This last week has been kind of busy. On Tuesday (30 Mar 2010) we traveled to Cordova to do a piso check. Cordova is about two hours North and, for the time being, the furthest North point in our Mission. (On July 1st our Mission will extend into La Mancha and there is a branch that is almost as far North as Madrid.) We arrived in Cordova about two hours before our set time with the intention of doing some siteseeing. However, we spent much of that time being lost. We did get to see some sites as we drove around through the "Old Town." Some how we managed to drive in were only taxies were supposed to go and for a time we wern't shure we would be able to get out. But we made it and were able to find a car park and then walk to the "Castle of the Christian Monarchs" (pictured above and to the right)
This building started out as Morish Mosk but after the christian reconquest it became the home of the spanish kings. This tree to the right reminded us of the "Tree of Life" in Guatamala.

On our way back to Elders piso we noticed an open door and picked in to see what was inside. JoAnne was able to take this picture of the court yard that was behind the wall. We spent about an hour with the Elders looking at their apartment and answereing questions for them, as much as we could anyway, Elder Siddiqui wanted to know were he was going to be transfered to, which areas were going to be closed etc. We just don't have that sort of information until the monday before it happens,and the missionaries involved know on the Saturday night before.

After Cordova we went to Antequera which was about an hour away but, on our way home. We managed to ge there before the Elders had to go out to a meeting.


This week was "Holy Week" in Spain or "Santa Semana" they have processions in almost every town during the night. The carry status of Christ and Mary. The picture to the left is of the virgin Mary. It was consicerabley larger and seemed to be more important to them than the statue of Chist. Also they seemed to be paying more attention the the crucifixion rather than the resurrection. (that may come tonight though)

On Saturday night we went up to the Mission Home for dinner, Pancakes with strawberries and syrup, from the USA, Bacon and Oranges. Afterwords we watched the first session of conference on TV with the Mission President, his wife, the office elders and the APs. We had an enjoyable time. We watched the second session at home from 10:00 PM to Mid-night. On sunday morning I went to Malaga for the Priesthood Session with some members of the Branch. They have a seperate room set up for English speakers. I thought the conference was great and provided some insights and information that I will be able to use with some of the less-active members of our branch.

March 21, 2010

I just going to send some interesting pictures. Here is an interesting palm tree, where it is round at the bottom. there are several different kinds of palm trees here and the other picture of trees are also interesting. It is like a pine tree but grows really tall and the branches are very spread out. There is another pine tree by it. Some of them grow as tall as some of the building that could be 5-6 stories high.

This is a picture taken at the mission home, a farewell dinner for the 5 missionaries going home, plus us and the office missionaries and assistants to the presidents. Sister Mellor is taking the picture. There were 3 sisters going home and 2 elders. The elders were from Switzerland and England and the sisters were all going back to the states. I great group of missionaries that were leaving and we didn't get any replacements at that time. Three weeks later we got 2 Spanish sisters, or midtransfers. In April we will be losing lots of missionaries again and again in May and July and then we start getting other missionaries to replace the ones leaving.

This picture is when the President and Sister Mellor took the office staff to a Brazilian restaurant to celebrate together. The missionaires were in p-day clothes and it really seems different, because we see them in the office in white shirts and ties. It was good food and we enjoyed ourselves.

This next one is a picture of the fancy tiles some of the people put on the outside of their homes. This was a single dwelling house with tile on the outside. The houses are hooked together and if it is on the street level they always put bars on the windows. Sister Mellor took the picture and then I also took one of her so she could send it to others or keep a reminder. They use tile everywhere, even on garage floors or outside instead of having lawns, in individual dwellings. There are some we pass by on the way to church. We even saw tile floors in a repair garage and then they wash it down to keep it looking nice.

This next picture isn't very good, because it was cloudy and rainy, but we were up above on the mountain and took a picture of Fuengirola, the main city with the Mediterrean Sea. Hopefully we can get a better picture on Monday, because we are planning on going to Mijas, which is on the mountain above Fuengirola, and it is suppose to be a sunny day.

This next picture is a roundabout, under the train tracks and I was trying to get a picture while we were waiting for the train. I need to go up there during a busy time of day and take a video of how the round about works. If you are in the roundabout, you have the right away even if it means that you have to cross another lane of traffic. Roy's has had to learn how to drive in the roundabouts, because it is very different than what we would do in the states, but it seems to work.

I tried to add a video, but it might now work. Try it and I'll try to do better. We love it here and hope everything is okay with all of you there.

March 14, 2010

Hi again, It has finally stopped raining everyday and it is beginning to feel like spring or even summer when the sun is out. I wanted to show you some of the tiles that they use in building. This is a house we passed by with tiles on the outside walls. They use tiles everywhere. When we walk to church and see some of the individual houses and if you are able to look into their gates and see into their garages, they are all tiled. Can you imagine having a tile floor for your garage, plus tile for your yard. They don't plant much grass around their houses or apartments very much. But they do have nice tiles. Our apartment is all tiles on the floor, plus the bathrooms and kitchen are tiled up the walls.
We finally got a picture of the rooster that used to wake us up in the early morning when we first got here. Now we can sleep through it just fine. This is just below our apartment.
We had a very nice week this week. The mission is having zone conferences this week. There are 6 zones in our mission right now and usually they have 3 or 4 zone conferences each transfer. I say 3 or 4, because they usually combine two zones together to have a conference, except for the Canary Islands and they only have a joint one about once or twice a year, because of the expenses of air travel, so only the mission President and his wife go to these zone conferences and sometimes do two, one right after the other. It's cheaper to fly them than to fly all of the 14 missionaires to one of the islands.
A typical week for us start with a staff meeting with the mission president and his wife, the assistants to the president and also the office elders and then Roy and I. We go over the next week or two and discuss any problems that they might have, talk about zone conferences, etc. We only go to one of the zone conferences. When they have a zone conference on Monday, we don't have a staff meeting until later in the week.
We usually meet with the branch mission leader once a week, and the elder also meet with the Spanish ward mission leader once a week to coordinate plans for teach new investigators, etc. On Wednesday we will take the train into Malaga for Zone Conference, we don't drive there, because the parking is a problem and it's almost easier to take the train, even though it takes twice as long to get there. The church is a few blocks from the train station, so it's easy to get there for us. The elders usually drive because they have to bring supplies, etc. We really have a good group of elders and sisters in this mission and it has been wonderful to get to know them and feel of their spirit.
We hope you have a wonderful week and we will also.

I'm sorry, but the blog disappeared on my as I was typing and I couldn't get back to finish it, except to post it. The next picture is of Shaun Tyndale-Biscoe and Brian Thrall, whose birthday it was that day. Shaun is a very active member with his whole family. Brian Thrall is one of another couple who we are all trying to bring back into the church. He and his wife, Loys are a very nice couple. The next picture is one of Bruna Riley, wife of Fred talking wiht Loys Thrall. Loys is very interested and does lots of family history.

The next picture, I decide to put it on again is a picture of the office staff, being the last time for Elder Barraza, because he got transfered on Wednesday. Back row, Sister Claire Mellor, Elder Jason Harville, Elder Roy Hunt, Sister JoAnne Hunt, Elder David Barraza. Front row: President Robert Mellor, Elder Kameron Going, and Elder Zachary Barton. Elder Harville and Elder Barraza were the Assistants to the President. The other two elders work in the office, one is the finance secretary and the other is the secretary to the president. Elder Barraza is from Barcelona and was replace by Elder Bader, from Germany and there are 2 dots above the "a" in his name.

The next picture is of me and Sister Claire Mellor showing our lunch at an English restaurant. There are lots of small restaurants like this in the city, most of them have outside sitting with only a couple of tables inside. Usually on Monday after staff meeting we go with Sister Mellor and go out to eat. She gets a meal to take back to her husband, because he stays and works with the assistants during that time. We have eaten at this English restaurant or maybe I should just call it a cafe, before and they serve very good food, we were surprize at this meal though, it was with everything, mashed potatoes, roast beef, or lamb and gravy and lots of vegetables, carrots, peas, califlower, cabbage and yorkshire pudding, which isn't like a pudding that we know, but more like a roll. Anyway we enjoyed the meal. We have been to Italian cafes, Spanish cafes and others. This is the only time we go out to eat. The Spanish usually have their big meal during what they call Mediodia, middle of the day, which usually lasts from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. During this time, other shops close down. We have found that the grocery stores stay open during this time. There are lots of grocery stores around the town, always within walking distance of where people live. The Spanish people usually take a cart on wheels to go grocery shopping. Some go everyday to get their groceries. Roy and I tend to do grocery shopping once a week. We don't have a big freezer but we can put at least a week's worth of groceries in the refridgerator. We haven't had a lot of Spanish food, because I usually cook what I am familiar with. I did try Kathleen's Chinese Cabbage Salad for the Munch and Mingle and it was very well received, especially by the Philippine ladies, who want the receipe to fix for their employers.

Well I hope this finds everyone well and happy. We are enjoying doing the work over here, even though we don't have nice conversion stories to write about, we hope we are doing what we are suppose to be doing. Sorry about the mixup in the blog, the internet stopped working for a little while and I'm just so glad that I didn't have to write everything all over again.

We love all of you out there and thanks again for helping my family while we are away.

We have so much to be thankful for. We are in good health and the weather isn't hot, but it is still very rainy. I'm including some pictures from our munch and mingle. We usually have one of these after church on the 4th Sunday. That way we can get together with the branch members and get to know them better. It is usually a pot luck lunch and we always invite any visitors that we may get that week and we seems to always have enough food for everyone and we always include the elders so they get to know the branch members also. The first picture is of Bro. Greeves, a visitor from England, with Roy. This was their second week to be at our branch. We had another couple, but I didn't get their picture and they were from Kent, England.

The next picture is Celia Padre who is from the Philippines and she and her husband are very active in our branch. He is the 2nd counselor in the branch Presidency and she is the secretary in Relief Society. They work here in Spain to support their children who are still in the Philippines. They send most of their money to help their children get a better education. They are a very sweet couple.

The next picture is of 2 members of our branch, Bro Fred Riley, the branch mission leader and Sister Victoria Colonge, who we are trying hard to reactivate along with her husband, Bruno. They are a delightful couple and we were so please that they would join us for the Munch and Mingle.

The next picture is a one of Bro. Bruno Colonge and Bro Ralf Meyer, they are sitting together because Bruno can also speak German as well a several other languages.

These are the office Elders and the AP's for right now, we are having a transfer this week and it looks like we will be losing Elder David Barraza, the end one on the right. He is from Barcelona and will be going to the Canary Islands. He will be a zone leader on Tenerife and will probably end his mission in another mission. He would go home in August, but in July the Canary Islands will be part of the Madrid Mission. He sure has been a great elder and he will surely be missed. He has picked up the English language really good. Next to him is Elder Jason Harville, from the Marshall Islands orginally, but lately from Colorado. He spent most of his life on the Marshall Islands. He has been a member of the church for 3 years now. He is also an Assistant to the President, and he will be getting a new companion. Still going left is Elder Kameron Going from Richmond, Utah and has been the finance secretary and has been in the district as long as Elder Barraza. He is an excellent singer and plays the piano beautifully. The last one on the couch is Elder Zachary Barton from Peoria, Arizona and he is the general secretary in the office and has been here since December. It sure has been great working with all these missionaries. The office elders stay longer because of the training they have to go through, but they are also great missionaries when it comes to teaching. Elder Going has been our District Leader and we are amazed what spiritually these Elders have. They teach us lessons in District Meetings and we can see them being great leaders in their wards and stakes when they go home.

We have had more rain, it seems like we have a day or two now of sun, instead of everyday being rainy. This has been a very unusual weather according to the people here. Wetter than it has been in the last 75 years. But on the bright side, things are looking very green right now. Flowers are starting to bloom again, even though it seems like there is always something in bloom the year round. This last week we checked the office elders apartment, but the week before we went over to Sevilla to check 4 apartments and wouldn't you know it rained the whole way, both coming and going. It seems like wheneve Roy and I go out, we do so in a rain storm, so we really haven't seen much of the landscape of Spain yet.

The next picture is of one set of Elders in Sevilla, Elder Adams and Elder Wilson. The next picture is of the sisters in Sevilla, Sister Byers, then Sister Olsen and then Sister Campbell. Sister Olsen and Sister Campbell go home this coming week. They were on a threesome because we did get one new sister in the mission, Sister Ramirez from Ecuador, who has been waiting for six months to get her visa, and she finally got it, and only spent 3 weeks in Madrid. We didn't have to go pick her up after all. The next picture are the Zone Leaders in Sevilla, Elder Halverson from Ogden, Utah and Elder Bader from Germany. Great elders. The fuzzy picture is the Elders in Alcala, just outside of Sevilla, They are Elders Stanley and Elder LeBaron. They live a big house, and it is only the two of them. We were amazed at the big house. It belongs to a member and wanted missionaries to stay there. It has 3 stories and lots of time that zone gets together there to have a barbeque, only once a transfer. It's so nice being able to meet all these missionaries and see their excitement for missionary work.

This Friday we went with the Mission President and Sister Mellor and all of our zone out to dinner at a Brazillian Restaurant. It was really good food, They said it was similar to the one in Salt Lake City. They kept bringing meat on skewer and slicing off meat for each of us. It was really good, chicken, pork, beef, sausage etc.

We are having our monthly munch and mingle tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see what visitors we will have. We do know of one couple coming, because they were here last week, The Greeves from Kent, England. We have tried to invite the less active also, so we hope we get a couple of them coming.

The work in the office is about the same everyweek, except Roy has more work when there are more than one baptism each week. He keeps on top of that and keeps reminding the missionaries to get them sent in as soon as possible. I get to go to the post office 2-3 times a week, to mail package, wire money, pay bills and sent mail, or even to pick up packages. It is about 4-5 blocks down there and I enjoy the walk. We finally got our big order from Germany this last week, so the shelves of supplies are now loaded, where we had very few supplies left. It came on a pallet, so we had several boxes to unpack and put away. I did get the price list updated, because some prices did go down. I'm responsible for putting together supplies when the missionaries call in, whether it is different Books of Mormon in different languages or getting other supplies, DVD's etc.

We do enjoy our time in the office and the members in our branch. The gospel has helped so many people's lives. We just wish everyone wanted to listen to the missionaries and feel the peace that the Spirit brings to them. Have a great week.

Well another busy week has gone by. I can't believe how fast time is going by. Last night we had a valentine's supper for the branch. I wish I had more pictures to show you. Sister Marion Allen did a great job of getting the project going and finishing it. It started out a very rainy Saturday, but with the members and the other people that came it turned out to be a great success. The first picture is Bruna Riley, and Holly Tyndale-Biscoe. Holly is the one that I have been tutoring in Math. She hopes to go to BYU in the year 2011 in the fall. She is a great asset to the branch and a wonderful member. Sister Riley is a lovely lady in the branch, she and her husband in the next picture with the white hair join the church 17 years ago in England. She and her husband in the next picture with the white hair met in Yugoslavia. She was born in Italy and was raised in Beligum. They have been living here in Spain for 7 years now. They are a wonderful active couple and we sure enjoy them. He is the Branch mission leader and works really hard to help the missionaries that are standing by him in the picture. With Sister Riley is Holly Tyndale-Biscoe, a wonderful young girl that I have been tutoring in Math for a over a month now. She hopes to go to BYU in the fall of 2011. She is going to take the SAT test in October and wants to do well. She with her family are very active. You can see the back of her young brother, Seth, standing in front of the missionaries. The next picture are the Parker's, Linda and Ted, that I put in last week's blog, who were visiting and brought a non-member. In the picture they are talking to Bruno and Victoria Cologne, who we met just last night, they are less-active and we hope they will start coming out to church. We really enjoyed meeting them. They had joined the church about 6 years ago, but knew most of the members.

The next picture is of Jack Tyndale-Biscoe who played nice music for our supper. He is the young man who is getting his papers ready to go on a mission. He will be the first missionary from the Mijas International Branch. We are all excited for him, but we also hate to see him go, because of his talent in playing the piano. He played during the supper last night and it was very lovely. He will be a great missionary. He can play almost anything you ask him to, and he taught himself to play the piano. He goes over the the church and practices for hours, with the piano and also his violin.

You can see the beautiful table that was prepared for our party. We even had real china to eat on, thanks to Sister Marion Allen. It was a delight for all those who came. I think we had 19 there for the dinner, which was very delicious. I did get to help prepare, but then Sister Allen wouldn't let me do anything else once the members started coming. Sister Leonila Garcia helped her getting the rest of it ready. The missionaries helped to pass out the plates and we had chicken and ham casserole, with carrots, peas, corn, mashed potatoes and puffs, a pastry that is very flaky. Our appetizer was melon slices, orange with a raspberry sauce. We had raspberry dessert in a chocolate tart. Very tasty.

The next picture is Sister Mellor with two of her friends from the states. They all had girls the same age and they also became friends and they all know Sheri Hill. Sister Sherry MacMillian grew up in Harper Ward and knew several members and she was once a roomate with Christine Burt Bingham. Sister Mellor is in the middle and then Marsha Porter that is in the same ward as Sheri. They came to our branch plus we had another family, Lee Davenport and family, from the state of Washington, that picked up their daughter from the Madrid Mission a week ago and was touring. We love to have visitors from all over the world. It was great visiting with them all and hearing their wonderful testimonies. The spirit was very strong today. We had fast Sunday, because last week we had a Regional Broadcast from Salt Lake.
Some of you have seen the Smart Cars that are now in the states and I couldn't resist taking these pictures. They are almost small enough that you could almost park 2 of these Smart cars in a parking space like we park in everyday that we go to the office. The parking is at a premium around the office so we park at these parking spots and walk about 1/2 mile to the office. I think it has helped Roy, except on those days that it is raining or is going to rain, because he feels it in his hip and knees. The parking places are usually between two trees along the side where the train goes.

News that we have is that our mission boundaries are going to change. We got work that they are going to take the 4 missions in Spain and combine them and have 3 missions now. The Bilbao Mission will be dissolved and President Clegg will become the new mission President when the Mellors go home the first of July. We will lose the Canary Island to the Madrid Mission, and they will take the west part of the Bilbao Mission and the rest of that mission will go to the Barcelona Mission. Just 3 years ago the Canary Islands were no longer a mission by themselve, but put in our mission. So that means instead of 5 Spanish Missions there will be only 3. The missionaries are being cut down in all the missions, so that there will probably be only 2 missionaries for each unit, ward or branch. We will gain the Elche Stake from the Barcelona Mission and also the La Manche District from the Madrid Mission. It looks like on a map that our area will double in size if you don't count the Canary Islands. It will be interesting and those missionaries who are on the Canary Islands at the time will then be serving in the Madrid Mission.

We sure have enjoyed serving here and it is amazing that the church is great all over the world. The visitors even mention how they feel the spirit of the truthfulness of the gospel wherever they attend church. It's amazing how you can feel love for even the visitors that come. We know that the church is true and needs to brought to all of God's children.

A couple of puzzles that we were able to figure out this week was about some letters that we received at the mission office. I hate to see letters not given to who they are addressed to. We got a letter for 2 missionaries that had served in this mission years ago from Sri Lanka. I tried to sent it back to the owner, but it got delivered to us again. A day later we got a telegram for those same elders from a lady that was baptized in 1994. I had scanned all the past newsletters so we could put them on a disc to be saved instead of paper copies. So I went through the past newsletters for that time frame and found the full names of the missionaries and got on white pages. com to find them and we found a number and Elder Hunt called the one that was now living in Kansas city and talked with him and it was him and his companion that had baptized this lady. So we got to forward the letter on. Another letter came to the mission home in the first of January and it was dated Nov. 2007 and of course the missionary was already home, but I found his address in Blanding, Utah and sent the letter on to him. That was kind of fun to make out those mysteries.

We hope you all have a very wonderful week. Love Roy and JoAnne Hunt