Thanksgiving in Spain

We are thinking of all of you and feeling very grateful for your love and support to us. We are blessed beyond words. Our time here is rushing by and we are seeing things for the last time. We have had a busy week in the temple with many fine patrons from Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. We had families that came with their children and young adults to do all the ordinances. We were deeply moved by their willingness and for their sacrifices to be here. On Monday of this week we had our Thanksgiving dinner with 51 people attending. It was so nice of everyone to celebrate Dick's birthday. Thank you all for your gifts and well wishes. It was a super day! In thinking about past Thanksgivings we remember many wonderful times. One that comes to mind is the one in 1999. We had dinner at our home and then went to Vance and Tina's for pies. We played games in the park across the street. We will always remember seeing Vance come over to join with the games. It was his first time to really be up and about since the transplant in August. How happy we all were!! Another one was in 1991 when we went to the church and joined with the Pickles and Draughons. This was when we all met Trisha's Chris Lloyd for the first time. Another one was when we joined with the Thompson and had smoked turkey for the first time. We have had the best time in remembering our blessings and most of all we are and will be eternally grateful to have all of you in our lives. Family and friends are forever. We pray that you will have a wonderful day and feel the joy and peace of the gospel in your lives. Nothing is more important than our testimonies of our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. We pray for you all! Be happy! Don't get discouraged! Keep believing! Things will get better. The gospel is True!!

General Conference and Tapestry Factory

We are having a day to catch up on household things and emails. We realize that we have been busy but when we see how long it has been since we sent anything home we are astounded!! We are sorry! The month of October went by very fast. We loved General Conference and have made copies of the talks so that we can review them. Many of the talks are right on the dot for us. We had our combined FHE with all the temple missionaries. I made my home made noodles and chicken over mashed potatoes. I wasn't sure if the Spanish would like it but they ate every drop. Whooee! We went to a Tapestry Factory with the Skousens and were so amazed how how much work has gone into the wonderful wall hangings and the carpets that we have been seeing in the palaces and castles. During one of our shifts in the afternoon we were the leaders of the 1st session but we had already attended the early morning session with the MTC missionaries so we were a little surprized when they sent us as patrons on the the 7:00 PM session. I decided that that was a good way so spend a day and that 3 sessions a day is A-okay. We attended a concert one night in our Stake center. One of our teachers in the MTC is from Italy. He played beautifully! We knew he could play but were really impressed with his concert. He has returned to Italy to continue his education in music. Can everyone from Italy sing or play instruments? One of the high lights of our month was a trip we took to see the King Tut exhibition. We went by Metro and walked a little but found it okay. That is always a problem the finding of things but we are getting better and better at getting where we want to go. We had a special experience this month. A couple from Barcelona asked Dick to perform their sealing. We didn't know them and wondered why they had asked Dick to do it. The day of the sealing he found out that the wife is the niece of our good friends in Bolivia who came to see us the week before we came to Spain. He had told his niece to ask for Dick. It was a very touching sealing as they had their deceased baby daughter sealed to them. Many tears !!! There are many things in the temple that reaffirm our testimonies of the love our Heavenly Father has for all of his children. Dick did not expect to be asked to do live sealings here. We love the Ayaviri family in Bolivia. Maybe you remember them when we had our farewell for Spain. We had a lovely FHE at the Wilson's home. There were 21 of us gringos invited. It was an hour and a half metro and train ride each way but we made it okay. 3 kinds of soup, my homemade rolls, salads, root beer and dessert. It is our last time with the Wilsons because he has been reassigned to the Pentagon. This about wraps up our October. Maybe this is too long so we will try to write more often and not so much at one time. We love you all and are loving our mission!! The blessings and tender mercies are abundant and we are so grateful to be members of the church. We keep you in our thoughts and prayers especially for our Trisha's husband Chris at the passing of his father Mike Lloyd. The gospel is true and we love our Heavenly Father and His Beloved son Jesus Christ. We pray we can be faithful and serve until the end of our lives.