All Good News

I bought my grandparents house. In the garage was a security box that had my grandfather's baptism record from 1905 from San Cristobal a province of Zamora, Spain. There was a marriage certificate from 1961 my grandparents redid their wedding vows in the same church. My grandfather passed away in 1977. So we decided to go to Spain this year with my mom and see the towns where my grandparents were from and see the church my grandfather was baptized in. I purchased rail passes before going so we could go to all the places we wanted to see but even though I had purchased rail passes prior to leaving, you still need to go to the rail stations to make the train reservations. So I went there last Friday, our plans were to go to Zamora on Saturday then Seville Monday and Córdoba on Tuesday. I started to make the reservations beginning with Zamora and they told me the train was completely booked because people were coming back from the beach. I said I have to get there, this was one of the reasons for coming. I made all my other reservations and we asked what about Wednesday-he told me he could make reservations for Wednesday and we would have to leave on the last train of the night. We visited Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba and Seville. We go on Wednesday to Zamora, when we arrive we are talking in an elevator amongst ourselves on how we are going to find this church.

The woman in the elevator, we later find out her name is Laura asked if we needed help. We were amazed because she spoke English and we said yes we needed to find this . She said she would help us find a taxi, San Cristobal is actually a village of Zamora and it was an hour and a half a way. She said she would explain to the taxi driver and she was concerned because it was during their siesta and that the church probably would not be open but she asked the taxi driver to check in the village to see who had the keys to the church and see if they would open the church for us. We ! left with the taxi driver and my mom told him her father's name was Moises Prieto. We arrived in this tiny village and passed some young guys the taxi driver said they are too young to ask. We drive down the street and we come to some older men under a pavilion playing cards. The taxi driver gets out and starts asking the men about the church and we hear him say Moises Prieto, one man jumps up and says Prudencio Prieto, which was my great-grandfather, he comes to the car and then leaves quickly and goes to another building walking with someone who is coming to our car saying Isabel. Elena ( which is my mom and Aunt). He was my mom's first cousin. My grandfathers nephew and then they take us to the church and open this beautiful church up. Her cousin, my grandfathers nephew was on the phone calling other family members, my grandfather's niece from his other sister and their children .

This was the most amazing and unreal experiences of my life. They welcomed us into their homes and now we know we have another wonderful family. Our hearts are there in Spain with them. We are now friends on Facebook and can't wait until we can see them again. It was truly an amazing day that a baptism record led us to a church and we meet a woman who if we are not in that elevator with her at that moment we would have never met any of them.