Week 44-Transfer 6

Aloooooha!

8/12/13

Aloha familia,

Wow what a week you had! Sounds pretty crazy over there. I laughed so hard about dads comment about staying up all night:) Hope you and Tonya were able to have fantastic birthdays anyhow:) Thats so cool to me that Tonya and Kyle and their family are there in Utah with you all! I'm sure I will stalk up on those stickers before I come home mom. Haha:) You would do something like that:) But that is why I love you:) So I hope you have enjoyed the random text photos you get from everyone here:) They think it is so fun that they can text you while we are sitting there. Last night that was sis. Akiona and her family. They are so fun and probably one of the funnest families to eat dinner with. I got a picture but I forgot my cord so I will have to send them next time. 

Thanks for all your prayers. We also had an extra fast yesterday for that purpose of finding more people to teach. We did get one of our old investigators back which was an awesome miracle, but that's about it. But you know what, even with the lack of new solid investigators, we are seeing so many random little miracles here. I think I told you about Raven at some point, how he went to church for about 5 years straight and then because of different things, was unable to be baptized. Well one of those was his family. He has a beautiful family with 2 boys and their mother who he loves so very much. Only problem is, he is not married to their mother. She doesn't want to marry him cause she doesn't want to get married just so he can be baptized. She has something against the church that we can guess at but no one has really been able to get to her. Well, this week, we went by to go see Raven (We always have to just go whenever cause he never will set an apt. with us) and Amy (his girlfriend) was the only one home. At first we were nervous but then we started talking to her. The spirit was so strong as we talked, neither of us were completely sure what to say to her but whatever we said really touched her. She shared some personal reasons with us why she wasn't interested and we were able to testify to her about how much her Heavenly Father loves her and her family. It was just another baby step, but it is so cool to see the Lord working with that family. I may not be able to see them baptized but someday they will be and I will be so happy I got be a part in it. I love that family so much and Sister Gleason and I both feel that they are so close to getting past whatever is holding them back! 

Marie is still doing great! She is so funny and loves to tease us. She calls Sis. Gleason "you again!" and me, "Cohort" haha. She reminds me of you in some ways mom:) She is very motherly. This week we have been looking for different ways to work with the ward to get more investigators. We have really been focusing on serving as much as we can and asking EVERYONE for referrals. If nothing else, I'm glad I got this practice in. I feel like my experiences here are really helping me to become a better missionary. I still feel like I have so much to work on. Every day I find something else that humbles me and makes me realize how much I really do need to rely on the Lord because, shootz, without him, I am really weak. I have so many weaknesses! But this is a good time to put Ether 12:27 to the test. If I come unto the Lord, he will show me my weaknesses so that I may be humble. However, he has promised to make weak things become strong and so that is what I am counting on:) I am so grateful for the Atonement! I know that my Heavenly Father really does love each one of us so much! We are all on different levels and we all have different strengths and weaknesses, but we are all striving for the same goal and Heavenly Father cheers us on every step that we make. I tell my investigators this all the time but I guess that it is good that I get to experience it even moreso first hand.

I love you all so much! I can't believe I just hit my 10 month mark on Saturday! I feel like I just told you about my 9 month mark! I am so grateful for my mission and everything that it is teaching me! I love you all and pray for you always! 

Les Quiero muchisimo!

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)

Week 43-Transfer 6

Aloooooha!

8/5/13

Mom!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!!!!!!! Like always, your card is on it's way:) I just want you to know that you are the BEST mom in the whole wide world! I love you so much and am so grateful you are my mom and my friend:) I know you don't like your birthday and all but I hope you have a great one anyways:) I love you! And also HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Tonya too! You are lucky cause you will actually get your card on time:) I love you so much! 

I'm sad that I missed all the fun reunions. That would have been fun to see everyone. You should have had a cardboard cutout of me so I could be there:) Congrats on Alex's baby blessing! I can't wait to meet him! So I'm not sure I understand all that Alexa's testing positive means. Is it good that we know what it is? I continue to pray for her and all of you every day. I wish there was more I could do. Thank you for keeping me updated though. 

This week we spent a lot of time with Marie. She is so funny. She keeps wanting us to go places with her like the beach, the swap meet, and Waikiki  which are all red zones for us. So finally we got permission to hike diamond head with her one morning. We were able to review the baptism questions and talk about keeping the Sabbath day holy during the hike:) Sometimes she has us go walking with her in the mornings too. We have taught the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation while on these walks:). She is really sweet though and wants so much to do the right thing. She always has a ton of questions and worries a lot but she has such a simple, childlike faith that has been so fun to see grow. Her baptism ended up being on Friday evening. She was worried and nervous about it because of her arthritis in her knees, back, ankles, etc. and she didn't think she would physically be able to do it. She was able to get a blessing from Pres. Warner and her fears were calmed a bit. I think her baptism was one of my favorites! When she got in the water she was like, "oh it's cold!" She looked back at us and Sister Gleason pointed to me (she is very persnickety by the way) so Marie turned to me and mouthed "your fault!" Haha, I just told her I loved her:) She later told us that when she went in the water it was no longer cold. She couldn't feel it at all:) She was grinning from ear to ear the rest of the night and the spirit was so strong! Sister Gleason and I sang "How Great Thou Art" (Sister Gleason has an amazing voice) and her fellow-shippers gave some great talks. She got so emotional when everyone gave her Lei's afterward. I think that should be a tradition at every baptism! It's so fun! Marie is so awesome and her faith is growing so much! I am so blessed to be in this area if only just to teach her. 

Other than Marie, the many other investigators have kinda dropped off the face of the earth. Whether it be that we can't get a hold of them, they don't keep any commitments any more, they keep saying they are sick, or they are too busy to meet with us, we are running out of people to teach. We have decided that although we will keep trying, perhaps it is just not time for them right now and we need to find a way to find someone who is prepared and ready. Or maybe the Lord is just trying to teach us something:) We are learning from it though as well as growing together in Companionship unity:) We are trying our best to do everything we can and then trying to trust in the Lord for the rest. I think you all are the best example of that. I do know that Heavenly Father never puts us in situations to fail. He is always there to help us learn and grow and He always has the blessings waiting for us. 

This Sunday I was able to bear my testimony in Sacrament Meeting. I don't usually do that as a missionary cause I want to give time for everyone in the ward to, but I really felt like I needed to. I do believe that when you bear your testimony, it gets strengthened. I am so grateful for this gospel. I know it is true. I know with all my heart that Heavenly Father knows each one of us and loves us so much! I know that Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. There are times, especially now when I look at myself and see how far I am from where I should be, and it gets discouraging, but Heavenly Father doesn't look at us that way and neither should we. He really does cheer us on every step that we take closer to Him. He is patient with our shortcomings and knows that with practice, we can someday overcome them. I am so grateful for the atonement and for the restored gospel. I love this work so much. I love you all so much! I continue to pray for you always. Todos ustedes son la mejor! 

Les Quiero! 

Hermana Rowley

Week 42-Transfer 6

Alooooooha!

7/29/13

Hey Family! 

What a crazy week this has been! First off, we have a baptism on Saturday! Marie is getting baptized! Let me tell you, the Book of Mormon has such power! She had been listening to us, understanding, and allowing us to keep coming back. She had even been coming to church. However, she hated reading because she says she is not good at it so we went over and put the audio on her computer so she could listen to it and follow along. The next day she also was able to get a priesthood blessing to help her cause she is struggling with a lot of things right now. After the blessing she finally set a date for baptism! We go visit her every day and help her understand what she is reading and see how her prayers and things are going. I have certainly strengthened my testimony of the power of prayer, reading, and church. We can tell when an investigator is not doing even one of those. We all need our spiritual CPR (Church, Prayer, Read)! 

We also had a really cool experience with another "eternal investigator". The problem with this one is that he loves church, knows it's true, knows how good it is for him and his family, wants to go to church and be baptized, but has soooo much opposition going for him! I don't think I've wanted anyone to receive the gospel blessings as much as I do him. He loves his family so much! Just hearing his little boy laughing behind him made him literally light up! That family needs to go through the temple so bad so they can be together forever! We went to his house on Saturday and had such a good lesson with him. The spirit was so strong it gave him "chicken skin" or goose bumps:) I don't even remember what we told him exactly except that the words were not ours. He prayed in front of us for the first time and we knew for sure he would come to church! We told him he just needed to put his trust in the Lord. We prayed and fasted so hard for him yesterday and...he didn't show up. ahhh! We know that the Lord is working on him though. The two times we were able to meet with him was a miracle cause he is practically never home. That guy is going to be baptized! 

We did get to teach Bailey the restoration this week. She is so sweet. She did admit that she only wants to learn because of her boyfriend, but that is totally ok:) She had read the Restoration Pamphlet that we had given her before the lesson and agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful again for the power of that book!

There are a few more awesome investigators we are working with along with some less actives. Sister Gleason is seriously so fun and awesome! We have decided to set high goals and work hard and have fun:) She has such a quirky personality and we get to laugh, a lot:). One of the days this week, our dinner appt. fell through so we decided to go tract at the mission home:) They opened the door and we said, "hi we are representatives of Jesus Christ..." long story short, we got to eat with president and sister Warner:) They are both so sweet. I love learning all these quirky stories about President which I would put on here but knowing that Sis Warner knows how to find my blog I had better not;)

I am so grateful to be here on my mission! I do miss you all so much though! I know that everything is happening for a reason and that Heavenly Father has great things in store for us all. I loved going through the temple. I get to go every other month when I am in Laie so it is such a blessing. Please keep me posted about Alexa. It's exciting when I get more than one email from you when I check it:) I love you so much mom and you are such a great example to me! I love you so much!!! Esta bien si no puede pronunciar espanol:) Te quiero todavia:)

Les Quiero Mucho

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)

Week 41-Transfer 6

Aloooooha!

7/23/13

Wow, I really wish I could have gone camping with you all! I miss that so much! I'll be there next year for sure though! Tyson, don't you know that only one person is allowed to be sick at a time? You all just need to get better ok? I am still praying every day for you all and I know that there is a reason for everything. 

I love my new companion. Sister Gleason is 20 years old and from Mapleton Utah. She has been going to BYU for the past year studying construction management. Funny enough she reminds me a lot of Hermana Dunn from the MTC. She is so fun though and we just clicked right from the start. It's interesting to see the different companions and how hard or easy it is to teach with them. Not that any are bad teachers or anything everyone is just so different and some just are easier right from the start. Sister Gleason is one of those. She has been on the Big Island, Kona side for 6 months and this is her second area and I am her third companion. That is so strange to me since I have never had a companion more than one transfer. She really misses Kona and is having a hard time going from the country with very humble homes and people and lots of natives, to the middle of the rich city of Honolulu. She is an amazing teacher though and we have already seen miracles. 

One of those miracles was when we went to go visit Raven. Raven has been taught all the lessons, came to church for like 5 strait years, loves church, has faith that it is all true, but has not been baptized because his girlfriend, whom he has 2 beautiful kids with, won't marry him. He stopped going to church after a while and it is impossible to catch him at home because he is always out paddle boarding or something. He was one of the first people that Sister Gleason and I decided to go and visit, and by a miracle he was home! We asked if we could visit with him for a while and he said that would be fine so we sat down and had a great conversation. He said that a lot of things have been happening in his life to where he has been thinking about the church a lot more lately. He said the only reason he didn't join before was because his girl wouldn't marry him cause she didn't want to marry him just so he could be a member of some church. I asked him how he thinks she would feel about it now since that was years ago and he said she would probably go for it. He knows he needs to go back to church but he wants to wait till life "calms down a bit." ugh! If only people could see how much easier their hectic life would be with the gospel! We really got him thinking though and got him to promise to open up his Book of Mormon again so we will see. We are still praying for him. 

Our closest investigator to baptism right now is Marie. She is so sweet! I don't know if I have said anything about her yet, but we found Marie while we were looking for one of our less actives and we invited her to come to the fourth of July picnic and she came! Anyways, we have been teaching her ever since and just love her! She is having a really hard time right now trying to find a job but she knows that if she can gain a testimony of what we have been teaching her of the Book of Mormon, than she will be able to have that extra strength she needs. She has been coming to church though and fits right in! There are ladies in the ward who have just been so friendly to her. I have been praying so hard for her and we focused so much on helping her gain a testimony. She already believes in "karma" so she is living all the commandments already just because she likes to do what's right. She is even living all of the Word of Wisdom. Heavenly Father really is blessing us so much with people who have been prepared. It's a long hard road sometimes but they are getting there. 

It was really neat when we went to our dinner appointment Sunday and we find out that this girl who we have been wanting to talk to for some time now but were told not to, was there. She is the nonmember girlfriend of one of the boys in the family and we were told not to talk to her because he didn't want her pushed into anything (He is not very strong in the church either). Anyways, we had a wonderful dinner and lesson like always:) and after I was talking to the parents asking if I could just go ask her if she is interested and they seemed hesitant but said I could try. So I just went up and said, "Bailey, are you interested in learning more?" Even before I was done she started nodding her head and said, "Yeah, what do I do?" haha, the Lord has definitely been preparing her! We get to start teaching her on Thursday. 

So sorry this letter is so late by the way. We had our Pdays switched up this week because we got to go to the Temple today! It was so good being back in Laie! I didn't realized how much I missed it! I loved the temple too! I don't know how some people go their whole missions without it cause it is such a relief to be able to go! Every time I get to go to the Laie temple I think a lot about you mom and dad, and the stained glass windows;). You sure did a great job putting them in! I love that temple so much though! So instead of PDay, yesterday started out with a funeral for Grandpa Tsuya (our landlord). I kinda don't like funerals. It was a good one though as far as funerals go. They have a very musically talented family and they are all so very close. It was fun to hear all the musical numbers and all the different memories the grand kids and kids had with Grandpa T. He was such a funny, sweet old man who everyone just loved. I knew that just from the short time I knew him. They have had a lot of family over the past few weeks and they are all getting ready to leave soon. Many of the kids have come up to ask us to just kind of check in on Grandma Tsuya every once in a while and give her a hug. I certainly have no problem with that. I love them so much. 

Well I'm sorry I don't have pictures for you. Sister Gleason and I have not been very good at that yet...I have started the Spanish BOM again. Sister Gleason said that she wanted to serve a Spanish mission so bad so she is so excited to have Language Study with me:) No mom, our bishop is not divorced, she was just the one doing the fellow shipping with us so that's why I said it like that, silly:) I love you all so much though and pray for you always! I know this church is true and I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us so much! I know that there is a reason for everything! 

Les Quiero Mucho!

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)