Birthday celebrations!!

Well well well what a week...
So my new companion is Hermana Galvez! She is from Canada and speaks both English and Spanish... haha... so that is just perfect!Her birthday actually turned out to be the day she entered the field... so this is how new missionaries enter the field: they spend the day in the mission home and then in the afternoon all the missionaries meet in the chapel to be put with their companions.. Hna Jackson makes this cool slideshow and President individually matches us with our new comps. Well I was matched with Hna Galvez and found out it was her birthday and we definitely all broke into a resounding round of Cumpleaños Feliz!!  Talk about starting out a mission with a bang... we definitely ate cake, I definitely sang to her about 50 times and the next day we definitely had a party with the other hermanas... we will take any excuse to celebrate! :)

We were able to meet with "M" for the first time in a long time and she has made a complete 180 turn in her life. She always struggled with reading the Book of Mormon, and we would always encourage her to read. So for like the past month she has been working nonstop... but we´ve kept texting her encouragement to read. So we met with her this week and she basically bore her testimony about the power of the Book of Mormon! She is now in Mosiah, and she told us that when she started having a desire to read the Book of Mormon she can literally see the hand of the Lord in her life. She is happier and relies on the Lord more, all because she has found joy in reading the Book of Mormon!!!  Oh it was sooo incredible!!!! I absolutely loved it so much!!! I firmly believe that is the best feeling in the world... see that someone has found happiness in their lives through Jesus Christ!! :)

We were contacting and there was a man who told us that he wanted to convert us to his religion so he could marry us both... haha.. and my cute companion went along with it for a while in the attempt to convert him....you live and you learn.

Well we´re all well and happy!! Keep on keeping on!!

Oh also we went to El Escorial today and it was like a pride and prejudice castle!! SOOO PRETTY!!!

Well until next week
Hna Fowers!

Dancing in the rain :)

So the week of transfer calls is always a little bit of a guessing game. You never really know what is going to happen, but anyone and everyone´s opinion is expressed. Our guesses were a little bit skewed by what happened on Tuesday. (sidenote Hna Manner only has a transfer and a half left and we were convinced either that we were staying together or I was leaving). So Tuesday we get a call from the senior couple in charge of the apartments of the mission. They said that they were renewing the piso contract and they needed me to sign it. I was going on intercambios so I asked if Hna Manner could sign it.. They told me it had to be me. And because we are missionaries and have no other form of entertainment- we analyze... and as I signed the 50 pages of the piso´s new contract I was fairly sure I was staying in B6. And sure enough, here I am still here. Training. say what?!! I´m so excited, super nervous, but super excited!! I get my new companion tomorrow and well i´ll just be hanging with the other hermanas until then!

We got caught in a rain storm this week!! :) it was super cool, we had fhe at the church and as we left we saw the super white temple in contrast to the dark rainclouds that covered the whole sky. It looked so legit!! and to add on to that there was lightning that surrounded the temple. Ohh it was so cool and I tried so hard to get a picture of it, but I couldn´t get it. so just imagine lightning in these pictures! So anyway we were walking home to our piso for the night and it just starts downpouring. Because we were just heading to our piso and it didn´t matter if we were wet, we definitely took advantage of the situation and danced in the rain! Sooo fun!! loved it.. and got back to the piso soaked. :)

Well even though not much happened, we saw the hand of the Lord a lot in our lives. A lot of my prayers were answered this week and it is amazing to see the way the Lord answers our prayers. It never is the way I expect it to be... but that makes it all the more beautiful. I love being a missionary and to have the opportunity to rely on the Lord in a way I never have had to before in my life. I truly have come to realize how much we need to rely on Him, to accept his answers how and when they come, and to keep on going with a smile knowing that everything will work out when we trust in our Heavenly Father. 

Well wish me luck this week. I have a feeling I´m going to need it! :)

Hna Fowers

Sweet 16!....I mean 15?

Okey dokey.. well to start off I have news from Las Palmas!! :):):)

-So "Y" got engaged!!! and when she is married she can get baptized!! :) Wooohooo.  Also her daughter got baptized last weekend!! :) Woohoo...the work is progressing there!! I´m so happy for them, they were a family ready to hear the truth.

So we went to a quincallera (no idea how to spell that... the big party they throw for 15 year olds). So basically this was like a wedding reception for a 15 year old. There was good food and a huge cake too!  As part of the ceremony they ´change´ her shoes from flats to high heels to represent her change from childhood to womanhood. 

This Friday was Friday the 13th... hope you all realized that, haha because we sure did- there was something in the air or something because NO ONE wanted to listen to us. So it was a pretty hot day but there was like a 5 minute downpour of rain.  It was so hot that right after it stopped raining it started evaporating off the hot ground. So we were walking around in mist for a while. Very spooky.. very Friday the 13th-ish... :)

My comp played piano for the primary yesterday, so we got to be in Primary!! Man I´ve forgotten how much I miss that!! Kids are sooooo cute!! Also,,, head, shoulders, knees and toes is completely different! ´Head, face, shoulders, toes... and then instead of the eyes ears mouth and noes they just turn around... I was so confused the first time we sung it!! haha

We ran into a lot of tourists trying to find their way to the temple this week! We were able to show them the temple and then give them a little tour! We were in the right place at the right time! :)

We got to go to the mission home for a meeting this week.  The meeting was really good!  We definitely left spiritually uplifted!! :)

Ok well that´s all folks.
Love you lots,

Hna Fowers

Oh the people we meet...

Good week. good week!

-We met this awesome new family.  They are from Peru and have met with missionaries over there, but never really went to church or got baptized but they are really interested!! We talked about how the gospel is a huge blessing for the family and how we receive additional guidance from the Book of Mormon and the prophet! They loved it! The little girl was the first one to ask when we could meet again. Precious!

-“E” got work off on Sundays! So we go over there and the first thing she says is ´you´ll never guess what´... sometimes I don´t know if that is a good starting sentence or a bad one.. .but in this case it was good!! She said that her prayers have been answered and she can come to church! Super cute.

-“D” - She is new and she understands the gospel sooo well. They met with her the first time while we were on intercambios last week, and Hna Manner said that it was incredible how well she understood the Restoration and her part in her conversion. So I was so excited to meet her. We taught the Plan of Salvation... and she understood it perfectly. Some people don´t really understand but they can feel that it is true and that is awesome, but she knows it is true and understands all the implications. ´So if you have to be completely clean to live in the Celestial Kingdom, that means I have to be baptized and baptized in your church.´ I don´t think we responded for a few seconds because we were just so surprised that she understood that with out us telling her. ´Yes... yes that is what that means´  We then proceeded to confirm her fecha!  (baptismal date)

-“J”... she is menos activa and we found her this week. Her story is cool. So she was baptized about 15 years ago in Peru, but was less active when she moved here 9 years ago.  Just this last Wednesday she was invited to go to a different church. So she went and the closing hymn was the hymn that they played at her baptism... all the memories of her conversion and baptism came flooding to her mind. Then her friend... who is a member called and invited her to a ward activity on Saturday. She came, we met her there, got her information, she came to church on Sunday and we went over and visited her last night! The Lord was really preparing her to return, and she needs it a lot right now in her life. It really is humbling to see the hand of the Lord in the lives of so many people here. 

During medio dia I usually practice cooking Spanish-Latin American food so I´m a pro by the end of my mission... I tried making Spanish tortilla this week. haha which includes a pretty intense flip. Well it failed miserably and I ended up cleaning it up more than I ate... but have no fear... I´ll get it down!  One of the best friendships we´ve made was with the recent convert from Mexico... :) We´ve gotten quite a bit of delicious Mexican food! :)  Loving life

I had intercambios with Hna Smith this week.. so that was fun to be with her again!!

We have a big meeting in the mission home tomorrow...!! :)  We get to go and learn and eat yummy food... and then we teach zone meeting on Wednesday.. which I´m freaking out about. haha   Public speaking in front of a whole zone, and in Spanish.  I´m wondering why anything was hard at home... it was all in English. haha

Well I´m just loving life!! :) Hope you all are as well!! :)  

Sending my love from Spain...

Hna Fowers!

Segovia!!! :)

I´m in Segovia right now!!!! woohooo. Land of the palaces and cathedrals! Super pretty... but this is going to be quick! :)

I got saran wrapped for FHE.... all for the sake of an object lesson. haha  It was pretty great though... so I had to jump and try to get the chocolate that was hanging above my head... well i´m not coordinated anyway-and when you take into account the fact that I was all wrapped up. haha  Well it didn´t end very well.. ha

We started teaching "S"... he is the one we met last week on the street that didn´t want to take the Book of Mormon. I have firmly decided that Lesson 1 is my favorite lesson. There is just so much hope leaving a lesson knowing that someone now knows that the church has been restored! :) He told us that when we saw him on the street he didn´t really want to listen to us.. but the ´light in us´ made him stop and listen and that is what brought him to the church to hear more. He really liked the lesson and really has a desire to learn more. It is incredible bringing this message to those who don't have it.

Well this week we had zone conference and we watched a Mormon message that was incredible!  Gracias a él... in English I think it is "Because of him."  If you haven´t seen it go watch it now.  It will change your life.

Well that´s about it. Love you lots. 

Yes, God loves you!

So Tuesday this week was a day full of miracles!! We basically taught more that day than we did the whole week last week... it was a good day... (or last week was a bad week, haha, however you want to take it :)

So we were able to meet with "E" (who has been working 24/7 for the last month basically). So this was the first time in a month, and it was so great- super spiritual and she´s back on the right track!

We also met with "E" and he accepted the Word of Wisdom!! He committed to live it (woohoo)!! He has been holding out on setting a baptismal date because he wants to know all the commandments before he commits to anything, so we are teaching and he is loving everything!! One of the coolest 16 year olds I know. 

We also met with "M" and had a really interesting lesson. Every time we said anything about how God is a loving God she would look kind of confused or make a comment about how she is so small and has a lot of trials... So we straight up asked her if she believes that God loves her... she told us that she thinks she is too small to be of notice to God. It literally broke my heart to hear this and we bore testimony of how God is our loving Father in Heaven. We are literally his children and we can´t even begin to comprehend how much God loves us. He has a plan for each and everyone of us and is completely aware of our every need, but also aware of what is best for us. I felt the spirit stronger in this lesson than probably at any other time in my mission. God wants us to know that He loves us. We have the restored gospel because He loves us, I am here sharing the gospel because He loves His children here. This is a work of love, because we truly have a loving Father in Heaven. 

So we are working with "L" and it was her birthday this week... haha so I called her and as soon as she picked up I started singing ´cumpleaños feliz... cumpleaños feliz.. etc´... I guess I should have asked who I was talking to, but that didn´t really cross my mind. So I just sang and when I finished singing there is just silence on the line.  I'm just thinking ´shoot, I probably should´ve asked for "L"... after a good long silence she just says ´this is the missionaries, isn´t it... ´ hahaa yes, yes it is!  She loved it and she knows it! :)

I had intercambios this week here with Hna Fuller... we were in the streets a lot, and we found some great people. One was named "S". So we were telling him about the Book of Mormon and he was really interested. So after we had read with him a little and bore testimony and all that jazz he handed us the book back and told us he didn´t want it. What?  He told us ´well this is probably a really sacred book, and I don´t know if I can take good enough care of it.´ We made a deal with him, if he took it, read it and prayed about it and still didn´t want it when we met again we would take it back. We´re meeting with him today.. so I´m excited!

Yesterday was Elder Cloward´s bday and we ran into them in the streets after they had just gotten some cake... he offered us a piece, but seeing as we were on the streets we didn´t have anything to cut it with. haha so we cut the cake with a pass along card!  Yes... and that is how you know we are missionaries. haha

That was basically our week: teaching, awesome members, cake... gotta love it!

Love you lots!!! 

Shout out to my champion brother and the Bountiful baseball team!!! :) Wooohooo WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS MY FRIENDS!!!

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!