us after six months in Andorra.  This was his first area, and with our Brigham City connections, we pretty much adopted him.  He is a great missionary and will be greatly missed! (Sister Bown you are welcome to keep following our blog even though he will no longer be a part of it!)

Elder Bown not so happy about his transfer news...
We will miss him!

Cecilia accepted the call as the Young Women’s president this past week and planned her first youth activity this week.  When we first arrived in the mission we had three active youth in our whole branch.  Saturday, we had eight.  It was a delight to stand back and watch Cecilia interact and lead these youth in a meaningful discussion about modesty and then spend the rest of the afternoon eating, laughing and playing games together with them.  What a blessing for us to watch our local members function in their callings, joyfully serving the Lord!

Youth Activity...Amazing

New record attendance today!  Between our two groups we had 45 members and investigators in attendance.  However, we did count the four missionaries twice and along with three members who attended both meetings, but we get our numbers however we can.

Andorra Group Meeting

The gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives.  Whether they are new members or returning members who are finding their way back, there is no greater blessing than watching the light of Christ light up their lives and bring joy and peace to their hearts.  I know this is why so many senior couples serve multiple missions, because once you have experienced the kind of joy that comes from playing some small role in that journey, you simply can’t get enough.   It is worth every sacrifice!

Thanks to all of our family and friends for your love, support and sacrifice so that we can be here trying to make a difference in our little corner of the world.

Con Much Amor,

Elder and Hermana Fowers

Amazing vista and misty sunset over the Pyrenees…

Le Seu Valley

The Majesty of the Pyrenees!

Feeding Body and Soul...

Querida Familia y Amigos,

Since our last writing, we spent Monday and Tuesday preparing meals for the zone conferences down in Barcelona.  For sometime now we have been volunteering to drive to Zaragoza (3.5 hour drive) to prepare the meal for the Zaragoza Zone, but recently several Zone Conferences has been combined now we have been asked to feed 116 missionaries over a two day period.  Now that doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but have your ever seen how much missionaries can eat!  We need our good friend, Norm Brown who was a load master in the Navy, to cram all the parts in our little Prius. Our missionaries had to carry luggage and pots on their laps.  

Packed every square inch of our tiny Prius!

Nearly had to leave Elders Domingues and Bown
home to make room for food!

On the second day, I prepared 11 kilos (24 pounds) of chicken that filled 4 crockpots full to the top of Sante Fe Chicken and there wasn’t a drop left!  Food is the language of love. It was much like witnessing the miracle of feeding the 5,000!  What a blessing it was to fill their tummies and their hearts with a bit of home-cooking. 

All Set!

Zaragoza/Hospitalet Zones

Barcelona/Badalona Zones

An interesting side story.  Elder and Hermana Janell Berrett (sister to Bro. Mike Venable from Hooper) were helping us in the kitchen.  It was their last week in this mission.  While in the MTC preparing to leave to come to the Spain Barcelona Mission, they were called as mission president and wife to the Torreon, Mexico Mission.  They decided to come for just 4 months to Spain and then return to Utah to prepare to leave in July to serve 3 more years in Mexico.  What a wonderful example of faithful service!

Kitchen Staff:  Berretts and Fowers

Elder Fowers’ garden is really starting to pop with all the rain we have had the past week.  With the help of Hermano Jose Luis we began harvesting a few of the early crops.  They brought me a beautiful head of fresh lettuce and radishes for a salad.  As I was preparing a portion of the head for our lunch, and this little friend came crawling out of the leave.  Escargot anyone?

Escargot Salad

Our blog just wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t include a least one picture of an old church.  We spied this one just off the road on our way to visit some members.  I wandered up and took a look.  The San Andreu church as built in the 12^th century and has some very vibrant paintings on the interior.  It is still actively being used for worship.

 Sant Andreu Church

It has been a wild ride this week in terms of supporting members in crisis.  Matt. 25: 35-36~“For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in.  Naked, and ye clothed me, sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me.”  This week we received a late night call from a member who was having a family crisis, we went out in a pouring rainstorm and brought him home for a couple of days to give him a safe haven with warm food and a comfortable bed.  Today we found out the one of our congregation was arrested yesterday and is now in the local jail, so Elder is working with the officials to see if he can go visit him tonight.

Brother Jordi sent a couple of nights as our house guest.

Our little group in Andorra continues to flourish.  Testimony Sundays are so sweet.  When there are only 12 people in the room it is pretty much a given that nearly everyone will stand to bare testimony.  The spirit was so powerful, as our newest young member, 13-year old Lluís bore witness of the new feeling of peace and tranquility that he has experienced. He mentioned how he used to react and fight back when kids at school would call him names.  Now he says with the Holy Ghost he feels peaceful and just walks away.  He will be ordained a Deacon and pass the sacrament next week. As I interviewed him, I told him that he is the only Deacon in the whole country of Andorra and that he would be my assistant and pass the sacrament. I could fell the Spirit telling me that this young man will someday be a priesthood leader.

Lluís, Future Missionary with Elder Bown and Domingues

One after another, the power of faith and prayer, the blessing of the new group in their lives, and the joy it is to worship together again. We come away from their group meeting bubbling with a joy that simply can’t be put into words.

Our mission truly has been a roller coaster ride; sadness and discouragement as we worry about members who stray and rejoicing and gladness when we gather in a lost one. The only reason we experience these extreme emotions is because we have come to love these dear people.  How blessed we are to serve here together!

Thank you for your prayers, love and support.

Elder y Hermana Fowers