By Russian law, we are to leave Russia every 3-months to renew our Visas. Our first Visa trip was to Madrid Spain. We left for Moscow on Monday May 11, then on to Madrid arriving late in Madrid on Monday night. We had reservations to stay at the temple hostel. Initially Sister Moleff and I had our own room at the hostel. We were to get our new Visas on Wed, May 13 and leave for Ulan-Ude on Friday May 15. However, because of a holiday in Madrid, the Visas were not available on Friday and we did not leave Spain until Wednesday May 20. Since the hostel is used as sleeping quarters for those visiting the temple, and we did not have reservation over the weekend, we had to split up into male and female sleeping quarters. On our first split I stayed with 4-other brethren from Spain, one a Stake President from Cadiz who was very kind and considerate of my needs and spoke English. On our second split, there was a black brother in the room who spoke English with a French accent, he also spoke French, Portuguese, Spanish, and his own native tongue. Even here in Ulan-Ude, it seems that many people speak several languages; English, however is generally not one of them. I asked why don't the people learn more English. The answer was, why should we, what is the advantage to us? Of course English is taught at the Universities, and the younger people are learning English. But Mongolian and Chinese are the more prevalent languages to learn because of the closeness, influence, and business with Mongolia and China. The people here in Ulan-Ude are well read, well educated, and very aware of world conditions, events, and politics. But not so aware of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and, of course, the reason that we are here. Back to Madrid, Spain. We attended 6-sessions at the temple. Three sessions were in English, 1 in Spanish, 1 in Portuguese, and 1 in French. Since we had more time then we planned on, besides Madrid we visited Toledo and Segovia. The Madrid Spain temple is shown below.
This is a photograph of the Madrid Temple Square. The Stake Center is on the right. The 6-story building (on the left not shown in photo) houses the Distribution Center, CES, Family History, Hostel Housing. Missionary Temple Worker Housing, and the Madrid MTC with President and Sister Hill who are both kind, loving, and spiritual giants. On May 20, we had lunch with Temple Workers Elder and Sister Rust, and their guests: Brother and Sister Derek & Susan Mansfield (an absolutely unique and brilliant woman), and Visa trip missionaries from the Canary Islands, Elder and Sister Ford. 
The above photograph is of the MTC missionaries who sing every Sunday in the court yard at the Temple Complex. The Sunday we were there there were Italian and Spanish speaking missionaries at the MTC and two Russian missionaries on a VISA trip. They sang 'Called to Serve' in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Russian. They also sing every Saturday at a Park in Madrid. 
The downtown park is called El Retiro, and covers about 350 acres and is a mix of gardens, fountains, lakes, natural areas, monuments, and arts. A lovely and beautiful place as shown in the picture below. The weather was perfect for our stay in Madrid.
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