Pictures from Thanksgiving Day!!

Kaitlin's District  on Thanksgiving Day 

Pictures from Thanksgiving dinner!

Coming Forth as Gold

Family!! Hello:)

This week has been incredible with a capital INCREDIBLE! Holy bananas. To be honest this week started out pretty rough. My companion and I weren't getting along. I was stressed beyond all belief. Our stupid Ipads are stupid! This was the first week my whole mission that I wished we could just go back to paper. We weekly planned for THREE HOURS. We had our entire week next week scheduled out. We had the lesson plans made. We had set all of our weekly goals. AND IT ERASED EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING! ugh. It makes me angry just thinking about it.

But for those of you who have never served a mission, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.... Missions are hard. Really hard. There are nights when I crawl into bed at 930 and just cry. My prayers on those nights usually go a little like this, "Heavenly Father today was really hard. I don't really feel like talking about it. Goodnight." There are other days, when patience is running so low that I just have to lock myself in the closet and pray for charity and patience with others. There are days when nothing goes right and discouragement abounds and the only thing that will make it better is a big bowl of ice cream at the end of the night. Members are stubborn. Investigators are frustrating. And being with someone 24/7 tries your patience like nothing else. And a lot of the time, no one wants to listen to you.

But after one of those hard days that included all of the items mentioned above, in my studies Heavenly Father led me to this gem,

"But He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as GOLD."

Job 23:10

And I realized, all that is happening is my loving Heavenly Father is making me into gold. Then I thought of a scripture that I found months ago and fell in love with:

Joshua 14:12 Therefore give me this mountain...

This statement of faith and trust spoken by an 85 year old Caleb to his faithful buddy Joshua has a pretty intense back story. This story begins forty years previous when the children of Israel were in search of the promised land. Ten scouts were sent out ahead of the rest of the group to check out this land that could quite possible be the promised land. They returned with an incredible report. The land was gorgeous, and full of fruit and animals and anything and everything that the children of Israel could need. One problem though... there are people living there already. And they are giants! Joshua and Caleb had faith and said, so what? "they are bread for us!" because they knew that God would provide a way. But the other eight said, no way, jose. And the children of Israel chose to listen to the faithless eight. As a result they were all cursed to wander for 40 years in the wilderness... Fast forward to this conversation with Caleb and Joshua. Like I said, Caleb is now 85 years old and God has commanded them to go and take the land from the giants.

And he says: I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now... Therefore give me this mountain... If it so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.

He's right, If the Lord is with us, we can do anything.

So I took that to heart this week. And the miracles came pouring down...

We taught 21 lessons this week! For the past eight weeks, we have taught maybe ten on a good week.

We found 11 new investigators. Four of those eleven are now progressing! And one has a baptism date for December 14th.

The biggest miracle of all this week was K.

We were on our way to see one of our investigators and somehow ended up being 45 minutes early... we must have been booking it on our bikes! So we locked up our bikes and started walking around the neighborhood. We talked to a drunk man, four guys who were quite possibly in the middle of something illegal... and a man who was convinced we were Jehovahs Witnesses despite our efforts to convince him otherwise. It was just about time to head over to our lesson when we saw a man and woman sitting in their garage smoking and chatting with each other. We went up and started talking to them. She was a talker! The whole time she was talking, I was saying a little prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me know what to say, but nothing was coming to me! I was like, come on, don't leave me hanging here... Still nothing. I finally came to the conclusion that maybe we just weren't supposed to talk to these people at this time, but something in me wouldn't let me leave. Time to be at our other lesson came, and we were just about to leave with this lady's 19 year old daughter walks out of the house and joins the conversation. Her mom mentioned how this girl likes checking out different churches and is trying to find which one is right for her. I jumped all over that and asked if she wanted to come to church with us tomorrow! Her mother, who previously hadn't let us get a word in edgewise, asked us what church it was. We told her and she said she has some problems with the Latter-day Saints... my heart sank:( But to our surprise she turned to her daughter and said, but I will support you if you want to go check it out. What?! YAY!

So Sunday rolls around and we walk out of our intense ward council that had gone twenty minutes past time to finish, and there's K sitting on the couch with one of our ward missionaries. Come to find out this wonderful ward missionary had already taken K on a tour of the church, told her about our meetings and showed her where to go! Through sacrament meeting she was very quiet, and you couldn't tell by the look on her face if she was enjoying it or if she thought we were crazy. We take her to Sunday School, drop her off and proceed to seek referrals from members out in the halls. After Sunday School, which by the way, the lesson was on the Law of Chasity... AHHHH!!! We go to check on K to make sure she hadn't high-tailed it the heck out of there. She was still there just smiling away. When she saw us she was like, "Oh hey, I have a question for you guys!" Oh no... "How do I become a member of this church?" ... Say what? I must be dreaming. Someone pinch me. But I kept my cool, and explained baptism and how as missionaries we help people prepare to be baptized and asked her if she wanted to be baptized. She said she did and that she had never felt this way before in her life, not to mention the fact that she had never stayed awake through church before. But she just felt full of light and hungry for more knowledge.

So after church her parents come to pick her up and she asks us to come out to the car with her to tell her parents that she wants to be baptized... my heart was racing. So she went out and said, "Can Sister Rowland and Sister Johnson come over later today?" her mom asked why. And this courageous little soul said, "I have never felt this way in my whole life, and I want to become a part of this church. They are going to help me to be baptized." The spirit must have been working over time on her mother because she agreed and said we could come over at 430.

430 rolls around and as we pull up to K's house, there she is in her garage just smiling from ear to ear and literally glowing! We taught the Restoration, and her mom actually stayed out and listened! And we committed her to be baptized on December 14. When we asked her if she had any questions she said only one. And she asked us what she needed to do to be ready for her baptism. Before we left, she explained how she had been praying to find a church, and she knows that us showing up at her house was an answer to that prayer. She said she was so happy that we were in her life and that we were showing her the way to Jesus.

Along with her, we also had three other investigators at church. They all had a great time! Despite the lesson on the Law of Chastity, they all agreed to meet with us this week and come to church next week!

I know that Heavenly Father and Christ are right next to me in this work, and knowing that, I can say with faith and trust "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as GOLD. Therefore give me this mountain!" And I know that you can learn that for yourselves as well.

I love you all, Happy Thanksgiving!

Love always, Sister Rowland

Pictures from the last week

 So update on the leg... its not shin splints! Its actually a stress fracture... its been injured for almost five months now and i keep reinjuring it... oops! But I'm on a strict no running or jumping diet, and they have me wearing an ankle brace at all times. The good news is, its almost completely healed so as long as i really do rest it, it should be back to normal in no time. The doctor said its probably from running in shoes that aren't supportive enough for my feet. Plus the increased physical activity that missionary work demands:) So yeah, at least we know what the problem is and can take care of it!










You can't see it super well in these pictures, but there you go! 

 but there you go! 

This week I received an email from a Sister in the ward that Kaitlin is serving in and she sent me some pictures :) 

 They participated in a local preschool's beach clean up.

Sister Rowland and Sister Johnson delivered Halloween cupcakes to this family!

They went to a soccer game to support these cute little boys!

 I am so grateful for members in Florida who take the time to love and care for Kaitlin while she is serving there.  And even more grateful when they take the time to send me pictures, texts, and emails to let me know how she is doing!

The Worth of a Soul

Hey Family:)

 

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the freezing cold. I would brag and say the sun is shining here, but thats not true. Its actually pretty stormy today:)

 

This week was miraculous!

 

In district meeting on Wednesday our District Leader did a training that I felt like was just for me. In fact, I was in tears almost the whole time. He trained on diligence. He trained about how diligence is continuing to do the things that you know you should, even amid trial, and even when the fruits of your labors aren't so obvious. I've been feeling a little unsuccessful. Our teaching pool is still small. We will find someone who seems super prepared, but their door never opens to us again, and we don't know why. But his training was very motivating. He share the Mormon Message, Good Things to Come. I felt absolutely pumped!

 

So Thursday morning, 10 oclock, we get on our bikes and get to work! Sister Johnson and I have figured out a routine for street contacting. She is very bold and she is not afraid to go up to anyone and everyone. Me on the other hand, I tend to pass people by. BUT she doesnt feel like she knows what to say after she makes the initial contact, and I LOVE teaching and testifying. Teaching is my biggest strength. So we finally figured out how to work this to our advantage and it worked so well! We boldly contacted TONS of people and got 4 peoples contact information in the span of 30 minutes. Then we went to teach a referral from a cute member family. He told us he wasn't interested. But we boldy told him why he should be interested and taught him the restoration. By the end he had committed to pray about it to know if its true!! We taught a total of 4 lessons that day! Which was the same amount that we taught total the week before... We also were able to visit with a member family, who in the past, wouldnt dream of giving the missionaries referrals. BUT we prayed with them and they thought of the idea of inviting their neighbors over to dinner. AND THEY ACTUALLY FOLLOWED THROUGH AND INVITED THEM THE NEXT DAY!

 

Speaking of that dinner, it went awesome! Turns out their neighbor that they invited is atheist. But he was very very curious about our lifestyle as missionaries. This member family has a son who just got home from his mission two weeks ago, so he and sister johnson and i talked to him about missionary work. What we do, and why we do it. He said he was in awe at what we do. He loves it and feels like everyone in the world should have an experience like ours. He also told us that we can come and teach him more about the church!! It was glorious!!

 

So I've told you guys about our Sunday Game Day program where we visit with members during second and third hour and church and seek referrals, right? Well this sunday was pretty much discouraging. Member after member came up with any and every excuse they could. "All my friends are members!", "I dont know anyone!" "I dont want to push my beliefs on anyone!", "I've already invited all my friends and they say no!" "None of them would accept it." and blah blah blah. If any of you have ever said this to a missionary, I invite you to repent! And apologize to that poor missionary. I've repented too. Ive said these to missionaries many a time! But never again! So basically we went home yesterday absolutely frustrated.

 

When we got back to the apartment, I went into my closet and prayed. I asked Heavenly Father why its so hard for people to do missionary work. So i prayed and asked, and Heavenly Father clearly answered that the reason why its so difficult for people to share the Gospel is because none of us fully comprehends the worth of a soul... Just chew on that for a minute. None of us fully comprehends the worth of a soul. If we did our attitude toward missionary work, home and visiting teaching, our callings, serving others would be completely different. If you fully comprehended the worth of a soul, you wouldn't groan when the speaker gets up in sacrament and says, "Today i'm going to talk about missionary work." I know you have all done it! So have I!

 

So what is the worth of a soul?

 

D+C 18:10 The worth of a soul is great in the sight of God.

 

okay...

 

As a matter of fact, the worth of a soul is so great in the sight of God that he sent his Only Begotten Son to suffer and die for EVERYONE, knowing that only SOME would choose to follow the path that would lead them home.

 

Alma and the sons of Mosiah understood the worth of a soul:

 

Mosiah 28:3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to EVERY CREATURE. For they could not bear that any human soul should perish. Yea, even the very thought... did cause them to quake and tremble.

 

Alma 31:34-35 O lord, wilt thou grant unto us success in bringing them again unto thee.. Behold o lord, their souls are precious.

 

So if we truly understood the worth of a soul, how would we do missionary work?

 

This spirit taught me this through an analogy.

 

Picture this: So you are in an ER at the hospital. A man is being rushed in. He was in an accident and is in critical condition. They don't know if he is going to make it. The doctors and nurses are rushing around frantically trying to save this mans life. They are doing everything in their power, using every resource they have, every bit of energy, all of their time, to save this stranger. They don't know him at all. Yet they are urgently doing everything they can to save his life.

 

There are people all around us whose souls are in critical condition. Should we not frantically do everything in our power? Should we not use every resource that we know how? Should we not put all of our energy and time into saving their souls? 

 

The worth of souls is great.

 

So who are we supposed to share the Gospel with? The scriptures teach that we are to share the Gospel with "all nations", "all the world", "every creature", "all people". Keep that in mind next time a missionary comes up to you and asks, "Who do you know...?" I definitely will. Better yet, keep that in mind next time you see a missionary and go up to them and say, "This is who i know."

 

I know that this work is so important. Its much more important than any of us understands. There is no time to casually share the Gospel. There is no time to wait to be asked questions. There is no time to pretend that you don't know anyone. I know that as you all consider the worth of a soul and pray to understand it, your attitude will change. And with your attitude, your actions will change. And as your actions change, many precious souls will be brought unto Christ. And He will heal them.

 

I love you all so much!! Your souls are precious to me:)

 

Love, Sister Rowland

Pics:) to make you happy! .. And jealous

Exchanges and LIFE CHANGES!

Hey Family:)

I hope everything is going great! Is it snowing yet? Not here:) Its been sunny and warm! We did have a few chilly days, but it warmed right back up! I'm still loving it here!

As far as miracles go, there have been plenty:) There have been some struggles too.

Miracles first though! So Sister Johnson and I have been figuring out that we really really need to rely on God more because His understanding exceeds ours. He knows better and that's the simple truth. He also knows where the people are that are prepared to here this message. He also knows exactly what we need to say to them to touch their hearts. He also knows exactly what their needs are. And we have been spending far too much time trying to figure out those things for ourselves. So on Thursday everything had fallen through... like usual (story of my mission!) And we found ourselves with two hours until our next appointment. We don't spend time with non-progressing people so no former investigator visits, no visits with less actives that have no interest in coming back to church, and no visits with members who are not interested in helping with missionary work. So whats left? Finding. Two hours worth of finding? UGH. So we did something that we don't normally do. We prayed, and we prayed with the faith that God was going to direct us to someone who is prepared to accept this gospel. So we prayed and we sat and listened to the spirit. Then in my mind came the image of a bus stop in front of a home depot. I knew exactly where that was, so we quickly went there! There was no one in sight.... I was thinking to myself, "Come on Heavenly Father that was too clear to not be a prompting!" Then the time 3:30 came to my mind. It was about 3:26. So we got out of the car and started walking toward the bench and we saw a guy walking up the street!! RIGHT TOWARD US! We waited and by the time he got to the bench it was exactly 3:30. We got his contact information and set a return appointment!

Awesome, so lets try that again. Pray. Ponder. BAM another image pops into my head. And I said, "Okay heavenly Father, we will be there at 3:37!" And right at 3:37 a FAMILY runs across the street and ends up right in front of us. They didn't live in our area, but they were interested in going to church near them!

Okay what about this time? Pray. Ponder. Sister Johnson says. "Burger King!" Okay, we will be there in ten minutes. About nine minutes in we were still stuck and a stoplight and it wasn't our turn for awhile. We were going to miss it!! But I had forgotten that God is able to all things and anything. So all of the sudden the fire truck in front of us gets an emergency call and turns our light green! We were right on time and met a really neat guy.

We did that again two more times, both with the same results. It was incredible!

Now for the hard things... Our super awesome investigator that bore his testimony in sacrament meeting and knows that the church is true, was kicked out of his house and had to move in with a friend in Ocala:(

But anyways! Transfers were this week, obviously nothing happened with me. But there is one less set of missionaries in our ward. Sister Chadwick was transferred and now we have sister Takaki here with us! She is adorable, she's from Brazil! But since we lost a set of elders we have inherited a few of their investigators so hopefully all will go well with that!

We also had stake conference this week! It was ALL ABOUT MISSIONARY WORK!! It was great:) There was a recently returned sister missionary that spoke and her talk was incredible. She spoke of the blessings that have come to her family as they have worked together to share the gospel with others. The whole time I was thinking, "I want to be just like her!" Afterward she pulled me aside to talk to me and she said some things that I really needed to hear.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you about Bobby! So, the morning of all of our praying and pondering we were also doing some finding and we met some awesome guys. Then we were heading back to the church to eat our lunch and right as we came around the corner this guy on a skateboard almost takes us out! We, of course, take the opportunity to invite him to church because that's what missionaries do:) Then he tells us that he is already LDS. He had tattoos all over and piercings! His appearance definitely did not give off the impression of a member of the church:) But the light in his eyes did. We asked him if he had been to church recently and he said not in the last ten years or so. Then he told us how he just came out here from Vegas to stay with his dad. A month ago he was on life-support and almost died, but he knew God saved his life for a reason. So we found him! Got his number! And he came to stake conference!

 It was such and ordeal to get him there! He was willing to just walk the three miles from his house to the church, but then it started raining. So he texted us and said he wasn't going to make it. And we said no way is rain going to keep you from church, we will find you a ride! So we went down to the clubhouse in our apartment complex to use the Wi-Fi and map his address so we could see which members lived near him. The map app didn't work.... so we did it the old fashioned way and just looked on a map and found it. So we called the members that lived near him. NO ONE ANSWERED! There was one more family we could try but we couldn't find their number anywhere... So we went back up to the apartment to ask the other sisters if they had it, just to find that they had already left and, not knowing that we were going to be right back, locked the door with our keys and shoes still inside... What else could go wrong?! So we called the other sisters and they had to drive back and let us in, we finally found the number of this family and caught them right as they were heading out the door and they said they would pick him up! And he came, and he loved it. It was insane!

The other exciting thing that happened this week is we had exchanges. It was a very unique exchange. These Sisters were supposed to go home this transfer, so like last week. But they opted to extend so that they can train all the sisters in the mission on planning. So they don't even have a permanent home! Every night they are in another area with another set of sisters. They trained us on obedience, planning, and relying on God. And their training really was life changing. We, and all the other sisters that have had the opportunity to do this exchange, have seen miracles happen!

Well I think that was about all the excitement for this week:) I love you all so much!

Love, Sister Rowland

How great the WISDOM and the LOVE!

Hey Family!

I just want to let you know that God knows best, and He loves us.

This week was CRAZY hard and CRAZY amazing!

You know how when you plan to go to the temple and EVERYTHING goes wrong? Well that happens a lot in the mission field! Whenever something really good is about to happen, the adversary goes in full force against it! He works overtime on missionaries, and its rough sometimes. This week was one of those times. Satan knows that I have my wonderful fathers temper:) (love you daddy!) And he knows that if he wants to get me, that's the way to go! It just seemed like anything and everything that my companion did this week just got under my skin and I just got so mad at her! For no good reason. And this lasted ALL WEEK LONG. It wasn't until last night that Heavenly Father smacked me over the head and reminded me of a talk from the priesthood session of conference, "Lord, Is it I?". (ITs an awesome talk! If you don't remember it or haven't heard it, go read it!) And so I prayed and basically said, "Heavenly Father, I really want to be mad right now! BUT I know that I'm in the wrong. Please help me to cowgirl up and get over it, because I can't get over it without your help." And I went to bed, still feeling angry and miserable. But when I woke up this morning, I was happy as a clam. And I loved my companion SOO much! I know that God is helping me!

So why was the adversary working so hard?

Well, first because of David. I think I mentioned David before... he's the guy that we met on the street that randomly showed up to church a few weeks ago! After he came to church, he went out of town for a week and a half and we were unable to get in contact with him. But Friday, we were finally able to teach him a lesson! He is incredible, and incredibly prepared! God saved his life from suicide and helped him overcome all of his addictions and he has been doing Gods will ever since! He has a ton of faith, and he told us that he is sincerely looking to find what God wants him to do. So the lesson went well and we committed him to baptism. THEN he came to church on Sunday. He shared with me how he had prayed to know if this is true and he got a very powerful answer, but the answer didn't come from God. But he knew then that this must be good if the adversary would take time out of his busy schedule to try and convince him otherwise. Then the meeting started. There were two people that were confirmed in sacrament meeting that day and he said that both times it was like he could feel a light coming down. I smiled and said, "This is the truth, and Gods power is here." And he agreed. He leaned over to me a few moments later and said, "Thanks for finding me." I broke down and bawled right there!!! You guys, I have been praying and praying. I knew that there were people here that I promised in the Premortal World that I would find. And I have been praying and praying to find them! What a powerful answer to my prayers. Towards the end of the meeting he asked if he could go up and bear his testimony. Now if any of you have served missions, you know how nerve-wracking that can be! Who knows what they are going to say! But I told him he could. And he got up there and bore powerful testimony that this must be true. After church we met with him and did a brief Book of Mormon intro and committed him to baptism on November 23.

The next reason is Greg. Greg is someone that we met out in front of his house. We went up and introduced ourselves and he was like oh I know who you are! You talked to my boss yesterday and he gave me your card! And he pulled out of his pocket our Mormon.org card! So we started talking to him and his friend about Christ and what they believe. His friend is atheist but he was very kind. Just a little lost. But Greg has a ton of faith in Christ. He has been attending the church around the corner for 10 years. But he readily accepted our invitation to take the lessons and be baptized. He has a light in his eyes that I recognized right away. Sometimes when we are street contacting if people already go to church or seem solid in their faith I tend to get scared and back off a little and give them a card and take the easy way out. But something in his eyes said, "Don't give up on me! I need this, I want this, even if I don't know it yet." So I was persistent. We taught him the first lesson the next day and he said that he knew that it was all true. He couldn't explain it but he could feel that it was all true.

The third reason is the Seminole Ward. Somethin's a-stirrin here! The members are beginning to get really excited about missionary work. There is one family that gave the elders FIVE FULL FAMILY REFERRALS that they had carefully prayed about. One man gave us the names of six of his good friends that he would like to share the Gospel with. Another lady, who is pretty severely handicapped, gave us the business card of one of the ladies that helps care for her and asked us to call her. She said she really wanted to help out with missionary work. It was incredible! We taught the lesson in YW about how to find solutions to the challenges they face. Once we came up with some of the tools that we as members have to overcome challenges we asked them to think of someone they know that doesn't have these tools. The look in their eyes told me that it clicked, the reason for missionary work clicked in their minds. We are going to follow up with them this week!

Miracles are happening in Gods time. And sometimes He takes a little longer than we would like, but He knows best. He loves us, He loves all His children and He will do what's best for us. I know that's true! 

I love you all so much! Hope you have a fantastic week:)

Love always, Sister Rowland