Home Again

Well its over folks. It was a great week for multiple reasons. My parents could come and get me in El Salvador and we could visit some converts and the areas where I served.

Also, if you actually read my last letter, those two people that didn't get baptized on Sunday got baptized on Tuesday, literally my last work day in the mission. That was the last and one of the greatest miracles I saw on my mission. 

It was very strange to come home and see all of my siblings. They are HUGE! It's super weird. I also realized once again how nice Utah is. 

I'm so thankful for all of the opportunities I had on the mission and I am thankful that I home. 

I have a new email address.

ggrantrowberry@gmail.com

I hope to continue to hear from all of you that are still on the mission. Work hard and see miracles.

Love you all.

-Elder Rowberry

One Day More

From June 22, 2015

It's over. I can't believe it. I have one more day. This week has been a pretty rough week. We were going to have two baptisms this week but due to Satan and dumb people they did not happen. I haven't even thought about going home until today. I've just been worrying about those dates. But I was able to learn alot from that trial. 

 The mission really has been the greatest blessing of my life. If anyone is thinking about going on one they just need to go. It has been the hardest thing that I have ever done but easily the best thing. My testimony has grown immensly. Ammon expresses what I feel very well in Alma 26. 

 1 And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?

 2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?

 3 Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.

 4 Behold, thousands of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of God.

 5 Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves! And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted.

 6 Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them.

 7 But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his; and he will raise them up at the last day.

 8 Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever.

 9 For if we had not come up out of the land of Zarahemla, these our dearly beloved brethren, who have so dearly beloved us, would still have been racked with hatred against us, yea, and they would also have been strangers to God.

 26 But behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the wilderness not with the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls.

 27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

 28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.

 29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.

 30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

 31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.

 32 For behold, they had rather sacrifice their lives than even to take the life of their enemy; and they have buried their weapons of war deep in the earth, because of their love towards their brethren.

 33 And now behold I say unto you, has there been so great love in all the land? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, there has not, even among the Nephites.

 34 For behold, they would take up arms against their brethren; they would not suffer themselves to be slain. But behold how many of these have laid down their lives; and we know that they have gone to their God, because of their love and of their hatred to sin.

 35 Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.

 36 Now if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land.

 37 Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen.

I'm so thankful for this experience. I have mixed feelings about finishing. I'm sad because I won't have as many spiritual experiences and I'm happy because I will see my family and continue on with my life. 

I just thank God that I have this Gospel and had this opportunity to serve him and the people here in El Salvador. 

Thank you for all your support.

I love you all and I'll see you soon.

Atte. Elder Rowberry

I'm going home to the place where I belong.

From June 15, 2015

Well folks this is my second to last email of the mission. Crazy. It was a good week. We had a baptism. We call him Jorgito. He's only 8. (I promise I'm not just trying to baptize niños. They seem to look for me. But hey a soul is a soul right?) He's been going to church for months now. The elders that were in the area before us told us that his dad wouldn't let him get baptized until he was quite a bit older. One day we decided to talk to his dad. He said it was fine that he got baptized. He is a really cool kid. He's super tranquilo. He goes to church with his sister. I hope he always can endure to the end and one day go an a mission. 

One week left. I'm going to work until the end and we should have some good results this next week.

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

And I wanna know have you ever seen the rain?

From June 8, 2015

I write a lot about rain huh? It's because it rains a lot. Its not very fun when you get soaking wet. Umbrellas don't do much. Other than the fact that it has been raining hard the last couple of days nothing really exciting has happened. I can't believe that I only have two sundays left though. We are just working hard and trying to baptize. I'll tell you how that goes in my last letter.  

 In my studies I have been reading in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah. There were some verses that I really liked that I want to share with you. This is from Mosiah 2. It's quite self explanitory.

  19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!

 20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

 21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

 22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

 23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

 24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?

Thanks for everything.

Have a great week!

-Elder Rowberry

Castle in the Clouds

From June 1, 2015

This week was a good week. We have been trying to work hard and we are seeing results. In a couple weeks you will find out what these results are. We are seeing the hand of the Lord in our work.  

I really like Apaneca because sometimes the clouds roll in and it gets really foggy and the temperature drops to a nice 75 degrees ha. In terms of comfort it has been my favorite area so far. I'm just trying to leave the area as best as I can. 

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

If you can't tell I'm really tired of writing the same thing everyweek... Just 3 more letters don't worry.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

From May 25, 2015

Oh wait no. Rainy season is starting up and I've gotten soaked in these last couple days. This week was a normal week in the mission. We've just been working hard trying to reach our goals. What is really weird is that I only have four weeks left. I'm going to work hard. I know that this is the most exciting letter ever but sorry. 

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

The long and winding road

From May 18, 2015

This week I had a very awesome experience. On Thursday Elder Peck, my ZL, called me and told me I had to go to Jujutla to take out a birth certificate for the other mission. Jujutla is a little town that is 45 minutes away from Apaneca. You have to take a long road on a bus that only passes by a few times a day. Technically it is part of the Branch Apaneca but it is far and the transportation is difficult and there are only 6 members there so they have their own small sacrament meeting every week. I remember seeing that number 6 every week on the weekly reports when I was in the office. My old friend Elder Wiser, who finished  a long time ago, always told President Cordon that he want to go open up Jujutla. It never happened. I was pretty excited to go get this birth certificate and see Jujutla. Elder Peck and I went of Friday morning. When we finally got there at 11:30 after much waiting for the bus and the drive we made our way to the town hall. We found out that missionaries from the other mission had already taken it out and that the bus going back wasn't going to leave until 1:30 instead of 12:30. We decided to go look for the members. We had no idea where they lived or anything all we knew was the ladies name. We walked around and asked some people if they knew any mormons and they said no. We were sitting in the park wondering how we were going to find this lady. Then a drunk guy comes up to us and asks us if we were gringos. We told that yes we were. We asked him if he knew the member. He said yes but he also said that he knew a ton of other people, so who knew really. We decided to go with the drunk guy to look for her. We said a prayer with the drunk guy and then we set off. The drunk guy started taking us all over the place and he was asking everyone if he knew this lady. At first people said no, but as we got farther and farther people started giving us the direction for the lady who has a very common name. So picture this we are following a guy who is chronically drunk, in a town we have never even seen, looking for a lady who may or may not be the member of the church. Elder Peck leans to me and says, "If this bolo (drunk guy) takes us to her house, the church is true." After walking for awhile we aproached a house and we hear "Hola Hermanos!" I about died. I could not believe it. We found her and it was the first house we approached. The Church is true. God answers prayers. We found out that there is some potential to baptize some people there. We will see how it goes. It was awesome though.  So Elder Wiser I'm opening up Jujulta!

Thanks for everything!

-Elder Rowberry

I'm on a payphone trying to call home

From May 11, 2015

This week was a really good week. It was good to call home for the last time. It's crazy how fast time goes by. 

 We had a baptism yesterday. His name is Javier. He's a good kid. He's crazy as heck though. He had a baptismal date a year ago with some other Elders but he didn't pass the interview but this time he did and got baptized finally. He is an orphan who lives with his old grandparents. He's like a jungle boy but with more love from the members of the branch and with more teaching I'm sure he'll calm down a bit. I really pray that he can one day go on a mission and pull himself out of the poverty that he is in right now. That is what the Gospel can do and will do to someone if he or she lets it happen. I just wish people would understand that. 

I also went on interchanges with Elder Peck. He is my Zone Leader. He is from Lehi. So we had a pretty good time. 

Everything is going pretty good in Apaneca. We are trying to work hard and work well with the members. I only have 6 weeks left. I am going to work as hard as I can to do as much as I can to have success in these last weeks.

Thanks so much everybody!

-Elder Rowberry 

Some nights I stay up, cashing in my bad luck

From May 4, 2015

This week was a normal week. We have just been working hard and trying to find people. We have had the worst luck when talking to people. We talk to a ton a families in the street and...nothing. Some walk past like we aren't even there, some greet us but start making excuses or that they go to a different church, and some sound enthusiastic about having us come over. Those people that say yes give us their direction and we set a time when we can pass by. Then we go to their address and we start asking people for the family. The people that live around that address say that they have no idea who that person is, which means that one, the family lied to us, or two, that everyone else is lying to us, or three, we are just horrible and finding houses. So yeah that's fun....

 The Mendez family from Atiquizaya invited us on Saturday to go eat at a nice restaurant that is in our area. They are the owners of the missionaries house in Atiquizaya. They are really cool people. It was really good. 

 In my studies of the Book of Mormon this week I was reading in 1 Nephi 13 and I was reading about all of the prophesies that have to do with the United States. It's pretty cool. That's just another testimony that the book is true. 

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

Last Train to Clarksville

From April 27, 2015

This week was a good week. We got to go to the temple on Thursday. It was great. The temple is such a contrast to the rest of El Salvador. It's awesome. We had to leave super early though so we had to sleep in Ahuachapán with the ZL's. We just barely caught the last bus to Ahuachapán to get there. We had to run through the whole town of Apaneca to catch it but we got it. The temple is always a great experience. 
This week in my studies I studied about church attendance and why is it so important. I read in Exodus 31 where it talks about how if anyone broke the Sabbath Day they would die. Luckily we still don't live the Law of Moses but the warning still exists but we just won't die physically, spiritually we will be in big trouble. As the Lord states in 3 Nephi 18:12-13as we partake of the Sacrament we will be safe and we will be founded upon the Rock and we will be safe from the attacks of the Devil.

We had a much better week this week. We were able to put a baptismal date with the orphan kid named Javier. He's crazy but a good kid. A member family that lives in front of him takes him to church. Just imagine the Tasmanian Devil in church and that's pretty much how it was in Primary but we're going to help the poor kid out. 

Thanks

-Elder Rowberry

Hello.......Hello.......Hello........Is anybody in there?

From April 20, 2015

This week in my studies I learned a lot. Every time I have been feeling the spirit and learning a ton. I am thankful for the opportunity to train because I get to study more. We have an investigator whose mom just died and she is doubting if God really exists. She quoted Matthew 7 that says "Ask and ye shall recieve, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." She asked that her mom would be healed but she wasn't. So I decided to study what are the conditions on that promise. I found that we will get what we ask for if we ask what the Spirit tells us to ask. If we ask for something that is against the will of God we will not recieve it. So sometimes we will get what we want when we pray with faith but if we never ask we will never recieve anything.

This week was a difficult week for us. We had so many appointments fall it was ridiculous. It was kind of discouraging and frustrating especially in contrast to how good of a week we had last week. I felt a little bit down. On Friday morning during my personal study I listened to a conference talk by President Monson that is called "Finding Joy in the Journey." In it he talks about how we need to find the joy in the journey today. We can't be waiting for something to happen for it to make us happy. in it he quotes the musical "The Music Man." It goes like this “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.” It reminded me of when Hermana Spjut talked about choosing to be happy. I chose at that moment to be grateful and be happy, always looking at the positive side of things. Then things started going better for us. 

So here is the council for this week folks. Choose to be happy. Remember "Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy." (2 Nephi 2:25) I'm surprised that I still can remember that in English. We will have joy if we keep the commandments and we choose to be happy always.

I really love the climate where I'm at. We are literally up in the clouds. I'm am walking through the street and clouds pass by right in front of my face. Sometimes I feel like I am in Pandora from Avatar. It's awesome.

Thanks for everything

Have a great week.

Also a special shout out for Spencer Rowberry for getting his call to Florida! Also special shout out to Jaden Cutler for getting his call also to Florida.

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

Our house, in the middle of our street.

This week was a really good week. We have been working really hard. I feel like this is my final exam of the mission to see if I really have learned how to work.  I know I mentioned this last week but I am in a struggling little branch up in the mountains. There is an attendance of 50 people more or less. We meet in a house. This week however we have been really getting to know the members and we have been working with them. They said that the members don't like to work but I found that to be false. If the members don't want to work with you it's not the members fault normally, it's the missionaries.  We have been able to find lots of new people that are positive. We have also been applying more fully initiatives that we have in the mission. The first is "Familia vista familia contactada" (Family seen family contacted). We have been talking to a lot more families in the street. That can be rough sometimes but it has resulted in more families found. Interesting huh? You talk to more families you find more families. The second is "#GraciasaqueElvive" or #BecauseofHim I think it is in English. We have been watching the little video with a lot of people along with one of the Bible videos of the Atonement. It has resulted in some really spiritual lessons. I've been reflecting a lot more on the Atonement this week and it really is marvelous and incomprehensible. I also finished the Book of Mormon for the first time in Spanish. I love El Libro de Mormón. It really is the word of God. I love the scriptures and I know that we can have spiritual experiences every day if we read them every day. How long should we study them for? President Spjut has given us a good council. Study the scriptures until you can feel the Spirit and then a little bit more. 

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

Attached are photos of my house. It's small but nice.

There used to be two companionships in Apaneca but now there is only one so we had to move a bunch of stuff from one house to some houses in Ataco, a town that is nearby because it didn't fit in our house. Attached is the picture of the "moving truck." #Salvadoreanstyle

La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha, ya no puede caminar

From March 30, 2015

This week was a good week. They fumigated our house this week and ever since the 22nd of February we have been keeping track of how many cockroaches (cucarachas) we have killed and we added a lot the count. We now have killed about 54. Frankly, it's gross. 

We had a baptism this week as well. His name is Gustavo. We found him a little bit over 3 weeks ago. His brothers are members and I am not sure how he didn't get baptized before. He started going to seminary before he got baptized and we didn't even know. He's really cool.

 Also they told me I have changes. I finally am going to get to train! That also means I am opening an area. Ought to be interesting. We've had a good run here in Atiquizaya. I'm excited for the new things in front of me. 

-Elder Rowberry

Just blame it on the a a a a a alcohol

March 23, 2015

So I've got a funny story for you. I was walking down the road and I saw a drunk guy. When I say drunk I mean drunk. I saw him walking very strangely. He wasn't following the street. He staggered into an empty lot, holding his pants up as if they were going to fall down. I wondered to myself, where is this guy going? He then gets close to a tree and drops his pants, squats down, and relieves himself of all waste, solid and liquid. I got a good laugh out of that ridiculous situation. That empty lot was two or three houses down from where our appointment was. As we were in the house I saw him walk by again but with his pants just pulled up to his knees. 30 minutes later I saw him again but this time he was wandering around in an old abandoned cementary with his pants all the way down to his ankles this time. Once again I chuckled to myself.

 It was a funny experience but in all seriousness I have grown to loathe alcohol here in the mission. I have seen it absolutley destroy so many families and lifes. God gave us the Word of Wisdom for a reason. We need to obey.

Obedience to law is liberty.

Thanks for everything

-Elder Rowberry

Power

From March 16, 2015

So this week we were walking to an activity at the church and the phone rang. It was a member that said she needed us urgently so we we quickly walked to her house. She then took us to her neighbor's house whose mom (I'm assuming) was dying and in a lot of agony and they wanted a blessing. We had previously contacted that house and a Jehova's Witness lived there and didn't really want to listen. That brings up the question of why there wasn't anyone from their church there to give a blessing but whatever. Anyways we walked in the house and everyone was crying and they led us into a room in which we found the oldest lady ever. She was having a hard time breathing and she couldn't have weighed more than 50 lbs. Elder Hansen anointed her and I gave her the blessing. It was nerve wracking though. It was a cool experience to be able to be called on to give a blessing. The next day I was told that after I gave the blessing the lady went into a peaceful sleep and stopped agonizing and she died thirty minutes later.

The power of the Priesthood is real.

-Elder Rowberry

Attached is the powerpoint I mentioned from last week.

Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my number, call me maybe.

From March 9, 2015

We had a revolutionary week here in the El Salvador Santa Ana mission. Every companionship in the mission has a cell phone. That is going to make my job a lot easier as a ZL. It's going to be nice to be able to communicate with any missionary in the zone at any time of day. 

We had a multi zone meeting this week that was really good. President asked Elder Hansen and I to prepare a training on the Area Book, just to let you know we are horrible at using the area book (getting better though). We made a power point and some graphics to illustrate what we were teaching. It went really well. I will send you the powerpoint next week. 

Once again we had trouble getting people to complete with their commitment to go to church this week. We were able to get some people to church. It's the worst when people don't go. We were a little down after church. We were out in a canton on the dusty road under the hot sun. at 2. I was not very  cheerful. I said a little prayer to be able to find somebody that was positive. I wanted to go drink some water. We have been trying to talk to more people in the street to find positive people. We were right in front of our house and I saw our next door neighbor sitting outside and so we talked to her, first time in 4 months. Her and her husband turned out to be really positive. That helped me change my attitude. "Pedid y recibiréis. Llamad y se os abrirá" I know that God answers prayers. We had a great rest of the day and our zone had a great turn out in church so we have lots of potential. 

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

We made a Plan of Salvation poster to teach some investigators. We got a little carried away.

Today I Don't Feel Like Doing Anything

From March 2, 2015

This week was a normal week. It's been really hot lately. It's really hard to work from 2-5 in the afternoon because it's hot and it seems like no one is home. We just wander up and down on the dusty roads getting our shoes dirty and shirts sweaty. Those hours of the day are useless sometimes. We go through all of our appointments and plan b's and even unmade plan c's for the next 3 hours  in a matter of 20 minutes. It's awesome. 

There were elections on Sunday so we had to enter the house at 5 pm. 

It was really just a super normal week this week. I don't even know what to write. 

I have been reading the BOM lately and I just finished Helaman and it just amazes me how fast the Nephites can forget what God has done for them. They are so dumb. We need not be dumb and to do that we need to read the scriptures every day and pray every day and go to church every week. It also amazes me how merciful the Lord is because everytime they pull their stupid knuckleheaded stunts (to put it lightly) the Lord is always willing to forgive them, He always invites them to repent and when they repent they are immediately blessed. The Book of Mormon is awesome and true. Read it.

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

One year older and wiser too?

From February 23, 2015

Well this week was a good week. I am now not a teenager. I had a good birthday. Elder Hansen made me some pancakes for breakfast. For lunch we ordered some pizza from a member who has a pizza place. We waited and waited for the pizza but it wasn't coming. Finally about an hour and a half later they showed up. They came and they brought me my pizza but they also had brought me a cake and a soda! It was really nice. In the night the first councilor in the bishopric and his father-in-law, who is our investigator, invited us over for dinner. He also invited some other missionaries over. Elder Smart who just finished the mission on Wednesday and Elder Alacán who had his birthday. We had changes on Wednesday. I didn't go anywhere nor my companion so I am going to be the last companion of Elder Hansen. That might mean I am going to finish my mission in Atiquizaya. Oh well. If that's how the cookie crumbles that how it crumbles.... I guess.  

The family we baptized got confirmed this week. Edwin who we baptized a while ago passed the sacrament for the first time this week. He's super good. We have been looking for new people all week. We have found some good people. We want to baptize a bunch. Anyways thanks for everything. 

-Elder Rowberry

P.S. Thanks Mom for the package! It was awesome!

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

From February 16, 2015

I sometimes feel like I am in the wild west because there just seems to be no rules in this country. I felt like I was in a one of those movies this week. You know how there is always a bar scene where someone walks in and everyone in the whole bar stops talking and starts staring at them. Then they slowly walk up to the bar tender and ask for a drink and then everyone goes back to what they are doing. I felt like that this week. I walked into a restaurant and everyone just stopped and started looking at us. I slowly backed out as to not start a bar fight. No I'm just kidding we just decided not to eat there but it feels like that all the time ex. on the bus, in restaurants, etc.

This week was a good week. Last week on Pday we went to some water falls at this place called Agua caliente. That means hot water. Its a river that is made up of hot water. It's pretty cool. The waterfalls are cool as well. On the way back the bus left us so we had to walk back but it's like 4 miles away so we didnt want to walk so we called a mototaxi and we went in that home but there was 9 of us that were in the mototaxi they are built for 3 people. 

We had a really good experience yesterday. We another tarde blanca. This time baptized more people though. We baptized in total 13 people and there was around 100 people in attendence. President Spjut came as well as the stake president. We baptized three of the four people of the family that I was telling you guys about. One of the teenage girls was just being rebelious and doesn't want to do anything. 

That was my week. Thanks for everything.

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes!

-Elder Rowberry

One is the Loneliest Number

From February 9, 2015

This week was a good week. It was pretty normal. But we have seen more miracles. I told you all about the family that we found last Saturday. They went to church on Sunday and then we went on Monday to their house to do a family night. We went with the primary president. We pancakes with them and then taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were able to put dates with all of them for the 15th. They came to stake conference this week. Not only did they come but they brought their family. There are some other areas in the zone that have baptisms for the 15th. We are planning to have another huge baptismal service. We didn't just want one baptism or two baptisms we will have more than 10 hopefully.  I'll let you know how it goes next week.

 We had stake conference this week and the stake leadership got reorganized so we had the visit of Elder Ochoa and Elder Duarte of the Seventy. They were really good. You can just feel that those guys have authority when they speak. It was cool. 

Thanks for everything!

-Elder Rowberry

Attached is another lame ugly photo of me and my companion at a birthday party of a member.

The Sound of Silence

From February 2, 2015

Well, right now I can't talk. I don't know what happened but I lost my voice. The little bit I can say comes out two octaves lower than normal and all raspy. It sounds like I've been a chain smoker for 40 years. But it's all cool though, you don't even need to be able to talk as a missionary... 

 My zone is getting better, we are doing so much better than we were 4+ weeks ago. We were one of the worst performing zones in the mission. Now we are one of the best. We have been working well with members and bringing people to church. We have been learning really cool stuff in zone meeting. We read a talk called "Finishers Wanted" by Thomas S. Monson that was really good. It motivated the zone a lot. 

 In our area we saw some miracles this week. On Friday we were kind of just bummed because all of our appointments were falling and from 2:00 to 5:00 it's so hot and dusty and it sucks. We decided that we needed a miracle. On Saturday before we left we asked God in our prayer for a family that would go to church and want to get baptized in three weeks. Within two hours we had found them. It's a mom and her four kids. They went to church and loved it. We are hoping to put baptismal dates with them today or tomorrow. It's the family Arana Ortiz. 

Also, personal shout out to my mom for being flippin awesome and surviving another year in this world! Happy Birthday!

Thanks

Elder Rowberry

I Love The Way You Lie

From January 26, 2015

Well this week was alright. The zone is still doing better. Which makes me happy. What doesn't make me happy is how much people lie to us. We had a bunch of people commited to come to church and hardly any came. It amazes me, just blows me away actually, that we can call someone on the phone Sunday in the morning and they will tell us that they are on their way, or we will pass by their houses that they will say, "Yes we are getting ready and we will be there." Then... they don't show up!! I hate that. Commitment and honesty bascially mean nothing to the majority of people here. 

 On the bright side of things though. We had a baptism. We baptized a twelve year old kid named Edwin. He was super ready to be baptized. His mom is inactive and also his brother, but I'm talking really inactive. We were looking for one of our investigators and we found her and she let us in. She said she doesn't go to church because it is too boring. Her son Edwin was there at this moment as well. He had gone to church a bunch of times before because his grandpa is a member. We found him Saturday night. Sunday morning he went to church and Sunday afternoon he had a baptismal date. He went to mutual on Thursday and even went to a stake choir practice. He's cool. 

  To finish up a funnyish story. So there are two other Elders that live in our house. They thought it was funny to change the time on my clock. They did it quite frequently. So one day when Elder Hansen and I were in the house alone we move all of their stuff in their study room to a room we have that is upstairs and that doesn't get used because it is hot. So they retaliated and hid my things. In the night I got all of my things back, or so I thought. Elder Alacán from Guatemala had hid some books and stuff in the microwave. I thought I took everything out. He thought I took everything out too. So he decided to make instant soup and after three minutes in the microwave it really started to stink. He called me over to the kitchen and said sorry. I looked into the microwave and I saw the box that contained my tuner, that I use to tune my ukulele. It was smoking and I looked inside and my poor electric tuner was now nothing more that a lump of hot plastic. He said he was going to buy me a new one though.

   That's all folks.

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

I fell into a burning ring of fire

From January 19, 2015

This week was a fantastic week. The zone is getting better, a lot better. This week we brought 58% more people to church and we were able to put some baptismal dates. Right now in the mission we are doing this thing called El Reto, or The Challenge. We have to work with another zone to goals of baptisms. In 5 weeks our goal is 16 baptisms and the other zone is 19 so 35 in total. We have a potential of 16 and Chalchuapa, the other zone on our team, has 19 so we just need to baptize all the people that have dates and we will get to go eat with President. 

 We went to this place called Kilo 5 with another area to have Fireside, but with an actual fire. It's really pretty out there in Kilo 5 its just really far. There was a lot of investigators. We also met this guy who makes bread who let us help him.

Everything with my companion is awesome. We are working hard and enjoying the time. 

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

I walk the line

So. This week was an awesome week. We had changes. I was kind of nervous, like always.So in our mission we do a thing called changes meeting. All of the companionships that have  changes go to the mission office and then they show all of the changes up on the big screen. It always exciting. When my face appeared up on the screen and my comp was Elder Hansen. Elder Hansen has been my friend since the beginning of the mission basically. President has never put two gringos together as ZLs. He is really cool. He is from Orem and went to Timpanogos High School. I'm pumped. 

This week we have seen miracles. We have found a bunch of positive investigators. We found the most prepared 12 year old I have ever seen. We found him on Saturday night. His mom is inactive and his brother. He want's to go on the mission. He went to church the next day and now we have a baptismal date.

Its also pretty weird that the sisters that came with me are home. I just completed 18 months. There is a place in my area that used to be a train track and now people live on the sides it is called La Linea, or the Line. It's pretty poor and dangerous.

Thanks for everything.

Adios

-Elder Rowberry

We didn't start the fire

We were walking to an investigators house the other day and their neighbors yard was on fire. They had cut down a big tree and had a bunch of shavings. This was the 1st. People had been throwing fireworks the day before and had lit it on fire. When we got there it was a lot of smoke. We carried buckets and buckets of water for almost two hours to put it out. Then we found out later that the fire was still burning underneath the shavings even though it looked like we put it out. That was the good deed for the day. Thet puts me at two fires put out in my mission. 

I can't believe it is already 2015. that's crazy. I spent all of 2014 in El Salvador. That's crazy. 2015 will bring some big things in my life. I will finish the mission and I will start college and... that's it actually. I am thankful for this new opportunity that I have to make changes in my life and be better. Speaking of changes, my companion has changes so I will have a new companion this Wednesday. 
  They celebrate the New Year hard here in El Salvador. They blow up some crazy fireworks. I'm not kidding you it sounds like if you were playing Call of Duty or something with things blowing up everywhere and with little rockets zinging past you. It's pretty cool.
Also last Monday we had the opportunity to go to some Mayan ruins called Tazumal. It was cool. Pretty small but cool. It is in Chalchuapa. Elder Williams, cousin of the Bangeters (my cousins), is zone leader there. We also had the leadership council for January. We talked about using the Book of Mormon more in our teaching. 

Thanks for everything. 

-Elder Rowberry

Año nuevo vida nueva

From December 29, 2014

One year older and wiser too... I hope. I actually had a pretty good Christmas this year. A lot of people will say, "Oh Christmas is so great on the mission!" It's lies. It's better than normal days on the mission but compared to Christmas at home, two thumbs way down. In spite of that I enjoyed Christmas. We were invited to eat at a lot of places on the 24th. I felt sick to finish the night. Here they celebrate more the 24th then the 25th. On the 25th the Afane family invited us over to eat. They invited 8 more missionaries as well. They are really cool. It was also a lot better to live with 4 people in the house than just 2 like last Christmas. 

 The zone is doing better. My area is still struggling. We are trying to get people to go to church but we are not having the best of luck. We hope to have more when the new year starts. 

 I was studying this week about prayer. It is really important to pray. Especially when it comes to missionary work. I think sometimes we get kind of casual when it comes to praying. I think we get into a habit of vain repetition. When need to make sure are prayers are efficient and meaningful.  

Thanks for everything!

Happy New Year!

-Elder  Rowberry

FELIZ NAVIDAD

From December 22, 2014

Well folks. It's coming around again. Christmas is almost here. This week we had a cool christmas activity. We went to the office and had a cool gift exchange and some games it was fun. We as a zone prepared a musical number. Elder Long (Oklahoma), Elder Smart (Riverton, UT) and I played our Ukuleles and the zone sang. Nothing really new happened this week. We are still struggling a bit. It will get better though. I'm not discouraged but I'm excited for the challenge. It's hot here, like always, chance of snow....-100% It doesnt feel like christmas it feels like every other time of the year. Which is fine by me. I'm used to the daily grind of a missionary. That's why I'm running out of things to write. When something cool happens I'll let you know.

I hope you all have a wonderful christmas. 

Love you all.

-Elder Rowberry

It's always a good time

From December 15, 2014

This week... Hmmm... wasn't that good of a time really. We are kind of struggling. I kind of miss Nahuizalco where we were banging on all cylinders. Here I feel like we can barely get the car to start. As a zone leader that is stressful. You don't only have to worry about your area but also the zone. My parents have asked what does a zone leader do in this mission. I don't know if its the same in other missions. 

We go on interchanges to train and help other missionaries. We do about two a week. We give trainings every week in zone meeting. Every night we take all of the key indicators of all of the areas in the zone and we need to give followup so that the zone knows what to do. We have to make sure the missionaries are well phyiscally and spiritually. We have to make sure everyone is following the rules. We watch all the missionaries as they write their families. We also have to pass the information from President to the missionaries. If the zone isn't working it's our fault. It's fun I like it. It's definitley a challenge. 

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

Attachged is a picture of my christmas tree.