Miracles :)

Hey Family!

 

This week was crazy good! and we saw some crazy miracles!

 

First miracle ( and probably my favorite..): Our new member, the one whose wife just had a baby, baptized someone yesterday! He baptized a young man that the other sisters in our ward have been teaching! It brought me to tears to hear him say, "having been commissioned of jesus christ..". I thought back to the person he was when we first met him and who he is now. It truly amazes me how much him and his wife have grown. They have so much faith! When they had the baby, they didnt have enough money to pay hospital bills, so their solution was to pay tithing! they knew that if they did the lord would bless them. and they were somehow able to pay for all the bills and medicine and everything. he works part time at a grocery store deli and they dont have medical insurance. thats a miracle! They also share the gospel like nobody else i know! Yesterday he ranted to us forever about how frustrated he is with his family that they wont come to church and be baptized. he has been trying to get them to since before he was baptized! And he has already invited three people that he works with to church. His sweet wife has the biggest heart of anyone i know. she has so much faith! She has been struggling alot with depression, but she tells us every time that she just prays and she knows that everything is going to be okay. they read and pray together everyday! when they start to argue with each other, they kneel and pray together instead. i wish you guys could meet them! we would all do well to be more like them!

 

Second miracle: Some random lady invited us into her house for lunch, and asked us if there were any lessons that we wanted to teach her! She's very happy in her church, but she is so close to the promptings of the spirit that we are sure that when we start teaching her the spirit will touch her heart and she will know that what we are teaching is true.

 

Third miracle: So I don't know if y'all remember, but way back when i first got here we were teaching this guy. (the one who was drunk at our first lesson with him). And i told you how he knew someone who was baptized when he lived in tennessee but hadn't been to church since he got here to florida. Do you remember that guy? Well we lost contact with him months ago! he stopped coming to church, his phone was disconnected, and no one was ever home when we stopped by his house. So on saturday we were doing some finding in this one area that we hardly ever go to. It was rainy and no one was outside. it seemed pointless but i still didnt feel like we should go anywhere too far. So we got in the car and drove just around the corner to start walking in another neighborhood and we saw him walking down the street!! so we hurried and did a u-turn (btw florida has made me a u-turn pro! you cant get anywhere without doing a u-turn! its ridiculous!) and pulled into the 7/11 so that we could sneak attack him! we walked around the corner, pretending we had no idea that he was there and we were able to talk to him! and get his new number. he told us that it was crazy because just the day before he was thinking about how he wanted to start going back to school.

 

Fourth miracle: So i told y'all about the two kids that want to get baptized? well we did a book of mormon introduction with them and invited them to read it. the ten year old boy took it to school the next day and read it in his free time. and the 9 year old girl read the whole first chapter while we were sitting right there! They are doing better with reading it than any of our adult investigators!! They are so awesome though! the girl has been to church twice and loves it! and the boy would have come but he was sick this weekend. Their mom is fully supportive of them and brings them to church and everything, we just need to convince her to stay with them... and be baptized too:)

 

There were plenty more miracles, but those were the big ones:) No one has been baptized yet, they all still want to though! there are just some things that they are struggling to overcome, but they are getting there!

 

Heavenly Father is so good!

 

Love you all so much!

 

Love, Sister Rowland

Hey Family! 

Things in Florida are going great! Very wet and humid but great! Our baptism didn't happen yesterday but she is still really excited to be baptized. She just has a few addictions that she needs to work through first. It was so cute. The other day we went over and taught her the Stop Smoking program that the church has and her five year old son asked her to what that was and she said it was to help her quit smoking and he said, "good! I want you to quit! If you don't I'm gonna get you!" I don't know if that was motivation or a slap in the face for her but it definitely did the trick! 

We also set a baptism date with these two kids, age ten and nine. They are going to be baptized in September! Want to know how they found the church? Through an eight year old in our ward who was just baptized! Just goes to show that you are never too young to be a missionary. This little girl is incredible! She loves the missionaries and always gives us the best hugs! She talks all the time about when she goes on a mission. 

Our other investigators with a baptism date set are still wanting to get baptized but they keep pushing it back... It's frustrating. But we just have to be patient:) they are all so awesome and I know that they will come around! We don't really have any other investigators but I'd rather have only five investigators, all with a baptism date, than twenty who don't want to be baptized:) 

One of our recent converts, the young man whose wife had a baby in June, received the priesthood yesterday! He was so excited! He's even more excited by the fact that he can baptize his brother in a few weeks! Yesterday was a really good day! We also had a member who invited his neighbor to church and he came and he loved it. The member asked him if we could come over and he said yes! I have a really good feeling about this guy. He is married and has two little kids and he loves Jesus Christ. I'm excited to teach him this week! We also had four other investigators at church! That's a record since I've been here! Things are really starting to pick up here. Heavenly Father is so good. 

The other sisters in our ward had a baptism yesterday too! It was so special! This girl is mildly mentally disabled and VERY scared of water. She wanted to be baptized but just without the water part. She has been stressing and worrying about it all week. So when she got in the font yesterday, she panicked and tried to climb back out. Without a thought, both of the other sisters jumped right in the water with her, church clothes and shoes and everything, just so that they could be there to support her. That was a huge example to me. I want to be the kind of person that would jump in the water, without a thought, when i see someone in need. Their clothes were so wet that they had to wear the ugly baptism jumpsuits for the rest of the baptism and home. They are so incredible! 

So transfers are this week! With no surprise I'm staying here another transfer. But it hit me yesterday that this could very well be my last transfer here in the Tampa 4th ward... That thought breaks my heart. I wish I could just spend my whole mission here! I love the members here, and this area so much! This is my home away from home! I have been so blessed to serve in this ward, and I've decided that I owe it to this ward to really put all that I have into this transfer. And if I'm blessed to stay one more then that will just be a very joyful surprise! Can you believe I only have a year left? This time next year, I'll be home. It's so crazy how much time flies! This transfer, hard as it was, was like the blink of an eye! 

I've learned a lot of good lessons this week:) and I've made a lot of changes in my attitude and my effort. And as I've done so I've felt an increase the spirit. It's crazy what a difference the spirit makes! You just feel so much happier when you are working with the spirit, no matter what the results are of your work, you just feel good! 

One thing that I learned this week comes from Matthew 4 when Christ invites the fisherman to follow him. It a says that they straightway left their nets and followed him. I thought a lot about nets. Nets aren't necessarily bad things! Some of my nets would be my education, or my job, my friends and family. Those aren't bad things. But they are things that I need to leave behind for now to follow christ and to do what I need to be doing. And that's been my biggest fault on my mission. Is how much I dwell on those good things that I've left behind. And by doing so, I'm not giving my whole heart to this work. That's what I've decided to change :) I'm going to give this mission all that I've got, because if I don't, I'm wasting my time and the lords. 

My biggest fear is that I will go home unchanged, or even only partway changed. I want to do all I can to go home a new girl. A girl who follows christ without a question. A girl who focuses on the treasures in heaven rather than worldly pleasures. I want to be someone that y'all don't even recognize! And I want to stay changed. I can't believe it's taken me six months to finally understand this. But I get it now:) and it makes so much sense! 

When I meet my Savior and look into His eyes, I want to be confident that I did all I could for Him. And that thought makes me fearless! I think of all the things that I'm afraid of that keep me from sharing this gospel: what if they reject it? What if they get mad? What if I don't know what to say? But it hit me this week- my god is a god of miracles, my god is a god who keeps his promises to those who are faithful. He has promised that his angels will be with me, that the spirit will give me utterance, and that I will not be confounded before men. What do I have to fear? 

I love you all with all of my heart! 

Love always, Sister Rowland 

Zone Conference

Kaitlin's Zone

Hey Family!
How is everybody? I just want to thank you all for your love and
prayers! They have been felt and they are appreciated:) I am doing so
much better, and I am so much happier! I just needed a little attitude
adjustment. I love being here and serving. I know that this is where I
need to be, and I know that my Heavenly Father is helping me through
everyday!
I have exciting news: we have been given more miles on our car so...
No more biking! You have no idea how grateful I am for this. I don't
know how much more my body could take:) not to mention it is so hot!
So yeah, Sister Coleman and I are pretty excited about that. Another
fun thing that we are excited about is the Member Missionary Menu.
It's basically just a list of things that the members can do to help
us out! And they are fun and easy things that aren't scary. So we are
going to start working with the members a lot more and hopefully it
will help them to get more excited!
We had zone conference last week, I seriously love zone conferences.
They get me so pumped to just get out there and baptize nations! I
came away from that meeting with a list of like 30 action items that I
am going to start doing or change so that I can be better. The focus
of the zone conference was change. That is why we are her as
missionaries, for us to change and to help others to change. It's a
great thing to be a part of!
We had quite a few miracles this week. First off, so we have this
investigator. We were planning to teach her the law of chastity this
past weekend but we were really worried because she lives with her
boyfriend, and we weren't sure how she was going to react. So we
prayed our guts out all week for her to accept the law of chastity.
And when we went to teach her on Saturday she told us that the night
before they had broken up and she had kicked him out! How great is
that?! Maybe I shouldn't be so excited about someone's breakup but I
can't help it! It was such a miracle! Then she was able to come to
church yesterday with her two kids and they all loved it. I can't
describe the joy that I felt just sitting there in sacrament meeting
with them! It felt so great! She is working towards baptism and I
could be happier for her.
Also there is a family that just moved into our ward and they are the
greatest member missionaries ever!!
So some sad news, one of my new members, the fifteen year old, moved
to Georgia and isn't coming back. It's kind of heartbreaking that we
won't be there to help him and teach him but hopefully they will take
good care of him. We also had a brand new member move here from Texas!
So we get to teach her instead I guess:)
I can't think of anything else this week... But it was a good week!
Nothing really changed, but I just feel better:) I love you all! And I
hope you have an amazing week!
Love always, Sister Rowland

Sister Coleman & Sister Rowland

Car inspections :) 

A little bonus

Sister Rowland and Sister Coleman 

The "lake" 

 Hey mommy, The lake was so fun!!! except it wasnt really a lake... more like a swamp:) but hey that's florida!! I don't have time to send the pictures today but i will for sure send them next week! guess what!! so this morning during studies, we went out and studied on the dock and we saw three dolphins, and i was dangling my feet near the water and a manatee came up and almost touched my toes!! he would have if i hadnt moved! Then on the lake walk we saw three alligators!! its been an exciting day:) love you!! tell the family i say hi!

"Can you spot the alligator?" 

(Obviously she found a few minutes to send pictures :)  ) 

Hey mommy :)
Things were up and down this week! The week was off to a pretty rough
start, after I talked to president Cusick I just felt embarrassed and
dumb as well as the depressed feelings I already felt:/ And I haven't
been sleeping very well, so on top of everything else I have been
exhausted. Then about Friday-ish things began to pick up and get a
little bit better.Thursday we went on exchanges with he STLs. One of
them is going home this transfer and she is an awesome missionary. It
was really good to be able to talk to her and she told me that she had
very similar experiences as mine at the beginning of her mission. She
remembers countless times of just wanting to go home, but now that
she's going home in three weeks she doesn't want it to end. She
promised me I'd get to that point too:) that made me feel better! Then
on Friday we went over to see one of our investigators that was
supposed to be baptized last month but didn't make it to his date. We
ended up just dropping him because he was so depressed and stressed
and just wasn't ready for baptism. But we went to check on him and he
told us about how he is planning on going to college and work on
getting a real job and just started talking about all of these goals
that he has. We mostly just listened. Then at the end he said a prayer
and in the prayer he asked Heavenly Father to help him take these
final steps to be baptized and get the Holy Ghost. After the prayer we
asked him if he was ready to set a date, and he asked if he could be
baptized three weeks from now. we said no. Haha jk obviously we were
ecstatic!

Oh I forgot, on Thursday we also set a baptism date with the cute 80
year old woman I mentioned whose husband recently passed away! Then on
the bike ride home on Friday we stopped and invited this lady to
church, and as she was walking away she turned back and said, "do you
guys to baptisms? I have a friend who wants to get baptized!" What a
miracle! We haven't been able to get back in contact with her but we
are working on it:) Saturday was a good day too! We were able to help
a man move into his new house and he came to church Sunday!

Sunday was rough again though:/ I just woke up feeling sad and then on
top of all that, none of the five investigators that were supposed to
come to church showed up! None. So Sunday night I texted one of the
senior couples serving in our ward, ( they are like our ward
grandparents) and asked if he would give me a blessing. He said he
would love to, and then somehow word made it to the bishop that I was
struggling and had asked for a blessing. So he called me and told me
"I love you, I love you, I love you, and I don't want any of my girls
to feel sad." :) he said that I could come and talk to him or his wife
any time and that all I had to do was call and he would drop
everything.

So Elder Severinson came and gave me a blessing. It was exactly what I
needed! I didn't even tell him that I hadn't slept well for weeks and
he blessed me that I would get a good nights rest and wake up in the
morning refreshed. In the blessing he also assured me that God knew
the desires of my heart, but despite those desires I am right where I
need to be. I needed to hear that so badly. He and his wife then gave
me some wise grandma and grandpa advice, hugged and kissed me and told
me they loved me. I by this point am bawling my eyes out:)

And today they are going to pick us up and take us to a lake! So I
will try and send pictures if I get a chance! If not I will send them
next week :)

But anyways, now I am doing a lot better! I know that I'm where I need
to be, and I know that things aren't going to be easy, but I know that
Heavenly Father is aware of me, and he loves me and will help me.

I love you mommy!! And you can just post this as my weekly update, and
you are welcome to share any background info with anyone that may be
confused as to where all this is coming from. Thanks for the love and
the prayers, I am truly blessed to have such a great family!

Also two requests: could you send me my insanity DVDs and my pink
curling iron? Apparently I'm not coming home early so I better settle
in:) 

Love you!!! Sister Rowland
Sent from my iPad