DEL CERRO: Hey There!

Hey There,

Sometimes I don't know what to write... today is one of those days... haha I guess I will go through and answer your questions for once! :) 

For the 24th of July we are doing a breakfast and flag ceremony.  The Youth just went on Trek so a few of the youth from the Stake will share their experiences there.  

Steven is doing well. We were able to meet with him this week and talk about CPR... aka Church, Pray, Read... It can save your life you know... :) 

My new ward is really supportive of missionary work.  As with every ward, there are always all star families when it comes to missionary work.  This ward is full of leaders which is really cool to hear all of their experiences.  They feed us too well..... I am pretty sure I have gained a few pounds already from being in this ward. :/ I'm not used to having so much food in front of me coming from a YSA ward full of students.  

In fact, funny story! Yesterday, we were walking down a hill from an apartment complex. We had just had a short meeting with an investigator and were on our way back to our car when this lady roles down her window and stops in the middle of the street and starts talking to us tell us that she wanted to feed us! She explained that she had a bunch of nephews who served missions and that she grew up in AZ.  So I guess we are going to have dinner with her and her husband in the near future! So yeah... we get fed pretty well... :) 

And now an excerpt from my old companion Elder Nichols: 

Hi Sister Rowbury! This is Elder Nichols. I am lucky to be here next to your son emailing. He is the man. Some of the funniest memories of my life have been with Elder Rowbury. He is the funniest person that has ever lived and has a mighty fine appetite. I will share with you 3 things that I have learned about life.

-Food is everyone's mutual friend

-Trust in God and all will fall into place 

-Smiles go for miles

Elder Rowbury has for sure helped me in affirming my testimony in those three things and hundreds of other things. Thanks for raising such a great son and one of my best friends. I've never met you, but I love you and your family too! Thanks for being awesome!!

Now back to Elder Rowbury!

So yeah! That's about it! We are going to the Midway again today.  This time we are going with a part member family in our ward who really wanted to take us.  It should be fun! Anyway, I love you lots!

Love,

Elder Ethan John Rowbury

DEL CERRO: With President Schmitt

Mom, 

I can't believe Justin got married.... that is too weird... haha oh well.  I am sorry to hear about you getting sick! I will be praying for you.  I got an email from dad this week! it always makes email time that much better when I get a message from him as well.  He told me he talked to someone from the mission office.  I think he talked to Sister Trotter.  She just lives upstairs from me.  We are buds since I have lived in the same complex for well over 9 months now (the majority of their mission) haha. Luckily, what he was talking about with her was what I have an update for!

We were able to have interviews with President Schmitt yesterday and they went great! Elder Odell and I stay for the whole time while the other Elders and Sisters are doing their interviews so we were able to chat a little bit with the other missionaries, Sister Schmitt, and a few of the Schmitt kids.  They are so fun to have around! There were two of the Schmitt kids and a cousin of theirs who was visiting. While we were waiting the kids decided to organize a little performance.  So they gathered all of the missionaries who were there at the time and performed a play about a dead donkey and a box troll on the church's stage using the props there. It was super funny! We played some bey-blades, which are like these battle top things with Clayton their 6 year-old.  It was really nice to be able to talk one on one with President.  He asked me what I enjoyed doing and when I said soccer he gave me a detailed recap of the world cup final between Germany and Argentina, who scored, and how.  It was nice. I was able to talk with him about being home in time to go to school and he said to let him know the exact date and that he would work it out so I was home in time.  I am super surprised that it starts as soon as January 5th! I don't remember it being that early.  So December 30th will be pretty set in stone... :) The other night I did have a curiosity if I would even be accepted to BYU... and I must admit, it is becoming more of a desire to apply and see what happens. I have heard that going from UVU to BYU is pretty good about accepting credits... I don't know, maybe look into it for me and give me some feedback? :) definitely continue with the application for UVU for me though and try and apply for that FAFSA grant/any other grant you can think of again.  I really appreciate it! 

With President and Sister Schmitt

This week I also had a chance to go on exchanges with Elder Nichols! You might remember him as one of my companions from the YSA ward! It was a really fun exchange.  It was a bit of a struggle of a day but it was concluded with a completely random firework show on the 11th of July! :) We still aren't sure what they were celebrating, but they shot off quite the display at Qualcomm Stadium! It was a blast!

That was pretty much my week! :)

Love, 

Elder Ethan John Rowbury

PS: 

This is a picture of how far I moved when I was transferred!

A picture of a picture at a former seventies house. That box on the table is "Alvin's Box" which held the plates while they were in Joseph's possession... pretty awesome.

A picture of all the Bit-o-Honey's that I ate a few weeks ago while emailing you... :) aren't you so proud?!

DEL CERRO: July 4th, Sadly no Parades

Sadly there were no parades this year! :( To be honest, our fourth of July was a little uneventful. Nobody was really home so we spent much of the day in meetings. It was a bit of a slow week with the holiday. We have mostly older people in our ward so they were all visiting their grandchildren throughout California. haha 

But I love my ward so much! They are incredible! for example, we have a former area seventy in our ward and each week his wife brings us fresh cookies and cinnamon rolls to eat while we are emailing in the family history center.  They are so good! We were able to meet with our Teenage friend this week once.  Unfortunately, he wasn't able to go to church this past week so that was a bummer but we will probably see him tonight.  

Amber wrote me an email telling me about her father.  I was able to write here a quick note.  she replied within 15 minutes which was pretty impressive but she is going to be ok. The Lord always has a plan for us.  No matter what we are going through he understands perfectly. 

President Schmitt is incredible.  I am very excited to see what he is going to be able to add to this mission.  He is a great man and his family is amazing as well! His kids are so funny! They sold everything to be here.  They sold their house and quit their jobs so they could come out.  They are great! :)

Super Sorry for the terribly short email but I am short on time today.  I love you!

Love,

Elder Ethan John Rowbury

DEL CERRO: Can You Do Me A Favor?

Mom,

Can you do me a favor and see if my mission call says the following:

"Elder Rowbury, 

You have been hereby sent to the mission where the only places you get transferred to will be immediately across the street from your previous area!"

Thanks! So I was transferred to the Del Cerro Ward! it is a family ward just across the freeway from where I was before! haha suddenly I am having flashbacks from when I was transferred from the Ramona Oaks ward to the Ramona ward! I guess I have something about just crossing streets. The Funniest thing about being transferred from the YSA 2nd ward to the Del Cerro ward is that I live literally 3 doors away from my old apartment... literally! It is pretty great! sometimes I go into auto pilot mode and pass our door and start walking towards the YSA ward's door.  When I catch myself halfway between the two doors and realize that I don't live there anymore. it just makes me laugh every time!  

My new companion is Elder Odell! He is from a small town in Idaho named Ririe.  He enjoys wrestling and Football.... He is really good at wrestling... and football... haha We actually served together up in Ramona and he served in the Ramona Oaks ward after I was transferred to the Ramona ward.  He has been out for about 21 months, so it is looking like we will likely be together for his last 3 months. We are having a ton of fun together though so it is going to be sad to see him leave! 

The Del Cerro ward is pretty great and let me tell you, it is a lot nicer than my previous area... so I didn't tell you before but you may have inferred that my previous area wasn't exactly the most... manicured... we actually had some really great ghetto areas of our ward but it was really fun! I felt like we went through a portal to Tijuana on more than one occasion. haha so now you know that part of my last area was on the History Channel's show "ganglands"! :) But do not fret! I was totally safe and now I am in an area that is really... clean is how I would explain it.  It is just basically a Suburb in San Diego.  San Diego is kinda weird because the city limits are massive and there are just a ton of "communities" is what they call them within the city.  

So, I am in the Del Cerro part of San Diego.  I guess the past few months this area hadn't been able to do any service because most of the people that live in the ward are older people and are retired and already pay people to help them around the house. But for some reason we have been hammered with service most of the past week which is super out of the ordinary for this ward.  We helped one of the members do some landscaping for his front yard, we ran into some people who needed help chopping up this large section of tree that fell in their yard, and last second we were asked to help move a dude yesterday who had hurt his back.  It has been pretty fun to get to do some more service again.  I do miss teaching though.  

Miracle time! So this past week at the YSA conference, that Ryan was at, a kid came up to some of the YSAs afterwards and asked how he could get baptized and join the church.  So the very building that the conference was held in is now where I go to church! And we are teaching this kid! His name is Steven and he is super prepared! His father told him he should join a church that would help teach him good values. So, he walked around the corner, saw a bunch of the YSAs and decided to look into that one! We were able to teach him twice last week and he came to church and had a good time! He was our only investigator at church so we hung out with him in his youth classes all day which was nice because for our joint 5th Sunday Priesthood Relief society they talked about emergency preparedness! haha So we ditched that and went to teachers quorum! hahaha :) it was pretty great! 

To answer all your questions! the earliest I am thinking of coming home would be December 30th.  That would be two weeks early.  I figured that would give me plenty of time to get ready for school.  I am planning to do the January Semester at UVU so will you be able to enroll for me?! and let me know when their start date is!!! I would really like to know. but Christmas isn't going happen... I don't want go home crazy early or anything. but yeah! I will need to talk with president Schmitt about everything here pretty soon! We get to meet him tomorrow! I am so excited!!! anyway!

Grandma's memory!

I will never forget when we convinced Grandma to hop onto Nathan's Longboard and take a picture of her boarding! I am pretty sure that was my most popular picture because all my friends were convinced that my Grandma was the coolest Grandma ever! Which is true! I love you Grandma!

Hopefully that is somewhat how you imagined it! haha 

Anyway, That is basically how I am doing! Having a ton of fun preaching the gospel! 

Love,

Elder Ethan John Rowbury

SDSU YSA (last one): I can run but I can't hide

One word..... Weird.... That is all I have to say about your little visitors on Sunday! I'm sure they might have told you but let me tell you my side of the story... 

So, This last Weekend was a giant regional YSA conference being held in San Diego so when I heard that Ryan and Shaina were coming for their honeymoon here the thought did cross my mind that they might try to see me at church but I disregarded it and actually even forgot that they would be here because I didn't even know where I would be going to church until the week before.  So I thought I was safe in the back of my mind and didn't give it a second thought.

Fast forward to this past Sunday.  We go to the church building which is outside of our stake (again, one more reason, I thought I was safe from intruder attacks)  for church we had scheduled to meet with one of our members just before Sacrament begins.  We designate another one of our members to save us a seat and go to teach her.  We have a great lesson and we walk into the chapel and our seats were stolen! The chapel was filling quickly, luckily there were overflow seats set up clear to the back of the gym.  Around the back we see our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Konold.  So we are sitting there talking about the choir who was going to be doing a musical program for us rather than having speakers talk to us.  The choir was great! There were 2 or 3 former California San Diego Missionaries in the group from Arizona so it was funny to see them.  The only thing was that we had seen them earlier that morning because they performed for the Recruits at the MCRD. 

So we were talking about that with our Ward Mission Leader when all of a sudden I get that feeling like someone is staring at me.  You know that odd sixth sense that people have when you look over at the person in the car next to you when you are stopped at a stop light and you both look at each other? That is what I felt.  So I look back and I saw Ryan walking about 7 rows back behind all the chairs. We made eye contact and he just gave a goofy smile and waved.  I was in Shock! I asked him later what my face looked like and he said that I was so confused! Apparently I mouthed, "Oh my gosh".  haha

So I snap around again so I am facing forward, grab Elder New and say, "My brother is here..."  he looked at me and said, "You're kidding me right? Which one?" so I told him. 

So Sacrament meeting eventually starts and it was actually really cool! my favorite part was the administering of the Sacrament.  Because there were so many people there (the YSAs filled up nearly all the chairs) they had about 24 men to pass and six pairs of priests on their own separate tables to break more bread than could be fit on just the one table.  There were Sacrament Tables lined along the front of the chapel and when all the Deacons stood to pass the Sacrament I felt the spirit confirm to me the power of the priesthood.  It made me think of all the deacons that stand all over the world to administer something so important.  I feel like when I was a deacon I didn't realized the importance of what I was doing and how many young men throughout the world there were who were able to be a part of that service. 

Anyway, that was a little off of the subject of my story. So, the Choir sings great, and the closing prayer is said and Elder New starts counting down. 10, 9 8, 7... Confused I asked him why he was counting down.  He said, "Don't even Elder!  You know why!" and he kept counting. 

Then I saw Ryan and Shaina coming up to us.  I gave Ryan a hug and was a little unsure if I could hug Shaina but she made me do it and told me that she is my sister now so it was fine! haha still weird! In fact, our Ward Mission Leader saw me hugging a girl and not knowing what was going on just turned back around! haha He figured she was a sister or something but I just thought it was funny that that was his reaction. I had no Idea what to even say or do! I just kinda sat there looking at the two of them and just said something that I honestly can't even remember what I said! haha But we took a quick picture and they left and the awkwardness was over... And that is my side of the story! It was definitely weird! haha

The Newlywed Surprise Attack

So yeah, My week was weird! Some lady today was dancing in the laundromat while singing, "Hashtag, Hashtag, HASHTAG, HASHTAG!..." over and over again.  I also found out today that I am being transferred tomorrow.  I don't know where to yet but It is going to be somewhere exciting I'm sure! I'll tell you all about my new area and companion next week! President Clayton is still here running the mission until the 28th which is when President Schmitt will take over as president after a brief 2 hour intro to the mission home and office.

Thank you for the Wedding photos! I really appreciated them! Both of them do look happy! :) I can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love,
Elder Ethan John Rowbury

SDSU YSA: If I Never...

Mom,

     

If I never have to move Anna's stuff ever again I would be just fine. haha I thought a lot about Dad on Sunday.  Everyone kept asking us if we got to call home on father's day like we did on mother's day so we had to tell everyone that unfortunately we do not. It is so Crazy to me to think that the wedding is already here! Elder New and I were looking at the date this past Sunday and were both surprised that it was already half way through June! The days are going way too fast and I swear I was just at this same computer emailing home a few hours ago. haha It is pretty ridiculous being able to think about where I was 1 year ago and that it was back in Ramona.  It seems so recent and distant at the same time.  I often find myself forgetting entirely what it is like to not put on a shirt and tie on in the morning. I think I might have lost all ability to be able to sit in someone's home without bringing out the scriptures or a gospel topic of some kind! haha It makes me laugh whenever I think about how weird my life is compared to everyone else.  I love it.  

In fact, this was a few weeks ago, but we have a Recent Convert who has recently been taking us to Mcdonald's (this is how we roll in the poor singles wards!) each Monday.  I call it Member Missionary McDonald's Monday Mania, or MMMMM for short. haha So we meet up at the institute and McDonalds is literally a maximum of 50 yards from the door to the institute to the door of McDonald's. While walking over, we see two exchange students from China enrolled in the English program at SDSU, so we just start talking to them and invite them to mormon.org. They accepted and we both went on our way.  As we continued our trek to McDonald's, Alisha (our Recent Convert) says, "you guys love what you do." Our reply was, "yep!" haha and that was the end of that conversation 

     

This past week on Sunday we were passing out the programs to everyone as we were preparing for Sacrament meeting and another of our Recent Converts named AnaKaren told us that she needed to talk to us after sacrament meeting.  I wasn't too sure what to think of it but was curious to find out what she felt was so important to tell us that she needed to do it in private.  So sacrament meeting came and went and we began talking to her again and she told us that she had decided to serve a mission!! I was so excited! She was baptized in late November so if she leaves quickly after her year mark and goes through the temple I will be able to see one of my Recent Converts go through the temple!

A few weeks ago We had our final training with President Clayton and we were all able to sign A tablecloth that will be at future Reunions and get-togethers.  So I sent a picture of that! you can see my signature in the picture at the bottom of the picture directly beneath the Yellow marker. We were also able to take one last final picture as a zone with President and Sister Clayton.  And be sure to hold on for this next one because we went a little crazy and rebellious! Sister Clayton REQUIRED that President Clayton allow her to hug each of the Elders just once before everyone had to leave back to their assigned areas.  So each of us were able to have one last hug before they left.  

Signing President and Sister Clayton's Tablecloth

Zone with President and Sister Clayton

Anyway, that is our week! things are rolling along World Cup and all! The Gundred's really set me up for temptation around this time of year! While I am missing out on the World Cup and Ryan's wedding, I still can't tell you enough how much I love being out here! I'm excited to see the pictures next week!

Love,
Elder Ethan John Rowbury

SDSU YSA: The Real Deal

Isn't the weather hear amazing?! :) No joke, if it gets to the mid 80s then people start complaining that it is too hot.  It is pretty fun! I walk out from the apartment at 6:30 am and it is always about 60 degrees and never gets about 80 in the day.  It is pretty great... :) I'm glad my shorts were able to be of use to someone!

So this week was the first week of the month, which means that we have a TON of meetings. Thursday the 5th was one of the craziest days ever! We started out our day by compiling all of the Key indicators (goals and actual) for the missionaries in the San Diego Area for a meeting later that day. Then we ran to a Zone Conference where 3 zones of missionaries (about 50 missionaries) gathered together to receive instruction from President and Sister Clayton, The Assistants to the President, and President Morgan which normally takes 6 hours... but this time it took 7 hours.

SO! we ran from there, picked up a member to come with us to teach Angel and Omar, our two brothers that are investigating, but we were SUPER late to that so we had to make that meeting short. And we were still late to the next appointment with one of our members for dinner. We had some INCREDIBLE authentic Mexican food (always amazing), unfortunately because we were so late we couldn't take our member home that was with us for our first appointment! So we kidnapped him for dinner... :) he didn't mind...

So we tried to be super quick there but we were still super late for our next appointment with an investigator so we had to keep him for that lesson as well! haha luckily he didn't have to end up working that night after all because by the time we got out of our that meeting it was 8:10... and we were already 10 minutes late for our meeting with the Stake President and Mission President to report on the key indicators I was telling you about earlier...

So we weren't able to take him home then either! haha! Luckily he didn't mind and it reminded him a little of his mission so he thought it was fun.  We did eventually get him home though about 4 hours later than we had originally expected. He was a good sport though! 

Also, I'm not sure if I have mentioned this, but the Broadway musical "the Book of Mormon" was in San Diego for the past couple of weeks.  It is a satire about a missionary who is called to Africa. It doesn't accurately portray the beliefs of the church at all but the Church has taken the "high road" and responded well by using the publicity in a positive way. In the hope that the play would bring additional questions about our beliefs, we had 5 sets of missionaries in various parts of downtown San Diego from noon - 5:30.  So part of our week was spent in downtown San Diego talking to random strangers! haha There were plenty of people who were about their own business rushing to or from their jobs, homeless, and others who were generally not all that interested. However, I found that often the people who were a part of the play itself as part of the orchestra or actors themselves were the ones with the most questions! It was really cool actually! Also it was really fun to stand right in front of the theater where the musical would be playing and have people come up to my companion and I and just stare for a few moments before with confidence saying, "Nope, They're the real deal!" So we had some interesting experiences down there but it was fun!

On a more spiritual note, on Monday we had a Less-Active that we had been working with make some great progress! We brought a member of our ward who is preparing to leave on a mission come with us and she worked miracles! She did so well and was able to testify of the blessings of reading the scriptures each day! we challenged our less-active to read each day, thinking she would read maybe a page a day. No, that didn't happen. By the time we came back on Friday she had read up to 1 Nephi 18! She loved reading and said she felt happy as she read the Book of Mormon.  It was so awesome to see how our Member's testimony was able to help her out so much more than we ever could have! 

That is basically how my week was! very busy! but busy is good! especially as a missionary! :) I can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love,

Elder Ethan John Rowbury