Homeless

May or may not have left our keys in our piso this week... locked out... awesome!

So this story all starts out Friday afternoon when we go to the church for a lesson... we go to open the door and realize we don´t have the keys. That is kind of a problem, but we just kept ourselves busy thinking about lessons instead of the fact that we didn´t have a way to get into our piso.  We call this denial... so about 8 we start wondering what we are going to do... 

We call the other hermanas that used to live there, they left their keys inside the piso... awesome!

We call the office elders to see if there are spare keys, they are in a lesson.... perfect!

Then we called the other hermanas in our area and told them we were crashing for the night. :) SLEEPOVER!

There are some major perks to this, namely: Hna Braithwaite had a ´spare´ pair of pajamas that I absolutely loved... totally a Dr. Suess onesie thing. Definitely took advantage of that! There was a whole bottle of nutella for us to snack on:) ...plus sleepovers are just fun... but then the office elders called back letting us know that unless we were looking for priesthood keys they couldn´t help us... aka there were no spare keys. funny elder... not helping!
They also let us know that a locksmith in Spain costs 300 euros... let me repeat 300 euros!! So I went to bed on the floor, without a blanket, mentally preparing myself to climb into our apartment in the morning. 

So the morning rolls around and I call the landlady and explain the situation, ask her if she happens to have any spare keys. Nada... so we start talking about calling a locksmith (just a sidenote... I was not trained to talk about keys and locksmiths and insurance agents .. haha), but we tell her to wait on it (mainly because I really wanted to try climbing into the piso:) haha So we get dressed in our same sweaty clothes from the day before and go to teach English class. :) haha but just rest assured that we looked smoking hot- 2 minute shower, no make up, we rocked it.

But all worked out in the end... we discovered a member who is a locksmith and bless his soul he came and broke into our piso for us. I´m pretty sure I heard the Halleluia choir singing when the door finally opened. :) So that was our big adventure for the week! :) haha  Just gotta laugh!  And in comparison to that.. nothing much happened. I learned a new word: magía patagía... the equivalent of abrakadabra!  It is my new favorite word!

We found some really cool people contacting this week! One man, "V" received the lessons recently and has a lot questions about the 3 kingdoms of glory... so we stopped him and started talking to him and he just started asking us about the Plan of Salvation- it kind of took us aback because no one really knows anything about what we believe!! We were able to sit down and explain it to him! Super cool!

We met a lady yesterday named "A". She was in a car accident about 8 months ago and her mom and 2 of her siblings were killed. We were able to testify about the Plan of Salvation and how we really can live with our families forever! It is incredible the knowledge we have, it brings so much hope and it is what everyone wants-needs to hear! I was just in that lesson so grateful that we can trust in God and have the knowledge that we can live with our families forever.

Well that was basically the week. :) Companionship goal: don´t get locked out again  ;)

Love you lots!

A Medieval Market

Lots of highlights from this week... :)

So an Area 70 came and talked to all the missionaries in the Madrid area!! It was incredible- He is also the Church Historian (Elder Snow). Talked about how they know a lot about the early church days in Spain because of missionary journals. Super inspirational. He told us that one of the reasons we keep journals is because our spiritual experiences will fade, but if we have them recorded we can always go back and remember how good God is-was to us. :)

So as we´re leaving this reunion we hear music from the gym... like olden day music... so we go to check out what was going on.  Ummmm it was the best thing I´ve ever seen in my entire life!!! A MEDIEVAL MARKET!!!! so the young women were fundraising to go to girl´s camp... and they had set up this legit market.  There were costumes, decorations, music, food... you name it.  I was in heaven!!!!

So we found a new investigator this week and it was very much a miracle... so we received an address of someone who was potentially interested in the church... so we are looking for this address... can´t find it anywhere, we literally circled around the same complex like 5 times. So we´re contacting as we´re searching and run into this guy that looked a little rough around the edges. So we stop and talk to him and he´s awesome. We end up moving to a nearby bench to teach the Restoration. :)  Woohoo he loved it. we explained the Book of Mormon.... ´so can I buy that book in any bookstore´   No... but here this one is for you.  Yes, yes it is free. :)  Never did find that address... but found something better!!!  Funny how God works.
 

We had a lot of good member lesson-FHEs this week... We have a lot of members that are doing a lot of missionary work and it is incredible to witness and be a part of! :)

"M" is doing well!!! She told us this week that she believes the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and she can really see the difference in her life when she is reading!

"E".. we taught the 10 commandments this week and you know he is a 16 year old boy so we weren´t expecting any great enthusiasm... haha ´so we´re going to talk about the 10 commandments´... ´YES... this is what I like to hear ´.... ´ummmm... ok...´ hahaha one of those situations you weren´t expecting so you don´t know how to respond....haha

I LOVED SKYPING YOU YESTERDAY!!! :)  Our appointment right before the Skype asked us if we were going to visit another family... Yeah our own!!!! Wooohoo!!! 

LOVE YOU LOTS!! ESPECIALLY MY ANGEL MOTHER!! :)

Hna Fowers!

Feliz Día de la Madre

Fun Fact, Mother´s Day in Spain was yesterday!! So we got to enjoy the cute Sacrament Meeting, the primary children singing and all the cute comments about mothers. I LOVE MY MOMMY!! :)

Well last Monday right after we emailed we were eating lunch in this cute little sandwich café. . . so as we´re eating this man comes up to us and points to our name badges and asks us if we could explain our religion. haha  Why yes, yes we can. We swallowed our mouths full of sandwiches, he pulled up a chair and we had a nice long discussion! :) Awesome. Then at the end he told us that he would really like to meet with us again and asked if Tuesday at 4 would be alright. haha  So he basically approached us, started the conversation, and set up the return appointment... Miracles do happen. It was awesome! So we had another lesson with him and everything, He's a little hesitant to believe and very scientific, but he definitely has a lot of potential. He sure does have the desire. :)

This week I went to the temple for the first time since October.  Let me repeat... since OCTOBER!!!! That is sooo long!!!! I was sooooo excited because I still hadn´t even seen the new video!! Literally felt like I was waiting for a midnight premiere!! and I LOVED IT SOOO MUCH!!!! Learned so much, felt the spirit so strongly, and just all around felt edified... gotta love it! Then right after we had our zone meeting, so it was just an all around amazing morning!

So there are stakes that come from all over to go to the temple, and this week it was a stake from the south of Spain. They had a big Youth Conference here and as one of the activities we gave them temple tours. So we gave tours to like 50 youth at a time. :) Oh it was so fun! Not only did we get to bear testimony and teach, but it was a bunch of youth so we got to make it really fun too. We gave the tours the day after we had gone to the temple so my love, appreciation, and testimony of the temple was just on cloud 9... loved it!!!

So our Miracle find last week is named "M"... and we met with her again this week! :) She is wonderful!!! She had the lessons before and she really realizes that God has placed the gospel back into her life for a reason! She told us that she is going through the hardest time of her life right now.. .her mom died about 4 years ago and she is still recovering from that, and her older sister has cancer and she is dying. She´s having a rough time, and she told us that she knows God led us to her because she can´t go through this alone. She needs additional help from him. We had given her a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read, and she thanks us for that, told us that the spirit she felt when she read was exactly what she needed. It is even more special to her because she remembers the spirit that her mom brought into her life. :) I absolutely love meeting with her!

"E" is progressing, he loves learning about the church and it is soo cool to see...this week he brought one of his friends to the lesson! Awesome!! :)

Seeing as this day was Mother´s Day... we bought some flowers to give to some of our favorite mothers here in Spain.. haha and we got quite a few different reactions. haha

-"M", who is our investigator that is going to get baptized soon... haha well she was changing a poopy diaper. (people here don´t really have an issue with privacy, they breast feed in public... everything in public)... so when she saw the flowers she got all excited and came to give us besos... but had the baby in her arms with the poopy bum facing us... hmmm yeah that was probably the most distant beso I´ve ever given :)

-"J"... is like our mom in the ward! She was just cute and gracious... I actually took video of that one! :)

We had an awesome FHE yesterday... as part of the game we were playing charades of scripture characters. So I had to act out Esther.  The only problem was that no one on my team even knew who Esther was.... haha kind of creates a problem. :)

Well yeah, other than that everything is just same old, same old! Loving life!!

Love you lots!!
Hna Fowers

MIRACLES!

Ok first things first!!! "A" GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! :) He is my miracle!!!! I know I was in Las Palmas to teach him... :) Okkkkk story time!!

Everything about teaching him was a miracle. We found him through another investigator "L". So she is really busy and hardly ever can see us... but one day in December we felt like we needed to see her...so we randomly called her up and she answered (miracle 1), she could meet with us right then (miracle 2- never happens), and she brought her friend "A" (miracle infinity and four)... So turns out right as we called her she was talking to him about religion and such and so when we called she explained who we were and "A" wanted to meet us. He is the kind of person that likes to learn and get to know other beliefs. 

So we met with them and had one of the most spiritual lessons I´ve had on my whole mission. Very few people understand the significance of the Restoration, but he did! After we told about the First Vision and recited it, all four of us got the goosebumps. No joke, it was an INCREDIBLE LESSON!!!!  He told us later that he was really skeptical coming into our lesson, but that the spirit and the message had completely changed the way he viewed life, that he wanted to be a better person! He loved lesson two... and we started introducing him to the members and he told us that he just felt something different from the members, from the church. That he really liked it. :) Oh man his lessons were always amazing, the spirit was always sooo strong and that is something he learned to cherish right from the start.  He would always tell us that he would come into our lessons tired from work, but after he would feel energized and more motivated! :) We were talking about prayer one day and found out that he didn´t like to ´bother´ God with his prayers.. that he just didn´t want to be a burden... So we taught him about prayer and how God is our literal Father in Heaven and he wants to hear from us. We watched his testimony of prayer grow... we watched him as he began to really pray for the first time in his life- a hesitant prayer, to become confident that he was talking to God. At the end of a lesson once he said one of the best prayers I have ever heard!!! He sincerely and genuinely asked God to answer his questions about the church, that he thought the church was true... he just needed a confirmation.  Oh, he never ceases to amaze me.

So we taught him and watched as his testimony began to grow... his father is very against the church and that was a hard thing for him because he loves his father so much. When I left he was ready to get baptized but he didn´t want to disappoint his father and he wanted to have a stronger testimony. So apparently he went to the priesthood session of conference and apparently there was a talk about being valiant. So German (who was really crucial in his conversion) talked to him after the conference and told him that being baptized would be the valiant thing to do- to live what you believe - even if there were forces opposing him. 

And yesterday he was baptized! :) :):):):):):):):):):):):) No words can express how happy I am.  He is a true convert. and I´m sooo sad I wasn´t there.  The day I left Las Palmas I made German promise me that he would do everything he could to see that "A" was baptized. I knew I was leaving him in good hands and yesterday it happened.

Barrio 6 :) we saw soooo many miracles this week!

So one day we were searching out menos activos and we came across a woman's name.. so we stopped by her house. Turns out she had died four years ago... but her daughter still lives there and was sooo excited to see us!!! Turns out she had taken the discussions 30 years ago but decided not to get baptized... but she was always touched by her mother´s testimony. She has nothing but good feelings towards the church and she told us that it is a miracle that we stopped by to see her. She really needs the gospel in her life right now and she is reallllyyyy prepared!! :) Not only that but she told us that she is never in her piso at that time- like never, every day she is gone, but she was only there because her gas line was getting fixed. God brought us to her and her to us because we both needed that experience. At the end of the lesson we were giving her a hug and she told us that it was incredible that after 30 years, her life has taken a turn back to the gospel... and she felt at home with it :)

The hands of the Lord are in this work. I have no doubt of it... sometimes I think we are just wandering aimlessly these streets.. but these are the children of God. He knows their hearts, he knows who is prepared...He knows where we need to be so we can be instruments in his hands. 

This week was just full of miracles.. in the right place at the right time, sharing the right message, finding the right people.  It has just been an added testimony to me that this is the Lord´s work and it has nothing to do with me, that there will be miracles when the Lord sees fit. But I´m here to work regardless and to do my part to bring the gospel to the people of Spain. The plan and timing of the Lord is perfect.

Quote of the week... from a 15 year old to me ´When I look at you I see a child... but in a grown up body...´   hahahahahaha   If he only knew...

Love you lots!! 

Hna Fowers

La Semana Santa (Holy Week)

Happy Easter one and all!!! Hope the celebrations were grand and I would like to point out that Spain knows how to celebrate!  One complete week of celebrations! One full week... we need to step it up a bit.

So we started out Easter with m&m pancakes... (thank you mom for the m&ms and the Easter chocolate... kind of against our diet but we ate it anyway ;)) :) and we had a wonderful day of Church- investigators came, some random people from the street showed up, just wonderful. Actually there is a story with that. 

So I was in Relief Society (Sacrament is last, Relief Society is first here)... and I decided to sit by someone I didn´t know (which is basically everyone here.. :) but I chose well... the member next to her asked if I could translate the meeting into English for her, so I start talking to her--it is her first time in church and she just decided to come in to see what we believe. :) Awesome!!!  So the meeting starts and I am translating.  (which, sidenote, is a lot more complicated than you would think, because they say something and then you translate, but as you are talking they are still talking- so you have to talk and listen and switch languages all at the same time. haha)  But it actually was really fun, and it just took a bit to get into the groove of all the multitasking. So the meeting was great, the spirit was strong, all went well.  At the end of the meeting I turned and started talking to someone else, and when I turned back around the lady that I had translated for was speaking Spanish to someone. Say what?! haha  I was like, ´Wait, you speak Spanish´... haha ´I just wanted to make sure I was understanding everything´... hahaha funny, funny,  She´s not actually in our area, but we passed off the reference. :)

On Tuesday we got to go to "T"'s sealing!!!! It was so beautiful! Let me tell you a little about "T"... so she is just the cutest member in Las Palmas and I love her to death. So about the same time that Maddie got engaged, "T" got engaged... and all my sisterly excitement about a wedding was poured out on her. haha  It was often the joke that I was more excited for her wedding that she was! So she always would help us with English classes and I would help her plan her wedding. :) fun fun fun, and so even though I´m going to miss TWO WEDDINGS!!!!!!!!!!!! (shout out to NICK and MARCI who just got engaged!!!)... I got to go to the sealing and be a part of one wedding at least! :)  It was incredible, and the spirit was soooooo strong! I am so happy for them!!! :)

Alrighty la obra misional! 

"E"- We have had a few things set up with him and he has failed us a few times... (kind of understandable because he is 16 and it was basically a party week this week)... but there was one day that he called us... we pick up, a little confused, hoping everything is ok... and he said ´Hey... do you have time to meet today?´and just set up his own appointment. :) Great spiritual lesson!!! He really has so much desire... just a typical 16 year old boy!

"A"- So we are visiting this family, the mom and children are members and the dad is just a little hard hearted. He has learned about every church and his beliefs are kind of a compilation of everything.  He has a hard time with the concept of faith. So most times our lessons are us attempting to bring the spirit and him giving us hypothetical situations.... fun.  But we went over this week to have an FHE and the lesson started out fine- scriptures, testimonies... but it was just the same old, same old... and then the wife bears this amazing testimony that completely changed the course of the lesson. She just kind of called him out for having a hard heart ´we have 3 living beautiful children. Our daughter was cured from bone cancer... What more miracles do you want. Our life is a miracle. What more do you want´... man oh man the spirit was soooo strong... and his attitude changed. He started listening to us... it was incredible. The power of a testimony! :)

And the weekly update of my street stories: :)

-So there is this older Spanish lady waiting for the bus who was holding a big potted flower.  So I sit down next to her and comment on how I like her flower... :) and she just went on and on about this flower and I was just nodding and smiling... and then she was like, you know what I´ll give you a branch and you can grow your own plant too... ´Umm, no I´m ok...´ ´no really.... here´and she rips off a whole branch of her flower and hands it to me... ´ummm thanks...´ and then she proceeds to tell me all the steps I need to take to grow it.  Then we moved into the conversation about the temple gardens... and the temple... and the gospel. :)

-To some it is fascinating that we speak English... so we were talking to this guy and he wanted to practice his English.. He asked us ´do you like futball?´... ´ummm yeah sure´.... ´or do you prefer to dance´and right after he said this he broke into this intricate Spanish dance step (like Flamanco style), ending with a clap and everything... ´hahahaha  Yeah we love futball, we just love it so much´.... we are soooo awkward.

-We were leaving the chapel from a lesson and found two men standing looking up at the temple... so we stop and start talking to them. They had come just to see the temple. Awesome. We´re thinking it is this big miracle as we start to give a temple tour. haha  Well turns out they are very, very Athiest and kind of just wanted to argue.  Wow it was just an adventure...It is sad when people don´t recognize what Christ did for them and what we can become through Christ. 

I was thinking about that a lot due to the fact that it is Easter and all, and I am just really grateful for the Atonement and for the mercy of God that we can return back to his presence because of what Christ did for us. I will always ´Stand all amazed´. It makes all the difference to be completely focused on Christ during the Easter Season. I loved it!

Also "A" (from Las Palmas) is getting baptized this week! :) He is my miracle story and I´m soooo happy for him!!! :)

Well I love life and hope you all do too!!  Love you lots!

The Finger Wag

So it has suddenly turned to summer... haha  I don´t really know what happened to the concept of spring, but there was a very distinguishable leap from winter to summer and I definitely got sunburned. :) Oh the joys of being outside.  Also I kind of feel a little like Pocohantas because there are a lot of little tree leaves that have fallen and when the wind blows there are big sections of flower petals and leaves swirling in the wind.... I´m working on a song to contact people to the tune of ´Paint with all the colors of the wind´ ... got to keep Disney in my life somehow. :)

Well basically if I were to sum up our week in one sentence it would be:  we were in the streets contacting.... :) fun fun fun... you do get to meet quite a few interesting people...

-"P" for instance.  She was really nice. She actually let us teach her all of Lesson 2... quite the accomplishment. After quite a while talking at the bus stop we asked her if we could pray together before we left and is there anything in particular we should ask for.... She said we could ask for her health...and the health for her family... and the health for the whole world while we are at it´...

-There was this really sweet lady whose son (who was a Mormon) died a while ago and she really was so grateful to talk about the Mormon church because she saw the good it did in his life. We had a really great lesson with her about eternal families and she is really ready to hear the gospel.  Unfortunately she doesn´t live in our area.. So other awesome missionaries get to teach her! :)

-The best is what we have come to call the ´finger wag´.... so generally when people wave their finger at you  (you know, in like the ´you did something wrong´ way) they extend their pointer finger and wave and shake their whole hand... but in Spain... they extend their pointer finger and only the finger moves side to side as the hand stays in place... haha and when two missionaries approach,  it is very probable that they will receive this signal.

So I have officially become the English teacher here! :) Kind of fun, I get to write on a chalkboard, which takes me back a while. 

We got stuck in quite the rainstorm this week! :) haha so just imagine this... we are on a bus and the weather is just fine... then out of the blue it just starts downpouring. we look at each other and just start laughing. haha  Due to the hot weather we were in very summery clothes, but don´t you fear I had my handy umbrella... so we get to our stop, get out of the bus (and as I´m opening my umbrella I don´t watch where I step) and I step in a huge puddle. haha  So shoes are soaked, socks are soaked, (my umbrella really isn´t meant for 2 people) so half of each of our bodies are soaked. hahahaha  I haven´t laughed that hard in a long time.  It was hilarious... until the sun went down and it got cold.... haha then we stopped laughing ;) but it is funny because when it rains people just gather in the doorways of stores and wait for it to pass... :) Makes it easier for us... they're all in one place :)  Fun times.

We did do some good deeds this week... we were waiting for a lesson and noticed a lady enter the temple and then come back out and then walk up and down the street, looking a little lost. Well we approached her and asked her if we could help... well they had come from out of town to go to the temple and were trying to make the 12 o´clock session (in 15 min), but she had forgotten the money for the clothes and her husband was trying to find parking... so it seemed like they were going to miss the session... so we were able to help her get to her session on time, something that she had come a long way to do! :) I felt happy that we were there to help her out.  The Lord knows where he wants us.

Well yeah. lots of funny moments. lots of laughs, lots of time on the street.  If anyone has a really good idea of finding new investigators I would absolutely love to hear your ideas! :)

Love you lots!!!!!

Hna Fowers

Tomorrow we are going to a sealing of one of my best friends from the islands!! :)  Woohooo my reward for missing two sibling weddings !  :) haha

Welcome to Temple Square

I don´t think words can adequately describe how much I love the temple.. after 6 months of not even seeing the temple... now I live the next street over, have the most amazing view of it, and pass it on our way out to work and on our way home every day... talk about keeping the main goal in perspective!  So along with having the temple in our area we get temple tours!!! :) SO my first day here a man who works for the church called us and told us that he was bringing four of his friends to see the temple and wanted to have a temple tour! Okey dokey!! :) I firmly believe that it is the best way to introduce the gospel... you get to see the beautiful temple, feel the spirit, and hear some of our beliefs!

So temple tours go something like this:

-We start out briefly explaining the Restoration of the church. How the true church of Jesus Christ was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith

-Then we go to the statue of the family with the inscription  ´Families can be Together Forever´... we talk about eternal families!!!

-Then we go to the olive tree (that they brought over from Jerusalem :) pretty legit... and talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how through him we can be clean and return back to God

- Then we go to the cornerstone and tell how a prophet of God dedicated the building (Gordon B Hinckley) and how we believe in modern day prophets

-Then we go to the entrance of the temple ¨House of the Lord´ and talk about what is the temple for us.

-Then sometimes we can even go into the front waiting room. That is my favorite part... because you can feel the spirit super strong! There we bear testimony of Jesus Christ! :) and answer any questions they have. We end with a prayer... get their number ;) and go on our way! 

It is incredible!!! :) I love love love it!!! We´ve done it a few times this week... and I loved every one... even the one in the pouring rain. haha

So we have this new investigator (well for me everyone is new..  but he is new, new). So his name is "E" and he has truly been prepared to hear the gospel. He is a friend of a recent convert and his friend invited him for a temple tour (I LOVE THE TEMPLE). so we gave him the tour and then went and showed him the baptismal font in the stake center! He loved it and asked us what kinds of things he needed to do to get baptized... :) He really wanted to watch the Joseph Smith movie (because his friend had told him all about  it).. so our next lesson we watched it with him... He had read a chapter of the Book of Mormon that we left him and had amazing questions.  We watched the movie and he was really touched. He told us he believes that it is true... that the first vision really happened and that our church is true. Man oh man, you should have seen how eager he was to learn!!! It was incredible!!! He LOVES that we have a modern day prophet (perfect timing for conference) and at the end of our lesson he set up our next lesson. He is so excited and it makes me sooo excited!!

It is just another testimony that God is preparing His children!! There are people ready and we have the truth, we just have to go out and preach it. :) and we have the temple which is a great too!!! :)

I love conference! and I love how everyone gathers to temple square to have an all day spiritual party!!! :) Also!!!!! People from Leganés came for the conference and I was able to see them!!!! OHH IT WAS SOOOO GREAT!!!! to see "C"!! who is strong in the gospel and is a ward missionary!!! To see members that I love so much!!  The weirdest part was that I actually understood what they were saying... haha and could talk to them. I was just so used to not understanding them that it took me off guard at first. Love them!! :)

So I definitely saw a man walking a pet ferret on a leash.

I love it here, it is so beautiful and it is beginning to be spring!! (a LOT colder than Las Palmas... had to break out the jacket and the tights... haha).  It is definitely different that Las Palmas... we were teaching a lot more in the islands, and here we are finding and contacting a lot more... so we are in the streets a lot. But all is good! The church is true and Madrid is beautiful! :)

Sending lots of love!!

Hna Fowers

Look at that view of the temple. . . it is BEAUTIFUL!!! :)