Oh boy,
Where do I begin?... haha this past week has been... amazing!
sorry if this email seems a bit distracted but there is a freaking funny situation happening right now. we are at the library and there is a super friendly girl who is going around talking to people. I mean she'll say a few things here and there but it isn't too bad. But this guy just started freaking out and left because she was talking. haha sorry, fun times in public places!
Anyway, that is so cool that Connor gave his farewell last week! I wish I could have been there but oh well!
I'm not too sure if I have any crazy amazing stories for you this week. Just a bunch of little things have gone well and things are chuggin' along in Ramona. The Spanish branch in here is getting 7 baptisms this week, Ramona Oaks (my old area) is killing it, our investigators are doing well.
Actually one story for you guys.
So there was once a guy named Matthew, and he was sort of investigating for a little while about 6 months ago. Then he left Ramona without notice and was off the radar. He is super hard to find because he is really poor and usually just rides around in his truck around Southern California BUT, 2 weeks ago, we found him! He was in town for a total of 20 minutes and we happened to stop by his Grandma's (not really his grandma but she kinda took him in) and find him in that short time. As we were talking to him he said that he had ran into some missionaries near the coast and chatted with them for a while and concluded that God was after him. haha. He had to leave but he said he would call us when he came back into town.
Well, he didn't. :D however last Wednesday we had MTEs and guess who happened to be in town and out front of his Grandma's as we drove by!
Matthew couldn't hide from us for long! We sat down and talked to him for a while. He said he believed everything we have taught him so far and that he wanted to really start making changes in his life. So, expecting a miracle, we asked him if he would be baptized and he accepted! We went back the next day, found him again, and he was still good for baptism.
So we are sorta half way through this story currently and it is exciting to see how God directs us to where we
need to be when we need to be there. I hope we continue to find Matthew around and see miracles as he makes the changes in his life for the better.
We have another investigator named Victoria who is just absolutely amazing! She has completely changed from when I first met with her. She is able to understand what we are teaching and reading about. We have been reading the Book of Mormon with her and it has been so fun to see her progress.
The Zanie family is doing well. They are super strong in the Church they are going to right now but we commited the father to read and pray about the Book of Mormon so now we just have to have faith that Heavenly Father will do his part and answer his prayer.
I am loving it out here! Even if it is blazing hot! haha I love you all and can't wait to hear from you next week!
Love,
Elder Ethan John Rowbury
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
Ramona: What's up?
Dear Mom,
That is ELDER to you! ;) just kidding haha so I do have to say that I email in public so a smaller writing on the whole "show me a church" thing would have been nice. haha! welp, It's true so it is alright with me. That is so
crazy to hear about all the people that are leaving soon! I got a letter from Lindsi Burr saying she is leaving in a week or so. It makes me so happy to see them make the decision to serve the Lord.
Training is going good. He is pretty quiet and self admittedly "prefers to be seen not heard" so we are working on getting him to talk. We have had some really fun experiences though! Last week we went out to Sushi! It made
me so happy! I felt at home, but it wasn't quite the same without Ryan or Shaina.
Right now is Tarantula season so we have been seeing them around quite a bit. If you are looking for them you can usually see 1 a day. We found one in the road while we were going up to visit a referral so we thought we
would get some pictures real quick. As you can see I didn't get too cuddly with it. I guess I am afraid of spiders that are bigger than my hand no matter how "docile" they are. haha
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Yesterday we had an amazing lesson with a less-active member named Angela. She has been struggling with getting the motivation to get back to church and was talking with us about how she wanted to see something like what we read in the old testament. "If I saw something like Moses parting the Red Sea, then how easy would it be to know the church is true?" She wanted to see a miracle without exercising her faith. We then explained to her of how faith is to preceed the miracle. Something clicked for her. She had been having the same conversation with her mother the previous day where she said the same thing we had. Pretty ironic that in order to increase her faith God had used the miracle of us following the Spirit to repeat a lesson to her she had learned the previous day. haha She explained it as being a "God wink". One of those moments when Heavenly Father is telling you that he is there listening to you.
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Tonight we have an appointment with a family to start the missionary lessons. It is always daunting to have a lesson like this one coming up. We as missionaries beg for these situations. They have a very close relationship with a member in the ward, they have accepted the missionaries into their home (after close to a year of invitations), and now all we need to do is give a good enough impression to have them want to meet with us again. This opportunity is coming through nearly a year of work and it all adds up to tonight. I know that we will be guided to know what to say and how to present the Gospel in such a way that they will desire to come
closer to Christ. All we need to do is allow the Spirit to direct us.
I love you all very much!
Elder Ethan John Rowbury
That is ELDER to you! ;) just kidding haha so I do have to say that I email in public so a smaller writing on the whole "show me a church" thing would have been nice. haha! welp, It's true so it is alright with me. That is so
crazy to hear about all the people that are leaving soon! I got a letter from Lindsi Burr saying she is leaving in a week or so. It makes me so happy to see them make the decision to serve the Lord.
Training is going good. He is pretty quiet and self admittedly "prefers to be seen not heard" so we are working on getting him to talk. We have had some really fun experiences though! Last week we went out to Sushi! It made
me so happy! I felt at home, but it wasn't quite the same without Ryan or Shaina.
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| Sushi with some Elders |
would get some pictures real quick. As you can see I didn't get too cuddly with it. I guess I am afraid of spiders that are bigger than my hand no matter how "docile" they are. haha
Yesterday we had an amazing lesson with a less-active member named Angela. She has been struggling with getting the motivation to get back to church and was talking with us about how she wanted to see something like what we read in the old testament. "If I saw something like Moses parting the Red Sea, then how easy would it be to know the church is true?" She wanted to see a miracle without exercising her faith. We then explained to her of how faith is to preceed the miracle. Something clicked for her. She had been having the same conversation with her mother the previous day where she said the same thing we had. Pretty ironic that in order to increase her faith God had used the miracle of us following the Spirit to repeat a lesson to her she had learned the previous day. haha She explained it as being a "God wink". One of those moments when Heavenly Father is telling you that he is there listening to you.
Tonight we have an appointment with a family to start the missionary lessons. It is always daunting to have a lesson like this one coming up. We as missionaries beg for these situations. They have a very close relationship with a member in the ward, they have accepted the missionaries into their home (after close to a year of invitations), and now all we need to do is give a good enough impression to have them want to meet with us again. This opportunity is coming through nearly a year of work and it all adds up to tonight. I know that we will be guided to know what to say and how to present the Gospel in such a way that they will desire to come
closer to Christ. All we need to do is allow the Spirit to direct us.
I love you all very much!
Elder Ethan John Rowbury
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Ramona: An Apostle Said So
Well everyone.... I think I am becoming a cowboy! haha The longer I am in Ramona the more time I am spending around horses.... and their poop... haha But really, I have spent a lot of time around horse poop. We were with one of our Recent Converts name Sue and she had us help her groom her four horses (Texas, Ruby, Cody, and Lucy). I'll be sure to send pictures of them soon!
We had a special treat this past week! We had a special mission conference where all of us missionaries got together in San Diego and had a meeting with Elder Ballard. Yea, that Elder Ballard! Let me tell ya, meeting an apostle as a missionary is like running into Michael Jordan or something! haha It was so cool because we got to shake his hand and have him speak to just us missionaries! It was really cool to see him interact with his family and see what kind of relationship he had with them. We learned a lot from him and he made a promise to us that we will be able to find, teach, and baptize someone this month if we just push ourselves a little bit harder. I can't wait to see what miracles come from his apostolic blessing.
Today we did probably my favorite P-day activity thus far! We went to SUSHI!!! AAAHHH!!! It was seriously like being at home again! I have missed it so much! We went because we have a Japanese Elder in our district who is going home in a few weeks and as a celebration of his 100th Preparation day we went out to sushi as a district! SO YUMMY!
The further I get into training, the more I understand what a parent goes through... The mission terminology of a trainer being like a dad is no joke! haha But in reality, it is a ton of fun! It is fun to see him do everything for the first time and help him come to understand everything.
It was fun to hear all about the family reunion and everything! But I'll be honest, I am having a blast out here! I love not having a clue where a conversation or street contact are going and having to rely on the Spirit to help them come closer to Christ! It is definitely something that puts you out of your comfort zone but I have already grown a ton from it. (A note to the curious, I have not gained any weight.... yet... haha) I love it out here and can't wait to see what happens this next week! I'm sure I'll have some good miracles for you here pretty soon. An apostle said so! ;)
Love,
Elder Ethan John Rowbury
We had a special treat this past week! We had a special mission conference where all of us missionaries got together in San Diego and had a meeting with Elder Ballard. Yea, that Elder Ballard! Let me tell ya, meeting an apostle as a missionary is like running into Michael Jordan or something! haha It was so cool because we got to shake his hand and have him speak to just us missionaries! It was really cool to see him interact with his family and see what kind of relationship he had with them. We learned a lot from him and he made a promise to us that we will be able to find, teach, and baptize someone this month if we just push ourselves a little bit harder. I can't wait to see what miracles come from his apostolic blessing.
Today we did probably my favorite P-day activity thus far! We went to SUSHI!!! AAAHHH!!! It was seriously like being at home again! I have missed it so much! We went because we have a Japanese Elder in our district who is going home in a few weeks and as a celebration of his 100th Preparation day we went out to sushi as a district! SO YUMMY!
The further I get into training, the more I understand what a parent goes through... The mission terminology of a trainer being like a dad is no joke! haha But in reality, it is a ton of fun! It is fun to see him do everything for the first time and help him come to understand everything.
It was fun to hear all about the family reunion and everything! But I'll be honest, I am having a blast out here! I love not having a clue where a conversation or street contact are going and having to rely on the Spirit to help them come closer to Christ! It is definitely something that puts you out of your comfort zone but I have already grown a ton from it. (A note to the curious, I have not gained any weight.... yet... haha) I love it out here and can't wait to see what happens this next week! I'm sure I'll have some good miracles for you here pretty soon. An apostle said so! ;)
Love,
Elder Ethan John Rowbury
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Ramona: Someone Old, Someone New
Mum,
Training has been so fun! My new companion is Elder David Stowe. He is from Tooele,
UT. He is the older brother to three sisters. He really enjoys computer programming and things like that! I'll include some pictures of him in the email. It was actually his 19th birthday on Friday and we were able to go eat with some members who made his favorite food (pizza) and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cake for him. It was so fun!
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However, this week I have a good story for you! Last Tuesday night we were saying goodbye to many of Elder Hinrichsen's favorite families because he was being transferred. So we had planned dinner with Sue, a superstar Recent Convert, and there we just stuffed ourselves. What we had forgotten was that another family had told us they were going to feed us as well that night. So we get into the next home we were visiting and they say, "Don't worry guys, we have already eaten! So here are your plates and you can go eat at the table and we will visit with you." We are then handed this big ol' plate with squash green beans and two huge pieces of dry rub chicken with a large cup of milk to go with it. And these were Investigators who weren't doing too well financially so we couldn't just not eat what we were given. We both look at each other after we sat down like we were going to die. So we started and everything was going well. We pounded down the squash and beans and the first piece of chicken along with the cup of milk and all that was left was the final piece of chicken. We were both completely full and had no more room when I see Elder Hinrichsen pull up his backpack onto his lap and set his scriptures on the table. Confused I looked around to see if he was just getting ready to share a thought while we were eating and by the time I looked back his chicken was gone! I looked at his plate in wonder when I realized he had put the chicken in his
backpack! No bag, no tinfoil, no wrap or nothing! He just put his chicken straight into the bag! haha We were both dying trying to keep our composure because no one noticed! It was a completely successful chicken insertion! ha! once we got in the car afterward, we both started busting up!
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Anyway, that is some of the most exciting new I have this week! Things are going great! I'm having a ton of fun and can't wait to hear from you next week!
Love,
Elder Ethan John Rowbury
Training has been so fun! My new companion is Elder David Stowe. He is from Tooele,
UT. He is the older brother to three sisters. He really enjoys computer programming and things like that! I'll include some pictures of him in the email. It was actually his 19th birthday on Friday and we were able to go eat with some members who made his favorite food (pizza) and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cake for him. It was so fun!
However, this week I have a good story for you! Last Tuesday night we were saying goodbye to many of Elder Hinrichsen's favorite families because he was being transferred. So we had planned dinner with Sue, a superstar Recent Convert, and there we just stuffed ourselves. What we had forgotten was that another family had told us they were going to feed us as well that night. So we get into the next home we were visiting and they say, "Don't worry guys, we have already eaten! So here are your plates and you can go eat at the table and we will visit with you." We are then handed this big ol' plate with squash green beans and two huge pieces of dry rub chicken with a large cup of milk to go with it. And these were Investigators who weren't doing too well financially so we couldn't just not eat what we were given. We both look at each other after we sat down like we were going to die. So we started and everything was going well. We pounded down the squash and beans and the first piece of chicken along with the cup of milk and all that was left was the final piece of chicken. We were both completely full and had no more room when I see Elder Hinrichsen pull up his backpack onto his lap and set his scriptures on the table. Confused I looked around to see if he was just getting ready to share a thought while we were eating and by the time I looked back his chicken was gone! I looked at his plate in wonder when I realized he had put the chicken in his
backpack! No bag, no tinfoil, no wrap or nothing! He just put his chicken straight into the bag! haha We were both dying trying to keep our composure because no one noticed! It was a completely successful chicken insertion! ha! once we got in the car afterward, we both started busting up!
Anyway, that is some of the most exciting new I have this week! Things are going great! I'm having a ton of fun and can't wait to hear from you next week!
Love,
Elder Ethan John Rowbury
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