A Full Week

But they're all full weeks.

Monday and Tuesday we had Zone Conferences in Barcelona - two days, four zones. Wednesday was designated as a travel day - we planned to drive down south with the assistants for zone conferences - but we received a call from Madrid that we needed to be in Madrid to be fingerprinted on Wednesday morning. so Wednesday we arose at 4:45 a.m. to take an early flight to Madrid.

[Photo: Elder Lee and Elder Halsey setting up for Zone Conference]

In Madrid we met with Pres. and Sister Clegg (Spain Bilbao) and Pres. and Sister Watkins (Spain Madrid) and our friend Josue Sanchez (who handles visa and residency issues). We went down to the main police station in Madrid (which is next to the site of the prison where Franco kept and executed political prisoners). As we approached the metal detectors and began to reach for our keys, cell phones, etc., the security man recognized Josue Sanchez and just waived us through. In Spain, it's all about who you know. The fingerprinting went without a hitch, thanks to Josue's connections. We contacted the two men behind us in line. One was from Angola, studied for two years in Cuba, and was reading a book entitled Diary of a Guerrilla Hero. Hmmm. But he was a Christian and very interested in getting a Book of Mormon. The second fellow was from the DR and just listening in, but when we asked him he wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon as well. We are trying to follow the instructions in Preach My Gospel - always finding!

We had enough time to get some lunch and had a wonderful visit with the other mission presidents, eagerly finding out how they were solving the various dilemmas faced by a mission president every day!

After lunch Josue drove us to the train station where we took a train all the way to Murcia in the far south of the mission. It was a beautiful train ride, and we arrived late in the evening and took a cab to the hotel. The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel (it is the second time we have stayed at the Hotel Nelva in Murcia), took a taxi to the chapel, and held another zone conference. Then we took a taxi to the train station and traveled to Valencia, one of Spain's most beautiful cities. We stayed again at the Puerta Valencia Hotel, our usual spot. Had an early breakfast on Friday, walked to the chapel for zone conference, then took a taxi back to the train station. Our train was over an hour late due to a fire somewhere along the line - we did not get home until 11:00 p.m. that night.

Waiting for the train in Valencia - with Elders Watson and Lee (Assistants)

So during the course of the week we traveled from Barcelona to Madrid, Madrid to Murcia, Murcia to Valencia, and Valencia back to Barcelona, and held four zone conferences with seven zones. In between we read letters, began working on transfers, responded to correspondence, submitted changes to the 2010 budget, obtained telephone numbers from about half a dozen contacts, met with and set apart a new second counselor, drafted new guidelines on cleaning apartments, interviewed a few missionaries, and got precious little sleep.

We finished the week with seven investigators getting baptized and confirmed this weekend. We are excited for these new members, and proud of our wonderful missionaries!