So storks are a real thing...

So Alcalá is famous for its storks... you know like the big birds that bring babies to people...

Well they have storks here, so occasionally we will look up to the sky and just see these ginormous birds flying over head. I really feel like I´m in Hogwarts at these moments, because I think that is what it would be like to have buckbeak flying overhead. Every time I just really hope they don´t poop on us... that would be a disaster. 

So umm... this week... I don´t really even feel like I was in my area because one day I was at the mission home for a meeting and I was on intercambios for another.  Oh my gosh can I just say that I love President and Hermana Jackson. Everytime I am with them I just am so glad to be a missionary and just want to be so much better. They are incredible... plus Hermana Jackson cooks so well. 

We met with some really solid people this week:

-"R" -  We met with her for the 2nd time this week, she came to our lesson with her Book of Mormon in hand, having read the chapters we left for her. Beautiful. Then we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She loved it. ´This is different than everything I´ve ever been taught, but it makes sense´... and that is because it is true. So she´s awesome and I´m super excited for her.

-"L"- We met her on the street, come to find out she had been meeting with the missionaries in her country before she moved here 4 months ago.  We started teaching the Restoration and really talked a lot about families...come to find out she had lost one of her children and she just started crying as we talked about the gift of having eternal families. During that lesson I was so grateful that I truly know that my family can be together forever... I don´t know what I would do without that knowledge and I don´t want anyone else here to have to live without that knowledge either.

-Yesterday we went to a concert put on by one of the senior couples here (the Sullivans-who were in the Motab)... We drove in a big car full of members and recent converts and it was so fun! The concert was in Pavones (by the temple) so I got to see everyone from Barrio 6... LOVED THAT SO MUCH!!!

-But funny thing happened - (Ok background story- so we found this guy on the street and invited him to English class, and he came so then we taught him a lesson... and he really understood the significance of the Restoration.  We invited him to be baptized on the 27 of September...but then we found out he was out of our area so we passed him off)  Well he came up to me yesterday and told me he got baptized yesterday... haha  Say what?  I think that is the first time in my mission where someone got baptized on the first fecha we offered them.  Pretty cool right!? :)

Love you lots!

Cathedrals, Castles, Columbus...all in a days work

So I really love Alcalá!!! It is an incredible area, I have an incredible companion and we're seeing so many miracles!! Alcalá is one of the more historic cities in Spain... so we´ll be walking down the street and see a famous cathedral and then keep walking and see the oldest University in Europe. Then we´ll go to a plaza to teach a lesson and it is a plaza dedicated to a famous Spaniard author, Miguel Cervantes, because he just happened to be born in Alcalá. Then we´ll be contacting in one area of town and run across a palace which happens to be the palace of Queen Isabel I (where Christopher Columbus went to ask to travel)... you know it´s a pretty historic place :) It´s been fun to feel like a part of Spain and get to know more about the Spanish history. This ward is actually also one of the oldest in Spain, so a lot of the members are the pioneers of Spain. nifty, huh?! Needless to say, I´m loving it here!

So we´ve been seeing lots of miracles!

-On Wednesday we are making our way to our district meeting... and we run into one of my investigators from Barrio 6. "A"... so she had dropped off the face of the earth about 3 months ago-- we literally didn´t know what happened because she was progressing a ton. Well we saw her in the streets, turns out she moved to Alcalá (thus the dropping off the face of the earth)... but we had a lesson with her and she is even more ready to receive the gospel. I told her that seeing her and me being here isn´t a coincidence.. that this is God telling her that she really needs this message in her life... :) She agreed with me. :)

-We contacted this man, "J", taught him about the Restoration and when we got to the Book of Mormon he told us it looked familiar. So the next lesson we had with him, he brought his Book of Mormon that he found in his house, crazy, right?! Now the next step.. actually reading the book.

-We contacted this girl... she is on study abroad here but is originally from Vegas. She actually has a bunch of Mormon friends and went to seminary with them. So she is a seminary graduate...and not a member. Let me tell you how often we run into seminary graduates in the street -  that never happens. She was super excited to give us her number and meet and all! :)

Just lots of great things are happening! This has been a good change, we just go out and work, and I absolutely love that!

It rains quite a bit here too... haha so we´re trying to perfect the art of contacting with umbrellas...but at least we´ve got the element of surprise--most people aren´t accustomed to being stopped in the pouring rain :) at least for a few moments they receive cover from the rain :)

On Sunday I was asked to give my testimony as part of the welcoming to the ward ritual... but I was given specific instructions to be personal and get the ward to see me as a person as well as a missionary. So (oh I was so proud of myself) I got the whole ward to laugh! :) Woohoo  I was so happy...

There was a day when we were fed a TON... and on our way home my comp was trying to get me to eat chocolate... usually I just eat the dang chocolate but I was so full.. and haha she told me either I eat it or I give it to someone on the street. haha  So the next people we passed were a bunch of punk teenagers, it was a contact of chocolate and then the gospel...they rejected them both... but their faces were priceless.  My comp ended up eating the chocolate as a reward for my good performance :) haha 

Well have a great week!!! Love you lots!

Hna Fowers

Off to Alcala

So change of pace... here I am in Alcalá! :) I have got the cutest companion and I´m super excited to finish up her training and I´m super excited to be here. Oh man I´m so happy!

I love Barrio 6 and it was super hard to leave. It really is amazing to me how fast and how much I can come to love the people here. Yesterday we visited some of my favorite people... and literally ate 5 different times yesterday.  I was about ready to throw up. haha  There goes my diet for the whole transfer :)

Well here is some great news!!!!! "M". . Ok we have been working with her since I arrived in B6 just about 6 months ago.. She wants to get baptized so badly, like she has the most desire out of anyone I´ve ever seen- but couldn´t because of some situations. Anyway we´ve been working on that for 6 months- we had to teach her a lot about the Lord´s timing and truly accepting his will in our lives. We were there when she broke down in tears because she couldn´t get baptized. My heart is completely and totally with her and I have grown and learned so much as I´ve watched her learn and grow. She is such an example to me and I love her so much.  Well anyway on Friday she calls ecstatic and tells me that she is ready to get baptized... that the situation is resolved and she can now get baptized. Oh my gosh, 6 months of teaching and waiting and comforting and relying on the Lord... and she is getting baptized the week I leave. I guess I needed to apply all those lessons we taught about accepting the Lord´s timing! :) I´m sooo happy for her.  I know that this is truly the desire of her heart, to be baptized, and I know that she will be blessed for the rest of her life for this decision! :)  So sad that I won´t be there.... haha

Also... so there is a recent convert named "E" and when I first got to B6 he was super solid, wanted to go on a mission, was sharing his testimony with everyone.  He then kind of fell off the end of the earth and wouldn´t meet with us or anything. It was super sad to see the change in his life. Well about 2 weeks ago we stopped by and were able to get in... and we had a super straightforward lesson... I basically just told him the potential I had seen in him and how it was so sad to see him blowing that away. It was a super straightforward lesson but it actually got to him. So this week we had a lesson with him and his friend, and I got to see a glimpse of the old "E" again. He was more humble and was bearing a simple testimony. Yesterday they both came to church. :) He is turning around and it is a miracle to see it.

Ok well 3 funny moments for the week:

-we were contacting an elderly lady.... she was a little deaf and thought we were asking where the church was- so she started giving us directions to the temple... hahaha thanks...

-we were eating with a member and her little girl turns to us and told us ´man, your life is such a pity´... hahaha because we only have one free day a week... we spent a good chunk of time persuading her that it is the best

-and I definitely ate a liver sandwich this week and wanted to throw up. haha 

Well love you lots!  Have a great week!

"E"

My favorite little "E" got baptized on Saturday. It was super cute, and now you all get to hear about it: drumroll please. :)

- Background... so June was the month of invitation for Europe. So the members were supposed to invite their friends to church, whether it be nonmembers or less actives... and "L" (a blessed member) invited her friend "I" to church. 

This particular Sunday Hna Manner and I were in the Primary helping with the music. I just happened to sit by "E" and got to know her a little. Then in Sacrament meeting I saw "E" sitting by "L" and I didn´t recognize her mom. So I headed over there to talk to them :) Come to find out "I" had been inactive for a while but was wanting to come back..only problem was that they didn´t live in our area.  So we kept in contact with them for a while until we got news that they were moving into our area. Sweet. So we had an FHE in the house of "L" with their whole family  "A" (her dad), "I" (her mom), and "E". In this FHE we brought the children's Book of Mormon and taught about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. You have to understand that "E" didn´t know anything about the church, she didn´t know who Joseph Smith was or what the Book of Mormon was. We watched her as she learned about the church and truly came to gain a super strong testimony. Incredible. So at the end of the lesson we gave her the Book of Mormon and her face absolutely and completely lit up. :)

Once they lived in our area we could go over and start visiting them. I called once to set something up and "E" (talking a million words a minute) said ´Hna Fowers, Hna Fowers, now you can come over and teach me and then I can get baptized´ :) Literally I loved her from the first time I talked with her, she is just so pure and adorable!  Teaching her was sooo much fun... I love kids and I love teaching kids... :) we were able to teach the lessons in ways that were really fun and creative and it really was a highlight of my week. She always informed us on her reading in her book and told us every single little detail she could remember.  So cute.

Anyway long story short, she is as close to heaven as you can get and she was so prepared to be baptized. So Saturday was the big day. She arrived in her white dress and looked like an angel! :) The spirit was sooo strong and she bore her testimony after her baptism and said that she felt ´phenomenal´ and that ´after feeling the way she does she knows for sure that God exists´. Soooooooo cute. It has been amazing to see how her family has grown closer to Christ. Her parents have become super active members with testimonies super strong and "E" is an angel. I love them all so much!!! She now has a family strong in the gospel and I know that she will grow up to do so many great things because she is an incredible girl!

Well that was long. :) but it has been the biggest blessing for me to see the process of all this and watch as her father brought her into the waters of baptism. One of the most powerful moments of my mission. :) The Lord knows us well...  This has been a super hard transfer but it has also been a time when I have seen miracles come to pass :)

Also... this week was the week for Las Palmas to come to the temple. so I got to see all the people I love!!!  Blessings coming from everywhere! :)

Well peace out.  Have a great week!

What to do when trapped in an elevator

Well we have a baptism this Saturday! :) of one of my favorite people in the whole world! "E"!!!! woohoo!  So she´s the little girl we´ve been teaching. We went over there this week and asked her if she´s thought about her baptismal date. Her parents told us they wanted the 6th of September :) Woohoo. I turned to "E" and asked her how she felt about her baptism and getting baptized on that date. ¨It´s like I´m walking on a cloud, I´m just so happy¨  If that isn´t the cutest thing you´ve ever heard I don´t know what is! :) It was just one of those moments you can´t help but to smile :) haha  She also was wearing a name badge that had her name in big letters.  Her mom told us that because we always came with name badges on she wanted to be like us and made her own :) Adorable. She´s adorable. I gave her one of my chappas for the lesson and she was a missionary too :)  So yesterday in church they announced her baptism in Sacrament Meeting and when they did she just burst into the biggest smile you´ve ever seen. :) I reached over and gave her a big hug because I just love her so much. I know that she is a huge reason I am here in Barrio 6-  I can see so much potential in her and in her whole family and I´m so grateful to be able to see the hand of the Lord working in their lives! :)


I ran into Uncle Mike´s mission companion ... the one I was supposed to be looking for...  :) So he´s now in the mission presidency and for zone conference he bore his testimony.  When they said his name I thought it sounded familiar, but then he told us about some of his mission experiences from his mission in California and then I remembered that he is Mike´s mission companion! :) We talked for a while after.  He said Mike was one of his closest companions! :)

Small world, no?

-"M" She´s hilarious. We met with her again, this time with her husband-So we taught the first lesson again. She helped us out with the teaching of the lesson because she really understood everything so well! So at the end of the lesson when we were all bearing our testimonies she just jumped right in there and bore her testimony about how she knows Joseph Smith is a prophet and how the Book of Mormon is true. :) Super cute.  So haha funny story- at the beginning of the lesson she pulls out her Bible- and it´s a Jehovah Witness Bible... so we explain that this Bible has been changed and we´ll bring her a new Bible. She is so excited about getting a new Bible and tells us we can take the other bible and bring her a new one.  Perfect. So fast forward to the end of the lesson- we had already left and were down on the street when she pops her head out her window (on the fourth floor) and shouts that we forgot the Bible. The words ´oh we´ll come get it´ don´t even start to come out of our mouths before she chucks the Bible out her window. haha   Fourth floor straight into the bushes...I mean yeah it´s been changed but it is still a Bible. haha  I really wish I could relive that moment and record it because it was hilarious. We then proceeded to climb through the bushes to retrieve it.  Great fun.

This week was just chalk full of adventures- So Saturday night we were leaving a cita with a menos activa. So we get in the elevator, like normal, and start heading down to the bottom floor, like normal. Well we get to the bottom floor and the elevator stops... but the doors don´t open or anything.  That´s weird... but we just waited for a minute for them to open. Yeah they didn´t open. haha So after a few minutes we realized that they probably weren´t going to open and we began to push all the buttons that we could find- nothing (except for the alarm button which definitely did work but didn´t do us much good other than give us all a headache). So at this point one of my companions starts to hyperventilate and my other companion and I are just laughing at how ridiculous the situation is. So I call up "M" and let her know that we are stuck in the elevator. A bunch of people head to the bottom floor and we manage to pry open the elevator door :) Turns out the elevator had stopped between the 1st and bottom floor- haha so there was a little gap that we could climb out and then jump down to the ground. It was great fun. That sure doesn´t happen everyday! :) I was happy I didn´t have to explain to the District Leader that we would be spending the night that dang elevator.

Well other than that it´s been a pretty mellow week. For the first time in my 14 months in Spain my chocolate chip cookies actually turned out looking like chocolate chip cookies... so I was pretty proud of that!

Well have a great week! :)  Love ya lots! :)