Week 7-MTC Thanksgiving!

Hola y Aloha!
So first of all, I have a favor to ask. There is a really awesome and spiritually strong yet terribly quiet elder in our zone named elder brown. He is a native American who just doesn't really talk much but he has kinda started talking to hermana Dunn and I and I found out that he doesn't really get any mail. I know Chelsea told me to let her know if anyone needed mail so there you go. And if anyone else wants to write him I know he would appreciate it! He is going to the Florida Fort lauderdale (sp?) mission. His address is
Elder Warren Gary Brown
MTC Mailbox #358
F-FTL 0115
2005N 900E
Provo, Ut 84604-1793

Just in case you were wondering, Speaking Espanol toda dia cada dia did not exactly go as planned. We did do a ton better though! We are making more goals each day so Ill let you know how that goes...:) This week seems to be so filled! Thanksgiving was AMAZING! We got up early that day so we could get breakfast and get into line as soon as possible to see Elder Holland. We ended up getting about 6 or 7 rows back but it was perfect. If you think he is powerful on the screen, try being that close to him in a room full of missionaries as he bears his testimony! So cool! He also told us that he adopted us into his family for the day:). He brought his family with him and had a few of his grandchildren bear their testimonies and sing. He said they were going to be part of the program whether they wanted to or not because they don't practice free agency in their family:) His oldest granddaughter is 20 and is going to be leaving on a mission soon. She said that she started thinking about a mission a little before the announcement was made and called up her grandpa (Elder Holland) to see what he thought about it. He told her to start filling out her papers then saying that it just takes longer for some people to get them filled out:) She was pretty excited when the age change was announced:). Anyways, Elder Hollands talk was so powerful! He talked about and bore his testimony about different things that he was grateful for. He talked about how he is so grateful to be born in the last dispensation. How he doesn't believe anyone truly understands what a great blessing this is. He said that all through the scriptures, it talks about how God showed our day to prophets. Prophet in those days had to know that they were going to lose (like Nephi for instance), but God lifted their spirits by showing them our day and saying "buck up! Cause there is a group who is going to win. They will be in the MTC on Thanksgiving Day in 2012!" He talked about how he doesn't like it when missionaries say they will finish their mission and then go back to "real life." He said in his intense powerful voice, "This is Real Life! This is as real as life will ever be! Nothing is more important than this work!" He talked about how we are here to save the human soul and how that is what Christ spent his whole life doing and nothing else. He also bore his testimony of Joseph Smith and it was so powerful! He then read D&C 133:44-53 with us and talked about how we need to serve for Jesus Christ more than anything just so He won't have to be in the "wine vat" alone. It was such a powerful talk!

After that we did went and ate "Thanksgiving Dinner" in the cafeteria. Let just say that I was super jealous of all the food you described in your letter mom. We actually had real turkey which was good but that was pretty much the best part. I honestly didn't care really though. I feel like I was spiritually fed:). After dinner we did an awesome humanitarian project where we made hundreds of thousands of health and education kits for kids in Africa! After that we got to watch a musical fireside type thing that was more laid back than most firesides and I got to hear Hermana Jones fiddle! She was so good and definitely had the crowd! That night they gave us all popcorn and we watched 17 Miracles! It was a pretty amazing day. They kept us busy enough that we didn't have too much time to get homesick. I did miss ya'll though!

The rest of the week was pretty standard. We did lose hermanas Laughlin and Kofe on Friday and then yesturday morning Hermanas Jones y Loveless took off. I'm gonna miss them so much but I am so excited for them and am so grateful we had to switch rooms so that I could meet them and get to know them. They really taught me so much! Something really silly that happened the other day that I thought you would enjoy: I folded my quilt in the middle of the night...while I was sleeping! I kinda remember doing it but I thought it was a dream then later on that night I woke up freezing cold cause my blanket was folded beside me! Hermana Loveless sleeps right below me and she is a super light sleeper and the bed is super squeaky. She said that she thought I was trying to move my entire bed around I was so loud!

This week I have been learning so much more about Charity and Listening with my heart and the spirit. The scriptures tell us that we need to pray for charity "with all the energy of your heart" so I decided that I needed to try that cause I had never really done that before. I cannot tell you how amazing it is that the Lord hears and answers prayers like that! I have been so much happier and teaching has been so much easier! This gospel is so amazing! It really is such an easier way to live. That doesn't mean that there are no trials, in fact, you may have more trials than you would without it, but it is easier because we have hope. We have faith that Jesus Christ will support us in our trials and never desert us. We are able to repent of our sins and feel that guilt lifted off our shoulders. We know that death is not the end and that as we come unto Christ and as he shows us our weaknesses and each day we strive to improve and be more like Him, we can live with Him and our families after this life. Psalms 16 is a great chapter that talks about how we have hope through Christ. The Savior also says to come unto him and he will lift our burdens and give us rest. How amazing is that?!

Sooooo happy to hear that Alexa is doing better! I am still praying hard but its good to hear that things are going in the right direction. I was also excited to hear about Tyson. I don't think I said anything in my last letter so I just want him to know that I am soooooo proud of him! You had better get a video and make sure your camera doesn't run out of tape or battery in the middle:). What I meant by cliff hanger letters was that I never really heard the results of the surgery till the last letter. Chelsea sent all your facebook updates and everything. I do get your letters on the same paper actually. Dearelder is printed on really long paper that has successive letters one right after the other...if that makes sense. I don't have my exact address yet so I guess your best bet is to call the mission home. I'll let you know when I do. A coordinating sister is just kinda like a relief society president except we don't really have a ward relief society and there are only 4 sisters in our branch. So I just go to a bunch of meetings with the disctrict leaders and zone leaders (which are the 3 elders in my district) and tell them all how great the sisters are doing. Hermano Frey said that you accepted his facebook request. He can be on facebook cause he is not a missionary. He got home from his mission in July I think and he is now going to school at BYU and teaching at the MTC. I think that would be a really awesome job! Apparently they get paid well too. Hermana Crane says she has no idea if she's related to Kyle or not. She says she only knows the Crane side of her family back to her great grandmother. Whether you use the camping picture or not for the Christmas cards you should send me a copy of it along with the family picture that has been up on the wall, and also with any other pics of thanksgiving etc:). As for a Christmas package, I really have no idea. The only thing that I really wish I had right now would be a purse/book bag and then some neosporn and band aids, and maybe some good church music and a small children's songbook. IDK though, send me a bunch of love:).

I love you all sooo much and I hope you are all doing amazing!
Les Amo!
Hermana Shayla Rowley

Elder Brown

Waiting for Elder Holland

hermanas Laughlin and Kofe

Humanitarian project

Week 6-MTC

Hola y Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!
I love the holidays and even though we are not aloud to play music in the residence halls, I still have Christmas songs going through my head all the time. I love this season so much! This week has been quite the week. I feel like I have so much to share yet I feel like I just wrote you at the same time. It was good to get the updates for Alexa and the family throughout the week. I had a few cliff hangers there though. One of the letters ended with her yelling in pain as she was wheeled out of surgery and then mom said not to worry...I've been praying so much for you all. I'm glad that something is getting done though. Prayers and the Preisthood are pretty powerful stuff. I don't think I ever told you but in like our first or second week here hermana Crane was feeling really sick and so she finally asked Elder Lee to give her a blessing. He got so excited cause he had never given a blessing before and then he got super nervous. He went in the other room to pray and then we all went in there when he felt ready. You could tell they were all super nervous and they got the handbook out to make sure they did it right. Let me tell you. It was such a neat experience to watch those goofball elders give a blessing using the power of the priestood. The spirit was so strong in the room and the blessing was really powerful. Its so neat to have an experience like that to confirm that the power of the priestood is real.

I am now all settled in to my new and hopefully final room. We got to stay with hermana's Loveless and Jones but Hermanas Laughlin and Kofe were moved into a different room and hermanas Beckert and Crane were moved back in with us. I thought that 6 girls would be a lot to share a room with but now I am wishing we had 8! What is even worse though is that hermanas Laughlin and Kofe are leaving on Fri to the Dominican Republic MTC. I really have grown to love them and am so sad to see them go! That leaves us with 4 sisters in our branch once again. Speaking of our branch, I got released as the music coordinator and got called as the coordinating sister. I was kinda sad about that cause all that really means is that I don't get to pick the hymns any more and I get to go to a bunch of meetings. Pero, esta bien!

This week I am learning so much about teaching with the spirit and how much I need my Savior. Moroni 7: 33 says, "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." I have so long to go but my faith in Him is growing so much each day. I have been learning how to ask inspired questions, questions that would help the investigators teach themselves and become their own agents. Hermano Frey shared a quote that said something like, A great leader is one who, when his work is done, those he leads will say they did it themselves. I hope I can become a missionary like this. As always, I have also grown to love the atonement even more. In Mosiah 3:19 it says that the natural man is an enemy to God unless he putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint (more like the Savior) through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is changing my life more every day. I love the story about after the Garden of Gethsemeny, when Peter, who is trying to defend the Savior, cuts off the ear of the guard and Jesus heals it and says, "was I not meant to drink this cup?" Hermano Frey said something that really stuck with me. He said, "When we go through trials, do we say, "was I not meant go through this?" It kinda put a different perspective on my trials and my life.

Speaking of Hermano Frey, he said he added us all on facebook so you should accept him for me k mom?:) then you can see my teacher too. So I'm going to have some big news next week. Word has gotten around and the rumor is that Elder Holland is going to be the speaker tomorrow for Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We decided we are going to get front row seats for that one! Also Las hermanas en mi districto have all decided that we are going to do the ultimate language challenge. We are going to speak nothing but Espanol beginning Friday! I am super nervous about this and it's going to be a test of my faith but I know that if the Lord called me to speak Espanol, he will help me speak it if I do all I can do. Don't worry, I will still write my letters in English:). I love you all and pray for you always! Keep me updated! Oh and by the way, Elder Simon is always persnickety, I don't think that will ever change. They all are really but thats what makes them so awesome:)

Les Amo!

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)

Week 5-MTC

Hola familia!
I am kinda super happy right now porque I just got my package!!!!!! hermana Dunn says I looked like a little kid on Christmas. Thank you sooooo much for writing me Tyson and Alexa! I miss you guys so much and it was so good to here from you! I'm really curious whether you got into that play now Tyson so you had better not leave me hanging for long! I have to admit I totally walked myself into that pineapple juice. I'm feeling slightly better now but i'm sure it will still do me good:) Super excited about the wheat thins though!!!! You know me well...Tiff, I love the pictures soooo much! I was hoping to get the more recent family picture though. I wanted to tape it to the inside of my new Spanish BOM (Which I am getting engraved right now:) and the one you sent is kinda blurry. if you can send that in with a letter or something that would be great! I am anxious to here what happened in Florida! I am hoping to get that tonight. I miss being able to get the texts from mom updating me but I just always pray for you guys just in case. I love you guys so much!

So this week, I didn't write in my journal near as much because the new girls we are rooming with are just way too fun! We end up talking until lights out. I'm so glad we got to know them though! News for this next week is that we get to move...again...So apparently they were doing construction on the fourth floor and that's why they moved us all down and now they are going to do some on the 3rd floor so we all get to move up again. I just hope they keep us with the same people! One new thing that happened this week was that I got to role play an investigator for the first time. That was a fun experience. It made me realize how strange our message really is from an outsiders point of view. That is why it is soooo important to have the spirit with you always cause that is what is going to convert.

This week I have been thinking about how I can explain the experiences I am having here. You always hear missionaries say how much they loved their mission and how much it changed their lives, but that doesn't quite do it justice. There really is no way I can explain it all. I am learning and growing so much I can hardly keep up. I'm not even sure what week i'm on...4 or 5 or 6?...but I can't even imagine how much I will have grown by the end. I am truly sooo grateful I decided to serve the Lord.

This week I learned a lot about faith, the atonement, and my testimony/conversion. I love reading the Book of Mormon more and more each day! I always said that I loved the book of Mormon, pero, I feel now that I never really did. It's so much different to read it with a purpose. I also was able to purchase an Ensign from the book store this week and read the talks. I always enjoyed rereading conference talks, but now I am gaining so much more insight that I can apply to my life. Elder Andersen gave a great talk on trials and in the notes there is a great quote that I would like to share by George Q. Cannon: "No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character. He is an unchangeable being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come. We have found that God. We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments." God will never desert us. In Ether 12:27 it says that our weaknesses will be made strengths, but I have really come to love this promise lately. God had told us that he wants us to be perfect, but we are always told that it is impossible in this life, but really, we can and must be perfect in some things. This is why he promises that as we come unto him he will show us our weaknesses. And then as we see our weaknesses, he will make them strengths until we are perfect even as he is. The best part is that He will never desert us as we continue to become like him. That is what the atonement is for. Dallin Oaks once said, "if your faith and prayers and the power of the priesthood do not heal you from an affliction, the power of the Atonement will surely give you the strength to bear the burden." I love this gospel and how much it can change people. I know that because it continues to change my life every day.

If your wondering about mi Espanol, It is coming along. hermana Dunn keeps saying how she expected to know more at this point but I am amazed at how much I know! A few days ago we hit a huge milestone and learned the last grammar principle we need to know. Here on out is just vocab, practice and review! Miracles happen here every day and I am so grateful to be apart of it! The gospel is truly beginning to be delicious to me! I love you all and pray for you always. Please keep me updated on everything. Elder Simon thinks its sad that I get so excited when I get a letter because he gets like 9 letters a day...pero...esta bien:) Les Mucho Amo!

Hermana Shayla Rowley

Hermano Rhoton

And that's how personal study goes around here

Week 4-MTC

Me and Sister Michelle Curtin!

Hola y Aloha!
This week has been another great week here at the MTC! It sure started with a bang. On Fri, all of us sisters on the 4th floor of our residence hall were told that we were moving. Luckily, mis hermanas y I only had to move to the 3rd floor. Some were not so lucky and had to go all the way across campus to another building. That does mean that hermana Dunn and I have new roommates. There are now 6 sisters in our room. 2 of them are the new girls from our zone. Hermana Laughlin is a short, feisty, little redhead from Georgia and her companera, Hermana Kofe is Tongan I think. The other 2 hermanas have been here a week longer than us. Hermana Jones is a hilarious short blond who did music education at SUU! She said she was doing the auditions this year and she probably saw me there. Her companion hermana Loveless went to SVU. She was on the basketball team. Perhaps Melissa has seen her? They are all so fun and we sure got lucky!

Its fun having a new district in our zone. We have a vocal performance major and a really talented piano player so that makes my calling a bit easier. Its kind a weird right now though cause there are only 3 districts in our zone right now and that makes ours the 2nd oldest! On Sunday we had testimony meeting and our whole district bore our testimonies in Spanish! I was just so happy that I understood almost everything! There was no RS because of our 2 hr mission conference but Sunday was still my favorite like always.

We were all super sad on Mon to learn that one of our teachers, Hermano Rhoten is leaving us...well left us now. His wife is about to have a baby and he wants to focus more on school so he felt he needed to. I have some pics I will post today.

I never thought I would ever say this but I would give anything for some pineapple juice right now. I think I caught whatever hermana Loveless had. Ive been taking plenty of wheat grass though so hopefully it wont last long. Lucky that my companion is a nurse right?:)

I learned so much this week about myself and my Heavenly Father. Once again, the devotionals were just perfect! I have really been learning what it means to be a missionary and to take His name upon me and represent Jesus Christ. When I was set apart as a missionary, I was given the power and authority to represent Him. That is such a huge responsibility! As a result of that discovery, I have been trying to study the example that Christ set in teaching and everything else. I heard a quote by David O McKay that said "What you sincerely in your heart think of Christ will determine who you are." Elder Perry said, "You have the gospel of Jesus Christ embedded in your hearts. It's not a privilege, it's a responsibility." My goal is to become more like the Savior. I want to be able to represent Him, not only on my mission, but for the rest of my life.

I love the MTC. I love this opportunity. What a great time to be a missionary. We were just told that the number of sister missionary applications and calls, just since Oct. 6 to now, already exceeds the number of sister missionaries serving right now all around the world. How amazing it that?!

Mom, I do have peds but I think they are kinda old cause I used them at work every day. I don't think I need new shoes. I will be wearing sandals mostly in Hawaii. I just never thought I would get so sick of them so fast. I could use something to spray into them though. If you do send tights I just need black. I cant really decide whether to be cold or not though. Hermana Dunn and I still go running outside during gym time. I here there are some places around utah that will deliver for free to the MTC. I'm not sure where though. I did see Corianne finally. It was so good to see her! She said that she would be happy to bring my winter stuff to you guys at the end of my MTC stay. I see Michelle Curtain every day. Her schedule is a lot like mine. She is doing so great! You would think she had been here for weeks already! I did get the absentee ballot in time and I did vote for my country. We heard the result from the election last night from our branch presidency wives. It was good to see Kelly. I recognized her, it just didn't really click from where at first:) I gave her a huge hug so I hope she passed it on! Elder Bluemel actually spotted me on the way out of the cafeteria yesterday. He seems to be doing pretty well. Weird that he is already preparing to go out into the field!