Beautiful Feet

Hey Family!!

Hope you all are having a super fantastic week:)

This week has been strange but its been so good! It is getting so hot here, every time we walk outside it feels like we are melting! But its an adventure. You just get used to the smell, kind of. I feel bad for everyone that has to talk to us though...

Sister Day and I are having so much fun! And the work here is well... changing. Its not necessarily picking up or getting worse but its kind of taking a new route. We just had three missionaries come home in this ward in the last two weeks and they are so great! There was one day this week when we asked one of them to come to a lesson with us and he did but the people we were supposed to teach didn't show up. So he sat there and started calling as many friends as he could until he found one that was willing to meet with us! That is how missionary work gets done, my friends. I hope to be a returned missionary just like them! They have been working like crazy to find people for us to teach! Two of them served in Salt Lake! One in Salt Lake North and the other in the Salt Lake South.

We have been doing so much tracting this week, we have literally knocked on HUNDREDS of doors. We had a pretty decent sized teaching pool at the beginning of the week, and there were a few days where we had seven lessons scheduled. But EVERY SINGLE ONE cancelled on us last minute. It got a little bit discouraging. Our feet were so sore and we were so hot and tired and the only relief we would have had would be a lesson in some air conditioning, and instead they all cancelled and we were left to walk more and knock more. So after the third day of this same routine we decided that obviously we need to change something about what we are doing. We prayed a lot and got blessings from the bishop and we decided that we need to drop all of our investigators. We went from having 12 to 3. Its hard to drop people, but the simple fact is that they just aren't ready for the gospel yet, they aren't ready to commit. And somewhere in Lakeland there is somebody who would be baptized today if they knew where to find us. And our job is to focus all of our efforts on them.

Tracting is actually really fine. In spite of the heat and the bugs and the fact that most people won't even open their doors, you actually have some pretty neat experiences tracting.

Neat Tracting Experience #1:

We knocked on this guys door and offered to say a prayer with him. He said, I'm a Baptist minister, I will pray for you! And we kind of looked at each other and agreed. And he waved his hand in the air and said, "I bless you in the name of Jesus." We thanked him and he laughed and said, "okay now you can pray, but don't pray for me." He asked us to pray for people in the world who didn't know Christ and for children who were not being raised in good homes. So we did and the spirit was so powerful. After the prayer he told us that he had just been studying his bible and praying and that he had asked God some questions but he couldn't seem to find the answer. He said he was just about to give up for the night when we rang his doorbell. He said that through the words of our prayer he had received his answer.

He wasn't interested in learning more about the church, but we were able to be an instrument in God's hand to answer the prayer of a Baptist Minister. Two twenty year old girls helped him to get the answer that he had been searching high and low for.

Neat Tracting Experience #2:

Yesterday we were knocking doors in this neighborhood with little to no success. We got to this one house and the front door was open. We knocked, and nobody came. We rang the doorbell and nobody came. So we just kind of waited for a minute. Then this cute elderly gentlemen comes to the door and says, "You girls must be from Salt Lake! Come on in." We tried to hide our shock, nobody EVER invites us in. Even when we pray or have a good conversation with someone it is on their front porch. So we go into their living room and his cute wife is sitting in her little chair. They shared with us how the Elders used to come and visit them all the time, and how a long time ago they had been to Salt Lake and taken a tour of Temple Square. They are so cute!

We also have some pretty hilarious tracting experiences.

Hilarious Tracting Experience #1

Sister Day and I were praying with this man on his front porch. Sister Day was saying the prayer, and he interrupted her mid-sentence and said, "That's okay, at least you tried!" And went in and shut the door and left us in shock on his front porch. We laughed about it for hours!

Hilarious Tracting Experience #2

We knocked on a door, a man answered and we offered a prayer. He asked us what church we were from and we proudly said, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," And he says, "Oh, crap! Its the Mormons..." And he informed us that we were a cult and he had no interest in praying with us. He started to shut the door and we turned to walk away, then he poked his head out again and said, "And I bet you both want to marry me at the same time!" Sister Day spoke up and told him that we don't do that. He said, "Yes you do", and slammed the door.

Thank goodness for people who know more about our beliefs than we do ;)

Tracting is hard, but its honestly so fun. You get to meet the coolest, kooky-est, most interesting people.

Miracles happen. We often hear stories from returned missionaries about the miracles that happened to them on their missions. Some pretty huge and crazy! But I've really come to appreciate the small miracles that happen every day, those tender mercies that remind us that God is aware of us, He loves us and He is pleased with the work we are doing.

For example, when we are walking down the street, melting in the heat, and randomly a really cool breeze blows through, or a cloud covers the sun.

Or when we run out of time for dinner and someone offers us food.

Or the fact that our water bottles are never empty.

 When you walk and bike out in the heat and humidity, you go through a lot of water. Without fail, every time this week that our water got low, somehow Heavenly Father fills our water bottles. He doesn't do it in some super-natural way but he does it. Our water will be almost gone and a kind homeless man who sells water to buy his food gives us two water bottles for free. Or the lady at the house we just knocked on notices our almost empty water and takes and fills them with water and ice. Or we turn the corner and there is a gas station where we can go fill up. 

Our water bottles are never empty because Heavenly Father loves us.

Alma 31:37-38

And after that they did separate themselves one from another, taking no thought for themselves what they should eat, or what they should drink, or what they should put on. And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst...

I know that when we put the Lord and His Kingdom first in our lives, He will ALWAYS provide for us.

In my entire life, I have never been so tired, my feet have never been so sore and blistered, I've never seen so much disappointment,

and I've never been so happy as I am right now.

I know that this gospel is true. Every little bit of it. I can never deny it. And I can never stop working to help others to know for themselves that it is true. I am so grateful for my Savior who was probably even more tired than I am, whose feet were even more sore, who faced so much more disappointment and rejection, who did it all so that we could experience more joy than we could ever imagine.

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace"... No matter how sore, worn or blistered.

And how beautiful upon the mountains are those nail-pierced feet of the Prince of Peace who showed us all the way to eternal peace.

Have an incredible week! I love you all!

Love always, Sister Rowland