Late post Monday

Hey mommy :) things are great here! It's officially summer and we can
definitely feel it. Last night it rained A TON though. Apparently in
the summer it's like clockwork and it rains every afternoon. Which
will honestly be a relief from the heat! How are things at the cabin?
I totally didn't even know it was Memorial Day weekend until someone
in the ward mentioned it.

Sounds like you all had a pretty exciting week! Things here are going
really well! Sister Chadwick and I have both survived the cuts and we
will see another transfer here in Tampa 4th ward:) which is really
good because we have just been starting to see things pick up! It was
a stressful call though:) my heart was pounding!

We have two baptisms this week! And we are so excited. It's the cute
young couple I told you about who are going to have a baby pretty
soon... Hopefully after they have been baptized and confirmed... We
are so excited for them, and they are so happy. They have even been
teaching their brother and showing him the pamphlets and stuff and now
he wants to be baptized! Super exciting things are happening! We have
another investigator who is so prepared for baptism. We took him on a
tour of the church on Tuesday and when we showed him the baptismal
font a huge smile came across his face and he said "that's where I
want to be." The hard thing is that he has lupus and he gets so sick
all the time so that he can't meet with us or come to church. It's so
heartbreaking because he is so ready and he wants it so bad.

Other than that things have been pretty much the same:) we did do a
super fun activity the other day that we call Chalk the Walk. And it's
where we go to a park and draw out the plan of salvation in chalk and
then walk people through and teach them about it! It was super fun! We
have also been able to go to a lot of end of the school year
elementary school programs and that has been a lot of fun. I'm
grateful that we get to do all of these out of the box things as part
of missionary work. It's so much better that walking and knocking:) we
are working on coming up with some more fun things we can do.

We had our first sick day yesterday and honestly probably today...
Last week we went on exchanges and i got to leave our area and go to
another area and it was lots of fun! But I picked up a cold somewhere
along the way and kindly shared it with my companion when I got back
home. But out of the whole week Sunday and Monday are the best days to
be sick because you don't miss out on too much proselyting time. It's
so funny because sister Chadwick and I have been wanting to get sick
so that we could take a day off but it's really not all that great...
There is nothing to do and I feel so lazy. I just want to get out
there and work! Hopefully we will feel better by tomorrow!

 Before I go, I just wanted to share a little bit that I've been
learning this week. This week I have been focusing my studies on the
atonement. I read in preach my gospel that the more we understand the
atonement the greater desire we will have to share the gospel, and I
thought well that's what I need as a missionary is a greater desire to
share! So here are some things that I've learned from my studies:
first of all the word atonement and the words used in other languages
mean- reconciliation, to sit with again, to cover, to forgive, a close
embrace. When the word is used in the Old Testament it is referring to
animal sacrifices. The animal sacrificed had certain qualification to
be worthy to be sacrificed: it had to be the firstling of the flock
without blemish, sacrificed by shedding of blood, death without
breaking a bone, and one animal could be sacrificed as a vicarious act
for another. M Russel Ballard said, "If we could truly understand the
atonement of The Lord Jesus Christ, we would realize how precious is
one son or daughter of God." Christ sacrificed so much for us! Not
only did he die for us but he lived his entire life for others. He
chose to live a perfect life because he knew that he was our only
hope. He was the only way we could return to live with our Father in
Heaven. He did all of it so willingly! And our Father in heaven
watched as His Son did that for us! As imperfect as we are! That is
how important we are to him. That is how important every person who
has ever walked and will ever walk the earth is to our Heavenly
Father. I want you all to take a few minutes this week and just think
about what our Savior did for us.

I love you all so much! And a appreciate all the love and support that
I get:) I feel your prayers, and they are so much appreciated.

Love always, Sister Rowland