Well this week was just as fantastically awesome as last week. One of
the hermana´s here said that it´s a short time here, but you have a
lifetime of experiences, and I believe that wholeheartedly! On last
P-Day, we went sight seeing and saw the royal palace and a big
cathedral, which I have no idea what it´s called. España is absolutely
gorgeous! Saturday at the park was really cool again. I was able to
reach our goals that we set for the day. Proselyting is the best and I
can´t wait to do it more out in the field. We talked to one guy for
about half an hour, in English. It was a really neat experience and we
were able to give him a Book of Mormon. When we were leaving the park,
we walked by this elderly couple, and we said "Hola!" to them and then
they stopped and looked at us and the woman said something, but I
didn´t quite understand, but I understood the man and he asked if we
said "Hola!" to her. They seemed to be astonished that we even said Hi
to them! It was very interesting to me. We teach investigators here at
the CCM, (a.k.a. our teachers) It really helps a lot to prepare us
more for the field. A lot of the people here in España seem very sad
and angry all the time. I really love saying hi to them and seeing
they´re reactions, because they vary a lot. Sunday was a very
spiritual day. We had three devotionals and they were all amazing. The
second one we had a guest speaker, David Archuleta, he talked to us
and sang some songs. He had an amazing spirit with him. The last song
he sang was O Holy Night, and the spirit was so strong. I love how
music can bring the Spirit like that. The devotional later on, we just
listened to and watched christmas music/videos. It was so powerful.
Sunday was definitely my favorite day of the week. Oh, I also had to,
well, got to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting. What President Lovell
does is he says what the topic for the week will be and then everyone
just prepares a talk, in Spanish, to give on Sunday, but you won´t
know if you´re going to actually speak or not until that day. Sunday
was my lucky day. I also played the piano for Sacrament Meeting that
day, and my District did a musical number to Silent Night. It was
actually really cool. The first verse was sung by two hermanas in
Italian, then me, una maestra, y our three elders sang it in German,
then we all did Spanish, and then the last was English with everyone
singing along. We also had violin with us too. I´m going to say it
again, but Sunday was definitely the best day this week. I love my
district! We have grown to be a family, and President Lovell told one
of the Hermana´s in our district that our´s is his favorite, becuase
he can feel the love that we have for one another, which no other
district has. My companion, Hermana Welcker, is amazing. She speaks
Italian, so Spanish comes easier to her than most, so she helps me a
lot with that. Everyday for Physical Activity, we go and play futbol,
and it´s so much fun. I love playing it everyday. The food we eat here
is actually pretty good. It´s definitely different than la comida de
Los Estados Unidos, but most the time it´s actually good. They also
feed us a ton, so I might have to lose a few pounds when I leave here!
:) Everyweek on P-day, we get to go to the temple, which is absolutely
beautiful! Today, David Archuleta happened to be in our session, and
my compañera was freaking out, but I love her! haha Sorry if I don´t
respond to everyone´s e-mails. I really try to, but we´re limited on
time. I do love getting e-mails from everyone though, so please write
me!! I love you all! The church is true! Feliz Navidad!! Love, Hermana
Rowley

Hey Everyone!!!! So this week was amazing!! So much has happened I
don´t even know where to start. It was a really long flight over here.
I went from Boise to Denver, to Frankfurt, to Madrid. The flight over
the ocean took about 8 hrs. We got here at about 4/5:00 and we didn´t
really do anything the rest of that day. We just got settled in and
had orientation basically. This MTC is so tiny, but I love it! Right
now there´s only about 35 missionaries, but we`ll be getting some
Russian speakers in about another week or so, and then two weeks after
that we`ll be getting some native Spanish speakers, so that will
change it up a bit. My district is awesome! :) We have 3 girls from
Utah, two from Florida, me, one elder from Canada, one from Finland,
and one from Germany. My companion`s name is Hermana Welcker. She´s
absolutely awesome. She`s speaks Italian, so Spanish is pretty easy
for her to pick up compared to some people. The major highlight of my
week is going to El Parque de Retiro. It´s supposedly used to be the
king`s garden, but it`s huge! We went and proselyted there on
Saturday. I was blessed to have some really cool experiences. One guy
said that he had a lot of questions and was wanting to go to church
and talk to someone about it all, we also talked to some Muslims, and
I ended up reciting the First Vision to both of those people. What
they do every week is after about an hour and a half of proselyting,
they get all together and sing in the park for a little bit, and right
now it`s Christmas songs, but while they are singing, two
companionships are picked to proselyte, and mine was one of them and
it was the best! I was talking to this couple, M and M, and I was
telling him about El Libro de Mormon and he was very accepting of it
when I said that it went hand in hand with the Bible. He then asked me
if I had read it and like it, or something along those lines, and I
enthusically answered him yes, so he said something like if I read it
and liked it, then he knew that he would like it. His faith was so
incredible. Some people are just ready to hear it.
 Love you!! Hermana Rowley

Shanda Leaves for Spain MTC

 Shanda and Jessica Spencer    a sister Missionary that is going to the Spain Madrid Mission. They will spend time in the MTC together.

 Shanda saying I will see you in a year and a half

Adios We will see you later
Mom!! I`m here!!! :) Everyone speaks a different language here, of
course. This computer keyboard is really funky and is really hard to
type on...The flight was good. Long, but good. We flew up over
Nebraska, Canada, the Ocean, England, Germany, France, and then
finally here! We just got here and it is 5:20, same time as Mike now!
I sat by these really nice Spanish people on the way over here from
Frankfurt. Their names were Juanamaria and Eojenio. (spelling ????)
They were really nice and they live in my mission!! I´m kind of a
little ahead in my español than everyone else here. :) Madrid is
pretty big and they have a TON of tree farms. Like a million...haha
well, that´s all I have to say for now, and just wanted to let you
know I got here safe and sound! Love you and dad a ton!! :) Love,
Hermana Shanda Rowley