Week 30-Transfer 4

ALOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAA!

I am so excited to write this letter finally:) Sorry it's so late. I'm so sorry to hear about Uncle Robert! How is Aunt Brenda doing? It sounds like he is probably happily out of pain now. That is so cool that he got to say his goodbyes and tell everyone he loves them! One of Heavenly Fathers tender mercies. Thank you so much for recording Tyson's play for me!!!!! I can't wait to watch it! As far as recording me speaking in Sacrament meeting, that kind of would have been impossible since I had no clue I would be speaking until about 2 seconds before I gave it:). That's so crazy about Tiffany! When is she supposed to be due again? I'm so excited and wish I could be there to greet my new little nephew but you had better at least send me pictures:) I'm so excited to get to talk to you on Sunday!!!!! I think I will probably call around 2 pm my time which is 6pm your time I believe. Would that work? I want to make sure I don't call while Paul does. Let me know if that doesn't work. I'm going to try and get permission to check my email before to make sure.

This week has been so good. It is really interesting how chat works. People say that each online sister attracts certain types of people on chat. Well, Sister Bonrostro tends to attract the argumentative ones...haha. We seriously have been getting soooo many people who come onto chat just to try and "give us controversy to bring us closer to God" (Yes someone really did say that). It is funny cause Sister Bonrostro can get super sassy and it really comes out when someone starts arguing:) Thankfully she likes to talk out loud and asks me before she sends something. I just say, "did you feel the spirit as you typed that?:)" She says, "oh your right" and then gets up and paces to cool off for a sec:) Haha, she is so cute though! I love her sooo much! She has such a strong testimony and is so humble. I am learning so much from her! I also have a great love for my padmates:) One of them is Sister Mckinney, the one I came to Hawaii from the MTC with, and the other is Sister Peterson, who is the step daughter of Billy from the Taebo workout videos:). She has quite the dramatic life and is so good at telling stories. Anyways, we have so much fun with them!

So Sister Bonrostro and I have been teaching one girl on chat who is so cool! Her name is Kat and she just turned 17 years old a few weeks ago. She has been taking all the missionary lessons online since January and she knows its true. She has been reading the Book of Mormon, she has watched probably every Mormon message on lds.org, she is now in contact with like 40 missionaries and she is so thirsty to know more. Problem is, she is under 18 and her parents are COMPLETELY against it. At first she was kind of doing it all with out their permission, but then she decided she was going to tell them so she fasted and prayed and got all the missionaries to join her and then picked a day to tell them. Well, lets just say it did not go so well. They were not happy with her and told her before they would even discuss it she had to spend a few weeks doing nothing but reading the bible and talking to their Priest to learn more about their religion, then they would be able to discuss it. So she started doing just that. She was so cute though, she would find us online and ask us questions about the bible cause she wasn't allowed to read the Book of Mormon. Well, then her birthday came around (17th) and she emailed us and said she had some AWESOME news! So we got her on chat and she said that her dad had been talking to her and said that they wouldn't get in the way if she wanted to be baptized when she was 18 as long as she spent the next year learning about their church. She then reasoned with them that it was only fair if she learned about the LDS religion as well and they agreed it was only fair and so she could finally have the missionaries over at her house! She was so excited and said it was the best birthday present ever! She also told us that she had decided that she was going to go to BYU for college and she was going to go on a mission when she turned 19! Well, a week or so later she emailed back and said she had more news for us. When we finally got her on chat she said that she was talking to her dad one day about the missionaries and he agreed to go with her to church on Sunday! He had seemed to be in such a good mood that she started talking with him about how much she wanted to go to seminary and the activities during the week and that is when he changed his mind and said she was never allowed to talk with a missionary again. Well, I think he softened a bit since then cause she is allowed to chat with us but she said that she is super sad that she can't go to seminary or church or anything. I asked her if she was allowed to read the Book of Mormon and she said, "to my hearts content!" She said that with the way things looked, she probably wouldn't be baptized until she moved out of the house and so, if she gets into BYU, she would be baptized in Utah around July of 2014! Do you know what this means? I will be home by then! Maybe we could all go to her baptism together!:) She is so fun and it just amazes me how strong and positive she is. She knows it's true and nothing can hold her back! It's amazing to me how much Satan works to stop people like her and Chris from being baptized! They are going to do great things for sure:) And by the way, Chris's baptism has been moved to May 18. Not sure why at that time since I haven't been able to get a hold of him since the zone leaders told me but that's when it is. He is going to be baptized though and I am so grateful that I was able to get to know him and witness all of it!

As far as my Spanish goes, it is coming along slowly but surely. I actually had a rough day a few days ago. A Spanish family came in and I felt that my Spanish was not getting any better! I couldn't believe that I was at 7 months almost and still had trouble communicating as much as I did. I was so down and was having such a hard time. However, Heavenly Father is so wonderful and loving! Also that night, another lady that spoke Spanish came in and I was able to speak to her as well. She talked about how she is catholic but is looking for another church and how she loves how beautiful it felt in the Visitor Center there. I asked her if she would like to learn more and she got so excited and said she did! I told her there were missionaries in her area and she got even more excited and filled out the card all the way. I then made sure it was ok if I kept in contact with her and she said Yes of course! She said she was trying to learn English and I was learning Spanish so we could teach each other as I taught her about the gospel:) She was so enthusiastic and so sweet! I also found out later that out of the 3 Spanish people in that family I talked to earlier, 2 of them self referred  I still felt a little bad about my Spanish, but that tender mercy of the Lord really helped me realize how I could do it. With Him I could do it! I have known that all a long but I think sometimes its good to get another conformation like that:). I am so grateful to be serving here! I love the sisters here and I love the work! I hope you are all doing well! I guess I will find out more on Sunday:) I love you so much and pray for you always!

Les Quiero,

Hermana Rowley

To mom:)

So mom, Happy mothers day coming up:) I am sending you a little something so get excited:) and also, Happy Birthday to me! So...as you might see in my bank account, I kind of already bought my birthday present...So Sister Bonrostro, as much as I love her, is much like Chelsea in that Shopping is her therapy. So today we got to go to Ross cause Sis Gamba needed new shoes and her and her companion both are unable to drive so they chose us to drive them. So my companion, not only likes to shop for herself, but she loooooooooooooves dressing other people up! I promise she found some really cute stuff for me and she made me so excited to buy them that I couldn't resist, but only with the mindset that that was my birthday present...so I have some pics sister Mckinney took of me modeling:) I think Chelsea would be proud:) So for my birthday I guess all I want is a really great letter from everyone:) I love you so much and can't wait to talk to you! You are the best!