This one is out of order, but it is on top of the fountain looking down. I think it is really pretty.

Saturday the 24th, we went with the Lund's and Hadley's to see some things here in Barcelona. This is the Arc of Triumph. I guess a lot of city have them here in Europe. I think the one in France is the original one. I thought I had one with the top showing, but I guess not. Sorry!

We also saw the Parc de la Ciutadlia (Park). It has a really nice fountain and pool in front of it. There was even a man in the back swimming in the pool. It was warm, but I certainly wouldn't do that.

This is a better picture of the top of the building by the fountain and pool.

The whole picture.

This huge elephant was there, so I had to get Delwyn's picture with it to show you how big that thing was.

We also went to the Parlament de Catalunya. This building is dated back to the 1100. I am sure that it has had some refurbishing done to it. It was a beautiful building. I didn't take pictures of all the rooms.

Elder Lund was taking a picture of his wife on the pretty stair case. Elder Hadley and Hermana Hadley were there also.

There were a lot of chandeliers in the building. I took a pictures of a some of them. This was in one of the main hall ways.

One of the Chandeliers in one of the rooms where they held their sessions.

We are always talking about the Lund's and the Hadley's, so I took a better picture of them so you knew who we are talking about. The two closest are the Lund's and Me and the Hadley's.

This is where we put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea. We had to do that so we could say we went in the Sea. I didn't take a close up, because there are a few ladies without tops on.

There were some gorgeous Yachts. That would make boating really fun. They were huge. This picture doesn't do them justice.

Las Arenas Branch June 2010

Romero and Jenny. He was a counselor in the Branch Presidency. Jenny was the activities committee chairman. Jenny was the one who got me to make all the refreshments for the Night of the Branch. Estela is a darling lady who was always practicing piano before RS or Sunday School. She used the easy book, but she was really doing good.

We are with Estela again. In the back ground is President Del Malino, the 1st Counselor in the Stake Presidency.

The Young Women. Venessa, 1st counselor, Josalyne, Scarly, Me, Malissa and Eztibaliz the President.

This is a picture of most of the people in our Branch in Las Arenas. Delwyn is holding a picture that they gave to us when we left. We sure do love all these people. It was so hard leaving them. We are hoping the two on the ends of the front row get married. They were going together when we left. They have both served missions in the states.

The girl on the left is Neyla and recent convert that is doing wonderful, Delwyn, Scarly, Me, Scarly's grandmother Meriam and Anabell also another friend of Neyla that was converted. These two are wonderful. Since their baptism, many of their family in South America have been baptized.

This is with President Castellon and his wife Charo and son Piero with us. Piero served his mission in Boston. He spoke great English. We used him a lot.

We are with Julia and Liz. Liz was another recent convert that is really doing great. I wish they would give her a calling in YW. She is so very capable and willing.

Here we are with one of my YW again, Josalyne and Paula one of the Young Adults.

Blonca is here with us with Josalyne and Poula.

These two are getting married in the temple the 21st of August. Idoia and Soiartze.

An interesting day!

Elder Harris's first assignment is in the Baleares Islands on the Island of Manacor. They are only allowed one suit case and a carry on. So he had to repack and just take what was really necessary. The Elders that have been there, was there coaching him on what he will need. Elder Atkin is the blond who has been there.

This picture should have been first. This is Elder Harris with President Hinckley just getting into the office. He was talking to Elder Belnap. He has been waiting for his visa for quite a while. He just arrived at the office. He is from New Mexico and is already fluent in Spanish. His mother, I believed, lived in the Colonies in Mexico.

On my way to the office, I fell on a tile that was broken and not even. It didn't hurt so much, but my attention went immediately to my shoulder. I didn't even hit my shoulder. I tried to stop myself with my hand. On my way to the office I just couldn't lift my arm. So we decided we needed to go to the Dr. I have a small crack in the bottom bone just under my socket. So I have to ware this sling for 3 weeks and I can't move my arm. I have to go back in 3 weeks to see how it is healing. I am on 600 Mg of Ibuprofeno which also helps the swelling. Ibuprofeno is ibuprofen in Spanish. What a face! This is taking me all day because I can't move my arm. I think we have had enough broken bones in the family for a while.

Our new piso

This is looking through the living room onto the patio. The door on the left goes to our bedroom. This is our second bathroom. We use this shower. The other one is still plugged up. I like this one the best for showering anyway.

Our second bedroom. It also has 2 desks in it. A little table with no chairs. This room has larger closets than the main one. Delwyn uses this closet. The windows when opened, really has a nice breeze that goes through. The Living room has a big door and we open that for the breeze. So the breeze goes straight through the piso.

This is a pretty good picture of our balcony. I like to sit out there and read or just relax. You can see my cloth hanger on the bottom right. Our balcony over looks a soccer court and a park. Plus, the Chapel is down below us to the left, so we are really close to the Church.

Our bedroom looking into the bathroom. There are closets in between the bedroom and bathroom. Most of the closets are cupboards. My closet is about 2 1/2 feet wide. But that is about 3 times as big as mine in Las Arenas. The door on the left goes to the living room.

Delwyn sitting in our living room. The kitchen is to the end on the right. Therefore, the table is clear across the living room from the kitchen. We plan on moving the sofas around to where the table is and put the table where the sofas are. Still not real close to the kitchen, but better.

My long and narrow kitchen. Notice there are no cupboards above the counter here. The white tile is really hard to keep clean. You can see a big box on the counter on the right. That is my new oven when they get it installed. But we are getting closer. I don't have any more cupboards than I had in Las Arenas.

The laundry room is at the end of the kitchen, with another big window to open for a breeze. It is a new washing machine.

We went to see Parc del Castell de L'Orenta (Park of the castel L'Orenta) They have a few ruins in it, but mostly it is a park. The first thing we came across were these little ponies. I think you are able to ride them. We didn't, however.

This is a picture of us because our kids like to see us. They have many benches for people to sit on. There are a lot of trails for people to run and walk on. We saw many runners. There are a lot of hills so it looks like a good work out trail. It remined me of Arizona, it was hot a dry. The country side is not near as green as it was in the Bilbao Mission area.

Hermana Lund standing in front of some of the ruins.

More ruins. This looks like maybe a jail or something.

This a pretty picture is looking at a hill that is behind our piso but from a different area. Also, we thought the pisos going up the hill was quite interesting.

This is the front of what I said was a jail. There were no windows in the place.

One more picture. Behind is the tower from the Monastery

I didn't get a good picture of this tree, but it is different shapes and limbs go in different ways, up, down and to the side.

After we were through the park, we went to the Baixada del Monestir. It is an old Monastery where nuns used to live. It has since turned into a chapel and a museum. There are many rooms with many different statues, books, trays, etc. Lots of things the nuns have collected through the years. It was built in the 1300's. So you can imagine how old things are.

This a picture of the chapel. We were there close to noon and people started coming in and we figured they were coming in for noon mass so we left. This has a lot of stained glass windows, but they didn't come through well.

These are some of the cars that are used by the Priests and other dignitaries there.

They are all very old expensive cars. This blue one is a Jaguar. They were in beautiful shape. I'm sure they would be very expensive today.

The Monastery is built around a beautiful court yard. This is one of the many statues.

We have arrived in Barcelona

We arrived in Barcelona on Wednesday the 30th about 3:00pm. We went to the office and then the Hadley's took us to their piso for dinner and a good night sleep. The next day we went to the real estate lady and she took us to a piso. The one we were looking at, over the inter net, wouldn't rent to us. We don't know if it was rented or they didn't want someone for just 7 months. After we saw the piso and liked it and we said we wanted it, they took us around a few places in town. This is a huge flee market down by the water front on the Mediterranean Sea. We thought this was so pretty, so we had our picture taken in front of it Hermana Lund is with us.
This picture is to show you how narrow the street is. It is used for a walk way now. Thousands of shops on both sides.

This is in front of a chapel. There were many geese there. I think they are pretty birds, so I took a picture.

This is a chapel. I don't know the name.

We went in side of this Cathedral. The glass windows were very pretty. They have so much detain in all their works.

We are outside of the Cathedral. They have a lot of scaffolding on the outside. They are either doing repairs or cleaning it.

This is the Palau de Musica, or Music Palace. We couldn't go inside but it is really interesting.

This is the same building on the corner. I wish the sun would have been on it.

This is a chapel we just stepped into off that narrow street.

This is just one of the statues.

This is the Christopher Columbus statue by the Sea.

I believe this is the Plaza Espana (Spain) down by the Mediterranean

Saturday night, we went to the Fountain Magic. It is quite pretty. Usually they have music and the colors change with the music. But that night, there was a concert down the street that must have taken precedence. But it was still very pretty.

More of the Fountain.

You can see some of the color in this one.

Sunday, the 4th of July, Hermana Hinckley had us over for dinner. She served BBQ beef and we had two different salads and fries. With a very good bar cookie that Hermana Hadley made.
From the top left is: President Hinckley, Hermana Hadley and Elder Hadley, Elder Belnap, Me, Elder Lund and Hermana Lund. Hermana Hinckley said I needed to be in this picture. She is so very sweet.

Here is a picture of Hermana Hinkley by President.

I'm bringing you all into our office here in the Mission. This is Hermana Lund at her desk.

Elder Bowers, Not a great picture of him. He must have said something as I clicked the camera.

Elder Atkin at the Presidents desk. He has been kicked out of his office. He is training a new secretary, Elder Parry and he took it over

Delwyn sitting at our temporary desk. I sit to his left. They plan on moving Elder Parry out in the main office area and we will take his office. We have caused some problems here.

Elder Lund in his office.

Here is Elder Parry and this will be our office when all is settled.