Week 8 – August 8, 2022

Our first week in Madrid!

Our flight from LAX was on time, which is a bit of a rarity these days, and soon we were off and headed for JFK. During the approach we were put in a holding pattern for weather and then when we finally landed had to remain on the runway for over an hour while they cleared planes in front of us and found a gate for us to disembark. By the time they finally opened the plane doors, we had only 15 minutes until our next flight was supposed to take off. Under the best of circumstances, that would’ve been a difficult transfer to make. But given the fact that the four seats that we had been assigned were in the last row of the plane, row 54, it made our challenge of getting off the plane and to the new gate even more daunting. We ultimately decided to have Aly squeeze her way forward and run to the next gate ahead of us to talk with the gate agent and hold the plane, if possible. Despite never having been at JFK airport before, she was able to find the gate quickly and ask for them to wait until we got there. New York is not commonly known for its helpfulness, but at least in this instance they were willing and able to wait for Trista, Bryson and I to get there. We were the last people to board the plane! Our next concern, however, was whether our bags would make it. As it turned out, even after the doors of the plane were shut they continued to load bags (which we assumed it was a good sign) and then we spent the next hour plus sitting on the tarmac (again) waiting for clearance to take off. All of that made the eight hour flight feel that much longer, but at least they fed us a decent dinner after we got in the air – maybe it just tasted good because none of us had had anything to eat since early that morning. The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful, and we landed in Madrid around 9:45 AM local time.

We were expecting Michael and Stephanie Hamilton (the mission leaders for the former Madrid Spain Mission, now the Madrid South Mission) to pick us up at the airport. They have been the most amazing mentors and friends as we’ve navigated the challenges of preparing for Spain and getting acquainted with our responsibilities and surroundings. Rather than just pick us up by themselves, however, they invited many of the missionaries that we will be supervising to come to the airport with signs and banners for us. It was an emotionally overwhelming moment for all of us when they all broke out into clapping and cheers as we walked through the airport doors! We can’t imagine a more thoughtful, warm welcome to the country – it was truly special and we are so grateful for their extra efforts.

From the airport we went to the new mission office located in a Church building on the northeast side of Madrid. They had prepared lunch for us to eat and introduced us to some of the office staff, including our finance secretary and mission nurse – Elder and Sister King from Las Vegas – and a few of the young missionaries assigned to various mission support tasks such as travel, residency and technology. Bryson took to everyone immediately and has now designated himself as an unofficial “tech Elder” as well. Several of the young women in the congregation were at the building practicing a dance for their upcoming conference and were so sweet in welcoming Aly and including her in their dance practice.

From the mission office the Hamiltons took us to our new house. Once again, they had gone way above and beyond the call of duty by preparing the home with so many thoughtful touches – food in the kitchen and refrigerators, signs on each of the doors for the kids rooms, Legos and soccer ball for Bryson and thoughtful gifts for Aly as well. We were definitely spoiled! As you can see below, it didn’t take Bryson any time at all to set up his own home work station and get situated in his new room . . .

After spending a few minutes getting oriented with the house, we spent about 90 minutes with the Hamiltons going over the various “issues” that we would need to be aware of and address with the mission, missionaries and so forth. It has been an unusual situation with the creation of a new mission, since none of the typical information systems have become fully operational for us yet, so we have been reliant on the Hamiltons to provide us background and details on the everything. Ultimately, most of our system access finally got updated by Thursday evening, but even now there are several things that we are still working on getting fixed (like Trista’s access to the medical information portal). All typical start-up challenges with a new enterprise.

On Wednesday we welcomed our first group of new missionaries arriving in the country from their training (4 in the US and 1 in Colombia). It was an unusual welcome at the airport, since all but one had originally been called to serve in the Madrid South Mission. However, with the mission split this week, four of them were assigned by the Hamiltons to join us in Madrid North. So, as they walked through the airport doors after their very long flights (as we had done just 2 days earlier) we notified each of them regarding their assignment to either the north or south – a rather abrupt but exciting way to find out where they will be serving for the next 16 or 22 months. We are super excited to welcome Elder Anderson and Sisters Astill, Hapgood, Lattronico and Luque to our mission!

After taking them to the mission office and feeding them lunch, we headed out on a quick tour of the Temple and then a walk through the center of Madrid in Retiro Park. Unfortunately, the “center” is inside the boundaries of the Madrid South mission, so most of our missionaries will not have as many opportunities to see things like the Prado or Reina Sofia museums, the Palace or the beautiful parks. We thought it would be great to give them just a little taste of what the heart and soul of central Spain look, smell and taste like – and we also wanted to keep them moving to keep them awake after their long flight so that they would get accustomed to the new time zone and get a good night’s sleep.

After our tour, we came back to the house where we fed them dinner (traditional Spanish dishes prepared by a beautiful family in our congregation) and then hosted a Zoom call with all 122 missionaries in our mission. It was great to see all their faces – we know there has been a bit of anxiety for some of them as they have been in limbo like us for many weeks waiting for us to arrive. We look forward to seeing all of them in person over the next few weeks as we travel to each of the areas of the mission.

On Thursday, we held a training meeting for the new missionaries as well as a separate training session for their new senior companions. At the end of the training we announced their assigned areas, companions (with cheers and hugs among the new pairs) and then sent them off to do good in the world!

Friday was another day filled with hundreds of tasks at the new office getting everything set up and organized and beginning to plan our upcoming series of conferences and training sessions with the missionaries. We are so appreciative of Elder and Sister King and their proactive but thoughtful manner. They aren’t letting us miss or forget anything that needs to get done.

On Saturday, Trista and Aly did their first Spanish Costco run and came home with an entire car full of goodies! Meanwhile, I took Bryson to the church building to join an activity with the children where they played water games and got soaked. I wish I could post pictures of the event, but there are some relatively strict social media rules in Spain and you can’t post anything without getting consent from everyone in the picture, so for now you’ll need to visualize dozens of 5 to 12 year old kids throwing water balloons and splashing each other. Bryson was timid at first because of the language barrier, but soon joined in and had a great time.

Later that evening, we hosted a dinner at our home for 2 of the 5 “stake presidents” and their families that we will be working with during our three years in Spain. Each of them supervises between 8 and 12 congregations (out of the 50 or so congregations that we will be working with), so we wanted to take the opportunity to get to know them soon. Both are wonderful families and we look forward to spending more time with them both in the coming years.

On Sunday, we went to church services for the first time as a family in Spain. Not entirely unexpectedly, about halfway through the meeting the Bishop invited Trista and me to come to the pulpit and share a message. I have to admit that my heart was pounding much harder than I can remember in a long time prior to any type of public address. Fortunately, one of the stake presidents that we had dinner with the prior evening was there and was able to translate for Trista and I muddled my way through a simple Spanish message. We will definitely be more prepared next time we attend any church meeting to have something written out to say!