Busy Busy

It has been such a happy and busy time for us here in Madrid but our thoughts and prayers have been about all of you. We find ourselves thinking of things that are so meaningful and important in our lives. We feel that a prayer of gratitude is hardly adequate to express how much we love you all. Heavenly Father has a great plan for us all and it involves many tender moments and many challenges. We have experienced some tender moments lately that have helped us feel the spirit deeply and often. Our work together in the temple is sweet and at times very demanding. Dick is doing sealings in Spanish and also doing everything there is to do in the temple. He gets tired and needs to rest but recovers quickly which we are grateful for. He is constantly thinking of ways to improve his teaching in the MTC and tries so hard to relate to each missionary. They love him! As August draws to a close we have 120 people from Portugal here for the entire week. They are so happy to be here and come here to work so that means we will be working our heads off too. Our bed feels really good at nights. It is a blessing that some of them are workers themselves so we will have their help. This past Sunday Dick and I both taught our lessons in Spanish. It was quite stressful especially for me but we survived and were really glad when Sunday was over. We did okay and had help from the Lord and the missionaries themselves. They are kind and sweet and help us with the words that we don't know. It makes us stretch and that at times is painful. We will be getting missionaries from Italy and France and Portugal in the next few months so we are in for some stretching! Please keep us in your prayers. We need all the help we can get. It is great to know that we are all in this together. We need each other so badly! Keep close to the spirit and one another. Make phone calls, make visits, send emails and say prayers. We pray that the Lord is blessing you as you need and want. One thing we have learned through serving these missions if that the Lord has a time table that is different from ours. Patience is waiting on the Lord and his timetable.