On this, our last morning in Paris, we finally discovered a grocery store! We had been looking for one our entire trip. For 7.25 Euros, we purchased four yogurts, two apples, and a loaf of delicious walnut artisan bread, which lasted for breakfast and lunch. Our shuttle picked us up at our hotel and got us to the airport in plenty of time. Upon arriving at the Madrid airport, we successfully rented a car ( a black Peugeot) with GPS. Even this small task made us more aware of our limited Spanish and more grateful that we would have a "native" speaker in about 15 hours. After driving around in circles in the airport parking lot before finding "Salido", we drove straight to the temple. Our GPS "speaks" English and was invaluable in getting us there.
It always takes my breath away to drive around a corner and see a temple, and tonight was no exception. We could "see" Jonathan sitting in front of it--just like the picture he sent us nearly two years ago. Thanks to Matt for making the arrangements in Spanish, we were able to stay in temple housing. We were in a family suite with four bunk beds, a full kitchen equipped with dishes and small appliances, three sinks with spacious vanities, separate shower room, and a table and chairs. We even had underground parking (with more parking spaces than all of Paris!). The Church does everything so well! We felt like we were "home". The building also houses the CCM (Madrid MTC), a family history center, Institute, and a distribution center. The temple is next to this building and there is also a large stake center. It is called, "temple square"! Jonathan's missionary apartment was just across the street when he was district leader in this area.We felt very blessed! We were so excited to be able to see Jonathan at 7:30 the next morning at the mission home (30 minutes away--if everything went well!) There was a message at the temple housing office for us to call him. (We walked in the door, a person looked up from her desk and asked, "Ogden?" We said, "Si" and she then handed us a yellow sticky note with a bunch of numbers written on it, rattled off a line of Spanish, and continued helping the people in front of us. We didn't know if we had been given a phone number, and if so, was it for a translator from the CCM upstairs, the mission home, or Jonathan? We finally dialed the number and Jonathan answered. It was great to hear his voice. He asked us to arrive 30 minutes earlier than planned.) We could hardly wait!
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