Week 67-Transfer 10

Alooooha!

1/20/14

Aloha Familia!

Happy Birthday ALEXA!!!!!! I can't believe your 18!!!!!!!!!! You are 18 right? You were just 16 when I left! Isn't that crazy! From your letter mom it sounds like my birthday card didn't get there yet. It should have by now. Let me know if it doesn't get there I'll have to send something else. I seem to be VERY outdated with my technology at home. Does anyone want a net-book that was bought in 2009 anymore? I bet Alexa is pretty excited with her gift:). That's exciting that Kyle is becoming a professional Janitor:) That's so funny that he was trained how to dust! I'm excited to be able to see Tyson's play! 

This week has been another great week in Hawaii. I can't even begin to express how much I am learning here. Some lessons are hard to learn but I am so grateful! We had a few really neat experiences this week too. One was this man named Matt who came into the Visitor Center with his army buddy who was a member of the church. His friend brought him in and took him to go see the pictures of the inside of the temple in the back of the VC. He explained everything and then said that he was going to go do a session so Matt could just roam around. He saw us as he said that and said that he had explained all the pictures. He was kind of awkward actually and when we asked if we could help him with anything and he said "no I'm pretty sure I know where I'm going...to the temple." Then he pointed and began walking towards the bathroom:) When he realized it, he sheepishly turned around and said, "oops, wrong way:)" Matt observed, "I thought you knew where you were going:)" Haha, oh well:) Matt seemed to be nervous to stay there all by himself so he followed his friend outside and walked all the way up to the temple with him. We caught him on his way back down the long staircase. We talked story with him a bit and asked the usual questions about his trip to Hawaii and if he knew anything about Mormons and everything. We discovered that he didn't know much about the church but his friend was beginning to explain things to him. He told us that he didn't really have a belief in God. Not necessarily because God didn't exist, but because Matt hasn't seen any proof for himself that God did exist. He told us that he was looking at it all scientifically. We asked "how so?" and he went on using a bunch of scientific terms that I didn't understand, let alone my international companion. Anyhow, the word experiment reminded us of Alma 32 where we are taught that in order to grow our faith, we must "experiment with the word." We asked him if he knew what faith was and he replied that it was "a belief without evidence." We assured him that faith was much more than that, and that faith was based on evidence. We quoted Alma 32:21 and told him that faith was a hope for things which are not seen but are true. We told him that if he wanted to find out for himself we could show him how to experiment. We told him about the Book of Mormon and the promises it contains. We gave him a copy and showed him Moroni 10:4-5. He said he would do as we asked and he then told us he would just like to sit by the fountain outside. I think he really liked the peace that was there. We told him we would just be walking around and to let us know if he had any questions and we walked away. Sister Henderson later told us that when he sat down he had all the material that we had given him (including the Joseph Smith pamphlet) sitting next to him and he just sat there for a while, looking down every once in a while at the book and things. Finally like he couldn't resist any longer he picked it up and began to read. He read the pamphlet first and then began the Book of Mormon from the introduction. I guess he figured he had nothing else to do for 2 hours so he just kept reading. We came and asked him how it was going once and he was into 1 Nephi. He said it was really interesting. We answered a few questions he had about the history and then he continued reading. 2 hours later he had to come in because he was getting a sunburn. We showed him Alma 32 and said he could read that if he would like as well, we also clarified on the correct way to pray and invited him to pray about the things he had heard and read, then we had to go to be on the computers. 45 or so minutes later, Sister Richardson came back saying he wanted a picture with us. His friend had come back from the temple and was so excited to find him reading the Book of Mormon:) I bet! He had read Alma 32 and kept on with Nephi. We got his email to keep in touch and then they left. Unfortunately the email we sent was kicked back to us but we may have just typed it in wrong so we are trying different things. It was such a neat experience though and I am so excited for him to find his answers! 

Another experience, just yesterday, we had a family from Canada come in. They spoke French and English and they said that there were no Mormons in their part of Canada. Anyways, we took them back to temple corner and began explaining temples, beginning with how temples were a part of the original church of Jesus Christ. We asked them what they knew about the life of Jesus Christ and the father went off explaining how everyone has different views on that and something about how no one really knows. Sister Kim then asked why they thought that was. "I don't know! That's just how it is I suppose. No one really knows, everyone just has different views. etc." We asked a few more questions which definitely were inspired. The spirit was so strong and all I could think was, "wow, I this is fitting so perfectly! I know exactly what to ask!" Then the strangest thing happened. We asked, "Do you think God would want us to be so confused?" The spirit was so strong, and we all felt it, but it was like a flip just switched in him. "Well, goodbye!" he said. The mom then looked at us and curtly said, "thank you, goodbye!" and the two teenage daughters kind of shrugged their shoulders and said, "bye." We stood there kind of shocked for a second, then hurried after them saying, "well, we have a pamphlet we would love to give you of pictures of the inside of the temple!" The parents were out the door but the two girls stayed behind to wait for the pamphlet. Sister Kim grabbed the French copies of the Joseph Smith pamphlet and handed it to them. "Wow, it's in French!" they observed. I then said, "this is a story about a boy who was confused with all the different churches and how he received answers." "Well," they said, "we will learn much." They then took the pamphlets and left. I am not sure if they will read it or not, but I know they felt the spirit! I love my job so much! 

Here in the Visitor Center, things are being switched up a bit. Our VC Director and his wife, the McDonoughs, are leaving and the Pridays are taking their place. We are super sad to see the McDonoughs leaving, but it will be interesting to see any changes made. Elder Priday is a former Mission President in Canada. We will get to meet them tomorrow. 

Work in the area is still going good. We don't really have any progressing investigators now that Nina is baptized and all our other investigators are not really progressing much, but it is good to get to know and serve the ward more. We are visiting a lot of less actives as well which has been good. One of our investigators, Kalani, might finally read the assignment we left him! We were talking to his foster mom on the phone, (she was sick so we had to move our appt. again), and she said that Kalani wanted to talk to us. Surprised we waited for him to come on and he asked, "do I have to read the WHOLE chapter?..." "The more you read the more blessings" we answered:) That is code that he might finally actually read it! (He doesn't like reading much:) We were happy about that:) Unfortunately Beth is getting worse and worse. She told us that she doesn't want to see us for a few weeks cause she wants to "take a brake." She is going through so much and we can see Satan working on her so much! We kind of told her that and she said, "No I'm taking a break from everything, even Satan! I think Satan is scared of me now, huh Brigham!" It broke my heart to see Brigham not even crack a smile. He is always smiling it seems. You can tell how much it hurts him to see his mom turn away from the church when she is hurting so much. He is such a strong member. He turns 16 in February and originally the ward was saying that she would be baptized then so Brigham could baptize her, but the way things look, it will take a lot more than that. She needs A LOT of prayers! 

Sorry this is so long, I just really felt like writing in detail today:) I love you all so much and pray for you always! Thanks for your love and prayers.

Les Quiero Mucho! 

Hermana Rowley

PS, I was really excited this week when an RM told me that my Spanish didn't sound American! Chee Hoo! Language study works! I may not be fluent, but my accent is alright:)

Me and my beautiful companion on tram and at the VC:)

Me and the McDonoughs

Tom & Gayle Holdman visited & took them out to eat!

Week 66-Transfer 10

Alooohaa!

1/13/14

Aloha Familia! 

Well this week has certainly been another week full of miracles! It started off great when we had tram on Tues and we got 7 people who wanted to learn more and stay in contact and 11 people who filled out the cards so we can contact them again and see if they would like to learn more! That's 7 new investigators in one tram shift! The really neat part though was that more than half of those were Korean! Koreans, as much as I love them, are usually only interested in picture taking rather than hearing about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but for some reason this week, there were so many of them who were so prepared to hear the gospel! Since we started out so well we decided to go for our goal of 15 new investigators in a week. That's the big number to hit here:) We saw so many miracles each day and met so many people who were prepared to hear the gospel and ended up with 18 new investigators by the end of the week! The Lord definitely blesses us as we prepare ourselves! 

Not only were there so many prepared people, but very international as well. One of the tours I took was with 3 girls who were going to school together in California. One was from Germany, one was from Italy, and the other from Chile. It was really interesting to see their different reactions to what they were hearing. They all responded much like people from their cultures usually respond. At the end we shared with them about forever families and asked how they would feel to know that they can be together with their families forever. The girl from Italy said that it's a nice thought but she doesn't believe that anything could last forever and that no one can really know for sure. We then testified that we did know that families could be forever. We know that we have a loving Heavenly Father and that He has a plan for us. We shared with them about the Book of Mormon and how they could read and pray about it and find out for themselves the truth of our words. The Spirit was strong and we ended up giving each of them a copy of the Book of Mormon in their separate languages. The girl from Chile wanted to fill out the card and keep in contact, but her friends said they wanted to read the book first and so she stopped as well. I just pray that they actually do find out for themselves! We told them to go to mormon.org if they have any questions. I'm so grateful for the way technology helps in sharing the gospel! 

A few of the tours I happened to take this week were Chinese. Didn't you know I now speak Chinese:P. JK:) One tour though was a man from Taiwan. He was looking at the Book of Mormons and I asked him what language he spoke. He just looked at me and laughed so I figured he hadn't understood so I asked him again using charades. He told me "traditional Chinese" so I found the book and showed it to him. He looked through it with his wife and kind of laughed and said "mormon" and then he kissed the book and set it back down! Surprised, I asked him if he wanted a copy for himself, for free. He said, "yes!" and kind of laughed. I wasn't sure if he understood me but I ran back and grabbed a copy and some pamphlets anyways. I gave them to him along with the guest card. He said thank you and than began looking for something to write with. I found him a pencil and he began filling out the cards right away! One for him and one for his wife. He wanted to meet with missionaries! I'm so grateful for the spirit of the Visitor Center! 

Our area is doing so great as well! There was just a large meeting for all the ward council members in the area with President Warner and an area of the 70 I think. Anyways, our ward is now more excited than ever to do missionary work! I love being in an area for this long and am really getting to know the ward more and more. 

I love doing missionary work so much! There are so many more miracles in the visitor center as well as in our area, I wish I could share them all! I want you to know that I pray about you every day and one of my greatest motivations to work hard, especially when it gets difficult, is knowing that I'm sending you blessings! I love you all so much and pray for you always! 

Les Quiero mucho!

Hermana Rowley

Week 65-Transfer 10

Aloooooha!

1/6/14

Happy New Year everyone!!! Can't believe it is 2014! I love New Years Eve here! Even though fireworks are technically illegal here, Laie doesn't stop tradition! They go all out! The fireworks actually started about 5 when it was still light. They would set one off every once in a while to get everyone excited or something and then more and more started as the night when on, until midnight when the entire sky seemed to be lit up with fireworks and floating lanterns! We got to sit on the hill by the temple and watch them all till 1 that night. We then got to sleep in till 8:30 the next day, but we were all extremely tired! It was so fun though! I wondered for a second why Utah doesn't make THAT big of a deal about New Years like Laie, then I remembered that no one wants to sit out and watch fireworks in negative degrees...haha:) We also had fun with our talent show, Despicable Me 2, and ice cream Sundays as well. It was pretty calm considering the fire-knife dancing and out of control firecrackers and loud music that was going on in the streets all night. 

This week was transfer week as well but it didn't make much of a difference to us as nothing really changed for us as you know. It's always interesting to see how all the new companionship work out though:) It was kind of funny because we had told everyone in our ward that transfers were this week so we pretty much said our goodbyes because we were expecting me to leave and now they are a bit confused cause I'm still here:) It's been fun though and I'm super excited to get to know them even better. I do love this area. 

It was fun to see the Holdmans! They did get a picture with me so I don't know why you haven't seen it yet. They took us out to dinner and it was so neat to get to talk to them! Thanks so much for your little gift too mom! I love you so much! I never would have thought about getting pizza delivered to the VC from you! Too bad that didn't work out:) 

Even with the New Year and transfers this week, we continue to see miracles each day. We had some really neat experiences in the Visitor Center this week! Some very prepared people came in. I feel like the best experiences are when we are working so hard and not having to much success but keep going anyways, and then out of nowhere a miracle walks in. For instance, we were kind of having a difficult day the other day and nobody really wanted to hear anything we had to say, but then on shift that night, during one of the last trams, we were walking around trying to talk to as many people as we could but not getting much of a response, when a girl came up to me and said, "Do you have a picture of Brigham Young? I want to show my friend here." "We don't," I said, "but we have a painting of Joseph Smith." "Oh, may I see it?" she asked. So I brought them over to show them and asked if they knew anything about Joseph Smith or anything. She said that they didn't and she was just interested, that's why. So I then gave a brief explanation about the restoration and when I mentioned that we have a living prophet today leading and guiding the church she said, "do you have a picture of him?" "Actually we do," I replied. (I don't know what her fascination with seeing pictures was but I'm so grateful she was able to see that visual). She asked some more questions and thanked me and was about to leave when I told her that if she was interested in learning more than we could have missionaries in her area stop by and share more with her. She said she was so I gave her the guest card will be in contact with her as well. 

Another neat experience happened the other day when we took a tour with a young German couple. Thankfully they spoke English pretty well. It was neat because for the most part, the Germans that come in are pretty set with there beliefs and although they will listen to us, they are not too interested. These two however were a bit different. We asked them about their religious background and they said that they didn't have much of one and were open to anything. We told them about the Book of Mormon and how reading it can help us with any questions we have in our lives. We told them that they had a loving Heavenly Father who answers prayers and showed them from the introduction how they can receive an answer to their prayer if this book was really true. They wanted a copy so we got them one, and then they wanted to see more so we took them to Temple Corner and basically taught the whole restoration and showed them pictures of inside of the temple and explained each room. They asked so many great questions and the spirit was so strong. Of course they loved the idea of Eternal Families and we shared with them that they could have that. We asked if they knew how to pray and they said not really, so we got to teach about prayer as well and invited them to read the Book of Mormon and sincerely pray if it is true and promised that Heavenly Father would answer that prayer. They were so sweet and I am so excited to keep in touch with them! That's my first investigator from Germany:) Svenja and Martha would be proud:) 

I love you all so much and will definitely be fasting for Alexa this next Sunday as well. I was definitely doing so yesterday and everyday I have been praying! I have seen more than ever that God is aware of us and that He will never leave us alone. Miracles do happen. Maybe not it the time we may hope for, or in the way we may pray for, but He will never leave his faithful children hopeless or alone. He loves us far to much for that. I am so grateful for the Atonement and for the love and patience Heavenly Father has for me and for us. I am so grateful for this gospel that can strengthen us and pick us up and heal us through our trials. I love my Savior so much and I love you all so much and pray for you always! 

Les Quiero muchisimo!

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)