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.

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