Week 38-Transfer 5

Alooooha! 7/1/13

Aloha familia!

This week has been such a crazy one! Being the end of the month and the last month of President and Sister Dalton being here, we have been praying, fasting, and working hard to get our goals. I'm proud to say, our zone hit 42 baptisms this month! That's the highest ever hit by a zone in this mission! I haven't heard yet if the mission reached our 200 goal. This week we have been seeing a lot of President and Sister Dalton. I feel so lucky to be in this ward at this time because it's the ward of the mission home too. On Wednesday, we had a huge potluck for them. I will never think of potluck the same ever again! Hawaii sure knows how to eat! It was good to spend time with The Daltons too. Everyone is sure going to miss them! This Sunday we got to be the first missionaries, other than the assistants, to meet the new mission president and his wife. They got so excited when they saw us at church. "SISTERS!" they said:). They are so cute. They are from Salt Lake city and Sister Warner was in the Tabernacle choir. We got to talk to them quite a bit after church and they were so happy to be here asking us all kinds of questions. I love them already and can tell they are going to be just great! It was really funny actually because one of the first things that sister Warner said to me was that she has been reading my blog! She said, "I knew you the second I saw you because I have been reading your blog for the past few months." haha! That's the second person who has told me that! One of the new Visitor Center sisters who just came in this last transfer so I don't really know her, but she saw me at transfer meeting and said, "Oh Sister Rowley! I have been reading your blog, thank you so much!" Its so funny to me because I read Sister Moyes blog before I got here. I had to think back and make sure everything I have been writing has been ok:).

We have been teaching quite a few people but unfortunately have not had any baptized yet. So many are so close yet so far! This poor ward has not had a baptism since November and she is now inactive and doesn't want to meet with missionaries. We have been studying and working so hard to figure out how to work better with the ward to find and keep these investigators! I love the ward. There are so many nice people here. Sister Hoskins and I have been praying and fasting and studying to figure out how to work better with them. We have a few ideas we want to try so hopefully it works. I love the people we are teaching though! They are so honest and sincere and really fun to teach. I can tell that the gospel is slowly changing them, I am simply learning patience. Sister Hoskins and I are learning a lot about trust in the Lord. This week has been hard. Full of canceled appointments, unanswered phone calls, and silent doors. We kept going, but were getting pretty discouraged, wondering why everyone else was seeing miracles with random baptisms coming out of the woodwork, and we were seeing none. We have been trying our hardest to be exactly obedient and listen to the spirit as much as we can. I honestly wasn't sure what else we could do. I knew that the feelings of inadequacy I was having were not coming from God, but as much as I prayed, I was not sure how to combat them. Then yesterday I was reading in the Ensign the article by Larry W. Gibbons called "A time for faith, not fear." http://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/07/a-time-for-faith-not-fear?lang=eng Everything in it seemed to be what I needed to hear. All of us have to go through trials. It is a fact of life. Trials strengthen us and help us to learn how to rely on the Lord. I loved the part in the article that said, "Sometimes—after we have fasted, prayed, and done all we can do to dispel clouds that have not parted; after we have gone into the dark and expected further light that has not appeared; after we have lived the commandments through difficulties that remain unrelenting—we simply need to turn things over to our Heavenly Father." I am not alone here. This is Heavenly Father's work and He is in charge. I am not sure what is ahead, but I do know that I can put my hand in His and let Him walk with me. He has walked this path before me and I can always trust in Him. There is always hope. No matter how dark the night, the sun always comes up. "Winter will surly give way to the warmth and hope of a new spring." I am so grateful for the gospel that gives us that hope that nothing else really can. I am so grateful that I chose to serve a mission! I love being here! It is helping me understand my Savior so much more!

I love you all so much! I can't tell you how much your faith in me helps. I love you and I pray for you always.

Te Quiero Muchisimo!

Hermana Rowley

These pictures are from the hike we did 2 weeks ago at Manoa Falls. It was so pretty but super muddy!

Look what I found:) See if you can see someone familiar:)

Koko Head hike was probably the hardest hike that I have ever done. We hiked it last week. It was a railroad track that lead strait up this mountain. Over a mile practically strait up! I thought I was going to die! I did it though and the view was amazing! we got there in time for sunrise:)

Today we went to the Zoo:) I don't know why it is not letting me send some more pics, but ill send them next week if I can