Hello
everyone!! Sorry I haven't written a good letter in a while.
It's been a crazy few weeks here. I'll try to catch you all up on
what's been happening the best that I can. Well, as you can probably
tell from the subject line that it has been raining here off and on
for about three weeks now. Sometimes a bit more than other times, but
then there are sometimes that it begins to rain and we are completely
soaked in about five minutes. Last week we had to go and buy boots
because we didn't have any and our shoes were completely soaked from
the rain. Both of them. They didn't dry for about three days. It's
been quite adventurous, but the boots work a lot better.
The works been going quite slow, and we've been knocking on lots of
doors and talking to people, but nothing has been working too well, so
we're working on what else we can do to find the elect. We have a few
ideas and I think we've got it figured out what's going to be the best
way for now, but I'll talk about it later. To lead up to it, I'll
explain this crazy past week that we've had...
So, we changed our p-day to Tuesday to go to Gibraltar with the senior
couple in our zone that is going home this coming month. We had a
blast up there at Gibraltar and enjoyed seeing the monkeys. We took
lots of pictures. The monkeys are nice and all, unless you have
food...then they might attack you. One of them almost attacked me and
stole my peach, another one stole and Elders name tag and tried eating
it, along with Hermana Knowles' Book of Mormon. It was quite an
adventure. After our time up there, we had intercambios (exchanges)
with the Hermanas there in Algeciras and the zone leaders had them
also with the elders there in La Linea, so my companion went back with
Hermana Gale and Elder Martín went back with Elder Andrus to Jerez to
have exchanges there. Hermana Stradling and I had a great intercambio.
We were able to go serve at the soup kitchen there in Algeciras and it
was so fun! I want to find one in Jerez to go help at. We also ate
octopus/squid soup at this lady's house. I'm not sure what it was
actually. It was quite an interesting meal, especially considering the
fact that neither I or Hermana Stradling like seafood...the potatoes
were good though... :) anywho, it turns out that on the way back to
pick us up, the Elder's car broke down...it's about a 1 1/2 hour drive
from Jerez to Algeciras, so we ended up having to stay the night again
there in Algeciras and we didn't know how we were going to get back to
Jerez. We ended up taking a Taxi back to Jerez because the car wasn't
fixed yet. The elders had to go back in bus a few days later to pick
it up from Algeciras. As soon as we got back in taxi, at about two
thirty, we had about twenty minutes in piso (apartment) to change my
stuff and rush to an appointment to eat with a member at 3:00, which
was really good, and then afterwards we ran to the train station to
catch the train at 4:30 to go have intercambios with the Hermanas in
Puerto de Santa María. I finally got back home for good Friday at
about two thirty.
That night we were going to go visit an elderly member in the nursing
home that a member had asked us to go with him to visit her, but he
ended up not being able to come with us, but we went and visited with
her anyway. She is such a sweet lady and was only baptized about 4 or
5 years ago with her husband, but her husband was killed about two
years ago and she has a disease where she can't move her hands or feet
or anything, so after he was killed they had to put her in a nursing
home. We visited her again on yesterday. We happened to visit when it
was almost dinner time, so we ended up feeding her too. She kept
telling us about the missionaries that always came to her house. She
remembers a lot of things really well, so there's nothing really wrong
with her mind or anything, she just can't move by herself and she's
elderly. She's e sweetest lady though. They were such good visits
thogugh and it got a lot of wheels turnings in my head. We definitely
want to go Christmas caroling to the nursing homes in December, but we
want to go visit her one day of the week and maybe other elderly
people that just need a lot of love. We also want to get a group
together to just go every Sunday afternoon and sing hymns to the
elderly people and just visit with them. We have decided as a
companionship that we want to do more service, which is hard to find
here. No one has any yards or anything, and so for most people it's
just cleaning or housework, if they let us do it, which most don't, so
we've thought about once a week we could go help at the soup kitchen,
once we find it, and then also go visit the elderly and sing to them.
We figured this might be the way to find right now because nothing
else seems to be working. I'm so excited to start it though. Just
these few experiences I've had this past week have made me really
excited to do it and nothing brings more joy than serving people.
That's a gospel truth.
We do see other miracles though, and one actually happened last week.
We were on intercambios and I was with Hermana Nelson here in Jerez.
We did a lot of street contacting because we didn't have set citas and
all our plans fell through, but on our way to go try and see a Menos
Activo (less-active), we stopped to talk to this woman, and she kind
of stopped at the same time to talk to us. We introduced ourselves and
I had a Book of Mormon in my hand and she says, "I have that book, and
I'm reading it." What!?!? It turns out she works with a member in
Chiclana and this member gave it to her and told her that it would
give her peace and hope, so she's been reading it, so she willingly
gave us her information to meet with her, and so we met with her on
Monday and it was sooo amazing. She thinks led us that her dad died
about three years ago and from that moment, she kind of drew herself
away from God, and she doesn't feel peace inside herself and she knows
that it's for that reason, so we talked about how this message really
does bring peace and that families are eternal. We weren't able to see
her again during the week, although we had a cita set because we were
stranded in Algeciras, but she came to church yesterday!! Afterwards
she said that she had come with doubts, but after sacrament meeting
she felt full and that she wants to go home and think and read and she
also wants to go tell her mom about her experience and invite her to
come too. She's so amazing! He Lord really does bless us with miracles
in the moments when we think that we can't handle anymore rejections
or do anything right. Her name's Isabel, so pray for her!
This week was also crazy and really sad in the fact that two members
of the ward here passed away and they had one funeral on Tuesday and
the other one yesterday at 9:00 before church, so we only had
Sacrament Meeting yesterday and it was changed to 12:00. Also, a
recent convert teenager got hit by a car on her way to the church
Halloween dance.
A less active member is also teaching us how to knit...so eventually
we are going to make scarves with her. She is the sweetest lady ever
and some things are finally happening right now that might put her
back on the right track to start going to church again. We were so
happy yesterday after visiting the elderly lady, Rosario, in the
nursing home, and then Nani, the less active. My heart was absolutely
full of love and joy.
So it's been a crazy week absolutely full of traveling and adventures.
In fact, I'm writing this as we are traveling to Málaga, which is a
three hour drive, for Consejo de la Misión (Mission council), but I
think we're going to take a pit stop in this really cool pueblo on the
way that dates back to the time before Christ. It's called Ronda and
I've heard that it's really pretty, so we'll see.
It has been an absolutely amazing week full of many learning
experiences and I can't even explain all that has happened these past
few weeks, especially this past week, but I hope these words for now
are enough. I hope you all have an amazing week and that you look for
opportunities to serve those around you. Love you all and thank you so
much for your support!
Yo sé que vive mi Señor y que está iglesia es el reino de dios en la
tierra y que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y Redentor y por medio de
él podemos hacer todo. Que tengan una buena semana!
Con mucho amor, Hermana Rowley
P.s. I'll send some pictures in another email.
It's been a crazy few weeks here. I'll try to catch you all up on
what's been happening the best that I can. Well, as you can probably
tell from the subject line that it has been raining here off and on
for about three weeks now. Sometimes a bit more than other times, but
then there are sometimes that it begins to rain and we are completely
soaked in about five minutes. Last week we had to go and buy boots
because we didn't have any and our shoes were completely soaked from
the rain. Both of them. They didn't dry for about three days. It's
been quite adventurous, but the boots work a lot better.
The works been going quite slow, and we've been knocking on lots of
doors and talking to people, but nothing has been working too well, so
we're working on what else we can do to find the elect. We have a few
ideas and I think we've got it figured out what's going to be the best
way for now, but I'll talk about it later. To lead up to it, I'll
explain this crazy past week that we've had...
So, we changed our p-day to Tuesday to go to Gibraltar with the senior
couple in our zone that is going home this coming month. We had a
blast up there at Gibraltar and enjoyed seeing the monkeys. We took
lots of pictures. The monkeys are nice and all, unless you have
food...then they might attack you. One of them almost attacked me and
stole my peach, another one stole and Elders name tag and tried eating
it, along with Hermana Knowles' Book of Mormon. It was quite an
adventure. After our time up there, we had intercambios (exchanges)
with the Hermanas there in Algeciras and the zone leaders had them
also with the elders there in La Linea, so my companion went back with
Hermana Gale and Elder Martín went back with Elder Andrus to Jerez to
have exchanges there. Hermana Stradling and I had a great intercambio.
We were able to go serve at the soup kitchen there in Algeciras and it
was so fun! I want to find one in Jerez to go help at. We also ate
octopus/squid soup at this lady's house. I'm not sure what it was
actually. It was quite an interesting meal, especially considering the
fact that neither I or Hermana Stradling like seafood...the potatoes
were good though... :) anywho, it turns out that on the way back to
pick us up, the Elder's car broke down...it's about a 1 1/2 hour drive
from Jerez to Algeciras, so we ended up having to stay the night again
there in Algeciras and we didn't know how we were going to get back to
Jerez. We ended up taking a Taxi back to Jerez because the car wasn't
fixed yet. The elders had to go back in bus a few days later to pick
it up from Algeciras. As soon as we got back in taxi, at about two
thirty, we had about twenty minutes in piso (apartment) to change my
stuff and rush to an appointment to eat with a member at 3:00, which
was really good, and then afterwards we ran to the train station to
catch the train at 4:30 to go have intercambios with the Hermanas in
Puerto de Santa María. I finally got back home for good Friday at
about two thirty.
That night we were going to go visit an elderly member in the nursing
home that a member had asked us to go with him to visit her, but he
ended up not being able to come with us, but we went and visited with
her anyway. She is such a sweet lady and was only baptized about 4 or
5 years ago with her husband, but her husband was killed about two
years ago and she has a disease where she can't move her hands or feet
or anything, so after he was killed they had to put her in a nursing
home. We visited her again on yesterday. We happened to visit when it
was almost dinner time, so we ended up feeding her too. She kept
telling us about the missionaries that always came to her house. She
remembers a lot of things really well, so there's nothing really wrong
with her mind or anything, she just can't move by herself and she's
elderly. She's e sweetest lady though. They were such good visits
thogugh and it got a lot of wheels turnings in my head. We definitely
want to go Christmas caroling to the nursing homes in December, but we
want to go visit her one day of the week and maybe other elderly
people that just need a lot of love. We also want to get a group
together to just go every Sunday afternoon and sing hymns to the
elderly people and just visit with them. We have decided as a
companionship that we want to do more service, which is hard to find
here. No one has any yards or anything, and so for most people it's
just cleaning or housework, if they let us do it, which most don't, so
we've thought about once a week we could go help at the soup kitchen,
once we find it, and then also go visit the elderly and sing to them.
We figured this might be the way to find right now because nothing
else seems to be working. I'm so excited to start it though. Just
these few experiences I've had this past week have made me really
excited to do it and nothing brings more joy than serving people.
That's a gospel truth.
We do see other miracles though, and one actually happened last week.
We were on intercambios and I was with Hermana Nelson here in Jerez.
We did a lot of street contacting because we didn't have set citas and
all our plans fell through, but on our way to go try and see a Menos
Activo (less-active), we stopped to talk to this woman, and she kind
of stopped at the same time to talk to us. We introduced ourselves and
I had a Book of Mormon in my hand and she says, "I have that book, and
I'm reading it." What!?!? It turns out she works with a member in
Chiclana and this member gave it to her and told her that it would
give her peace and hope, so she's been reading it, so she willingly
gave us her information to meet with her, and so we met with her on
Monday and it was sooo amazing. She thinks led us that her dad died
about three years ago and from that moment, she kind of drew herself
away from God, and she doesn't feel peace inside herself and she knows
that it's for that reason, so we talked about how this message really
does bring peace and that families are eternal. We weren't able to see
her again during the week, although we had a cita set because we were
stranded in Algeciras, but she came to church yesterday!! Afterwards
she said that she had come with doubts, but after sacrament meeting
she felt full and that she wants to go home and think and read and she
also wants to go tell her mom about her experience and invite her to
come too. She's so amazing! He Lord really does bless us with miracles
in the moments when we think that we can't handle anymore rejections
or do anything right. Her name's Isabel, so pray for her!
This week was also crazy and really sad in the fact that two members
of the ward here passed away and they had one funeral on Tuesday and
the other one yesterday at 9:00 before church, so we only had
Sacrament Meeting yesterday and it was changed to 12:00. Also, a
recent convert teenager got hit by a car on her way to the church
Halloween dance.
A less active member is also teaching us how to knit...so eventually
we are going to make scarves with her. She is the sweetest lady ever
and some things are finally happening right now that might put her
back on the right track to start going to church again. We were so
happy yesterday after visiting the elderly lady, Rosario, in the
nursing home, and then Nani, the less active. My heart was absolutely
full of love and joy.
So it's been a crazy week absolutely full of traveling and adventures.
In fact, I'm writing this as we are traveling to Málaga, which is a
three hour drive, for Consejo de la Misión (Mission council), but I
think we're going to take a pit stop in this really cool pueblo on the
way that dates back to the time before Christ. It's called Ronda and
I've heard that it's really pretty, so we'll see.
It has been an absolutely amazing week full of many learning
experiences and I can't even explain all that has happened these past
few weeks, especially this past week, but I hope these words for now
are enough. I hope you all have an amazing week and that you look for
opportunities to serve those around you. Love you all and thank you so
much for your support!
Yo sé que vive mi Señor y que está iglesia es el reino de dios en la
tierra y que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y Redentor y por medio de
él podemos hacer todo. Que tengan una buena semana!
Con mucho amor, Hermana Rowley
P.s. I'll send some pictures in another email.
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