We gathered info from a returned missionary and a future missionary to gather info on Madrid’s mission presidents, packing lists, MTC, overall state of missionary work, and insider tips.

Mission Presidents

RM: What was your mission president like? How much longer does he have?

My mission president was Presidente Obando, and he and his wife are the best. They are over the Spain Madrid South mission and are so supportive of all their missionaries. They have so many interesting stories of their lives that they share at zone conferences and are very knowledgeable of the gospel. They will be serving until July of 2027.

Packing + MTC

RM: do you feel like your missionary portal/packet prepared you adequately on what to pack? do you wish you had or hadn’t packed anything else?

I feel like the missionary portal was pretty accurate but I do wish I had packed more for every type of season. I thought Spain was going to be warm and sunny all year long but that definitely wasn’t the case. In hindsight I wish I would’ve packed more articles of clothing that are versatile for different types of weather. You definitely will need a good coat, doesn’t need to be a ski coat, but something that’s waterproof and decently warm. The summers are very hot though so some light clothing would be great to bring.

Madrid Details

RM: What are your favorite things about madrid?

My favorite thing about serving in Madrid and Spain is how much history the country has, the architecture of the buildings in the central areas of most cities is incredible and I always loved to walk around and just marvel at how we lived and shared the gospel in such beautiful places. I loved the wide range of food they have there, not so much the actual Spanish food, but the food from Latin America, from Morocco, and all over the world.

RM: what do you wish you would have known about madrid, specifically, before you left?

There’s a lot of things but one thing I think I wish I had done was to research other religions and cultures and to seek to understand them, especially Catholicism. So many people in Spain are religious and/or from other cultures and I think if I had had a better understanding I could have connected with people so much better.

RM: What is missionary work like there?

In my mission in particular we worked off of a lot of social media references, meaning we would call and try to meet with people who had submitted their information to the missionaries on social media platforms, and we also did a lot of street contacting. Door knocking wasn’t much of a thing as most people live in locked apartment buildings but we would often stop and talk to people in the street. The majority of native Spaniards are very Catholic and resistant to change but there are many people from different countries who live in Spain and are open to receiving the gospel. Sometimes branches have only 20-30 active members while there are also wards with over 100 people attending weekly. The church is small but growing steadily, in the past year I believe at least 3 new stakes were formed in the country and around 1,000 baptisms took place.