Noah, I want you to build an ark. Right..

It rained a lot this week. A lot. The street in front of our house turned into a river. I'm not going to lie it's not the funnest thing ever to be out in the jungle with a torrential downpour but hey you do what you've gotta do. 

Another interesting thing happened this week. So a block away from our house there is a bar. In front of this bar there was always a man, dressed as a women, making tortas(long sandwiches with meat on them.) We would walk by everynight and many times he would tell his friends, whom I'm sure were gangsters and drunkards, "I try to give them free coffee but they never accept." We just say hi and keep walking. Anyways the other night we were walking home and a road a block away from our house was closed off. There were a lot of people and police standing outside. We thought somebody had been shot or something but since that's not really out of the normal we just went home. We found out that the gay man had committed suicide. He apparently took his meat cutting knife and stabbed himself in the stomach a couple of times and seeing that he didn't die he slit his throat.  He was icon from Nahuizalco. He will be missed. The people here are so hardened to these kind of things that it's really nothing out of the ordinary for them. It's becoming that way for us now. Anyways on a happier note we had some great experiences this week.

On Friday we had a baptism. We baptized a kid named Diego. His whole family are members but they went inactive so we have been reactiving them and we baptized Diego. It was a really good service. Elder Slack, Elder Solano, and I sang the song "When I am baptized" from the childrens hymn book with our ukuleles. The mom was crying and could feel the spirit. It was cool. On Saturday we had a special event as a zone. We had a "white afternoon." 9 people got baptized from the ward and the branch in our zone and there was over 100 people in attendence and about 50% were in white. President Spjut came. It is something that those converts will never forget.

Have a great week folks!

-Elder Rowberry

Big Shot

From September 22, 2014

This week was a good week. I went to San Salvador again. I went with Elder Slack, so that he didn't get lost. We went all the way there which is about 2 hours in bus. We got there and the secretary hadn't sent his stuff to the lawyer. We went back to the bus terminal and we ate a hamburger in this little restaurant by the terminal. It was horrible. I'm really miss my dad's hamburgers. They haven't learned how to make hamburgers yet in this country. So we basically went to San Salvador and back to eat a crappy hamburger that was way too expensive, but we did see two really cool movies in the bus. (Not that I was watching them).

The best part of the week was a visit from Elder Ochoa. He is in the Central American area presidency. It was a very good meeting. I learned a lot. I learned about a lot of things that I have to change. He is a fantastic teacher and he can lay out the doctrine in a really enlightening way. He obviously has the spirit with him as well. I've learned a lot about repentence lately and being humble. Repentence doesn't necessarily mean that you stop doing something bad it can also mean you stop doing something good to start doing something better. We have to make sacrifices when we repent. We have to sacrifice our will so that we can do God's will. President Cordon once said, "Leaving something bad for something good is called common sense, leaving something good for something better is called sacrifice." We all have things we need to do to repent and be better. One thing I am trying to do better is to love the people more. That is essential in missionary work. Anyways I love you all. Have a great week.

-Elder Rowberry

Photo-shoot Fresh

From September 15, 2014

Happy Independence Day everybody! Today the 15th of September is the Independence Day of El Salvador. One of the biggest things that mark this day is that all of the schools have their marching bands and they go out into the streets and have parades. They aren't quite as good as American Fork but you've got to work with what you've got. 

Nothing really exciting happened this week. We just keep on trucking here in the zone. One cool thing that happened is that we got to go eat with President Solis, the Juayúa stake president. He took us to a nice restaurant here in Juayúa to eat because we passed 15 baptisms in the month. It was pretty cool. It felt strange to sit down at a nice table with table cloths and to have a waiter. We plan on eating with him again next month. We have been working hard to find new investigators. We put a baptismal date with the kid named Diego. His whole family are members. We are working to reactivate them. They have gone to church the last two Sundays. We are trying to help them remember what they knew. I don't really have anything else to write and I am out of time but I love you all. Have a great week.

-Elder Rowberry

P.S. I recently figured out some cool features of my camera so me and my companion took some photos. Also there is a picture of Elder Slack and his companion. Ha. #glamourshotsbydeb

President Solis and the Zone

Viva La Vida

From September 8, 2014

The mission is awesome. You learn so much and grow so much. I was thinking about how valuable the mission is in experiences. It is priceless. If you are debating about going on a mission. Just do it. 

This week was a good week. Well all weeks are good weeks here in the mission, even if they're bad weeks because we are in the service of the Lord. I have lately been trying to really recognize the hand of the Lord in my work. I had an experience yesterday that showed me, again, that the Lord is directing his work. We left with a member to go contact references and visit less actives. We had visited a couple of houses and then we went to another house. We showed up and started talking to an inactive kid. His mother, who we intended on visiting, was not home. As we were talking to the kid his mom showed up. She was crying. She sat down with us and told us that her son had had a stroke and that he was probably not going to live. I had never seen this sister in my life. She is an inactive member. We were able to read the comforting words in Matthew to her, "[Él] No está aquí porque ha resucitado." We explained that we can see our loved ones after this life. We also were able to give her a blessing of comfort. I know that God put us there in that exact moment that we needed to be there. Asombra me da, really. I know that God loves His children and that He wanted us to visit His daughter and help her out.

I am excited to see how our new zone works. I have good feelings about this month. Our potential is not really high now but we brought quite a few people to church and we can put some dates this week. I felt this week like I have been in a slump. I realized what you have to do to get out of a slump in the mission. You have to find new investigators. That is key to make sure you don't fall into slump. We have been making plans and sharing Preach My Gospel with members to get references. We had a good amount of people in church this week, more than we had committed, which was a complete miracle. I can see us leaving this slump really soon. I believe the zone has been in the same slump because in August we, you could say, "wrang out the rag until we had dust coming out." We worked so hard with the people we had that we neglected finding news which later down the road came back to bite us. We make mistakes so we can learn from them.

.-Elder Rowberry

Attached is just a random photo that I found on this computer and a picture of the zone last change. Not a lot of differences huh?

Carry Lo o ogs Carry logs

From September 1, 2014

This last P day we did a service project. We woke up at 5:30 and we went to this Canton called Carrizal. We went to go help a recent convert get some fire wood for his house. I really was not that excited about going but we went anyway. Almost the whole zone went. We got there, after a 45 minute hike through the jungle, and we went to go find the recent convert. We found him and we had to go down a really steep hill to get to the tree they had cut down. He was cutting a path for us with his machete. A little comment about the machete: In Utah the main work tool is a computer. Here in Nahuizalco it is a machete. I think that says a lot about the place. Anyways they cut down the tree and cut it into little pieces. We then carried these logs, probably about 3/4 of a mile to a mile, up this steep and slippery jungle hill. The logs probably weighed 60-70 pounds. We made two trips and we were all sweating like crazy. I was already really tired before we went but I was hammered after, a great way to start off the week I should say. I recovered quickly though.

So the month of August is over. We didn't quite reach our goal but we did really well though. We had 16 baptisms as our zone of 5 companionships. We are hoping to improve in September.

On tuesday of this past week we did a zone activity in which we shined shoes in the local park. People we pretty stunned that we were doing something like that. We had a lot of positive comments. 

Yesterday we had another baptism. A lady named Silvia Cortez got baptized. This lady is a great example for me. She has had a lot of problems in her life lately. Someone stole her light receipt and used her address to take a loan out so the loan agency has been on her to pay it. Also she has a niece that is mentally challenged and some health problems. She has had all the trials but has persevered through them. I know that she will be able to use the help of the Holy Ghost to know how to leave these problems.

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

Running down a dream

From August 25, 2014

This week has been a good week. We have been working really hard here in the zone. Everyone is exhausted but happy. We have been working hard this whole month and we don't plan on stopping. Everyone in the zone is putting in their best effort, I feel like, and I believe that helps the rest of us to keep pushing along. We have been doing interchanges a lot to help the missionaries in their areas. We are really working hard to try to reach our goal of 20. We are going to need some serious miracles if we are going to reach it. I personally feel a little bit sad that, according to the way things look right now, we aren't going to reach it but I also feel happy because we have been putting in every ounce of energy into it. Really we have acheived a lot. There is a phrase that goes, "Shoot for the moon, because even if you miss you will land among stars." 

A couple days ago I had a really cool experience. For reasons that I don't understand, a lot of our investigators that were going to get baptized have been flaking out on us. They have been having dreams and problems that are out of our control. Anyways, we were talking to a 20 year old kid named Freddy that was going to get baptized yesterday, this is all happening on Saturday. We got to his house and we taught him part of the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement and then we asked him how he was for his baptism. He told us he wanted to wait until next month so that he could get baptized with his friends little sister who is going to turn 8. We explained him that he should not procrastinate, that tempations and problems would come if he waited, and that baptism is the key. We taught him really well, I felt like, and we asked him if he was going to get baptized. He said, "Yes but the day I told you." "Ok," I told him, "We are going to see what God says alright?" Hesitantly he got down with the rest of us on our knees, we were with his member friends. I told him that he should ask God if he should get baptized tomorrow (Sunday 8/24/2014) and that he should wait in silence for an answer. He started praying and he asked and we waited. We waited for around 5 minutes I believe. He then finished. I asked him how he felt and he told us that he felt calmness. I read in Galatians 5 about the fruits of the spirit. I told him that is one of the fruits. I repeated the baptismal invitation. He said "Yes, the day I told you in September." "NO," I thought, but I told him if that is what he felt like he should do than he should do it. We left the house of the member and we continued on. I felt pretty discouraged as well as my companion. I felt like missionary Job, where everything in my area was just falling. I accepted the fact that God was trying me for some reason or another. My companion was almost in tears because Freddy was not going to get baptized and we wouldn't get close to our goal. We went to our next appointment and they gave us dinner. I didn't really feel like eating. I was trying to be happy. Then my phone rings. I pick it up and I see the name of the member whose house we were at. I wondered she wanted. Maybe we left an umbrella in her house or something. I answer and she tells me that Freddy wants to talk to me. He tells me that he was thinking about it and he really did feel in his heart and that he was going to get baptized the next day. I went from way low to way high in a matter of seconds. I really felt in that moment that God exists, and he loves us. It was a marvelous feeling. My companion almost cried again. Yesterday, Freddy got baptized. It was very nice. I love the mission.

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry