Joy to the World

Well this week was a good week. It was Christmas. I got the opportunity to do some fun things. On Christmas Eve we as an office got the opportunity to go to President's house and have dinner. That was really nice. We got presents. Also we made cool ties as an office. I apologize for this letter and the fact that is poorly written. We had a Christmas activity today and I've been trying to write the whole day but I've had to do a bunch of stuff. After the dinner we went out and sang some Christmas carols and gave out little stockings with some little things for kids. That was fun. My companion then talked to his family. On Christmas I brought my presents that I got to the office and I opened them with some other missionaries. Then I made pancakes. I got the opportunity to talk to my family which was cool. Later that day we worked like it was a normal day. One thing that was interesting is that here everybody likes to use fireworks. They are basically firecrackers but they are huge. It sounded like a war zone. 

    In the time of Christmas we have the opportunity to remember our Savior and we are more willing to do things that we might not have done before like serve at a homeless shelter or something. We should keep that attitude throughout the year. We also are coming up to the new year. Lets make a goal to be better, to be nicer, to be more loving, to be more like Christ. To bring Joy to the World. 

Thanks for all your emails. I may not have had time to answer all of them but I will do it in the coming weeks. 

-Elder Rowberry  

Also random funny story

So here in El Salvador there are a million dogs. They all are malnourished, skinny, and filthy. It's actually quite sad. Anyways one of these dogs got into the area of the chapel that the office is in. All of the chapel's here are surrounded by gates and fences and this dog got in. I guess it was trying to get out through a hole in the gate. A hole that was very very too small for it. Anyways with the help of two random dudes that happened to be right there, water, and a lot of lotion we helped it get out. I guess that story isn't really that funny. You had to be there. But yeah... So have a great week and don't get your head stuck in a gate.

I'll be home for Christmas

if only in my dreams.

What's up everybody? I hope you all had a good week. I want to thank everyone for everything that has been sent to me. A special shoutout this week to Grandpa Kent and Annette for the big box of candy and beef jerkey. That was really nice and I was really happy to get that. The week before I had been thinking, I could really go for some chocolate. They don't sell a ton of that here. And then I got a box full of it. Thanks very much. Also another shoutout to the Highland 13th ward and all the nice notes that they wrote me and the Christmas banner that they made. It's hanging up in my room. Also to Sister Nyman for that awesome Christmas book. That was really special to read that.

This week was a good week. We were having some troubles with our investigators. It felt as if they were slipping out of our hands. But we were able to teach them again and help them feel good. Alma who has a date but didn't want to get married now wants to get married. We have this exact same problem with three investigators. We could put three more real dates if they said they wanted to get married. Patricia is another of them. She is struggling with the idea of marriage. She told us that she wants to change and she wants to get baptized. Daniel is another. His "wife" wants to get married. For some reason he still doesn't want to. But if he can understand the doctrine behind it he will get married and baptized. He has been coming to church for months now. This seems to be a very big problem in this country and this culture. The people just live together for years and have kids and everything but they just don't want to get married because they are afraid that they will fight with their spouse or that everything won't go well or something like that. Alma has been living with her "husband" for 13 years now and has two kids. Patricia has two kids as well and has been living with her "husband" for eight years. It's the same with Daniel.  They obviously don't understand the fact that when someone gets married their relationship is stronger and much less likely to fall apart. They also fear that their companion is not the right one. Which then brings us to the root problem which is the lack of personal responsibility and commitment. People here fear to make commitments. I've heard "No puedo decir sí porque si no puedo entonces no quiero ser mentiroso." It's good that they don't want to go back on their word or fail a commitment but the problem with that is that they end up not committing to do anything and they end up not doing anything. I'm going to try to start teaching this principle more. We learn from Preach My Gospel that the only way for people to progress and repent is to keep the commitments which we extend to them. Here is a talk that is about our personal commitment and I invite all of you to look at yourselves and see how your personal commitment and responsibility is. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1979/04/a-personal-commitment?lang=eng&query=commitment#watch=video I am going to continue to work as hard as I can so that I can bring souls unto Christ. Thanks for everything. 

-Elder Rowberry

Here Comes the Sun

How are you all doing in your own little corners of the world? I hear it's bitterly cold over there in Utah. Here the sun is out all day. Also the fluorescent lights of the office are out all day too.

I hope everybody got a chance to watch the Christmas Devotional. It was really good. If you didn't go watch it and remember what Christmas is all about. Also Gilberto who we baptized like three weeks ago, is the assistant ward mission leader now. We had a correlation meeting and we were all writing down the names of our investigators and we looked back in the notebook a couple of pages and his name was there. It was pretty cool. The picture is of Gilberto, his dog Luna, and us this was the day that he got baptized.

This week was good. We've been working with our investigators Emisela, her son Carlos, Alma, Daniel, Ernesto and Patricia and some news that we found. Those six either have a date or a very close to having a date. Emisela, Carlos, and Ernesto all have a baptismal date. Daniel and Alma have accepted a specific date but need to get married. Patricia is really positive and we've only had one lesson with her but she went to church and accepted the invitation to be baptized but we haven't had the opportunity still to put a specific date.  We only found Ernesto and Patricia (Ernesto is the dad of Patricia. Ernesto is around 65 years old and Pati is 25ish) on this last Saturday. We were walking down the road in El Bambú and we saw her pass by. And she went into her house. We were on our way to another appointment but  we had the feeling to talk to her. So after the appointment we went bac We found Ernesto and Pati. We talked to them and taught them a short lesson and invited them to go to church. They said yeah that's great we'll go. And they actually went. Then Ernesto went to the Christmas Devotional. He is reading the Book of Mormon and he said he'll get baptized. The date is for the 28th. He has questions about whether he can get baptized a second time. We are going to teach him about the authority and why the ordinances must be performed with the proper authority.

 

Elder Morán and I are getting along really well. He is quite different than Elder López and we have less in common but we get along and we are trying to work really hard. I am learning from him and he is learning from me. I am still learning a lot in the office. I am always looking for ways I can improve because I have a lot that I can improve. Anyways thanks for everything. I hope that you have a great week.

-Elder Rowberry

How I wish you were here.

How's it going family and friends?  How is this Christmas season treating you? This Christmas is going to be different but I only get two Christmas' in El Salvador so I am going to try to enjoy it. Anyways:  This week was a good week. We have been working with some investigators that have a baptismal date. Emisela and her son Carlos have a date for the 15th. Alma has a date for the 22nd. We have been having Family Home Evenings in the house of a recent convert. This last week we brought 8 investigators. We watched some Mormon Messages, which are really powerful and a great tool, and we played some games. We were able to get Marielos to come. She is the cousin of Hermana Lorena, whose house it was. The problem with Marielos is that she drinks and she drinks a lot. It is hard to teach her. I know she wants to change but the problem is we hardly ever find her. It is really sad because she has two little kids and she is hardly ever there to take care of them. It is the same with her sister Estela. Estela is always drunk and she has 3 kids. They just leave all the kids with their mom. We have been working with the mom as well, Vilma. She is positive but the problem with her is she can't go to church because she has to tend a bunch of kids. This home is a sad place. Vilma is always sad, with good reason. The kids are always running around without boundaries. Emisela and Marielos are always drunk and can never help. I want to help this family so bad. I think we are starting to get to Marielos. She has a boyfriend, Carlos, who is always excited to go to activities including church. I think he may be the key. I want to see this family, that has been broken and torn apart by alcohol, change and be a strong happy family.  We are going to work hard to see this happen. 

Thank you for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

Mi Casa

We went to eat at a really nice breakfast place today. When I say really nice I mean Kneaders nice or a little bit less nice bur for here it's really nice.

Everyone is going to love today, love today, love today.

    This week was really good. We had another baptism. This guy is named Gilberto. When we found him I thought to myself this guy is prepared this guy is awesome. He was always super accepting. The best thing I heard from him was when he thanked us for our testimonies of the Gospel and when he told us that he wants to serve a mission. That was right after he accepted a baptismal date. He finally got baptized and I asked him, when we were changing in the bathroom, how he felt. He told me that he felt a happiness that he couldn't describe. That is awesome. It is awesome when, through you, someone finds the happiness that the Gospel brings. That's the payoff right there.

I really enjoyed the activity that we had on Thanksgiving. We had a multizone about gratitude and we wrote thank you letters. One thing that I have learned here is to be more grateful. I really have been so filled with gratitude. I have so much. I have my family, my house, this Gospel, my country and so much more. I look at the people that I teach and I sit in there houses and I think, "What did I do to get so much?" I really cannot explain how grateful I am. As a missionary I obviously don't have the luxuries that I had before. Things that I took for granted before the mission I have learned to appreciate even little random things, like free time, the cool breeze in the summer while eating a snowcone at the local grocery store, the smell of fresh cut grass with the sound of a lawn mower, waking up to snow and drinking a cup of hot chocolate, talks with my dad about business ideas, dishwashers, mail ladies, trash services, cars, hot water, asphalt, sidewalks, a late night movie in the backyard of a friend, carpet, furniture not made from plastic, plastic furniture, not having fleas in a bed, and a ton more stuff. Those things seemed insignificant before the mission and I could go on all day about stuff that I'm grateful for. Really those things are insignificant in compared to the magnificence of the Gospel and the absolute power of the Atonement. This is really what I have to be grateful for. I have the opportunity to be able to repent from the things I do wrong. I do a lot of things wrong and the fact that I can move on and get better is an absolute miracle. The love of Christ is something that is available to anyone anywhere in any circumstance, whether they live in a castle or cottage a penthouse apartment or a pitiful dirt hut. This is the common thread that will bring the world together because charity never faileth. The lamb and the lion will lie down together in peace and harmony and the world will be a place of love. I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to share this message. To help bring this love and this hope to the people that feel no love and know no hope is an absolute privilege as well as a divine calling. Sometimes I lose sight of that when the going gets tough. But when someone finds that love and finds that happiness and takes the steps the steps necessary to change and become better, and they see the blessings start to flow, is when I realize that it is all worth it. I have received so much from my Heavenly Father to be grateful for. I cannot ever even hope to pay him back but I will do what he asks and I will feed his sheep. Thank you for all that you do for me. 

-Elder Rowberry

One is the loneliest number.

This week was a good week. I had a really good experience on Sunday. I was not doing to well this last weekend. I got sick from the lack of rest I had. I had not had a P-day in 3 weeks and I and all the stress came down on me and I got sick and had to stay in on Saturday to rest. No se preocupe I'm fine. I felt really down. I was missing my family. I was missing my home. I didn't feel like doing anything. This were feelings that I was feeling for the first time in the mission. That day of rest on Saturday really helped me out. When I woke upSunday morning I was not looking forward to the day. Sunday morningcan be tough sometimes because get up and get out early and visit all the houses. Then people that said they were going to go tell us, "otro domingo" or "proxima semana." Sometimes this can be really frustrating and it has tried my patience a time or two. I realized that I had to step up my teaching about church. One thing about living where I live in Utah is that practically everyone is a member. I just always took it for granted or rather didn't really think about going to church. I just always did it. So for those reasons I guess I didn't have the strongest testimony of church attendance or better, I didn't understand as much as I should about the importance of church. It's like Moroni says in Ether 12:6 "...for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." I guess I didn't really have a trial of my faith.  Please don't misunderstand me, I knew that we need to go to church and I knew that it was important but I didn't really realize why it was important.  My testimony grew a lot this weekend. We left the house and trudged through El Ranchador. Every single one of our investigators shut us down. I had prayed in the morning for help and comfort. I kind of expected it right then when I prayed but it didn't come. I don't know why I felt so down but I think it was just one of the effects of being sick.  Anyways no one came to church from our all of our investigators in El Ranchador and in El Bambú. We came to the stake conference and I was just really praying that our investigator who lives in Paraíso 2 would come. His name is Gilberto. He is really positive but has issues coming to church. We went by his house in the morning and he said he was going to come. It was really important that he come because he had a baptismal date for the 24th. The meeting was about to start and he hadn't showed up yet. Thankfully he came though. The messages were good but I still wasn't feeling it. Then President Cordón spoke about repentance and he said something about taking upon us the yoke of Christ. This and some other stuff that was said hit me really hard. Then we had the baptism of Elder Draper and Elder López and President Cordón spoke again about what baptism means. I learned a lot from that as well and I felt the spirit strong while I was being a witness to the baptism. We had a good lunch of fried chicken and that night I felt amazing. I was just so happy. We had some really good lessons and I just felt great. I learned a lot about the need to be nourished by the good word of God just as Moroni says in Moroni 6:4. In Genesis 2:18 it says, "it is not good that the man should be alone." In this context Moses is talking about when God created Eve for Adam. Getting married is obviously not an option right now but, it is still not good for man to be alone. I know that we have companions and they are with us all the time but sometimes you just feel alone. And really one is always alone. Other people can sympathize and comfort but the thoughts, feelings, desires, sorrows, and burdens are to be carried alone. No other mortal can take away or really understand what someone is going through. However after being baptized we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost which is promised companion and comforter who is constant. We need to go to church every week to renew our baptismal covenants. We need to hear and be nourished by the word. We must study everyday so we can have the spirit with us so that we are not alone. Because a lone man is a volatile man. He is free game for temptations and difficulties and will not have the strength nor knowledge to resist. He will be alone to face this harsh, cold world. In the classic novel, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, the main character talks about how when she was pregnant was the only time she felt unalone. She felt a connection and a comfort from her child. When she finally had her child she became extremely depressed because she felt  alone again. These feelings eventually killed her. The sad thing is that a lot of people feel utterly alone in this world. But it need not be so. The Holy Ghost and the comfort in the Atonement can heal any wound and comfort any soul. I felt the comfort and I do not ever want to lose that. That is one of the reasons why we must go to church and we must read the scriptures. 

That is one great thing that I learned this week. I also really enjoyed the temple. I have never had such a good experience. I felt so much peace and joy. It was amazing.

Thank you for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

Oh also these last couple weeks I've been working on a Tshirt for the Christmas activity we have Attached are the designs I made. 

Takin Care of business

This week was extremely busy. This was the week of changes. The office was hectic for the whole week preparing. I had to make a bunch of presentations and get a lot of pictures and statistics of successful areas and stuff. My companion had changes and got moved out of the office. He is now my Zone Leader. My new comp is Elder Morán. He's from Ecuador. He has one more change then I do in the mission. He's the new General Secretary. I'm worried for the guy. It is a lot of work to be the General Secretary, especially for a guy that doesn't speak English and doesn't know computers that well. He's 18 like me so we're just two really young guys but we're going to work hard. He's pretty different then me. He is really serious and well...you know me. I've gotten way better at making friends here on the mission. I make friends quickly. I'm really thankful for that because it makes everything so much better when you make friends. Monday and Tuesday this week  I taught a grand total of 0 lessons. We were in the office from 7 in the morning till 9 at night. One thing that is rough about being in the office is your spirituality kind of drops. We don't hardly ever have time to study. But the Lord is blessing us with knowledge and recollection. However I'm thankful for the opportunity that I have. 

     I read Elder Nyman's letter this week and I realized that my letters are not very descriptive. I just feel like I do the same thing everyday and it's not anything special. I will try to right things more descriptively. 

    For some reason Elder López and I had a really hard time getting people to come church. It is the worst when you wake up Sunday morning go walk to all the investigators houses that said they would come and then for some reason they just say otro domingo or proxima semana. This is the most frustrating thing ever. I have been trying to up my teaching about the Sacrament and the importance of church. One thing I took for granted or didn't really understand was the importance of church and the Sacrament. I still don't think I understand it fully but that is something that I going to study more about. 

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

Don't Stop Believing

This week was very good. We contacted some references with a member. Both of his references have turned to be really positive. One of them was with this lady, her son who is 19 years old, and a cousin. Their name's are María Magdalena, Enrique, and Mario. María is old and is constrained to her wheelchair because she cannot walk. She has problems with her throat. Despite of her sicknesses she is a very happy person. She came to church with us and she loved it. We visited her later and she couldn't stop talking about how good it was. She also told us of a very neat experience that she had during church. The days before church she couldn't sleep because of her throat. They bought really expensive medicine and that only made her worse. When she took the sacrament and drank the water she said it felt cool in her throat and her throat opened up. That night she was able to sleep well. Enrique, who was not able to come to church, was shocked by this. We invited María to be baptized and she accepted. I am amazed about how happy she is even though she is sick and crippled. She is a great example to me. We plan on putting a date with Enrique and Mario very soon. 

 I have enjoyed being in the office and all the things that I have been able to learn here. I like the responsibility. I still don't know everything about the job but I'm figuring it out. It forces me to work more efficiently and harder because I have less time to do everything. 

 One thing I worry about is the people that we baptize. I want them to continue and not fall away when we stop visiting them. Oftentimes people get a little big angry after they get baptized and we can't continue to visit them. Always help people feel welcomed in the church.

Have a good week.

-Elder Rowberry 

Carry on

Hello everybody. I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween. This week was a good one for me. It was a busy one at the office. We had multi zone conferences three days. It takes a lot of work on our part to get ready for these. On Monday my comp and I were in the office from 7:00 in the morning to 9:00 at night. We had 0 lessons taught 0 news 0 everything. That is one challenge of being the office. You get very little time to work in your area. But I enjoy it here. It's a lot of responsibility and sometimes a little stressful. I like the stress of it. I like being pushed to have to do more with less time. I swear the Lord is blessing us with good new investigators that we find easily because we work in the office. We have found quite a bit of new positive people lately just from references and talking to people. Also just a question Does anybody actually read this? Anyways we work as hard as we possibly can and I feel like we have pretty good success.

I'm learning a lot. 

Here's the story of the drunk guy. We had this investigator. When my comp and another guy found him, obviously they found him before I got there, he was drunk. He drank for the next three visits to the family. He had been drinking for 30 years. He had been living with a lady for 25 years unmarried. This last Sunday they got married and baptized. It was really awesome. Yesterday they came with us to teach this investigator named Ernesto who smokes. He doesn't really want to change, or at least he says he doesn't want to change. Noé, the convert, started talking about how he was a drunkard and all that stuff and he told him. "Look at me. Thanks to God first, and these Elders I changed and haven't drunken for three months." He talked to him for 10 minutes about how he changed and everything. It´s really awesome to see the changes in peoples lives.

I realized something this week. I thought about how tiring it is to find a new investigator that has a lot of problems, addictions and what not and then take them to baptism. They have to take all these big steps in their lives that are difficult to take. We as missionaries have to take them with them to a certain extent. It really is tiring, rewarding definitely, but tiring. We do this because we are representatives of Jesus Christ. We are only representatives he takes every step with every single person. Where we know kind of how they are feeling and kind of what they need, He knows every bit of how they are feeling and everything they need. This realization helped me understand more about the Atonement and how difficult it was. Obviously I understand a fraction of fraction of it but I understand it a little bit better now.

Thanks for reading, if you still are. Have a good week.

-Elder Rowberry

The wheel in the sky keeps on turning.

I can't believe how fast the time is going. I was just writing you people just yesterday I swear but it's already been a week. This week we had multi-zone conferences. I burned over a hundred dvds for all the missionaries. This week we found this family that has a bunch of people in it. There is the dad and mom and their four daughters and one son and then all the daughters have like three kids. The parents have problems with alcohol and we are going to try to work through that. I really hope that they accept our message. When we visited them they seemed really positive and they seem like they want to change and they said they want to change. It's really sad because I've been told that they are just always drunk but when we have visited them they haven't been. I'll tell you a story about a drunk guy next week. 

I would encourage all of you to check out, on lds.org, the Hastening the Work of Salvation page. It's really good and can help you know how to be member missionaries. 

I also would encourage you all to check out Elder Holland's talk from this last conference. If you ever feel down, depressed, or discouraged just use his council. 

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/like-a-broken-vessel?lang=eng

Anyways have a good week folks.

-Elder Rowberry

You're as cold as Ice

One of the nice things about my new area is that I live in a house that has almost lukewarm water. It's not like the water in my other house that I'm pretty sure they pump straight from Antarctica. Another nice thing is that all the roads are flat unlike the steep, often made of dirt, streets of previous area. There are still dirt roads. In fact where we do most of our proselyting there are only dirt roads. As far as creature comforts go, I'm in a much more comfortable place. I'm still learning a lot about my new job. I have to take care of all the reported numbers for the whole mission. I also have to make sure all the baptismal records are sent to Salt Lake. I was also told that I need to head up retention efforts in the mission as well. I'm excited to learn more and more and be able to help out the mission. 

How about that conference? It's amazing how much faster general conference goes by when you're in the mission paying extreme attention to the speakers. This was a great conference. There were three main topics that I picked out of it.

1. Missionary work is as much for members as it is for Missionaries and everyone needs to get involved in it. 

2. Perilous times are coming.

3. We must always look forward with faith and hope because the Lord Jesus Christ is with us and if we are prepared we shall not fear. 

I was reading the scriptures the other day in Alma 5. I found a little something, almost an evaluation, that I would like to share. 

14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

 15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

 16 I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me yea blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?

 17 Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth—and that he will save you?

 18 Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God?

 19 I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?

There is more in the chapter and I would encourage all of you to read it, evaluate yourself, and then make appropriate changes in your life accordingly. 

I love hearing from all of you and if you have any questions you would like answered, please send me an email. Have a great week.

-Elder Rowberry

Pictures

Pictures

Pictures

The Family Campos, or half of them, and I in front of their house. This is the family that I said is the Nicol family of the Texical branch and really all of Nahuizalco. There are so many baptisms because of them. They havent even been in the church for a year. The guy I have my arm around is Julio. He is going to Ecuador in January and his sister is going to Columbia. This family is awesome I love them and I am going to miss them.

Pictures

The one on the top is of my very first person that I have ever physically baptized. His name is Oscar Sanchez. He was the one who got married.

Please make sure some of these get on the blog please. 

Take me down to the Paradise City

This week was changes week.  That is when people get transfered and everything. I got transfered to the Zone Paraíso. (That is why my P-day is now on friday). Paraíso is Paradise in Spanish. This change meeting was huge for me. First of all its kind of rare to get changed out of your area after only having one change in the mission. I was wondering where I was going to go and who I was going to be with. When we got to the mission office my Zone Leaders kind of dropping me hints about where I was going because they people had told them. They were really excited. I was getting more and more nervous. When it came around to when the changes started to be announced and the Paraíso Zone was up Elder Anderson and Elder Peru (my Zone leaders) grabbed me and asked if I was ready. I was not ready for what I heard. My name picture came up on the projector for the Paraíso 2 area. My comps were Elder Lopez and Elder Oveson. President Cordón told us to come up to the front. I couldn't believe it. I knew that Elders Lopez and Oveson were Secretaries in the office. When I got up there President basically said, "Everybody here is the new Secretario de Registros (Records Secretary)". Whoa. He then told us that Elder Oveson is going to train me for two weeks then go to another area. So in a matter of a couple seconds I went from having basically no responsiblities to having a ton. I have to keep track of all the numbers of everybody in the whole mission. It's so much resonsibility. I am kind of nervous but also really excited. I am going to learn so much. Also being a secretary definitley has perks. We have a house that is way nicer than the other one, we have cell phones, and we access to basically whatever we need. It's a ton of work though. You get half the time to proselyte as a normal missionary and are still expected to perform above average. I'm pumped for the challenge. Also my comps are awesome, all the people in the office are hard workers and they know a ton.I'll tell you more as I learn more. 

Scripture of the Week: D&C 1:38

  38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my^aword shall not pass away, but shall all be ^bfulfilled, whether by mine own ^cvoice or by the ^dvoice of my ^eservants, it is the ^fsame. 

Everyone watch conference. And when you watch it make sure you have questions that you want answered. You will find the answers to them in the conference. I promise. 

Anyways have a good week friends and family. I love you all.

-Elder Rowberry

Dig it oh oh oh dig it.

This week was a good week. I actually have some stuff that is interesting to write. We had a couple service projects this week. The first one was cleaning chickens. There is a chicken butchery right behind my house. It is run by members so one night we went over there and cleaned chickens. There is something a little weird about sticking your hand up a dead chicken's rear end to pull out all of it's organs. It also stinks, a lot. We also had a service project for this family that had two children that we were going to baptize. They live in a place called Anal Abajo and that is like a 45-60 min walk from our house. We moved a ton of rocks and also mixed concrete. (I'm glad you taught me, dad). I always like giving service even though it is hard work. On Saturday we had the wedding. It takes a lot to plan a wedding and we did not prepare very well but it went well. It was very very different than a wedding/reception, especially when you have the ward council making food and the Elders paying for almost everything. Sunday we baptized Oscar and Claudia and Joel Ortiz. Joel's sister was supposed to be baptized as well but she was in San Salvador with a sick relative at the hospital. So we only had three baptisms this week. Oscar Jeremias Sanchez Aguilar was the first person I've ever baptized in my life. That was pretty cool. 

On much uncooler terms, we haven't had water in our house for a week. We have to go to another house to shower and use the bathroom. Our eating is pretty crap here. We eat a lot of hamburgers and pizza and a lot a lot of pupusas. There is an Hermana here that has a Pupusaria here and gives us free pupusas. Also this week we we've been walking around a ton to find houses to rent because more missionaries are coming here. I went on Interchanges with Elder Anderson, who is from Alpine and went to Lone Peak. He is my Zone Leader. I looked for houses with him for a long time and with Elders named McKenna and Oliver. Elder McKenna is from American Fork, Oliver is from Canada. It was kind of weird walking around the streets and three of the four of us live with in 10 minutes of each other. 

Next week when I write I won't be in Texical anymore. I have changes and I'm going somewhere else on Wednesday. I don't know why though.

It's a nice day for a white wedding

Hey everybody.

Good news for some reason we got our writing time bumped up to 60 minutes. Therfore, I can write more. I still am not sure what to write but for people I hope to be a light. Folks here need some hope but when we try to give it to them they say nope. Alright thats enough rhyming and I mean it. But really does anyone want a peanut?  

This week we've been working with this family who is going to get baptized next week. It is a family of two. They are both eighteen and not married but they have been living together in their own house for 10 months. Like I said in a previous letter a lot of people don't get married here. This last week we've been rounding up stuff so they can get married like Identification, birth certificates and everything. We got the ward council to help up us out with stuff for the wedding like food and stuff which is good because I thought I was going to have to pay alot for it. Their names are Oscar Sanchez and Claudia Garcia. It's cool to see people accept the gospel. They know a recent convert family and when they came to church they commented to us how much they changed. They have changed for the better for sure. I know that living the gospel does change people it makes families happier it makes people happier. I just want people to understand that and accept the gospel.

I really want members to give us good references becuase that is the way it should be. It really is not that effective to walk around and contact people in the streets and knock on peoples doors. If we could get good references and have the members work with us to teach and have us teach in their houses we could have much more success. So remember that everyone. Give references and open your houses to teach investigators.

I love reading the reading the scriptures and studying and I love being able to share the gospel. Learing about the gospel and learning about this new culture is always exciting.

Everybody have a good week.

-Elder Rowberry

 

No Subject

This is from Monday September 16, 2013.

I have 30 seconds to write as much as I can. This week was good. I sincerely apologize for this email. It is pitiful. Goodbye they are kicking me off the computer. Have a good week everyone.

Spiderman Spiderman, does whatever a Spider can.

This is from Monday September 9, 2013.

Hey everybody how's it going? If I don't answer your emails every week I apologize. I haven't quite figured out how to fit all that I have to do in 45 min. I will try to figure out a better system for next week.

Anways I've seen some stinking huge spiders here. We found one in our house the other day that probably had a leg span of eight inches. It took a half of a can of raid to kill it. And there's some places that just have tons of huge spiders just hanging out. The spiders however were not the coolest part of my week. This week I got my first baptism. It was really cool. The guy's name is German (like on The District 2) I don't know him super well because most of the lessons with him happened before I got there. I do know that the Gospel has definitley changed his life. He used to smoke and drink coffee and everything. He accepted the Word of Wisdom and he saw the blessings of it in his life. The benefits to not smoking are very obvious but he said the when he quit drinking coffee he could sleep much better and he felt better. Big surprise eh? My companion baptized him yesterday. It was really cool to see his journey end and start at the same time. 

There are some big problems here. There are some serious morality issues. I swear in almost all of our investigator families the parents are not married. I'm going to see a lot of weddings I have a feeling. In fact we have one planned for the 28th. I've never planned a wedding before so it should be interesting. One of our investigators was hammered the other day. I've never seen anyone so drunk, not that I've seen that many drunk people. I also bought alcohol for the first time that same day. Our investigator came with his bottle of alcohol and we told him to dump it out. He wouldn't because he said he just bought it. So we payed him 5 bucks for his bottle then we dumped it out in the dirt. The guy was pumped he came and gave us big hugs. Then he picked up my companion and carried him around and then he picked up me and carried me around and told us to take a picture. Unfortunatley I didn't have my camera. It was kind of weird funny and sad but we're going to try to help him out. 

Anyways I'm going to try to figure something out so I can write more. 

See you all later

-Elder Rowberry

Wake me up when September ends.

Fast sunday was yesterday. Wow. You think fasting 24 hours at home is hard try fasting 24 hours here in El Salvador while walking 5 miles in the heat sweating. I didn't think I was going to make it back to my house. It was actually rough. This week has been good though. I am understanding more and more every day. It's getting easier every day as well. I'm still getting used to "Missionary Pace" which is really fast. My companion walks so fast even though he's a lot shorter than me. The work is really tiring. When I get home I am so tired. Waking up is difficult but you've got to do it, so I do it.

Me and my companion are buds now. I don't know what happened but I guess it was just shyness I guess. I've made good friends with some of the members and the investigators. There is a family here that gives us a lot of references. They have like 10 kids. They are the Nicol family of the Texical Branch. Some of the people here are so hard to understand. Especially the old people with no teeth. This sunday we have two investigators that are going to be baptized if nothing falls through. I'm really excited. I'm really sorry this letter is very short. Because there are some big knuckleheads in our mission our time has been cut to 45 min. (It was a while ago). I will write the letter prior to my computer time on a piece of paper so I can just type it. I will also send some pictures next week. Sometimes I think that 2 years is a very very long time. But by the next time I write I will be one day short of 2 months out.This letter is so scattered and crazy I apologize.

Where The Streets Have No Names

   This was the first letter Elder Rowberry sent us from El Salvador last week on Monday August 26, 2013

So I made it to El Salvador safe and sound. A ton of stuff has happened since last week. My emails will be more exciting then they were in the CCM. I am in the Juayua Zone but my area is in the city of Nahuizalco. The streets have no names and a lot of them are dirt. It's a little town in the mountains and the jungle. It's pretty sweet though. There are little shops everwhere selling cheap snacks and drinks. The houses here are pretty interesting. Our house has a tile floor and even for the missionaries it's not very nice. It's not comfortable and we have no furniture. Also its really really hot and humid here. I just sweat all day long. There is a thermometer on my clock and when we go to bed it's 80-85 degrees. Even though our house isn't comfortable and the water is freezing, compared to a lot of the other houses here it's really nice. A lot of the houses are dirt floor shacks that use corrugated tin and balck plastic to make walls and roofs. An intersting thing though is that everyone has cell phones. The spanish is coming. I'm understanding more and more Spanish everyday its much different then the Spanish I've learned. I'm super glad I took the five years though. It rains harder and thunders harder here than I've ever seen. There's a bunch of buses here that are just refurbished, jacked up, and painted. They look like there from one of those crazy car video games. One, of the many, interesting experience that I had this week was yesterday. We were going to this families house, with another family. We had to hike like 2 hours though the jungle. On the way there I ate a bunch of exotic fruit and knawed on some raw sugar cane. I drank some coconut water from a coconut that came right off the tree. On the way home there was a sound and I saw these two rats fighting. These rats were the size of small dogs, almost as big as Carmel, my cat back home. The dad of the family we were with took out his machete and killed them. He then took them home and skinned them right in front of us. I think he's going to cook them for us today. My companion is Elder Guzman. He's from Peru. He speaks zero English. So I go basically all day without speaking English. It can be frustrating at times. Especially because my companion doesn't really talk to me. I will you tell more about the missionary work next week when I know more what's going on. I don't really know anything about anything yet. Anyways I only have 45 min to write on the computer. So my letters will have to be brief and I may not be able to specifically back to everyone. I still enjoy the letters though. If you send me physical letters I will have more time to answer and read them.

Send them to Apartado Postal #142 Santa Ana, El Salvador, C.A.

-Elder Rowberry

Elder Rowberry has arrived!!

This is from the Secretary at the mission office in the Santa Ana mission. Monday August 26, 2013

Dear Rowberry Family,

 

            We are happy to announce that your Son, Elder Rowberry, has safely arrived to our mission. The night of her arrival, we enjoyed getting to know him in a dinner at the mission home, and we can tell that he is a great missionary. We are grateful for his sacrifices and your sacrifices to allow him to be here. We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will pour out his blessings upon your family. We are very happy to have your Sun with us and we know he will bless the lives of many people here in the great country of El Salvador. He has been assigned to the Texical area in the Juayúa Stake. His companion is Elder Guzmán from Perú. We expect to see many miracles from this companionship.

Elder López

Secretario General

Misión El Salvador Santa Ana

Celular – 7842-9673

Oficina – 2486-6600

Elder Rowberry with his Mission Presidents

Elder Rowberry with the Mission Presidents and his companion.

You say goodbye and I say hello. Hello. Hello.

I think this will be my last email from La Ciudad de México. Nothing crazy happened this week. No earthquakes, kidnappings, or really hot peppers. However this past week I was made District Leader. That means I get to pick who prays and what song we sing. No I'm kidding I've got to go to Sunday meetings and make sure that everyone knows what they are doing. I also have to teach quite a bit and some other stuff but I like it. I like having the opportunity to serve my district.

I got to go to the temple this week which was pretty cool. Going through a session in Spanish is interesting but I'm surprised by how much I actually know. Every time we go there, which has only been twice, we get to see some of the city. The size of the city blows my mind. It is incredibly huge. It makes me excited to get out to the jungles of El Salvador, which will be coming up here real soon. I still don't know what mission I'm going to for sure yet. I am pretty sure it will be the El Salvador Santa Ana mission though.

Teaching is tough. The Spanish isn't the hard part either. It's hard, but not the hardest. The hard part is being able to recognize the spirit and discerning the needs of the investigator and then teaching to those needs. Elder Thorpe and I have gotten much better at it then we were at the beginning. It may have something to do with the fact that the people we teach are our classmates and teachers. This past Wednesday we had something called TRC. It's where you teach volunteers from around the MTC. The first TRC we ever had we taught a teacher here. That was probably the most depressing part of my mission so far, which is a good thing because it wasn't really that bad. This past TRC we taught a girl named Samanta from La Ciudad. Elder Thorpe and I didn't have a clue what we were going to teach so we went in trusting that the Lord would tell us what to teach. It was the best lesson we've had. I felt like we taught with the power and authority that is so often mentioned in the scriptures. It was awesome. After the lesson we had a discussion about Orgullo (Pride). It was really good. We didn't talk about it in the traditional sense. We talked about how pride is a sin of comparison and a sin of not trusting in the Lord enough. I think I struggle with that because for all my high school years I trusted on myself. If I wasn't going to do it it wasn't going to get done. Now I need to trust on the Lord, but entre dicho y hecho hay gran trecho. Once I learn how to do that more fully it will be a lot easier to teach and it will be a lot more effective because I don't know the needs of the investigator but the Lord knows them perfectly. We also talked about how we need to be grateful for our weaknesses and inadequacies. See Ether 12:27. I don't know if I came up with this or it came to me through revelation but it was probably a little of the former and a lot of the latter.  Anyways here it is. If necessity is the mother of invention then Inadequacy is the mother of Improvement. Think about why people practice sports, music, art, or anything. It's because they want to get better at it because they feel inadequate at it. We need to be thankful for our inadequacies but we cannot be content with them. We cannot afford to wallow in the depths of mediocrity. If we trust in the Lord and work hard to become better the Lord will use our weaknesses, our debilidades, to make us stronger. Check out 2 Corinthians 12 and also 2 Nephi 4:17-35 for some more good scriptures on this topic.

Thanks for reading and keep up the emails. I love hearing from everybody. Have a great week. Next time you'll hear from me I'll be in El Salvador.

-Elder Rowberry

¡Levantaos del polvo, hijos mios, y sed hombres!

Another One Bites the Dust

If you want to know what it is like to sleep in Mexico City just turn on the Italian Job or one of the Bourne movies on nice and loud right when you are about to sleep. Or even more accurate just have someone play Need for Speed with the sound all the way up all night long. Then release about 30 mosquitoes that just love to party in your ear all night long. Elder Thorpe and I dedicate about 5 to 10 minutes of our night to hunting down and exterminating all of the mosquitoes in our room. Elder Thorpe has kept track of the mosquitoes he's killed. He's got 50 or 60 recorded mosquitoes. When we find a mosquito we catch it. Then we shake it up and then chuck it at a wall or a mirror really hard. You get what we call a "mount" if you can get the mosquito stuck, or mounted, to the wall or mirror. Not to brag or anything but I've got quite a few mounts. Elder Thorpe sometimes just pulverizes them with his hands and all that is left of the bloodsucking scum is a splatter of the juice of its lustful parasitic desires. How ironic. Personally I prefer to take an approach of more finesse. I use my pens like chopsticks and catch them out of the air. You ever heard of Mr. Miagi? Yeah he's got nothing on me. En broma, enbroma, I haven't actually done that yet but, new goal. 

(Whoops I just sent that out unfinished). I hear that my pal Daniel Nyman is getting starved over there in Provo. That is definitley not the case here. They give you all you can eat Mexican food, which in turn, is all you can poop Mexican Food. They feed us meat and tortillas, beans, jello, all the bread you could ever want (including Pan Dulce), rice, vegetables and gallons and gallons of juice, just to name a few things. Apparently maple syrup does not exist in Mexico because all we have to put on our Pancakes and waffles in the morning is Hershey's chocolate or strawberry syrup. It isn't bad necessarily but it does make for some awfully dry pancakes. There is also as much cereal as your heart could desire here for breakfast and dinner.

There was pretty sweet Earthquake here as well. Elder Thorpe and I were just sitting outside studying Spanish the other day and all of a sudden we hear a siren, which is nothing new. This one was louder and longer however. We see all of the security guys just running around getting on their bikes. Here in the CCM they have an early detection system, or they're connected to one somwhere so we get an advanced notice of Earthquakes. We thought that it was kind of weird that everyone was running around. Then the ground started to sway. The palm trees were moving. I could hear audible cracks coming from the concrete as well as the trees. Missionaries were scrambling to get outside to the little safety circles that are everywhere. I saw small fissures running up the sides of the buildings with classrooms. Things were falling everywhere. Thankfully Elder Thorpe and I happened to be sitting in one of the green safety circles when it happened. I sat there thinking this is nuts. In fact it was so nuts that it couldn't possibly be true. There was an Earthquake but it was too small for anyone to feel. However, the security guys did still run out of their security hut like ants and there was a siren.

This week I've been working on finishing the Book of Mormon from where I left off after Origination. I've been reading about Captain Moroni and the stripling warriors and Teancum and all those things. When I read it during personal study time I don't want to stop. The Book of Mormon is easily my favorite book. It's got some awesome, awesome stuff in it and there are people in it that are amazing examples. Moroni was the best! I love the scripture in Alma I believe chapter 48 that describes the characteristics of Moroni. It also says that if every man had been, was, and would be like Moroni the very gates of hell would be shut or something along those lines. In my room I have a picture of Moroni and it is really inspirational. I want to be just like Moroni. Same with Ammon, Helaman, Nephi, and Alma. We also heard a story about Dan Jones in one of the devotionals. He has been called one of the greatest missionaries of this dispensation. I bought a Gospel art book in La Tienda and I found a picture of him in it. Everytime I see it I think to my self you're going down Dan Jones you're going down. No I'm kidding but if I could be even half the missionary he was that would be amazing. Also if anyone could find me some stories of Dan Jones and compile them and send them to me I'd be very much appreciative of that. Everybody! Go read the Book of Mormon! Its awesome. (understatement of the year)

¡Levantaos del polvo, hijos mios, y sed hombres!

-Elder Rowberry

Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin into the future.

Wow. I can't believe I'm already halfway through week four. I've got a good story for you this week.

In our branches we have to write a letter to the branch president every week. The letter was due on Saturday night to our district leader. So Elder Thorpe and  ran over to give Elder Hicken our letter. When we got there, there was around 16 people in the room. There were probably six or eight Latino elders and the rest of them were from my district with the exception of Elder Dennis and his companion, Elder Munson. After we gave Elder Hicken our letters someone said, ¡Más Gringos! One of the Latino elders grabbed me and he and some other Latinos guided me into their room. I did not know what was going on but everyone was laughing, like they knew something I didn't. Which they did. Once I was in the room they shut the door, locking Elder Thorpe outside. "Well that's not good,"I thought. All the Latinos were in the room with me. They made me lay down on the bed with my head hanging off the end. At this point I was getting a little worried and more confused. Then they tied my hands behind my back with a tie. I looked to my left and one guy put on a rubber boot. He advanced toward me then everything went black...

 

 We had a devotional this Sunday. It was a recorded talk from Elder Holland to the ProvoMTC awhile back. He stressed that fact that we should all be guaranteed at least one convert, ourselves. The whole Preach My Gospel thing is focused on the missionary not the investigator like the discussions were. They figure that if the missionary is converted and knows how to teach then they can follow the spirit and say what needs to be said at the time it needs to be said. He explained how Preach My Gospel was born. Apparently President Hinckley said that there was a serious problem with the way missionary work was being done. He could not figure out how a missionary could come home and fall away from the church. Which is what I'm wondering right now as well. I don't see how it is possible. That is when Predicad MiEvangelio was born. Elder Holland said if you go inactive after a mission you better not meet him in a dark alley or he'll go crazy. I have found that serving a mission is one of the most important things you could ever do and obviously I haven't even made it to the field yet. I'm sure that knowledge will grow exponentially when I see the influence of the Gospel in someones life who has never had it before. It's really nice to be able to study and learn and not have to worry about school or anything like that. I also have found out that I thought I knew a lot about the Gospel and I thought I had a really solid testimony of things but I've realized that is not necessarily the case. It's not that my testimony has been shaken, in fact it has grown a lot, its that I realized I don't really understand that much about the simple truths of the Gospel. It's like running a race. I saw a bend in the course, before my mission, that I though was pretty close to the end of the race. When I got here I rounded that bend and saw some more of how much there is left in the race. For example yesterday we were talking about the sacrament in our class. I realized that I have been taking the sacrament for 18 years and I really don't understand what it is or what it does for us. Sure I know that it's a reminder of the Atonement and we renew our covenants we made at Baptism. But what does that really mean? I intend to find out. I would encourage all of you that read this to also find out. Really take an inventory of your understanding of the basics and the core doctrine of the church. Find out if you really know what they're for and why we have them.    Oh you want to get back to the story now? Ok.

 

Everything went black because they stuck a bag over my head. I started yelling ¡Ayudame! partially out of legitimate worry but mostly because I was playing along. I really hoped that they were just playing. I figured they were because A: They're missionaries and B: one of them had a camera and was taking pictures. They took the picture of their companion acting like he was kicking me in the head. They all jumped on top of me and took another one like they had captured and conquered the American giant or whatever. These guys weren't real mature, if you can't tell. They apparently didn't grow up in one day like Elder Holland expects all missionaries too. I know I haven't. Finally they let me go. They tried to get Elder Thorpe but we booked it to our room in the other building. We were pretty sure that there was some rules that were being broken but it's all good. (It wasn't good that they were breaking rule, there is just no hard feelings.) When Elder Thorpe and I got back to our room, a little shaken up, these two other Latinos came into our room, whom we had never seen before, and they just started talking about random stuff. We traded ties with them and they tried to get us to teach them in Spanish. I told them we already had plenty of times to practice teaching in Spanish. One of our Latino roommates came in and brought in a box of All Bran (A registered trademark of Kelloggs. All rights reserved.) He came to me and said in broken English, "Here, this is the bomb." I said, "No that's not the bomb. That stuff is awful." Turns out that wasn't the type of bomb he was talking about and all four Latinos in our room started acting out what the Fiber loaded All Bran does to you. After that the two other Latinos went off on a rant about how rich Americans stomp on poor Mexicans. I told him that wasn't true. I wasn't sure if he was joking or not. I hope he was. So when we finally got everyone out of our room and we shut the door, we tried to climb into our beds. On top of everything Elder Hawkes and Elder Christensen, our American roommates, short-sheeted our beds to get us back for scaring them. Needless to say that was a crazy night. Definitely the craziest yet. Elder Thorpe and I now try to get into bed as fast as we can when class ends because once you start talking to the Latinos they don't stop talking and it's really hard to get to sleep at a decent hour.

Anyways its been another good week here.

Thanks for the emails keep it up I love hearing from everyone.

Work Hard, Pray Hard

-Elder Rowberry.