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