Rain, que te pasa?! - Oct 29, 2018

This week has been a little crazy, but not too bad. I spent my time really bad today in internet and accidentally put writing my group email at the end of my to do list, so you´ll be getting the really watered down version this week... sorry!

On Tuesday we did one of the hardest things that we´ve had to do for the whole mission: We had to tell an investigator that we couldn´t visit him anymore. (Hugo). We were so sad!! It wasn´t our plan going into the lesson, but it was was the Spirit told us we had to do, and we both went home crying afterwards (it was our last appointment). He had been progressing SO WELL, but didn´t want to go to church (actually, he told us he´d go to church in 8 years...) so we had to stop visiting him. I hope the Lord can forgive him. We loved teaching Hugo (and he told us that his name is actually Hubert... What the heck!!??) and are going to miss seeing his growth, but I know the Lord want us to focus on other people right now. This week we had our interviews with President, and it was really good. I was glad to tell him all that was going on because there have been some pretty inappropriate things that my companion has been doing, so it felt good to talk it through with him. After my interview, I felt like I will probably train next transfer, but we´ll see! (Presidente Montoya is LOCO with the transfers, nobody can ever really tell what´s going to happen because sometimes it is SUPER random). On Friday, our district leader had another baptism (their area is a little farther out of the city than ours) and their INVESTIGATOR asked me to sing since she had heard me before, so that was pretty cool. On Saturday there was a stake traditional dance activity and we had an investigator go, so we got to go too! It was REALLY cool. I´ll see if i can send a few videos. On Sunday it was pretty normal, but I played piano for the stake choir practice (it´s stake conference here in like 2 weeks) which was fun. Today we went to the Cristus statue, which just so happens to be the biggest in the world! (I guess, that´s what it said on the plaque from 1994... so i´m not sure if it´s up to date or not.)

That was my week! Sorry it was so short. Please keep sending me emails, they lift my spirit when things are hard, and I LOVE knowing what´s going on the the outside world :) 

Amor,

Hermana Rowe

The Worst/Best Week Ever - Oct 22, 2018

So I hear good ol´cousin Andy´s finally home! I emailed him a few months back and he seemed to be doing well, so let him know that I say hi :) 

Tuesday: We got to help our district leaders move to their new apartment in the morning with our district which was fun! Then we had our district meeting and had lots of appointments in the afternoon. In the evening we had an appointment that was kinda rough. It was with an investigator that´s been progressing pretty well, but he just kinda wanted to argue that night. I think he had talked to one of his friends that doesn´t really want him to be a member of the church, because he kept saying that we were using good strategies to convince him of these things, and that he read a book about it and that we were doing literally all the things that the book said! (At least we know how to communicate well with others i guess...?) So that was a little hard, especially on my comp. That night was super hard to stay on topic, and at the end when we were walking home we both felt terrible. And then we started intercambios and went our separate ways. I think it was a well placed intercambio.

Wednesday: All of the intercambio. I was with Hermana Polanco, who is my ´grandma' in the mission (the trainer of my trainer) so that was pretty fun. I realized that I need to have less fear about talking with people in the street, and that i´m missing out on lots of opportunities to talk with lots of willing people:

Thursday: Had an evidence that I need to be contacting in the street more: we were walking to an appointment, we were kind late, and we said hi to a girl walking in the street. We passed by her, and then i felt like i should talk to her, and even though we were late I knew that i needed to do it since i had just made a goal to do it more. And when we talked with her, she said that she had met with the missionaries before and was really interested in learning more. We´ve got our first appointment with her tomorrow :) Today was also really hard because my comp seemed really really mad at me and I didn´t know why. I felt very alone. In the evening when we got home I went out to our terrace and I seriously just prayed out loud. The first time in a long time that i´ve done that. I cried. I missed my family. I missed home, i missed being with people that have the same culture as me, everything. I just wanted a hug from my parents. But all I could do in that moment was pray. So I did, for an hour until i had to go to bed. SUPER hard night, i´ve never really done that before in the mission.

Friday: In the morning we had companionship inventory. It lasted for 2 hours (that´s REALLY LONG for those of you who´ve never done one before) but at the end everything was worked out. She has been going through a lot of things that i didn´t realize, and I felt very selfish and self centered after that. But we worked things out, so that´s what´s important :) It was kinda a hard morning though.

Saturday: We got to watch a special broadcast from Peru! With Pres Nelson and Elder Stephenson and their wives. It was JUST for missionaries, and it was AWESOME. I felt very inspired after that. And something really cool is that Elder Thornton from my district in the CCM gave the opening prayer! It was fun to see him, his Spanish has improved a lot haha :)

Sunday: President Nelson (and Elder Stephenson and their wives) spoke to all of Bolivia from La Paz! It was super cool. AND!! Pres. Nelson spoke in Spanish!! I didn´t know he spoke Spanish!! It was really cool to see (and also kinda funny... i felt bad for laughing to myself a little bit since he´s the prophet, but his accent was VERY gringo). 

Monday: Today we went to the cancha to buy fabric because our district is making matching dresses and ties for the zone conference, and then we went to a Ecuador party (since my comp is from Ecuador). That was pretty much it today :) 

That was my week! It was kind of the worst because of the crying fest that I had, but it was also kinda the best because it felt like general conference take 2! 

Lots of love and sunshine from Cochabamba,

Hermana Rowe

Happy 7 Months to Me! - Oct 16, 2018

This Sunday made 7 months for me, and I can hardly believe how fast the mission is going!! In only 2 months I´ll be halfway through my mission!! WHAT?? 

Monday: Last Monday I ended writing at the beginning of the day since we had plans for the afternoon. We went to the airport to say goodbye to all the people going home, and it was probably the trunkiest I´ve been my whole mission, but it was good to say goodbye :) 

Tuesday: We ended up contacting a lot since a lot of our citas (appointments) fell through. Something a little hard about our area is that it is super central in the city, and a lot of people feel like they don´t need the gospel in their lives, or that they don't need to go to church to learn about the gospel. Kind of sad, but we´re trying to work through it. I have really been enjoying my time with Hermana Alvarado, something cool is that she reminds me a lot of my lil sis Emma.  Sometimes it is a little hard to get a long because she´s not a morning person and not as peppy as I am, but she is still a really fun, awesome person, and a great missionary :)

Wednesday: We couldn´t leave the house because everyone was protesting the president, so we studied idiomas! (and by that i mean we watching COCO in Spanish, and then Moana in English with subtitles) (both of which we have permission to watch from presidente). 

Thursday: My favorite thing we did today was make masitas with an inactive member of the church to try to animate (? She is thinking in Spanish which is great but I'm not really sure what she meant) her a little bit with the church. We didn´t take pictures, but they turned out really yummy :)

Friday: We had out first district meeting of the transfer, and it was pretty fun because only 2 people changed in the whole zone, so we all know each other pretty well. We also had to go to the clinic today to see if hermana Alvarado needs glasses (and she does) and that took up a lot of our day since we had to wait a lot, and the clinic is not in our area. In the evening we had a Noche de Cine. Only one investigator came, but it was really good. (we watched Meet the Mormons... I´ve been wondering if maybe they need to change the title of that movie...? haha no sé)

Saturday: Pretty much all of our appointments fell through again, so lots of contacting, but it was good. Sometimes we get so tired of contacting, but I always try to remember our purpose as missionaries when I get a little discouraged or tired of contacting,¨Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo, al ayudarlas a que reciben el Evangelio restaurado, mediante la fe en Jesucristo y su expiación, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepción del don del espíritu santo y el preseverar hasta el fin¨. That should more or less translate to ¨Invite people to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end.¨ My favorite part that I quote is the beginning, ¨Invite people to come unto Christ¨. I´m here to help others, I can think about myself when I get home (in less than a year, what??).

Sunday: We had church, consejo de barrio , and we got to visit someone in the hospital, then we went to stake choir, which I will be playing piano for, and we went to a family home evening in the evening.

Monday: Today Hermana Alvarado got her glasses (which took most of the morning) and then in the afternoon we went to a trampoline park with a bunch of other missionares which was pretty fun!

That´s it! Sorry it was short this week but i´m out of time! Love you all, and I love Bolivia!

Hermana Rowe

Have I Ever Mentioned that the Mission is Hard? - Oct 8, 2018

...Because it is. Sometimes it is really really hard. It´s so interesting because I´ll have a week where things go well and it feels easy, and others where I feel like I just want to give up because people just aren´t getting it, things like that. It´s different everyday, but I´m learning lots of patience :) 

Tuesday: We had zone conference. That was basically the whole day. Presidente talked a lot about the atonement, and it got some good insights and things to share with investigadores. 

Wednesday: We had a lot of appointments planned today, and did a lot of contacting because they basically all fell through. We also practiced English a lot today because Hna´s Alvarado´s English is pretty good (but she always says she doesn´t know much... she´s too humble haha). 

Thursday: We did weekly planning, And had a lot of appointments. We had one in the evening with a guy named Jaime. He has a lot of interests in the church, but also a lot of doubts. We were so ready to help him with those doubts, but his brother ended up being there, who is kind of a scriptorian of the Bible, and was trying to prove everything we said wrong with the Bible. It was more than a little difficult. We didn´t want to fight, so we didn´t get to answer a lot of Jamie´s questions, and now he has MORE doubts. A little frustrating, but hopefully the next time we meet with him his brother John won´t be there.

Friday: Again with lots of appointments and lots of contacting. Sometimes it just works out that way :) But it´s also a good thing, because really we should always being trying to find new people to teach, no matter how many progressing investigators we have. 

Saturday/Sunday: GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! WOW this was a good one. And I can´t say that I had a favorite talk, but I felt so engaged in the whole thing! With each speaker, I didn´t want them to stop talking!! One of the things I liked is that as I was watching it I was able to think about investigators! ¨oh, so and so needs to hear this¨ or things like that, with a LOT of the talks!! Super cool! I liked how direct they all were this conference. And I really felt like there were some strong themes about ministering (which I haven´t had the chance to participate in, but I´m excited to jump into when I get home! ) and love for ALL God´s children. I loved Pres. Oaks´ talk about being cautious when seeking truth, and where we should look for the truth (the church!!) and the truths that he listed in his talk.  And I also loved Pres. Uctdorf´s talk about having endless compassion like the savior. (and he always has to add a plane reference, doesn´t he? lol he´s the german shepard that made me laugh really hard)  I love President Russell M. Nelson. I know he is a chosen prophet of God, and that he really does receive revelation from God. 12 temples! Clarifying ´nicknames´ and always changing things up a bit. I know that what is happening in the church right now is the Lord´s will!!

Lots of Love!!

Hermana Rowe

Week Number: Who Knows? Oct 1, 2018

I haven´t been counting the weeks, so I honestly have no idea what number we´re at, but i do know that in 2 weeks i´ll have 7 MONTHS so somebody tell me how many weeks that is :) This week was super busy, and i really enjoyed it.

Tuesday: We had our last district meeting of the transfer (since tomorrow we have zone conference) and it was actually really good! We discussed some deep doctrine about the Holy Ghost that was pretty cool. In the afternoon we had our first real appointment with Dennys!! I don´t know if I´ve talked about him yet, but a few weeks ago he ran up to us (He was very very drunk) when we were walking home in the night and asked us if we taught about God, and that he wanted to learn. In the weeks following he was always drunk so we weren´t able to teach him, but this day we were lucky enough to find him sane! And he really needs that gospel in his life, I feel so privaledged to be able to help him learn about all the blessings that our Heavenly Father has in store for him. 

Wednesday: WE had intercambios and I was in an area called Tiquipaya with Hermana Ballard (she is one of our capacitadoras) and it was so fun! I always like the opportunities to be with gringas because they are so easy to relate to! It was a good day. :)

Thursday: In the morning we did a service project in the morning with a dog shelter. It was kind of funny at the beginning because The people that worked there said, Ok, all the elderes can come over here and help build these dog shelters and all the heavy lifting, and the hermanas can come over here and pick up all the dog poop and wash their dishes. I will not lie, i wasn´t very happy to hear that, especially since my personality is that i wanted to do the heavy lifting with the elderes (and i felt my little feminist streak coming out). But we ended up getting done pretty quickly with all the cleaning and helped the elders with the dog shelters. At one point the elders were all super tired and wanted to stop working for a while, and nobody wanted to take a certain wheel barrow of rocks, so i took it. :) I felt good about it haha, and everyone thought it was pretty cool that an hermana was doing some heavy lifting (but like i said, i would rather do heavy lifting than pick up poop). It was a fun morning :)  (Her bishop's wife sent me some video on facebook messenger.  I saved the video to my facebook page.  I couldn't figure out how to copy it and send it with the email so you will have to go to fb to see it.)

Friday: Today was another average missionary day. Sorry that i don´t have a ton of memories of Friday.

Saturday: The Elders that we share out area with had a baptism and it was super beautiful. They are two young women, sisters, and we were so excited for them. It was interesting because they kind of felt like my converts, even though they weren´t. :)

Sunday: Just your average Sunday. :) Spreading the Gospel one person at a time. :)

Monday: Today we went to some waterfalls that people said were going to be really cool but actually were a little lame haha. But it´s alright, at least it was something fun to do. :)

That about sums up the week! Bolivia is a pretty cool place, and I love it a little bit more everyday :)

Hermana Rowe

She said her apartment is very nice.  I think it is the nicest one she has been in...