On our weekly missionary message from our mission president there
is a saying on the bottom of the companionship goal chart. It says “Dos Veces En Blanco”, which in
English means: “Two Times In White”. I
knew what the words meant but the meaning escaped me. I asked one of the Elders and he said it meant
baptism and temple, which then made it perfectly clear. First, baptism of worthy investigators then the goal of getting them to the temple in one year.
Since my last blog we have been busy. Even though our schedule is very flexible and not extremely pressing we always seem to have things to do. There always seems like there is something that needs to be done in the branch. Since we live literally just 3 1/2 minutes away from the "capilla" we are called fairly often to let someone into the building. We are waiting to get more keys as that seems to be a universal issue whether here or at home. The problem here is that the keys come from Madrid and it takes forever to have them made.
Speaking of Madrid - there is a conference being held in Madrid this week. The Stake Presidents, Bishops and Branch Presidents from Europe are gathering for a training session. Elder Bednar will be the Apostle who will be presiding. We are excited that our BP is able to attend. Madrid is about a 3 hour drive from Cáceres.
Recently we experienced a first hand view of socialism at its' finest. We walked into an English language school and volunteered to help. The English lady who owned the school was very appreciative and asked us to come help the next day. Later that evening we received a telephone call telling us
they we would not be allowed to volunteer. Apparently if there is any possibility that a payed position would be filled by a volunteer, it would not be allowed by the government. She said it wasn’t "just" but that’s the way it is. This won’t stop us but we may have to change
our strategy. I can just see us in
court:
Judge: Elder and Hermana
Gibson, you have been charged with unlawful volunteering. How do you plead?
Elder Gibson: Your honor, we
plead guilty for volunteering.
Judge: That will be a fine of
1,000 euros. Pay the clerk on your way
out. If you volunteer again that will be
30 days in jail.
Elder Gibson: Would we be fed
well in jail?
Judge: Yes, by some local
people who volunteer this service.
Elder Gibson: Thank you your
honor.
For our zone meeting in Sevilla Zone we were asked to give a short training on companionship
unity. I guess they figured if we could make it together this long we probably had some good ideas to share. We had a good time with it and I think the Elders and Hermanas liked our presentation. We did it in English so Linda would be able to participate.
I have been studying up on Spanish law as it pertains to immigration and employment. No, we are not looking for jobs. In fact our residency cards expressly forbid
us to work, at least in the wage garnering sense of the word. Since many of the members are immigrants and I've heard conflicting stories of employment issues I want to know the facts. We are always on the lookout for jobs for the members so this added knowledge could come in handy. If you aren't a Spanish citizen, you can’t work here unless you have a work visa and you can’t
obtain a work visa unless you have a job, so you can see the difficulty many of
the members have.
The biggest concern with the members is the lack of jobs. During the RE boom which occurred worldwide
there were many jobs available. The
Spanish people were given the higher paying jobs and the immigrants (Latin
Americans) were able to get jobs, albeit on a lower scale. Since the cost of things in Spain are
generally lower than in their native countries the members were able to live
comfortably. However, since the
“crisis” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008–15_Spanish_financial_crisis) as
they call it, the jobs are scarce and not reliable. Many
of the members work as caregivers for older people and the pay is low. One family still owns a house in Argentina
and if they can sell it they will be greatly relieved of the financial
pressure. Another member is a great
graphic artist and designer but needs a new production machine to allow him to
produce in larger quantities. It is also
very expensive and bureaucratic in Spain to open a business. One member wanted to open a simple
vegetable/fruit store and it would have cost him 6,500 euros just to get a
permit. Another member was asked for
1,000 euros just to sign a form to open his application for a business. The members just don’t have the funds to get
the ball rolling, so it is a difficult situation. I have made a few simple suggests such as
someone getting a haircutting/styling license.
Everyone is the branch could then become a client. We have made a few other suggestions which
are graciously received, but implementation seems a long way off. If regulators would get out of the way and
drop the “red tape mentality” people could lift themselves from the depths of
financial uncertainty. We hope to be a
source of encouragement and become cheerleaders for these wonderful
people. Daily we count our blessings and
thank our Heavenly Father for the bounties of life and the opportunities we
have been given.
 |
| Beautiful Blossoms |
We enjoyed General Conference. Most members
stayed at home to watch conference, much like at home. I watched PH mtg at the Church with the
missionaries and Linda and I watched the Sunday morning session live with some
of the members at 6:00 PM (our time).
The branch has a projection system and a large pull-down movie
screen. We just streamed our iPad onto
the screen and used a speaker plugged into the iPad for sound. It worked great except for the few times I
had to restart the iPad because the streaming got backlogged. I’m not sure if that is the technical term
but you get the picture.
Elder Striebeck completed his mission a couple of weeks ago and
returned home to Argentina. He was a
great missionary and a very hard worker.
He was replaced by Elder Child, from Idaho Falls. We will miss Elder Striebeck but Elder Child
brings his own unique missionary experience, talents and personality. One
awesome surprise is that Elder Child can play the piano. When we discoverd this, we were
ecstatic. At home there are always
several people who can play the piano so we never really gave it a second
thought. So parents, please see to it
that your children take music lessons.
 |
| Elder Striebeck - Adios |
 |
| Vaya con Dios Elder |
The work is progressing here in Cáceres. When we first arrived in Cáceres we visited
the members with the Elders. We still do
that but have branched out and are making our visits with just Linda and me. When we are visiting without the Elders we
can talk about things that the Elders perhaps aren’t necessarily equipped to
discuss. Life’s experiences certainly
are a great teacher and the wisdom that is learned is invaluable for a senior
missionary couple. Personally I have
felt a great connection with members as well as investigators when we meet with
them.
We have had the opportunity of participating in quite a few
discussions. Two of them have been held
in our piso (apt). Our piso is very
confortable so the two discussions we have had here were very nice. The Elders are currently teaching a Peruvian
family. The husband (Joel) and wife
(Mercedes) are very very interested. I
would consider them golden. Their
teenage daughter is not as interested but we are working with her. Joel and Mercedes have attended church
several times and have a baptismal date later in May. Mercedes has some health challenges. She is currently going through chemotherapy
for stomach cancer but seems to be doing really well. Since their first contact with the missionaries
she has felt much better. Joel has a
good job, he works for the equivalent of DirecTv. It is called Movistar (imagine that). They also live in a nice piso and have a
car. It is nice that they are
comfortable financially which is a huge plus for them. There are very few
members in the branch who have cars which, can make it difficult to get to
church, especially on rainy or very cold days.
Last Sunday there were 12 priesthood holders at church (counting me
and the Elders). We have great hopes
that with a few more members the branch will function better and better. One goal we are working on is to help people
be more organized and less reactive. The
concept and principle of “return and report” is not quite working up to speed
here. In our branch presidency meetings
I make sure that after an item is discussed that an assignment is make
concerning what has been discussed. I
realized early on that the same issues were being rehashed and no assignments had been made to deal with the issues. A return and report system was not being practiced. The items of discussion were simply “kicked
down the road”. I try to be gentle,
caring and loving (of course that is me – right?) as I help carry the
load. I always remind myself (and Linda)
that our assignment is MLS, Member Leadership Support. Each week I see areas that we can help
improve. Our branch president,
Presidente Nelson, is young and I support and encourage him totally. He is a gentle, sweet and kind man. He gives great counsel to the branch
members. He comes to me for advice and
is very humble and accepting of the counsel that I offer. I consider very carefully the advice I give
and am very much aware of the position of influence I have in my calling.
A funny thing happened some weeks ago. Someone was speaking to Linda, of course in
Spanish. When Linda didn’t understand,
the person just spoke louder. I told the
person, she isn’t deaf, she just doesn’t understand. Linda is a good sport and is getting better
and better with the language. She is understanding more
and more. The speaking part just takes
longer. This morning I went with her to
the beauty shop to let the girl there know that when Linda comes in for her
appointment to get her hair cut, she would also like a color. The gal asked if I would be coming in with
her (for the language) and I told her that I would. I want to continue living so I wouldn’t dare
leave her there alone, trying to figure out the color and cut.
 |
| Lindas' Spanish language teachers |
Since my last blog we have had the opportunity to stretch our legs
a little and see some of the surrounding country. Cáceres is located in
Extremadura Spain which sounds kind of scary. It
actually is one of the prettier and scenic parts of the mission. Granted, we have no view of the Mediterranean
Sea here but there are rolling hills, gazillions of trees, green fields and peaceful towns. We recently went on a
“roadtrip” with a member of the branch and the Elders (P-Day). We visited a
town just south of us called Mérida which has some great Roman ruins. There is a town close to Mérida called
Medellín which has an awesome castle. We
completed our roadtrip in Trujillo which has another castle. These castles are absolutely amazing. They have extremely high walls that are 4 to
5 feet thick. I can’t imagine how they
were able to build these giant structures. There are scads of olives trees and even cork trees here. The cork trees are interesting. You can see where the bark is peeled off and the cork removed. The bark then rejuvenates and the process repeats. Below is a picture and you can see where the bark on part of the tree has been removed to harvest the cork. Spain and Portugal are large producers of cork.
 |
| Cork Tree |
We thought the weather had finally turned warm but then it rained
for about a week straight. We want to
get out and walk more but the weather has not cooperated. This morning we had a full-blown storm with loud thunder.
This afternoon Linda received a "Mothers' Day package" from Angela. Although it had been opened everything arrived in fine shape. In the package were things that we can't get here in Spain such as taco seasoning, onion soup, brown and powered sugar, and marshmallows. Even my favorite hairspray and deodorant were in the package. Believe it or not, you can't get antiperspirant here (just antideordant). That was a nice little tender mercy.
The couple we replaced in Cáceres, Elder Will Redd and Hermana Peggy Redd are leaving for home tomorrow as they are finishing their mission. They have been so generous and kind helping us get our feet on the ground. We drove down to Fuengirola last week and spent some time with them. They had some things for us which we could use in our piso so we "had" to go pick them up. On our way down we spent a couple of days in Córdoba and Granada. In Córdoba we spent the night with Elder and Hermana Hopkins who are the senior couple working there. In Córdoba we went to the Mesquita which is a pretty impressive place. It was built by the Muslims and held by them for hundreds of years until the Catholics conquered them and drove them out.
 |
| Mesquita - Córdoba |
 |
| Mesquita - Córdoba |
 |
| Mesquita - Córdoba |
 |
| Mesquita - Córdoba |
 |
| Mesquita - Córdoba |
 |
| Mesquita - Córdoba |
 |
| Mesquita - Córdoba |
 |
| Mesquita - Córdoba |
 |
| Mesquita - Córdoba |
 |
| Bell Tower - Mesquita |
 |
| Roman Bridge |
 |
| Córdoba |
 |
| Patio Flowers - Còrdoba |
 |
| Córdoba |
 |
| Córboba |
 |
| Córdoba - Patios |
 |
| Córboba - Patios |
 |
| Córdoba - Patios |
We spent two nights in Granda and had an enjoyable time. We happened to arrive in Granada on "El Día de La Cruz", the Day of The Cross. The streets were totally jammed with people after it got dark. We walked around and talked with the people and took some pictures. The women and girls dressed in flamenco dresses with brillant colors. You can see in the pictures below. It was actually quite fun. Of course I had to stop and talk with the local fuzz. I gave them one of my Sac Couty Sheriff patches and they are going to send me one of their's in the mail. We were able to score some tickets for the Alhambra from the hotel for the following day. We lucked out because you need to get tickets well in advance because it is such a popular attraction.The Alhambra was well worth the 37 Euro fee per ticket.
 |
| Dia de La Cruz |
 |
| Dia de La Cruz |
 |
| Dia de La Cruz |
 |
| Granada's Finest |
The pictures below were all taken within the Alhambra. It was an amazing place to visit.
We topped off our trip with a quick trip to Fuengirola where we dined with Elder and Hermana Redd and Elder and Hermana Frost. The Frosts work out of the mission office. Hermana Frost is a Physician's Assistant and head medical guru. Elder Frost is the office manager for the mission and Hermana Frosts' private translator. Elder and Hermana Redd, if you read my post: Thank you for everything and God's speed as you return home. Keep in touch and we will will see you when we get home.
Hasta luego until the next blog.
Elder and Hermana Gibson
Dennis and Linda Gibson
