Just Made it to Cochabamba! - April 24, 2018

Wow wow wow it is so beautiful here!! But we only have 5 mins, so unfortunately i didn't read the letter from you this week. I'll look forward to reading it next week! We left the CCM at 7 last night, and just arrived in Cochabamba 2 hours ago!! Crazy crazy! I also am starting to miss my district already, but i'm sure they'll all do great in their missions! We've started taking pictures, but i don't have time to send them this week. (i'll catch ya next time) This past week i spoke in church again!! 2 weeks in a row, AND i taught relief society. I have felt like I've got a lot put on me this past week, but i'm getting through it with a smile on my face. The one thing I've realized since leaving my district is that for the first time i really kind of feel alone. but not too alone. I know my savior is with me where ever i go, no matter how well i can communicate with others. Love you so so much!!

Hermana Rowe

Last P-day of the CCM! - April 18, 2018

Wow lots of stuff has happened this week!! So I guess to start off i'll talk about a cool experience I had this week. So one of the maestros, Hermano Sosa (whom we all love so much because he is hilarious!) heard me singing and asked me to sing his favorite hymn, Abide with me tis eventide, and asked if he could record it. I said sure, sang for him, and thought that was that. Now, a few weeks ago, I met one of the other maestras here, who's name i believe is Hermana Gutierrez, and we talked about our families, and i saw that she had a Dominican republic pin on, so i asked her about it. And i found out that she served with Jacob! And then i thought that was that too. But then last night, Hermano Sosa came up to me and said that he'd sent the recording to her, and she had sent it on the Jacob, and that mom was crying about it! It gave me so much joy to remember that communication works so quickly (because he recorded me yesterday) and that my family got to hear my voice again! (even though i mispronounced a bunch of the words)  (We got a recording of Jessica singing Abide with Me in a text from Jacob.)

So fun story from last week, my compañera really really wanted her hair cut, and i told her that i knew how to do it, though i'd never done it before, and she trusted me enough to do it!! So now I've given a haircut, and it turned out really well, and she actually loves it!! 

Another funny story, this same Hermano Sosa came up (seriously he is so cool) to us hermanas while we were eating, and before he left i was trying to tell him that we as a whole love him, but i accidentally told him that I loved him hahaha don't worry though i fixed it, so all is good and well in the world, but still it was pretty funny

On this past Saturday we had the chance to go proselyting with some of the missionaries from the Lima East mission, and it was so awesome! I got to practice my Spanish, the hermanas that i was with were super nice, and i gave away lots of pass along cards, and even gave an investigator a Book of Mormon with my testimony written in it! One of my favorite parts of the activity were that 2 different times, there were people that I stopped on the street, gave them a card, and asked if they'd like to learn about Christ, who actually really wanted to, and at some point this week they are meeting with the missionaries!! It made me so excited to go out into the field, but it also made me realize that my Spanish is seriously not where it needs to be. So hopefully that'll improve a lot more once i'm in the field.

This week we began orientation for the campo! I'm so excited to be heading out so soon! 

I love you all so much! I'm so excited to serve the Lord, and i can't believe i'll be in my mission in 5 days!! Wish me suerte!!

Hermana Rowe

Here is the audio of Jessica singing.  I put it to some of the pictures she has sent in the 5 weeks she has been out.  

1 Month in the CCM - 4-11-2018

Momma thanks so much for sending the report! (She requested the church stats because they wouldn't be able to look them up.)  I was missing fast Sunday dinner this week! I thought about you all as i ate my pollo y arroz. I also told everyone in my district that post mission they are all welcome to come have a fast Sunday dinner at our house, but we'll see if that ever happens :) (I have been asking her every week where all the missionaries in her district are going and she finally answered!) So my companion Hermana Agasen is from Canada, going to Peru Chiclayo mission. Hermana Coats from South Jordan Utah, Elder Eduria from the Philippines, and Elder Villareal also from the Philippines are going to Lima Este, Hermana Gundersen also from South Jordan Utah and Elder Thornton from Australia are going to Lima Norte, Elder Neyra from South Carolina is going to Ariquipa, and Elders Baxter from Oregon (he is from Union) and Sabin from Mesa Arizona, are going to Bolivia Santa Cruz Norte, so they'll both be on the plane ride over to Bolivia with me in 2 weeks. And yes! there are tons of people in the CCM again!

Dad - I'm very proud of Elijah for branching out! That's so cool that she served in my mission! (Her Dad told her that there is a new young couple in our ward and that the wife came home from the Cochabamba mission 2 1/2 yrs ago.  She said the potatoes called chunos are kinda gross and not what we think of.  Jessica loves potatoes and was excited when she heard she would be eating them A LOT!  We will see when she gets there.)   And those chunos... hmmm we;ll see how i feel about them when i get there. I've met a few latina hermanas from bolivia, and all of them say that the weather in Cochabamba is great, and they serve tons of food, so don't be surprised if by the end of my time in the CCM i'm a little bit bigger, because I've been working on preparing my stomach for large quantities jaja. I miss talking with ya daddypa! Your antics are so fun and i miss being about to quote things with you (and this statement goes for all members of the fambam )

So this week!! We received lots of new principiantes this week, although less than us. So there are about 90 Latinos and 20 English speakers. It's so fun to start over with all the new Latinos because now we actually know how to ask and understand getting to know you questions! We love the Latinos they are so fun!! We love talking with them, eating with them, playing sports with them, you name it! And it's great practice for our Spanish too!

Some funny stories from this past week: This week when we were alone we played soccer as a district and it was so fun! (for me at least! All my soccer skills from when i was a kid came back and i was destroying people! in a non competitive way, of course) The next day we played ultimate Frisbee with the principiantes, and that was a blast! A funny part of what happened (me being silly) was that i had run to catch the Frisbee and missed it. I was a little frustrated that i had missed it, so i went to jokingly kick it away from the other team when Elder Neyra from my district came running in to pick it up, and i accidentally kicked him in the shins!! i felt so bad, but it was SO FUNNY!!! I need to be better at turning down my competitive energy i think jaja. 

Like i told mom earlier, fast Sunday i couldn't help but think about the traditional fast Sunday dinner, sugar muffins, scrambled eggs and bacon. Wow i missed it a lot! but it's alright, i'll have it when i get back :) 

My piano skills have really come in handy here at the CCM! I play piano for basically everything that a piano is needed at, like yesterday, we have a devotional (live from the Peru CCM) with Elder Godoy and I was the pianist! So now I've played for a general authority, what what!! It was also a cool devo because it was in Spanish, so they gave us headsets and we listened to it translated. So cool!

I'm out of time for this week, but i love you all so much!!!! Read the Book of Mormon every single day and it will bless your life! Love love love,

Hermana Rowe

3 Weeks down and 3 Weeks to go (En el CCM)!! - March 3, 2018

Wow wow wow what to talk about! Conference was amazing!! I seriously had my mind blown so many times!! Also, sad side note: I left my journal with my conference notes back in the room, so I won't be able to make as many comments as I'd like, but i'll give y'all my best. (BTW could you let me know what the church stats are? We really wanted to know but we can't look them up! Since they didn't get announced) Some things that I really felt were emphasized was that President Nelson is supposed to be the prophet!!! Wow wow wow seriously we got hit with that message over and over, and seriously the Spirit was so strong! Being on the mission and watching conference seriously is so amazing! That was the shortest conference I've ever experienced, but also the most spiritually rich! A really great quote from Lynn G. Robbins was, "Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm" This really stuck out to me because it is so easy to get discouraged when we fail (especially as missionaries in training) but something else he said was that failure should be our tutor. I also loved what Taniela B. Wakolo said, "Casualness leads to casualties." We need to be active in the work. If we are too casual about our conversion, we ourselves will be a spiritual casualty in our daily battles against the adversary. Some messages from Sunday that I loved were: Claudio D Zivic - Endure and you shall triumph! Henry B. Eyring - It's your choice to receive the Spirit into your life. Dallin H. Oaks - Be civil and cheerful in personal interactions. And of course Dieter F. Uctdorf - Behold the man! I also noticed that a TON of hymns were quoted throughout the conference, which made me super happy because most of the hymn books down here are in Spanish. 

So some things about this week:

I feel like my Spanish improves in leaps and bounds when we hermanas decide to use only Spanish at meal times! It also helps us really get to know some of the latinas better, and it's super fun! For some reason (I think it may be the fact that we mess up so much jaja) we seriously laugh so much more when we try to speak in Spanish! This week we were introducing ourselves to some Latino Elders sitting at the table next to us, and so they wanted to know how to pronounce my name, so I said, " It's like 'row row row... su... boat!" jajaja because i didn't know the word for row or for boat, and i used air finger quotes when i said boat, and for some reason we all thought it was the funniest thing ever! Also, they don't sing Row row row your boat in south america!! So i'm sure they thought i was just super weird jaja, but that's just fine :) 

We also (Hermana Agasen and I) have been improving a lot with our investigators! Our gospel Spanish is getting a lot better, and seriously we have had some good progression! Not as much as the other hermanas, but really that doesn't matter! We have been doing our best to really listen to what the investigators are feeling and follow the spirit in our lessons. We were supposed to teach yesterday, but our normal maestra was sick, so the sub (who is a meastro names Hermano Sosa who we all love dearly because he is SO SO funny) had us draw for it, and we didn't get to go! But it was ok since we got extra study time.

Also! Feliz Pascua! I hope everyone got to paint eggs and eat chocolate to their heart's content, cuz i didn't jajaja

Lots and lots of love!! Have a happy week!!

Hermana Rowe