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
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