A couple of weeks ago we took some time off and went up to see the Alhambra in Granada. It was the last stronghold of the Moors who were driven out of Spain in 1492.
Roy and I standing in the gardens. We were too late to get tickets to the palace so we went through the gardens instead.
It took several years to build this complex and several Moorish kings.
The gardens were just beautiful and we really enjoyed our walk through the gardens, which took about 2 hours.
This is the beautiful wisteria with Elder Hunt and Pam Young who joined us while she was visiting in Spain from living and helping in Mali, Africa.
I couldn't resist taking a picture of the beautiful rose, and they weren't all in bloom yet.
One thing that really fascinated me were the walkways in the gardens that were made of different stones.

Sorry but I took lots of pictures of the ground with all the designs in the walkways.
I'm not sure I would have the patience to do this work.

Elder Hunt climbing stairs in the gardens.
Spain is a wonderful place to visit and a wonderful place for missionary work, which is progressing nicely here in Spain. It might not be going as fast as other countries, but it is still growing. We now have our allotment of missionaries and they are working hard and miracles are taking place. We love the work here and hope we are helping the work progress.

The Statute of Christopher Columbus in the harbor going into Huelva.
Some of the beautiful tiles that was found in and around Huelva.
Map in the museum in Huelva showing settlements in Spain, some of which date back before Christ. Where the Phoenicans had settlements.
Another snapshot of inside the Santa Maria
In side the Santa Maria
Figures of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in the small museum by the boats.
We saw miles of greenhouses filed with strawberry plants. This was on the way to Huelva.
It has been awhile since I did anything on our blog. I'm back in Spain with Roy and we decided that we were going to see some of Spain during the last 6 months of our mission, so each month we are going to take a side trip and visit some of Spain. First we went to Huelva, which is across the river from where Christopher Columbus sailed from. These next ships are just replicas of the ships that he used.
The Pinta
The Niña
The Santa Maria
A view of all three ships. We got to go on the ships and we took several pictures of the insides. We couldn't believe how small they were and try to imagine them sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. The Santa Maria was the biggest and held a crew of 40, where the others held 20 and 30 each.

The missionary work in Spain is progressing and so far they are keeping up with their goal of trying to reach 300 baptisms by the end of 2011. The missionaries are very dedicated and are doing their best to teach the gospel. Wonderful stories that we hear. It has been great to be back here in Spain and to help the missionary work.

October 10, 2010

Hi everyone, This has been a different 3 weeks. Right now Roy and I are in separate continents, Roy stayed in Spain, while I came home for a while to help Earl when he goes through his stem-cell transplant, that we thought would have happened, but they found some cancer in his colon, which they removed and he is just recovering from that surgery. He goes to the doctor tomorrow and they will decide when they do the really really strong chemo that will kill all of his immune system and then they give him back his stem cells that they collected the 1st weekend in September. He has such a great attitude that has helped him thus far. I have spent the time cleaning my house, moving his belongings back home, trying to fatten him up, but I think that is impossible, even though he eats several meals a day. He eats with Andrea and I and goes back and warms up a casserole about 2 hours later, and still doesn't gain weight.
Roy took some pictures of the festival that they hold in Fuengirola each year with their fancy flamingo dress. I miss it again this year. Last year we had to go back to Madrid during the festival to work on our residency and this year I'm in Utah, but Roy sent some pictures to me. There are miles of ruffles, I think on these dresses and they wear them and probably dance in them. They are so pretty. I see lots of them in the special stores just for flamingo dresses, and they are very expensive. I couldn't resist sending the picture of the little girl, they even have little high heels for the girls in the color of their dresses.
This little girl is so cute, I just had to send this picture along. Roy is doing great and we talk 1-3 times a day through SKYPE, which has been a blessing to us, to be able to see everyone and keep contact with each other. It sounds like the branch is taking really good care of Roy and feeding him occassionally, which I am so grateful for everyone. I really miss those members back in the Mijas Branch, they are all such nice people.
They like polka dots on their dresses.
I will also keep you updated on Earl, but I wish you all a very pleasant week.

Sept, 19, 2010

Sorry about last week and no blog. Sometimes we just don't get around to it and I really didn't have many pictures to add. Spain is great and we have really enjoyed working in the office. We do really hope that we are making a difference in the lives of the missionaries. It is great to feel of their love for the Savior and the work that they are doing. We went to a specialized training with the missionaries from our Zone on Friday. It was great and the spirit we felt there was great. The work is true and everyone needs to hear it. We as missionaries have to be led by the spirit to find those who are waiting for this wonderful message that we have to share.

Here is some of the fish for sell at our local supermarket. You have to take a number to get waited on. I was only able to get a portion of what is sold. They eat lots of fish and seafood.

Here is a bunch of goats being led to pasture. We went beyond them and turned around and they were going up the hill, so either the goats knew where they were going or the dog did that was out in front, because the shepherd was giving directions to the man in the car.

This is Sister Michelle Frandsen that was finally able to come to Spain, she spent 5 months in the states waiting for her visa to come. We get 2 elders this week who were assigned to other mission waiting for their visas, but didn't have to wait as long as Sister Frandsen. She will be a great missionary, we can already tell.

We got lots of packages ready for the missionaries that they were given during their specialized training. We had lots of dvd's to give them so they could give them away with new pass-along-cards that have been given out to the wards and branches. We know that these will reach some of those who are ready to hear this wonderful gospel. One of the area authorities said of each of the members would give one pass-along-card each week then Europe area would have 2800 more baptisms in a year. That is a wonderful promise and we have tried to get the members in our branch excited about doing just that.

We had only 20 people at church today, very small, one man from Cardiff, Wales and 2 Spanish visitors. We have had several who have gone back to their country for a visit. The Turners have been gone all summer and we hope that they are back next week. Sister Allen went to England and Sister Meyer went back to Germany to visit and help her parents for a while. We really miss all the visitors that we usually get. Hopefully next week will be better. Most of our active members were there except for those that I mentioned. We really miss them when they are not there.

Have a wonderful week.

Sept 5, 2010

We had our monthly munch and mingle today. Lots of good food and wonderful people to share it with. I didn't get everyone's picture, but here are some of our branch members. Belinda and Shawn Tyndale-Biscoe

This is Vida Torcuator and Bruna Riley.

This is Celia Padre, Victoria Cologne, and Augusto Padre.

Some of the same ones, sitting is Marion Allen and the close to the left, just her back is Lydia Duran and the man on the right is Fred Riley.

These are our young men and the President of the Young Men. Wayne Padre, (16)son of Cecila and Augusto Padre, just moved here this summer from the Philippines, Seth Tyndale-Biscoe (turning 14 in November) and then Victor Gamez. He has been great with these young men and he is from Malaga, Spain, going to our branch.

This is Victoria Cologne and Bruna Riley.

These are the 2 nieces of Bruna Riley visiting from Beligum and Ralf Meyer from Germany.

This is some of the delicious food that we got to eat. We had plenty this time, because we didn't have many visitors today.

This is Lydia Duran from the Philippines.

We just love all these people in our branch, you can just feel it when you visit with them. We love being associated with them.

Have a great week.

August 22, 2010

Here's our newest missionary, Elder Fagersten from Iowa, with President and Sister Clegg. He will be a great missionary. We sure hate to see them come in just one at a time, but with the problem of getting visas here in Spain we will take them when they get here. We have another Elder, Elder Redd coming in this week, who has been assigned somewhere in the states since July 7, but he will be coming. We are glad. We sent off our missionary to Madrid on Wednesday. Roy and I went into the stake where Jack was set apart, along with a sister missionary, who was called to the Madrid mission.

I couldn't resist taking the pictures of these flowers, which have all different colors, from red, yellow, pink, etc. These two had the middle that was so distinctive that I took them.

We hadn't seen an orange quite like this one before. They grow all over the place and they use them where we would have rose gardens, even though they do have roses here. These will grow almost into a tree, but they keep them trimmed down.
If you have a small enough car you can park sideways, where everyone else is parallel parking. They have a lot of these small cars, I'm not sure the kind this one is, but there are also smart cars which are very small.

Have a fabulous week.

Love JoAnne and Roy.

August 15, 2010

Here is Jack Tyndale-Biscoe already to go on his mission. He leaves Wednesday on the fast train to Madrid. We are really going to miss him in our branch, we have depended on him to play the piano, anything that you ask him to play. He's a great pianist and will be a fabulous missionary.

These are some pictures of the people at our munch and mingle, a kind of going away farewell for Jack. We met down in Fred and Bruna Riley's place and we had about 38 to 40 people there, more than came to church, because we had neighbors of Fred and Bruna and their neighbor has met with the missionaries, plus we had a couple that just got baptized that are Spanish but have become friends with several in the English branch, they can speak a little English and we welcomed them also.

We had lots of good food, just a pot luck that people bring to share. We had lots to go around, sushi, morocan food, french food, all kinds of salads today. It was really too hot to cook much today.

Jack spoke in Sacrament meeting, plus Elder Bader, who is an assistant to the mission president who is being transfered this Wednesday, and we will miss him. He is a German Elder and has helped the Meyers a lot.

Holly Tyndale-Biscoe sang a song with the 2 office elders, who can sing for a musical number.

We had an American visitor there from Draper Utah, Savannah Smart, who has taken a job as a nanny over here and it was her birthday, so we had a big party for her also. I think she is very homesick, even though it has only been a little while since she was come here, but I think the children she is tending are hard, because the Spanish don't want her to discipline the children. We were glad to be there for her. Pam Young took a liking to her and helped her. Pam is only here for a couple of more weeks and then she is off to Mali for a few months, so help the people down there.