This is Ainara and her family. They had a huerta(little house in the country) where they would go on the weekend.
This post is dedicated to Elder Taylor, (Happy Birthday!) who was my companion for 5 months in Huesca, Espana. I was surprised to be transferred from Mataro after only 1 month of serving there. I'd never heard of Wesca (that's how I imagined it was spelled, that's how it's pronounced). Everyone told me it was cold there, they were right.
When Elder Taylor and I arrived to Huesca, it had been months since missionaries were assigned there and there was only one active member of the church, Ainara Rubio, and another member whose husband prevented her from coming to church, Esperanza Escartin. All we had to guide us around the town was a map. We walked everywhere. 
I had to include this picture of me in front of Aldi in Huesca for those of you who shop at Aldi's in Urbana.
Because there were no other priesthood leaders, my companion served as branch president and I was counselor, secretary, music chairman, and quorum instructor. We met for Sunday meetings in a conference room at a hotel. You'll notice a TV in the picture of me in our apartment. Most missionaries are not allowed to have a TV in their apartment, but because our apartment also served as headquarters of the church in Huesca, we had all the supplies for Sunday meetings in our apartment, including a TV and VCR.
I spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's, Elder Taylor's birthday and Carnival in Huesca.
In Spain, the day after Halloween is actually the holiday. It's similar to Memorial Day in the US, when everyone visits the cemeteries and remembers their dead. Thanksgiving of course isn't celebrated in Spain, I bought some sliced turkey breasts to eat in honor of the holiday.
Christmas day we spent in Zaragoza, about an hour from Huesca. There were two branches of the church in Zaragoza and 10 other missionaries there. Presidente Amigo who was president of one of the branches there invited us to dinner and then there was a talent show at the church that evening. For the children the real excitement of Christmas doesn't come until January 8th when the "tres reyes magos" (three wisemen) arrive. They are the ones that bring the presents. Their arrival is celebrated with a great parade called "carbagata". For Christmas my grandma sent me some money, and my companion had some saved up, so we went out and bought Barce jerseys for the futbol team in Barcelona.
For Carnival everyone dresses up in costumes. One lady who saw Elder Taylor and I thought we were pretty clever to dress up like the Mormon missionaries. She was embarrassed when she realized we really were Mormon missionaries.
One of my favorite parts of serving in Huesca was riding the bus to Barbastro (about an hour away) to visit Jose Luis La Farga, a member of the church who didn't attend meetings on Sunday. He was always amable (friendly/nice) and fed us delicious cake and chocolate. He even ended up coming to church a couple times.
There was a young man who lived in Huesca who befriended the missionaries, who fortunately for us had time and a car, so he could take us out to see castles that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to see.
One of our good friends in Huesca was Isabel, (pictured below with Elder Taylor and I) we always bought pan (bread) from her panaderia. We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her that there was someone with her name in it. I refused to show her where, partly because I wanted her to be motivated to read the book, and partly because Isabel was a harlot in the Book of Mormon.
Antonio was a young man who we taught while in Huesca. He felt the Holy Ghost as we taught him and as he read the Book of Mormon and prayed. When he read in the Doctrine and Covenants he saw revelations given through Joseph Smith the prophet to individual people and he wanted to get his own revelation telling him he should be baptized, so he wrote to President Hinckley, the prophet and president of the church, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Because the church is much larger now than in the days of Joseph Smith, the president of the church cannot respond to each person who asks, therefore a letter was sent to the local church leader, President Mask (our mission president) asking him to respond to Antonio's request. So, President Mask arranged to come out to Huesca from Barcelona and have a meeting with Antonio. Following their meeting, Antonio decided to be baptized. President Mask arranged his schedule to come speak at the baptism. Members of the church from Zaragoza and Antonio's mom, brother and sister came to the baptism as well (pictured above). What a special day it was to see Antonio make the choice to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by immersion by someone holding priesthood authority!
Serving together for 5 months bonded Elder Taylor and I together like brothers, though there were times I wanted to catapult him. Two things I enjoyed about serving with Elder Taylor were homemade bread and back adjustments after a hard day's work. We did get some company the last month we were in Huesca when Elder Macdonald and Elder Nielsen were assigned to Huesca as well.
Serving a mission is tough work. President Mask teased me when I started getting gray hair that I had been serving in Huesca too long. It is hard to know how big a difference we actually made to the people in Huesca. However I know what a difference it made in my life to work hard in the service of the Lord and have a "glad attitude" even when things were tough.
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