Madrid * Alcala * Schwartz Family
We had a 12 hour missionary Sunday. Stewart wanted to be 30 minutes early to church to meet and greet before the meetings started - we managed to be 15 minutes early, which is an accomplishment with the schedule we are keeping. People aren't going to bed until well after 11:00 p.m. (We've turned Spaniard).
We attended church in Alcala, a suburb of Madrid, where Stewart served for 6 months. It was obviously an area where Stewart made many friends had such a positive impact on the members. I was touched by comments I received from the Relief Society and Young Men's President about Stewart's missionary service in this Ward. I had several proud Mama moments. I also learned that Stewart thinks he can sing - when the ward announced there would be a volunteer Priesthood choir, Stewart jumped up and sang at the top of his lungs "Ye Elders of Israel" with the other men in the ward.
Alcala is the biggest ward we've attended yet. Charlie found a friend, Ian, and ran around after church with him for an hour while we chatted with Stewart's friends. It's awesome to see Charlie using his Spanish so confidently - the immersion program has it's merits. Emma and Sydney are not quite so confident with their Jr. High Spanish classes. The girls attended Young Women's with about 9 other girls - a new record.
After church we had lunch with a Senior Missionary Couple from Lindon Utah who are in Spain photocopying old records for Family Search. The sister missionary while here has also been able to find the records of her Spanish ancestors - she has found over 350 names back to the 1600s. Before coming on her mission, she had no genealogy records from her family who immigrated from a small village in Spain to California in 1950. My kids must be starving for American food as they inhaled the tacos she prepared for us and downed a full container of ice cream.
Stewart walked us around Alcala after our lunch appointment in the 100+ degree heat - summer has finally arrived for us. We've skipped all the 30* centigrade and have gone right for 40*+ (our car said 42 when we jumped in). At least it's a dry heat - true, there are cactus plants just outside our apartment.
We stopped by to visit Stewart's Mission President as well tonight and really enjoyed learning about President and Sister Pack's family, adjustments to Spain, being missionaries, living here with 2 teenage children, etc, etc. I really enjoyed Sister Pack - she is fun, laid back, loving, and made some awesome homemade chocolate chip cookies that we all inhaled with fresh cows milk delivered by the milkman weekly. Wow - a bit of heaven!
We returned home at 9:30 - just like a missionary would do!
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| Schwartz Family |
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| Alcala and Don Quixote |
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| President & Sister Pack |
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| Bananagrams |
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