Here is the Madrid Temple. we got to the Madrid MTC on Tuesday afternoon and left Thursday morning. On Wednesday we just had to wait around until they could get an appointment with the registar, so we couldn't really go anywhere until we got that appointment. It turned out that they could not get an appointment for us until the 7th of October we do have to come back to Madrid and finish registering for the country. So instead of waiting for 2 weeks in the MTC, they thought it was best if we were just sent to our mission. So we flew out on Thursday morning and got here in the town of Fuengirola where the mission home is and our apartment is not very far away. The mission President and his wife picked us up from the airport and showed us a little bit around the town, really quickly, because they were getting ready to go to the Canary Islands for the weekend. They said they would see us on Wednesday. Very delightful couple.

It is very close to the Mediterran Sea, in fact the office is only 3 blocks away. We have an 2006 Opal Corsa to drive around. We have driven it to the grocery store and around town on the very narrow streets. We missed the really hot time in the mission, we were told that in the city of Sevilla it got up to 120 degrees, or about 48 degrees Celisus. The missionaries in the office were really helpful, they got our waterheater started and showed us how to start it. It's an on demand water heater. Our apartment is really nice and right now very comfortable. We have all tile floors, and the kitchen and bathrooms are tile to the ceiling. Because of that, Sister Mellor says it gets very cold in the winter and the little space heaters they have don't warm it enough, because they keep blowing the circuit. We have three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The kitchen is small but we have an oven, fridge and even a very small (and slow) washing machine in there. The rent is 576. 85 Euro's per month (that's about $957, so it looks like our expenses will run closer to the $2000 as first advertised rather the $1000 shown in the Churches most recent publication for Senior Missionaries.

I (Roy) was up early this morning and discovered that this place can get kind of noisey. First the garbage man came about 2:00 AM. I tried to go back to sleep but was not very sucessful. At six the roosters started to crow. Although this part of town has been built up with highrise apartments there seems to some vestages left of the former rural life. Around seven the people who live her state leaving for work and then about eight the children state arriving at the shool across the street.

I (JoAnne) spent the day cleaning the apartment, there was a very fine layer of dust on the floor, that you couldn't see, but my white socks sure picked it up. The apartment has been closed for almost two months, so that was why there was dust, but when you first looked at it, the apartment seemed spic and span. We are on the third floor, called the 2nd floor like most of Europe, where the 1st floor is called the ground floor.

We do have a district meeting tomorrow, we are with the office staff, and maybe afterwards they will show us some of our duties. We know that there will be a lot.

President Mellor and his wife has invited the office staff up to their house to watch conference next Saturday. We get to watch the 10:00 O clock session live (at 6:00 PM). Finally, on the 6th of Oct w have to go back to Madrid for our meeting with the registrar which is early in the morning on the seventh. I hope we get to go on the Bullit Train. The Hadleys told us that the meeting only lasts about 15 minutes so it may be a quick turnaround.

They Made it to Spain

From Ron - They Made it to Spain - so does the Rain in Spain fall mainly in the Plain?
Here is Sister Hunt's E-mail.

We made it to Spain today after a delay landing in Atlanta
because of a severe thunderstorm and we weren´t allowed to
land for an hour.  We also left ATLANTA late and arrived in
Spain about 3 hours late and had to call the MTC president who
hadn´t received offical word that we were coming.  THE Hills
are a delightful couple.  The Hadley´s from the MTC in Provo
arrived here on Friday and will be leaving Thursday. We might
have to stay here until Monday to get registered in Spain.  We
are super tired so we hope we get a good night sleep.