I'm Yours

This week we had multi zones. We learned a ton about consecration, baptism, and how to teach to the needs of people. As missionaries we are not our own. We are God's. We need to consecrate our time and our strengths, and talents to Him. We should tell God "I'm Yours" and then do what He asks. He doesn't ask us to give a little bit He asks us to give all but then He takes us and molds us to who we should be. We need to give up our sins, our pride, our worldly appetites, and give become saints.  

We talked a lot about Preach My Gospel as well. I would like to know how all of you are doing on your study of Preach My Gospel. What are you learning? I've learned from Preach My Gospel that it really is the greatest tool for a missionary. We know also that members are missionaries as well so it will be a great tool for you. I challenge all of you members at home to invite someone who might be less active or even better an investigator to a Family Night and teach them something. There are two reasons why members don't share the Gospel 1. They are scared 2. They don't know where to start. Preach My Gospel will help you overcome both of things. I hope to hear how your Family nights went. 

Thanks so much for everything.

-Elder Rowberry

White and Nerdy

This week was a really good week filled with good things. On Saturday I got to go on interchanges with the Zone Leaders, and on Sunday as well. I was able to learn a bunch of good stuff. Sunday I got to talk with my family. It was kind of weird though. I kind of feel like they're strangers but it was really good though. Sometimes it feels like the outside world doesn't exist. It's also weird talking to white people. When I see white people in the street I think to myself "What are they doing here?" or "Gringos? Go back to your country" but then again that is probably what people think about me.

On Monday we had a really good day. We were in the office until 6:00 at night. We had planned a Family Night Attack that my companions and I planned. We had 7 family nights planned for 3 hours. We had these families bring non-members to learn. In 3 hours we had 6 lessons with member, 5 in house, 2 other lessons, 4 references received and 5 references contacted with member, 9 new investigators and one lesson to a less active. We went on divisions to do all that. It was a really good day. The Secret? Preach My Gospel. We have now been carrying Preach My Gospel around all the time. We use it to teach members and get references and help them get psyched to do missionary work. It works too. We get tons of references doing it. For all my missionary buds out there if you aren't doing that, do it. I am going to try not to knock on random doors ever again, because it doesn't work and I hate doing it unless of course the spirit tells me too. 

 On Wednesday we had the opportunity to go to the temple. It was awesome. I definitely miss being able to go to the temple every week like I did before the mission. I learned there that giving reports is something very fundamental. There are a lot of missionaries that don't like reporting numbers because they might not have done very well. Reporting what we do is important. One thing I've heard President Cordón talk about that missionaries need to do is to be able to report to yourself. After the mission you won't have a District Leader or a Zone Leader asking you what you did everyday. In Preach My Gospel, President Monson said, "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates." If we can keep that up after the mission in our daily lives we will be better.

To finish off the good week, yesterday we had baptism. The lady that got baptized is named Maribel. She is extremely shy. Her sisters are members and they brought her to church and then we set up an appointment and we taught her for a couple months and she got baptized. She was pretty prepared and didn't really have any problems. It was a really small service. She didn't want people to come which is alright with me. Anyways it was pretty cool. I love seeing people get baptize and join the church and make that crucial step towards salvation. 

-Elder Rowberry

P.S. Love you all 

Amsterdam

I heard that song by the Imagine Dragons this week in the store. I thought is was cool especially because some of  them are from Utah. That really has nothing to do with anything.

This week was a good week. We were super busy. It's been really good being in a trio. It's actually really fun. We have been working really hard. We literally have been running from one place to another. We have actually seen some miracles with the transportation. There is a family that we have been teaching in a place called El Jordán. It is where Gabriela is from. It's super far away. Remember how I told you about that bus the 14? A couple days ago we were going to go visit that family. We left from the office a little late and we were running late. We were leaving and we the 14 pull up down the street. We ran to catch it. Then leaving the appointment we were going to have to walk a long ways but a bus was leaving on point and we ran and caught it even though it wasn't supposed to take people the driver gave us a ride. This has happened like three times now. I think God really wants us to go teach that family, because it is always exactly at the precise moment we leave that bus is there and we always have to run to catch it. That's my story for the week. We have two baptismal dates for this week. I'll tell you how that goes next week. Anyways have a fantastic week all of you. Also there is some cool videos about mothers onmormon.org. You should all watch them. Special shoutout to my Mom who is the best! LOVE YOU MOM!

-Elder Rowberry

Para Para Paradise

Well another changes meeting has come and gone and I'm still here in Paraíso. This will make 6 changes here. That's 9 months almost. But it's actually only going to be 8 ish months here. This changes meeting I got my replacement in office. I'm going to be training him for a couple weeks and then I'm going out the real field. I'm excited and nervous. I am super grateful for the opportunity I have had to be here in the office. I have grown so much and learned so much. I am now excited for the opportunity to be in the field full time. My new companion and trainee is named Elder Gordon. He's from Texas he's really cool. So right now we are in a trio. Elder Roeller is also from Texas. Elder Hoagland who is the financial secretary is also from Texas. When I leave the office will be 3/4 Texan. I was kind of hoping I would stay in for the next president but It's cool either way. One thing I've learned is that don't worry about things you can't change. Just go with the flow and be cool with everything. There is a Mormon Message called "The Will of God" which you all should watch. I hope you all have a fantastic week.

I love you all!

-Elder Rowberry

American Idiot

 Like I told you I got a new companion...

No I'm kidding he's not an idiot. This week Elder Paravato left on emergency changes. I think it was planned that he leaves during changes which is coming up this Wednesday. For some reason they had to take out a missionary from an area so they sent him there to replace the missionary that left. So now I'm just with Elder Roeller.

 It's been a good week. We put a baptismal date with this girl named Iris for the 15th of May. She is really positive it's just that her mom is kind of against it. We also have this other investigator named Maribel. She wants to get baptized and knows that she needs to but she is having a hard time making the commitment. Like I've said probably ten times, people are afraid of commitment in this country. We are hoping to put a set baptismal date with her soon. 

 I was listening to the talk "Safety for the Soul" by Elder Holland this morning while I was getting ready. In it he talks about Lehi's dream. In the dream there is a bunch of people. They are all on this path that leads to the tree. However, a dark mist comes and surrounds all of them, not just wicked people are affected by the mist but all of the valiant and righteous people as well. No one can see the path. No one. The righteous, the wicked, no one. The only they could get to the tree was by way of the iron rod. The tree is the love of God. The iron rod, which Nephi later explains to us, is the word of God. So we are in a world and the mist is here. How can we get back to God? Only by way of the iron rod. It kind of hit me how important it is that we study the scriptures. If you are not studing the scriptures frequently, do it. If you are, good. Improve it. It is essential that we take the scriptures to heart. Also remember Elder Ballard's invitation to study Preach my Gospel.

Love you all.

-Elder Rowberry 

This photo is of some of us at Pizza Hut. 

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