Last Week in Sucre ;( - Aug 27, 2018

Yes, I am being transferred! I leave tomorrow morning to go to Cochabamba, the name of my new area is Engavi 2, and I´m opening the area, so that´ll be an interesting experience!! My new comp is Hermana Alvarado, and the interesting part is that she´s been in my Zone in Sucre for my whole mission! She is pretty cool, though we have butted heads a time or 2, so i´m just going to start out the cambio with a goal to have positive thoughts. We actually were both ´born´ here in Sucre, so  neither one of us knows Cocha really at all, so it´ll be an adventure for sure! :) I´m excited. I´ve have a lot of mixed feelings actually. I´m really sad to be leaving my first area because i love the people so much here! And Sucre is SUPER beautiful. But I know that it´s the Lord´s will for me to be in this other area with other people.  So! The past week:

Tuesday: We had the last district meeting of the cambio, and it was super fun! At the end we had a mini going away party for the zone leader who is dying this transfer. He is actually flying home tomorrow. Wow ¡que trunky! Anyway, in the afternoon we mostly just contacted, but we got lots of good contacts that Hermana Piguave and her new companion (Hermana Saturno from my group) can use.

Wednesday: We had 2 new investigators, and I´m sad that I won´t have the chance to teach them any more! It is a woman who got in a really bad car accident 3 months back and hasn´t been ale to walk since then. (and her daughter) She is really super awesome, and told us that she feels like she needs to change something in her life. So of course we are super excited to be teaching her! (i´ll definitely be asking Hermana Piguave for updates on their progress) 

Thursday: All of our plans today were to go contacting. So we went to some of the outer reaches of our area, and we CONTACTED! But it was hard because there weren´t a lot of people who wanted to listen. But! We found one pregnant woman who at first we thought really didn´t want to listen, but I felt like we should keep talking with her, and it turns out that she has a lot of questions that we were PERFECTLY happy to answer! She is super awesome, I´m excited to see her progress. On Sunday we taught her and her husband again, and seriously it was super a good appointment. 

Friday: More contacting. This is probably my contacting transfer of my mission. It´s been good practice, but it´d be so much better if we had more consistent appointments. In the evening we had a family night with a recent convert (baptized before I was here) and her sister who isn´t a member. We watched some Mormon messages and shared our feelings. The spirit was so strong in that lesson. In the past I know that this sister was really unwilling to listen to missionaries, but she really opened up. I´m excited for the opportunities that Hna Piguave will have with her. MAN I am gonna have to trust in her a lot. I love the people here SO MUCH, and I really want to be the one to teach them, but I also know the Lord has perfect timing, and maybe I´m a good seed planter :)

Saturday: Today was fun because we got to help set up a baby shower for a lady in the ward as a service project. We left when it started (which the sisters were a little sad about, but we´ve got more important things to do, even though I LOVE things like that and part of me wanted to stay). In the evening there was a baptism of my district leader and his comp, and they asked me to sing at it, so i sang Nearer My God to Thee and I received a lot of very nice complements. An elder who was there told me that that is his favorite himno, and he felt the spirit really strongly while i was singing. I´m so grateful for my talents in music because they´ve really come in handy as a missionary. I have played piano every single Sunday in sacrament meeting, and had the opportunity to sing for a lot of baptisms (and the zone conference). I´m grateful that I can help people feel the spirit not only through lessons and words, but also through music. 

Sunday: The last Sunday in Universidad (and I´ve pretty much known that for the whole week). It was good. I will definitely miss that ward. In the evening we had a cita with an investigator named Rafael Nina (who is someone who pensions with the familia Calvimontez Mancilla (my old pension) and in the past he has told us that he is catholic, he doesn´t really want to change religions, all that jazz, but we were having this lesson as a last chance type of thing. He started out by telling us the same old things, but as he was talking he realized how much hypocrisy there is in the catholic church. About a year ago he was investigating the church, but stopped for the same reasons. He told us that maybe it´s for a reason that he is hearing about this church again. He told us that he knows that the Lord´s timing is perfect, so he said he´ll try again, for real this time. And I got to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon, and that was probably one of the most spiritual experiences I´ve had in my mission. I don´t really remember everything I said, just that I followed the spirit. It was one of those "The Lord will give you what you need to say"   moments (there is a scripture in the Doctrine &Covenants about that but i don´t remember where). Afterwards he said he´d read and pray about it. It made me so happy and so excited to hear!! I´m just sad that I won´t get to see more of his progression. Again, planting the seeds.

Monday: Today I´ve pretty much just been packing. We ate lunch with a family from the ward (last chance right?)  and pretty much nothing else. But it´s been good. I´m kind of just trying to drink in  Sucre for what is probably the last time in my life. (kind of a sad thought right? oh well)  

I know that my Savior lives and loves me. He loves each and every one of us. He is our older brother, and suffered for each and every one of our sins, our hurts and pains, and He did it all out of love. One of the ways that we show Him our love is through obedience. Daily scripture study and prayer is the key to feeling His Holy Spirit every day. 

Please pray for me and Hermana Alvarado that we won´t get too lost tomorrow haha. Lots of Love from Sucre, Bolivia!!

Hermana Rowe

 

The air in Sucre.  (Because we told her that we have had terrible air quality because of fires)

Jessica with Nelly (an investigator)

The baby shower set up...

Happy 5 Months to Me! - Aug 20, 2018

This week was a little crazy, but it was also super fun! I´ve had people asking me about how my living conditions are... yes, we have warm water. (don´t know about the elders though) We actually live in a really nice apartment, it is almost american level, but it doesn´t have an oven, and the cook stove is gas, and it´s one of the portable ones that you would normally go camping with. The water in the shower is bipolar. It is either super burning hot and you can barely stand in it, or it is FREEZING cold and you can barely stand in it. I have a very weird way of taking showers now haha. We basically don´t have to deal with any weird bugs (except that all the spiders have REALLY long legs and are kinda big). I guess i´m pretty used to the living conditions now. There are no such things as dishwashers or laundry machines or dryers, so that´s been a little different but nothing I can´t handle ;). 

Tuesday: Happy 5 Months in the mission! Every 14th of the month is my ´cumplemes´ and it´s been kinda fun to have a date to celebrate every month. Sometimes the month goes by WAY fast, and other times it drags along, but the important part is that I´m serving the Lord! Tuesday we had interviews with President, and I felt like it went really well. I had been feeling kind of at a low point, but I felt like I could get a lot of those feelings off my chest when I talked with him. One of the reasons I´ve been feeling kind of down is my comp. Hermana Piguave is awesome, really. She wants to work hard, and she wants to follow the rules. But she´s human. And as a human, she has faults, like we all do. One of hers is the fact that she is not afraid to tell you EXACTLY what she thinks. It´s often really rude what she says, even though it´s usually true. And this isn´t one of those ´grow a thicker skin hermana rowe´ things. This is one of those ´just hold out til the end´ things. It´s actually really interesting because we laugh together all the time. The majority of the time I really enjoy working with her, and I think a lot of that has to do with her work ethic. When there is nothing that she sees that i´m doing wrong everything is fine and dandy. It´s kinda interesting. Anyways, in the interview we talked about that and I felt a lot better afterwards. The way that she´s been talking to me actually has been affecting my attitude about things (myself as a missionary) and we´ve talked about it in companion inventory, but after 5 weeks it starts to get to you. The good side of that is that I feel like I´ll be changing areas this week, so that´ll be cool! I´ll be super sad to leave my first area and the people, but i´ve also been feeling ready to go for a few weeks now. But technically I don´t know i´m leaving next week. But at the same time i´m pretty sure.

Wednesday: This was a GOOD DAY!! I felt like a dang good missionary (not trying to brag, just stating a fact) because we contacted all day long, and we worked HARD! We talked to everyone, and we got TONS of references for other areas (that part kinda sucked, because we wanted them, but it´s ok , we´re all on the Lord´s team) but we also got 3 new investigators from our efforts so that was way cool! I felt good about the way we worked. It was a good day :) amen

Thursday: We were in Potosí all day because we had zone conference. It´s always a good time at zone conference, even though it was kinda cold.

Friday: We had just about a million appointments, and they ALL fell through, so we did some more contacting. Not a bad day :) I had the chance to share my testimony with an investigator about Joseph Smith, and I felt the spirit so strongly! I really felt like the Lord was speaking through me more than it was my words, and I think a part of that was because I said it in pretty much perfect Spanish without stumbling or anything. I hope he will be praying about Joseph Smith this week :) 

Saturday: Another day of lots of appointments (that didn´t fall through). It was a good day. Sorry I don´t remember much.

Sunday: We had the chance to visit with Pablo Saigua, and we came up with some good plans for what he can do to end his addiction for good. I just hope he´ll follow through with them.

Monday: Today we hung out at the stake center and watched Madagascar 2 as a zone. Recently President Montoya gave us permission to watch Coco (but we always had that), Moana, the Lion King, and Madagascar (he didn´t ever specify which, so we figured it was ok) so we figured we´d take advantage of it (especially since we had other plans but it was raining like crazy). Then we bought stuff for this week, and came to internet....

...aaaaaand here we are again, the end of the letter. I hope you all havew a wonderful week. Keep reading the scriptures, keep praying, and keep going to church! These seriously are the 3 things that will help you come closest to your Heavenly Father! 2 Nephi 26: 23-28:

23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.

24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.

26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.

27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.

28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.

Not sure why there are so many spaces... but hope you all enjoy the scripture! Lots of love from Sucre, Bolivia

Hermana Rowe

Her Zone

Her District

The Zone Leader that she has had for all of her mission so far.  He is going home this week.

Elders from her group (I believe she means they came to Bolivia with her from the training center) that are serving outside Cochabamba

The sisters in her Zone.

Here We Go a Contacting... Aug 13, 2018

Welcome back to the group email that is a story of my mission life! This week might have been one of the harder weeks of my mission, but not all the hard things were bad hard things. :) 

Tuesday: Had a hard time getting out of bed (because it was so dang cold!!10 Celsius = 50 Fahrenheit) but we got to daily planning at a good time. We found 3 new investigators because we spent the majority of the afternoon contacting, so that was good! We finally had the chance to talk with Pablo, and he told us that he feels really bad and wants to change. In the evening we had a family home evening with the Flores family, and they are super strong members, so that was super fun to talk with them!! It´s always good to talk with members like that because the majority you can´t really depend on, but the Flores family: yes you can. 

Wednesday: We contacted for pretty much the whole afternoon without a ton of luck. I´ve felt like contacting has kind of been one of my weaknesses of the mission, so i guess it´s good that i´ve been getting so much practice! But! In the evening we had the chance to visit with a young adult named Carina, she´s 22, and has a lot of questions which is always a good sign! We were able to bare testimony to her of the truth of the Book of Mormon, and I really felt the spirit testifying strongly of it´s truth. 

Thursday: We had the chance to help out a member of the ward prepare for their calling (music director) since I play piano every week for the ward. It was fun, and I enjoyed getting a little extra piano practice. We also contacted for pretty much the whole day since most of our appointments fell through. Yay... but it was good practice (that´s what i keep telling myself haha)

Friday: Today we had our district meeting, and one of the hermanas from the other areas in Sucre had to go to Cochabamba for trámites, so we had an extra hermana with hermana Piguave and I. It was fun to go to her area, since we never get to for intercambios, though we spent the most of the day in our area. One of her investigators is atheist, so it was really interesting to talk with him about the plan of salvation, but i felt the spirit really strongly as we were testifying of the reality of God.  That night we started intercambios

Saturday: My first intercambio outside of my area! It was super fun, I was with Hermana Jeppson and we had a great time! She really helped me out with some grammar things (because she could explain it to me in English!) and I helped her get some good contacts for the future, so that was good!

Sunday: Church was normal, but Pablo wasn´t there so we decided to visit him after church. When we knocked on the door, we could already smell the alcohol. He was SUPER drunk, and apparently he had gotten in a fight with his brother (that´s what he told us) because he had blood all over his face and is eyes were super red and lazy and puffy. It was pretty unsettling, especially to see in a convert of 1 month. (Actually tomorrow will be his one month mark, my 5 months in the mission mark) We had to just tell him to go lie down, and we left when he was still trying to talk to us. I really don´t know what to do to help fix this, especially considering that we pretty much never see him. I know that it is super important to get the ward involved, and we´ve talked a little about it in ward council, but it just doesn´t feel like enough. We also had a police officer follow us around (though he wasn´t in uniform) after we contacted him, so that was a little interesting... but don´t worry, we are safe and sound and haven´t seen him since!

Monday: Today we hung out pretty much in all parts of Sucre. I got to show Hermana Piguave around the central market, and we bought lots of good fruits that we´ll be trying this week. One of them is green and looks like a heart, but the fruit inside is white, and it is DELICIOUS!! I´m excited to eat more of it. 

Ta-da! There you have it! That was my week. Please keep the emails coming, I´ll do my best to respond right away but if I don´t just know that there´s one coming your way in a few weeks!! Lots of love from Bolivia!

Hermana Rowe

Rain Rain, Go Away - Aug 6, 2018

Welcome to this week´s letter. It´s been a little crazy, but also super fun!

Tuesday: We had a reunion de distrito like normal (district meeting) and had a family home evening with the family Calvimontez Mancilla, since we changed pensions and wanted to spend some time with them. And also because they are less active members and have gone through a lot of hard things, and need lots of support. 

Wednesday:  First day with the new pension, and all´s good.  Her name is Mishel Melgarejo, and her food is super delicious! She is peruana, and seriously i have loved eating at her house all week long. We visited with an investigator, Camila, who has been progressing really well, but this week she told us that her parents said she can´t get baptized (she´s 12) but she has cousins that are members of the church. That was pretty hard on me. Also, we went to visit Pablo, one of my recent converts, and he was super drunk, and we haven´t been able to find him since then. I´m really worried about him. I thought he was over his drinking addiction. He hasn´t been to church in 2 weeks, and I´m not sure how to help him. Anyone have any advice? 

Thursday: We got rained in at one of the houses we were at in the evening because we were far from home and it was hailing!! Super crazy. We went to bed cold that night.

Friday: We had a fairly normal day, studied, ate lunch, contacted, went to a lot of citas, and had a noche de hermanamiento. I think that translates to Fellowship night, but i´m not entirely sure. It was fun though!

Saturday: WOW it rained. And when I say rain I mean R.A.I.N. All day long. And half the time it was hail mixed with rain. It´s been DANG cold. It was a little miserable, especially since in the morning it was only slightly raining, and we didn´t have appointments so we decided to contact for pretty much the whole day. We were freezing cold and wet, but we didn´t die, and we actually had fun somehow. Did I mention that I don´t have rain boots? I looked a little ridiculous with my sport socks and church shoes, and they got pretty dang muddy, but it´s ok because they´re clean now :) I´m grateful for umbrellas!

Sunday: We spent a lot of today with members of the ward. It was also raining pretty much all day, so that wasn´t super fun, but it was alright. It was fast Sunday, and it was awesome to hear the testimonies of some less active members of the ward.

Monday: Today was the Mormon Helping Hands day of service for all of Bolivia, so that was the majority of our day today. It was super fun! I love my ward so much, and I love that i can actually understand them and communicate with them now! Also, today when we woke it up was 10 degrees Celsius in our apartment!! that´s 50 Fahrenheit, it was SO hard to get out of bed this morning. Heating and air conditioning doesn´t exist here.

So that was my week! Keep the emails coming, I love to hear about how friends and family and doing! 

"We must lengthen our stride" Presidente Spencer W. Kimball this is my theme for this week.

Stay in school kids! (and the church, it´ll bless your life!!)

Something she had this week.  Apparently it is common to have chicken feet in your soup in Peru...

Umbrellas

Bolivian Day of Service

Workin' hard, or hardly workin' eh Mack? - July 30, 2018

Brownie points to anyone who gets the refrence in the title. If you don´t know, you can ask my sister because she and I refrence this movie all the time to each other haha

Tuesday: We got the chance to visit with a recent convert, Blanca, who hasn´t really been coming to church. We went with a member of the Relief society presidency, and it was really good. We found out that the father of her sons has been drinking and not paying what i think is something like Bolivian child support, and some other challenges as well. But w had a really good spiritual conversation with her, and she came back to church this Sunday, so I´m glad that she can rely on the Lord for this support. 

Wednesday: We had an early intercambio this week, and I was in my area again with Hermana Cristobal. One of the reasons why it was so early was because they told us that we had to change pensions. I´d never heard of a sister training leader being about to do that before, but they said that they were receiving promptings that we need to change. I´m really sad to be leaving this pension, but I´m also excited for the new one because it is a less active member and I think our presence will really be able to help her out spiritually. 

Thursday: I don´t know why this happens every week, but I really don´t know what happened Thursday, and I forgot to write Thursday night in my journal... whoops. Another thing to get better at I guess :) 

Friday: We had the chance to visit with one of our investigators who´s cousins is a recent convert, AnaCarla, but the investigator is named Camila. She is 12 and is super sweet! We set a baptismal date with her, and I was the one who asked! It felt so good. I´ve really seen big improvement in my Spanish, and actually a lot of people have started to notice that. I think a big part of it is that i´m not with Hermana Padilla anymore, since she was a TALKER! Hermana Piguave is a little more quiet, and so I have a lot more chances to use my Spanish with members of the ward. I feel a lot more like I´m in a companionship, instead of just being dragged along everywhere. I also love spending time and having fun with Hermana Piguave because it´s more of a righteous fun, if that makes since. We are doing more things in the Lord´s way, and I´m absolutely loving it! 

Saturday:  We had correlation with our ward mission leader (just like every Saturday morning) and we talked about some good stuff. It made me grateful for his support this week, and then I also remembered that at one point my dad was the ward mission leader. Thanks for your hard work Dad! I remember the missionaries coming to our house every week, and I know you were an awesome support for them. I´m also super grateful for the ward i´m in, because a lot of the members are pretty active in missionary work, and want to help out. My district leader doesn´t even have a ward mission leader, and they ask the bishop every week to call somebody but he keeps not doing it. 

Sunday: We only had one investigator come to church today, but it was ok because almost all of our recent converts were there, and a lot of less active members came too :) It´s interesting to me how Sundays feel less like Sunday in the mission, and a big part of that is because we are doing the same things in Sunday that we do on other days. Some times I miss the resting part of day of rest haha, but vale la pena, it´s worth it. 

Monday: Today we cooked Ecuadorian food with Hermana Padilla and her comp for the zone, and it tasted pretty good (though it was a lot of meat). It also took 4 hours for the meat to cook on the parilla (I think that means grill... it´s not exactly the same, but pretty similar) (yeah, i know, FOUR HOURS... it was a long 4 hours) so we played sports and talked and it was all pretty fun.

So that about sums it up! We worked hard this week, and we enjoyed doing it. I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be, and I´m excited keep on pushing through! I read an awesome scripture in Alma this week that has been a really good support to me, and might even become the motto of my mission: 

36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.  (Alma 37:36-37)

I can´t get the type to go back to normal, so i guess i´ll just let it be haha. Hope you all have a great weak, and use the power of prayer!!

Hermana Rowe

Jessica sent multiple picts of Bolivian dogs for her sister.  This one is particularly cute!

She spelled "Rowe" with her soup.  She is always finding ways to enjoy herself.