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

Work like a beaver

Well another extremely stressful week down. Another changes week without changes for me. I'm still in the same area. I will be going on seven and half months in the same area by the time this change ends. It's always very very busy here because new missionaries come and old missionaries leave and we have to prepare a ton of stuff. I had to make a little newsletter for the mission to hand out to all the missionaries. I had to do a ton of things that I think I've already mentioned in other letters. 

  During Changes Week we do a lot in the office so we don't get that much time to work in the field. But with what little time we had we worked as hard as we could. Everyone thinks it's so awesome being in the office and that we just sit on our nice comfy chairs in AC all day, which we do. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, I want to go to the office. In the office you really learn a lot of things. My problem solving skills have gone through the roof. I am much more efficient in my work. My ability to work longer and harder has increased. I've learned a ton about Excel (never thought my excel skills would improve in the mission) and other things. I've learned a ton from President Cordón and the Assistants. I've learned to do things correctly and think about all the problems and do things on time. President is very strict about things like that. It's been a huge opportunity for me and it will continue being so. But it's also a flippin lot of work! It's also a lot of stress. Everyone here tells me how I have gray hairs. I think they are coming in quicker now, but you know what? Work is good for us. We had a special stake conference this week for all of Central America. It was via satellite from Salt Lake City. Elder Martino spoke and Elder Scott and Oaks from the 12, as well as Sister Oscarson. They talked directly to the people here. One thing that Elder Oaks talked about was the principle of work and education. He also mentioned that dependency is something that we need to avoid. It was all really good. A copy of President Cordón's summary is attached. It's in Spanish but hey you guys have google translate. 

Thanks for everything everybody

Have a great week!

-Elder Rowberry

Ps. A copy of the Estandarte, the newsletter I made is attached. The mensaje presidencial where it says Cada Area Bautiza (Every area baptize) I made that graphic and we have been using it this month to animate the missionaries. It's been working because we have a really high potential.

Cool, Clear Water

This week was a good week. Except for the fact that the water in Ciudad Paraíso, where I live, went out. We haven't had water for this whole week. We've been using purified drinking water and water from a big truck that passed by. I've been showering outside with buckets. This week Elder Paravato had to have surgery on his toe to remove an ingrown toe nail. So he's been in the house all week. Luckily Elder Wiser, who used to be in the office, got sick as well and he's staying in our house so Elder Paravato stays with him and I with Elder Pérez the old companion of Elder Brizzee who went home. 

On Saturday and on Sunday I was on interchanges with my Zone Leader Elder Muti. He's from South Salt Lake. He's finishing his mission on Wednesday. It was cool learning from him. He is originally from Tonga so his aunt sent him some of those Lava Lavas. I was able to fulfill a long time dream I've had which is to wear a lava lava on my mission. We were going to wear it to church and we had them and we were about to leave but then we felt like we should't. It was probably a good idea not too. 

Also this week we have received a ton of boxes of Book of Mormons. I've moved so many boxes. We got another 72 this morning that we had to move. We don't really know how it's all going to fit in storage. 

Spiritual thought: Everybody read Alma 7. It is really good. It talks about the Atonement and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those are the things most basic that we should understand as members because those are the most important. The most important thing is not where Kolob is or other things like that. Once we know those things and have a testimony of those things we can and definitely should start branching out and learning more. 

Thanks for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

P.S. Thanks for all of you who responded to me.

Rolling Rolling Rolling

From March 7

This week was just a normal week. Just working hard hopefully not hardly working. We taught lessons and tried to save peoples souls. No big deal really. On Tuesday we went and taught to this girl named Gabriela. She is 19 years old. She has a kid that is 4 and has another kid that is 1. For you constant readers (Mom and Dad) I mentioned her in an email a couple of weeks back. She is the lady whose husband I got mad at. On Monday her husband or rather, companion,  went to the United States. She was super sad. She just wanted him to stay and be a good husband and father. We went and taught her and taught her about the Atonement and how God is always there for us. She felt a lot better after. Really that is one thing I love about the mission. I love going and making peoples lives better. It pretty dang awesome I'd say We are getting close to putting a baptismal date with her. Also this week I want some reader participation. What scriptures have comforted you most in your times of need? I would really like hear from you. I want your scripture and why you like it. 

Yesterday I was able to go on interchanges with one of the APs. His name is Elder Gubernick. He's from California. It was cool to go with him and watch him work. He is one of the best missionaries in the mission and he can teach so well. I learned a ton from him. One thing that I have learned a lot here is humility. You can't go around thinking your the best and know it all. That's hard sometimes because we like to think we know it all. But I'm super grateful for the opportunity I have had to work close by President Cordón and really experienced missionaries so that I can learn. I still have SO much to learn. This is the best place to learn.

Gracias Oiga

-Elder Rowberry