more church news articles about Spain

Here it has been a wild, wild ride here in the Spain, Madrid Mission. The Temple open house, the dedication, mission tour, and just finished the mission president's seminar in Madrid. Great spiritual experiences. 

Our greatest responsibility, besides our own family, is the missionary. We are just trying to do all we can to help each missionary have a happy positive experience. We are blessed with great missionaries. 

The recently concluded Mission President's seminar here in Madrid was like a mini General Conference with just our group of 26 Mission Presidents and wives. It was a spiritual feast. Loved it! It also exhausted us to the max. Elder Uchtdorf and his wife were here for 4-5 days before, doing a mission tour. That was good, too, but we are ready to come for air. 

The main point we came away with from the seminar, that struck us personally, is that THE WALL WILL COME DOWN! The brethren talked about how starting in the 70s fervent prayers began for the doors to the gospel to open up in Europe. Prayers and faith continued endlessly, year after year, but with little change. Then, BAM, almost overnight, in 89 the WALL came down! Many doors opened and blessings have come. Likewise, we have been promised that the work will move forward, that it will explode in Europe. We are in the process of praying, working to make it happen, and know that it will. Faith and continued prayers will bring about the promise. As long as we keep doing our part, the Lord will do his part. He will bring down the SPIRITUAL WALL. We don't know how or when, but we do know it will happen! That is sooooo exciting! How could anyone have predicted the "other" wall coming down so rapidly and as it did? We will see this next miracle come to pass as well, in the Lord's time and way. Meanwhile, we are here to do everything we can to help it happen. As we do everything in our power, the Lord will do the rest. 

Pres. Faust and Elder Holland and their wives are coming in a couple of weeks. We don't know what to expect on that visit, so we will see later. Hopefully, the missionaries will get to see them and hear from them. These missionaries have been very blessed. With the Tab. Choir last June, the temple events, visits by a number of General Authorities, President Hinckley, President Monson, etc., they've had some unusual experiences! We keep telling them how fortunate and blessed they are, that this is not the regular life of a missionary. That's coming soon. 

We just finished a mission tour with President Deiter Uchtdorf. He and his wife did a great job. One of the things that he talked about was the importance of setting daily goals (versus weekly) and then working your heals off. Here is basically what he said: 

Set daily goals. We will help anyone who has a date get closer to their baptism today. We will give X number of 2nd discussions with baptismal dates and reinvite any advance discussion investigators to be baptized today. We will add one person to our teaching pool today. That means we will give whatever number of 1st discussions or work with members to do that same to add people. President Uchtdorf then added, "At the end of the day sit down, decide what you could have done better, count your blessings for the day, and go to sleep." Then the next day the sun comes up and it is a new day, it is a fresh day. Forget about any previous day. Set new goals and work your heals off to achieve them. 

We like his advise. Especially not letting a previous day carry over and affect your next day. 

During the mission president's seminar, Elder Gene R. Cook, let's keep in mind that if we think that the answers are in us, that is error #1. The work is brought to pass by our efforts, but it will happen in the Lord's way and the Lord's time. We simply must be in tune and ready. He gave the example of how President Kimball, in 1978, said that the days of countries closed to the gospel would open. The members prayed and work and worked and prayed, but nothing happened (or so it appeared) from 1978 to 1988 and then suddenly in 1989 the wall came down and within just a couple of years the doors of virtually all of the eastern bloc and Russia were opened. So, he said, let us cheerfully go forward.... D&C123:17. 

President Uchtdorf also gave the following counsel: "Never under estimate your influence and never over estimate your importance". He indicated that he learned that from Pres. Faust in one of his first training visits in going with Pres. Faust. 

Another thing that Pte. Uchtdorf shared regarding when you are receiving a compliment. He said, "Say, thank you or how nice of you to say that. Then he said, say to yourself, but don't inhale the compliments." Fun advise. We really enjoyed having the Uchtdorf's here. 

We understand that he is being assigned in August to serve in the Utah South Area Presidency. So, we hope to see them when we return to Utah. Also returning to the Utah area will be Elder Gene Cook. We have enjoyed working with them. 

The third day of the mission conference (a Saturday) we went over to get them and found that President Uchtdorf have been up all night vomiting and was so weak he could hardly walk (Remember he was a fighter pilot and very athletic). He and his wife had made reservations to return to Germany that morning and cancel the rest of the mission tour and his mission president's seminar assignment. He asked for a blessing. The Temple President, Clive Barney, and I gave President Uchtdorf a special health blessing in the Temple. President Barney blessed him that he would be able to fulfill his responsibilities and assignments. And he did. 

We started the Zone Conference as planned, he fulfilled his assignment and all were blessed. He stayed and completed his assignment with full health during the mission president's seminar the next week as well. He was strong as an ox. He said that as soon as the blessing was concluded things started getting better. His eyes were moist and he was clearly touched and moved by the power of faith and the priesthood, as were we all. 

May 29, 1999 

I wanted to share two experiences that happened yesterday that really touched me, and once again demonstrated the arm of the Lord. We have been working and praying and praying and working for a blessing of 50 baptisms in May. We have had 20 convert baptisms with one week to go in the month and 21 baptismal dates for the last weekend (of which one-third frequently come through). 

I invited all missionaries to continue working and praying for 30 baptisms and exercise faith. Yesterday, Friday evening, I received two separate calls from missionaries. Call Number One from Sister Hall and Sister Arroyo: When Sister Arroyo arrived as a new missionary 1 one half months ago, she told me about a man that sat next to her on the plane from the states who she had a gospel discussion with across the whole Atlantic ocean. She said that he had agreed to receive the missionaries. She received her first assignment and new companion (this had been set up weeks before because she was the only sister coming in) and was off to area. She quickly discovered that the address that the man on the plane had given her was IN HER NEW AREA. He has been receiving the discussions and they set a tentative baptismal date in mid June. 

The sisters called last night and indicated that he felt strongly that he ought to be baptized tomorrow (during May). I thanked them for sharing this wonderful blessings that has come to us. This is not a coincidence. 

Call #2. About one hour later I received a call from Elder Hammond and Elder Gage who are serving in Merida. Merida is a beautiful former Roman Capital of the Iberia peninsula. Paul the Apostle likely preached the gospel in this area. He talks about going to Spain in the Bible and this was the retirement community for the captains of the legions for Rome. He probably knew many of them. 

Elder Hammond reported that during the day they met a man who had received the discussions previously, had previously had a baptismal date, but put it off. He told the Elders that I have a testimony and now feel that I should be baptized. Can I be baptized tomorrow (May)? 

The missionaries will meet with him today, Saturday, to be sure that he understands the doctrine and is qualified and if so they will go ahead with the baptism. One thing for sure, as we have united in prayer (members, missionaries, and families) and exercised faith and work, we have received many blessings and we hope this will have benefited many of our fellow beings. 

During the month we have also been blessed to see 31 individuals return to activity in the church. The missionaries have much to feel good about. Now we will continue our work to sustain and lift the work. 

There is a great work going on just now between the missionaries and members. The priesthood leaders are taking the initiative and really taking off. We have one area (Alcala and Azuceca) where six months ago there was one ward. There are now two wards, and it now seems that within the next year there will be a total of four wards in this area. So, at times it seems that the work creeps along, but if we look more closely, we realize the growth is steady and solid. 

The Stake President's are now talking about a third stake here in Madrid. We just divided in January from one to two stakes. Way to go! 

Well, there you have it. We are coming up for air and it feels good. This weekend we head off to Talavera (about 2 hours southwest of Madrid) for a District conference. 

Wishing you all the best. 

President Steven R. and Roxanne Shallenberger

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Misión de España - Madrid
Avenida de España 17, Local 01-1
Alcobendas, 28100 Spain