I Love to See the Temple - twice!

Hurray!  I finally got to go to Madrid and see (and attend) the beautiful temple there! And I got to do so TWICE! Once in the company of an awesome reactivated member Debbie, and then again with a fantastic new (one year) member going through for her very first time, Ghazaaleh. I was fortunate enough to get to teach both of them, so I feel very blessed!

Out the train window on the way to Madrid.

We ended up taking the fast train both times (I got a really good deal and timing didn't work out for the bus - and none of the drivers who knew where they were going could go unfortunately (we can't take the mission cars out of the mission). We had planned to all go together, but found out that although Ghazaaleh had been baptized more than a year before our planned date, she had been confirmed the day after, and so couldn't go yet. And Debbie was moving to England soon and so HAD to go then if she were to go here, which we knew was pretty important. So I "sacrificed" and forced myself to go twice ;)

The Madrid Metro

The first trip up with Debbie I got to watch Frozen in Spanish (which was pretty fun), which made the trip very quick. The AVE (high speed) train goes up to 300 km/hr,(over 180mph) and takes a little over 3 hours (counting the train ride from Fuen to Málaga) for a trip that takes 6 hours in the car, and about 7 on the bus. Then it takes about another half an hour on the Madrid Metro to get to the temple (the metro stop is only a block or two from the temple).

Both times we got to stay in the temple hostel, which has bunks and costs just 10 euros each a night. And there is even a small kitchenette to fix your food in the room, in addition to a large general area.

As always the temple grounds were beautiful with fountains, etc.  It was also fun to see the MTC area where my daughter Marie was taught before her Spain Bilbao Mission.

It was cool seeing familiar statues and phrases in Spanish, including "La Casa Del Señor". I love Spain!!

While Debbie was in the distribution center, I wandered around taking pictures :)

We were able to attend the temple both Wednesday AND Thursday, and do multiple things which was just fantastic. The celestial room is gorgeous, and as always the peace and Spirit felt there were awesome. How I have missed the temple!

On Thursday our friend the Castillos were able to join us for a session before they left Spain, headed back to Arizona by way of Paris. Oh I miss them!  But I love being here, and they are now loving on a whole passel of grandkids, so all is right with the world :)

Two weeks later I was back on the train with Ghazaaleh (going to the temple for her first time) and the Padres, a Phillipino couple in our branch who completed our group.  It was the first time the Padres had been on the bullet train, and they were abolutely thrilled. You'll notice I have tennis shoes on - last time I wore my "good" shoes, and by the time I got home my feet were KILLING me, so this time I decided comforted before fashion. Besides, they match my outfit ;)

Again we stayed in the temple hostel, and again we had a lot of fun!  Wednesday Ghazaaleh did her own temple work, then Thursday we got to go through again a couple more times before we had to hurry and get back to the train station.

Before we went, though, we snuck into where the nativity scene was to take some pictures. We had so much fun we kind of cut it close getting back to the train. We made it though!

This is on the way home. We actually got to ride in "first class" as that was where the cheap tickets happened to be, and I guess we didn't look like your typical upper-crust riders as they checked our tickets TWICE! (They usually don't check at all - just look at what seats are occupied).


All in all I had an absolutely wonderful time. The Spirit was strong, we accomplished what we came to do, and I can't think of a place I would rather be.
Temples and missions are SO COOL!