American Idiot

 Like I told you I got a new companion...

No I'm kidding he's not an idiot. This week Elder Paravato left on emergency changes. I think it was planned that he leaves during changes which is coming up this Wednesday. For some reason they had to take out a missionary from an area so they sent him there to replace the missionary that left. So now I'm just with Elder Roeller.

 It's been a good week. We put a baptismal date with this girl named Iris for the 15th of May. She is really positive it's just that her mom is kind of against it. We also have this other investigator named Maribel. She wants to get baptized and knows that she needs to but she is having a hard time making the commitment. Like I've said probably ten times, people are afraid of commitment in this country. We are hoping to put a set baptismal date with her soon. 

 I was listening to the talk "Safety for the Soul" by Elder Holland this morning while I was getting ready. In it he talks about Lehi's dream. In the dream there is a bunch of people. They are all on this path that leads to the tree. However, a dark mist comes and surrounds all of them, not just wicked people are affected by the mist but all of the valiant and righteous people as well. No one can see the path. No one. The righteous, the wicked, no one. The only they could get to the tree was by way of the iron rod. The tree is the love of God. The iron rod, which Nephi later explains to us, is the word of God. So we are in a world and the mist is here. How can we get back to God? Only by way of the iron rod. It kind of hit me how important it is that we study the scriptures. If you are not studing the scriptures frequently, do it. If you are, good. Improve it. It is essential that we take the scriptures to heart. Also remember Elder Ballard's invitation to study Preach my Gospel.

Love you all.

-Elder Rowberry 

This photo is of some of us at Pizza Hut. 

The Rains came down

From April 19, 2014

The drought is over.

This week was good. Real good. My family has been asking how Gabriela has been doing. She's doing good. Real good. She can now enter the Celestial Kingdom. Last week on Saturday she got baptized. After a very long journey she made the commitment. But let's start at the beginning of this long journey.

One day Elder Paravato, my companion, and I were standing outside of Ciudad Paraíso 2. Thats a residential place where we live. We were going to go to El Jordán which is in El Ranchador, which is a cantón on the far edge of our area. We had some investigators there that we were going to visit. We didn't have any appointments but we were going to pass by there houses. I was looking down at my planner when a bus pulled up. It was the 14. This bus takes us all the way to El Jordán and it only passes once every 45 minutes, or so I've been told. I can't verify it. The point is it rarely passes. 

I live in the part in the bottom she lives at the top. It's a long ways. 

We hurriedly got on it. The bus was completely packed. I was standing at the front. Looking back I saw a man and his wife. The man smiled at me. I smiled back. I didn't think much of it. However as the journey progressed I felt the need to get off and talk with them. I had no idea where they lived. As we went the feeling grew stronger and stronger. So I was determined to get off. We passed the last known point and we were now going farther and farther in. This is at night by the way. We finally got off. I started talking to them. They let us go to their house. They gave us tamales and hot chocolate. We kept going back. Her "companion" was a jerk to her. He left to go to the US. I mentioned a story a while back about when I got angry at a guy for being mean to his wife. That was this couple. He right now is in México doing who knows what with who knows who leaving her, a 19 year old with two children, a four year old and 2 year old. She went through some other pretty difficult trials on her path towards baptism. Some I don't think are appropriate to put in this email. One of the ones that I can was when she went to her mothers house. Everyone in her family was telling her that she was crazy and she shouldn't talk to us. She basically just told them off and when she got back she told us, "I'm in my house now, and I'll do what I want." It made me really happy to hear that demonstration of faith. Now all she needs to do is endure to the end. 

This week Elder Paravato got his replacement in the office. Right now we are in a trio while Elder Paravato trains Elder Roeller. It's interesting. 

The reason why I didn't write yesterday was because we went to the temple with all of our investigators, as a mission. It was crazy. They learned all about the temple and were able to walk around and look at it. It was a lot of work. After we got to go to Chili's in San Salvador with President and all of the office staff.  It was fun. 

I hope all of you are studying Preach My Gospel like Elder Ballard challenged us to do.

Love you all

-Elder Rowberry

Follow the Prophet, Follow the Prophet

From April 11, 2014

This week was a good week. We had General Conference! That was a great General Conference. The week before General Conference we had been committing people to go to General Conference with us. We wanted to bring a ton of people. We committed 20 investigators to come with us. We only got 9 to come but that still was a pretty good turn out. I really loved the talks. When you are on the mission you pay a lot more attention and consequently learn a lot more as well. I found the theme of being firm in the faith a lot. It seems that the times are coming where we will all have to stand up for what we believe in, in the face of adversity. We need to say what Paul said in his epistle to the romans. Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth..." It may not be the most popular in the eyes of the world. Lets look at the head of this church who is Jesus Christ. He was never the most popular. He didn't do things to please men but rather to please His father who sent Him. In the end He was mocked, spit upon, unrighteously condemned, and in the end killed. So when someone offers us something that we know we shouldn't take, when someone says something that might make us think about crossing our values, when friends as well as foes try to get us to deny "the gospel of Christ" let us remember Christ and His example. Let's remember what He did and lets ask ourselves, "What would He think if I did this thing." Or maybe "Is this following His example?" or "Are we ashamed of the Gospel of Christ (which is the only power unto salvation)?" Anyways I hope we remember this always.

Have a fantastic week and reread General Conference.

Thanks for everything!

-Elder Rowberry

Fire Burning

From April 4, 2014

Last Saturday we show up at a member's house to have a lesson with her non member sister. We get there and there is a bunch of people there which was kind of weird. So we enter and the member is wearing a super dirty tank top and shorts and she was all dirty. I asked her what was going on and she told me that her neighbor was burning trash. Everyone here burns their trash being that there is no garbage disposal service. The fire then spread and caught some weeds  and lit her backyard on fire. Her backyard is kind of like a forest mixed with a jungle mixed with a field. All the weeds were pretty dry and it burned a significant amount. Luckily it's pretty humid here so it didn't burn everything down. I was looking at it and I made the comment that if we were in Utah there would have been no hope. When we got there all the flames were out basically just a lot of smoke and ashes.  She had ran out of water so Elder Paravato and I got some shovels and we started going to work putting dirt on the smoking weeds. We got super dirty and sweaty and had to go back to our house and take a shower after. We worked on that for about an hour and half and after we taught a little lesson to the sister. The next day none of them, there are two members and they are both sisters (one has two kids and neither is married, [of course]) and the other sister who is the investigator. Then on Sunday my ward mission leader and I went there to see why they didn't come. Apparently at two in the morning someone knocked on their door. Now you need to realize that these people live out in Ranchador. This is a cantón. A cantón is basically a suburb. Now here it's the opposite of the U.S. The inner city is nicer and the suburbs are sketchy and dangerous. Anyways this person basically tries to first talk his way into the house by saying he was from the police. That doesn't work so he grabs a large wood pole and starts banging on the door like a battering ram. They called the police and a neighbor. The neighbor, who is less active, and she goes and calls another neighbor who is a gangster to go help her out. In the end the police and they did not get robbed. So moral of the story. If you think you had a bad day you didn't. 

Love you all. Thanks for everything. Read 2 Ne 31 about the Gospel of Christ. 

-Elder Rowberry

Carry On My Wayward Son

From March 28,2014

This week we had Multi-zones. That is when a bunch of zones come together and they are instructed by President Cordón. They are really good. We learned about the Atonement and how we need it as well as the Doctrine of Christ. We also learned about extending commitments to people and improving our teaching. I learned a lot about how we need to relate everything we teach to the Doctrine of Christ, or Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Endure to the End. I have been learning a lot about repentance. Repentance is not only for when you do something bad but it's when you want to change. The Guide to the Scriptures describes repentance like this, "A change of mind and heart that brings a fresh attitude toward God, oneself, and life in general. Repentance implies that a person turns away from evil and turns his heart and will to God, submitting to God’s commandments and desires and forsaking sin. True repentance comes from a love for God and a sincere desire to obey his commandments. All accountable persons have sinned and must repent in order to progress toward salvation. Only through the atonement of Jesus Christ can our repentance become effective and accepted by God." I really like how it talks about the change of mind and heart that brings a fresh attitude toward God, oneself, and life in general. I have been thinking about this a lot lately and I have really been trying to repent. I am gaining that new attitude and that change in heart. I am not doing bad things out here on the mission but I have a great need to repent. I need to change everyday. I need to look at my day, everyday, and see what I did well, what I can improve, and what I shouldn't have done. I invite all of us to do this. In our nightly prayers lets give an account to our Heavenly Father about what we have done. After doing that we ask for forgiveness and ask for the strength to change. Then the next day lets change. How great would it be to have a "fresh attitude" everyday. We would not get sucked down into the mire and drudgery of life. How great is the opportunity to change! We all have weaknesses. We all fall short. Just as necessity is the mother of invention I believe that weakness is the mother of improvement. As the Lord tells Ether, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." I know I have so many weaknesses but it's the best to be able to see a weak thing become strong. So weaklings lets go! Let's change! "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God." (Alma 34:32) So let's use Christ's Atonement, let's prepare to meet God by becoming more like him through repentance.

Anyways thanks for everything. 

-Elder Rowberry