The New Vitoria Spain Stake VS Zarautz

The first stake in Northern Spain was established today. The meeting was held in the auditorium of a University in Bilboa. I guess I was expecting a huge auditorium that would fit several hundred people but it was more like a large lecture hall that fit a few hundred. The meeting was incredible. I can't help to think of how faithful the saints are here. This was impressed upon me when we drove further up the coast to San Sebastian, and ended up in a "small" town of Zarautz. When we got to San Sebastian there was no where to park and people everywhere. We found a place to spend the night in a smaller town West of S. Sebastian call Zarautz. The name sounds like an evil city from the old testament or Book of Mormon. It is actually a cute touristy town in the Basque country of Northern Spain. We walked down the street to the city beach and there were thousands of people walking up and down the beach, playing in the water or eating in an open-air restaurant. I was even more impressed by the faithfulness of the saints. These several thousand beach goers had no concept of the importance a meeting held a coupe hours earlier when a few hundred people formed a new Stake in Zion.

It feels like the church has to work very hard just to keep a small toe-hold in this part of the world. The people here are good. The task of bringing them the gospel seems almost overwhelming to me. Yet little by little progress in the kingdom is being made. Stakes are being formed.