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