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