SDSU YSA: New Years

Yeah, so I hung up and then went over the people I talked to and realized I didn't talk to Jen. It made me sad. But it is all good.
  
Our Members took real good care of us on Christmas! I think we had like 3 or 4 people give us gifts throughout the last week.  It was really nice of them and made Christmas away from home a bit better. :)

I love the suggestions! it is funny how being a missionary somehow kills your driving abilities!  But the Lord looks out for us! haha This week has been full of fun experiences and interesting encounters... So we were able to add a ton of new investigators this last week! we were able to get in contact with this one dude for the first time in a month of trying him.  We had been striking out on finding him but luckily he lives with his Grandma and she was just the funniest lady.  She is seriously fits every stereotype of an awesome black ghetto grandma and is so stubborn it is hilarious!  She gave us a KFC coupon and everything! haha

As far as eating goes, we have been getting a lot of leftovers recently but usually we are able to get some groceries and we make our own food occasionally.  I actually make the bagel egg sandwich things quite often.  It is a lot like being back home and eating like a college student. haha.

Sorry this email is so short! But we didn't have much time this week.  Know that I love you and miss you!

Love,

Elder Ethan John Rowbury

SDSU YSA: CHRISTMAS TIME (not weather) IS HERE

I've got two packages but I haven't opened either of them yet... but I will in a little while.  But this Christmas is going to be really odd.  I was thinking about it earlier today and it doesn't really feel like Christmas yet with the weather being in the 70s and not being around family.  So I was thinking of calling somewhere around noon UT time on Christmas.  Just be available... or else i will have to call Ryan again! haha We went up to the mission office to get the mail today and normally we pick up our mail and the Spanish zone's mail but there were so many packages we could barely fit ours into our car.  We had to use every inch of that Corolla to get Christmas back to the missionaries.

So, First a silly story that Dad and the brothers will like.  So you remember Manti Te'o.... yeah the Mormon football player from Notre Dame who plays for the Chargers now. So... He is in our ward :) and we were texting him the other day about Church! We will have to see if we can get a lesson with him sometime at his place or something! haha

Speaking of which, we gave talks on Sunday.  Mine was on Why I believe the "Church is True". It was actually a lot of fun because I just talked about experiences I have had in my life that have helped me come to know that the "Church is True". This next Sunday is the Christmas program in our ward and I am singing a solo... ugh... solos... It is going to be "he sent his son" from the children's hymnbook so it is all good because that is one of my favorites!

The students are all heading home for Winter Break but luckily a few have stayed for the time being.  We had an awesome day a few days ago where we sat down and had lessons with 3 of our most "solid" investigators. First we met with Allie (the girl we saw at the temple a few weeks ago) on a moments notice.  She broke the bad news that she wasn't able to get into all the classes she needed for school so she is going back to Arizona for a few months this week.  But we had an amazing miracle with her boyfriend Juan.  So we met with Allie, in the afternoon and had a lesson with the 2 of them later in the day.  We talked about the Law of tithing.  They had read a story online (never a good thing...) about this guy who didn't pay his tithing to pay some medical bills and because of that wasn't able to see his son be married in the temple.  However, by he end of the lesson and explaining everything they understood why everything happened and the steps the man should have taken to be able to pay a full tithing, his bills, and then see his son be married in the temple.  Allie and Juan always ask a lot of questions but we love it because they are always on point and are learning from the answers rather than letting it distract them.  Them reading that story actually led to them learning about tithing in more depth than they originally would have if they hadn't.  So it was a blessing in disguise!

Next we had a lesson with Mileena and talked more about preparing her for baptism.  She is being baptized in Colorado so we just have to make sure all goes smoothly up there and she is good to go.  She is way cool. And she is from Carmichael area! But right after our lesson with her, we got a text from Juan saying, "I think the LSD (he meant LDS, but it was a good laugh in the serious matter) Church is for me!!" We were freaking out so we said, "Awesome! When do you want to be baptized?" haha basically he said he wanted to think about a date a little more but we set a date with him yesterday for February 1st.

So yeah, that was my week... It was pretty fun! we are having a ton of fun doing the Lord's work! I got a card from Allen and Kymbra and wanted to say thank you for that! I love you all and hope you feel the special Spirit of Christmas his time of year!

Love,

Elder Ethan John Rowbury

SDSU YSA: I Wore My Sweater... 3 TIMES!

I thought of something I might need if it isn't too late... A plan of Salvation teaching aid... some cool things I have seen are like little wood circles or even just laminated pieces of paper it all helps. I tried to make one but about half way through the process it went missing... it made me sad... haha

Oh, and also in a few days you should get a package from me with two pairs of pants in it. So here's the deal the black ones were hemmed WAY too tight from the beginning and need to be put to a size 34 waist. You might notice they look really good. Well, I haven't worn them my whole mission... So I figured I could be like Cuzco in Emperor's New Groove and give myself a birthday present!  The Grey ones I could barely wear so I wore them occasionally but if they could be put at a 34 waist as well that would be just swell! :)

So this week I ate the largest burrito I have ever seen! No Joke! This burrito stretched from one corner of the food trey to the other! like TV measuring style! I about cried when I saw it. It was beautiful... Here are some pictures!!! :)

 

Let me tell you! I love working in this area! This last week in church we had a member bring someone to church who is so hungry to learn about the gospel! She had met him the previous day and asked him if he waned to come and he was way excited to be there.  We met with him after church and started teaching him the basics.  later that day, we are watching the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional and we get a call from another one of our members asking us where we are and if we have a Book of Mormon for his friend that wanted one right then. So we old him where we were and he came to us and we gave him a Book of Mormon.  We go his information and challenged him to start reading it.  He lives in a different mission so we are about to send his info off to the other missionaries when we get a text from our member telling us that his friend wants the missionaries to come over as soon as possible.  

The work is moving along and it is so awesome to be able to have a small role in the Hastening of His Work... Even if it is a freezing 50 degrees here. :) I have gotten used to the San Diego Weather so literally when it gets below like 60 degrees everyone bundles up.  I have used my sweater a few times this week as it has been raining.   But overall, it hasn't been too bad of weather. :)  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ethan John Rowbury

SDSU YSA: Thanksgiving Break

So... you know how many students stay around for Thanksgiving break?.... not very many... haha But we were still pretty busy for how few people we had to work with.  It felt like everyone was dead or something.  Speaking of which, it is good to know that mom is a good enough shot with a rifle to survive a zombie apocalypse! I loved the pictures! I about died seeing Ryan and Leah going gangster Santa this year.  And it is good to see that Elder Gundred is being taken care of and having success.  I miss him a lot but we do email every week, so we stay in touch.  

     

I got the tree! Elder Reece and I are super stoked to put it up in the apartment! I feel like I am missing out on a joke though because all of Leah, Mason, and Owen's ornaments said "I smell" on them... Kevin.... haha  So I was wondering what was up with that?  

     

I got my new companion last week. His name is Elder Josh Reece and he is from Payson Utah.  He is a super hard worker which is awesome! He spent 6 months in the Imperial Valley (the desert) and a little over a month in Julian. Yeah! Right next to Ramona! so it has been really fun trying to get used to being Zone Leaders because well, I've only been doing it for 6 weeks and this is his first transfer... So we are rocking it doing as best as we can for our inexperience.  We are working hard though! :) 

     

We have seen some awesome miracles the past week! First off, Ana Karen got baptized! She is so awesome! She is the one who grew up going to the Spanish ward around here and came back with her friends to the YSA  Ward.  Her parents only speak Spanish so we had the entire program in Spanish.  Elder Nichols even baptized her in Spanish! My favorite part (other than the ordinance itself, of course) was when we had two Spanish missionaries teach the Restoration while they were getting dried off.  We had a lot of people there that didn't speak Spanish so what they did was teach the Restoration in English and the other one translated.  It was super cool because the Spirit was so strong whether we understood everything or not.  

     

Next, we had like 20 minutes before we had to be in for the night and it was Thanksgiving weekend so no one was out by SDSU.  But we decided to walk around anyway and see who we could find.  So we talked to a few people and they are all moderately interested. After we gave away our last Book of Mormon we started walking back to our car, so we could head home.  But on our way to our car we see a guy munching down on some McDonald's.  So we start talking and he is just full of questions! He said that he had prayed earlier that week to be able to come closer to God and we told him, "Well, we are your guys!"  We had a great conversation and taught about the restoration and he loved it.

     

It is super fun to see all the crazy miracles happening in our day!  Elder Reece and I have had some really great experiences already.  We were able to be a part of an amazing miracle which strengthened my testimony in the priesthood this past week where Elder Reece healed a woman who had severe back pain. As she stood up straight and began to walk to her house she said, "The pain is gone! I feel much better now! Thank you!"  While we weren't able to find her LA grandson, I know that we were still needed there.

     

I love you all so much and can't wait to hear about the Christmas Craziness!

Love,

Elder Ethan John Rowbury