The start of something big!!!
This week was our first opportunity to meet with our leadership team in person and get to know many of the missionaries during interviews and conferences. The young men and women above are referred to as our “mission leadership council” or “MLC”. They are responsible for leading the five zones within our mission: Madrid East, Madrid West, Vitoria (covering Basque country in the northeast), A Coruña (covering Galicia and Asturia in the northwest) and the Canary Islands (off the coast of western Africa). We are so impressed with their commitment, enthusiasm and insights. We spent all day Tuesday meeting together and outlining the vision, key initiatives and action plans that we will begin implementing within the mission over the next weeks and months.
Wednesday we got another taste of “Spanish bureaucracy” when we had our first appointment to establish residency. After searching for 15 minutes to find a parking spot for our Hyundai Santa Fe (6 inches in front and back were just enough to squeeze in) and then walking another 30 minutes to two different city hall locations (with an appointment, by the way, set up as soon as we got here) it turns out that we have to register in yet a different location – 10 kilometers father away from our home. Go figure. At least we know where NOT to go next time.
After spending another hour at Santander bank downtown (which also took a week to get an appointment) we almost got our bank accounts open. Hopefully we get that sorted by Saturday so we can pay rent on the 60 apartments where the missionaries are living and reimburse all the travel expenses from the last two weeks. At least we finished the day at a cool little Persian restaurant where we enjoyed kebabs and some other tasty dishes I can’t pronounce.
On Friday, we conducted our first “zone conference” in the mission office.
We provided instruction and motivation to 50 missionaries in the Madrid East and Madrid West zones, which includes those serving in Madrid as well as several surrounding cities such as Segovia, Talavera, Cuenca, Salamanca and Valladolid. There were also opportunities for members of our leadership team to provide trainings based on what we discussed in our MLC meeting on Tuesday. One of the most fulfilling aspects of our assignment is to work with these young leaders and then give them the opportunity to provide training to others. We also greatly appreciate the watchful eyes and helping hands of three senior couple volunteers (the Kings, Jordans and Paulsens) who also joined the conference and help out in so many ways.
Sunday was the beginning of our first long road trip. We packed up and left early in the morning to make the 2 hour drive from Madrid to Burgos, a town in northern Spain where we attended church at the small congregation. The local members were so kind and welcoming to us. We were informed that it was the first time anyone could remember a mission president visiting their congregation, so naturally Chris was invited to address the congregation. After Church we spent time with the two lovely sister missionaries serving in the area and then continued onward another 90 minutes north and east to the town of Logroño. Much of the drive was along the Camino de Santiago, one of the most famous Christian pilgrimages covering approximately 1000 kilometers from the border border between France and Spain in the Pyrenees Mountains, through the cities of Pamplona, Logroño, Burgos, León and ending in Santiago de Compostela at the famous cathedral that is the traditionally-recognized burial place of St. James. We enjoyed watching the various hikers on the side of the road making their way to and from this sacred Christian site.
After a brief stop in Logroño at the beautiful church building and meeting with the sister missionaries there, we continued on for another hour to the tiny town (called a pueblito) of Berbinzana where we had dinner with the Perez family. The father, Carlos Perez, is a “stake president” which means he is responsible for overseeing a group of congregations in the northeast portion of Spain. Essentially, the stake president helps to provide guidance and direction to a number of local bishops who oversee individual congregations. Carlos is one of 5 stake presidents that I will be working closely with over the next three years. The Perez’ are a beautiful family living in this tiny town of only 600 people out in the middle of the Spanish countryside. They have a small orchard of 50 olive trees that they carefully tend and harvest olives to create oil for cooking. It was such an honor to spend the evening getting to know them, taking a walking tour of the town, the river and their olive garden. Walking the entire length and width of the town took only about 15 minutes! We were inspired by their faith, humility and charity.
We finished the evening with another hour drive to Pamplona, where we checked into our hotel very late and prepared to meet with more missionaries the next morning who are currently serving in the city. But, more on our adventures in Pamplona in next week’s blog edition . . .
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