November 2022

Turkey in Spain?

Well, we finally gave up trying to maintain the pace of weekly blog updates as the reality that we were always way behind schedule and the constant march of too many other urgent matters combined to do us in. But, we are going to recommit to at least posting a monthly message that includes both highlights and commentary on the most important things that have occurred. For the month of November, the biggest two events were our first major holiday away from friends and family and a special “skip school to play Turkey Bowl with the missionaries” afternoon for the kids.

Truth be told, we’ve been finding far too many reasons to allow the kids to skip school to participate in things that they normally wouldn’t do, but we’ve felt that with the sacrifices they are making to uproot their lives and move to Spain for three years, a few less school days and a few more “life experiences” are an appropriate trade-off. Aly was particularly excited to maintain our annual family tradition of playing football on Thanksgiving. Yes, this year it was on Monday (preparation day for our missionaries) not Thursday morning; and yes, it was on a turf fútbol field and not a sandy beach, but everyone had a great time. The game started in a literal downpour – like rivers of water running through the park. We were freezing and drenched through every layer of clothing, but still better than sitting in an office or school room. Ironically, the sun came out as we were finishing up and the rest of the day was an amazingly crisp, clear autumn afternoon in Madrid.

This year’s Turkey Bowl also featured pumpkin and apple pie with whipped cream . . .

Thanksgiving itself was a much different (and somewhat stressful) experience for us. Originally, the Missionary Leadership Council (consisting of the 22 primary leaders assigned among our 100+ total missionaries) decided that since Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday in Spain that they would treat it as a regular work day. But, our senior couples and other missionaries didn’t quite get that message, so there were various get togethers planned in different locations. Ultimately, we hosted dinner at our home for 4 of the senior couples and 5 of the missionaries that work closest with us in the office. It was a bit of a last-minute affair, including finding out that we needed to cook a turkey! One of the senior couples brought the turkey at 9am and we got to work preparing it right away. Trista was a magician with the available resources and we risked cooking it in a glass bowl, since that’s all we had to use. Surprisingly, the turkey turned out really juicy and flavorful – chock another one up to Trista’s kitchen wizardry!

Bryson loves spending time with all the missionaries, but he is particularly close to Elder Colin Rawle who has served as our “tech elder” and social media leader ever since we arrived. It will be his turn to leave the office in a few weeks and we’re not sure whether Bryson will develop separation anxiety or not . . .

Catching up on a few other fun things that we haven’t posted about yet, Trista and I traveled to Rome at the end of October for our semi-annual meeting with all the mission presidents in Europe and the Church leaders who cover the entire Europe region (referred to as an Area Presidency). We didn’t have a lot of time to see the sights in Rome since we were in meetings most of the time for the three days we were there, but fortunately we had a few hours in the evenings and several more during one of the afternoons to do our second quick blitz of the city. Ironically, we actually saw more of the sights the only other time we were in Rome, which was for less than 24 hours, but it was fun to catch a few of the key sights again – along with far too many trips to gelato shops around the city!

Most of our time was spent receiving instruction from the Area Presidency and sharing experiences and perspectives with the other mission leaders. We were fortunate to have a beautiful backdrop at the Rome Temple and Visitor’s Center. Both are amazingly crafted with local Italian stone and wood and landscaped with amazing trees and flowers. One of the most inspiring aspects of these buildings is the intricate stained glass windows and panels comprised of more than 800 individual pieces. We were privileged to have the husband-wife team of artists who flew in from the United States to spend an evening with us and explain the process they go through to design, create and install these special glass panels. It was truly the highlight of our trip to marvel at their creativity and inspiration. The detail and thought that goes into each piece is well beyond what we could have imagined. They are wonderful people and it was a joy to spend a few additional hours with them after their presentation while we hung out late into the night at the hotel just chatting and sharing stories.

It wouldn’t have been a complete trip without a stop by a Lamborghini showroom and multiple late-night gelato trips. It was fun to share our Rome experience with the Hamiltons and Villars, our friends who oversee the other two missions in Spain!

As our final thought for this month, we are truly thankful for the wonderful variety of new and unusual things that we are experiencing. We are surprised every day with something that elicits our now-common response “only in Spain!” After only 4 months here, we are already feeling exhausted from the constant buzzsaw of activity and unique challenges, but we are grateful to be facing them together and wouldn’t trade it for anything! Here are a few final random pictures from our past month . . .