Well, we want to wish all of you a Happy New Year, it came in with a bang here in Spain. They set off firecrackers and fireworks to bring in the New Year. Some of the people started a lot earlier, because we have been hearing firecrackers go off for a week now, but on the 31st of December there were definitely more of them and several more when the clock turned to 12:00. We didn't go out and chose to stay home, but the noise kept us awake.

The bad thing was the poor dogs in the neighborhood. Every time one of the big firecrackers would go off the dogs would stat to bark.

It must have really hurt their ears.

We did get some pictures from Sister Mellor that were taken at the Mission Home on Christmas that I thought that I would share with you. We had a traditional Christmas dinner with turkey, dressing, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy and tossed salad. We happened to be at the head of the table this time. These missionaries were a great group to eat with and they left shortly after singing a few Christmas carols so they could be back to call their families. While we were waiting for the dinner to begin we finished a puzzle and of course I had to help, I miss putting puzzles together. I didn't put it altogether myself, the elders also helped, but Sister Mellor took my picture.

This week started out really warm. When I walked down to the post office, I got really hot and wished that I hadn't worn my sweater. On Tuesday it started out about the same, but later on during the day it started raining again and rained for the rest of the week. Saturday was a very sunny day and we walked over to the church for our district meeting. But it suppose to rain again maybe tomorrow but definitely on Monday and that is the day we wanted to go see the lights in Malaga.

We did go into the office on New Year's Day but didn't stay the whole day because the internet wasn't up and they were having trouble with the computers.

We hope that all of you will have a prosperous and happy New Year.

I can't believe another week has gone by. Christmas has come and gone and the New Year is approaching. We didn't really take many pictures this week because it rained the whole week, even had lightning and thunder to go along with it. It wasn't really too cold, only if you got wet through and the wind continued to blow. One day, I think it was Monday, my shoes got soaked all the way through just walking to the office. (Jo walked too close to the down spout of on of the builings and it filled her shoe full of wather.) We tried to get everything ready for the zone conference that we had last Tuesday in Malaga. We had a wonderful Zone Conference, and had a program about Christmas, with Scriptures and songs. We had a wonderful meal with the missionaries and enjoyed visiting with the missionaries from the 2 zones. They have 2 zones meet together for Zone Conference and then they try to have a zone Conference about every 6 weeks or so, usually between the transfers.

We were going to go with the Branch back into Malaga to see the lights on Wednesday night but it continued to rain so it was cancelled and we will try to go next week. They tell us that they keep the lights up until 3 Kings Day, which is January 6th. On Tuesday night Roy and I went home teaching to a couple of members, Fred and Bruna Riley, they have been members for about 17 years and have lived here in Spain for 7 years in Mijas Costa. He is from England and she was born in Italy and grew up in Beligum. They met in Yugoslavia at a (Communist Party)conference. She speaks several languages, and he only speaks English. They are a delightful couple and very strong members in our branch. He was in the Branch Presidency when we got here and is now the branch mission leader. She is the Young Women's Advisor, we only have 1 young woman, Holly, and she is a joy to have in any class. Holly has been our Pianist in Sacrament meeting until her brother, Jack, got back from Australia. Jack Tyndale-Biscoe is getting ready to serve a mission and he plays the piano beautifully. He is self taught and studied a very intensive music course while he was in Australia. He will be a great missionary.

On Thursday we got ready for Christmas, that is when we took our preparation day, which entailed cleaning our apartment, doing the wash, etc. I also did some baking. I made a lemon merigue pie to take to the mission home for Christmas dessert. On Friday we went up to the mission home to help with the cooking, but didn't need to do much. We did eat with President and Sister Mellor and nine other missionaries. They were a great group and enjoyed the Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, and yams and salad. It was great food. Then the missionaries hurried back to their apartments so they could talk to their families and then we were able to visit all of our kids on SKPE. It was so great to see all of the grandkids and what they got for Christmas. We really enjoyed talking with all of them.

On Saturday the English celebrate Boxing Day and once again we were out at the Riley's to a dinner about 3:00 o'clock and we had 15 people there. 4 of the missionaries and the rest were members of the branch. We took Aaron Jacobson, who is the member that is from Alaska who is over here working on his Doctor's degree. He is doing it out of England, but is doing research in Germany. He wanted to spend some time in the sun in Spain and then it has rained the last week here. He was here a month ago and decided to spend his time in our branch. He will be here until the end of January. He went to Columbia on his mission and has learned German, so the Meyers, the Germany couple really like to speak with him.

After we were at the Riley's on Saturday we went to the Meyer's for supper and we took Aaron with us. We always enjoy ourselves when we are there, even though Roy doesn't quite understand everything when they speak German.

On Sunday we had 17 people for Sacrament meeting, and we hope in a couple of weeks several of the others will come back from whereever they spent their holiday. It was a great meeting, even though it was small.

We wish you all a Happy New Year.