Here is a picture of our Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Hill sitting down from the MTC in Madrid. They were just a delightful couple and all the missionaries speak so highly of them.
We really enjoyed being with them the few days that we were in Madrid. It was a great zone conference and I think we understood a few more words than 6 weeks ago.


Last Sunday we drove up to Granada, 1 1/2 hours away for Stake Conference. It was a different stake conference. At the same time as the adults were meeting, the youth met with the Madrid Temple president and his wife. They later spoke in the main meeting. They had a 1/2 hour intermission where the people just visited with each other. It is a long way to stake conference.
In fact the leadership meeting that is usually held on Saturday was split into 2 sessions. Those in the west and south met on Friday night in Malaga where they showed the broadcast about welfare and self reliance, yes it was in Spanish, and we had a copy of the words in Spanish, which was easier to follow than listening to the translators. We did have someone come and sit behind the Mijas International branch and interpret for us. He was really good, an elder who served in London 20 years ago on a mission. He is a lawyer in Malaga and we can't remember his name, but he was good and we thanked him. One member of the stake presidency is from Switzerland, but speaks really good English and Spanish. He learned English on his mission and he married a Spanish girl and he works for the consulate in Spain. The 2 pictures are of the countryside going to Granada. It looks a lot like the scenery we would see in Utah, but there are thousands of olive trees planted everywhere.

This next picture is for Dennis. We couldn't resist taking a picture of this green bathroom sink. It is a little pricey. 300 Euros is about $450 . Just the green that Dennis used to like.

The next pictures are of flowers that I took on November 14, 2009 on the way over to the church for district meeting. The flowers are still blooming and still look good. I wonder if they bloom a lot more in the spring. This was taken in a little park that is right to the west of our apartment complex. There is a little path that we take as we walk to church. Aren't they really pretty flowers, some of them are just like the ones that Ila and I took when we were in Guatemala. The weather is still nice here. I wanted to tell Kathy that when we woke up this morning it was 19 degrees in our apartment, and she was telling us that it was 22 degrees. Of course ours was reading celsius and not fahreheit. Which makes it about 69 degrees. Still not sweater weather, but Sister Mellor is really worried that we are going to be super cold in our apartment, because of all the tile floor or granite floors in the lobby. She says that we will see later if that happens to us.

Tomorrow we will have a new branch president, because Brother Brown is moving with his wife and little girl to Florida. He is from Colorado, and his wife is from Spain. They will be truly missed here in this branch. We were very impressed with his spirituality, even though he was quite young.