Heading to Madrid

We stayed the night in Castelo Branco, a cute town in Portugal not far from the Spanish border.  We had a weekend full of mission reunion events, so we had to be in Madrid by that evening.  We drove back along the northern route, so that we could stop in Salamanca.  I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salamanca for almost 8 months.  It's a university town and fairly large town, but at the time there were only 11 members of the Church there.  It was a very difficult and very soul stretching experience there.  My absolute lowest moments on the mission happened in Salamanca.  It also happens to be where I have some of my happiest moments as well and where I served with one of my favorite companions.  Salamanca holds a really special place in my heart, because I really learned and grew the most in those 8 months during all the emotional roller-coastering.  This was my first time back to Salamanca in 18 years.  I sat down on a bench in the Plaza Mayor and cried.  It's really hard to explain the feelings I had sitting there. 

 After I pulled myself back together we ate empanadas and raquetas in the plaza that we bought at the Panadería that Tuckett and I frequented often as missionaries.  We could have lived off of raquetas and been perfectly content. 

 I'm so grateful that I snapped a picture of my old apartment, so I could text the pic to my companion Tuckett, because it's the only mission picture of everything in Salamanca that survived my camera loss.  I lived at c/ Obispo Jarrin 2, 3A.  It was directly off of the Plaza Mayor, so anytime there was any kind of celebration or parade it always came directly under our balcony.  My favorite was the Easter procession. 

After lunch we walked down to the cathedreal and then headed back to the car. 

 We made a couple of stops on our way into the city.  Our first stop was at Ávila, because I wanted to show Joel its perfectly preserved medieval walls.

 We then traveled into the Guadarrama Mountains to El Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen).  It is probably Spain's most controversial monument.  It technically is a monument to the victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), but it's an underground church that was built my Franco's prisoners of war.  Franco also happens to be buried there behind the main altar of the church along with his Fascist side-kick, so many people in Spain don't care for this place very much.  It's honestly cold and dark feeling inside.  I'd have a hard time worshiping there, but it's an important reminder of a darker period in Spanish history during the dictatorship rule of Franco.

 We didn't have time to go into El Escorial, because we backtracked 3 times trying to find it.  It turns out it's located in a town that is also called El Escorial, so all of the signs were confusing and the GPS took us to the local town hall.  We had to put in its full name of Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial to find it.  It's a massive 16th century palace that was the center of the Counter-Reformation and the Inquisition in Spain. 

We drove to our apartment to check in and then we headed to the Manzana del Templo that is close by.  It contains the LDS Temple, a Stake Center, a Distribution and Family History Center, and a building of hostels (it's the former CCM where I was trained as a missionary that was recently closed).  We got there toward the end of the mission reunion, but I was fine with that because this particular reunion was for missionaries who served under President Shallenberger.  I served as a missionary with President Clark directly after Shallenberger went back to the States.  What I was most excited about was seeing some of the missionaries who overlapped with both presidents and my mission president was also in attendance.  Oh, how I love this man!

 A treat that most missionaries fell in love with in Madrid: Palmeras (there's a flaky pastry under that chocolate)

 Here's a It's-A-Small-World story for you.  This girl and I were both staring at each other, because we knew we knew each other, but couldn't remember how.  It turns out that Carol and Bart are from my Freshman year at BYU.  Carol and I lived on the same floor in the dorms at DT.  How funny is that?!  Bart served in Madrid before I did and when he got home they got married.  Bart reminded me of a funny story back when I was studying in Madrid.  We had gone to some tiny town to watch a crazy festival that mimicked the Inquisition.  They wore red devil masks to represent the evil judges who cast out the Jews.  Anyway, it was a very memorable festival, because it was so bizarre.  As I was leaving I saw 2 Elders and realized I knew one of them.  It was Bart!  I had completely forgotten about that experience until Bart reminded me about it.  He had been there with an investigator who was filming the festival when a large group of BYU students walked by. 

 I served with Lopez for almost half of my mission in 2 different areas.  He was my zone leader until almost the very end of my mission.  We had quite a few amazing experiences together, and he was one of my favorite Elders that I served along side with during the mission.  His wife, Cinthia, also served in the mission with us.  I knew her but never served with her.  Lopez is now the Stake President in Southern Spain (Elche).  He's going on 7 years as Stake President, and it was so interesting to talk to him about his experiences.