A fantastic week in Spain

Hello everyone!!!! This week was great, just like every week here in the mission. Time is flying by SUPER fast. This coming week is the last week of my first transfer out in the field. The days, weeks, and months go by super fast out here. I love seeing pictures from everyone and seeing the change in everyone already. It´s hard to imagine what it´s going to be like when I return home. This week was full of miracles.
On Tuesday I went to Sevilla for intercambios with the Sister Training Leaders. I was with Hermana Birnbaumer and she´s from Bolivia. She was a really great companion for the day. Their area is a pueblo called Dos Hermanas(kind of ironic), and it´s really clean and pretty. Huelva is a bit more dirty and bigger, but I still love Huelva. One of the best experiences was that we went looking for someone and then ended up going into someone else´s home and teaching her a little bit and we asked her to be baptized and she said yes! Even though it´s not in my area and I won´t be working with her, it´s still really exciting! It was a really long two days that was just really crazy. I traveled a lot, which is really exhausting.
We received a couple new investigators this week. We went and taught these two sweet elderly ladies that my companion had contacting during intercambios with the other Hermana.
These two ladies are sisters, M and T, and T has a little mental problem, but she is so sweet and pure. They need the gospel in their lives so much and they just need help. When we go to teach them, I just want to help them with everything that they might need. We even will probably end up helping them paint their house because it´s really dark in there and it´s really hard for them to even read, so I´m excited for that. We also after teaching them asked them to be baptized once they knew for themselves and they said yes! We´re super excited for them and are praying hard for them. Our other investigator with a baptism date, A, we have not been able to get ahold of him at all, so we´ve had to drop his date until we can get ahold of him again. E is moving along great! We´ve taught him basically all of the lessons and he has such a desire to be baptized. He´s one of those people that the Lord truly prepares to receive the gospel. The only thing holding him back, is that he needs to attend church the next two weeks in order for him to keep this date, so please pray for him to do this.
We went to Palos again on Saturday and taught V a lesson and I think he really felt the Spirit, even though it´s really hard to communicate things to him sometimes. We have to teach in basic terms because he doesn´t completely understand everything. That day, I had called on the phone all of the people that we had met that first week in Palos and asked them to meet us that night. The miracle is that every single one of them showed up. C, M, V, M, S, D, and J. It was an amazing experience to be able to teach all of them about the Restoration and about Baptism. They were all very accepting of it. There were some that have been there the past couple of weeks that weren´t too interested in it before, but this week they seemed to listen more to what we were saying. J even committed to be baptized on the 21st of March! The others that have not yet decided if they want that want to learn more before they do anything, so every single one of them wants us to come back more and teach them, so we´re going to go to Palos every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It is definitely worth the trip and money though. All of these men came about from our dear friend, E, who did missionary work before he was even a member. It´s amazing the people that the Lord places in your path as you try your best to serve him. That was our huge miracle of the week and I am so excited to talk about it.
Anywho, we went to Sevilla again for Stake Conference this weekend, which was really great! There was a really good talk given by the area seventy about enduring to the end. Speaking of which, has anyone done what I challenged last week in my letter? I know that if you try your best to do this, the Lord will help you. I´m praying for you!

Thank you everyone for everything that you do! I love you all!!

Con amor, Hermana Shanda Rowley

Another glorious week in Spain

Sorry I wasn´t able to write much last week, I didn´t have much time. I´m so excited to hear that I have a new nephew, Cam Aaron Rowley!! Congratulations Mike and Rose! I´m a little sad that I won´t get to see him for a while, but all is well. I´m also a little sad to miss out on the homecoming of my awesome brothers, Devin and Derrick! They´ve been serving the Lord for the past two years in Tennessee and Mississippi and now have returned home with honor. It´s really cool that they were able to come home on the same day though! I´m sad that I´m missing out on all of these exciting events, but I know that I´m where I´m supposed to be at this time and I am serving our Heavenly Father with all my heart, might, mind, and strength.
This letter probably isn´t going to be very detailed because I normally use my journal to remember everything, but I forgot it...I´ll try though. The past two weeks have been pretty great. My Spanish is improving poco a poco (little by little). My companion is great though and helps me a lot. My district leader, asked me to teach Gospel Principles yesterday...about 20 minutes beforehand...in Spanish...I was terrified. Especially when E. Landinez said that there probably wouldn´t be hardly anyone there, but this ended up being the biggest class since I´ve been here with 13 people there. We normally only have about 7-8 people. It actually turned out not too bad. There was a lot of participation and before I knew it, 45 min. had passed by. We didn´t have any investigators at church yesterday, not next week (because we have Stake Conference), but the week after we´re going to try and get a lot of them there, especially those preparing for baptism.
I told you all about E, who has a baptism date, which was for the 21st, but has now been moved to the 14th of March. Remember the one friend of Eric´s that came to church, V.? Well...he also has a baptism date! We still have a lot to teach him, but I hope that he finds out for himself that this is the right path. We were able to meet with this "antiguo", which means just an old investigator, A, and I guess in the past he would cancel a lot of the citas and just wouldn´t follow through with commitments and so the past missionaries dropped him, but we met with him once and had another cita set up for the following week. The day came to meet him and he called us when it was about an hour before the cita, but when we answered, we didn´t hear anything and our phone was about to die, so we just decided to go and meet where we had planned anyway. We tried calling him back but it wasn´t working and then our phone died, so we just waited for him and he came! He told us that he was going to cancel on us, but his phone was being weird, so he came anyway. We taught him Lesson 3, The Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked him to be baptized, and he said yes!!!!! We´re going to meet with him again this week, but we´re definitely praying for him to follow through with it. So...on Saturday, we had some citas set up with some people in Palos, a little pueblo about 1/2 an hour bus ride away, but we didn´t get off at the right stop and didn´t get to Palos until 7:00 when we planned on being there at 5:30...Palos is where most of Eric´s friend´s from Camaroon and Ghana live that we met a couple of weeks ago. We were able to teach two lessons though, and one of them was to C. Like most of the people from Africa, he´s the only one here in his family, but we taught him the Restoration and about baptism and he said he would be baptized!! It´s so exciting!! I know that as these four people take this big step in their lives, that they can feel the difference and I know that they´ll receive many blessings because of it. I just ask that you all pray for all four of these people, because each one of them is so very important.

My companion said that this is the hardest area that she´s been in and she has 3 months left. It´s picking up a little bit though. I just ask for the continued prayers on our behalf and for the people and members here in Huelva. We can feel your prayers and can see the blessings we receive from them. I want to challenge every single one of you that reads this to do something. I challenge you to someone that is not a member to do something that would bring them closer to knowing our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Whether it be asking them to read The Family: A Proclamation to the World, reading the Book of Mormon, inviting them to church or a ward activity, etc., whatever it may be I challenge each and every one of you to do it and if and when you do, I would love to hear how it went. I know it´s hard sometimes. I´m a missionary. I know. But I also know that when you trust in God and put forth the effort and show him that you are willing to do what he asks, he will bless you with experiences that will either grow your testimony or someone else´s or even both. Involve the missionaries if you can also. They can be a huge help in accomplising this. Thank you all so much for being such great examples to me!

I love receiving e-mails from everyone and thank you to those that do write. It means so much to me, and I know I say this every week in every letter, but it´s the truth. I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic week!

Con mucho amor, Hermana Shanda Rowley

Week 2 in Huelva

Aloha everyone!! How is everything going?? This past week was abolutely fantastic! Sorry if my e-mails are just all over the place, I just don´t know how to connect everything smoothly. :) So...the only fast food places that they have here are McDonald´s and Burger King. They have a ton of banks and Chino stores just all over the place. The cars here are supposed to stop for pedestrians no matter what, so I felt really close to getting run over a couple of times when my companion just walks out into the street. It´s exhilarating. We walk around a lot, but we also ride the bus a lot too. I haven´t eaten much more home cooked food yet, but the stuff that I have had is pretty safe. Lot´s of chicken, bread, potatoes, etc. They really like to drink soda here though, at least from the limited choices of soda that they have, namely Coca-Cola and Fanta. All is great though!

Wednesday, we had a day called Dia de Diamante, which is Day of Diamonds. It was a day set aside for the whole mission to just contact people ALL DAY. The goal of the mission was to get 2015 future investigators in one day and we ended up getting 2446. It was a really great day! We were able to talk to a lot of people and share the gospel with them. It was an exhausting day, but very accomplishing. I can´t wait to meet with some of these people.

On Monday, we met this guy on the street and set up a cita (visit/appointment/date) to talk to him on Tuesday and he did and he committed to be BAPTIZED!! So we have a baptism date for E. on the 21 of February! Please keep him in your prayers because he is golden. He´s also being a missionary already...he took us to see some of his friends in Palos(a little pueblo about 30 min. away) and we went to their house and there was about two of them that we were teaching and then one more came in, and then two more came in, and soon enough we had a roomful of golden investigators from Camaroon and they all took a Book of Mormon and wanted us to come back, so were going back next week to teach them again. One of those guys, V., actually came to church yesterday too so it´s really exciting! the work is starting to pick up!

Last night we called a lot of our futures and set up citas with almost all of them! I can´t wait to see how everything works out! We teach piano and English classes every Friday at the church and that´s one of the techniques we´ve tried using when contacting people on the street, but we didn´t have anyone new come this past week, but all´s good.

The bad part of the week is that I was sick for about half of it...I stayed in bed all day for one of the days and last night my eye was really hurting me and we called the mission nurse and she said that I might have pink eye, which I really hoped was not the case, but my eye is a lot better today and I´m feeling great! I really appreciate the e-mails from everyone and I hope to continue recieving them! Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Rowley

Shanda's 1st week out in the field

Hola a todos!! How is everyone doing?!?!? I am just fantastic! This has been a long and exciting week and a half since my last e-mail. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to be in the CCM for six weeks. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I´m going to miss all the amazing people there, but I´m just as excited to share the gospel in the mission field. Our last day at the park we were able to be with our companions from the MTC, and it was a really good experience. My favorite one from that day is we started talking to this girl, she´s 19 years old, and she just got done teaching a roller-blading class(which everyone does here :) ), and we were just talking to her and she was so happy and smiling and laughing and she had to go, but we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and she was so excited and said that she was going to go on the Metro right then and look at it. It´s amazing how the Lord just prepares people to hear and accept his Gospel. So that was my favorite experience at the park, though there were many good ones. So on Tuesday, we got up at about 4:45 and prepared to leave the CCM. We took a train to Malaga which took about two and a half hours, but it flew by. The landscape is absolute gorgeous also! I love seeing the rock fences in the fields and trees. They´re so much better looking than barbed-wire. ;) We also saw a castle on a hill off in the distance, which I loved! Seeing old castles and historical things is so cool to me! Malaga is really pretty. I already like it more than Madrid. It´s still a city, but it seems more open and the buildings aren´t as close together as in Madrid. I officially saw the ocean for the first time in my life this week! It was gorgeous! I couldn´t stop looking at it! We went to the church closest to the train station and that´s where our official missions basically started. I went out and proselyted with a Sister Missionary in that area for about an hour and we taught the first lesson to someone. Those whose areas were closer to the mission home received their companions right away and did their orientation and left. Those of us who were a little farther away received our companions a little later on in the day and stayed the night there so that we could apply for residency the next morning. I love my mission President and his wife. They´re awesome! My companion is Hermana Samuelson and she´s from Utah. She´s been out for a year and two months. She´s super fun and super crazy and super awesome! :)  So Wednesday we went to our area, which is Huelva. It´s on the west right next to Portugal. Our piso (house) is actually really nice. We each have our own bathrooms and everything. I heard that it was really warm in the Malaga mission, but where I´m at, I haven´t really warmed up all the way since I got here. All´s well though. I love it! I´ve met quite a few people here, investigators, less active members, and member, etc. Each one is completely different. It´s really sad to see some of these people´s lives. I want to help them so much, but the only way I can is to share the gospel with them and it´s up to them to accept it, but they don´t know how much it can change their lives! It´s so exciting though when people say that we can come see them or that we can come back! I love the people here! I can´t wait to meet more of them. I try to say ¨Hi¨ to everyone on the street and try to always have a smile on my face! Church on Sunday was definitely different than what I´m used to...that´s for sure. We had Relief Society first, Gospel Principles, and then Sacrament Meeting last. I had the opportunity to introduce myself to everyone in the ward during Sacrament Meeting, which was okay. Everyone is so different and interesting. It makes me laugh sometimes. We went to a member´s house for lunch on Saturday and had this soup dish, which was actually pretty good. I was a little scared at first, but I tried it and really liked it. That´s basically the only home-made dish I´ve had since I´ve been in the field. Huelva is kind of big, but not too big. There´s Chino stores everywhere and they´re really handy actually. We walk by the bull fighting ring here occasionally and I´m so tempted to go inside...not. ;) I´m excited to try a lot of new things here in the coming weeks and I´ll try to tell you all about it. There´s just so much to write and not enough time to write it or to remember it all, but I love you all and thank you so much for the many e-mails. I appreciate them! I hope everyone is doing great and I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Con amor, Hermana Rowley

4 days left at the Mtc

Aloha todos!!! Como estan???? All is good here in España. I can´t
believe it´s almost over though, with only four more days here!! Last
P-Day we went to Estadio Bernabeu here in Madrid, for all of you
fútbol fans out there. :) It was a really cool experience. I love
teaching our "investigators" (teachers) here. It´s a really great
learning experience. The Spirit is so strong here. We always have
amazing devotionals and talks here. It´s really hard to even explain
all of the emotions associated with being here. I´ve been trying to
send pictures more, and they say that a picture says a thousand words.
I really love my district and I´m going to be really sad next week
when we all go our different ways, but I know change is good, even if
in the moment, we don´t like it. While I´ve been out here, I´ve
definitely grown a lot. The scriptures are amazing and I guess I
always took them for granted, but I would encourage all of you to
study, not read, but study them with full intent. You will learn and
grow so much. We also sing quite a bit here, which I absolutely love!!
It´s so fun to be singing all the time, especially songs of Zion!!
Well, I don´t have much time and my thoughts are really scattered
right now. I love you all and thank you so much for all of the
e-mails!! Con amor, Hermana Rowley

12 days left!!!

Hola Todos!! Feliz año!! How was everyone´s New Year?? It was great
here in el CCM. We did some fun stuff. We watched Miracle on 34th
Street. One of the things that I really enjoyed, was we sang
everyone´s national anthem New Year´s Eve, spontaneously of course. So
we had the U.S., Swiss-Austrian, Finland, Canada, Scotland, Italy,
Spain and Australia all represented. It was super fun and a really
cool experience! On Friday, we watched Meet the Mormons, which I had
never seen before, so that was a really good movie. The park this week
was fantastic!! My companion for the day was Hermana Rathfon, and she
is so sweet!! We were able to hand out 5 Book of Mormons. People here
are awesome! We had a lot of really cool experiences. One of my
favorite experience though, was after we got off of the metro on our
way back to the CCM, I started talking to this girl, R who is only 17,
but she looked a lot older (like most the people here...). Anywho, she
lives close to the temple and she was really nice and I invited here
to come play Fútbol with us everyday. She hasn´t come yet, but I´m
hoping she comes sometime before I leave. Every Sunday we have
¨Singing Hour¨ where we practice some songs, and then go out on the
steps of the temple and sing. It´s really fun every week to just sing
for an hour and a half. Sunday was absolutely fantastic, like
basically every day here...;) The devotionals they have here are so
cool. (I´m running out of adjectives to use to describe my experience
here...) Sunday night, we watched the Joseph Smith movie, which I´m
sure all of you have seen, but I always feel the spirit, especially
this time. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a prophet of God,
and I´ve also learned of the amazing spiritual power of the First
Vision. It´s so powerful in a lesson. Every time we recite it in a
lesson, it brings the Spirit like nothing else. We have about 20 new
missionaries here, the Native Spanish speakers. They seem really nice.
One of them complimented on my horrible Spanish, which made me feel a
little better about it. ;) Well, my time´s up this week. I love you
all and I really love hearing from all of you!! Love, Hermana Rowley

Shanda's 3rd week on the mission

Hola a todos!! Como estan??? Sorry, but this letter´s going to be kind of short. Around here, with the time given us, it´s basically sent pictures or write, and I sent pictures this week. Christmas here in the CCM was fantastic! We just have amazing devotionals all the time here. Christmas was no different. We watched the live broadcast devotional by Russell M. Nelson from the Provo MTC. If available, I would encourage you all to watch it! We also watched the Christmas video by the church quite a lot here. #SharetheGift :) It was great to be able to skype home on Christmas. I really love the Spain MTC. Right now there´s only about 35 missionaries, but today actually we are getting 8 Russian learners, and then next week, we will get about 20 native spanish speakers, so it´ll be a little more crowded.