Week 70-Transfer 10

Alooooooha!

2/10/14

Aloooooha familia!!!! 

So that time has come again...the news of transfers...This is the time that I got to find out who my last companion will be and my last area. And the verdict is...Sister Yoo in the YSA wards! Sister Yoo just happens to be another Korean too:) I'm super excited. I am going to miss the Laie 5th ward since I was there for 6 months, but I love working with the YSA students! And we already have 2 with a baptism date coming up! Sister Yoo is such a hard worker and such a great missionary so I know I will end my mission strong:) And another perk is that I get to be padmates with Sister Takatsu and Mark again! Both who have the same release date as me! I am so excited for this next transfer! Also, Sister Kim found out that she is going to be training a new full on American sister, which she is nervous about, but she will be so great! 

This Tuesday, we got to go to the Temple! I LOVE going so much! I wish that we could go more than once every other month, but I know we are lucky to be able to go as much as we do. I feel like my week is that much better when I get to go attend the temple. Just like you said mom, it really puts things more into perspective.

Something really neat happened the other day. So we went into the distribution center across from the Visitor Center for something and as we walked out, we saw these two guys sitting on the floor using the outlets on either side of the doors to charge their phones. Well we thought nothing of it really because it was something a student or local would do, so we just said "aloha" and kept walking. Well about 5 or 10 steps away I got that now familiar feeling, "I need to talk to them." I hate getting that feeling when I'm so far away but that's usually when it comes. I of course have to think about it for a second but finally I said, "Should we go talk to them?" Sister Kim of course smiled and said, "Sure!" So we retraced our steps and attempted to begin a conversation with them. "Oh," the older one replied with a laugh, "he won't understand unless you know Spanish." What are the odds...I happen to know a little bit of Spanish! I can't tell you everything that was said in that conversation, mainly because I couldn't understand very much due to the echoes in the courtyard and the soft and fast manner in which they talked in Spanish, and I'm not sure they even understood everything I was trying to say. But I do know that I needed to talk to them for one reason or another, and I know that Heavenly Father truly does know and love EACH and every one of us! It is amazing to work in the Visitor's Center and see little miracles like that where a certain guest will arrive at a certain time and talk to a certain sister that is able to share a certain experience that touches them the most. Heavenly Father really is in the details of this work! How fun to be a part of that! 

Another neat experience I had was on tram day. One of our trams around 5:40 or so, we had only a family of 3 join us (most are at dinner at that time). There was a mom and her 10 year old daughter and then the grandma. The grandma had been to Salt Lake and so knew a little about the church. Sister Kim talked mostly to her. The mom knew a little bit simply because she had been looking into different religions and had a Book of Mormon (I love people like that!). Anyways, usually when we stop the tram at the VC, we let them take pictures and then show them into the VC. This time however, the grandma pointed over at the courtyard opposite and said, "What’s that?" So we decided to show them that. Now in the courtyard is a statue of Lehi blessing his son Joseph from the Book of Mormon, as well as miniatures of the friezes that are around the top of the actual temple. Does that make sense? Anyway, so there are 4 different sections: Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Latter days. I will include a picture we have of the Latter day one. Anyhow, so every section has people from that time and kind of tells the story. Well I had never used these in teaching, but I did discover at this moment how easy it makes to tell the story of the Restoration of the church! So I began at the Old Testament and talked about how all the prophets then testified of Jesus Christ, and then moved to the New Testament and talked about the life of Christ. It was neat because they could see the figurines of Christ performing the miracles and everything. I then moved to the Book of Mormon and talked about how it went right along with the bible in testifying of Jesus Christ. I then talked about the apostasy and restoration, leading strait into the Joseph Smith story and latter-days. The spirit was so strong and the mom even commented and said, "it feels so good here! There is a warm feeling inside that just expands. It's different, so good!" I was able to testify of the Spirit and of Heavenly Father's love for her and how the Book of Mormon can help her find answers. Her daughter said, "Mom, can we look at the book right when we get home!" "Yes!" she replied, "I'll get the other religious books out too, but the Book of Mormon will be number one!" She has been searching a lot in her life and I believe that she will finally be able to find her answer, because it is true!!!!!! I love this gospel so much! 

This week we had special training from the superintendent of communications in the church, meaning he is over Visitor Centers, Historical sites, and anything media related. It was so good and I learned so much! I really am so blessed to be a part of something so big! The church is just incredible in how it finds ways to help people feel the spirit and want to learn more! The gospel is certainly rolling forth! 

You should send a picture of Alexa without her braces! Congrats! That would be neat to be able to work at girl’s camp, but I would have to see with EFY as well. Go ahead and send me the letter though if you can! I love you so much and continue to pray for you always! This work is the Lords work and it will never be finished till the end!:) Love you so much!

Les Quiero!

Hermana Rowley

PS I did take that picture of the temple last week. You don't need to be a good photographer to catch an image like that! It was an amazing sunset! 

Here is a picture of the "latter-day" frieze on top of the temple. Miniatures are in the courtyard across from the Visitor center so people can see them up close. 

Week 69-Transfer 10

Aloooooohaaaa!

2/3/14

Aloha Familia!

Can you believe it is February already?! As Sister Kim reminds me every day..."Time flies!" I have continued to see so many miracles here! So Wednesday night was our "girls night" with Beth. Yes mom, I guess it is a little different for a missionary:) Basically it was a sneaky way to get her out of her house and teach her. It turned out to be so good! We went to this new little place called, "Rindes and Grindes" and ate Acai bowls together with Sister Feagai. She opened up a lot with us and we were able to teach her some gospel principles along with it. Sister Feagai is such a perfect fellow-shipper for her because they are such good friends already and their situations are so similar. The only difference between their situations really is that Sister Feagai has the Gospel and Beth does not right now. Beth even said that she wished that she could be as strong as Sister Feagai. It was really neat because she was telling us of the experience that she had when Brigham got his Patriarchal Blessing. She said she just kept crying and she didn't know why and there were so many things that were going through her head and she still can't explain what was going on. We got to testify to her that that was the spirit!!!! That's exactly how it works! I think she really does know and she is getting closer. She said she would be fine to meet with us like that again. I think she just doesn't want to be at her house. We are hoping to do something at least once a week. We talked to Sister Feagai about it but we will have to see. It was really neat to see Brigham get up and bear his testimony yesterday. We weren't able to hear the entire thing cause he was crying too hard, but the spirit was strong and we heard "turning 16 this month," "priesthood," "baptize," "working hard to be worthy" and "mom." I know that he has been hoping that his mom would be ready by the time he became old enough to baptize her. He is such a good kid and definitely was sent to her for many reasons. I know that she has definitely been thinking about it a lot. The next step for her though is to get her to church again! We are still praying hard for her! 

Another miracle was that we got a new investigator this week! On Saturday we were just visiting members in the ward, getting to know them and such, when we walked past the Pasi's house. We know them really well so we weren't planning on stopping, but their door was open and we could see both of them sitting inside, which was unusual because usually Brother Pasi is at work. Anyways, we decided to stop and say hi and when we got to the door Sister Pasi pointed across the room and said, "oh sisters! Come in! She's a non-member, she wants to learn more and she's coming to church tomorrow!" At first we thought she was joking because that just doesn't happen, especially in Laie. But sure enough, Brother Pasi's cousin, Louise was sitting there...and she was exactly as described:) We sat down next to her and got to talk to her a bit. She is actually from Washington and just here for a visit. She will most likely be leaving tomorrow (Tuesday) night but she is interested in learning more while she is here. We told her a little about the Book of Mormon and talked about her religious background and such. We gave her a copy of the BOM with our testimony in it the next day and she said that she would read it! She came to all 3 hours of church and wrote down questions to anything she didn't understand that she asked us later. We then were able to teach her a lesson at the Visitor Center that day and gave her all the pamphlets. It was so good how Brother and Sister Pasi shared their testimonies about the Restoration and how much it blesses their life. It was really good for Brother Pasi as well because he was baptized only 2 or so years ago after investigating for many years. Hopefully we will be able to teach her one more time tomorrow before she leaves and then send the missionaries in Washington to her after that. We also get to keep in contact with her because of the Visitor Center! So neat yeah?!

We also had a really interesting experience last night at our dinner appointment. The Miller's uncle was there who was not a member but they have been trying to convert him for years and he has been so stubborn. For our dinner message, we shared about the Book of Mormon and how it is another testament of Jesus Christ. It was really good and the spirit was strong. It was interesting though because just as we were pretty much finishing up, his sister spoke up and asked "What would be your fear that's holding you back from joining the church?" Some of the family members gave their input on what they think it would be and then he spoke up with some doctrine that was taught in his church (which taught strait from the bible) that wasn't taught in our church. That got it all started. There of course was an answer to every concern he had, but he kept repeating himself and trying to go around the questions we asked him. At one point I asked, "do you believe the Book of Mormon could be the word of God?" He went off on how the bible was sufficient and some other stuff and then looked at me like he answered my question..."So do you believe the Book of Mormon could be the word of God?" I asked again. He kept retorting back with doctrine that really didn't make sense and finally had to admit that he hadn't ever sincerely prayed about the Book of Mormon. We testified that it was the word of God and that if he would pray about it, then he would receive an answer! Thankfully the spirit was there the entire time and we know that he felt it! Hopefully someday his heart will be softened and he will embrace the gospel! It's amazing how much Satan works to confuse people! God is definitely NOT a God of confusion though, and this church is His church on earth! It's so simple and so true!!!!! 

I have had quite a few intense experiences like that so far on my mission and it amazes me how much my testimony has grown from them! I truly am so grateful for the Atonement and the knowledge that we have and that I have learned on my mission! I cannot believe you already got my itinerary! We don't get it till a week or two before we leave. Guess they want you to be prepared:) I love you so much and I continue work hard so the blessings can be sent home:) I love you all and pray for you always!

Les Quiero Mucho! 

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)

Look what I taught everybody!!!! WOW MOM!!!!!

Week 68-Transfer 10

Aloooooha!

1/27/14

Hola familia!

Another great week here in Hawaii! Our new Visitor Center Directors are here now, the Pridays. We all love them already and it has been fun getting to know them. I know that they are going to do great things here! This week we had interviews with President Warner and I realized that it would be my last interview before my "dying" interview. So weird. People keep trying to make me trunky or something by reminding me how much time I have left, but really it doesn't seem like the end is near at all. I am having too much fun doing missionary work! Time is flying by though. 

This week I have been learning so much about doing your best and trusting in the Lord. He really does fulfill his promises. In the Visitor Center one really neat thing that happened was when I was back on the phones and I got an incoming call and when I answered the girl on the other end said, "Hi, my name is Sarah and I want to be baptized." Flash backs to Brandon much?! (Which by the way, it's now been a year since Brandon was baptized!). Anyways, I got her information and asked a few more questions about herself and what lead her to this point. She said that she is going to school at BYU Provo and she has been taking a Book of Mormon class and once she got past the culture of "mormonism" and got into the doctrine taught in the Book of Mormon (specifically in 2 Nephi 31), she knew that it was true and that she needed to be baptized. She said that her mom won’t be too happy with it so she is going to wait until her parents’ divorce is final and then talk to her about it. She said that no matter what though, she has already made her decision and she wants to meet with the missionaries and be baptized before the end of March! The people I tend to come in contact with just amaze me with their faith! It is such a strength to me to see how much the gospel means to them and how much they sacrifice for it!

In our area, we have been meeting mostly with Kalani, the 14 year old foster child. Previously, he has had a difficult time with the word of wisdom, but I think that his circumstances now have helped him to see that he really needs to decide how he wants his life to end up. Thankfully, he has decided for the better and he is ready to talk about baptism again!  He has had all the lessons previously but I don't think he remembers too much so we will be teaching them all again and he is praying about a date for baptism! We are also going to be going over every day to read with him in the Book of Mormon. The other day we went over and made authentic Korean food with them and I think that really helped him be a bit more comfortable with us as well. We have very high hopes for this one:) 

As far as Beth goes, after her last talk with us we haven't met with her again, but her friend in the ward has been really good at keeping tabs on her and we should be going out for a "girl’s night" with them sometime this week. I think that she needs a good talk away from some things at home so this will be really good for her. We have really been praying hard for her! 

We did have the miracle of finding a new non-member in our area! This is a big deal since our area consists of 2 blocks of houses. A lot of the houses are student housing and some go to the Samoan or Tonga wards so we don't usually go door to door. But since we have been determined to figure out every single person in our ward and where they live, we have been going door to door and checking back doors and side doors and upstairs doors and illegal back houses and everything:) (Hawaii housing is pretty interesting cause there can be like 5 different families living on one piece of property) Anyways, one day as we were walking along the side of one of these houses, we saw a door open with a lady we had never seen before sitting watching TV. So we went up and began to talk to her. Surprisingly, she didn't know much about missionaries and her knowledge of the church was very limited. She is a special ED teacher working at Sunset Elementary and although she has been given a few copies of the Book of Mormon she doesn't know much about it. This is very strange and quite a miracle here in Laie! We talked with her and prayed with her and almost made a return appointment. She wouldn't say anything specific but she said we could come back any time. We have learned that Heavenly Father certainly puts people here in Laie for a reason!

Nina and Alex are still doing great. Alex is determined to go on a mission and Nina's faith amazes me so much as she lives the gospel in so many ways through everything that she is going through. I feel so blessed to be a missionary here! I honestly cannot believe I was even considering not serving a mission! I have learned so much and met so many amazing people, and grown and been blessed so much! I am so excited to see what these next few months will bring! Life may be hard, but it is oh so simple. Keep the commandments and never give up! The rewards are oh so amazing and real! I love this gospel so much! I love my Savior and love this opportunity to get to know Him a bit better! I love you all so much and pray for you always! 

I'm so glad Alexa finally got my card. Congrats Tyson on making the honor's choir! I love you all so much, never forget that ok?! 

Les queiro muchisimo!

Hermana Rowley

One day here in Paradise, it was so windy and for us, freezing! There were some pretty awesome waves though so for our dinner break we spent a few minutes out on Laie Point watching them. It was so pretty! The other picture is us and our padmates waiting outside the doctors office because sister Gementiza has been pretty sick lately:( She still smiles though:)

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!