Alooooha! 6-24-13
Hola familia!
Thank you so much for the packages
mom! I was definitely not expecting all that! I am very appreciative though:) I
did not get to eat the muffins yet because we only have a little foil cupcake
pan and no cooking spray or anything. Haha, you can see how much we cook here:)
We will figure something out though. I'm sure that the lady we live with will
have something we could use. That was the perfect idea for a mission birthday!
I especially loved the mini "Abish" puzzle:) I have completed it at
least 3 or 4 times now:) Sister Hoskins was really sweet for my birthday. She
loves birthdays so she made a ton of signs and posted them around our room and
blew up some balloons and then threw one at my head to wake me up.
It was an interesting day that day.
We spent the morning at the Dr. for Sister Hoskins. She is ok, just needed
something checked. That night though we got to go to a "Pops" concert
that was geared so that us missionaries could bring our investigators.
Unfortunately, none of the investigators who could have come showed up. It was
a super good concert though. All about America and with a full orchestra, adult
and children's stake choirs, guest singers, and a drill team. We got to hand
out programs by a table with a bunch of missionary commissary on it. They
do this concert 2x/year and a ton of non-members show up so it was good to be
able to talk to everyone. One of our investigators though, Mika, actually was
in the choir! She just loves to sing so she joined the stake choir:)
This week we are really praying for
miracles as a mission. Since it is President's last month here we have been
praying and working hard to reach our goal of 200 baptisms this month for the
mission. Something that has never been done before in this mission. For our
zone, the goal is 40 baptisms, way above what we have ever done before.
However, I'm pretty sure we are going to make it. As of yesterday, our zone had
34 baptisms for the month! They are definitely coming through miracles! I'm
pretty sure the number jumps up like 3 every day. Most of those are coming from
the Chukese and Marshallese areas. They are like the Spanish people
for Hawaii. They are all so receptive to the gospel. It really is amazing.
Sister Hoskins and I are doing everything we can to add to the number. We
certainly will need a miracle though. I wish investigators will just keep there
commitments!
One of the new investigators that we
got this week, Rod, is actually a former investigator of some elders but new to
us. He kept making and canceling appts. with us but finally we called after
weeks and he came! We had a really good lesson. He is really afraid of not being
perfect and of not ever being good enough to be baptized. We talked a lot about
that, about how baptism does not mean that you are perfect. There are certain
things that you need to prepare yourself for to be baptized but we promised him
that if he kept his commitments of reading the Book of Mormon, praying
sincerely, continue being taught by us and coming to church, the rest would
come and he would be able to be prepared for baptism. He seemed really excited
and promised he would come to church (especially since we were singing). He
said that he really wanted to change and he would do as we asked. However,
Sunday came, no Rod:( In fact, none of our investigators who promised they
would come were there. It would have been so good to have him there that day
too because President Dalton and his wife gave such good talks! We did have a
less-active there who hadn't been to church in 20 years! He was crying during
President's talk and afterwards said, "That was so touching! I want to do
something like that and help people like that!" It was so neat! We were so
excited that he came this Sunday! This is definitely the Lords work and is in
His hands.
So our song actually went ok! Sister
Hoskins was soooooo nervous because she had NEVER sung in front of people before
and then I kind of threw her in to the deep end and we sang "Abide with me
tis Eventide" A Capella! We each sang a solo part too! I was so proud
of her! She did amazing!
That night we did watch the
missionary broadcast of course. Our dinner appt. got out late and we missed the
first 15 min. Is that when they showed Hawaii because I don't remember seeing
that. The broadcast was amazing though! Missionary work is definitely stepping
up. I wonder when our mission will start going that digital. That will certainly
make things a bit easier with contacting people here! The biggest excuse here
is "too busy." And it's true! Everybody has too much going on in
their lives! It leaves no time for us to teach them. We got a referral from the
Visitor Center (that was exciting for me:)) the other day and we called her and
she was like, "yeah, i'm interested. But I am super busy and never home.
I'm working 3 jobs and don't really have any set time off." She even asked
if she could keep in touch through gmail! The best we could do was to tell her
to call us if she has some time and to keep in touch with the sisters at the
visitor center through email. Hopefully that will work for now.
Something cool this week, I'm making
friends with some of the deaf people in the deaf group in our ward! They said
that I need to learn ASL so they have been teaching me some things. I now know
all the question words so I can ask "what's that?" or
"What?" or "Who?" or "How?" or "Why?"
or "When?" They think it is pretty funny that I go around asking
questions all day:)
I am still loving what I am doing
here. I really can't decide if it is going by fast or not. I look back and say
what happened to all the time when at the same time the days are so long here.
I guess that's the best way to do it:) I am so grateful for how much Heavenly
Father loves me. I learn more and more each day how imperfect I am and yet he
still trusts me to teach his children. I loved what it said in the fireside
last night. How Heavenly Father will never let my imperfections stop His work.
Sometimes that is hard to believe when I think of all my imperfections that I’m
sure are affecting my investigators, but as long as I am trying, the Lord will
not let me fail! That was super comforting! I love you all so much! I hope you
know that by now:) I'm so excited for Tonya and Kyle to move to Utah and I
can't wait to meet my new nephew and niece when I get home. And mom, about my
bank account. I got permission from Pres. to check it to see what you were
talking about. Those $4 fees should not be there as far as I know. I don't use
an ATM here and they say they are a bank fee. Could you please check up on that
with the bank, cause that makes no sense. Thank you for checking my account for
me:). I love you all and pray for you always! Thanks for all the love and
support!
Te Quiero!
Hermana Rowley
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