Royal Blood

Hello!

So, this week I was exploring our family tree and decided to see how far back I could go when I ran into none other than King Henry III of England! In that same line are Henry II and Henry I, a king of Jerusalem from the Crusade era, a few Scandinavian kings, lots of dukes of Normandy, and one man who was known as "the fart" (one of the other missionaries here in the office is also related to him...but comes from one of his other concubines). Anyway, I'll have to go claim my throne in England in a few years.

It has been awfully rainy here all week. Just my luck...I get transferred to the "costa del sol" and it rains all week. That's just winter in Spain, though. And I can't complain compared to what the East Coast has had this week. And we stay mighty dry here in the office every morning. The office is going good - we mostly just do a lot of residency paperwork and buy people tickets when they need to do a lot of travel. I am also in charge of translating President Deere's weekly bulletin and doing some numbers stuff for our weekly meetings. It isn't too hard and I'm getting the hang of it. Elder Hunt, who is training me, will be leaving in a week and a half and then I'll be all on my own. Ah! Right now we are in a trio together. Elder Hunt is from Virginia (although he has also lived in Japan and Germany) and Elder Nally comes from a big Arizona family. They are great guys and we're having a great time together.

President and Hermana Deere had to go to some meetings in Madrid all week and left Annie and Justin, their kids, at home. They asked us to take them out one day so they wouldn't get too bored and so we went on a hike on Thursday to a place called "La Concha" near Marbella. It was an incredible hike up to the peak of a mountain. It took us a little longer than we expected (8 hours....yikes), but it was totally awesome. I'll send a few pictures. From the top we could see to Málaga on one side and to Gibraltar on the other. Luckily we went on the one sunny day this week and we all managed to get a little sunburned too! haha.

Well, that's about it for this week I think. Being a missionary is AWESOME! I have 6 months left and I know they are going to be the best 6 yet. I know Heavenly Father cares for us and that He has a plan for every one of us. He wants the best and has everything lined up so that we can progress and be happy. The scriptures are true and bring a special spirit of peace and happiness when we read them. The Gospel is true and is amazing!! I love it!

Have an awesome week!

Elder Mockler

This photograph is taken from the Spain Malaga mission blog and shows Andy at 

a baptism before he left his last area in Alcazar.  He looks so happy!