At times, we need a little change.

hola a todos!!!! This week was really great. It flew by fast as does most of the weeks here. On Tuesday we went to Murcia, about an hour away, for our Tri-Zone Conference. It was really good. We truly have inspired leaders called of God. They talked about the importance of working with the members and the importance of teaching from the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is so important in this work, in this Gospel. It literally is the key to knowing the truth. At one point during the conference I was translating for my companion because they were talking in English and she was the only one that couldn´t understand. It was an interesting experience and really helped me realize how much I really need to improve and work on my Spanish. 

On Friday, I received my new companion for a week and a half. She´s a returned missionary from the 2nd ward here in Elche. She finished her mission in March, so it really is a pleasure to work with her and to learn from her. Friday we were also able to meet with a lot of inactives and they all said that they were going to start coming to church again and we were really excited for them. One of them is Fran, the son of our bishop. I was really wanted to meet him and know his story, why he stopped going, his life, etc. He is really nice and super fuerte(strong) with his testimony. He says that it has nothing to do with his testimony why he stopped going. Only that he gradually just stopped. He says though that Natalia, his sister, calls him every Sunday morning to invite him to come to church. He wants to start going to church again too. He said that the other day he was praying for consuelo and just things and then we called him to meet with him so he knew that was an answer to his prayer and basically the reason for why he met with us. He's super ready to come back to church and said that he was going to come. I'm super excited for him to come back to church and start participating in things again and to also be a huge help for the ward. It was a super good lesson with him. He hasn't stopped praying every day, so that's really good, but he's kind of slacked off on his reading of the Book of Mormon so he's going to start reading it again. He mentioned how ironic it was that on his mission he was teaching the Menos activos and couldn't really understand why they were less actives, but now it's him in that position. Pray for him though and for our other menos activo, Carlos. We had a cita with Carlso the same day and he was so excited when we got there, there was just joy radiating of his face and basically the first thing he said was "I read Hermana!" The last time we had assigned him to read Alma 34-36 and he said that he read more, that he read all of Alma! He was super excited about it too. He shared a little bit with us some of the parts that he thought were important. It made me super happy too! He also said that he was still planning on coming to church with us on Sunday. So for some reason or another both of them weren´t able to make it on Sunday so pray for them please that they´ll have the courage to take that first step to come back into the fold. 

Sasha is doing good. He tried dropping us again, but we had a cita with him and really talked about the importance of asking god for answers and letting him respond, so we´ll see how this week goes for him. 

Thank you so much everyone for your support and for your testimonies. You are all amazing examples to me. I hope you all have an amazing week and look for opportunities to share the gospel with others. 

Love, Hermana Rowley

No life is like the mission life...

Hello everyone!!!! This week was really good. We were able to go to a leader´s training meeting this weekend for the stake because we were asked to speak to the relief society leader´s for about 5 min. Before they were split up according to the callings, the Stake President and one of his counselors talked to everyone. They asked us all what qualities a good leader needs. After receiving feedback they proceeded to tell us that to be a good leader we have to have regular temple attendance and pay our tithing. Something they said that I really liked was when they were talking about tithing they said that paying our tithing shows in what place we put our Heavenly Father in our lives. In not paying tithing, we put the world before God. They also mentioned that when we don´t have desires to fulfill our responsibilities in our callings it´s because we are spiritually sick. If we are in a position to where we don´t fulfill our callings, when we don´t go to the temple, when we don´t pay our tithing, we need to do all that we can to "heal" ourselves. This is my challenge to you all too. If you are spiritually sick, read the scriptures, pray, serve, have Family Home Evening, go to the temple. Do all that you can to heal yourself. There is a huge difference in being a member of the church and being converted to the Lord. 

I´m still working with Hermana Benitez until this Friday and then a different girl will come for the last week of the transfer and then we´ll see what happens. I might stay, I might leave. It´s all in the Lord´s hands. This week I officially hit my halfway mark. The time flies by so fast in the mission, but it is worth every single second. 

Our investigators are doing well. Sasha is doing great. Last week we didn´t really have a lesson with him. It seemed as if he was kind of avoiding us, so one night we saw him and stopped to talk to him and he said that we´re wasting our time and that he´s not going to change. He can´t and he doesn´t want to. We had a lesson with him the next day and he had the same mind frame and the next day too, but the same day that we had a lesson with him in the morning, later on he called us and told us that he had been reading a little bit in the Book of Mormon and "looking in the mirror" and didn´t like what he saw and so he really does want to change. One of his major difficulties is believing in God. He doesn´t have a belief or faith in God, but that´s changing little by little. Although he can´t see it, we can see a change in him every time and that he really is starting to believe. 

It was a fabulous week and I hope that yours was just as wonderful. Thank you all for the support that you give me and for the prayers on my behalf. Love you all and have a fantastic week! 

Con mucho amor, Hermana Rowley

There´s always something new to learn.

This week was full of adventures. With a mini missionary and new investigators, we just had an amazing and uplifting week. 

Sasha is doing great. He´s basically completely changed as a person from the first moment we met him. His whole being is different and its a good thing. In less than one week, he´s gone from being a strong alcoholic that is constantly drinking to only a little bit every day and on Friday he didn´t have a single drink! He said that he felt super great too! He´s still a little unsure about the religion, but he´s so grateful for us to help him change and to realize that it´s time to change. Not only for his sake, but for the sake of his daughter too. I can´t even describe how important having the spirit is in lessons, especially with him. He´s very smart and very scientific, but when he feels the spirit, that´s when he rethinks things. He came to church yesterday too! He really loved the classes, but he had a struggle with Sacrament Meeting. He says that he gets bored easily and yesterday, it just didn´t go well for him, but we had a cita with him later and after talking for a little bit, he said that he would come with us again. The only thing is, is that he´s going out of town this week for business and if things go well, he´ll be gone for about a month and then afterwards, move back to England. If things don´t go well, he´ll be back in about a week and continue on here. We told him that there´s missionaries in England and the church is everywhere, so it´ll be fine. It´s all in the hands of the Lord. 

I learned something new while explaining to an investigator that I try to get to know the person and understand their circumstances and situations so that I can help them realize the importance of the basic principles of the gospel and take the first steps on their own. Mas o Menos that's what I learned. For example, more in this past week than anything, I've really been trying with every lesson to ask the people for questions that they have and be guided by the spirit to answer them and it has definitely made the lessons more meaningful because we are talking more as people and not just as "teacher" and "student" which is really good. I think it helps them feel that we actually care about them. It´s also true that when you´re teaching, you learn just as much or more than the person that you are teaching. 

The missionary work here is picking up a little bit. Diligence and obedience are key in this work. Thank you all so much for your love and support. Have a wonderful week!

Love, Hermana Rowley

The start of a new transfer.

Hola a todos! Well, this was transfer week and now I´m with...a mini missionary (member)! Her name is Hermana Benitez and she lives in Alicante. I will be with her for three weeks and then for the next three weeks afterwards, I will be with a different mini missionary, but I don´t know who that will be. Hermana Cook was transferred to a different area and this transfer there´s an odd number of Sister Missionaries, so President Andersen is having me be with mini missionaries until next transfer. 

This week was pretty good. We showed one of our investigators the church building because she doesn´t want to come to church yet, and she really liked it. She was really surprised that we don´t have any crosses in the church. I explained to her that it´s because although we recognize that Jesus Christ suffered and died for us, we celebrate more that he lives today. Every time I bear my testimony like that to someone, my testimony strengthens even more. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and the many blessings that I have received. Many people have asked about my family and if all of them are members and when I say yes, they proceed to ask if all of them are active members and with pride I tell them that every single one is active in the church. It´s so true that we take the things for granted that we don´t realize we are so blessed to have. Just seeing all of the families here in Spain or all the people who are the only members in their families is really humbling for myself. I´m so grateful to have faithful parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins that are truly converted to the gospel and to our Heavenly Father. 

We were able to have a few lessons with Sasha this week. It´s really different teaching him and I absolutely love it. Instead of teaching someone the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, or  just because they need to know that, we really teach him according to his needs. He really wants to change his life and to stop smoking and drinking, but he´s lacking faith and confidence in himself that he can really change. He told us the other day that he doesn´t think that we should meet with him anymore because he doesn´t want us wasting our time because he doesn´t think that he can really change. Please pray for him. He doesn´t understand how we can have so much faith in him that he really can change and he lacks so much faith himself. 

Thank you everyone for the amazing examples you´ve set to me all my life and especially here in the mission. I love you all and hope you all have an amazing and fantastic week!

Love, Hermana Rowley

let the festivals begin! and end...

The month of August here in Elche is the time for festivities. They celebrated from the 1st of the month until the 15th and everyday people are playing with fireworks, and there´s parties here and there in all of Elche. The 13th was a really special day and they did a huge fireworks show that lasted for about an hour and then for the finale, they shut off all of the power in the city center and shoot off this huge firework that lights up the whole sky and if you´re watching, all of Elche can see it. It was really cool to see. I´ve attached one of the pictures from that. It was a long two weeks and a little tough to set citas and teach people, but considering how much everyone was partying, it wasn´t too bad. I´ll tell you though, Spain sure does know how to party. 

Right now we are actually teaching this guy from England, Sasha, that is very very intelligent and very scientific. It´s always interesting to have lessons with him because he has so much questions. We started off teaching him with basically nothing to base off for him, because he doesn´t really have faith in anything, so we´ve talked a lot about that and he´s actually changed a lot since the first time we met with him. The other day the cita we had with him was amazing. He offered the first prayer and asked for humility and then we were able to teach with the Spirit and he said that he´s 100% sure that this "mormon" thing is for him. The main problem he has right now is the smoking and drinking, which he wants to stop! He told us the other day that when he´s with us, he doesn´t have the desire to do those things and doesn´t even think about it either. Yesterday we had a lesson with him and the Bishop and it went so well. The bishop was able to answer basically all of his questions using the gospel and the work and plan of God and it was a super good lesson. He says he´s going to come to church next week, and we also have an appointment with him tomorrow, so pray for him!

Yesterday we had an amazing sacrament meeting yesterday. One of the area Seventy, Elder Moreira came and talked to us and he talked about the importance of the Sacrament. Also, the same Sunday, two of the original missionaries here in Elche were here on vacation and were asked to bear their testimonies. They said that when they were here in Elche about 40 years ago, there were only 5 members. It was a really neat experience to see how amazed they were by the growth that has happened in these years that now there´s two wards here in Elche. Being on the mission has helped me see the bigger picture of missionary work. It´s not just something that we all should do, it´s what we´re here to do in this life. It´s our test. I love missionary work. 

This week is transfers. We´re not sure what´s happening yet, but we´ll see. I´ve been in Elche for three transfers now, so everyone´s expecting me to leave, but it´s all in the Lord´s hands. 

Also, this past week, us missionaries here in Elche were able to see our beloved MTC president, President Lovell and his wife. They came here to Elche for the fiestas because he´s always wanted to come, so they came and visited some friends here and were able to see us. He also talked to the YSA and we were able to go to that too. 

Overall it was a great week and it´s going to be another great week. Love you all and thanks so much for the support you all give me! Have a fantastic week!

Love, Hermana Rowley

Hopefully it's on the downhill...the weather, that is.

How is everyone doing this week? There was some long moments his past
week, but it was still such a great week. We saw a few miracles
actually.
On Monday, Hermana Brown, from Ward 2, was with us because her
companion had to go to Malaga to do residency. We were out going to
some of our back up plans and we went to try and go see this future
that lived in this one building. A couple of days before this, my
companion and I had also gone to try and see this person, and someone
answers the bell (you have to ring the bell outside to open the door
to get to the apartments inside) and let's us in. We then tried the
apartment that we thought he lived in (I think it was the 6th floor
and some of the bells are messed up here, so it's hard to tell exactly
where they live from the bells) and no one answered. We then went and
tried the fifth floor and again no one answered. After that we decided
to try the seventh floor, so we got in the elevator and Hermana Cook
pushed the button for seven and the two lit up and it went down to
floor two. That was super strange. We both were a little "weirded"
out, so we pushed the seven again and it went up to floor seven and no
one was there either. We then left figuring that no one was home or
anything. So this happened a couple of days before Hermana Brown was
with us, so we went to try and see the same person with Hermana Brown,
and the same exact process. Someone answers the bell, we go up to the
sixth floor, fifth floor, seventh floor, and nobody answers. After
that we just decided to try all the doors, so we tried the fourth
floor and someone answered, but they didn't know who the person was we
were looking for, and the same happened with the third floor, and then
we get to the lowest floor, the second floor and we ring the doorbell,
and this really nice lady answers and tells us that they've only been
here in Elche for about a week and they're from Italy, her husband was
born in New York, and she told us to come back to talk to her! This
was the same exact floor that the elevator randomly took us to the
other day. It literally was a miracle. We're going to go and meet with
her and her family tomorrow, so pray for her!
On another occasion, we were walking around in the city center and no
one was answering their doors, or if they did, they didn't want
anything, so we decided to say a pray to be guided on where to go.
After the prayer I just started walking and when we got to the end of
the street Hermana Cook chose the direction, and then when we got to
another intersection, Hermana Brown chose the direction, and this
happened for about four minutes we were just walking, and then the
first person that kind of walks close to us that wasn't working or
anything we start to talk to. He told us that he was Atheist and he
didn't want to give us his phone number at first because he didn't
want anything, but we just got to talking and we ended up talking with
him for about an hour! It was a super good discussion too. We talked
about a number of subjects and he asked us a lot of questions about
the mission and all the stuff we left behind and why we're here and he
was really surprised by how firm we were and that we really knew our
purpose here. In the end he told us to write down his number. The only
thing is, is that he's going to be working out of town for 25 days, so
we won't be able to meet with him for a while, but it was literally an
answer to our prayers. It takes less than five minutes for Him to
answer.
We had interviews with the president on Wednesday and they went really
well. I am so grateful for the leaders that we have to help and guide
us to do our best. Not only as a missionary, but as a person too, and
I want to be able to help others gain this testimony too, and that's
why I love the mission so much, because that's what I do every day.
Help others grow their testimonies.
Overall, it was a hard week with amazing moments. Thank you all for
your amazing examples to me and I can't wait to hear back from you
all.
Love, Hermana Rowley

Can anyone enjoy the heat more??

Well, maybe not the heat, but the experiences that we have although it's hot. The mission is the best and I wouldn't change the experiences I've had here to help me learn and grow for anything in this life. 

Our miracle for the week...

The other day at 9:30, we had a cita with our investigator, Jean Carlos. It was awesome! We started off talking about faith and repentance and eventually led to baptism. We proceeded to ask him to be baptized, and really, he does want to be baptized. He knows he's going to be baptized, he just doesn't feel prepared for it right now, but he's going to pray of the 8 of August is the day the lord had prepared for him to be baptized and he understands everything really well about the importance of baptism and all, and I am super excited for him to receive his answer. When we were done talking to him it was about 10:30, so we really needed to go, so we started to walk quickly away, but standing a little behind us had been a guy and when we started to walk he said, "I have a question." He then proceeded to ask if we were testigos (Jehovah's witnesses), and of course, we told him no and explained who we were. He then asked about our beliefs and we told him a little about the restoration and explained the Book of Mormon a little bit. Hermana cook then had him read the invitation in the introduction to the book and immediately after he said, " where can I get this book?" I quickly snatched it out of Hermana Cook's hands and gave it to him and said it was a present for him. He was a little surprised, and we asked him if we could visit with him another time and share more with him. He gave us his phone number to meet with him again. His name is Steven and he's evangelist, and they have a lot of the same beliefs, so we'll see how it goes. It was literally a miracle though. Afterwards I voiced "I wonder how long he was waiting there," and Hermana Cook said that she saw him when he first got there and it was at least half an hour that he was standing there listening to us, so he heard us talking all about baptism and everything. It was super cool to talk to him. It was really cool though too, that all day long I only had one more invitation left to the Joseph Smith musical for Saturday and I almost gave it away to a few people, but I just couldn't. I wanted it to be the right person. Steven was that person. I didn't even have a thought of hesitation in giving it to him as I had with the others. I really hope and pray that he reads the book and has desires to learn more about it. 

Yesterday, we had Ward Conference and it was really good. The stake president talked about an experience he had with his son on the your camp out that they were walking in the middle of the road with the cliff on one side and the mountain on the other, and his son pulled him towards the mountain and told him to walk over there. He then proceeded to explain that we need to walk as close to safety as we can. Yes, maybe we're safe walking in the middle, but we can gradually drift to the cliff. We need to be anchored in Christ always and trust in him. That with a few other things were really good. 

It was a great week full of great moments, and I hope that you all also have wonderfully fantastic moments this week and that you enjoy the life that our Heavenly Father has given us. Love you all! 

Con amor, Hermana Rowley