Zone Conference

Kaitlin's Zone

Hey Family!
How is everybody? I just want to thank you all for your love and
prayers! They have been felt and they are appreciated:) I am doing so
much better, and I am so much happier! I just needed a little attitude
adjustment. I love being here and serving. I know that this is where I
need to be, and I know that my Heavenly Father is helping me through
everyday!
I have exciting news: we have been given more miles on our car so...
No more biking! You have no idea how grateful I am for this. I don't
know how much more my body could take:) not to mention it is so hot!
So yeah, Sister Coleman and I are pretty excited about that. Another
fun thing that we are excited about is the Member Missionary Menu.
It's basically just a list of things that the members can do to help
us out! And they are fun and easy things that aren't scary. So we are
going to start working with the members a lot more and hopefully it
will help them to get more excited!
We had zone conference last week, I seriously love zone conferences.
They get me so pumped to just get out there and baptize nations! I
came away from that meeting with a list of like 30 action items that I
am going to start doing or change so that I can be better. The focus
of the zone conference was change. That is why we are her as
missionaries, for us to change and to help others to change. It's a
great thing to be a part of!
We had quite a few miracles this week. First off, so we have this
investigator. We were planning to teach her the law of chastity this
past weekend but we were really worried because she lives with her
boyfriend, and we weren't sure how she was going to react. So we
prayed our guts out all week for her to accept the law of chastity.
And when we went to teach her on Saturday she told us that the night
before they had broken up and she had kicked him out! How great is
that?! Maybe I shouldn't be so excited about someone's breakup but I
can't help it! It was such a miracle! Then she was able to come to
church yesterday with her two kids and they all loved it. I can't
describe the joy that I felt just sitting there in sacrament meeting
with them! It felt so great! She is working towards baptism and I
could be happier for her.
Also there is a family that just moved into our ward and they are the
greatest member missionaries ever!!
So some sad news, one of my new members, the fifteen year old, moved
to Georgia and isn't coming back. It's kind of heartbreaking that we
won't be there to help him and teach him but hopefully they will take
good care of him. We also had a brand new member move here from Texas!
So we get to teach her instead I guess:)
I can't think of anything else this week... But it was a good week!
Nothing really changed, but I just feel better:) I love you all! And I
hope you have an amazing week!
Love always, Sister Rowland

Sister Coleman & Sister Rowland

Car inspections :) 

A little bonus

Sister Rowland and Sister Coleman 

The "lake" 

 Hey mommy, The lake was so fun!!! except it wasnt really a lake... more like a swamp:) but hey that's florida!! I don't have time to send the pictures today but i will for sure send them next week! guess what!! so this morning during studies, we went out and studied on the dock and we saw three dolphins, and i was dangling my feet near the water and a manatee came up and almost touched my toes!! he would have if i hadnt moved! Then on the lake walk we saw three alligators!! its been an exciting day:) love you!! tell the family i say hi!

"Can you spot the alligator?" 

(Obviously she found a few minutes to send pictures :)  ) 

Hey mommy :)
Things were up and down this week! The week was off to a pretty rough
start, after I talked to president Cusick I just felt embarrassed and
dumb as well as the depressed feelings I already felt:/ And I haven't
been sleeping very well, so on top of everything else I have been
exhausted. Then about Friday-ish things began to pick up and get a
little bit better.Thursday we went on exchanges with he STLs. One of
them is going home this transfer and she is an awesome missionary. It
was really good to be able to talk to her and she told me that she had
very similar experiences as mine at the beginning of her mission. She
remembers countless times of just wanting to go home, but now that
she's going home in three weeks she doesn't want it to end. She
promised me I'd get to that point too:) that made me feel better! Then
on Friday we went over to see one of our investigators that was
supposed to be baptized last month but didn't make it to his date. We
ended up just dropping him because he was so depressed and stressed
and just wasn't ready for baptism. But we went to check on him and he
told us about how he is planning on going to college and work on
getting a real job and just started talking about all of these goals
that he has. We mostly just listened. Then at the end he said a prayer
and in the prayer he asked Heavenly Father to help him take these
final steps to be baptized and get the Holy Ghost. After the prayer we
asked him if he was ready to set a date, and he asked if he could be
baptized three weeks from now. we said no. Haha jk obviously we were
ecstatic!

Oh I forgot, on Thursday we also set a baptism date with the cute 80
year old woman I mentioned whose husband recently passed away! Then on
the bike ride home on Friday we stopped and invited this lady to
church, and as she was walking away she turned back and said, "do you
guys to baptisms? I have a friend who wants to get baptized!" What a
miracle! We haven't been able to get back in contact with her but we
are working on it:) Saturday was a good day too! We were able to help
a man move into his new house and he came to church Sunday!

Sunday was rough again though:/ I just woke up feeling sad and then on
top of all that, none of the five investigators that were supposed to
come to church showed up! None. So Sunday night I texted one of the
senior couples serving in our ward, ( they are like our ward
grandparents) and asked if he would give me a blessing. He said he
would love to, and then somehow word made it to the bishop that I was
struggling and had asked for a blessing. So he called me and told me
"I love you, I love you, I love you, and I don't want any of my girls
to feel sad." :) he said that I could come and talk to him or his wife
any time and that all I had to do was call and he would drop
everything.

So Elder Severinson came and gave me a blessing. It was exactly what I
needed! I didn't even tell him that I hadn't slept well for weeks and
he blessed me that I would get a good nights rest and wake up in the
morning refreshed. In the blessing he also assured me that God knew
the desires of my heart, but despite those desires I am right where I
need to be. I needed to hear that so badly. He and his wife then gave
me some wise grandma and grandpa advice, hugged and kissed me and told
me they loved me. I by this point am bawling my eyes out:)

And today they are going to pick us up and take us to a lake! So I
will try and send pictures if I get a chance! If not I will send them
next week :)

But anyways, now I am doing a lot better! I know that I'm where I need
to be, and I know that things aren't going to be easy, but I know that
Heavenly Father is aware of me, and he loves me and will help me.

I love you mommy!! And you can just post this as my weekly update, and
you are welcome to share any background info with anyone that may be
confused as to where all this is coming from. Thanks for the love and
the prayers, I am truly blessed to have such a great family!

Also two requests: could you send me my insanity DVDs and my pink
curling iron? Apparently I'm not coming home early so I better settle
in:) 

Love you!!! Sister Rowland
Sent from my iPad

A quick, late update :)

So we went to the metro!  That's the downtown thing where you go and talk to a million people :) It was lots of fun!  A lot of walking though... my feet have never hurt so bad in my life!  And we had a run-in with some Jehovah's Witness's....they were actually really nice!! We were able to share our beliefs and find some common ground :)
Our investigator Randolph came to church for the first time and he loved it!  BTW ours and 4 other buildings in the stake are under construction so we had to ALL meet in one building!! It was crazy!
We also set a baptism date with a lady named Danielle.  She has two darling kids!  She is set for August 17th!  Things really are going so well!

Love Y'all!

New companion :)

Hey Family!

 

How is everyone doing? Things down here are going so super duper well! My new companion is awesome! Her name is Sister Coleman and she is from North Carolina but she goes to BYU. She wants to be an elementary school teacher, in high school she was in choir and alot of musicals! but she was always background in the musicals, she's really shy... so yeah shes like my twin:) we seriously have so much in common and we are already best friends! We have decided that we are going to go to college together after our missions and be roommates:) She is shy! which means that I'm not allowed to be, which is probably good for me:) I need to be pushed outside my comfort zone a little bit. We are having so much fun together!

 

Jonathan was confirmed on sunday!! it was such a special blessing that he recieved and it was so cool to see how happy he was. And his dad came!! which is super duper exciting! His mom is still working on getting work off so that she can be baptized, but its a difficult process. We are all putting our faith together and we are expecting some miracles! As far as our other investigators go... we still dont have very many:) but there is a dude, Randolph, who is preparing to be baptized in August. Gio is getting ready to be baptized soon as well!

 

Sister Coleman and I have been doing ALOT of walking and we have honestly been getting pretty discouraged because we arent finding anyone. like at all. Yesterday after church i was just feeling super down and i went into the closet and literally "cried unto the lord". I felt awful because nothing was happening, and i felt like it was my job to make things happen and i just didnt know what to do. i felt the weight of the world on my shoulders, and i couldnt carry it! So i just cried and prayed. After that i went out into the living room and checked the phone and we had a media referral... two minutes later we recieved a phone call from one of the members saying that they had just been over at a part-member families home and the wife (who is not a member) said,"I'm so glad you are here! I want to be mormon!" umm what? So we followed up last night with the media referral and he is so prepared! he has a friend who was just baptized and he wants to know what made his friend change so much after being such a strong catholic. We gave him a book of mormon and he was so excited to read it! IT WAS EPIC! i know that heavenly father never leaves us to carry the world, he will always help us. And he will bless us for doing our best!

 

I'm excited to see what miracles are in store:) I know that everything is okay, and that Heavenly Father is going to help us! Well, this is kind of short but i dont have too much else to say! Our theme song for the past week has been Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked... Poor kids, how did they do it?!

 

Well I love you all oh so very much! And I hope you have an incredible week! :)

 

Love, Sister Rowland

Kaitlin' New Companion

So, this is Kaitlin's new companion.  The only thing I  know is that her name is Sister Coleman.  I'm sure Kait will expand on this on Monday!  

Transfer news..

Hey Family!!

I can't believe its July already! Time just continues to get faster and faster, its crazy! Its been nice and hot here in Florida. Except today! Todays its really rainy, but its the perfect temperature:) The fourth of July was fun... ish. Holidays are always hard because everyone is busy and no one wants to be bothered! We usually count on members to invite us to things but no one did! So we went with the other sisters and handed out glow sticks with mormon.org cards on them to people at the parks and swimming pools:) then, by a glorious tender mercy, one of the families in our ward invited us over for dinner:)

 

Everything went awesome with our baptism yesterday! It was really cool, the guy who was going to baptize him got really sick the morning of so we asked our district leader who is going home tomorrow to do it:) it was so neat! This elder is seriously the greatest missionary in the world and he has been the best district leader. He hasnt had a lot of success in his area though and he was kind of bummed that he was going home without baptizing anybody. But he had the chance to baptize our investigator! Jonathan is seriously awesome. Like I said he did all his research himself, and the lessons were basically a formality because he already knew everything! His mom wants to be baptized, but she works everysunday and its next to impossible to get work off in her industry. We have been talking a lot with her about faith and we are convinced that as she puts forth her faith and works towards baptism that Heavenly Father will provide a way for her to get work off.

 

As far as our other investigators go, we only have one:) these past few weeks have been kind of rough. We have to stop teaching people if they arent keeping commitments, so we had to stop teaching quite a few. But our one other investigator is doing pretty well! Hes the brother of the young couple that got baptized last month. He has some obstacles that he needs to overcome before he can be baptized but its something he wants. He knows hes not happy, and hes seen how happy the gospel has made his brother and his wife. We also found someone that we are going to start teaching! Hes another younger guy, maybe early twenties. But the first time we met with him he told us that he felt like something was missing in his life, and we were able to promise him that we have what hes missing! i'm really excited to work with him.

 

So now the news yall have been waiting for... TRANSFERS! Sister Chadwick is leaving Tampa 4. and I am recieving a new companion straight out of the MTC!!! Yeah, training! how crazy is that? I'm kind of scared to death. But I'm excited beyond all belief too:) and i am counting on the fact that God qualifies those that he calls. I wont meet her until thursday! but i'm excited!

 

In my studies, I have been focusing a lot on faith. I read a scripture the other day that I just cant get out of my head. Its in 3 Nephi 7:18. It says, "And it came to pass that they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they, for it wer not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ..." This is about the missionary nephi. He had so much faith, that no one could not believe him! He taught with such power and authority that they believed everything he said! they didnt like it... but still. I want to be that way! I want so much faith that Heavenly Father has no choice but to send down miracles. Like the brother of jared! He had so much faith that it wasnt possible that the Lord could keep anything from him! how insane is that? How can we have that great of faith? Just a little food for thought:)

 

I love you all so much! and I hope you have a fantastic week!

 

Love always, Sister Rowland