First Days in Cáceres

Members – Our Branch President is Andy Nelson, yep a name you wouldn’t expect here in Spain.  He is a 30-year-old single man from Honduras.  He is very nice and does a great job.  He came from Honduras with several members of his family.  His mother is the Relief Society President here in the branch.  President Nelson told us that in Honduras there is work but no security and in Spain there is security but no work.  He wanted to be a police officer in Honduras but his father wouldn’t allow it.  Two of his cousins, who were police officers were killed because they were good cops. 

Many of the members are from Argentina.  They speak with a definite Argentine accent.  Since I served in Uruguay I can speak with them in their accent.  One Hermana is from Peru and a couple of the hermanos are from Columbia.  There are just a few Spaniards in the branch, which is ironic since we are in Spain.

We have been in Cáceres for two Sundays.  The Sacrament meeting talks have been excellent.  Even though there are just a few members, the strength in the branch is quite amazing.  The first week the attendance was 33 and yesterday the attendance was down to 23.  There is a virus going around and many of the members, including Linda seem to have contracted the bug, hence the low attendance yesterday.  Linda was a trooper and was there by my side,

Something I would never have believed has happened.  Linda and I are probably the best singers in the branch.  I know it sounds impossible but it is true.  There is no one who can play the keyboard (we don’t have a piano), so we use a set of CDs for the music.  Linda has been asked to handle the music so we will see how that goes.  I think we might just use an iPad with the wireless speaker we brought with us.  It would be easier and quicker to do it that way.

We have had the opportunity to visit quite a few members.  They have accepted us with open arms.  Many of them are immigrants from South and Central American and have had a hard time finding work.  They work as much as they can but the jobs are more on the lower end of the spectrum.  Many of the hermanas work as care givers for the elderly and sick.  The members tell us that the good jobs go to the Spaniards so for anyone not from here, it is more difficult to find a good job.  As a contrast, most of the members in Sevilla (Seville) are native Spaniards with few immigrants.

We have had two zone conferences in Sevilla.  We drove up to Cáceres, from the mission office, on Friday Feb. 12 and attended our first conference in Sevilla on our way north.

The couple we are replacing (the Redds) were asked by President Andersen to accompany us to Cáceres and help get us settled in.  We followed them and didn’t get lost.  We drove to Sevilla which took about three hours.  The freeways are nice but the speed limit changes quite often.  It can range from 80 to 120 Km/Hr. Luckily there are signs that announce when you are approaching a radar-controlled area.  If I were to miss the sign indicating a radar zone ahead, our little Tom Tom would also chirp, which is a good thing.  In Spain, if you are speeding in a radar zone you get a ticket in the mail.  One senior Elder received two tickets within 10 minutes.  The tickets are quite expensive so you need to watch your speed.

There are two Sevilla zones, and we are in Zone 1.  The areas that are in our zone are: Sevilla, Huelva, Aljarate, Badajoz and Cáceres.  We walked into the meeting just as they were going to start and I felt an immediate spiritual presence in the room as we entered.  It was quite impressive.  Linda and I were asked to speak for a minute and introduce ourselves. 

After the conference Elder and Sister Redd thought it was a good idea for the missionaries working in Cáceres to ride with us the almost three hour drive to Cáceres.  The Elders are: Elder Striebeck from Argentina and Elder Bailey from England.  Elder Striebeck has only a few months remaining on his mission and thinks he will probably finish his mission in Cáceres.  Elder Bailey has only been here a few weeks so he is just learning the language.  Elder Striebeck does not speak English and Elder Bailey speaks very little Spanish so Linda talks with Elder Striebeck and I speak with Elder Striebeck.  Actually we both speak to each of them, but you get the point.

The weather the first couple of weeks has been interesting.  The first of last week was quite cold.  What really made it cold was the wind.  Since it is quite humid, the wind is quite biting and seems to go right through you.  Since we didn’t think it got very cold here we only bought light jackets.  It has warmed up this week and it hasn’t been windy so hopefully the weather will continue to warm up.

We are starting to get acquainted with the town.  We have done more walking around this past week in order to get our bearings down better.  We live on the edge of the town in an eight-story apartment complex.  There are four building in our complex and the church is on the bottom floor of one of the buildings.  We are on the 6^th floor, which is actually the 7^th since the first floor in Spain is either 0 (zero) or baja.  The apartments are called pisos so if I write pisos you will know what I mean.

Now to the driving!!!! Driving is driving but on a website written by a Brit, he said “the most difficult thing to do is get a drivers license in Spain.”  Driving in Spain is not difficult except for the round-a-bouts and the many narrow places you have to maneuver. For example, we have a parking space (#29 if you need to know) under our building.  I usually back in since it is much easier to exit later on.  The problem is when all the other cars are in their spots it makes it pretty tight to squeeze in.  I am getting better though and soon will be a pro (I hope).  They use the same ramp to enter and exit so if anyone is coming the other way I am sure it would be pretty tricky since the ramp is circular and narrow.

An authentic old Spanish pueblo.
Care to drive here?

Also, parallel parking is a must here.  It seems that they can parallel park, as long as they have two inches to spare.  So far I haven’t had to test out that theory.  Maybe if I bribe the examiner who administers the practical test I will pass.  I signed up for the driving school and have gone two times so far, but just for the theory.  The name of the school is Autoescuela Ibiza.  The drivers training is in Spanish and not too difficult, but many of the words are new to me since they are words that are probably only used during an exam.  The most difficult part is the many classifications of vehicles.  There are about four different types of mopeds or motorcycles that are classified according to the size of the motor and how fast they can go.  Also, in the US, we normally just say car or van but NO, not in Spain.  If a van can carry 8 people it is called one thing, if it can carry 9 people it is another.  Then there are different classifications of trucks and on and on.  I don’t care to become an expert on vehicle classifications but unfortunately you have to know it for the test.

I’m not sure when the actual driving starts.  When Linda learned of all of the requirements just to get a license, she opted out.  Oh yeah – it’s also extremely expensive. 

On a sad note -  We brought some mediation with us for an Elder that had injured himself playing soccer.  He apparently exacerbated an old injury he received as a young man while playing football.  He headed a soccer ball on a preparation day and he was subsequently unable to work and needed to remain inside where it was dark and quiet.  The medication initially helped him be he had a relapse and had to return home last week.  Hopefully he can recovery and return to the mission.  We met his dad at Holly’s just before we flew to Spain.  His father gave us his son’s medication to bring to Spain with us. 

This past Friday we had another mission conference is Sevilla.  This time there were three zones that combined for the conference.  This conference is held quarterly and is attended by President and Hna. Andersen.  There were approximately 90 missionaries.  It was great to meet some more Elders and Hermanas.  The President spoke in Spanish and Hna. Andersen spoke in English.  Translation was provided for both English and Spanish speakers.  The conference was very good and lasted about 4 hours.  We had lunch in the cultural hall and then headed back to Cáceres.  Before we left Sevilla however, we HAD to stop at Costco.  Yes, I did say Costco.  There are two Costco locations in Spain, The first was built is Sevilla and the second in Madrid.  Costco in Sevilla is about the same size as the one in Rocklin.  They carry the Kirkland brand mixed with Spanish and Portuguese brands.  It’s funny because many of the goods are the same as at home but there are Spanish language labels on top of the English labels.  We stocked up on food.  Of course there are stores near where we live, many in fact, but Costco is Costco!  We will be in Sevilla once a month so we are good to go with the food needs.  It is very close to the Sevilla Stake Center which makes it super easy and convenient for us.  Just a secret between friends – Another couple, Elder and Hna. Jeppeson are assigned to the military branch as well as a Spanish branch in a town near Cádiz called Rota.  He can score me some Diet Dr. Pepper!  He is retired military and has access to the good stuff. I just need to give few a couple days notice and he’ll hook me up.  Just thought I would share that gem with you.

There are a few things we miss from home (besides family and friends).  We miss our king sized bed.  We miss our shower.  We miss our clothes washer.  One that doesn’t take 2 hours to wash a load.  We miss our clothes dryer because our clothes dryer here is a rack in the second bedroom.  It’s effectiveness is clearly regulated by the temperature of the room. Last but not least, I miss my Cougars.  But alas, I can follow them on the internet.

Well if you have read this far you are either bored to tears or mad that I wrote so much so I will end.  Next blog will talk about the Spanish people and our first impressions of Spain. Of course I will write about the work we were sent here to help with and my observations and our experiences.

Next blog coming soon...........

Hasta Luego

Dennis and Linda

Elder and Hermana Gibson

Elder and Hna. Gibson in Casar de Cáseres

Downtown street

Elder Striebeck, Elder Bailey and the lovely Hna. Gibson

A little grubb

Our apartment building. We are on the 7th floor.

I found my beautiful Bimbo!

Just a quick postlude from my episode in Paris of the flying senior missionary.  The only visible marks are bruises on my left shoulder and a small cut on my left hand.  Just a reminder to not be such a klutz. Now on to better things…………

Arrival in Spain

We arrived in Málaga on Tuesday evening Feb. 9^th at about 6:00. We were met at the airport by our Mission President Andersen and Sister Andersen.  They were very warm and gracious and gave us a great big welcome to the mission.  They took us to their home and unloaded our luggage and showed us around their home.  It was very nice and it actually has a swimming pool in the back yard.  It’s funny because when they have a leadership meeting with the missionaries they take a picture of them with the pool in the foreground.  I asked President Andersen if any missionary has “accidently” fallen into the pool.  He said not yet.

President and Sister Andersen are from Blackfoot Idaho so Linda has some Idaho connection here.

From here on out I will refer to the sisters as “Hermana” or “Hna” since that is the term we use in Spanish.  Pres. and Hna. Andersen took us on a drive up on a pretty high hill that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea.  It was very beautiful and reminds us a lot of California.  We were quite surprised at how hilly the southern coast of Spain is.  We were expecting more of a flatland.  We then went to dinner at a nice little restaurant.  The food here in Spain is different so I have to learn what everything is called in Spanish.  Interestingly enough they had “ensalada rusa” (Russian salad) which is a type of potato salad that has potatoes, peas, mayo and a few other things.  I had this in Uruguay so we ordered this along with Kabobs.

After dinner we went back to the mission home and stayed in one of the bedrooms that is used by visiting authorities.  It was a nice room but frankly by this time we could have slept on a dirt floor we were so tired.

President and Hna. Andersen’s home is actually located in a town called Fuengirola which means spinning fountains.  Fuente is the word for fountain and girar is the verb to spin or to turn.  Fuengirola is close to Málaga.

The next morning (Wed) we had breakfast with the Andersen’s and got to know each other better.  They are very low-key type people and very easy to like.

Afte breakfast, we met with the Andersen’s and President Andersen spend some time with us talking about the mission and what role we would play in helping the members, missionaries, investigators and others.  He told us about the branch we would be serving is located in the town of Cáceres, which is in the province of Extremadura.  The branch is about a five and a half hour drive from the mission office.  I will blog about the branch in the next addition of “Adventures in Spain”.

During our meeting Pres. Andersen used the scriptures to talk about how the Lord will bless us as we find our way and pray to know our role in the mission.  I have written down several scripture passages that apply amazingly well with our calling.  Perhaps at a later time I can share them.

After meeting with the Pres. and Hna. Andersen we packed up our luggage and we went to the mission home with them.  We met the AP’s and mission secretary who is also a young missionary.  The secretary is from Switzerland and the two AP’s are from the US.  There is also a senior couple, Elder and Hna. Hopkins who work in the office.  They have only been here for about 7 weeks,  Hna. Hopkins is in charge of ordering supplies, entering baptismal info into the computer and other assorted office duties.  Elder Hopkins is in charge of the finances for the mission and the apartments (pisos).  They have a big job and have been totally swamped.  Elder Hopkins is taking over from a young Elder who had been the financial secretary but had not been trained very well and although he did his best, the financials were in a bit of a mess.

While at the mission home the Pres. gathered all in the office personnel and they sang the mission song to us.  It is called “O Vos Los Llamados”.  It has a beautiful tune and very touching to here our very first full day in Spain.

We were shown around the mission office and asked some questions.  Each companionship has a mission phone and a 4 digit inter-mission phone number that is very handy for calling others in the mission.  All phones also have a 9 digit number that can be used by the members or others to call the missionaries.  Since we brought our iPhones, we will use our personal phones with the mission sim cards.  At first Linda didn’t think she needed a phone but has since changed her mind.  The first phone is free and the second phone is only 20 dollars or maybe 20 Euros per month, not quite sure.  We can text missionaries as well with our phones, which is very helpful.  The members use WhatsApp to text each other because regular texting is expensive for them.  WhatsApp also allows you to call internationally free of charge over wi-fi.  You can also send photos. Check it out if you haven’t heard of it.  Just search WhatsApp in your applications. 

The next couple of nights we spent with the Hopkins who live within walking distance of the mission office.  They are from Idaho but lived in the Santa Barbara area for many years.  He is a retired banker and has worked in several foreign countries when he worked in international banking.  He is a perfect fit for the financial job in the mission office.  Hna. Hopkins was an interior decorator as well as a personal chef.

The Hopkins live about 4 blocks from the Med. Sea. The first evening with them, just as it was getting dark they walked with us down to the Med. and it really was beautiful.

Just a quick story.  It seems that there will be many lessons to learn as we become accustomed to Spain.  Elder Hopkins and I went to the market to pick up some hamburger and avocados.  He headed for the meat and asked me to grab a couple of avocados.  That seemed simple enough, right?  Well I found the green meanies and met Elder Hopkins at the checkout stand.  When we got to the cashier he rang up the hamburger then picked up the bag of avocados and asked me how much they weighed.  I said I didn’t know then he asked if we wanted them.  I said yes then Elder Hopkins realized he hadn’t mentioned that I needed to weigh the avocados before checking out.  So we went back and he showed me how to weight and get a label printed.  We went back to the checkout and the clerk waved us forward.  We just had two items and it was no big deal but a lady at the front of the line got extremely upset and was waving her hands like it was a travesty that she had to wait a little longer to check out.  I told the clerk that she could go first and he said it was no problem.  He them told the lady basically to cool it.  I thought…..Welcome to Spain.

One thought on the “hamburger”.  Hamburger or beef is called vacuno.  However you have to look at the package because even though it says vacuno it also can have 50% cerdo or pork.  Since I like my hamburger 100% beef I’ll look closely at the packaging.

The next morning Linda and I went for a short walk and went into a few places just to look around.  We went into a fruit stand and were amazed at how large the fruit was.  The apples, oranges and grapes were extremely large.  We are told the fruit here is excellent.

On Thursday there was an activity with all of the senior missionaries and Pres. and Hna. Andersen.  Since we were newly arrived it was a great opportunity to meet the other couples.  Along with ourselves, the Hopkins and the Andersens, the other couples are as follows: There is a US Air Force base in Roda which is close to Cádiz.  There is a branch associated with the base and Elder and Hna, Jeppson are assigned to the branch.  Elder Jeppson is a retired marine.  Another couple we met (the Croshaws) are serving in a branch in the northeast of the mission.  The branch they serve in is part of a district.  They arrived in January so are also new.  The Frost’s work with the single adult group in Granda.  Sister Frost is the mission nurse, actually she is a PA.  The Frost’s weren’t able to meet with us since Elder Frost had his driving text the same day.  The other couple was Elder and Sister Redd.  They are the couple we are replacing in Cáceres.  They are now serving in the office until May when they will complete their mission.  I will tell you more about the Redd’s in the next blog.

We spent the day on a trip to Las Cuevas de Nerja which is the caves of Nerja.  Nerja is a beautiful city on the coast about an hour east of Málaga.  The caves apparently are a very popular destination in all of Spain.  They actually were quite magnificient.  We all went together for lunch and then went back to the Hopkins’ piso.

The mission just received three brand new cars and we were assigned the largest of the three.  That seemed very generous to us but after I saw the driving situation here I maybe would rather have a smaller car.  However, I am not sure our luggage would fit in the smaller car.  The cars are all Opels.  I’ll write about the car later.

The next blog will entail our first zone conference in Sevilla (Seville) and our arrival in Cáceres.  Stay tuned…..

Next blog coming soon...........

Hasta Luego

We are in Spain!!!!!

For those anxious to hear about our experiences I apologize for the delay is getting the blog started.  Frankly after two weeks of what seems like a whirlwind of activity the dust is now beginning to settle.  Now that  things are calming down – we look around and find ourselves in the northern most part of the mission surrounded by guess what – foreigners.  The problem is, WE are the foreigners.  It’s amazing to go from somewhere you know intimately to a place that is new with each step.  New language, new town, new driving rules, new food, new members at church, new companion – oh wait…….same companion (and a good thing).

MTC

The MTC was a marvelous experience.  In 1970 I entered the mission home is SLC, then after a week, was sent to the Language Training Mission (LTM) at BYU.  That experience was totally different.  At that time the decision to serve a mission was much more difficult.  I was playing baseball at BYU and was hesitant to leave that behind.  To serve at that time however was the correct decision and the positive results are reflected in my life today. 

As Linda and I entered the MTC on Monday Feb, 1, 2016 we immediately felt the special spirit that radiates from within its’ walls.  President Bertasso a member of the MTC Presidency said the MTC is a special place, holy ground, and only second to the sacredness of the Temple.  We surely felt that.

On the first evening at the MTC we watched a video of a talk given by Elder Bednar at the MTC on Christmas of 2011.  The title of the talk was: The Character of Christ.  It was an awesome talk.  We were told that the talk is now only shown to the missionary couples when they enter the MTC.  I definitely took some good notes.  It was very inspiring. 

The senior couples were treated especially well.  We felt totally respected and appreciated.  We had a senior advisor that oversaw anything the senior missionaries needed.  His name was Elder Taylor.  He was a spitting image of Jay Sessions.  He was tall and built like Jay.  His mannerisms, voice inflexions and even his jokes were Jayesk.  We couldn’t believe there really was a parallel universe!  Elder Taylor was very fun, just like Jay.

The food in the MTC was good and definitely plentiful.  We certainly weren’t hungry. 

One Tuesday evening there was an excellent devotional given by Sister and Elder Zwick.  Elder Zwick is a member of the First Quorum of Seventy.  Their talks were excellent.  After the devotional we went to the Provo City Center Temple open house. The Temple is beautiful with much ornate woodwork.

Since we were at the MTC for just one week we were not able to get a whole lot of training but we did spend quite a bit of time in Preach My Gospel.  It was very helpful in understanding how the Gospel should be taught.  Of course it has changed greatly since my time as a missionary.  Members from the community came to the MTC and pretended to be investigators and we roll-played with them.  The instructors told us that even though these were just role-play scenarios we would genuinely feel the spirit.  It was amazing how correct they were.  The spirit was extremely strong as we taught and conversed with these volunteers. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the MTC.  It was fun to rub shoulders with other couples who were going throughout the world to serve as missionaries.  There were 78 seniors, which included 16 single sisters in our group.  Our district comprised of 4 couples and we spent quite a lot of time in training with our district.

On Friday we finished our training and Allan Hormann (son-in-law) picked us up and we went back to Holly’s and Allan’s home in Herriman.  We spent the weekend with them then on Monday afternoon Holly drove us to the airport and we headed to Spain via Paris.

Trip To Spain

The flight from Salt Lake City to Paris France was just over 9 hours which wasn’t too bad.  At least we had seats with just two of us on the row so we didn’t have people squishing over their seats onto us.

Our layover in Paris proved to be an eventful couple of hours.  Their was a young sister headed to the MTC in Madrid and then on the her mission in Barcelona. Her name was Sister Swanson.  She had never traveled before and was a little nervous since she was traveling alone.  There were 3 other senior couples on our flight to Paris.  They all went their own ways so we tried to help the young sister.  Her connecting flight was only an hour later so we helped her get through immigrations and helped her find her gate.  We were going up an escalator and I was a little preoccupied with looking at my passport to make sure the immigration officer had stamped it.  When our Mission President, President Andersen and his wife applied for their Spanish residency card they found out that their passports had not been stamped when they first entered the European Union so they had to fly to England just to get them stamped.  With this is mind I was looking at my passport as we got on the escalator.  I had my carry-on luggage and a heavy leather bag.  Somehow because of the size of my luggage (or just being a klutz) I stepped awkwardly on the escalator.  I was ok until we were close to the top and suddenly I lost my balance and fell down the escalator.  Now it wasn’t like a little slip, it was a full-on head over heals, tumbleweed type rolly-polly plummet.  I thought my mission was over before we even got to Spain!  As the floor above disappeared and the sight of my companion faded into the distance, I attempted to stand up.  However, since I was falling and the escalator steps continued their up and down motion, I was not able to secure a foothold.  A nice French lady at the top of the escalator was able to hit the emergency stop bottom (who even knew there was one?). By this time I was at the bottom.  At this point I knew my new suit was trashed and more importantly I was certain at least one bone was broken.  Since I still had some pride remaining (but very little), I tried to quickly jump up, expecting a bone to be sticking out somewhere.  As I got to my feet I was stunned to not be in excruciating pain.  Now I didn’t say I wasn’t hurting but thankfully not too bad. When I found out that the people around me, asking me if I was hurt, were not spirits but actual earthly beings, I realized that I was still in this realm.  I tried to summon a smile and say I was OK.  I’m just glad that I won’t see these people again because my embarrassment was extreme.  We quickly sent the young sister missionary to her gate so she wouldn’t miss her flight.  I am so glad she won’t be in our mission to tell and retell the story of this old missionary dude who did a flying mare in the Charles de Gaulle Airport.  

Honestly I am sure the Lord had a hand in protecting me because the fall could and probably should have injured me badly.  At least we can look back and laugh at the experience and count our blessings.  Oh yeah, and after I realized that I was still ambulatory I noticed my left hand was covered in blood and my white shirt cuff was now a bright red.  Thankfully somehow my suit coat was still blue.  I went into the men’s room and remembered what my mom taught me as a kid – cold water removes blood, hot water sets blood.  

So here I was, an American in a French bathroom running cold water on my shirt trying to get rid of the blood.  Holding my wet shirt under an electric hand dryer must have also been quite the sight.  Of course the flight from Paris  had to be delayed for about 40 minutes due to a heavy rainstorm and winds.  Needless to say I was very happy to see France far below as we climbed into the sky headed to Malaga.  Just over two hours later we landed in Spain ready to began our adventure as a senior couple in the land of Don Quijote de la Mancha.

I have more but you will have to wait until the next blog.

Next blog coming soon………..

Hasta Luego