Buenas días mis queridos familiares y amigos!!
We have been seeing many miracles here in Jerez de la Frontera. I have been
edified through the many experiences and opportunities the Lord has placed in
my path. This upcoming week I will be changing areas to Cartagena, on the east
side of the mission by the sea. I will continue being a Sister Training Leader
with Hermana Estes, which I am really excited for.
These past few months here in Jerez have
changed my life and helped me see a lot of things with a different perspective.
My companion has also been a huge help through this spiritual journey as
well.
Today I would just like to tell you of a few
experienc
es we had this past week. We have a recent convert in our area,
Rodrigo. He´s 17 years old and an incredible person. Ever since I came here to
Jerez he´s been less-active and he was only baptized this past summer. He´s
been going through some hard times in his life and his brother and him
basically live by themselves. He also had this girlfriend, Jenny, who had also
been taking the missionary discussions at one point, but her parents don´t want
her getting baptized or anything because they´re strongly Catholic. They´re
also neighbors with Rodrigo. We´ve been making progress with him little by
little, and two weeks ago he came to church for the first time since I´ve been
here. He´s also come to a few activities that we´ve had the past couple of
weeks. Rodrigo has a sincere desire to change his life. We noticed that after
church that one Sunday, we was the happiest that we´ve ever seen him and we
knew that the Spirit had worked in him and is continuing to work in him to help
him accept the gospel and Jesus Christ more fully in his life. He wants to go
on a mission and the other day, we gave him the Preach My Gospel missionary
manual and he was very excited about it. So with that little bit of background,
the other day we were on our way to see him and as we were walking by their
house window, we saw his little brother, Joselito, with his friends, Rafa and
Sergio, which are also Jenny´s brothers. We were talking to them a little bit
in the window and then 11-year old Sergio asks me if it´s a Bible that I have
in my hand. We proceeded to explain to him about the Book of Mormon and gave it
to him. He was very surprised and when we gave it to him he asked if it was
really for him, three times. We invited him to come to church with us, which he
said yes to and we set up another appointment with him and his mom, who we
heard from Jenny is very Catholic and doesn´t want anything to do with this,
for the very next day. The innocence and willingness of little children is
amazing to me. Knowing all the details beforehand, we were very nervous about
meeting her and what she would say and if she would let us teach her kids. That
next day we went on exchanges with some other Hermanas and my companion and
Hermana Peters ended going and seeing them. They were only albe to talk in her
doorway, but they said that at first, she was infuriated: that she´s been
trying to get Sergio to come to Mass with her basically his whole life, but he
won´t do it and just from one little conversation with us, we wants to get up
early Sunday morning and go to church with us. On the other hand, she was
absolutely shocked at how happy he is and she said that something changed in
him, so she´s reluctantly okay with it. She said that we could pass by another
day to explain a little bit more of our message. We went with a member on
Friday morning to see her. It was an amazing lesson and she wasn´t in contradiction
to anything. She said that whenever she picked up the Book of Mormon and read a
little from it she just felt this peace. All throuhg the lesson the Spirit was
testifying to her and she kept saying that she kept getting the chills, in a
good way. When we asked her if she would be baptized when she recieved an
answer for herself about these things, she said yes, without a doubt. It was
definitely not what we were expecting from that appointment. The Spirit is the
real teacher in this work. We are only the vessels.
You might remember our investigator, Maria
Luisa. She actually lived in the Elders area and so they taught her all the
lessons and this past weekend she was baptized! It was a miracle, because she
was going back and forth for a while about the Catholic church, but then she
recieved a lot of testimonies and confirmations that this was the right path to
follow. The Spirit was very strong at her baptism and she was crying afterwards
and said that she felt so good and that she was so happy. It was a very special
day.
I´m very sad to leave Jerez. It will always
have a part of my heart and all the people that I´ve met here have changed my
life in amazing ways. The Lord knows each and every one of us and what we need
at certain points in our lives. We just have to trust him with everything,
absolutely everything that we do. Thank you all for your support and for your
testimonies and examples to me. I love you all and hope that you have a
marvelous week!
Con mucho amor, Hermana Rowley
