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.