It was the end of January 1974. Centro district had just finished with district meeting. We had been building a new street board and spent a lot of pesetas on it and a couple of weeks putting it together. It was a trophy though, one to be proud of. It was about six feet wide and three feet tall. We had to fold it up to get it on the metro. We decided to go try it out so we went downtown but I don’t remember the name of the plaza. We set it up and immediately people started stopping to look at the pictures. We were having a grand old time and taking names down on the little yellow reference papers that we filled out. We had more people gathered around us and the street board than the plaza could hold. After about two hours I had a guy come to me and ask what we were doing. I gave him a short explanation and asked if he would like us to come by his home and we could explain more to him and his family. He said that he was just curious about what we were doing. I noticed there were two policemen behind him and they all walked away together.

About fifteen minutes later he came back with his two buddies and three more officers. He said that all six of us, missionaries, had to go to the police station with them right now. We folded up the street board and the crowd broke up immediately. They hauled us to the police station and we spent the rest of the day there. Mike Goulding was the District leader so he called President Stevens and he came over and brought us some pizza for dinner a while later. Shortly after we arrived at the station, they came and got me and took me into a fairly large room and sat me down. There were three other men in there with me. The one officer said he was the Chief and I think one of them was some kind of a lawyer. They started asking me what we had been doing in the plaza. I noticed that the street board was in the room so I asked if I could show them and explain. I told them that we were missionaries and that each of us donate two years to spread a message. I opened up the street board and started with the first discussion of the apostasy and then about Joseph Smith. I was with them for over an hour it seemed like. I told them about the Book of Mormon and the Word of Wisdom. They asked how we got paid so I explained that and then went into tithing and fast offerings. One of the guys asked the other two why they had arrested us because we weren’t doing anything wrong and they all agreed.

About that time the District leader, Mike Goulding, came in and said that he had just talked to President Stevens and he said we shouldn’t tell them anything unless they ask specific questions. I told him that I was just getting ready to set a baptismal date for the three of them and I could tell it didn’t go over very well. Brian Blossil was the other senior companion and he had been playing checkers with the guards while all of this was going on. Too bad there wasn’t a guitar around at the time. I’m sure we could have had a real party. They kept us all day and after we had written our stories and signed some papers they let us go.

It was going on midnight and there were no taxis or busses to get a ride home. It seemed extremely quiet when we got out. Steven Phillips, my companion, and I had the farthest to go because we were in Carabanchel in a piso with a crazy woman named Custodia. I don’t remember how we got home. Maybe the other Elders that were there can expound a little. more.

When it was time for me to fly home with the rest of my crew, I was going to get on the plane and when they looked at my passport, it had a red stamp in it and they said that I wasn’t going anywhere. So my luggage went to Paris with Brown and Lindahl and then came back later that day. I spent three more days in Madrid traveling around with President Stevens talking to different officials and a judge. The judge finally gave me the papers so that I could leave the country but the good thing that came of it all was President Stevens had the judge give him a signed paper saying that it was OK for the missionaries to teach on the street. He got the paper and, from what I understand, every missionary received a copy of it to carry with them.

I missed out on seeing Paris but made it to London for a day or two. The worst part of the entire thing was they kept the street board after we had spent all of that money and effort to make it. Maybe it is buried in a vault under our case number 6-MMN-L’das.