Hinckley Blog

After a very full and busy 10 days, we left Saturday morning on a new adventure - driving across Spain. Our branch president in Zaragoza moved back to Bolivia last week, so we needed to reorganize the branch. Rather than take the train on Saturday, take a taxi to the hotel and a taxi to the Church, etc. we opted to take our first intercity drive.

The highways are excellent, with rest stops about every 20 kilometers. The tolls are expensive - about 24 Euros each way for a 270 km trip, but even including the very expense fuel (over 1 Euro per liter) it was till probably a little cheaper than the train, and we certainly got to see more of the countryside (on the train we tend to sleep or read letters). With a lunch break, the trip took about 4 hours.


It was a very busy weekend in Zaragoza. I met one of my counselors there (who speaks virtually no English). We interviewed a half dozen brethren on Saturday evening, then issued calls to a new branch presidency. In the meantime my counselor did an audit of one of the branches.

Sunday morning we held exit interviews with the counselors being released. I had my counselor do the sustainings in Sacrament Meeting, but Kathleen and I both spoke. Afterwards I did several temple recommend interviews and two interviews for patriarchal blessings. We then had a wonderful lunch at the home of a young couple in the branch, before heading back to the Autopista and driving home. I'm still not sure how to run an entire mission in foreign language!

We arrived home about 7:30 p.m. At 8:30 we had a meeting in our home with Hna. Rocio, Kathleen's contact that was baptized last night in Barcelona (see photo on the mission blog).

On another note: Friday night after a very full week already we took a short break about 9:30 p.m. to get some fresh air. While walking through the neighborhood we discovered that the barbershop was open ('till 11:00 p.m.), so I stopped in for my first official haircut. I am now the proud owner of a very European doo. I don't know why, but European haircuts just look different

It has been quite a day, as transfer days invariably are. Last night, Monday, we had eleven seasoned missionaries over for dinner, all of whom have been called as trainers. After dinner we spent a couple of hours with the new trainers, giving them their charge.

We then arose early and drove out the airport to pick up our new Elders. One of the little miracles of the day was that, even though we took three separate cars, we all ended up parking within a few meters of each other. After a few missteps, we collected all of our new Elders (9 arrived this morning), including Elder Close and Elder Keller!


We loaded all the luggage into our three mission cars: a VW Transporter (large van), a VW Sharan (minivan) and Toyota Avensis (Avalon). Elder Chavez drove the Transporter, followed by Hna. Hinckley in the Avensis, and I brought up the rear in the Sharan. We made our way to the top of Montjuic, a hill topped by a castle/fort overlooking the city and the sea. We gave our new missionaries a brief interview and an overview of the mission, then drove to the office where they unloaded their luggage and came upstairs to our home to be briefed by the office Elders and Ayudantes. We served them all lunch (15 including the Ayudantes), and Hna. Hinckley and I then spoke to them. We then took them down into the office, took photos, gave them their assignments, and introduced them to their new companions.

In the meantime, we had one additional Elder arriving on a later flight from Madrid. The Ayudantes picked him up at the airport, we fed him and his new companion, and got them off to their area. We then had one hour to prepare to serve dinner to the eight missionaries going home, along with the mother of Elder Berg who came to pick him up. We had our farewell meeting and testimony meeting, then all hopped on the metro and went down to the Plaza Catalunya for the traditional farewell - members and missionaries singing hymns in the Plaza for the outgoing missionaries, while the new missionaries contacted people on the street who stopped to enjoy the singing. Arrived home about 11:00 p.m. We leave at 7:15 in the morning to take the outgoing missionaries to the office; then meet for about an hour with Ayudantes; then (hopefully) breathe and take a nap...

We'll try and post some additional photos tomorrow.

The annual Mission Presidents Seminar for the European Area was held in Preston last week. The bad news is that we had to connect through Charles DeGualle to get there, which meant we missed our connection (it took a full two hours to go from the arrival terminal to the departure terminal - we missed the flight by a full 30 minutes). But since this happens regularly, they put on the next flight. We had to take a taxi from Manchester to Preston (about an hour), but rode with Elder Paya from France who was also on our flight.

To say that we had a great few days would be an understatement. We arrived on Wednesday night and returned on Saturday evening. It was a full schedule, but included a session at the Preston Temple and the bus tour of Church history sites in addition to the meetings with Elder Perry, Elder Rasband, and the Area Presidency. We came back with pages of notes and lists of things we need to do.

Interestingly, Europe is the first international area in the Church where the entire area presidency consists of local brethren who are members of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy. Elder Kopishke is from Germany, Elder Causee from France, and Elder Teixeira from Portugal. We have 27 languages in the area, so all meetings are conducted in English.

The interior of our home is being repainted, and the painter brought his son to help him today. The painter has two sons: Spencer (as in Spencer W. Kimball) and Harold (as in Harold B. Lee). President Lacambra, my first counselor, had two young children when he and his wife joined the Church. Both of these children have traditional Catalan names. But a third son was born shortly after they were baptized - his name is Nefi. You can generally tell how long someone has been a member by the names and ages of their children!

Yes, the famous Joaquin joined us for Zone Conference in Valencia. We had a great visit - almost like talking to a family member! He also brought us some genuine Valencia horchata (¡delicioso!). I called on him at the conclusion of the conference to bear his testimony.

He is a legend among the missionaries here. One of the Elders at the conference - Elder Coons - was serving in Gandia a year ago and was one of the missionaries that taught Joaquin's mother when she was baptized.

A good time was had by all!

But they're all full weeks.

Monday and Tuesday we had Zone Conferences in Barcelona - two days, four zones. Wednesday was designated as a travel day - we planned to drive down south with the assistants for zone conferences - but we received a call from Madrid that we needed to be in Madrid to be fingerprinted on Wednesday morning. so Wednesday we arose at 4:45 a.m. to take an early flight to Madrid.

[Photo: Elder Lee and Elder Halsey setting up for Zone Conference]

In Madrid we met with Pres. and Sister Clegg (Spain Bilbao) and Pres. and Sister Watkins (Spain Madrid) and our friend Josue Sanchez (who handles visa and residency issues). We went down to the main police station in Madrid (which is next to the site of the prison where Franco kept and executed political prisoners). As we approached the metal detectors and began to reach for our keys, cell phones, etc., the security man recognized Josue Sanchez and just waived us through. In Spain, it's all about who you know. The fingerprinting went without a hitch, thanks to Josue's connections. We contacted the two men behind us in line. One was from Angola, studied for two years in Cuba, and was reading a book entitled Diary of a Guerrilla Hero. Hmmm. But he was a Christian and very interested in getting a Book of Mormon. The second fellow was from the DR and just listening in, but when we asked him he wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon as well. We are trying to follow the instructions in Preach My Gospel - always finding!

We had enough time to get some lunch and had a wonderful visit with the other mission presidents, eagerly finding out how they were solving the various dilemmas faced by a mission president every day!


So during the course of the week we traveled from Barcelona to Madrid, Madrid to Murcia, Murcia to Valencia, and Valencia back to Barcelona, and held four zone conferences with seven zones. In between we read letters, began working on transfers, responded to correspondence, submitted changes to the 2010 budget, obtained telephone numbers from about half a dozen contacts, met with and set apart a new second counselor, drafted new guidelines on cleaning apartments, interviewed a few missionaries, and got precious little sleep.

We finished the week with seven investigators getting baptized and confirmed this weekend. We are excited for these new members, and proud of our wonderful missionaries!

A week ago yesterday Kathleen made a couple of contacts that we have been following up on. She met a woman in the Metro who came to Church the next day. She had met missionaries earlier, but didn't have time to meet with them. Since she is on vacation this month she has time to meet with the missionaries and the Elders were able to teach her this week. Thursday night she called the missionaries to say she had just been reading the Book of Mormon - they had asked her to read 3 Nephi 11 - and when she got to verse 23 she was overcome by a strong desire to repent and baptized just as the Lord had invited the Nephites. The feeling was so strong she began to cry, and she had to call the Elders and tell them about it. Needless to say, the Elders were pretty excited about the call! This evening we went to a baptism service and Rocio came as well. She recounted the entire story to us, and added that the Elders explained to her that that feeling was the Holy Ghost.

Today we attended Barrio 3 in Barcelona to meet with another of Kathleen's contacts, a woman whom she met walking down our street. She said she wanted to know more, and stopped by the mission office that afternoon and the Elders arranged a time to teach her. We had the lesson in our apartment - I gave the principle introducing the Book of Mormon and Kathleen added her testimony. Today she and her husband came to Church and had a great experience. They assured us they would be back next week. The Elders teach them again tonight. The bishop assured me he would watch over them and make sure they are baptized!

In between interviews and a baptism service last night, we took a mini-Preparation Day. We walked down to the Palau Reial de Pedrables, the royal palace built for King Alfonso XIII by the Güell family so the king would have a proper place to stay when visiting Barcelona. It is a lovely palace in a beautiful park about a 15-20 minute walk from our home. It houses a museum of ceramics, one on design in Barcelona, and another on clothing and textiles. We had a pleasant little break, then stopped by the market on the way home to do the daily shopping. We came home, freshened up, and went over the chapel to attend the baptism of two new converts. We love this town!

Yesterday we celebrated our one-month anniversary in the Spain Barcelona Mission! It has been an incredible month. We have traveled nearly 2,200 miles, conducted 124 interviews, fed 54 meals to missionaries, said goodbye to 11 returning missionaries, and welcomed two new missionaries. We learned to drive in Barcelona, have been to Makro three times, IKEA once, El Corte Ingles twice, and the farmacia several times. We have been to the top of Tibidabo and to the top of Montjuic. I have spoken in a stake bishopric training meeting and met in a stake missionary correlation meeting. We have held brief zone conferences in every zone (to meet the missionaries) and held a Zone Leader Council. We have given out numerous pass-along cards and given several referrals to the missionaries. Kathleen has been on the phone every day with sick missionaries (nothing serious yet). And we have heard and witnessed countless miracles.

On preparation day (yesterday) Kathleen made 13 contacts; 6 had no interest, but the other 7 took a pass-along card, 5 of them gave her their telephone number for the Elders to call, and one of them came to Church this morning! Needless to say, her Spanish is coming along and she is already a very effective missionary!

Life is good!