Our Last...Farewell

Quiera Familia y Amigos,

This week was filled with many moments where we found ourselves saying, “This is be the last time we…”

…will see the sun peek over hills around our sacred little farmhouse.

Tranquility of the sunrise at the farmhouse.

…buy produce at the open-air market.

Winter Market 

…milk cows with Juan and say a sad goodbye around their kitchen table.

Elder Fowers right at home in the milk barn!

Juan and Carmen... our farm folk friends.

…visit members.

My sweet friend Ella...saying goodbye.

…bake cookies for the zone conferences.

30 dozen cookies for the zone conferences!

…will take two hours to cross the border from Andorra to get home from church.

More than 2 hours to cross the border from Andorra

…we will see the majesty of the snow covered Pyrenees out of our window.

Farewell to our majestic Pyreness

…gather with our dear friends for a fiesta (that starts two hours late) and feast upon the delicious foods of several South American countries. 

Despedida...Farewell Fiesta (Elder is eating goat)

…join with our members in our Sunday meetings to bare witness, one last time, of Jesus Christ and the joy and peace that comes from following his path.

…write a blog home to our family and friends.  For those of you who are still following our adventures, thank you for your love and support. Yes. that's right.  This will be our last blog post.  Your prayers on our behalf carried us through!

Now a quick note about one last miracle—You may recall the story we wrote a few weeks back about finding Jose Antonio Barquin.  The back-story on him is very interesting.  In the first month of our mission we actually found him living alone in Andorra, in very poor conditions with bad health.  When we contacted him, he denied being a member and slammed the door in our faces.  During the intervening year we had lost all contact with him until about three weeks ago.  Maria Luisa, a member, found him in a care facility recovering from a stroke.  Since that time we have visited him a couple of times to help him remember the joy he once felt, each time inviting him to join us at church.   We couldn’t hold back the tears yesterday, when he walked into our sacrament meeting today. 

It was a sweet blessing to have the last day of our mission be a Fast Sunday. It gave us the opportunity to share our love and testimonies.   It was impossible to really frame what was in our minds and our hearts.  Most of our feelings were expressed through tears and hugs because the words just would not come. Out beloved Andorra group honored us with a gift, as a special memory of to our last trip to the temple together—matching aprons with a pictures of us in front of the Madrid Temple.

Matching Aprons picturing us in front of Madrid Temple

We nearly didn’t make it out of La Seu this morning.  We woke to a heavy, wet winter storm. After taking the Elders to the bus station at 5:30 am with three inches of snow on our steep driveway, we couldn’t make it back up our driveway into the garage to load our tons of luggage and zone food.  After a half hour of shoveling and a running start, Elder Fowers was able to make it back into the garage so we could load our luggage.  After a prayer, we headed out to Barcelona and due to the heavy snowfall, were turned back by the police unless we had chains.  We tried an alternative route ended up following a snow plow through the worst of it, arriving in Barcelona four hours later, just in time to get the salad made and the food on the table for the Barcelona/Badalona Zone Conferences.

Icy, steep driveway.

We will be reporting our mission on March 18 at 9:00 am at the ­­Morgan Utah West Stake Center located at 2755 W. Old Highway Rd., for those of you who would like to attend.  Please plan to join us for a light luncheon after our three-hours block of meetings, at our home in Mountain Green.

We know that when your are in the service of others your are really in the service of your God and that is why we are on this earth.  If this simple principle were followed by even the slight majority of mankind, much unnecessary suffering would be eliminated and life would be different on this planet.  We feel joy in our hearts for having had the opportunity to serve together this past 18 months. We have not changed the world but simple acts of compassion have changed hearts and provided peace to those we have served.  May we all continue to express our love of the Savior through simple acts of charity.  God lives and loves us; this we have come to know more fully while serving in our little Branch of Andorra.

May God bless and keep you. 

Con Mucho Amor,

Los Fowers