Visit from Elder and Sister Hinckley

We have had a rather unusual day today. Elder Richard G. Hinckley and his wife are here to check out the MTC. He is over all the MTC's in the world. I, your mom, had the opportunity to go with a few other people to show Sister Hinckley a few of the Madrid sites and to go shopping. She is a delightful and happy person and we all enjoyed being with her. She told me that the jacket she had on had been her mother-law's (Marjorie Hinckley's). We had a group picture taken and I got to sit next to Elder Hinckley. The first time I met him and shook his hand all I could do was say my name and that "it is like looking at your father." He looks like a younger version of our beloved Pres. Hinckley!!We had all our meals with them today and listened to them when that talked to the elders and sisters. We then took them to the temple to talk with the temple president and his wife. We are so happy to have the chance to meet and listen and learn from our wonderful church leaders. We are all so blessed to belong to the true church of Jesus Christ!! Our blessings are huge!! We are tired tonight but looking forward to a beautiful day in the temple tomorrow. Elder Hinckley told your dad that he is caught between the land of the living and the land of the dead, Meaning the MTC and the temple. He also said that sometimes there are stories that go around about his dad that are"Faith promoting myths". We loved our day and hope you all are having wonderful days and are happy, well, successful and most of all faithful. Good night with all our love, Mom and Dad P.S. We helped the missionaries sing a special song for the Hinckleys. They did it perfectly. They sang "We Will Bring the World His Truth."

Studying and Music

I want to write this update for you all so that you can have a feel for how things are for us. You should be so proud of your dad!! He is amazing!! He spends hours studying and preparing to teach the elders upstairs in the MTC. He goes the extra mile on every assignment. I am so proud of how he relates to all of them and reaches out to all of them to help and encourage. He is doing a fantastic work for the Lord and I have never seen him happier!! Our apartment is full of books and papers and he uses the internet all the time. We are involved alot with the missionaries and love it so much. The days fly by!! We are still busy in the temple and will always love the wonderful things we get to do and the great people we get to be around. Dad has used his music alot here. He plays for meetings and for people to perform and as extra bonus he gets the missionaries to sing with great gusto!! We love you all and miss you dreadfully!! We love our Heavenly Father and His Son with all our hearts and are so grateful for this opportunity to be here doing what we are doing. Our time away from you and family activities is difficult but we try to think that you are receiving blessings because of our service. This next week Pres. Hinckley's son will be here to check out the MTC. He is head of the Mission Department. I get to go with Sister Hinckley and a few other sisters to see the sights of Madrid. I am really looking forward to this. Please tell all the grandchildren that we are happy serving and look forward to when all of them are serving their missions. This work is the work of the Lord and it is the best thing for us all to do. Pray for a missionary experience in your lives! It will work! Tomorrow is Sunday and another great time for us!! Please keep us in your prayers. One of our new missionaries is from Italy so we are trying to speak what little Italian we have learned. She is from Milan and is a beautiful and bright young woman. We have 7 sisters from the US and 6 elders from the US and 1 elder from Spain who is a celebrity here because of a Reality TV show he was on so his mother said please take him early before it goes to his head. He is doing well and fitting in well with all the gringos.

MTC plus the Temple

Dear Loved Ones,Here we are with our latest group of missionaries. We have 9 North American and 5 Portuguese missionaries. The ones from the USA come for 6 weeks and the others from any of the countries in Europe come for only 3 weeks because they will be speaking the language they already know . It is really a pleasure to get to know all of them and work with them to help them to be ready to serve their missions. Our President and his wife are wonderful, competent and capable people who are great teachers and examples of service. We are enjoying very much serving with them here. This MTC service coupled with our Temple service makes for a very interesting and rewarding experience for us. We are very busy and the time is going by as if we were in afterburners all the time. What a marvelous experience we are having, learning and sharing. We are expecting 11 more missionaries tomorrow. It is truly an emotional experience to get to know these faithful servants of our Heavenly Father and then to see them launch on their missions probably never to see them again. These are photos of the Presidency of 4 including wives with the current group altogether and then with the Americans and then the Portuguese. As you can see we are directly in front of the temple doors. We are finally going to get two more pairs of Senior temple missionaries in the next two weeks ( Skousens and Browns) and possibly 2 more by summer. This will alleviate the shortage in workers we have been experiencing in the temple the entire time that we have been here. It has been great to feel needed in a desperate sort of way. Hope this finds you all well.