"Flashes" of Color

Our week was full of color as we worked with our Dutch speaking self-reliance stakes.  Participating in multiple self-reliance activities allowed us extra time in the Netherlands and Belgium to attend the temple and enjoy a few cultural activities.  Our lead photo this week is a collage of several of those activities.  So much to be seen this week, we warn the reader of an excessive number of "flashes".

Our week began with our senior missionary devotional.  This was our farewell devotional to one of the truly extraordinary missionary couples in our Area, Elder and Sister Bausman.  They arrived in Germany the very same day that we arrived for our first visit, on June 2, 2015.  For the past 23 months they have not only fulfilled their Information System role but they have assisted all of the other senior missionaries in an extraordinary way.  They went home this past Thursday.

Sister Bausman sharing her mission experience with the senior missionaries

Elder Bausman sharing his testimony with the senior missionaries

On Tuesday we continued facilitating our Health and Well-Being self-reliance group in our ward.  This is a fun group to be with. This week, the lesson was about Sleep habits. This is a topic that we certainly need.  Our commitments are to go to bed earlier and awaken earlier.  The scriptures and the words from our prophets have been clear as to the benefits of spending time early in the morning in scripture study.  The promises of increased personal revelation are what we want and need.

Health and Well-Being Self-Reliance Group in our Ward

In the past year we have been working with the 4 Dutch speaking stakes (3 in the Netherlands, 1 in Belgium).  We have planned on a quarterly visit and generally have been able to meet with Priesthood leaders or Self-Reliance committees.  As we looked at our calendar in March, we decided that the last week in April would be the right time to return for a visit to the Netherlands.  We had visited the Antwerp Stake in Belgium just a few weeks ago and planned on focusing on the other three stakes in the Netherlands.  Soon after sending emails, we received an invite from The Hague stake to participate in their Self-Reliance Committee meeting on Wednesday night.  However, up until 10 days ago, we had not been able to connect with the other two stakes.  Finally last week, we were invited to participate in the first self-reliance group in the Rotterdam Stake, which would hold their second group meeting on Friday night.  We also learned that Thursday was a national holiday, Kings Day, the birthday of the Dutch King.  The stake specialists of the third stake are away in the U.S. and we never heard from the stake presidency, so we only had the two visits to make.  However, we heard back from the Antwerp Stake who was planning a Sunday morning My Path devotional, their first.  We also heard that they had a change in their stake presidency and had a new chairman of their committee.  On Wednesday of this week, we were able to confirm a meeting to be held with the new chairman right after the Devotional.

The reason I write this is that as we move forward with our plans, we don't always know what will be the results.  However, we do find that the Lord guides our efforts and meaningful activities occur, which allow us to assist these stakes in their self-reliance efforts.  Even though progress has been slow, it has moved forward at the direction of the Stake Committees which is exactly how it should be.  Our stake specialists continue to gain experience and are now able to offer more assistance to the wards in their stakes.   Also in the past month each of the stakes have realigned their ward boundaries and closed some of the smaller branches or wards. This has created new challenges and opportunities in each of these stakes.

With faith, we began our drive to the Netherlands after our Wednesday noon Book of Mormon class.  We arrived in time to check into our hotel and arrive at the Stake Self-Relince Committee meeting in The Hague stake.  We were delighted to see our stake specialist instruct the committee on holding three devotionals in the coming month.  They will all be held on May 21, facilitated by different members of the committee.  The meeting was held in Dutch, but we were able to understand much of the discussion and were able to introduce some ideas in English.   Their efforts to do these devotionals during the Sunday meeting schedule is similar to what we have done in our ward last month.  We were asked to share some of the format and processes that we had used.  The chairman of the committee has met with us each of the two previous visits and is a wonderful strength to this stake.  We will try to see if we can be back to visit at least one of the May 21 devotionals.

Self-Reliance committee of The Hague Stake

Because the next day was Kings Day, even the temple was closed.  We did spend a few hours with our Area Manager in Frankfurt by video conference, planning for our managers meeting and the Area Committee meeting to be held the following week.   Then we chose to visit the world famous Keukenhof tulip gardens.  We had visited them a year ago, but on a cold rainy day.  This day turned out much better.  There were a few showers, but the weather was enjoyable and the time of the year was perfect for the flower blooms.

Keukenhof Park

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  The following photos are a few of the many that we took:

Beautiful red tulips with my beautiful wife

A close up view of one of the flowers

In front of one of the displays

Beautiful laid out flower beds, amazing!

A selfie, we are getting a little better at it

The major mound of flowers near the main entrance

In the picture thanks to a passer by who was willing to help

Another of our favorite tulips

A beautiful turkey in full array.  We had never seen a turkey fully feathered like this one, part of the children petting zoo area.

A peacock friend in the same area

Rows and rows of different colored tulips

Looking from a different perspective

Near the Windmill, with the flowers on the side

Closer up of Sister Rueckert in front of the windmill

Sitting together in flower pots

As we left the park, we saw a stand selling fresh Stroopwafels.  We have loved these in the past, but eating them fresh was even better.    The wafel is filled with a caramel and cinnamon filling.  Wonderfully delicious!

Taking the Stroopwafel off of the press

Filling it with the caramel cinnamon mixture

After leaving the park, we drove by some of the neighboring tulip fields. These are amazingly beautiful.

Kings Day

We finished our tulip viewing in the late afternoon and then decided to make a visit to the festivities of Kings Day.  Just a little background.  This holiday used to be celebrated on April 30, the birthday of the grandmother of the King.  When her daughter became queen, she was crowned on April 30, so the holiday continued.  In 2013, the new King was crowned and his birthday was on April 27, so the holiday was moved to the 27th.  This is an opportunity for people to party, with many outdoor concerts, selling of second hand items, lots of food and drink stands.  In Amsterdam, there are nearly 1,000,000 additional visitors.  We were cautioned to avoid the large cities.  It was suggested that we visit the city of Delft, where the celebrations would not be so large.

We arrived as most of the second hand selling was completing, however we did manage to buy an old candle stick holder that was also a bell for 2 Euros.  We made the purchase as our participation in Kings Day.  We then moved into the main square which was full of individuals, eating, drinking and attending a concert.  The tradition is to wear orange, which is the national color.  A few photos give you a little idea of the celebration:

Full-size photos of the king and the queen in the elevator of our hotel

Seen in a store as we walked into the town, someone in their "orange" attire

Wearing a "orange" crown

Crowds in the town square, concert stage in front of the "Old Church" from the 1200s

Other Church at the other end of the town square in Delft.  This is the new Church from the 1300s.

On Friday, we planned on going to the temple before our evening meetings.  However, we had some early morning time to ake a tour of the De Delftse Pauw Delft Blue Pottery Shop where the famous Delft Blue Porcelain is made and hand painted.  The tour is free, but they make their money selling their products at the end.  We thoroughly enjoyed the visit, learning much about this process.  A few of the photos follow:

Display of the process of a standard plate.  The material is made in molds and fired two times to become white.  Then they hand paint the designs on the white materials with black cobalt oxide which turns blue after  a glaze is added before the third firing in the kilns.

A couple of hand painters on site

Painting with black cobalt oxide

It takes four days to complete the painting of a vase this size

Sister Rueckert in front of many of the products

Sample of a hand painted blue delft vase, selling for 332 Euros

Pottery Delfte Pauw building

The Hague Temple

We left the Delft Blue visit and arrived at The Hague Temple by 12:30 pm.  This gave us time to do some initiatory work for another 14 of our ancestors and then participate in an endowment session.  We just love going to the temple.  This was a perfect situation for me.  I was well rested the night before. I spent a few hours in the temple, doing initiatory work and pondering the scriptures before the endowment session.  As a result, my mind was alert and very much in tune throughout the session.  I received many impressions during this session and pondered on things that had never come to my mind previously.

Perhaps one of the benefits was that I was proxy for Leonhard Jckelsheimer, who was my 9th great grandfather, born in 1623.  We found this relationship during our visit to Nuremberg last December.  Our grandson, Braden, was proxy for his baptism on March 30 of this year.  I was able to be proxy for his initiatory work two weeks ago in the Madrid Temple.  At that time I had felt special feelings.  I wanted to be the proxy for his endowment, which I had the privilege to do at this time.

I know that the work we do for our ancestors is real.  I can truly feel it. At the same time, the Spirit of the Holy Ghost is even stronger and we are blessed with additional personal revelation while serving our ancestors.  We can never do too much for our Heavenly Father.  He always blesses us in abundance.

In front of The Hague Temple

Beautiful Tulips in front of the sign of The Hague Temple

Self-Reliance Group

We left the temple and went directly to the Rotterdam meetinghouse.  There we were served a wonderful dinner by Martha, the stake self-reliance specialist.  She and her husband have been so kind to us.  Developing relationships like these are some of the special blessings that we receive.  Martha recently started her first My Job Search group.  Tonight was the second group session.  We were able to participate and help facilitate the group.  The missionary couple that have been giving the My Plan for Returned Missionary lessons in the stake joined us.

My Job Search group with two couples.  Also in attendance, E/S Goebel, E/S Rueckert and Martha

Group members practicing their Power Statements

We believe that the best way for our Stake Specialists to learn is to actually facilitate a group.  We are pleased that Martha is having that opportunity.  After the meeting we had a chance to provide feedback to Martha.  We were also able to get updated with E/S Goebel on their progress with the My Plan for Returned Missionaries.

Rotterdam

Our next Self-reliance activity was in Belgium on Sunday morning.  We had time on Saturday to see a few more things on our way to Belgium.  We went back to Rotterdam for our breakfast/lunch.  We wanted to eat some more of the Poffertjes that we had discovered in January.  While there we were able to visit the market and revisit the Round Mall.

Seth's Poffertjes making the product

Our delicious breakfast, with powdered sugar and butter.  These are small crepe like puffed pancakes.  Absolutely delicious!

Seating outside the restaurant, in front of the Round Mall

We found Spiderman as we wandered through the street markets

Den Haag

After making a few purchases for our Saturday and Sunday lunch snacks, we went on to visit The Hague for our first time.  I am always amazed at the architecture in the Netherlands.  The Hague is full of unique architecture and a bit of history besides.

In front of the Binnenhof houses of Parliament and the Knights Hall.  Built in the 1200s. The King delivers his annual address from this location each September.

Special effect of the fountain in front superimposed on the  Knights Hall

Square behind the Binnenhof with the skyline of The Hague behind it

Sister Rueckert with the city scape behind her

Close up of some of the unique architecture (top of the buildings)

Many buildings built on top of bridges.  The Deloitte (My old employer) building behind the bridge.  Looks like a lego building.

Dikes, Dams and Levees

Since we had time, we decided to drive to Belgium along the western coast, observing the magnificent dikes that are all over Holland.  It was hard to get good photos, since you are effectively driving on top of the dykes as you cross the inlets from the ocean.  At least we got a few photos that may be meaningful, at least for us:

Driving on top of the dyke system, with windmills planted in the water

The ocean to our right.  Different level of water than the water on our left.

A dam in the middle of one of the land barriers, ocean side

The other side of the dam on the inland lake side

Approaching another bridge across the water

Bridge opening up for boats to pass through

Bicyclists awaiting the closing of one of the bridges before passing though.  Bicyclists are everywhere in great numbers.

One of the windmills that we passed along the way

Sint-Niklaas

We finally arrived at our destination, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium a little after 5:00 pm.  Since the next day was our 18th anniversary of our temple sealing, we decided to go out and have a nice dinner.  We went to the city town square and found a nice Chinese restaurant nearby.  This market square is the largest in all Belgium.  It was given to the St. Niklaas church in 1248 by Countess Margaret II of Flanders with the provision that it would remain bare, which explains the large size of the market place.

Sister Rueckert on the market square in front of the Town Hall

Our anniversary dinner

While eating, we saw this hot air balloon take off from the market square at the side of the restaurant.  St. Niklaas church in the background

Two roses sold to Elder Rueckert by a vendor in the restaurant.  We put them in a water bottle in the hotel and brought them back to Frankfurt.  These are our anniversary roses.

Self-Reliance Devotional

The next morning we attended church at the Sint-Niklaas ward.  The last two hours of the block was a My Path Devotional, facilitated by our Stake Specialists, Luc and Mieke Wijns.  They did it very well.  We helped them to form the self-reliance groups at the end of the activity.  The devotional was in Dutch, our smaller group spoke mostly English.

Stake Specialist explaining the self-assessment activity

Five smaller groups within the devotional, stake specialists assisting

We were pleased to meet with the stake specialists and the new chairman of the committee, Stefan Van Gijsel.  It was a wonderful opportunity that we had not expected when the planning for this trip began.  Our meetings ended at 2:00 pm and then we drove the rest of the way back to our home in Frankfurt.

During this time of year, there are many fields with Rapeseed plants, which have a beautiful yellow blossom.  We love to see them as we drive.  One more color to add to our colorful week.

Fields of Rapeseed on the side of the highway

More beautiful yellow fields

Searching for Jobs, Shellfish, and Squid in Spain

We just finished a week in Northwestern Spain, helping to prepare unemployed leaders and members to find jobs as part of their Self-Reliance training.  We were in the Santiago District, which is located in a beautiful area on the western coasts of Spain, just north of Portugal.  This region is also noted for some of the best shell fish and octopus cuisine in the world which we were able to personally verify.

Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Vigo, in Northern Spain 

The purpose for our trip to Spain was to participate in a special emphasis on helping unemployed leaders in the Santiago District.  We were scheduled to start on Monday morning, so after our Church meetings on Easter Sunday, we traveled by car with our manager, PAco Serrano.  On the way we stopped and visited with the District President in the Leon District to discuss self-reliance efforts in his district.  This included helping him prepare for the self-reliance event that will be held throughout Spain on May 6.   All wards and branches in Spain are to hold a self-reliance devotional on this day.  Since this is the date for the District conference, we confirmed plans to hold these same devotionals in his district on May 20.

Meeting with the Leon District President and our manager, PAco Serrano

After about 6 hours of driving, we arrived in Vigo, Spain later that evening.  The time was well used as we had meaningful discussions with PAco about the preparations and plans for the nationwide May 6 SR devotionals, the special emphasis on helping unemployed leaders in Spain, current and future missionary couples and anything else that came up.  He has a vision of involving the ward councils as the owners of Self-Reliance groups that could prove to be significantly impactful.  He feels like members of the ward councils should sponsor different groups, being responsible to assign and train facilitators and follow-up on group progress in each ward council meeting.  We love the vision and will be very interested how successful he is in getting this level of involvement in the May 6 activities.  He has also printed the tent card invitations for all priesthood leaders to share with members.  They should have been distributed through home and visiting teachers during the month of April.

On Monday morning we began our first session of the accelerated My Job Search in Vigo, Spain for the southern portion of the District.  We had 8 participants, including a translator for Sister Rueckert and the District President.  Two more joined us on Tuesday morning for the second session.  The 8 job seekers, including two unemployed priesthood leaders all returned for the third session on Wednesday morning.  In total we covered the first five lessons of  My Job Search in a group format, including daily reporting of goals.

First 8 participants of the Accelerated Job Search practicing their  Me in 30 seconds on Monday morning

Tuesday morning group, including two more participants, absent the translator (District President translating)

No translator for Sister Rueckert, but a young child to entertain, she keeps busy

Additional practice with continuing participants

 As we completed the five lessons, the group committed to continue meeting weekly going forward, beginning the next Tuesday morning.  We felt that they got started in developing and applying job search skills and have hopes that they will see results for their efforts.  The district president participated in the first two days and got a clear understanding of the self-reliance group process.  He is ready to fully support this initiative.

On Monday and Tuesday afternoons, PAco and Elder Rueckert visited some local organizations that work with job seekers, including temporary employment opportunities.  We introduced our materials and our members (conceptually) with these organizations and were positively received.

Our Monday and Tuesday evenings were open so we took time to explore.  On Monday we walked along the promenade near the beach and on Tuesday we went to the ancient fortress on top of the mountain and were able to get a great view of the city and the coast.  We were also able to taste some local shellfish and octopus on Tuesday night.  This region is known for these delicacies, we partook and we agree.

Along the beach, Atlantic Ocean behind us

Elder Rueckert couldn't resist going down into the water

View of the promenade, public swimming pool to the right

Evening view from above the promenade, with a local seagull

At the entrance of the fortress

Near the top of the fortress, Atlantic Ocean behind us

Sister Rueckert and our Spain manager, PAco

Overlooking the city and the ocean

A relaxing moment in the park within the fortress

Near the exit to the fortress

As we saw the marker below, referring to 136 individuals assassinated on this location 80 years ago, we received a history lesson from PAco.  He described the civil war in Spain that occurred in 1936 and led to 39 years of dictator rule which ended in 1975, closely aligned with the Catholic Church.  That dictator rule was a solution to extreme right and left positions.  Finally, in 1975 Spain returned to a democracy and our Church was allowed to be established.  This covered the period of World War II which Spain essentially missed.  Franco, the dictator, appeared to be sympathetic with Hitler, but did not feel his country was able to participate in World War II, having just finished their own civil war.  We always enjoy a little more history lesson as we see different locations in Europe.

Grilled Octopus, served as an appetizer.  Very tasty!

A plate of assorted Shellfish, we ate it all

 After finishing our Wednesday morning session at 1:00 pm, we departed for A Coruña, at the northern end of the district.  We had lunch along the way and arrived in time to start a new group of job seekers at 5:00 pm.  Once again we had 8 job seekers, including 2 unemployed priesthood leaders.  The district presidency counselor also participated with us.  He is the chairman of the District Self-Reliance Committee.  Tom King, our Area SRS manager, also arrived and participated in the remaining activities.

6 job seekers, two SR facilitators, district counselor and one branch president, along with PAco, Sister Rueckert and Tom King

Practicing their Me in 30 Seconds

That evening the local branch hosted a local singing group who put on a concert, including Easter songs and other music in Spanish, German and English.  We decided to attend this event, since our travel plans had precluded any other Easter concerts. This concert included some hymns from our hymn book and allowed the congregation to participate in these songs.   This was a wonderful blessing to add to our efforts of the week.

Concert choir performing

A spiritual song with audience participation in the choreography

Closing song, showing the entire choir

We continued the training on Thursday morning.  Four of our participants could not participate due to work commitments, but we added one new participant.

Thursday morning group working on Power Statements

 The beautiful city of A Caruña is near the very northwest of Spain.  This view below is of the city and part of the beach and was taken near the meetinghouse.  We found the water to be amazingly blue.

Thursday evening we had facilitator training.  Three facilitators were present as were 3 members of the District Self-Reliance Committee.  We trained them using the new facilitator guide which has just been translated into Spanish.  This process trains facilitators in a group setting so that they don't just hear theory but experience the process.  We have found this to be extremely effective.

Facilitator training

After the facilitator training we participated in a District Self-Reliance Committee meeting.  This was presided over by the 1st counselor in the district presidency.  The second counselor also attended as did his wife, who is the district relief society president.  The new district specialist was not able to be in attendance as he had been called by his employer to work during our visit.  They were trained as a committee and discussed the upcoming May 6 devotional plans.  We then asked them why we had so few unemployed priesthood leaders in our training sessions.  The committee chairman knew the situation of every name on the list that had been submitted to us before hand.  It turns out that there are only about 6 unemployed leaders and 4 of them participated in our sessions.  There are many other underemployed priesthood leaders who desperately need this same training, but they all had work commitments during the day, similar to the 4 participants that had not continued from the Wednesday evening group. We felt better about the results and returned with much more understanding.

Santiago District Self-Reliance Committee

 Our meetings ended about 9:00 pm which is the perfect time to eat dinner in Spain.  Most restaurants are not even open until 8:00 pm.  We took advantage of our last night in Northwestern Spain to have some octopus one last time.  We had a variety of "Tapas" which are like appetizers, which are shared amongst the four of us (PAco, Tom King, E/S Rueckert).

Outside the restaurant in A Coruña

Octopus and Salad, part of our "tapas"

Friday morning we continued with lessons 4 and 5 of My Job Search.  As we had the participants report on their commitments from the previous day, we were pleased to get a very positive response form one of the unemployed priesthood leaders.  He had followed the commitments from the prior day and had contacted a work colleague from 4 years ago.  He was well received and learned that this contact is currently in a regional management position and may have a job opportunity for this leader.  He had started the course without a lot of hope.  Now 2 days later, he had a scheduled meeting for a job opportunity and several more identified contacts to make.  At the end of the meeting he had to take a call on another job opportunity.  This was a fitting completion to our week. We know that the materials that the Church have prepared will help members to find self-reliance, including jobs, if they will follow the steps outlined and keep their commitments.  When they do, the Lord steps in and helps them, for "He will provide for His saints".

Meeting from Friday morning session

We caught an afternoon flight back to Madrid, stayed in a nearby hotel overnight and returned to Frankfurt early Saturday morning.  This allowed us time to do our laundry and enjoy our time home in our apartment.  Sister Rueckert also found time to create new "flowers" for our door wreath, since the Easter Decorations were no longer appropriate.

Photo of our glass sink in the hotel in Vigo.  We add this to our collection of unique furnishings that we have seen in our different hotel stays.

Doors unlocked by our Savior

We testify that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, that He died for all of our sins and was resurrected.  He did this so that we could return to the presence of Our Father.  Temple covenants are the keys that open the doors to eternal life. We finished our Easter week in Madrid, Spain and were able to spend some extra time in the temple.  It was an appropriate way to celebrate the Easter weekend as we were able to unlock the doors to Spirit prison for many of our ancestors through eternal temple covenants on their behalf.

At the Madrid Spain temple, after participating in temple ordinances for our ancestors

Spring has come to Europe.  The photos below are of spring blossoms on the trees outside of our apartment building.  The view is from our balcony.

As we posted our last blog, we were still in Antwerp, Belgium.  We were able to participate in the Stake Self-Reliance committee meeting last Sunday evening.   We were asked to also train some facilitators.  We spent one hour going through most of the new facilitator guide which proved to be very helpful for the committee.  This is a great committee that has been meeting regularly for some time.  They are becoming mature in their self-reliance efforts and seemed to feel the spirit of this new guide.

On Monday morning, we had a waffle in the hotel.  Since we were in Belgium, we realized that it might have been our first Belgium waffle that we have ever eaten in Belgium.

We had an eventful week in the Area office.  We arrive home from Belgium in time for some scheduled Zoom meetings with missionary couples.  We had several of these meetings during the week.  On Tuesday night, we were able to facilitate our Health and Well-Being self-reliance group in our ward.  On Thursday at noon, we had one more meeting with one of our returned missionaries.  On Wednesday night we were able to enjoy a dinner at the home of Elder and Sister Busman, before they leave to go home from their mission.  Elder and Sister Swenson were also at the dinner with us.  We were able to prepare for and participate in our monthly Area Self-Reliance Committee meeting on Thursday.

As we finished these activities, the Area offices were closed for the Easter holidays beginning on Friday.  We were scheduled to spend this coming week in Spain, so we decided to come a few days early and spend some time at the Madrid temple.  We were hosted by Elder and Sister Kimball, our Spain Self-Reliance missionary couple who treated us better than we deserve.  

We were able to do 15 initiatory ordinances for ancestors on Friday evening.  On Saturday, Elder and Sister Kimball went with us to do an endowment session.  We then stopped for a meeting with some stake self-reliance specialists from two of the Madrid Stakes and then returned to the temple to spend over 2 hours doing sealing ordinances.

Meeting with Stake Specialists and Elder and Sister Kimball 

In front of the Madrid Temple

With Elder and Sister Kimball in front of the Madrid Temple

 By the time we finished the temple sealings, we had completed the sealings for 12 couples and 34 children were sealed to their parents.  This is representative of our own living family, as we have 12 children that have been married and currently have 36 grandchildren.  A fun little coincidence.

What is always so meaningful is to complete the work that has been going on by many over several months.  Much of the ordinance work has been completed by our children and grandchildren in the U.S.  Some of it has been completed by us in temples in the Netherlands, Preston, Freiburg and now in Madrid Spain.

More importantly, we completed the marriage sealings for three of Sister Rueckert's great, great, . . great grandparents.  These were names that we found in Erfurt, Germany last August.  We also sealed 11 children to one Rueckert family and 7 to another.  Each of these were part of the relatives that we had discovered in July of last year.  10 of the children in one of the families and 2 in the other were children who died as infants.  The Spirit was strong, especially with one sister who was proxy for some of these infant children.  She had lost a child of her own and related so strongly to these situations.  Temple work is wonderful, but it is exceptionally rewarding when it is for our own relatives that we have been able to find in our Family History work.

Family cards for the 12 couple and 34 child sealings that were completed on Saturday afternoon

We have thoroughly enjoyed following the Principles of Peace and the Prince of Peace that was available on the Church websites.  These messages of inspiration have strengthened us as we have studied the last week of the Savior's life.  On Saturday night we were able to watch a movie called "Risen", which was produced last year about the Centurian that discovered the truth of the resurrection for himself.  We highly recommend it.  We love this time of year!

We awoke this morning to our Easter treats in our hotel in Madrid.  It may be simple, but we do enjoy this high quality chocolate.

We were able to attend our Church meetings in Madrid, Spain this morning and have spent the rest of the day traveling with our Self-Reliance Services manager through Spain until arriving at the Northeastern part of Spain at the city of Vigo.  We will spend this coming week helping unemployed leaders in this district.