Zone Conference

Hey Family!!

 

This week has been really good! I love this area a lot, especially now that i know where I'm going and I don't get super lost everywhere we go! In my last ward, my bishop gave me a blessing right before I left and blessed me that I would have a good memory and I would be able to learn people and places quickly, and I've definitely seen that! Its nothing short of a miracle how quickly I've been able to learn the area, the members, and our potential investigators. I'm grateful for the gifts of the spirit! This ward is so different from my last one... this one is just so... normal! I don't know how to handle it. I'm starting to see more and more how quirky Tampa 4 is! and I love them for it:) i fit right in there! I've actually found myself feeling homesick for Tampa 4 quite a few times. Seminole looks just like salt lake except take away the mountains and add palm trees:) Its really easy to forget that i'm in Florida! My companion is great! We are really, really, really different. like really different. But I love her and that helps us to get along:)

 

Sister Johnson and Sister Rowland

We don't really have any investigators right now. We had one lady drop us, and another man that we found and had to drop in less than a week. Our other investigators we haven't really been able to see. We have been doing so much finding, but we haven't really found. Its weird because everyone that we talk to ends up really liking us and trusting us, but they have no desire to learn more about the Gospel. We have been more bold, and a little more persistent, but nothing is coming of it. We aren't really sure what to do now... just keep trying I guess!

 

We are working with a really awesome guy! we found him because he lives next door to one of sister Chadwick's former investigators. He is actually a member. He was baptized when he was eight by his grandfather, but he never was really a part of the church. Teaching him is like teaching an investigator. But he is so sincere and he is seriously seeking to do God's will. Its funny because it seems like right after we found him, his life starting falling apart. His girlfriend cheated on him, his daughter was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, then his girlfriend tried to commit suicide. He has lived a really hard life. hes been successful. Hes sold his success for pills and alcohol. Hes pretty much at the bottom. But his heart is so prepared for this gospel, and he needs it so badly.

 

Sister Chadwick, Bishop Hodges(Tampa 4thWard), Sister Rowland &?

We had zone conference last week! We got to watch Meet the Mormons! By the way, I don't know where or for how long that is playing in the theaters near you, but i definitely recommend it! And I recommend inviting a non-member friend to it. A lady in the ward said that she has been trying to get her best friend to come to church with her for 16 YEARS and nothing has happened. This last saturday she took her to meet the mormons, and on sunday she came to church. That film is powerful! We were also trained in zone conference about not fearing what man can do, and about being bold. President Cusick told us that he'd rather us be too bold with members, and offend someone than not be bold enough. He said that if the ward hates us and runs us out, he has no problem moving us somewhere else and he would be proud to do it. He also said that if we are thrown in prison for being too bold, he will bail us out:) So thats something I'm really working on. Boldness has never been in my vocabulary, let alone my nature. But i'm trying really hard not to fear man!

 

I forgot to ask last week, but what were your favorite conference talks and why?

 

Sister Rowland, Sister Chadwick, Tampa 4th Ward Mission Leaders, and ?

Yesterday Sister Chadwick and I went on exchanges for a few hours and left our trainees to fend for themselves so that we could attend the funeral of a member in Tampa 4. Remember the gay guy that baptized one of our investigators? He passed away unexpectedly last week. I really love him, everyone does. It was so crazy and unexpected. He was supposed to go to the temple this month to receive his endowments.

 

It was a sad occasion, but it was also really nice to see all of my Tampa 4th ward family!

 

Well I've got to go finish preparing for the week so I can baptize nations! (By the way, Sister Johnson and I have a goal of 9 baptisms by Christmas) 

 

I love you all like crazy!! and i hope you have a fantastic week:)

 

Love always, Sister Rowland :)

Transfers!

Sister Johnson and Sister Rowland 

Hey Mommy!!

Soooo.... I'm in Seminole!! Its about thirty minutes from Tampa, so they didn't send me too far:) My companion is Sister Johnson. She is from Grantsville, UT and shes my age. She has actually already been out for six weeks so I'm finishing her training. Which is a unique challenge in and of itself just because she has already been trained a certain way for six weeks... so its a lot of figuring out the way she has been taught to do things and trying to match my training to that. I'm her third trainer, which I'm sure has got to be quite a challenge for her! I'm not sure what happened with the first one, but the second one was already training someone else and was just too overwhelmed trying to train two people! She is an awesome missionary though! She has a powerful testimony and she is fearless. She is also beyond obedient, which was irritating at first, but its good:) I need someone who keeps me on my toes with obedience!

We are re-opening an area in the Seminole ward. So we are basically starting from scratch. We are doing a lot of finding! We bike a  lot just because neither of us know the area so we don't want to waste our miles getting lost, we just exhaust ourselves instead! The first few days were a lot of getting lost... Our ward is HUGE!! there are eight missionaries in this ward. A set of english elders, a set of spanish elders, and two sets of sisters. The English elders are actually missionaries who served the first part of their mission in Sierra Leone but had to be pulled out because of that sickness! Our ward mission leader is awesome! And because of conference I haven't met too many of the members but the ones that I have met are really nice! We live in an apartment with the other sisters. and guess what.... The other sisters here are Sister Chadwick and her trainee, Sister Rhodes (who apparently for the last two months has been called Sister Rowland) !!!!! Isn't that so crazy? she and I about died when they told us that. Its really weird living with an old companion again but I love it. We can reminisce (that's not how you spell it) about old times. Its really fun living with other sisters too!!

Sister Johnson, Sister Rowland, Sister Chadwick, and Sister Rhodes 

We have about three investigators. One is one that the other sisters haven't had much luck with so they passed her off to us. and they other two are neighbors of one of Sister Chadwick and Rhodes investigators. They dad is actually a member. He was baptized when he was eight but hasn't really been to church since. And the wife is Catholic but she is really open to what we have to say. She says she is ready for some changes in her life. They have a six month old baby. They are so awesome! The work here is BOOMING! Its nothing like Tampa! In the last month the sisters here alone had 5 baptisms and I don't even know how many the elders have. I don't really know what the difference is, but I'm glad:)

I hope you all enjoyed conference! I loved it! I had like five or six questions that i wanted answered and all of them were, clear as day!! And there were many other talks that I felt were just for me. It was really great!

I've really learned these past few days how to rely on Heavenly Father. Its really cool, because you can ask him a specific question and he will give you a specific answer. My prayers really have become a conversation between the two of us and I keep my notebook near to write down impressions i receive and answers to my questions. During studies I'm constantly praying about what this person needs, what scriptures we can share, and a strengthened testimony of this or that. And He answers. I feel like I have been trying to missionary work alone all my mission, and how silly is that!! Its so much easier to rely on Him who knows everything! At night when I pray I keep my scriptures nearby and open so that He can answer through the scriptures. Its really cool:) you all should try relying on Him more! He will help you!

Well I hope you all have had a fantastic week! I love you so much!! And I'm glad you had a good birthday, mommy:) LOVE YOU!!

 Love always, Sister Rowland

Kaitlin's New Address:

Sister Kaitlin Rowland 
3306 Columns Cir
Seminole, FL 33772
 

This week was so good! It has been crazy rainy though! Like after two seconds you look like you just jumped in a pool! It doesn't rain like this in Utah:) Just yesterday we had gone to see one of our investigators and he wasn't home so we walked around the corner to stop by one of his neighbors house, but it started sprinkling so we turned around to head back to the car. We were maybe like 20 feet from the car and the sky opened and DUMPED on us. I started running to the car, with water dripping into my eyes making it so I could barely see and I turned around to see Sister Coleman behind me and she was just as soaked as I was. And I just couldn't help but laugh:) It was such a blissful moment, just standing there in the soaking rain. It made me think of Womens Conference:) Which I did get to go to. I love that Malia pointed that out. I thought about the same thing:) it made me happy!

Like I said, this week has been great! We were able to go on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders again and it was so fun! We also took one of the Laurels in our ward out with us all day. She wants to go on a mission in a year and wants to see what it was like. She got to see the not-so-fun part of missionary work, where you walk around all day in the hot sun:) but she had a good attitude about it! I learned a lot from the exchange. And we did find a nice little family to go back and teach the first lesson to! Sister Coleman on the other hand, had a VERY successful exchange! Apparently they were just walking down the street and some guy pulls over and runs up to them with two water bottles, puts it in their hands and then runs back to the car. Once they got over the initial shock they called him back over and asked if he knew about missionaries. He said no, but he just had a very strong feeling that he needed to pull over and give them water. Well they didn't really need water, but this man needed the Living Water! And the Holy Ghost made sure that he didn't miss out on this opportunity. He has a cute little family, and we have a really good feeling about them!

Oh so I met someone at church the other day who knows Rob Rowland!! He knows the Carters mostly alot better but hes met Rob. He's from St George and he's just visiting his kids that live here. His last name is Wood... but I don't know his first name... Brother? ;) It was cool though! Such a small world!

So have I kept you waiting long enough? We got our transfer emails yesterday and... Oh wait I forgot to tell you about this awesome family in our ward! I don't know if I have told you about them yet, but they have a family mission plan STAPLED to their kitchen wall! They are so great! They gave us FIVE referrals the other day! I've barely gotten five member referrals total my whole mission! But they as a family have been praying that prepared people will be placed in their path. And its happening! One of them knocked on their front door:) Heavenly Father wants His children to be found! So when we show our faith and show that we will be willing to share the gospel he will put those people in our path. He can do that for you too!

Okay, that was mean:) We got our transfer emails yesterday and Sister Coleman is staying and i'm.... TRANSFERRED! oh and training... again! Transferred and training. That means brand new area, and brand new missionary. I think President Cusick and Heavenly Father have lost their mind! But I'm so excited! I'm sad to leave this area, and this district, the ward members but its time. I've just kind of run out of ideas here:) you know? I need a fresh area and fresh members to help me from losing my mind. Transfer meeting is on Thursday and that's where I will find out where I'm going and who my new companion is! The suspense is killing me, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little stressed out, but its a good kind of stress!

  I'll let you know next week where I'm at:) Tell everyone i love them!

Love, Sister Rowland

PS i have a challenge for you guys! I want all of you to watch conference with a specific question in mind. Write that question down, and write down the answers and impressions you receive. When we go to any meeting; sacrament or general conference or whatever. The speaker has a big bucket of water of knowledge and wisdom that he pours all over us. We get soaked, but it eventually dries! When we come with a question, we are taking a glass of water to be filled that we can take with us and keep forever. Love you guys!

Hey Mamma!

We are doing so good! We are happy:) The weather is starting to cool down! It was only in the high eighties all week! Its been pretty rainy too. Its put quite a damper on some of our plans, but it keeps it cooler! I'm so excited to hear about Olivia!! At first i was like, poor Olivia! then i was like wait, this is hard core, rugby playing Olivia... she's got this:) But I'm definitely grateful for stateside. Sometimes, I honestly feel like i'm missing out on certain mission experiences because i'm not serving foreign, but i think Heavenly Father knows that I couldnt handle it! He knew that I'm a priss:) and sometimes i feel like im in a foreign country! Florida is so weird.

 

Thats cool about the Ogden temple, its weird to me that everyone is old enough to go except emily! But i did see some pictures on Facebook and it is beautiful! I got the package from Grandma! She sent me a cute bike necklace:) Its funny because sister colemans dad just sent her the same necklace a week ago so now we can match! And she also sent some post-it notes that say "from the sisters". I like them:) Its fun to be a sister! Its weird, i've been out seven months but I still don't feel like a missionary! I don't know what I expected being a missionary to feel like...

 

This week was, well I dont know. We expected some big miracles. And we didn't really see any... We did everything we were supposed to... we dropped non-progressing, we shortened our time at members homes, we prayed to know where we need to find, we frequently sought guidance throughout the day, we set good goals, and made good plans... and nothing happened. We expected to see the miracles that so many others were seeing. We expected to find a family. We expected that God would place prepared people in our path to replace those that we dropped. And it didn't happen. I was really confused about that! Did we fail to do all we could? Were we lacking in faith? Were we not obedient or worthy of those miracles? So I asked Heavenly Father, and He answered. He let me know that He was pleased with our efforts and that our lack of success wasn't because of a fault on our part. He told me that He just needed us to pass through this dry season, this trial of faith. This mission experience is as much for our growth as anything else, and Heavenly Father, the perfect planner, has set goals and made plans for our personal growth. He knows what we need, He has a vision for who we can become, and He knows exactly what needs to take place for that to happen. I trust Him. And I'm happy:)

 

We did see one miracle though! We went to a park to do some finding, and no one was there... except for this one guy with long hair and a beard! We didn't end up going over to talk to him. But while we were sitting there trying to figure out what to do instead, and staring at this guys hair, i thought of an investigator that I taught months ago. The one with lupus! He was so prepared, but he just got sick and dropped off the face of the earth. The reason why long-hair guy reminded me of him was because he had really long hair but cut it after we started teaching him because he wanted to look his best for church! So i said, "Sister Coleman, do you have the phone? we need to call {insert investigators name here}!" So we did! HE ANSWERED! He was so excited to hear from us. He thanked us over and over again for not forgetting about him. He told us that he had gotten so sick that he needed to move into an assissted living home for awhile and that he had just been released to go home THAT MORNING! We set up a time to go over and see him, and right before we hung up he said, "and don't forget, i still need to get baptized!" It was insane guys:) We are going to see him tomorrow!

 

Other than that, nothing too exciting has happened! But it still felt like a good week, and I'm still happy:) Transfer emails come this sunday... I'm scared. this is the first time that I'm not safe! Every other time, I've known that I was going to stay. But sister Coleman finishes training this week, and anything could happen! If I stay, that will mean that I'll be in this area for almost nine months! Thats half my mission! (in case you cant do math :p) BUT there are alot of sisters that only serve in two areas their whole mission. Thats the way President likes to do it, as much as possible. So I could stay, or I could not. ahhhh!!!

 

Well I love you all to pieces! And i hope you have a great week:)

 

Love always, Sister Rowland

Things here have been changing so much! The work really is hastening in so many ways!!

 

First off: we now do our primary finding on facebook! No knocking doors, no walking the streets... facebook! basically we message all of the members and say " Hey we need your help with some missionary work!" They say something along the lines of "sure, what did you have in mind?" We say, "its pretty easy actually, we just need you to prayerfully choose ten of your facebook friends that we could share a message about christ with!" When they realize  how little effort it takes on their part they are all for it! Then we take it from there, we message those ten people, tell them that we go to so and sos church and that our job at the church is to help people to follow christ and be baptized like he was! and ask if we can send them a video or ask them if they have been baptized. we get various responses such as: Sure! or Of course you can! or Do not ever message me again... :) Then if people let us we start teaching them through facebook! we can be teaching like five lessons at a time: totally hastening! Then if they are really interested we set up a time to meet them in person, preferably in the home of the member who referred them:) its awesome! And its been working pretty well:)

 

Second: When we do come in contact with people on the street, like if we are biking or something, we stop and the first words that come out of our mouth is: "Have you ever been baptized?" or "Do you want to be baptized?". And then the conversation goes from there. If we can't commit them to baptism right there on the street, we never meet with them again. We ONLY teach people that want to be baptized. Most missionaries will even set a baptism date right there on the street! the strangest part is... its been successful! I know you are probably thinking that we are nuts! But it works. there really are people out there that will commit to a date right then and there, and they are really commited! They come to church, they keep committments... they are all progressing! Now, we haven't found any of those people here in our area yet, but i trust my leaders! and i know if we are obedient and do things the way they ask that we will see miracles!

 

Third... because of all these changes. We have had to drop all of our investigators because they aren't progressing... :( its like we are dragging them to the baptism font. and the people who are dragged, dont stay. three of the people that i taught and baptized have already starting going less active. The fourth moved to georgia and who knows what hes doing! I don't want to see any more of the people that i baptize fall away... its really too heartbreaking. But if we find those people who are really prepared, who readily accept and keep commitments, and that we dont have to drag, they will stay. So right now we have one investigator. And she wont be one for long because she will be baptized either this week or next! but last week during weekly planning we set some pretty high goals for how many lessons we want to teach and how many investigators we want to have and we have full faith that we will see miracles!

 

Something else thats fun that we as a mission have started doing is Find a Family in Seven Days. Obviously, missionaries goal is to find families to teach! families can support each other, and they can go to the temple together. So basically our leaders have promised us that if we diligently do these few simple steps, we can find a family to teach and baptize! So first, we decide what our family will be like.. is it a family of five? Four? how many kids? about what ages are these kids? Then we tell heavenly father our desire to find this particular family and pray for him to help us find them. Then we fast. Then we make plans. Where are we going to look for this family? What members do we want to ask for referrals? We set exact days and times that we will look for our family. Then we go out and implement the plan! For your information, the family we are looking for is a family of five:) mom, dad, and three kids!

 

We had interviews with president cusick last week! They went really well:) he told me that i was a great missionary, and not to measure my success as a missionary by baptisms. He also told me i was a cute girl:) That day was the day that the assistants did the training about facebook and dropping everybody! They literally took sister coleman and i aside and had us show them our area book and talk about how well everyone is progressing and if they weren't, we dropped them right then!

 

this week really has been awesome! and i'm even more excited for this coming week!:) I love you all so much!

 

love always, Sister Rowland :D

Logan's going to Texas?! Haha that's so crazy:) I'm excited for him!
We have a recent convert who was baptized there and just moved into
our ward! So that's way cool!

Our week has been really good:) we've had some fun and crazy things
happen! We did go and have lunch with Jen again with the promise that
we would leave the religious discussion out and just enjoy each
other's company. It went pretty well, I still don't feel entirely
comfortable going over there so we don't know if we are going to
continue to do it or not. It's my first exciting story though! Most
people are just too nice here, not that I'm complaining. We get people
all the time who aren't interested but they will commend us on the
work that we do and say that they admire us. No one has ever been
particularly rude so it's good :) [By way of explanation, we were able 
to see a video last week of Kaitlin and Sister Coleman playing 
some games with other Sisters and some young girls in the ward]
playing hokey pokey with those girls was so fun! That family is the 
strongest member missionary family in our ward. They have an entire 
wall in their kitchen dedicated to missionary work and their family 
missionary plan. Speaking of that, you guys as a family should read 
the talk from last general conference called following up, and set some 
family goals on how you will invite one person a quarter to meet with the 
missionaries! It's a great talk, and I bear testimony to all that is said in it. 
We as missionaries, need the members help. Very few people are on 
board, but we can be a part of those few! There is nothing that will bring us 
more joy in this life than to share the gospel.

They haven't said if they are going to move apartments yet or not, but
eventually that's what's going to happen. Presidents goal is to make
the sole use of cars to get to meetings. The rest of the time we
should be walking or getting rides from members. So he wants most if
not all of our appointments to be within a five mile radius of the
church. That way we will have a better chance of getting our
investigators to church. So if that happens, they will probably end up
closing down the area that I'm in until they have enough members to
build another building:) in presidents vision, the only reason we
should be traveling out of that five mike radius is to contact
referrals that we receive from members and in that case, the members
should be the ones to drive us. So a lot of big changes!

Today we have zone pday again so watch for pictures! That also means
that I have limited time to email. It's getting to be kind of a pain
to type out emails to everyone and a general update of things so I'm
probably just going to start emailing you guys and y'all can share
what you would like with others. It's just easier!

We've had some fun experiences this week! First of all one of our
investigators, the one that is trying to quit smoking has set a final
goal of being baptize on the 20th. (Another big change that has come
down from the area seventy is that we are no longer allowed to do
baptisms on Sunday. Our bishop was not happy about that, and he
doesn't believe us. He went on a huge spiel about how he holds the
keys for this ward and he can do what he wants... We may have an
apostate ward on our hands;p hopefully he will come around though!) we
also set a baptism date with the mother of those kids that I was
telling you about! So now they are in this together as a family, we
just need to get their dad on board too. We haven't met him at all
yet.

We went on exchanges this week which was really fun! One of our STLs
is actually one of the sisters that used to serve in this ward with me
and I got to go with her. It was lots of fun to see her again! And we
had some funky changes in the middle of the transfer and actually got
new sister in our ward!

We really are doing so good:) we are happy and we are working hard.
It's so fun to just love the people and it makes missionary work so
easy when you love them!

I hope you guys have a great week!  I love you!

Love, Sister Rowland

Hey mommy!
I hope you guys are having a blast at the cabin! I would kill for some
40 to 60 degree weather. It's been in the high nineties all week and
we have been outside walking all week... :) 

Lunch with Jen was.... An adventure. You were spot on about her
intentions. My whole mission I've gone without being bible bashed but
she's a basher. Everything we taught she would be like  where's that
in the bible.? And we'd try to read her scriptures from the Book of
Mormon and she would get mad and say just the bible please. I ended up
crying and praying in the bathroom. It was just a bad experience. So
we decided no more of that. We did go back the next day for dinner
with her family but we agreed no religious discussion. Her family is
adorable though! I wish she weren't so stuck in her ways. I can see
how greatly the gospel will bless her family but she won't even give
it a chance. 

Other than that our week was pretty good! We are probably moving
apartments soon though! President wants us to focus our efforts within
a five mile radius of the church and our entire area is outside of
that radius. So it's going to be a rough adjustment. There's going to
be two sets of missionaries trying to find and teach in the other
sisters area. They've never had as much success as we have here in
ours so that's going to be really hard. But we are trusting that this
is from god and that he will provide a way!

Still no baptisms but plenty of people that are SO close! So hopefully
coming up in the next few weeks there will be. Also our recent
converts have been facing some opposition. One hasn't been to church
in two months... If you could keep them in your prayers that would be
great!

Things are really going good here:) I'm happy even though there are
some hard things going on!  We've started a couple fun things here. One is a Book of
Mormon study class that we hold every Friday night for members, new
members, less active members, and non members. We switch off teaching
with the other sisters. It's so much fun!! I've really gained a love
for teaching. we also have started a monthly missionary fireside. It's
held the last Sunday of each month in a members home, and again
everyone is invited for food and a spiritual thing of some sort. Last
night we watched the Joseph smith movie. We had a pretty good turnout
but we are hoping for more next time!
I really gained a testimony this week of fasting and fasting
completely- like full 24 hour, with a purpose fasting. I've honestly
never really done that in my life... I'll either not go the full time,
or I won't really have a purpose. But when you do it right, it's
powerful! Fast Sunday is this week so maybe everyone should try and do
a full fast! And you could do it as a family. Have all the kids
involved in any way they can be, and choose as a family something to
fast for. Kneel and pray together before and after the fast. Also,
there's an awesome talk that you can read that talks about the
importance and blessings of fasting! I'll send it in a minute.
I'm having to type this all up on my iPad because of the holiday so
I'm not going to send another update:)
But I love you all and I hope everyone is having fun and not freezing
to death at the cabin! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Rowland

(For those interested, the talk is "The Blessings of a Proper Fast" by Carl B. Pratt )