Live Like You Were Dying

Just call me John. John the baptist that is. Why? Because I just baptized Jesús. Jesús finally got baptized! He had a baptismal date when I came to Nahuizalco but he didn't get baptized that date so we put another date with him. He didn't get baptized that date so put another date with him. He didn't get baptized that date because he had a dream where Jesus (Christ) came to him and told him to be baptized on his birthday. That was in August. His birthday was yesterday. So yes, he got baptized. I am happy for him because he finally got baptized. 

That wasn't the only baptism we had this week. We also baptized a girl named Mariana. She, like Jesús, had been an investigator for a loooooooong time, more than a year actually. She was living with this one member because they had a kid. We were able to get them married this week and she got baptized. I am really happy for her because we have been teaching her for a long time. Chepe (José) is her husband. He really wanted her to get baptized after getting married to her. They are really awesome. I love being with them. 

What's with the subject line? Well my companion this week got the famous Chikungunya. This a virus transmitted through mosquito bites. On thursday and friday he had a fever of 40 degrees celcius or 104 degrees fahrenheit. The disease also gives body pain especially in the joints and the feet and hands. It also gives an allergic like rash that itches. It's pretty rough. So he still has that he is getting better now though. There isn't really any vaccine the main thing you have to do is sleep under a mosquito net and wear repellant. That is what I always do because I don't want Chikungunya nor Dengue. Chikungunya is more painful but Dengue is more dangerous. There are missionaries right now that have both. 

Anyways folks have a great week.

-Elder Rowberry

I love to see the temple.

From November 10, 2014

This week was a good week. On Tuesday I got to go to Santa Ana for the monthly leadership council. It was really good. I always like to go learn from President, the assistants, and all the other zone leaders. I always leave that meeting with a renewed work ethic. We also went to the temple this week. I hadn't been to the temple for a long time. I kind of miss being able to go every week like I could before the mission. The temple is really a wonderful place. I would challenge everyone to go at least once a month. If you aren't worthy to go, get worthy to go. If by chance you are not a member become a member. It is necessary to our salvation and the salvation of our ancestors. It is also a place where you can go to recharge the spiritual batteries even more than you can at church. It is also a place where you can go to pray and get answers to questions.

I was studying in 2 Nephi 32-33. Nephi talks about how important the sciptures are. 

 2 Nephi 32:

3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

 4 Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.

 5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.

I also like in chapter 33 when Nephi gives his testimony of the words which he had written

2 Nephi 33:

 10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good.

 11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.

 14 And you that will not partake of the goodness of God, and respect the words of the Jews, and also my words, and the words which shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the Lamb of God, behold, I bid you an everlasting farewell, for these words shall condemn you at the last day.

 15 For what I seal on earth, shall be brought against you at the judgment bar; for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey. Amen.

READ the Book of Mormon.

Thanks for everything.

Have a great week

-Elder Rowberry

Birds flying high, you know how I feel.

This week was a good week. I guess every week is a good week even if it was a bad week. It's a good week if you are in the service of God. 

My companion Elder Flores had to go to San Salvador this week. So Ï went, again. That makes it four times in the last couple of months. Elder Flores is really cool. We get along really well, maybe too well. We sometimes get distracted during planning or study but we are trying to do better. On Friday we had a special zone meeting. We went up to Juayùa and had a zone meeting with them. President Spjut did interviews during the meeting. After the meeting President went and visited with us. I went with Elder Chigua, who is a district leader in my zone from Guatemala. We also went with President Sànchez of the Texical Branch. We went out to Carrizal in Presidents nice 2013 Toyota SUV. It was geting dark when we were teaching. Turns out that the whole canton didn't have electrity. So we were teaching in the dark. I went to read a scripture and President had to pull out his iPhone so that I could read. After we taught we left. I was a little bit nervous to be out in that canton, at that time of night with no lights, in that nice of a car but we were fine. I guess it is better to be in a nice car then walking at that time of night, which I have done. I sometimes wonder why I was ever even a little tiny bit nervous to walk outside at night at home. It was cool to be able to teach with President. Obviously he is way better than us. 

On Saturday we went to an investigators house and the kid, whose name is Eric, was out flying a homemade kite made from a newspaper and some little sticks with some sewing thread. We started to try to fly the kite with him. Elder Flores got pretty excited when he started flying it. He ran along ways and got the kite up in the sky. He also got it stuck in a tree. The string was stuck in the tree but the kite was way up high and way far away. We tried to recover the kite but we couldn't so we just left it there flying in the sky with the string attached to the tree. The kid wasn't mad that we lost his kite. I think he thought it was pretty cool that his kite was flying so high. We felt like litle kids again flying the kite. 

Thanks for everything everybody.

-Elder Rowberry

If you look real carefully up at the top left you can see the kite.

Walk this Way

From October 27, 2014

This week really was not anything special. I forgot to mention more about my companion. His name is Elder Flores. He is from Comayaguela, Honduras. He is a convert of 3 years and the only member in his family. He has one year in the mission. He's a cool guy.

 I went on interchanges twice this week. During one of them I went to two cantóns called Sabana Grande and El Carrizal. These places are far. They have transport. The transports are old trucks. The trucks are big and in the bed they have it all caged in. I'm not a huge fan of Salvadoranian public transportation. There are always way too many people and I am always hunched over because the ceiling is about as tall as where neck is. Just picture it. A tall white giant stuffed into a 1980's school bus with the ceiling at a height of 5 feet 10 inches with 200 Salvadorians. Super fun. That is one thing I will not miss when I leave the mission. Anyways on the way back from Carrizal we walked. It is a long ways. We walked for over an hour to get back to the city. 

We saw a really cool miracle this week. We left with a member to go contact a reference. The reference wasn't there. We told her that we wanted to go visit someone else that she knew. We always ask her for references but she always says there isn't anybody. But we finally got her to take us to someone. She told us that mayber her cousin would recieve us. Her cousin had listened to the missionaries before. We went and she recieved us. The second appointment was cool. We were explaining how Christ's church was lost. I asked her if she knew which was the same church that Christ set up. She said,"The Church of Jesus Christ." "Yeah I know but which church is that church," I replied. She responded, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." After I picked up my jaw off the floor I asked her how she knew that. She told us that it was because she had prayed and feels like that is the right church. So we invited her to be baptized. She accepted very enthusiastically. Honestly I am still having troubles believing that actually happened. She is going to get baptized in November. It is important to find the people that are ready and chosen. Chapter 9 of PMG talks abou that. 

Thanks so much everybody!

And a special shoutout to my sister Jane who turned 18 on Saturday! Guys, I believe she is single. 

-Elder Rowberry

Attached are a couple of pictures from a service project we did. 

Earthquakey People

From Monday October 20, 2014

This week was an interesting week. On Monday we went to a place called Anal Arriba. It is a canton really far away. An investigator of one of the companionships in the zone invited us to lunch. He lives in the center of Nahuizalco but has a property in the canton. He cooked us chicken and rice and we went up there and had fun. It was way out in the jungle. Attached are some pictures from there. On Monday night I was with Elder Slack and Elder Calero. We went to an appointment and the lady we were looking for wasn't there. Her daughter was though. She was by herself. I was thinking, cool we will have a new investigator. I had a feeling though that we should not go in, but I was going to have a new investigator. We went in. We were choosing a hymn to sing. I chose a random hymn but Elder Calero chose "Let The Holy Spirit Guide" The only thought I had in my mind was "leave." I thought, we are here so we have to teach something. I started teaching but I couldn't think of anything to say. I was not planning to stay long but not being able to think of anything, I just gave her a pamphlet. We said a prayer and we bounced. I still didn't feel good though. I remembered seeing, when we entered, a group of guys in a circle farther down the road. It was dark outside. I felt like we should leave as fast as possible. We did so. Nothing happened to us. When we were waiting for the bus there were two guys, I positive they were gangsters they were walking with us but the started running away I realized it was because the cops were on the other side of the road. I don't know what could have happened but I am glad I didn't find out. I felt much better after that. We got home and we were still a little bit shaken up spiritually, you could say. We found that the door to our room in our house was locked. Which was really weird. We thought that maybe someone was in there because we didn't lock it. There is window looking into this room and so we looked in and... there was nobody there, thank goodness. So we were trying to open the door and then suddenly the ground started to shake. It shook for about 20 seconds. No damage was done. It was the first earthquake I have been in. It was an interesting day.
 have a new companion. His name is Elder Flores. He is from Honduras. I am training him to be a zone leader.  He is pretty cool. I will tell you more about him later. 
Thanks for everything. 
Follow the spirit.

-Elder Rowberry

Alone again, naturally

This week was an intersting week. On Tuesday, while I was doing sit-ups, the phone rang and I looked at it and it was President Spjut. He asked for my companion, Elder Solano, so I gave him the phone. President told Elder Solano that he should be in Santa Ana in a couple of hours so that he could be the new Migration Secretary. The assistants came a couple of hours later and took him and his suitcases. So, since that point I have been without a companion. I have just been with Elder Slack and Elder Calero. Some days I did divisions with a member. It was a challenge to try to cover their area as well as mine. It was really weird be the only Zone Leader as well. I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday. That means I am staying for another change. 

On Saturday we had a wedding and a baptism. Adriana got married and baptized. My testimony of faith-filled prayers. She said she wanted to get baptized a long time ago. Her problem was that she wasn't married. Her now-husband didn't want to get married. We found that he is a member but superismio inactive. Then all of a sudden one day she told us that he agreed to get married. She said that she had been praying a lot so that he would do it. God responds prayers. It was a great show of faith to me. We are now going to be working on the husband and the daughter. 

Thank you for everything.

Have a great week.

-Elder Rowberry

PS It also rained a lot and I forgot my umbrella. Attached is a photo that is directly taken from my front door. 

Blue Suede Shoes

From October 6, 2014 

Last P-Day, after writing my companion went to buy new shoes. In the store if you buy one pair you get another pair half off. We saw some cool blueish grey shoes which we bought. They are pretty cool if I do say so myself. They were pretty cheap. Based on how the ground is in this country I give them 2-3 months of life if I only wear them to church and to meetings. 

I have been in a lot of meetings lately. I told you about Elder Ochoa who came two fridays ago. On Tuesday I went to Santa Ana for the "Consejo de Lideres" or Leaders Council. There we learned a lot. We talked a lot about teach with the spirit. We also talked about talking with everyone. I have really been trying to overcome any fears about talking to people. Elder Ochoa challenged us to get up in the buses and share the gospel to everyone in the bus. That is kind of nerve wracking I am not going to lie. We did it though. No one wanted to hear more. This morning however we had a better experience. We got up and explained that we were missionaries and how we wanted to share a message of peace and hope and all that jazz with them. We passed around the bus with pamphlets and a lot of people took them. We sat down and talked to them and got a few references for other areas. Here a lot of people talk and sell in the buses. In the bus terminal in Santa Ana you can practically do all your weekly shopping while sitting in the bus. The people pass by selling everything from soap to pizza and socks to candy. People will get up and preach in the buses as well but they are weird and they always ask for money. That is what my biggest fear was. I am overcoming amy fears that I had. 

We all know that we had General Conference. How great was that? Every General Conference gets better and better. We watched it in our chapel via internet. There is a new missionary in our zone so I went and sacrificed and watched in a different, air conditioned, room in English with him. I like watching it in English because I get to hear the real voices of the apostles and the prophet. There were some really spectacular messages given and I am excited for the Liahona to come out so that I can study them. I really liked the talks of Elder Chistrofferson, Elder Jorg Klighbensmifferdorfensmorf (or something like that), Elder Uchtdorf, Elder Gavarret, and many others. All you who have your fancy smancy smartphones and tech devices should watch those talks over and over again and then change based on what you learn.

Thanks for everything folks. 

Have a great week.

-Elder Rowberry