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