Hey mommy!
I hope you guys are having a blast at the cabin! I would kill for some
40 to 60 degree weather. It's been in the high nineties all week and
we have been outside walking all week... :) 

Lunch with Jen was.... An adventure. You were spot on about her
intentions. My whole mission I've gone without being bible bashed but
she's a basher. Everything we taught she would be like  where's that
in the bible.? And we'd try to read her scriptures from the Book of
Mormon and she would get mad and say just the bible please. I ended up
crying and praying in the bathroom. It was just a bad experience. So
we decided no more of that. We did go back the next day for dinner
with her family but we agreed no religious discussion. Her family is
adorable though! I wish she weren't so stuck in her ways. I can see
how greatly the gospel will bless her family but she won't even give
it a chance. 

Other than that our week was pretty good! We are probably moving
apartments soon though! President wants us to focus our efforts within
a five mile radius of the church and our entire area is outside of
that radius. So it's going to be a rough adjustment. There's going to
be two sets of missionaries trying to find and teach in the other
sisters area. They've never had as much success as we have here in
ours so that's going to be really hard. But we are trusting that this
is from god and that he will provide a way!

Still no baptisms but plenty of people that are SO close! So hopefully
coming up in the next few weeks there will be. Also our recent
converts have been facing some opposition. One hasn't been to church
in two months... If you could keep them in your prayers that would be
great!

Things are really going good here:) I'm happy even though there are
some hard things going on!  We've started a couple fun things here. One is a Book of
Mormon study class that we hold every Friday night for members, new
members, less active members, and non members. We switch off teaching
with the other sisters. It's so much fun!! I've really gained a love
for teaching. we also have started a monthly missionary fireside. It's
held the last Sunday of each month in a members home, and again
everyone is invited for food and a spiritual thing of some sort. Last
night we watched the Joseph smith movie. We had a pretty good turnout
but we are hoping for more next time!
I really gained a testimony this week of fasting and fasting
completely- like full 24 hour, with a purpose fasting. I've honestly
never really done that in my life... I'll either not go the full time,
or I won't really have a purpose. But when you do it right, it's
powerful! Fast Sunday is this week so maybe everyone should try and do
a full fast! And you could do it as a family. Have all the kids
involved in any way they can be, and choose as a family something to
fast for. Kneel and pray together before and after the fast. Also,
there's an awesome talk that you can read that talks about the
importance and blessings of fasting! I'll send it in a minute.
I'm having to type this all up on my iPad because of the holiday so
I'm not going to send another update:)
But I love you all and I hope everyone is having fun and not freezing
to death at the cabin! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Rowland

(For those interested, the talk is "The Blessings of a Proper Fast" by Carl B. Pratt )