Holy Moly!

                                            

Holy Moly!

I'm going to warn you now that this might be a novel... so make sure you have a good chunk of time to sit down and read all this, but I promise it will be worth it! This week has been absolutely incredible.

Okay, so I will start at the very beginning, I hear that's a pretty good place to start.

The moving crew 

On Monday after emails and shopping and all that, we moved apartments. We had some wonderful members from the ward come and help us. I don't know what we would have done if it was just us. Honestly it was pretty stressful packing, moving, and unpacking all in 4 hours! But we did get most of it done. I am so grateful for those members who were willing to come and help!

Tuesday was district meeting, its always so motivating and uplifting. I may be a little biased but I think that we have the best district in the mission! We are able to push each other and help each other. So I remember that Tuesday was a really good day. Sister Loveridge and I left feeling like we could take on the world! And we got right to work! Honestly I can't remember what exactly happened that day but I remember going to bed feeling so good.

The next few days were pretty average but still good:)

Curbside lunch 

But lets skip to the weekend. SO MUCH HAPPENED! Friday was a rough day, we had no appointments set, and everyone we stopped by to see had some reason why we couldn't meet. We walked literally all day long and hardly talked to anyone. And when there were people, we didn't really say much to them either. It was just an off day and we had little to no motivation, plus we were exhausted! it was a pretty terrible day. We went to bed that night just knowing that tomorrow was a new day, and boy was it!

Saturday was glorious! We woke up energized, had a great workout, some yummy cereal. Our studies were uplifting and we learned so much! I prayed so hard that morning that Heavenly Father would help me to be fearless that day. I feel like I have grown in so many ways on my mission, but I still fear man too much. So that was my goal on Saturday: FEAR NO MAN.

So off we went! We had one set lesson Saturday and she was first thing in the morning. So we biked over to her house and had a pretty good lesson, she thought that what we shared was interesting, but she really wasn't willing to act on it and told us she would be in touch. (That's code for I'm not really interested but I don't want to hurt your feelings) But that didn't get us down! The next thing on our schedule was to go talk to people at a park near our house.

As we were biking down one street, we rode past a house and we could see a man working on his boat. He had a super long driveway and that always scares me. Its awkward. So I was going to just pretend that I didn't notice him, because Sister Loveridge hadn't seen him so I could have totally gotten away with it. But then a voice came into my head and said: fear no man. So turned around and went back to talk with him. He was very nice, but not interested at first. We pulled out a pamphlet and tried to start teaching him, and he said, wait let me go get my girlfriend, she will like to hear this. So he went and got her and we taught them the first lesson and committed them to coming to church!

After we finished that lesson, we biked to the park. We had set a goal that morning to talk to every single person in the park. When we were planning we didn't realize just what a task that was going to be.... the park was packed! Every single pavilion had a party going on. There were honestly probably hundreds of people there. We were very unprepared. We only had like 3 Book of Mormons, 6 pamphlets, and a handful of Mormon.org cards. BUT we had a ton of leftover Because  He Lives pass along cards. So we put our fear aside and started talking to everyone and asking if we could show them a video, if they said no we left them with a card and went to the next person.

As we made our way along the walkway we saw this cute young mom sitting on a bench holding a teeny tiny baby! We asked how old her baby was and she said 12 days! (i'm telling you, this baby was so precious!) We asked if we could show the video and she said sure! So we sat down on the bench beside her and showed her the video and just started talking to her about her family. We just kept testifying over and over about how the gospel blesses families. She was so open to having us come over and teach her. Sadly, she doesn't live in our area, but we have already sent her information over to the missionaries in her area!

The Lunch Bandit 

After that we decided to go find a table to sit down at and eat our lunch. (We were running low on groceries by the end of the week so it consisted of a tomato and hummus sandwich and pistachios :)) Most of the tables were taken but we finally found a bench to sit down and eat and talk to people as they walked by. After a satisfying meal, and an almost raccoon attack (those things were brave! At one point they were right under our bench and we didn't even notice it!) we were back on our way to talk to more people.

We had one woman approach us and ask if we were Mormon. She was a Jehovah witness and she just wanted to compliment us on the work we were doing and how good it was to see young people doing it even though we are a different faith than her.

Sadly, we didn't have enough time to talk to every person in the park, but we did talk to a lot. And meeting that cute mom made it totally worth it. Our next stop was another park up by the church. This one was not as packed, but there was a group at the pavilion having a party so we approached them. We were not well received though... turns out they were a church group having a church sponsored picnic. And not just any church, but it was the Jehovah Witness church. OOPS! We had a good laugh about that..

Later that evening we decided to stop by the family that I told you about that lives right next to the church. The one with twin girls! We went over and they welcomed us right in. We explained our purpose as missionaries, taught the first lesson, and gave them a Book of Mormon. They had so many questions! But they were so open. But that's not the best part.

I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about this next part... So remember how we prayed for a family of seven, but this was just a family of six? Well listen to this, as we were teaching them I noticed a cute plaque on their wall with all of their kids names, but to my surprise there were five! The spirit punched me in the face right then and confirmed to my heart that this was a family of seven, six on earth and one in heaven. And that little angel boy is going to be instrumental in making this family an eternal family.

Sunday, the miracles continued. One of the less-active families that we have been working with and fallen in love with finally came to church! They went to the stake center by mistake... but they came to church. We talked to the dad afterward and he said that it felt so good to be back.

Gelati 

We also had another less-active woman come up to us in church and ask us if we could teach her the lessons so that she could be more active in the church again. After she asked, her eleven year old daughter piped up and said, "And I want to get baptized!". There were three other part member families at church yesterday that expressed to us the desire to be baptized. Such a miracle!

I know that this truly is God's work. He is at the helm, and He knows what He is doing. We just need to trust Him and do whatever it is He asks.

Sister Loveridge and I have really been focusing on that. When we pray we keep a journal of all of the promptings we receive and at the end of the day we account to each other and Heavenly Father for how well we followed through on those promptings.

One thing I learned this week is that the result of every prompting isn't always obvious or apparent. I think sometimes I get it in my head that every prompting I receive is leading us to a prepared person. But that isn't always the case. Sometimes our Heavenly Father just needs a little errand run, and knows that we will be willing to run it.

I realized this yesterday as we were tracting. We prayed and felt absolutely sure that we needed to knock on this particular street. We thought it was because there was a prepared family there. But after we had spent two hours knocking every door with no apparent success, we were confused. Everyone had rejected us, some kindly, some not so kindly. Everyone. But then the spirit brought to our remembrance the woman who wouldn't let us in because she was busy taking care of her sick husband who had just come home from the hospital and was waiting to hear if they would be able to do the surgery that would save his life. She was too busy to hear our message but she did allow us to say a quick prayer of comfort with her. As we remembered her we realized, that Heavenly Father needed to let this woman know that He hadn't forgotten her and that He loves her. And we were His messengers to carry that message to her.

I'm grateful that Heavenly Father trusts me enough to send me on His little errands.

I hope that throughout my life I will always act of those little promptings, and not get discouraged if I don't see any result from it. I love the scripture in Mosiah 27:36

"And thus they were instruments in the hands of God..."

I hope that I can always be His instrument, His hands to get His work done here on the earth. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have here on my mission to learn diligence, obedience, and faith in Jesus Christ to see miracles. I know that miracles are very very real. And they happen on a daily basis if we have the faith. I know that Heavenly Father loves us, He loves all His children and He is anxiously engaged, as we should be, in helping them all to come HOME.

Have a wonderful week! I love you!

Love always, Sister Rowland

The Lady Duck 

PS I just wanted to share a quick little story that happened today. We were at the front office of our apartment complex because we were going to use those computers to email but they were all taken so we walked back to get our stuff so we could go to the library to email. As we walked out of the office we heard some noises behind us and looked back to see a little lady duck waddling behind us. She followed us all the way to our apartment, and when we went inside she sat outside our door and cried!! We walked back out and over to the car and she followed us there, sat right behind our back tire and refused to move. She wouldn't let us leave! We finally had to trick her by walking away from the car and having her follow us until we were far enough away and then sprint back to the car before she could get there. It was the craziest thing!!

Her favorite Pink Cookie 

Blinded by the light :)

Feed the Birds :)