I Feel Like I'm the one Being Trained! - Nov 26, 2018

So! It has been kinda a crazy week, and I´ve been dead tired, but it´s been a good dead tired!

Tuesday: I spent the day with Hermana McGuire (another missionary who is training, and also happens to be from Washington) (but she´s from the west side). We went back and forth from my area to hers, since our areas touch borders. It was a fun day. It´s kinda a luxury now for me to be able to spend a whole day talking in English! (except in the appointments of course) It was pretty fun, and she´s a cool Hermana.

Wednesday: I got my hija! (daughter) It´s kinda weird to think about it because I have a few friends who just entered the mission field this week in other parts of the world, so it´s weird that I could basically be training them! My hiija´s name is Hermana Muñoz, and she´s from Chile. She is very sweet and kind and thoughtful (reminds me a lot of Abby Henry) and has a great attitude about missionary work. At first she was SUPER nervous to talk with anyone, but now (Monday) she is doing a lot better.

Thursday: We had a few appointments today, but a lot of them fell through, and every time that happened, Hna Muñoz would say, ¨Hey, let´s go knock some doors¨ or ¨Okay, I want to go talk with those people¨ and things like that. It´s been really fun to see how in tune with the spirit she is, especially since she´s fresh from the CCM. She actually is really inspiring me a lot in the way of contacting, because before this week it was never really something that I enjoyed or loved, it was kinda more something necessary to find and teach more people, but after spending so much time doing it I´m starting to like doing it more! (Even though getting references is the best thing in the world!) 

Friday: So... we contacted all day, But I really didn´t feel bad about it because Hna Muñoz was so excited to talk with everyone! We had district meeting in the morning, so that´s always fun. 

Saturday:  The majority of what I remember from Saturday is using the whole day to contact. It´s interesting because no matter how many appointments you plan, the majority of the will fall through, yes or yes.  But at least we visited with lots o people! We´ve got 23 written contacts from the past 5 days, so not too shabby!! Usually I might be halfway through the transfer with that number, so let´s hope all the contacting and diligence pays off! 

Sunday: I felt like we spent the whole day in the capilla, because we had a 2 hour ward counsel after church (it should be 1 hour).  We spent all day walking and looking for contacts who didn´t want to be found, so we got home DEAD tired, but that´s the new norm, so I guess it´s a good thing. :D

Monday: We went to the store, bought ´the goods´ , played wallyball, went the the mall for lunch, and are doing internet. Oh, and I washed all my clothes this morning which took FOREVER (I miss washers and dryers) but it´s a part of life here in Bolivia.

Aaaaand that was my week! We are working hard so we can sleep hard haha!! I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, since I didn´t actually know Thanksgiving was going to be this past week until people told me haha. 

The church is true. If you don´t believe it, go find out for yourself. Read the Book of Mormon EVERY DAY! It will bless your life!

I love you all! I know Christ loves you... and we can pretend that Bolivia loves you too haha!

Hermana Rowe

And my cambio is... - Nov 19, 2018

.......I'M GONNA TRAIN!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY I'm very very very very very very very very very very very happy about my cambio!! I'll meet my 'kid' on Wednesday, so we'll see!!

Tuesday: We got to do a fun service for a recent convert of the Elders, Hermana Ana!  Her brother in law has a toy store, and she helps put together the toys that they order from china in her house, so that's what we spent a lot of the afternoon doing! We really helped her get some stuff done! She was so grateful that she invited us to eat lunch later in the week.

Wednesday: Happy 8 months to me! I seriously feel like I'm still a new missionary, how have i been here for 8 months?? I'm so grateful for the many things I've learned about life, serving, being more like Christ, etc. I know that our Father in Heaven is pleased with us when we give up our will for His. That is honestly one of the hardest things about the mission, because the rules are so specific and there's so many! But He blesses us and helps us to accomplish what He's asked when we are willing, and when we ask Him to help us.

Thursday: We had another service activity in the morning where we helped an older single lady in the ward clean out some of her garage and put up some decorations. Today we ate with Hna Ana for lunch (we thought it was just going to be for us, but she invited the Elders too...whoops). Then we did our last weekly planning as a companionship. One of the things I realized is that even though these two cambios have been SUPER hard for me, I love her. There are a lot of things about her that I'm going to miss too, and there's a lot that I've learned from her. But! I'm still happy to be training :)

Friday: Zone Conference with Elder Fallabella! (he is the area president and a member of the Quorum of the Seventy.) It was awesome to listen to him. He had some amazing insights about how we can contact better. From now on I'll be walking with a Book of Mormon in my hands, and trying to talk with everyone not only when we are 'contacting' but if we've got time also with the people on the way to appointments and things like that. Normally conference is from 9 to 1 pm with lunch, but this was from 9 am to 4 pm (with lunch in the middle :) ) Then in the evening we had a ward activity where everyone brought desserts, we all shared, we played games with food, etc. AND we had 3 investigators come, which I think was the best part! 

Saturday: We only had the chance to visit a few people because a bunch weren't home, and because the stake conference was this week (and I played piano for the adult and general sessions) so we had to be at the stake center early. I liked what was said about every member a missionary. That really it's the job of the MEMBERS to bring their friends to church, to get their coworkers and neighbors ready to hear the gospel, and invite them to meet with the missionaries. In an ideal world, missionaries shouldn't have to contact because the members are constantly working to invite and bring others to church. It was pretty cool, I liked it a lot. I also liked that they talked about how really the purpose of ward council is to better facilitate missionary work. Pretty dang cool. 

Sunday: Stake Conference! A LOT of good things were said about how we need to sacrifice ourselves and what we want a little bit more. They talked about the parable of the rich young man, and about the stripling warriors. It was awesome. In the afternoon we ran around searching for people to visit (like almost every Sunday because it seems like people don't really like to meet with us on the sabbath... kinda weird, but yeah). We had a FHE with a part member family, and then went home to hear our cambios! We had to wait until after 11 pm to hear! (that kinda stunk, but at least then we knew)

Monday: Today has been pretty relaxed. This morning I was making the agenda for my 'kid' and trying to clean up the house a little bit so that things will be ready for Wednesday when she gets to come home. :) We're going to the airport in 15 mins to say goodbye to the people heading home. 

That was my week! I'm so excited to see what this week brings!  Lots of love from Cochabamba, Bolivia!

Hermana Rowe

It is a 'thing' to have the whole zone have matching outfits.  The sisters in the zone had these dresses made.  These turned out much better than when she did it in the last zone.

Joyful Jessica!

assembling toys

Patience is a virtue... - Nov 12, 2018

First of all, shout out to my big bro Jacob, today is his 22nd birthday! I realized that last week that I didn´t even put a title because I was so excited to respond to people´s emails... whoops haha. So glad to hear about people going to the temple this week! Hope you felt the blessings :)

Tuesday: Last district meeting of the transfer! (wow that was fast!) In the evening we had a practice with the primary because I´m playing piano for the primary program.

Wednesday: We had the chance to visit with an investigator named Jhennifer, and she is super fun! She has been meeting with missionaries for a SUPER long time, since her sister is a member of the church, and her boyfriend too. She feels a little confused, she´s not sure if she would want to join the church just for her sister, her boyfriend, or for her, so she´s been trying to figure that out (we´ve been trying to help her develop her testimony of the book of Mormon so that she´ll want to get baptized for herself!) But she comes to church almost every week, and likes it, but has seen a lot of hypocrisy in the members of the ward, and a few of them have been kind of unkind to her, so that makes me really sad (especially since they are returned missionaries). It makes our job as missionaries super hard when members don´t help us out by being friends with investigators. In this ward there is a lot of talk about things happening or changing, and then it doesn´t. But! Patience is a virtue. There are a lot of good helpful people in the ward, but sadly for a lot of people (especially investigators) it´s hard to see the good when there is something bad present.

Thursday: More practicing for the primary program :) I was a little frustrated with my comp because every time we have these practices (or the stake ones) she just leaves the room. And it´s not like I can follow her because I´m sitting at the piano playing it. Every time. There´s been a lot of other things too... I don´t need to mention them, but let´s just say that being obedient is hard. I started looking at my own faults this week to focus on the things I need to change instead of what she needs to. It´s hard because a lot of the things are companionship things. I´m kind of glad that I only have a week left with her. Don´t get me wrong, during the day we are like friends, but sometimes the way she talks to me hurts my feelings. And i´ve told her that, but she doesn´t try to change. BUT!!!! I will repeat: PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE, and it´s one I´m learning very well. We´ve had a bit of a hard time finding investigators who are truly interested in learning about the gospel. We have a lot who we thought that maybe they were, but then they don´t progress. Not sure how to fix it. We´ll keep looking for new people to teach. (and we have been for the past 3 months)

Friday: Full of canceled appointments and fallen back up plans. We spent the whole day walking. At least my legs are getting strong, right? I found some scriptures that every member of the church should read:  (they are basically about how we need to love and help and friendship others... I´ve been thinking about Jhennifer´s situation a lot) Helaman 6:3 and 3 Nephi 18: 22-23

Saturday: Today there was a choir practice for the stake conference. Most of our appointments fell through again. Patience patience patience

Sunday: Today was the primary program. It was super cute. After church we had the chance to go visit Dennys, who is in the hospital right now because he drank (alcohol) so much that he had internal bleeding in his esophagus. So, we decided that it would be a good time to give him the Word of Wisdom wisdom pamphlet to read when he has nothing to do. :)

Monday: Today really was just a preparation day. We cleaned, bought food, and printed pictures to give to people who are in their last transfer. 

That was my week! I´m trying to be a little more obedient each day, I´m trying to develop my teaching skills a little better every day, I´m trying to make my Father in Heaven a little prouder of me every day. Sometimes life is SO hard, but it´s not worth it to give up. We just have to keep fighting, and rely on the Lord to guide and help us. Prayer is so important. As I´ve prayed many times each day I realize that our Father knows us, listens to us, and WANTS to help us, even if it´s just to give us a little comfort to help us get through the day. One of the things I´ve been thinking A LOT this week is something that my dad has always told me: Being happy is a choice, so CHOOSE to be happy. That´s one of the things that has really helped me get through the week this week. I´ve been trying my very hardest to choose to be happy, even when I´m frustrated with myself, with my comp, with the ward members, with the area... I´m choosing to be happy, and I´m trying to be patient.

Lots of love,

Hermana Rowe

our last district meeting (almost all the zone)

After the primary program

The Temple! - Nov 5, 2018

So! To start off the letter this week, I realized that last week the title was about rain and then i didn´t mention anything about rain in my letter... (we noticed that too and were wondering about it...) basically what´s been happening is that it keeps raining during the night (and it wakes me up because we sleep with the window right above my head open, or it gets too hot) then in the morning for a few hours, stops in the afternoon and starts back up again. It´s SUPER loco. So I guess now i´ll get to what happened this week :)

Tuesday: WE FINALLY WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!! (We go as a zone) After 7 months I finally got to go to the temple again, and it was really what I needed. I realized that I had forgotten some of the covenants I´d made with my heavenly father, and that made me kinda sad. I have a renewed need to be more obedient. I remembered a little bit more about the plan of salvation, and I felt the spirit SO strongly. As a missionary, we feel the spirit a lot of the time, but it´s always welcome when it´s a little more palpable. So, I´ve got an invitation for all of you: Go to the temple!! And please please please do it often, whether you are a youth or adult. As a youth, I was so blessed to have a temple 10 minutes away from my house, but i went less than once a month. I wish I would have gone more often! Preparing for my mission I went almost every week, and we went every week in the CCM and I have realized that the temple is SO IMPORTANT. The prophets aren´t just telling us to go frequently for no reason. :) The blessings of the temple are so very important in each of our lives, and I know that if you will make a commitment to go to the temple more often (make it a goal, priority, etc) you will feel the spirit more in your life and you will be better guided by the spirit. Our father in heaven loves us so much, and that´s why he´s provided temples for us, so we can come closer to him, feel more of his spirit and he can bless us with even more blessings! (yes, going to the temple is kinda like wishing for more wishes!) So... (here´s where i´d get you to commit to going to the temple jaja)

Wednesday: Happy Halloween!! Hermana Alvarado and I dressed up (but don´t worry, nothing crazy, we just had cat ears all day). My favorite part of Halloween is that we got to go visit an investigator that´s in the hospital because she had a spinal surgery. She´s doing well :) And seeing our cat ears brought her a little joy and amusement jaja.

Thursday: Happy Birthday Mom!! Today wasn´t super out of the ordinary for me, except that I was thinking about my mutha :) 

Friday: We got to do service with the ward! We started at 8 am and went until 2 pm! We were so tired after that, but it was a really fun day! I didn´t bring my camera, but the bishop´s wife took some pictures, so we´ll see if I can send some next week.

Saturday: We got to help the Elders set up for their baptism and at the baptism I sang "Where Can I Turn For Peace" which apparently they don´t sing a lot here because a lot of the ward members were asking me about it afterwards. It was a really pretty baptism. It´s interesting to share a ward, because the baptisms of the elders feel like our baptisms too, since the people know us and we see them every week at church too. It really is a true joy that I feel every time I get to see a baptism. 

Sunday: It was fast Sunday (I was thinking about scrambled eggs bacon and sugar muffins (that is what we have to break our fast every time.  It's tradition!)) and then in the afternoon we helped the stake choir practice for HOURS!! The practice started at 4 and ended at 7, and it was in the stake center outside of our area. Super long time, but it was ok because it is a big service I´m doing for them! (playing piano)

Monday: Today was fun and pretty relaxed because we had a zone activity where an elder from Argentina made chimichuri which was super good! (it was big fat sausages on bread with this awesome tasting sauce) (and we grilled the sausages) We played volleyball and soccer, ate, hung out and talked with the zone. Super fun! 

Ta-da! That was my week. I hope that each one of you gets the chance to go to the temple AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! I love you, and the hot Bolivia sun loves me because I got a super bad burn on my arms this week (i´ll send a pic) 

Happy Fall!

Hermana Rowe

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...

Sorry the letter is late...but I got to see the jungle today! - Sept 24, 2018

I didn't get her letter until 6 our time (which is 9pm her time.)  I had given up hearing from her so I was happy to see her smiling face in the pictures!

So! Not a ton of time to write this week because today we went to the selva! (jungle) 

Tuesday: We had a few appointments and TRIED to finalize the contract for the apartment, but they were being kind of difficult and didn´t want to accept the one that the church has pre-made, so we couldn´t finalize today.

Wednesday: We contacted, and had an appointment with an investigator named Hugo. He is 30, a mechanic, and has a lot of really good questions. Sometimes too good haha, but he really is fun to teach. He is one of our only progressing investigators right now, which is awesome, but we are having a hard time getting him to commit to come to church, because he has a young daughter that he only gets to see on the weekends. Any advice?

Thursday: Today was Hermana Alvarado´s 23rd birthday, so I made no bake cookies for her and scrambled eggs with toast for breakfast. (yes, we ate those cookies for breakfast haha) I asked her about how she is getting along with her companion because they had a bit of a rough start.  This was her reply...  Things are a lot better with my comp. I think before I just didn´t understand her that well, but now I know that if she speaks in a certain way (that to me is pretty offensive) it doesn´t mean that I did something wrong, she is probably frustrated about something or super stressed. I understand her as a person a lot better now and we are actually good friends. (I think know that i´ve gotten to know her she is my favorite comp that i´ve had so far.) We also had a mini celebration for her birthday at lunch, and then we contacted all evening, until 9 when we went to get pizza for dinner (because we have half an hour for dinner every night, so we were using it to the best of our ability for my comp!) 

Friday: In the morning we FINALLY finalized things with the apartment contract! Then we did weekly planning and contacted in the afternoon. Contacting here in Cocha is a lot more difficult than in Sucre, so we haven´t been getting new investigators even though we´ve been contacting a lot.

Saturday: WE MOVED IN!! And the apartment is really pretty, and it has beautiful views. You can see the temple and the Christus from our windows! And we spent all day moving and unpacking every thing. We were exhausted at the end of the day.

Sunday: We had church, but my comp wasn´t feeling well so we left early and went home so she could rest. We left in the afternoon to go search for some references, and we weren´t super successful, but at least we were working. :)

Monday: Whoohooooo we went to the jungle! We had to meet up as a zone at 4:45 am so that we could drive for 3 hours to a place called Villa Tunari. It is SUPER beautiful, but it is also SUPER humid and SUPER hot. But I loved it, The coolest part was that we got to go to a lookout point where a bunch of wild monkeys came and hung out with us! They were super used to humans, so they came up to us, grabbed our water bottles (especially if they had powerade) and sat in our laps. It was SO COOL! This was one of the things that I know you would have loved Dad and Emma! What the heck, EVERYONE would have enjoyed it because it was so awesome. The only bad part was that at one point there was a monkey above my head in the trees and it POOPED ON ME!!!!! hahahaha it was actually hilarious, but super gross in the moment. I´m sending pictures, so don´t worry, you´ll get a little piece of the jungle too! We received permission from Presidente Montoya to email late today, so here we are :)

Lots of love, heat and humidity from Bolivia!

Hermana Rowe

I Wanna Feel the Sun... have BBQ's... - Sept 17, 2018

You´re welcome to all the siblings and cousins who understood that reference. I seriously have been missing BBQ sauce this week, not sure why. And i´ve felt PLENTY of sun this week. But i guess that´s my new reality in Cochabamba :)

Tuesday: We had district meeting and i received my beloved package! I seriously have been enjoying it so much. Even my little mini English hymnal smelled like home! I also got Hermana Piguave´s guitarra from her old comp, so until she comes to Cochabamba i´ll be using her guitar to practice. It´s been kinda fun playing around on it in the morning when my comp is in the shower, or in the evening before bed. 

Wednesday: Today we met with a less active youth and her inactive mom. The mom is inactive and doesn´t want to ever go back to church because of some unforgivable thing another member did to her mom or something like that. We had the opportunity to talk about the atonement with her, and the spirit was really strong in the lesson. One of the things I´ve realized recently is that too many people let other people affect their testimonies. It is SO important that we base our testimonies in CHRIST and His gospel. If we go to church just for the people that are there, we are not truly converted to the gospel. It is essential that the reason we go to church is that we want to partake of the sacrament, to renew the covenants we´ve made with God, and to become more Christlike through taking the sacrament. This week when you are getting ready for church, I hope you think about the ordinance of the sacrament that you are getting ready to take, because if you prepare worthily to take the sacrament, and sincerely repent, once you take the sacrament you are clean. Clean. Pure. It´s like you´ve just been baptized. I know that if you´ll go to church this week, preparing yourself beforehand,you´ll get SO much more out of sacrament meeting, and all of the meetings for that matter. 

Thursday: Mostly we just contacted and looked for apartments today. really not much more to tell about today :)

Friday: More searching for apartments, and we ended up getting 2 new investigators today, which was great! they are awesome, but something i´ve discovered this week about Cochabambinos is that they REALLY like to talk. Not necessarily about themselves, but they are talkers, and sometimes it´s SUPER hard to get the to focus in on what we are teaching them, even if they´re really interested. And the quiet ones talk about a normal amount. It´s definitely been something to get used to. Oh yeah, we also had interviews with Presidente Montoya. Oh! and earlier in the week a member told us about an apartment, we went, and it was awesome! so today we brought Presidente and Hermana Montoya to see it, and they both like it!! So we´re hoping that all works out this week.

Saturday: We did weekly planning (yeah, i know it was a little late this week) And we had an FHE with a less active family in the ward. We learned how to make pizza, EVERYTHING from scratch. Super fun evening with them. :)

Sunday: Today was awesome because we had 3 new investigators that i´d love to explain about but i´m out of time!!

Monday: Today we went to the cancha for the first time. It was pretty cool, bigger than the markets in sucre but not crazy different :)

That´s all i´ve got for ya! We´ll talk next week!

Con mucho amor y cariño,

Hermanita Rowe

Pics:

Yeah sorry i´m just gonna put them here this week and not explain them ;D