This week was super crazy and lots of things happened, but I'll just
update you on the most important stuff. On Saturday we had Melani's
baptism and of course, the devil is always trying is his hardest to
prevent baptisms. This time it was a few things, but mainly the gas
for the hot water wasn't working so she had to get baptized in cold
water. Overall it was a very good baptismal service and she is
absolutely amazing.
Carmen is doing great as well. Carmen is the most perfect example of
humble and meek. She just accepts God's will, no questions asked. An
amazing experience happened with her the other day. Well, last week,
we explain the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy and she was
worried about it because that was the only time that she wasn't
working that she could go and buy groceries, but after talking more
about he importance of sanctifying it, she agreed to do it. A few days
ago we called her for something and she told us that her boss had
called her in to work on Sunday, but she told him no and that she was
never going to work again on Sunday because it's the Lord's day. She's
only been to church 3 times, but she's already keeping all her
commitments and trying her very best to be prepared for baptism and to
keep the commandments.
Well, that's basically the update for this week. Lots of personal
learning experiences. I know this gospel is true and that God loves
and loves each and every one of us.
Con amor, Hermana Rowley

Buenas días mis queridos familiares y amigos!!

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

Its the most wonderful time of the year!!!!

Hello everyone!! I am quite sorry for not writing as frequently or as
well as I once did, but I shall try to catch you all up on the amazing
things that have been going on here in Jerez de la Frontera, España.
First of all, as the subject line says, it really is the most
wonderful time of the year! Christmas has always been my favorite
holiday and time of the year for as long as I can remember. The music,
the lights, the people, but most importantly, the birth of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. I don't know if you all have seen the two
new Christmas videos the church has released this year, but if you
haven't, I encourage you strongly to do so. It is so sad to talk to so
many people here that aren't happy or excited for Christmas. They're
lost in discouragement because they don't have money, will not be with
family this Christmas,  or their dearest family members have passed
on. I am filled with joy every time I open my mouth to share with
these beloved children of God, that this is the MOST wonderful time of
the year. The time we have to give thanks for the things that we do
have, especially our family members that are still with us and most
especially for Jesus Christ. He came to this world to save us "from
our sins, from our sadness." Rejoice! A savior is born! That is
exactly the message that we have to share this Christmas and we ALL
can do it! The church has provided us with so many ways and
opportunities to help others find this joy and this knowledge also. We
can be the examples and the lights in this world so full of darkness
and gloom. Share with others the CHRISTmas spirit!
This week was also a really special week. We had our mission council
and also zone conference with Elder Leimer an Area Seventy for Europe.
Both meetings were absolutely wonderful and I have really been
learning a lot. This transfer I've really been trying to be a more
consecrated missionary and do exactly what I was called out here to
do. These conferences were a huge help in that aspect. I received a
lot of revelation and have been trying my best to act on that
revelation to help me become better and to also help to strengthen
those around me.
Currently we have one really good investigator, Maria Louisa. She is
super sweet and we met her on the street about two weeks ago and we've
met with her a few times and she just absolutely loves to talk. She
came to church yesterday which was amazing. We had met with her the
night before and she's been having pains in her legs so she said she
didn't know if she could come and then she decided that she was going
to do it, for Jesus Christ. She was going to take her pain medicine so
that she could walk to the church with us, and she did! She loved
everything at church too. We have also been trying to work more with
the members here and this week we have a lot of plans to go see these
members, so we're really excited! This Ward is amazing and it really
feels like a big family. I'm definitely going to miss it when I leave,
but I don't have to worry about that for at least another 8 weeks.
This past transfer was only a 4 week transfer or else the ones going
home this transfer would be going home the 23-24th, so they changed
this one to 4 weeks and so the next one will be 8 weeks to make up for
the two weeks lost this transfer.
The weather here is finally starting to cool down! A couple of weeks
ago it was still almost hitting 80°, but know it's around 70°. I'm
finding out that I really miss the Idaho weather. I miss snow and dry
cold, but it's been a great adventure for now.
Thank you all for your support and everything you do for the
missionaries all over the world! Love you all and I hope you all are
off to a wonderful Christmas season!
Con mucho amor, Hermana Rowley

Transfers

This week was another wonderful week full of amazing experiences! We
were able to go to Consejo de la Misión Monday and Tuesday. It was
super good. I love all of the opportunities that I have to learn and
grow here in the mission. We talked a lot about planning and using our
time wisely. We have a lot of plans to apply what we learned there in
our area and it should help a lot.
We had intercambios with the San Fernando Hermanas this week too,
which actually was pretty funny. I went to San Fernando while Hermana
Peters came to Jerez to be with my companion. As I was walking to
their piso with Hermana Hansen I was about to tell her about the crazy
week we had last week and then she suddenly stopped and started
freaking out. Turns out that hermana Peters had the keys to their
apartment with her and she was in Jerez...we just went about our day
normal, but then they had to come to San Fernando for the night. The
next day had zone meeting. I gave a little class about weekly planning
to our whole zone, which is actually pretty big. Right now we have the
biggest zone in the mission.
We also got transfer calls this week. My companion is leaving...:( but
she'll do great in the Sevilla Zone opening an area. My new companion
will be Hermana Garcia. I've met her before and I'm super excited to
be companions with her.
We had an investigator come to church yesterday!! His name is Richard
and he's from the Dominican Republic. He's really interested in
everything so keep him in your prayers. Also, keep Isabel in your
prayers. She's the lady from last week who's friend gave her the Book
of Mormon.
Well, not much this week, but I hope you all have a great week and I
hope to hear back soon from you all!
Con amor, Hermana Rowley

It's showering blessings here in Spain!! ☔️

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.

Jerez de la Frontera!

Hello everyone! I am doing absolutely wonderful here in Jerez. This
week was a little crazy, but really great. Well, starting with General
Conference last weekend. I loved all of the talks and I'm glad that
they have them out to read and to watch so quickly after the
conference. We did a lot of traveling with watching conference in San
Fernando and Cádiz, going to Málaga Monday to Tuesday, having
exchanges with the Chiclana Hermanas, and Zone Meeting in Cádiz, and
it was all super crazy, but amazing at the same time. We've seen a lot
of miracles this week with how much traveling we've done. Well, the
Hermanas and Elders here switched areas a couple of weeks ago, so
we're working a lot on finding and then the work here should pick up a
bit. Well, I will write more next week, but don't have much more time
today. Look for opportunities to share the gospel with everyone! Love
you all!
Con amor, Hermana Rowley

and apparently it's going to be a big change.

Hello everyone! How has you're week been? Mine has been absolutely
wonderful. We have contacted and talked with a lot of people on the
street this week because we're trying to find new investigators. It's
been fun. I love talking to people. It's so interesting to hear about
the many different lives of the people and where their from and
everything. We found a few people that gave us their numbers. One of
them was a girl named Sandra. She was walking home from work and we
stopped her to talk to her. She's super nice. She's evangelist and her
boyfriend is atheist, but she WANTS us to come to her house when her
boyfriends there so that we can share what we know. We have an
appointment set up for tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes. I'm excited
for her.
Well, as far as transfers go, I was expecting to stay here, but I
guess the lord works in mysterious ways. ;) on Friday, I received a
call from President Andersen and he said that the lord has put these
experiences here for me to be prepared for my next area. I'm getting
transferred to San Fernanado to be a Sister Training Leader! I was
quite shocked, it I'm excited to be able to serve in this way.
Although I'll miss Elche and all of the people here, I'm excited for
what this change will bring and all of the things that I'm going to
learn from it. The down side...I have to prepare everything for two
new missionaries here...poor Hermanas. They're not going to know
anything about the area, Ward, members, people, nothing. I was talking
to president in having them come here Tuesday while I'm still here so
that it would be a little better for all of us.
I love the mission and the many edifying experiences that we have
here. I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you all!
Con amor, Hermana Rowley


With a recent convert and member.