Feliz Año Nuevo :)

Well I hope all the Christmas festivities were perfectly exectuted and you are all preparing for a New Year´s Eve wedding!!!!!!! :):):):):):) How fun! I will be here wearing my orange shirt and corsage pretending that I am somehow a part of the festivities :)

All the while trying to tell people that, "no we are not allowed to stay out until midnight on New Year's Eve..."  "Yes, even if it is at a member's house."  "Yes, even though it is New Year's Eve"  "No, there are not exceptions"... haha...but she still made us promise to ask for permission... They have a tradition here in Spain... for every chime of the clock at midnight you have to put a grape in your mouth... so when it is New Year's everyone's mouths are full of grapes. haha  Makes for a great New Year's kiss I guess. . . what a pity we won´t get to see it :)

So lots of really cool Christmas miracles this week -

-"A" .. so we met with him for the first time last week and we had a super spiritual lesson about the Restoration. He really understood the concept of why this church is the only true church and he said that he was excited to read and pray about it.  He told us that he came into our lesson really skeptical... he was just curious but he ended up being really impressed because he felt something different. Thank you Holy Ghost!  Anyway so this week we met with him and had a lesson about the Plan of Salvation! :) Coolest experience... so we start the lesson and he just flat out says ´well my whole life has changed since the last meeting.´  haha  That kind of took me by surprise... you hear about all these awesome ´Ensign´ worthy missionary experiences, but I´ve never actually experienced one to this level... ´My whole way of thinking and looking at life has changed... I´ve been praying and reading... I don´t know what I´m feeling but I like it!´ HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!  Best feeling in the world... :)  Nothing can compete with this!  He went on to tell us that is Mom is worried about him because he literally is changing his life around.  I love the gospel!  We then had a suuuuppperrr great lesson about the Plan of Salvation and what God really wants from us in this life and in the next. :) I love people like him!

-"Y"- She is new too!! So last Sunday there was a baptism of a little girl in the ward and this blessed 8 year old girl did the greatest thing and invited her friend. (I LOVE MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK). Well this cute little girl and her efforts brought "Y" (the mom) and "A" (the daughter) to the church and in contact with us.  "Y" is looking for the truth. She has gone to basically every church you can think of.  She wants to raise her family (has 3 kids) in a church and go faithfully... but she just doesn´t feel  ´filled´ by any of the other churches.  In other words... she is looking for the truth and we have it. :) So we gave her a Book of Mormon at the baptism and set up an appointment. Then we went and taught Lesson 1 about the Restoration. She has a lot of questions, but we were able to teach with the spirit and convey the importance of praying and finding out for herself! Oh she has so much potential!!! She and her whole family!! :) I LOVE MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK!!!

-"H" is a recent convert and we were on the bus the other day and saw him walking down the street... haha so we start pounding on the window and by some miracle he saw us... understood our sign language to meet us at the bus stop. haha  So we had a spur of the moment lesson with him that was so great! He finished the lesson by showing us his rapping and break dancing skills. haha

Well the guagua (the buses here) kept closing their doors on me this week... haha no joke 3 times.  So It was always an adventure entering and exiting the guaguas.

We went back and ate those amazing tamales that we watched her make on Christmas Eve! Oh they were sooo good!

One last thought... so everyone lives in pisos (apartments) here and really the only decoration they can put (or chose to put) outside to decorate for Christmas is a hanging Santa Claus... so everywhere you look there are Santa Clauses trying to climb into everyone's windows :)  It kind of loses it´s effect when it is on every third window. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! HAPPY WEDDING DAY MADDIE AND JOSH!!!!! :) 

LOVE YOU LOTS!
Hermana Fowers

P.S.  Everyone should invest in a Santa suit! 

Red Alert!!!

Tuesday morning- we´re on intercambios...  I´m with Hna Cassinet (aka I´m in charge of directions and we´re lost).  So we´re making our way to a member´s house for lunch and we get a call from the district leader.  We´re on red alert. There is a hurricane coming this way... you have to be in your piso by three.  Thoughts of the Philippines were running through my mind. Uhhhh ok, yeah, whatever you say.  So it is 2 at this moment.  We run to the members house, eat a delightful meal of papa rellenos (ooohhh they were so good...potatoes filled with chicken and beef and bananas and peppers and cheese and bacon- basically it was like a treasure hunt.  We kept finding new things the longer we ate!! :))  The thoughts of a hurricane did kind of put a damper on the meal, however.
 

Then we ran back to our piso... closed the door at precisely 3 o´clock. :) We looked at each other, looked outside the window at the perfectly normal weather, shrugged our shoulders, grabbed our study materials and had a delightful 2 hours extra of study time. Oh the guilty pleasures of being a missionary.  All the while, the weather was perfectly fine- a bit windy and a bit cold for an island, but not one drop of rain. :) Better safe than sorry, I guess.  At 5 we got the call that said we could go back out... so then we continued our day of getting hopelessly lost. haha I really need to learn directions. 

Our ward mission leader has a dance studio, and this week was the Christmas program. So he asked us to come and basically be the meet and greet committee :) We passed out the flyers (all of which we stuffed with pass along cards:),  talked to lots of people and enjoyed the spirit of Christmas through an AMAZING dance recital!!!!

I definitely also had a part in the Primary program yesterday... still trying to decide if that is because I act like a child sometimes... haha :) kidding... (kind of)  So they sang I Am a Child of God... and each verse was in a different language :)  We´ve been teaching the primary the verse in English and so they asked me to sing with them in the program. :)  It was soooooooooo cute!!!! We had a lot of investigators there and it was soooo good for them to see the sweet pure testimonies from the mouth of children!  Especially the testimonies about baptism! :)

Which I have been studying a lot about this week... want to hear a cool quote: ´Baptism is not optional if one wishes the fullness of salvation.´ Bible dictionary. So this week we had a different attitude and a different approach as we went into our lessons. This really is their salvation. I really love every single one of the people we teach. How would I feel if we were in the Celestial Kingdom and they weren´t there. No. They need to be there. So we were a lot more bold this week and we made a lot more progress!!! We also found a lot more new people to teach. One of these people is from Africa and is a friend of a recent convert. So before the lesson we decided on a fecha bautismal (baptismal date)... the 19th of January. Perfect!! So we start the lesson and he is suuupperrr interested and it is just a great lesson! So I´m feeling like we need to ask him to be baptized... so I ask him to be baptized, ´we have a baptismal service on the 16 of January -  will you prepare to be baptized on that day?´ and Hna Schaumann looks at me kind of funny and I´m wondering what I said wrong... then Fi gets all excited and says ´´that is the day of my birth!´ (I love Africans) :) So we finish the lesson and it is super good, spirit is super strong and as we´re walking away Hna Schaumann starts laughing and says, ´that was super inspired and you don´t even realized what you did, do you?´ I legitimately thought I was giving him the date we had planned... Well, yeah, now he is going to get baptized on a Thursday... haha because God knows his children and knows exactly how to reach them.

We were walking down the street one day and this drunk man stops us and starts speaking blabber... not comprehensible.  He says something like ´are you hurt´ haha so we´re trying to figure out what he is saying... catch the word heaven and start explaining about what we believe about heaven. Well come to find out he is using a pickup line: ´because you look like you fell from heaven´... Eeeewww.  We kept on walking. haha.

The Elders baptized an 80 year old woman yesterday and she is soooo adorable!  This gospel is for everyone!

IT IS CHRISTMAS TIME!!! ;) I´ll see you later... and there is some truth to that sentence!!! "See" you on Christmas!! I love you all!!! :)

Pictures 1 & 2 & 3- Last Pday - All the missionaries went on a full island tour

Picture 3 - She said, "Everything around me is telling me that it is Christmas, but I just can´t believe it because it feels like summer... haha" 

Pictures 4 & 5 - She is loving the opportunity to serve and teach the gospel to all the wonderful people of Gran Canaria 

Zone Conference Fun

Well Zone Conference!! Wooohooo... it is a party! So all the missionaries came from all the different islands to Las Palmas on Monday, we spend pday together and then instead of going out to proselyte Monday night, we had a big devotional with the mission president (and we watched 17 miracles!!!).  Then on Tuesday we have a big meeting where President Jackson, Sister Jackson, the new Stake President of the Canary Islands, and the Assistants to the President spoke to us!! Needless to say... it was incredible!

First things first, it was super weird to sit down and watch a movie. At the same time, it was really cool to be in the same room as 30 plus missionaries and feel the spirit super strong as we thought about the experiences the pioneers had and all the experiences we are having. Then we had a testimony meeting... dang... super powerful! Woooohooo  Zone conference was incredibly spiritual too... one thing that President Jackson emphasized was asking for a reference from everyone we meet with-talk with. Then he asked the Assistants how many references they got from one lesson... 11!!!!!!!!! 11.... that is insane.  So we´ve been putting that into practice this week! Also President Jackson is a surgeon and he had a video of him doing the same surgery that they did to Joseph Smith (you know the one when he was a little boy)...ummm and he showed it to everyone who wanted to see it... ugh...I thought I was going to die. haha... I didn´t stay for very long. haha

We had some really good lessons this week! with "R"... she is 20 and is the Harry Potter fan. We are friends! We had a super spiritual lesson 1 and she came to church! So we´re excited about her!

"J" we FINALLY got to meet with, after like 3 weeks...haha we gave him a Book of Mormon in Tagolog... and we wanted to share a scripture with him, so I open up to the scripture so he could read it. hahaha no he wanted me to read it.  So I made a fool of myself trying to read Tagolog... haha "J" was cracking up.  Yeah, I gladly switched back into Spanish. haha

"O"...we had a lesson with him about eternal families this week, and brought a super great member with us! This member just straight up testified of how through the death of 2 of her children the comfort of eternal families was priceless. Her testimony was so powerful we legit couldn´t say anything for such a long time because the spirit was so strong. Then we talked about things we can do down to strengthen our families... and "O" was all ears.  It was super good for him to hear her powerful testimony.

So the Elders had a baptism this week and the story is super cool!!! So really fast: his name is "D". He is a genius, knows 6 languages, is an engineer, and is an orchestra director in Madrid. Well he was...he came to the islands for what he thought was a 2 week vacation. In that time, he was fired from his job, all his possessions were robbed (including his passport), and he was basically stranded here with no money or documents to get back to Madrid. So that was like a month ago and he has been homeless and has been going to the Red Cross to get food and help with his situation.. in his words... ´from the top of the top to the low of the low´.  Well he saw the Elders contacting one day and just wondered why they looked so happy. Well a few days later he saw them again... so he followed them to see what they were doing.  Well one thing led to another and they started talking. He came to church, read the entire gospel principles manual, and most of the Book of Mormon within a few days. He was baptized on Saturday after 2 weeks. Incredible!!! He is incredible! ...and he plays the piano like a boss... almost as good as Branson Bell! :) 

I would just like to say that I bought a Santa Claus suit! :) 5 Euros... ($6.75) best purchase I think I have ever made! My companion keeps telling me that I won´t be able to wear it anywhere... but I think I can think of some reason ;)  Also we bought a ream of paper a few weeks ago... and I´ve been making snowflakes in my spare minutes here and there! Today we set up our winterwonderland.  Oh it is magnificent!  Bringing snow to the beautiful Canary Islands... just part of the experience.  :)  

Well Happy Thanksgiving!!!  Love you all

When in doubt... testify of Joseph Smith

Allrighty folks… here's the dealio...

So last week we hardly got anyone at church… so I decided to try a new plan of action for this week. This week I sang, danced, and did the hula... and that is only a slight exaggeration. I sang to people on the phone, I was super excited when I invited them… all that jazz.  Which generated quite a few funny looks from the people on the streets, but I don't care… because it worked!!!!!! :):):)  We got lots of people at church!! Woooohooo!!!

"Y"....  Oh we just had the best lesson with her!! :) So we had a lesson about something and then were asking her about baptism.. and she was just kind of so so about the topic… not excited at all.  I was just wondering 'how do I get her excited, and help her see how important this is'…. and my mind went back to my mission prep class where we learned that 'when in doubt, testify of Joseph Smith' and I just felt soooo strongly that I needed to testify of Joseph Smith and the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. So I did and it was incredible.  The spirit was super strong. We talked about how her answer is going to come not as she asks about baptism, but as she prays about the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of this church. As she comes to know that this church is true, she will have the desire to be baptized, the desire to be changed.  It was incredible!

The next lesson we had with her we watched the Restoration movie! :)  Soo hopefully she reads and prays… but she gave us a reference this week! haha   That was super great!! A cute 20 year old girl that loves Harry Potter.  I mean really we are already best friends, whoever said Harry Potter wasn't a missionary tool…

Uummm we went to a members house this week for lunch… they have the 4 cutest little girls that all speak English!!! :) They did our nails, and we had a cute lesson about princesses and we made crowns because we are all Daughters of God. I died… I loved it so much!

So Hna Schaumann was sick on Mon/Tuesday so I had a fun day in the piso… haha I read out loud in Spanish until I had basically lost my voice, read scriptures, cooked, listened to conference talks… then I tried to have a little dance party by myself to keep myself sane… but I couldn't find an upbeat enough fey song on my iPod… haha so I settled with a yoga session to Paul Cardall…

Also we have a new investigator named "S"   That is all! :)

Tuesday is zone conference… which is a huge deal on the islands… all the missionaries are traveling here today …we had a sleep over in the Buhlers house and all!! :) Soooo great!!!

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!!! :)

Christmas lights... on palm trees...

Well people are starting to get ready for Christmas!! :) haha because you know, palm trees aren't complete without Christmas lights... and turns out people set up their big Christmas trees on the beach! :) Maybe if it were actually cold I would feel like it is Christmas time. We were having a lesson with a family... and a little girl saw a picture in the Liahona of Lorenzo Snow and thought it was Santa Claus... :) haha 'Papa Noel'

Let's see...what happened...

"Y"- we made cookies with her!!! haha  It was the greatest!!! So our relationship with her and her mom has skyrocketed this week!!  It's been golden! She broke her phone so this week we just went over to her house a bunch and taught her basically every day!!!  We've been talking about good old American cookies and promised we'd teach her one day. The day finally arrived... but ummm haha they didn't have a real oven just one of those little microwave ovens. So we could only make 4 at a time... and a lot of them ended up burnt... but it was fun!! She had a baptismal date for this week.. but she just doesn't feel like she's had an answer yet. 'I feel good I just don't feel convinced' . . . so we're working on that... but on the bright side... later on in the week we came over to find that "I" was making cookies all by herself. :)

"J"- oh he is so legit! He only has one day free each week (hmmm that sounds familiar...:)). So we can only meet with him every so often, but he is rock solid and has a real desire to learn and get an answer! He has a fecha!! (date-for baptism)

"R"-  so remember that one week when he was reading and praying and being super receptive... yeah well then he started working and he hasn't been reading and praying and he is back to his unreceptive state... hmmm.  He has a lot of questions and we're working on addressing those... it is just a little hard when they stop doing all the things that provide all the answers.

We have found a lot of super happy people this week!! A lot of new people to teach, so that is fun!! One lady in particular, was super happy and smiley and just all around good company. At the end of our lesson she asked us to guess how old she is. Ugh... that is a scary question! :) Well... we legitimately guessed like 15 years younger than she actually was.  Her secret to youth: smiling!  Alright, whatever you say!!

Fun fact about Las Palmas... all the streets are one way. I keep getting reminded that I probably don't need to look both ways on a street that only goes one way.  Old habits die hard! 

We were late to an eating appointment this week and the member was joking about he wasn't going to give us dessert... he may have quoted Seinfield without knowing English 'No postres for you!' haha

Well I hope you have a great week enjoying life  :)

Love you lots!

Halloween, croissants and testimonies

I would like to formally wish everyone a Happy Halloween!! Now I would like to explain to you how we celebrated this holiday.

- We spent mediodía (siesta time) making sugar cookies and orange frosting and decorated them for Halloween!!! This turned out to be quite a bad idea because we put ourselves into a sugar coma without even having to trick or treat... we then gave plates of Halloween cookies to everyone we met with the rest of the day. ´Here is our spiritual message... now let us explain to you what Halloween is´... I think it was quite a success.

- we used Halloween as a contacting conversation starter... I got lots of people to talk to me :) 

- There was a jas (ysa) dance! so it actually felt like Halloween because the Buhlers decorated all out!! Pumpkin desserts and all!! It was all worth it because everyone had a great time!  Anyway Happy Halloween!!

So this week we had a first lesson with this man named "J"! We met him on the street last week and had set up an appointment in a park. So we go to this park and he´s not there... classic. So we decide to contact in this park for a while and wait to see if he shows up. He doesn´t answer his phone... and so like half hour later we decide he´s not coming and we head towards the bus. Just as we were about to get on the bus I had the thought ´you have someone here to teach´... and it was like a super strong thought... so I turn to my companion and say we should go try the park one more time.  So we turn to walk back to the park and as we do "J" calls us! :) We then had one of the greatest lessons!!! He is from the Philippines and has a super strong testimony about prayer! We had a heart to heart about how God speaks to us and told him about the Book of Mormon.  We had brought one in Tagalog for him and he was soooooo excited!! So I just bore testimony to him about how if he reads and asks God, God will give him an answer. ´Will you pray and ask if this is true?´ ´I WILL!¨  He is super solid and I´m so excited to see all the potential he has!!  We´re meeting with him tonight actually!

We had some super great contacts this week!! People that straight up asked us how our church or the Book of Mormon can really help them in their lives! The beautiful thing about questions is it gives us the opportunity to flat out bear our testimony! haha  Honestly, there is nothing I can really say to help these people... but testimony is a way God can speak to them. So I like that option!:)

Like this morning... we were on our way back from the grocery store and this lady stops us to ask us for directions. She sees our name badges and we explain a little about our church. Then she asks if the church could help her in her life.  Why yes, yes it can. . . and then she just started bawling... I reached out to give her an awkward hug with groceries in my hands... like ten minutes later once she stopped crying, I just bore testimony about how God loves her.  Incredible the hand of the Lord in our lives.

Ummm... a few more random stories and I´ll let you go...

- so the Buhlers always feed us after district meeting, but this week they were going to be in Madrid... so they had chicken salad ready and asked us to go get the croissants right before the meeting... haha but turns out the bakeries don´t really have 30 croissants ready at all times... so we had to end up running to 3 different bakeries to get enough croissants.  Just imagine... two sister missionaries... 6 bags of croissants.. running down the streets of Spain. haha  Let me tell you what it is a recipe for... a lot of funny comments, laughs and looks... but we had a yummy lunch, that´s all that matters right?

-there was an elderly man that said ´buenas tardes´ in a really weird accent and I still swear he said ´Plan of Salvation´ ...like I vividly heard those words.  Anyway so I was a little shocked... then started a conversation about the Plan of Salvation.  Yeah, that´s not what he said...

-we were walking to an appointment and it started to downpour... why does this always happen to me :) haha well she opened her door to two soaking wet girls... and just busted up laughing! haha  It was pretty funny!! I think it made her realize how much we love her! :) Good bonding experience! :)

Well that´s all folks! I don´t have to give a birthday shout out until next week... haha why are there so many birthdays!!! :) HAPPY NOVEMBER!!! 

Love you lots!

Pinkie Promesas

I am pleased to inform you that as of yesterday Las Palmas is now a ward! :) Wooohoo!! So The Canary Islands became a stake in September and it was announced that Las Palmas would become a ward.  It became official yesterday in church when they called the Bishopric!!! :)  It was a really cool meeting, all the members were so happy. Marta (we include her a lot in lessons) leaned over to me and told me that they have been a branch for forty years and they have been praying and waiting for this day for a long time!! History is being made here in Las Palmas. :)

I am also pleased to inform you that Kennedy (from Leganés) was baptized last week! :) :) :) Oh I am sooo happy!!! When I found out I was leaving we went and visited him and it was sooooo sad to leave! He kept saying ´This is really painful... this hurts my heart.´ Oh it was terrible!  You just build so many friendships with these people and I´m so happy for the opportunity to have these experiences and build relationships with people as they build relationships with God.

So one cool experience this week was with "O"! So he is one of our investigators and when I first got here he wasn´t super interested in the gospel... just in the English classes we teach. So this week we were having a lesson and it wasn´t going super well and he wasn´t really receptive, but then we started talking about the Book of Mormon and bearing testimony of how we came to know it was true and the blessings we have in our lives because of that knowledge. During that lesson the spirit was so powerful. It was one of those experiences everyone talks about where the words just came and you knew what to say. Let me clear about something... haha I still struggle with Spanish and when I say that I knew what to say doesn´t mean that it was eloquent.  It doesn´t mean that it was super profound, but it was what needed to be said to bring the spirit into that lesson. It was amazing to see the change in "O" after that lesson. He had a desire to know, he had a desire to learn. He is now coming closer to Christ and it is because of the power of the spirit and the Book of Mormon. The Lord can change hearts and I witnessed that this week!

So we visited an elderly member this week that was basically deaf...so we knock on the door, she answers, and we start explaining who we are... and she points to her ear signalling that she can´t hear us... so then I yell in her ear: ´somos misionaras de la Iglesia de Jesu Cristo de los santos de los últimos dias´ ... and she just did the cutest thing. She broke into a huge smile, said ´Mormones´ and grabbed my hand and pulled me into her house!! :)  It was super cute and we had a visit with her that was much needed... mainly consisted of her talking and us nodding and smiling because she couldn´t hear us... haha but after 4 months of Spanish... I´m REALLY good at smiling and nodding :)

They had daylight savings here yesterday... so we gained an hour of sleep !!! WOOOHOOO!!! Except I woke up by myself at the original time... haha I was sooo mad.. but then I got over it because I got another hour of sleep... and I did the same thing again today... just too used to the schedule I guess :)

Fun fact... we can´t drink the water here... so we have to buy big jugs of water to drink! :)

So sometimes I say ´yummm´ a lot... and this week I was wondering if there was a Spanish equivalent other than saying like ´this is so good´ (sometime you just need to say yummm) well... I asked this week.. and apparently when I say ´yum´ the members think I am saying ´ham´... so haha maybe I should stop saying that.

Spanglish at it´s finest: I made a ´pinkie promise´ with a little girl this week... she renamed it ´pinkie promesa¨ yeah... making a difference in Spain!

Well that is what I have to report for this week!

I hope you all have a fabulous Halloween and celebrate it in the good old American way. :) Daniel have a fantastic birthday! I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE TURNING 12!!! :) Studly boy

OK I love you all!!! :)

Hermana Fowers