One recent afternoon, Jaen Branch Pres. Sebastian Pena Almagro, his wife and their four children squeezed into the family's small car for a ride up a steep, rugged mountain road to Castle Santa Catalina, a fortress that has stood sentry over this portion of southern Spain since the 1400s.

From one of the castle's lookout points, Pres. Pena (pronounced pen-ya) gazed over Andalusia's provincial capital, the "beautiful city of Jaen," nestled at the foot of Spain's Sierra Nevada Mountains. In what is one of the hottest and most arid parts of Spain, clear blue skies provided a vivid complement to the whitewashed houses with red roofs in the valley below. Leaves from thousands of acres of olive trees surrounding the city as far as the eye can see in all directions added a refreshning greeness to the scene."Imagine how much more beautiful it would be," Pres. Pena said, "if all Jaen's people would hear and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Pres. Pena and his wife, Blanca Maria Minguez Duran - who follows the Spanish tradition of retaining her maiden name and using her mother's maiden name after her father's surname - and their family represent the past, present and future of Church members in Jaen. They are relatively new members of the Church, as are most of the 381 members in the Jaen Branch, which was organized Jan. 1, 1978, and is part of the Spain Malaga Mission. The Jaen District has 1,243 members.

The Pena family was baptized in 1993. "All of Spain celebrates the day of our baptism," he said with a broad smile that lit up his dark eyes. "We were baptized on Oct. 12, the holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus' voyage from Spain that led him to the New World."

The family's interest in the Church was sparked by their love and respect for her aunt, Carmen Minguez, a member who lives in Aranjus, near Madrid. A member of the Church for some time, she spoke of the gospel as the family visited her during a vacation.

Her comments made a deep impression. During another visit with her, the Pena family inundated her with questions. Adding their own queries were the children: Pablo Jesus Pena Minquez, now 15; Maria del Amor Pena Minquez, 14; Maria Evagelina Pena Minquez, 10; and Israel Pena Minquez, 5.

"We asked her so many questions about the Church that she had to get up early in the morning to get her housework done and the food prepared so she could spend the rest of the day answering our questions," Pres. Pena said.

When the family returned home, they were determined to find where the members met in Jaen. They telephoned and asked for "permission" to visit the Church and to be taught by the missionaries. The branch president at that time, Antonio Trassierra Lopez, made arrangements for the family to meet with the missionaries.

After having been taught by the missionaries, the Pena family returned to Aranjus to be baptized so their aunt could enjoy the results of her great efforts in sharing the gospel with them. Five months after he was baptized, on March 27, 1994, Brother Pena, who is an administrator in a printing business, was called to serve as president of the Jaen Branch.

The family went to the Swiss Temple on Oct. 12, 1994 - exactly one year after they were baptized - to be sealed as a family.

Pres. Pena's wife, Sister Minguez, teaches a class for investigators and new members, and is first counselor in the branch's Relief Society. She also teaches an institute class. The children are active in the Church's youth organizations.

The Penas' eldest son is a home teacher to one of the longest-time members of the Church in Jaen, Maria Del Carmen Yuguera Yuguera, whose maiden and married names are the same. A mother of three children, she met missionaries who were serving Jaen in 1977.

Recently, while entertaining a couple of Church members in her small apartment, which is decorated with pictures of her family, LDS prophets and temples, Sister Yuguera, a widow, spoke of her conversion to the Church. She said she heard of the Church the first time when her son, Jacinto, returned home from school in the nearby city of Granada and mentioned that he had seen some Mormons in the street. She said the very mention of the word "Mormon" caused her to "have an aura of feelings" that she could not, at that time, understand. She said she felt impressed that she should find out what the word "Mormon" meant and "who these Mormons are." Her son could not give her any more information. All he knew was that the missionaries were from the United States.

However, Jacinto had given the missionaries his address, more out of the novelty of having two Americans visit than out of a sincere interest to hear their message. But he thought they would never come to visit at his mother's apartment in Jaen.

While tracting in Jaen several months later, the missionaries knocked on her door. Jacinto wasn't home. His mother opened the door and saw standing before her two young men who, although they couldn't speak Spanish very well, were able to share their feelings about the gospel.

She felt impressed to believe that the information she was receiving was good, and she accepted what they were saying. Something inside her, she said, made her want to know more. She realized then that these were the two young men "who were the Mormons Jacinto had seen in the street." She remembered the stir she had felt when she first heard the word "Mormon" some months earlier.

A week after the missionaries appeared at her door, they returned and taught her and her children the gospel. Sister Yuguera was baptized on June 16, 1979; she went to the Frankfurt Germany Temple in 1991. Members in Andalusia know Sister Yuguera as a woman of great faith who has a great love for the gospel and for her Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ.

As do other citizens of Jaen, Church members here have deep feelings of loyalty for and pride in their city, their province and their country. They appreciate and value their heritage, which stretches back thousands of years. But deep as those feelings may be, they are no match for the gratitude they feel and express for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that has come to their "beautiful city of Jaen."