Transfers are Done - June 5, 2017

We just had transfers! Elder Gallegos is gone, and now I'm with Elder Gonzalez. He's pretty great, and actually a lot like Elder Gallegos. It's been great serving with him over the last five days, and I'm looking forward to a great transfer with him.

Because of transfers, this week has been kind of crazy. I have to fill in Elder Gonzalez on all the people we're teaching, all of our potential investigators, which churches to go to on Sunday--Everything. It's all good, it just puts a lot of responsibility on me. I actually have to know what I'm doing! Luckily, I do, so it's been pretty good.

We have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, the tenth of June. Both of them are pretty solid, so we are planning on both coming through! It's going to be really exciting. I will definitely have some pictures of it then.

We met one guy this week who told us, "If you can answer my questions, I will quit smoking and go to church every Sunday." It was interesting... We have another appointment scheduled soon, and we're really hoping to help him out. I kind of think that if we answer his questions, he'll just come up with more to throw at us, though. We have to at least try, though, so that's what we're going to do. And who knows, maybe one day we'll get through to him.

I've been reading a lot in the Scriptures recently, especially the Bible and the Book of Mormon. It amazes me how much I don't know about both of them. I've really enjoyed being able to read them and learn new things. It's also really cool to read the Bible in English and in Spanish because he translations are often different. Usually it's just slight, like the omission of the word "then" or something like that, but occasionally it's pretty different. One example of a difference is the use of the word "Jehovah." The Jews didn't like to use the name "Jehovah" because it was too sacred, so they replaced it with another word, usually "Adonai" meaning "Lord". The King James translators kept with that tradition, so the word "Jehovah" is found only four times in
the Bible. In Spanish, however, the translators didn't really care about using the name, so they used it all the time. Another example is the word Sheol (in the Old Testament) and Hades (in the New Testament). In English they are translated a few different ways, but in Spanish, they kept the words as "Sheol" or "Hades." That's just something I thought was interesting because one of the fundamental
doctrines of the church is that the Bible, although it is the word of God, is not perfectly translated, and these little differences kind of show that to an extent.

I hope you guys all had a great week!

Elder Rowe

Pics:

Elder Gallegos with Lon Prete, one of our Ward Mission Leaders, who is a super awesome guy. This is the last picture I have of Elder Gallegos!

A gun Brother Prete carved that won a competition. This was super cool, and I know that some of you who are reading this would be interested in it.

This is Elder Gonzalez! He's my companion for the next six weeks. He's pretty great!

 That's all the pictures I've got for you this week!

Transfers are Wednesday - May 29, 2017

Transfers are this Wednesday, so we found out this morning who is changing. Elder Gallegos is going to Payson. I'll be staying in Slate Canyon with another Elder named Elder Gonzales. I've never met him before, so we'll see what's going to happen.

There was one guy who was supposed to be interviewed this Friday, but as it turns out, he randomly moved to Orem. We're still going to baptize him in this ward because he wants to attend here, but we had to reschedule the interview.

We have four baptisms scheduled for June! May is almost over, and we did really well this week as a district and as a zone. In fact, we were one of the best zones in the Mission! Now we just have to keep it up next month. With four baptisms already scheduled, I think we'll do well.

Not a whole lot else happened this week. I don't even have pictures! I'm trying to remember to take more pictures, but I just don't think about it! I'll try to do better next week!

Elder Rowe

What's Happening - May 22, 2017

So, this week was a pretty good one. Nothing too exciting. We had a baptism scheduled for Saturday, which has now been moved back until JUNE 24TH! Why they need that much time, I don't know. They've had all the lessons, passed the baptismal interview, come to church, etc. Just wanted to wait. Whatever, though. What's important is he's getting

baptized, I suppose!

We also had a baptism scheduled for next saturday, which ALSO rescheduled, this time for June 10th. We had a ton of baptisms scheduled this month and EVERY ONE of them is now in June... Whatever. Again, what's important is that they get baptized.

We had two really good lessons this week. We taught one Hispanic woman who really doesn't want to get baptized for some reason. She has a really hard time with the doctrine of modern prophets. We talked to her about prophets and how she can come to know if Thomas S. Monson is a prophet for herself. We showed her a video of President Monson talking at General Conference a year or so ago. It was a very

spiritual experience. I don't know if she'll ever get baptized, but I know that we did our part.

Then yeaterday we had a lesson with a guy named JD. He's super cool. We talked about the plan of Salvation and helped him understand the Book of Mormon. Then, he drove us around in this thing! It's super cool!

It's kind of like a motorcycle combined with a car. It was super fast! We had an awesome time with him.

During our weekly planning, we found these bells and played some songs with them:

We played Away in a Manger, Jingle Bells, and Joy to the World! It was super fun.

Anyway, that's about all the really exciting stuff happening in Provo this week. I hope you all are doing well! We are doing great!

Elder Rowe

Mariachi - May 15, 2017

This week was pretty good. We have several new investigators. One of them is the aunt of the kid we baptized last week. She already knows a lot, so we're going to try to help her be baptized pretty quickly. We also have these two kids that really want to be baptized, so we're hoping that their mom is ok with it.

The highlight of this week was definitely the Spanish ward's mother's day party. They had us help serve all the women of the ward food and drinks and stuff. We got to eat some too and everything. But the coolest part was when this mariachi guy showed up and sang some awesome Spanish songs! I only have one picture, but it was super cool! We wanted to get a picture with him, but he left too quickly. It was awesome to see how much the Spanish ward put into their celebration!

The other highlight was being able to talk with my family for Mother's Day. It was great getting to see them again. Not a whole lot else to say about that.

Other than that, not a whole lot happened this week. We have been having some trouble recently finding people to teach, so this week was a good break from that. We now just have to get to teaching them! Hopefully, something good will come out of everything!

I hope you're all doing well!

Elder Rowe

Baptism and other stuff - May 8, 2017

This week was pretty good. On Saturday we had a BAPTISM. In fact, we went to TWO BAPTISMS. One of them was a girl named Myra. She is actually not a convert baptism, but she attended the lessons with someone else we have been teaching and invited us to come to her baptism.

That was a pretty good baptism. It went really well and there was a great spirit

there.

The other one was Gabe Franklin's baptism. He is the one whose answer to

everything is "Choose the right and say your prayers." That was a super cool

baptism, too. The whole family showed up

That was a pretty good baptism. It went really well and there was a great spirit

there.

The other one was Gabe Franklin's baptism. He is the one whose answer to

everything is "Choose the right and say your prayers." That was a super cool

baptism, too. The whole family showed up

That was a pretty good baptism. It went really well and there was a great spirit

there.

The other one was Gabe Franklin's baptism. He is the one whose answer to

everything is "Choose the right and say your prayers." That was a super cool

baptism, too. The whole family showed up

That was a pretty good baptism. It went really well and there was a great spirit there.

The other one was Gabe Franklin's baptism. He is the one whose answer to everything is "Choose the right and say your prayers." That was a super cool baptism, too. The whole family showed up!

Everything went pretty well. The person who was supposed to talk about the baptism wasn't able to come, so Elder Gallegos stepped up and talked about it instead. It was really great to see the culmination of our efforts with their family. These two baptisms were definitely the highlight of the week. Most of the rest of the week was just normal missionary stuff. Nothing super exciting or crazy. Kelly McGuiness, who I talked about an email or two ago, decided to spend a month in California with her mom, so I guess we won't be talking to her for a while. The weather had been pretty nice this week, so we've been able to ride our bikes some around the area.

That's about all for this week. I'll keep you all updated if anything super interesting happens!

Elder Rowe

Another Week in Provo-May 1, 2017

Hello, everyone,

This week wasn't too exciting or anything. We taught some lessons, as usual, and stuff like that, We were supposed to have a couple baptisms on Saturday, but both of them rescheduled for May. Hopefully, we'll have some baptisms soon though. We have one scheduled for this Saturday for a kid named Gabe. His family has been really inactive in
the church for about a year, but as we've taught him, the family has been starting to come back to church! It's been really great to see their progress as a family and the changes they've made in their lives to improve on everything.

We had one of our investigators, Maria, teach us how to make pupusas. Those are a Salvadorian food that are made from some kind of corn dough that you make flat like a pancake. Then, you put the filling (meat, beans, cheese, etc.) and fold it up and flatten it again. Then you fry it. They're pretty easy to make and very delicious! We might try to make some sometime.

There's Maria making one. Not a great picture, but you get the idea.

This week as we were driving through Springville, we saw this:

Also not a great picture, but you can see two people riding horses in the middle of Springville! It was surprising to see them just randomly, but cool nonetheless.

On Saturday, we helped a Brazilian family move. It was pretty cool because they all spoke Portuguese. Elder Gallegos speaks some pretty good Portuguese because he served in the Portuguese area for a while, but I only know a very small amount. I knew enough to say about two things: "Sou de Missouri" and "Não fallo Português." The first one is "I'm from Missouri" and the second is "I don't speak Portuguese." It was enjoyable to see what I did understand, though. Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, so I picked up a fair amount of it.

Anyway, that's about all that happened this week. We had a lot of cancelled lessons and time just knocking doors, but next week, I'll have some more baptism pictures! That will be exciting and I'll be able to talk some about that. I hope you're all doing great! I am!

¡Que todos ustedes estén bien!

Elder Rowe

Week 13

April 24, 2017

Hello, everyone!

I think I mentioned this last week, but transfers were this week, meaning we had a chance of changing companion or area. Elder Gallegos and I are staying together, but the rest of our district is pretty different now. We're going to be in the area another six weeks at least. One of us will probably get transferred then, but we'll see what happens.

Last Monday, we went to this farm place in Springville. It was super cool! They had some pretty normal stuff, like pigs, goats, and chickens, but they also had a skunk (without its spraying glands), alpacas, llamas, and a kangaroo! I have some pictures from there today. The kangaroo was super soft, way softer than I would have thought. It was a really cool place, and we may go back some time.

Me with a huge rabbit.

Me with the skunk.

Me with the kangaroo.

We had two baptisms scheduled for the end of this week, but now they've both been rescheduled for May. That's OK, though. It's better to move the baptism and have them be ready for it then have them baptized now and not be.

We've been trying to get in contact with a guy named Marcelo, who the sisters had been teaching before we got here, for a while now, and we finally had a lesson with him on Sunday. He's from Venezuela, and he really wants to be baptized. He just wanted to wait for his mom to
arrive from Venezuela before he did it. During the lesson, we asked him a couple questions about things, and he didn't know the answer so he just started making things up. It was super funny. For example, tithing is where we pay 10% of the money we earn to the church, to help with building churches, temples, maintenance, and whatever expenses the church has. We asked Marcelo what it was, and he said
"Tithing... is a healing. It's something we do that helps us do the right thing and be healed." And he just went on and on about it! We helped him understand some of the things he didn't know, but it was funny because instead of just saying "I don't know", he tried to make up a whole bunch of stuff to hid the fact that he didn't know. He's getting baptized in May.

We also taught a woman named Kelly McGuiness. Her son, Morgan, was baptized pretty recently, and he's been encouraging her to learn about the church. She's really nice, and she went to church with us on Sunday. We actually couldn't find her during the whole first hour of church! We thought she was lost or something! We saw her driving away
afterwards, so we stopped her and talked about what happened. Apparently, she just went in while we weren't looking and we missed each other! She had a good time though, and she's really doing well with the lessons.

Overall, it's been a pretty good week. We've been able to teach a lot of people and help them improve their lives. It's been great to see how we can help people out.

Next week, I'll have some pictures of us with some of the people we're teaching. We might be going with Marcelo to meet his mom, if the mission president says it's OK, which he may or may not. If so, I'll have pictures with that, too!

Anyway, I've had a great week, and I hope you all have, too!

Elder Rowe

What's Happening in Provo- Week 12

Hello, everyone!

I don't have a lot of time this week, so this update might be a bit brief.

I went on my first companion exchange this week. That's where the District leader and his companion each go with another missionary in the district to find out how we can improve and be more effective. I was with the district leader's companion, Elder Colón. He's from Puerto Rico, and he was super fun to be with. I went to his area, so it was cool to see more of the area. His area is Spanish only, so we used a lot of Spanish, which was good practice for me!

This Wednesday is the day of transfers, where some missionaries change companions or areas. Elder Gallegos and I are staying together another transfer (6 weeks), but a lot of missionaries in our district and zone are changing around. It will be cool to see some new missionaries and
get to know more people.

We've been teaching a family who has been very less active in the church since about a year ago. They have an unbaptized son who we're teaching to help him along the way. It has been really cool to see the
changes they've made in their lives because of the Gospel. The oldest daughter is getting ready to go to the temple for the first time soon, and the dad is on his way to getting ready to go back as well. They've been a super great family to teach. Gabe is only nine, so sometimes it's a bit difficult to teach him, but it's always enjoyable. For example, take this exchange from yesterday:
Us: "Gabe, what is repentance?"
G: "Choosing the right and saying your prayers."
Us: "That's pretty close. It's when we say we're sorry and ask
forgiveness from Heavenly Father."
Us: "So what's repentance again?"
G: "Choosing the right and saying your prayers."
Later--Us: "Gabe, what's the word of wisdom?"
G: "Choosing the right and saying your prayers and repenting."
Us: *facepalm*
It's always fun teaching kids.

We have two more baptisms scheduled not for this Saturday, but the next one. Both of them are super ready, and we are really grateful for the opportunity to teach them. I've really seen a lot of great things happen in the lives of the people we are teaching. I'm really loving being out here!

I'm out of time for today, but I hope you're all doing well! I know I'm doing great!

Elder Rowe

Week 11 in Provo

Hey, everybody!

We had another baptism this Tuesday! She's a nine-year-old girl named Arabella. She's INSANE, so it was kind of hard to teach her sometimes, but it was all worth it in the end when we were able to see her BAPTIZED.

Here she is with her family right before the baptism.

This one has us in it!

I actually had to give a short talk about baptism at the baptismal service, so that was fun.

This Sunday, we taught a mission preparation class for youth who are planning to go on a mission. It was pretty neat. We got to teach about how to prepare lessons based on people's needs. That's really important to us as missionaries because nobody is going to listen to our message if they think we're just trying to get numbers for the church. They really have to know why the Gospel can help them first, and then they'll be willing to talk to us more. We really try to focus on how we can help people, and that's what we talked about in the class. Then afterward, we were sent home with an entire pizza and half of a chocolate cake! Talk about good luck!

It actually snowed Saturday night, so when we woke up on Sunday, it was all white outside!

It was unexpected, but it was pretty! I guess Utah thinks it's still winter!

We hiked the Y last P-day. If you don't know what that is, it's a giant letter Y painted on the mountain by BYU. It was super cool!
I'm down here somewhere. The one taking the picture is Elder Gallegos. Elder Youngblood, from the MTC, is down there somewhere, too.

Anyway, that's really most of what happened this week. We taught some other lessons, talked to more people, but if I write everything that happened, nobody would be able to read it all! I hope you're all doing well. I know I am! ¡Que tengan buenas vidas!

Elder Rowe

Week 10 in Provo

Hello, everyone!

This week was pretty good because of General Conference. For those of you who don't know, that's when the President, apostles, and other church leaders give talks to the whole church. We watched it at some members' houses for different parts of the Conference. It was really great to hear President Monson speak.

No baptisms this week, but we have one this Tuesday, and three others are scheduled for this month! I'm very excited, especially after seeing last week's baptism with Anthony.

Not a whole lot of cool stuff this week, but Conference was awesome. One of the things I heard that I really liked was "Don't look around; look up!" That can be interpreted a few ways, but it's about focusing on spiritual things more than physical things. Coming on a mission, for example, is a terrible idea if you just consider the physical side of things. But the spiritual side of things makes it all worth it.

I don't have a whole lot more time this week, but I hope you're all doing well! I think about you all the time (not in an "I want to go home" way, just hoping you're OK).

Elder Rowe

Week 9 in Provo

We had our first baptism on Saturday, which was AWESOME! Anthony is super cool. He absolutely loves the church, and now he's officially a part of it. Elder Gallegos is holding his iPad with one of the previous missionaries that taught Anthony before we came along. It was really great to see how happy Anthony was to be baptized. There were also a ton of people that came to see him!

From left to right: Brother Russell (who baptized Anthony), Anthony, Elder Gallegos, and me.

Earlier in the week, we did a whole lot of service. We helped Anthony out with a service project he had to do, which was cleaning up a park. We also helped a family spread mulch around in their front yard. That doesn't sound like much, but they have a really big yard! He works on the audio for church films, and he also owns a business.

Here in Provo, we get fed a ton. We eat with members for dinner every night except Mondays, and we often get something even if we're not actually having dinner somewhere. Yesterday, for example, we stopped by a member's house to talk about some investigators, and before we had left, we had had a glass of milk and two cookies! It's crazy all the food we get.

Anyway, I'm about out of time for emailing today. This was kind of a shorter email, but I'll try to say more next week!

Elder Rowe

Week 7 & 8-In the Field!

Hello from Provo, everyone!!

I'm so sorry I didn't get an email out last week! We only have until 6 to email, and my draft got deleted somehow, so I didn't have time to rewrite it! I'll try to talk about both weeks in this email.

The day we left the MTC, we had to be at the Reception building by 1:30AM! Then we drove to the airport and everything. The flights weren't too exciting, except that somehow I got put in first class on the second flight! I have no idea how that happened, but it was pretty cool. I fell asleep shortly after getting on the plane, and when I woke up, there was a bowl of assorted nuts next to me!

When we got to Provo, we all spent the night at the mission president's house. The next day we had a meeting and got assigned to our trainer. My companion is Elder Gallegos. He's been on his mission for 18 months! He's a very hard worker and a very cool guy.

Our first day here, we visited some of the investigators that the sister missionaries before us in the area had been teaching. We even got one of them on a baptismal date on the first day here! It was super cool. His name is Anthony, and he's a really great kid. His baptism is this Saturday, so I'm sure we'll have pictures then. It's going to be great!

We have a total of five people on date for baptism already, and at least one other that we want to have on date by our next lesson, which is tonight! There really is a lot of work to be done here, and, despite what we may think, not everybody is Mormon here! Because of the number of church members here, we get a lot of referrals from members, and we almost never just go knocking doors. We've had several new investigators since getting here!

Last P-day (Mondays now) we climbed a mountain! The mountains here are crazy! We've had a lot of fun just climbing. You can see three different temples from on top of the mountains!

On Wednesday, we went to the Provo City Center temple. It's really cool. The outside is interesting, because it's red, not white like most temples. And the inside is done like the 1800s. For those of you who don't know, it used to be a tabernacle. It had been there since the 1800s, but it burned down. Rather than just rebuild it, the church decided to turn it into a temple! It's really pretty.

Our area covers two whole stakes! (A stake is a group of wards, and a ward is all the people in a certain area.) Here in Provo, there are so many members that a ward is only a few streets worth of people. One stake we serve in English and Spanish, and the other is just English. We speak much more English than Spanish in this area. Because of that, it's been kind of hard to pick up the Spanish, but I think it will come. We attend several sacrament meetings on Sundays, and we have attended the Spanish ward twice. The Spanish church has helped a lot. It's hard sometimes because of all the different accents that people speak with! We have people from Venezuela, El Salvador, Chile, Mexico, and all over central and South America. It's really cool, but also hard to understand them sometimes. In Spanish, people often don't pronounce their "S"s, or they pronounce them like "h", which really makes it hard to understand them! I'm starting to get it down, though.

Anyway, that's about all I have for today. I hope you're all doing well, and I'll write again next week!

Elder Rowe

A Couple Surprise Pictures

When you're with a missionary, it's super awesome to snap a picture and text it to that missionary's mom! You just take the pic, ask for the number, and in seconds that Mom gets to see her missionary! Today, I got my very first surprise pics. One on Facebook and one to my phone. I love it!

I think this first one was taken on the plane ride from Mexico City to Salt Lake. 

And I THINK this may be his new Companion, though we haven't heard yet. Should get an email any time letting us know who his companion is and where he'll be serving. Doesn't he look amazing?

 Seriously so much fun.
So. Much. Fun.

Made it To Utah!

This the email we received from the Mission President and his wife the day Chandler arrived. His new P-day will be on Mondays, so we'll expect to hear from him in a few days!
_______________

We received your wonderful missionary today, Tuesday, March 7, 2017.  We are eager to serve together in the Utah Provo Mission as we endeavor to invite all we come in contact with to “Come unto Christ.”  Thank you for preparing such a faithful missionary to enter the mission field.

You will receive an email letting you know of their assignment and trainer in the next couple of days.  You will also hear from your missionary by email every Monday - their preparation day.  They will look forward to an email from you every Monday as well.  Letters and Packages may be sent at any time the mission office address below. 

Attached is a picture we took with them at the Mission Home.  What a wonderful group of missionaries … thank you for sharing them with us and The Lord!

Sincerely yours,

John C. Hodgman and Vicki Hodgman

(I'm sure this picture was taken on a cellphone)

Week Five-Meeting Elder Russell M. Nelson!

¡Hola a todas!

I realized that last week I totally forgot to mention that PRESIDENT NELSON OF THE QUORUM OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES was coming this week! For those of you who aren't members, President Nelson is the person who is almost certainly going to be the next president of the entire Church! This Tuesday, he came and spoke to us. It was a super cool experience, and he shook every missionary's hand. He talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and the role it plays in the Church, and more especially about its role in missionary work. It was really cool to see the amount of respect people have for him. When he entered the room, everyone stood and was silent, and the only sound was the piano being played as he walked up to the stand. It was really an incredible experience to be able to see and hear him.

It's hard to top that, but I have other things to talk about. My Spanish is still getting better! I can actually understand the majority of what Latinos say to me, which is one thing I've always had trouble with. Two of the hermanas in our district made a goal to talk to some Latinos every day this week, so we usually sit near some during meal times so they can talk. It's really interesting being able to understand them, because it really shows the progress we have made.

I love learning Spanish and practicing with Latinos. The teachers sometimes have a hard time teaching certain concepts because it's in their native language. When you have always spoken a language, it makes it kind of difficult to teach someone else whose native language is different. Since I had a lot of Spanish classes before, I am sometimes able to help them teach things in a way that makes sense to English speakers. It has been really enjoyable to help others with their Spanish pronunciation and grammar.

 I actually had the chance to be my "investigator" this week. It was pretty cool to see the other side of teaching. Instead of being the missionary, I was hearing the message from the missionaries. It's helpful for two reasons: 1. I can learn from the other missionaries (and they can learn from me) 2. I get to feel like an investigator, which helps me to know what to do during lessons. It's also just enjoyable to pretend to be someone else.

I think my companion and I work really well together during the lessons. My Spanish is somewhat better, so it's easier for me to talk to investigators, but he is really good at remembering scriptures that apply to certain situations. That allows us to complement each other when we teach, which makes the lessons more fluid. It will be hard to leave all these people in the CCM! In less than two weeks, we'll all be gone to different missions! Luckily, my companion and I are both going to Provo, so we will probably see each other, but the rest of us won't see each other again! We're hoping to have some kind of CCM district reunion after our missions since most of us are going to school either at BYU or Utah State. Also, the family of one of our Hermanas is in our mission! We're hoping to see them while we're out! And, since she'll only be out 1 1/2 years, we may even see her before we're done.

I'm really excited to get out into the mission field to actually see the help I'm giving people. I don't have much longer to wait!

I actually have a couple pictures this week! They're the four elders in our district just taking some pictures. There's also a picture of Elder Youngblood holding this huge palm that he found! Not much exciting to take pictures of this week, but these ones are fun.

Not much else to say this week! Thanks to everyone who sent emails or letters this week! They really mean a lot, and it's nice to know that people are thinking about me. If you have anything you want to say to me, you can email me here! And if there is anyone you would like me to add to this email list, you can let me know and I will add them!

¡Hasta luego!​

Mom note: For some reason I can't see the pictures Chandler shared this week. They're hosted on Google Drive and it says I need permission. He granted permission for the one I've added here, but I still can't see the other ones. By the time we figured all of that out Chandler was out of time for emailing, ha ha. I could see last week's pictures just fine, so I'm not sure what's going on. Hopefully he can get it worked out before next week!