...and then there were three

Alrighty... well people know how to party in Spain. 

There was a going away party for a family in our ward... we walked in to see the entire church gym full of tables... haha then the Relief Society quickly put us to work and we carried out platters and platters full of food... Woohooo party!! :)

Well here is the news of the week: we got a new companion, we are now a trio- Hermanas Fowers, Galvez, y Rojas. Now I am outnumbered and we do everything the Latin way and in Spanish. haha  Which also means that I am officially now a blonde... because my hair definitely is not brown?!? haha I´ve given up trying to argue that one :)

So this week:

-"M"!!! She is the one we met last week on Sunday and thought the Book of Mormon was a treasure (because it is) and that we are angels (because we are ;). Anyway we met with her this week and had an incredible lesson!!! She´s already read up until Alma, we taught her the Restoration and she loved everything and accepted to be baptized! :) Woohoo..  So we met with her on Saturday and invited her to church on Sunday. So Sunday rolls around, she doesn´t show up at ten, so we call her after the first hour, she said her and her husband were on the way. (We have Sacrament Meeting last) so Sacrament Meeting starts and we just assume they aren´t going to come.. then they walk in- but as we are singing the closing song. haha  (So close and yet so far) .. but have no fear- we grabbed a member and gave them a temple tour. They loved it, she had told her husband all about lesson 1 and about her baptism date... so we asked him if he wanted to be baptized on that day too.. and the answer was yes! :) Meanwhile we are giving this tour - -  we arrange for all of us to eat with some members, so while we are waiting for the food to get ready we quickly watch the short Joseph Smith Restoration film :) and then had a very enjoyable meal with a bunch of members. So ideal... I´m so excited for them!

-"M"! So over the last few weeks she has sort of lost interest a little bit, stopped coming to church and reading, so we were a bit sad about that but this week everything turned around. We went over there and had a super powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon. She was explaining the Book of Mormon to her brother-in-law. ´It´s like the Hermanas always tell me, you have to read and then pray about if it is true. Then God will send an answer that it is true´. Oh man that was like music to my ears.  So we continue with that.

-"I" is such a sweet little girl :) We had a super cute lesson with her this week and as we were leaving her piso she was blowing bubbles out the window to bid us farewell! haha  Love her!

-So we had a miracle lesson with "R"... our second miracle with him! So we were walking down the street talking to some people, and we run into him (a recent convert who is preparing to go through the temple). He seemed a little down so we sat down and started talking to him, well one thing led to another and we shared some scriptures, gave some encouragement. We literally watched his countenance change throughout the course of the lesson. At the end he told us that he had been a little offended and started to wonder if what he was doing was the right thing (going through the temple and all)... well it was a miracle that we ran into him- for him and for us... 

Okey dokey... all in a weeks work!

Popsicle bookmarks

-We´re just walking down the street one morning talking to the people of Spain. We stop this young man and start to talk to him about the gospel, something amazing happened...he actually was excited about talking to us. :) Woohoo!!!! We taught him about the Restoration right then and there in the street and gave him a Book of Mormon. It was an incredible lesson, one of the best I´ve experienced on my mission- He has so much knowledge and so much desire to know, which makes it sooo fun to teach! :) He mentioned that his family are Jehovah´s witnesses... we asked him if he was also... He told us that he never really felt filled by any of the religions and was looking for something that ´´fills´´ him. That is when we gave him the Book of Mormon... anyone wanting to be filled just needs to read and pray... the Spirit with do the rest! :)

-So I love "B" so much! We met with her last Monday... She loved church! She really has so much faith and it is incredible to be in lessons with her and have her add her testimony onto ours. :) So we brought up baptism last week and she told us she wanted to be 100 percent sure she wanted to get baptized before she would commit to anything. So then on Monday she was bearing her testimony about prayer and how she knows that if she asks with faith she will get the answers she needs and when she receives those answers she needs to act on them. So we just tied that right back into baptism.:) We told her that if she prayed with that same faith about if she needed to get baptized, God would give her the answers she needs, the reassurance she needs. Then she would have the strength to follow through with that commitment. The Spirit was incredible. It really clicked with her, because we were able to tie it back to something she already had a testimony on. :) We also taught her the Plan of Salvation.. which she loved! Man I love her, she´s so ready. 

-"E"... :) that is one of my favorite lessons of the whole entire week! :) Oh man she is adorable, I love her so much and the best part is that she loves me too! :) She made me promise this week that we would be best friends forever. She has the cutest popsicle stick bookmark in her Book of Mormon, she´s making me one too! :) Score!

-We talked to this woman named "M" on the street yesterday... she was kind of in bad shape when we started talking to her and kept telling us ´I just want peace , I just want peace´... so we sat down and shared some scriptures and talked about how the gospel and how the Book of Mormon can bring this peace. She just listened and said ´but I don´t have this book´... we then handed over a copy. and she looked at it, hugged it to her chest, started crying and thanked us for being her angels. Super cute. 

Well life is great here!

Shout out to my brother who is getting married on Saturday... Sorry bro but I just don´t think I´ll be able to fit it in my schedule ;) haha 

Lots of love coming your way- 

Hermana Fowers

Kids are so smart :)

-Well I definitely taught the Hoki Poki to my English class this week . . haha I got some serious teasing from the missionaries.. but my class loved it. .  so whatever :)

- Let me tell you about "E"! Her parents have been inactive for a while and have recently started coming back to church. So we are working with the parents and getting "E" ready for baptism! :) She is the cutest little girl and I absolutely love working with kids!! :) We had given her the children's Book of Mormon picture book and asked her if she read it... she then proceeded to explain to us (in great detail) the story of the Book of Mormon. She´s adorable.  Loved it! :)  We asked her what she knew about the Restoration or about Joseph Smith. ´well basically Joseph wanted to know which church was true.. so he prayed to God, and God came to him and told him to go to the Mormon church´ hahaha  I love kids so much!

-"B" is incredible! :)  We went there one day when she was a little sick and not really herself... we had planned to watch the Restoration movie and I was hoping she would be able to pay attention to it... so at the end of the movie she told us that it really impacted her.. she thanked us for giving her the opportunity to forget about herself and her problems for a while and just be able to focus on God and feel His spirit... and she came to church!!  She also brought her son... let me tell you what that means for her- so her son is in a wheelchair.. and she has to carry him and the wheelchair down 4 flights of stairs. That is dedication!  I love her lots!

- We were teaching "M" and "S"... we teach them about the life of Christ and watch a short clip about some of his miracles and teachings... at the end of the clip we asked the 6 year old "S" what was her favorite miracle that she saw.... ´well when Jesus paid for all our sins so we can return back to God´  Children are so smart. :)

-We got locked out of our piso again... haha but this time we had a better ending to our story. I was on intercambios and the key that we had wasn´t working to her piso... we literally tried for 20 minutes to open this stinking door... I was really determined because I know what it is like to be locked out for the night...haha but we called over some elders and they tried to open it... first try and it opened right up. Really embarrassing! :)

- Today we went to the coolest park... Parque Europa!  It had little monuments from lots of different countries all over Europe! :)  Super fun! Loved it so much!

"The Light"

So this week we found some awesome new investigators! :) I´m super excited for them because I can see so much potential in both of them! :) The way found them, and our first lessons were miracles:

-"B"- So it was like Wednesday of last week and we got a reference from the mission office. Sweet! So we go about our day, and we talk to some people on the streets and get some numbers. So the next day we start calling our references and we put it together that we have two "B"s with the same number in our planners. God had literally put her in our pathway twice in one day. So we call her up and set something up that same day. Dang, she is so prepared. She has a son who was in a pretty bad car crash in May and she wants to set an example of faith for him. So we had an awesome lesson about Jesus and how he can heal us... and then we taught the Restoration and how through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ we can find peace in this life. The spirit was so strong. we asked her if she believed this, if the truth has been restored, she was quiet and then nodded and said ´Yes, yes I believe.´ and then looked at her son and basically testified that this was the truth, the faith they needed in their lives to be happy. It was incredible.

- "J"- So we got her number like 2 weeks ago and finally got in contact with her this week. So like 2 weeks ago we were giving a mutual lesson in the church.. and it ended and we had a little bit of time before our next lesson, but we both felt really strongly like we needed to leave the church. Very few times have I felt literally, physically guided... but this was one of those times I felt like God just picked us up and tossed us out on the street and into her path. She is also super prepared. Her sister is sick with cancer and she promised the Lord that she would start going to church if she found the right path to follow. Super awesome!!!

Okey dokey well we also had a cool experience with "M"... :)  We really just had an all around good week! :)

So we were talking about how we get our answers... the different ways the Spirit can talk to us... and she was like ´you know I had a weird experience the other day...´  So then she proceeds to explain that she was praying and as she opened her eyes it was as if she saw a light that was trying to reach her but couldn´t... and then she turned to us and asked us what that meant.  Uhhhhh... I don´t know. So we start to ask her some more question. ´What were you doing right before´ ´Well I was reading from the Book of Mormon´ :) ´and how did you feel while you saw this light´ ´ I felt really good... and I felt like I wanted to see more light, like with this light I could see everything more clearly´... Then she wanted to show us what she was reading right before this experience... she opened to the page with the picture of Jesus Christ descending to visit the people in the Americas. Oh man that moment was incredible, just a calm silence as we realized God is answering our prayers. "M" do you believe this is true´ ´Yes´.  I testify that the Book of Mormon is true... that Jesus is our Savior and God wants to answer our prayers. He knows each and every one of us and hears the humble, faithful prayers of our hearts. I know that this Gospel is the ´light´ that each of us are searching for in this life. That just as "M" is discovering... with this light and knowledge of the gospel we can see everything else more clearly in our lives.

-Well I taught the Relief Society how to make banana bread this week...they thought it was this complex exquisite dessert. Fooled them :) and definitely applied the ´I am the bread of Life´ scripture.. haha :)

-And at the end of English class this week I was wiping off the chalk from my hands... and my class thought I was clapping my hands (like as if I was asking for applause) haha so they all started applauding at the end of the class... It was super awkward.

Well I hope your week is full of awkward, spiritual, uplifting experiences too! :)
Much love,

Hna Fowers