Bounteous Harvest

Querida Familias y Amigos,

Our week started at 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning when our alarm woke us from a sound sleep.  We rushed to get ready and get the car loaded for our regular trip to Barcelona to feed four zones of missionaries during their zone conferences.  Again our load-master, Elder Fowers managed to cram our luggage, two Elders and their luggage and food for 105 missionaries in the back of our tiny Prius Yaris.  The Elders had to travel with melons between their legs.  We had no other couples to helps us this round, but by the end of the luncheon we had a lot of very happy missionaries.  With all the extra zucchini we have in the garden I even made 20 loaves of zucchini bread!  It is such a great blessing to prepare these meals for our El Faro Missionaries each transfer.

Hermana Fowers with Zaragoza Zone Hermanas

Happy Elders!

 It blesses our lives to be among our righteous Elders and Hermanas and feel the strength of their service.  Our Zone Leader, Elder Lightfoot is going home this transfer so we were blessed to hear his parting testimony.  He shared the thought that on the second week of his mission he decided to be happy, no matter how difficult the work.  He taught us that happiness is a choice that comes from obedience.  He was truly a light to all who knew him.

Elder Lightfoot's Farewell Testimony

Our two farm boys, Jose Luis and Elder Fowers are out early every morning harvesting their bounteous crops to give away to friends and family. They have decided that if there are not gardens in heaven, they don’t want to go!

Bounteous Harvest

The absolute highlight of the week was Haloua’s baptism.  She is the 12-year-old daughter of Sonia (the formally less active member we found through facebook).  Without any pressure from her Mom, she has been studying with the Elders and has had a very special spiritual awakening, which led her to the waters of baptism yesterday.  Our beloved Elder Squires baptized her…his first! She is a sweet and intelligent girl who is a wonderful addition to our Andorra Group.  She has already working on Personal Progress and is fully involved with our Young Women’s Program.

Sonia and Haloua...together in the gospel.

Rejoicing...Sonia, Haloua, Elder Squires and Domingues

Andorra Branch at Baptism

Following her baptism, we had our annual branch picnic.  We had it on the calendar long before she selected her baptismal date, so it became a wonderful opportunity for the members to gather and celebrate her baptism and spend the afternoon socializing at the beautiful riverside park.

Youth playing in the river.

Andorra Branch Picnic

Fiesta Major is the local summer celebration for all in and around our city of La Seu d'Urgell. The long running tradition lasts 5 days where the main street is turned into a carnival boardwalk. Parades with loud drum bands occupy the quiet nights. All the restaurants seat their customers into the sidewalks and streets while police block roads. And no one goes to bed till 4:00am. Juan and Carmen our dairy farming neighbors hold a traditional dinner for all of his the family which amounts to about 36 people. Hermana Fowers and I were invited as special guests.  The meal started Saturday night at 10:00p.m. Tapas were spread all over the long table as appetizers, next, several rounds of pork chops, veal steaks and lamb chops were served. Hermana brought some zucchini bread which was a hit.  Carmen purposely seated us next to her mother who speaks slowly and in Spanish. Otherwise Catalan was the free flowing language of the night.  I was getting about 30%.  During the traditional toast, with wine (we held up water), Juan made special mention of us and how we were good neighbors and helped him and Carmen.  We may never bring these people into our church, however, I think our service over the last year has spread a positive message about who we are, and what we believe, as we have served our neighbor. 

Fiesta Major with Juan at the head of the table.

Jenny and Miguel and their sweet daughters have been attending our branch the past few weeks. Miguel was baptized as a youth, but Jenny is not a member.  They live 45 minutes away in Puigcerda and have been studying with the missionaries.  Their daughter Audrey is the latest addition to our Primary nursery.  Today she got brave enough to join the clay play with her little friend Sharlott. 

Miguel, Jenny and daughters at Branch Picnic

Clay play in the Nursery

We do a lot of planting, weeding, watering and harvesting in our little Andorra garden.  Sometimes the seeds we plant don't come up at all, others get choked out by the weeds but there are glorious miracles like we experienced this week and we celebrate a beautiful harvest!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder y Hermana Fowers

View of sunrise when Elder Fowers got up to milk the cows.