I am the Light and the Life of the World

Happy Monday Everyone!!

How is everybody? I hope you all have had a good week! I feel like February just flew by! Its almost March already. I hit my one year mark last week... crazy! Apparently you are supposed to do something cool or fun on your year mark, but I just taught the gospel:) That was fun enough. We have had some pretty neat things this week!

First off, our teaching pool is growing and we are finding more and more people to teach. They are just coming out of nowhere! Heavenly Father is so good. We are also seeing a change in the members. More of them seem willing to share the Gospel and are excited to do! There has been an increase in the spirit in this area as a whole, and its glorious! You just feel good all the time, for no good reason!

On Friday we had a mission-wide training in Tampa. Elder Zwick of the Seventy came and trained us. It was so good! He touched on so many things, but the purpose of the training was to help us be more effective with the ipads. Its been a year since the trial role-out of the ipads and they have taken all of their data and figured out what works and what doesn't. The main purpose of giving missionary ipads, they said, is to train us how to use the technology in our day. It is supposed to help us build good habits and to avoid excessive gaming, or wasting time on social media sites, and pornography. They told us that the technology of today was revealed by God for the purpose of carrying the gospel into all the world. But since it is capable of so much good the adversary is trying to use it against us, as always. I thought it was interesting that that is their main purpose in giving us ipads. But its so good! Everyone needs to learn good habits! We have another zone conference coming up this Thursday with Elder Zwick. Super excited!

The other fun thing this week, also on Friday, was our Youth Missionary Movie Night. We showed the movie Saratov Approach and the youth all invited their friends. It was so much fun! Afterward we did a Q and A with the missionaries and everyone was able to ask us anything they wanted. The spirit was so strong! We have some pretty incredible youth in this ward. I love them all so much!

This week, we have our Open House. We are pretty excited for that. Hopefully it will have a good turnout! I'll have to let you know next week!

This week I have been thinking a lot about our Savior. On Sunday we had a member who is going through a really hard time. We were sitting in the chapel with her before the meeting started and she was telling us everything that she is going through and how she is feeling. I just wanted to help her but I had no idea what would help. I said a little prayer in my heart, and then my eyes focused just behind this members head on the young men up front putting the white table cloth over the sacrament and tears came to my eyes. I knew right then that the thing this sweet woman needed most, the only thing that would really help her, was the healing power of the sacrament. I testified to her of our Saviors love, and how the sacrament can heal any hurt, and invited her to allow the Savior to lift her burden as she partook of the bread and water today.

I don't know if what I said helped her at all, or made any sort of a difference for her. But when I took the sacrament yesterday, I felt Christ's love. And I felt the love of our Heavenly Father. It was overwhelming. Then I looked around and saw all of the members and even some non-members that I have come to love so much. I watched them take the sacrament and renew those covenants to remember Christ always and keep His commandments. I thought about the gift that we were all promised, that we would always have His Spirit to be with us. It brought so much joy to my heart.

I hope that I can better keep that promise to always remember Christ. And I hope that I can live each day worthy of the Holy Ghost as my companion, so he can purify me, so I can be all that my Father in Heaven needs me to be.

I know that God loves us, and has a perfect plan for us. I know that we can pray to Him anytime and all the time, and He hears and answers. I know that Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and through Him we can have second and third and fourth chances. I know that He truly is our perfect example and that striving to live like Him helps us to have incredible love for others. I know that obeying the commandments brings peace. I know that the Book of Mormon, when read and applied daily, builds disciples and makes our hearts happy. I know that there truly is no greater gift than the gift of eternal life, and I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by ancient and modern-day prophets and apostles is the only way to get us there.

I love you all more than words can describe, and I hope that, if you don't already, you will come to know these things too.

Love always, Sister Rowland :)

Youth Movie Night

"Hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage"

Hey Family!

To be honest, I don't really remember too many details of this past week... I remember it was good though!

Hopefully everyone had a good Valentine's Day! Our ward mission leader took us out to ice cream. It was really fun. They like to take us out to eat because we have this magical way of clearing out a restaurant. Must be the spirit :) you may think I'm exaggerating, but sadly I'm not. A week ago they took us to get frozen yogurt, and within five minutes the packed place was empty! Dairy Queen on Valentines Day, same story. Its pretty funny. So lesson learned: if you want to go out to eat and have the place to yourself, bring the missionaries.

We also got to go to a baseball game with one of our members. She works for the sporting section of the newspaper so she gets to go to all the sporting events in town (not like there are THAT many, but there is a college here so.) She was out on the field taking pictures and what-not and we were in the bleachers. It was so much fun! There was a man sitting behind us that sounded like Ramone from Happy Feet. His commentary on the game was HILARIOUS. He was very unimpressed and he didn't bother to hide it. Good times.

What else did we do?... We preached the gospel! Oddly enough. :) Oh we have this awesome investigator! He is crazy!! In a good way. We taught him the restoration and gave him a book of Mormon and a church tour. He is really studying and working to understand our religion. He says that I sparkle and that Sister Schaumkel is a pistol. :) Sadly, he only lives in our area for three days out of the week. The other four he lives like seventy miles away in Seffner. So we will probably have to give him up to Seffner Ward because that's where he lives on Sundays and that's where his family lives all the time.

That's pretty much the most exciting things that happened this week, but it was a good week!

Yesterday in relief society the lesson was on living joyfully in troubled times. There was a quote in there that really stood out to me! Joseph Smith said this to George A. Smith when George was really sick:

"He (the prophet) told me I should never get discouraged, whatever difficulties might surround me. If I were sunk into the lowest pit of Nova Scotia and all the Rocky Mountains piled on top of me, I ought not to be discouraged, but hand on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I should come out on the top of the heap."

And I was thinking about the quote and I was like, "if I were in the lowest pit of Nova Scotia with the Rocky Mountains piled on top of me, that would be kind of a problem, and quite possibly a little bit painful."

Just a little! And if you think about it, there probably aren't too many problems that we face that are any worse than that. And the prophet basically told him, to just not worry and keep going and get over it. Cowboy up!

And its true, it doesn't matter what stresses, worries, discouragements, pain, heartaches that you have, its temporary and temporal. Life is eternal, and eternal things are the only things that we really need to worry about. And if we are trusting God and following Christ, then the eternal things are taken care of. If we keep that in mind then we will always be happy. Its not easy to always remember that, but we need to make the effort to.

So don't worry, be happy!

Love you all, have a great week!

Love always, Sister Rowland

O Ye That Embark

Hey Guys!

Hope everyone is doing well! Things have been beautiful here in Florida, and I'm happy as a clam! Where did that saying come from anyways? I've never seen a clam smile. Maybe I'm getting the saying wrong.. very possible.

This past week has been great! It has been a little slower than the week before and we have definitely had some sad times, but its been really good too. We have a few investigators that are almost progressing... They are like right on the edge. They just need to take that last step and they will be right on track. The trick is figuring out what is going to help them to take that step. We have learned a lot lately about what a person needs in order to be "prepared". And basically they need to be searching in one way or another. They need to want to know. And the problem we run into a lot is that people don't really care one way or another. They are willing to hear us out, but it doesn't make any difference to them if the gospel is true or not. Its sad. My ward mission leader said that President Kimball once said something about how the South should just be burned and we should do baptisms for the dead... one of you should check that out for me and see if Brother Leicht is just full of it:) But sometimes that feels like the better option ;p

So we had the opportunity yesterday to speak in sacrament meeting... together... as in both of us up at the pulpit together, teaching. It was kind of weird. But we taught the Plan of Salvation so it was nothing new! It was weird but it seemed to go well. One of the recent converts in the ward received a calling and was sustained in sacrament meeting so he brought his older brother. We cornered his brother after sacrament meeting and asked if we could teach him! He said yes, and asked that we talk to his daughter too. He said that ever since he was young he has been looking for the right church. He said he has been to a lot, and they have been good, but nothing has felt right yet. (See, searching! Searching=prepared!) We are so excited for that. His daughter is coming to a youth activity that we have coming up and she is bringing a friend!!

Speaking of activities, the booth at the fair didn't work out:( We applied pretty late and they were already full. But we all feel like it was part of the plan. And now they have a whole year to plan and prepare and make it just right. Plus we already have two big activities this month and one more is just too much. On the 26th we are having an open house. We will be offering tours of the church, and there will be an auxiliary leader in each of the rooms to briefly explain their program. The young women will be doing a sewing project, and the scouts will be doing whatever scouts do. Probably burning stuff. And then the missionaries will be in the cultural hall afterward to answer any questions. We have been handing out invites like crazy so hopefully this will be a really good event! We are combining with the branch here too so that should be fun! The other activity we are doing is a youth movie night. We will be showing the Saratov Approach, and we have had all the youth invite tons of their friends and they are doing so good! A lot of other missionaries have been showing this movie and its had a lot of success. After the movie we are going to have a panel where the youth and their friends can ask the missionaries anything they want about us, or missionary life, or the gospel or whatever. We are pretty excited about it!

Last night Sister Schaumkel and I were also asked to speak at New Beginnings about how personal progress influenced our lives and our decision to serve a mission. It was just what I needed! There is a special place in my heart for the young womens program and just being there at new beginnings helped me remember a lot.

In my talk, I shared the quote at the back of the Personal Progress book that says, "Give me a young woman who loves home and family, who reads and ponders the scriptures daily, who has a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon. Give me a young woman who faithfully attends her church meetings, who is a seminary graduate, who has earned her Young Womanhood Recognition Award and wears it with pride! Give me a young woman who is virtuous and who has maintained her personal purity, who will not settle for less than a temple marriage, and I will give you a young woman who will perform miracles for the Lord now and throughout eternity." -President Ezra Taft Benson.

This is a quote that has been meaningful to me for a very long time. I want to be a woman that will perform miracles for the Lord now and in the eternities. I want to be worthy and ready so that the Lord can call upon me at any time for anything. That quote gave me a vision of who I wanted to become, and when I had that vision I was on the right track, and the adversary had no power over me. It kept me good. It kept me doing the right things. It got me to the temple on a weekly basis. It got me to all of my young womens activities. It got me to church every sunday. It got me reading my scriptures daily. It helped me know that I needed to serve a mission. Because all of those things help you to become someone.

Sometimes we lost that vision of who we want to become, and that's when we falter. It takes effort, and the tender mercies of our Heavenly Father to remember.

The youth theme this year is D+C 4:2 Therefore, o ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.

Do whatever you need to in order to prepare yourself, so that when the Lord calls you can answer with your hand in His. When He needs you, you will be ready and willing to give it all to Him, whatever it is that He asks. Do whatever you must to become a man or woman who will perform miracles for the Lord now and throughout eternity!

It was a good reminder for me about why I am here, where I'm going, and who I want to become.

I love you all!

Love always, Sister Rowland

Have Ye Forgotten?

Hey People!

How is everything going? Hope y'all had a great week! We definitely did here. We saw so many miracles this week!

Last week, in district meeting, we had a training on goal setting and being exactly obedient. By taking those two trainings and applying them, miracles came showering down! In weekly planning we had set some pretty high goals for the next week (which would have been last week). Halfway through, we got news from some of our investigators that they were no longer interested in investigating the church. So out the window went all of our goals... in minutes after setting them! We discussed whether or not we should re-set our goals. But we decided not to. We felt good when we set the goals, so we knew that Heavenly Father would provide a way to meet those goals.

So then came the training in district meeting, and our district leader had us commit to him, in writing, that we would be exactly obedient this week. So we tried our very best! We even made sure that we drove EXACTLY the speed limit. So about those miracles...

First of all, we reached and or exceeded almost every single one of our weekly goals! We taught three times as many lessons as we had been and found ten new investigators! Ten! And we have already set up a ton of appointments for this week to teach new people. And we had a former investigator reach out to their member friend and tell her that she wants to learn again! ITS CRAZY! Heavenly Father ALWAYS keeps His promises. We are so excited for this week!

So we got transfer emails! Both of us are staying. We are pretty excited, especially since things are picking up so much.

So in my Book of Mormon study this morning I was reading the letter that Moroni wrote to Pahoran in Alma 60, and I learned some pretty interesting things.

So background: The Nephites are at war against the Lamanites. They are working hard to take back the lands that the lost, and keep the ones they had re-gained. The Stripling warriors are doing good, they are full of faith and God is preserving them. But Moroni wants them to have a little more back up, just in case. So he asks the government to send in some reinforcements.

BUT the government fails to do anything about it. And the Lamanites start gaining the advantage of the Nephites.

Now, the Nephites were promised that if they obeyed God they would be preserved. So, if the Lamanites are winning, someone is not keeping their end of the bargain.

So Moroni, being the fearless leader that he is, confronts the government through a letter.

I love this, because he is the perfect example of knowing which way he faced. He definitely did not fear man more than God.

So he writes them and accuses them of being the reason that the Lamanites are gaining advantage. He says in verse 5

"But behold, great has been the slaughter among our people; yea, thousands have fallen by the sword, while it might have otherwise been if ye had rendered unto our armies sufficient strength and succor for them. Yea, great has been your neglect towards us."

He uses the word "neglect" more than seven times in this chapter. Other key words he uses are "idleness", "sit still", "slothfulness" etc. Now, did the government to anything wrong? Were they doing back things? No...

Then what was their "wickedness"? What was their sin?

Neglect, idleness, sitting still, slothfulness...

Who knew that not doing anything was just as bad as doing bad things?

Verse 19 "Or is it that ye have neglected us because ye are in the heart of our country and ye are surrounded by security?"

I don't know about you guys, but it's pretty easy to remember God when things are not going my way. But when things are going good and I feel SECURE, sometimes I tend to forget Him a little bit. Sometimes He starts to creep down my priority list a little bit.

This Gospel is a Gospel of action. When we are baptized we promise to SERVE, OBEY, WORK. Salvation isn't free, my friends. Sometimes we thing that the gospel is faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We forget the essential ENDURING TO THE END.

If we stop working, stop pushing, stop DOING THINGS, our faith will go away. Like a muscle, if not exercised, it will become weak. Being lazy and idle when it comes to living the Gospel is just as bad as living a rebellious, sinful life.

I can't remember if it is Hank Smith or John Bytheway but one of them said in one of their talks something about how the scripture says, "GO and DO. Not SIT and STEW".

Something to think about...

Well I love you all! And I hope you guys have a wonderful week:)

Love always, Sister Rowland