Mum it was a miracle. We had 3 baptisms these last two weeks! I gave dad most of the details so you'll have to steal them off of him but it was so exciting. A funny thing happened though, Elder Thorup and Elder Burnham ( the original missionary who taught the family) were baptising the kids and I had to go turn on a little movie segment that we watch in between. The only problem was that in was playing in ASL, well in England they have a whole different sign language and it woudln't get off of it. So i just left in and the whole thing played with a man signing everything it was pretty funny. But I'm getting a new companion, his name is Elder Wheeler and he has been out about 8 months now. I'm really excited but nervous as well so pray for us. I'm excited for a lot of work to happen in Newcastle and I might leave next transfer so I'm gonna hit it hard for 6 weeks. It will be strange having to call the shots and take over an area but I'm really excited. I've decided to memorise a scripture from the Book of Mormon each day from a different book each day. I thought I would test myself and try and write them for you but i will take too much time. Its been good though and I am working on a lot of personal goals. Its exciting to be a missionary! I'm so excited for Talisa and Matthew as well. What great missionaries we will have! Haha, it made me so happy to hear. Also, i'm really excited for Shae to get married soon but you keep an eye on her for me. Well I got to go, sorry this is so short. Talk to you soon.
Love you loads,

Well you guessed it Dad, I'm staying in Newcastle. But Elder Thorup is moving to Billingham to be with Elder Wadsworth who came out with me. My new companion is Elder Wheeler who was trained by Elder Christensen who is one of the Zone Leaders who lives with us. It's pretty exciting to be taking over an area and we'll see how I do, I will need lots of prayers. Elder Black has said that Elder Wheeler is the kind of person that I will need to take the lead a lot of the time which both excites me and frightens me. I'm not very good at that but I have a real desire to and I think that is part of what I need to learn on my mission. We also had another miracle these last two weeks. Sam Bass was baptised on the 16th of September and she is so amazing, she has adjusted to the ward so well. Yesterday she told us she doesn't need the missionaries anymore! What a dream come true! I can see her going really far in the church. The other baptisms were Lez and Jade Smith, Lez is 13 and Jade is 10. Their mum was baptised about a year ago and she drags all four of her children to church every week even though her husband doesn't believe any of it. Her husband Andy is so great though, he really cares about his kids and is a great man. He called us one day and told us it was about time his kids got 'dunked'. So they were baptised on Friday by Elder Burnham who was the Elder who baptised their mum. How amazing would that be to be able to come back to a zone and baptised the rest of the family you taught. He was so happy. I'm trying to think if anything else exciting has happened lately but can I just say I am ready for this new transfer to begin. The last two weeks have been good because we have baptised but the other work is going so slow and there is very little motivation in the zone. Hopefully these changes are going to pump up the zone and our area. I'm really excited to work with Elder Wheeler and to see another perspective on missionary work. Keep an eye on everyone for me and keep sending photos, (i'll send all mine home with elder Black so don't worry) I'm still very sad about Brother Oldroyd but I know that he will see his family again and he was really a great man.
Love you,
Elder Rowley

Baptism was great!

Thank you so much mom for all the info but we are in Alnwick and have 2 minutes to write you. Baptism was great, we scheduled an Indian family of 5 for baptism last week and there is a part member family whose dad said the two oldest ones can be baptised so there is another baptism this week! I really have no time but I love you so much and thank you for all that you do. Hopefully i will have more time next week or send some journal pages. love you bye.

Love you, i have 30 seconds left on the computer. Will send pictures soon. Baptism was great and there will be more soon. I feel like a successful missionary sometime. Love you bye

Captain George is great!

Thanks for all the information about home. I don't know if it means I'm a bad missionary but I do like to hear it all. I'm so sad about Shanae and Aaron but I know that they will have the Faith to pull through. I'm glad the letters are getting through and being well read. I feel bad that I don't write more but I like to write a lot when I do write, Lindsay expects one today so maybe I'll send her one and then put some pictures in an envelope to send home. We have stake conference next week which is gonna be a pain to get people to church because it is clear down in Sunderland so we'll see how it goes. Oh and for Talisa.........hm.....Oregon. I divn't na but that is my only guess. Well this week has been a quick one, I'm trying to work real hard but sometimes it feels like there are so many things pulling down but something happened this week for me. I'm beginning to feel that my efforts are worth something, I dunno what changed but now it feels like every time I knock on a door I am bringing someone closer Christ and being a better missionary. Sometimes I just wanna run down a street to get all the doors and talk to everyone on the street, even when we are going to appointments. Well I told Dad about our work with investigators but I feel like I should tell you about what has happened with less actives in the ward recently. We were walking down a street to a less actives house who we'd tried to meet with a couple times before and there was a van in front. We look in and say some friends from another church, (by the way they are all Africans) and I called him by named and shook his hand. His eyes got all big and he said, "You remembered my name!" It was funny because it has been a month or so, I guess I can thank dad for me being able to remember! But I asked them what they were up to and they said their friends were inside the house but I had already thought this Less-active (named Daniel) was going to another church so I thought they were leaving for church and picking him up. Well we figured we'd just go by later and went to go see some people in the area. We came back like 20 minutes ago and went to go see Daniel. He was really excited to see us and started talking about people in the ward that he remembered. Turns out he has been a member for a long time and was working on his temple marriage when he stopped coming! But then he told us that just before some people from another church had come and they had had a discussion about the bible. Daniel had "confessed" about the true church and that he knew The Book of Mormon was true and he kinda got in an argument about it all. Then we came and invited him back to church! What a miracle that he felt like he should stand up for what he believed and then we come in and confirm everything that he already knew! It was amazing. Then we invited a less active from Jamaica back to church, she had been going to the 7th day adventist church but we showed her the restoration DVD, addressed her concerns and she said she would come to church! Also there is a man from Nigeria named Frank. Now he has been a member since 1997 and at church I sat next to him. The Bishop announced a temple trip and frank turns to me and says, how do I get a temple recommend. I started talking to him about it and turns out he has never been to the temple! I got him an interview with the bishop and the bishop said that if he comes to church every week until the trip that he can have his recommend. You should have seen how excited I got and how excited Frank was! It was a miracle. This ward has gotten a lot closer to us because on Saturday we had a variety show and the missionaries did a funny skit. this ward has a lot of talent by the way, everyone can sing sooo good but no one sings at sacrament! But anyway we had the activity and did some funny thing and the next day it was just like our ward at home. They talked to us more and the investigators more and have even started approaching us about service and tea appointments. It has been a miraculous week. Well I need to go know, P-day is a wasting. but I love you so much mum and I will talk to you next week. Love you loads.

Captain George is great. We gave him a Polski Book of Mormon and he said he would read it (lets hope he does) and to come back in two weeks to play more chess. He is really funny. This week has been really good for our main two investigators Sam and Lee. Sam is going to be baptised on the 16th (this Thursday) and teaches me in lessons instead of the other way around. We hardly have to teach her anything because she reads the Gospel Principles manual and the Book of Mormon a lot. I still can't believe it all started with the movie Charlie...... But she is great and will be baptised this week! Then there is Lee who is like a Chinese sponge, everything we teach him he retains and tells us back. We took a member with us last time and he couldn't believe how much he remembered. But last time the Spirit really kicked in and we addressed one of Lee's biggest concerns, feeling an answer. He knows he feels the Spirit when he prays and reads and when we are with him but he did not understand that was his answer, even though we had explained it more than once. But the Spirit directed and he finally understood that those feelings and his faith will grow as he prays and repents. It was an amazing lesson. So hopefully those two will be baptised this month and we will continue to work hard. I still wish we could work harder, I read stories of missionaries that completely change areas through their faith and I want to make that kind of a difference here. I feel like I need to work on being Spiritually Independent, I usually rely on other people but I know that if I work hard enough and have enough faith on my own that miracles will happen around me. I guess you could say they already have, Sam will be the first person baptised in Newcastle since March. Lets just pray that it does. Well I better write Mum, I can't think of anything else too exciting that happened this week. Thanks for the pictures and I will print some off to send home today, including a picture of my ankle for the first week of the mission. It feels so long ago! Well love you loads.

Elder Rowley

Happier and happier

Sorry I have very little time. You'll have to look at Mom's for the more spiritual stuff but I wanted to tell you about Captain George! We were knocking by our house and found an old man named George from Poland. He invited us in and insisted that before we prayed he told us some jokes! It was pretty funny but he let us pray with him and then we played chess. He is the funniest old man in the world and reminds me a lot of Jon's Grandpa. Every time I would start laughing he would look at me and say, "What the heck are you laughing at" He can't come to church because he is 88 but we gave him a Polish Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. He was really really funny, I will send some pictures sometime and I think I'm gonna fill up my memory card and then send it home with Elder Black to give to you. Thanks so much but I really gotta run!
Zi-Jen (Chinese)
Elder Rowley

Mum,
Don't have much time to write because he are going to a castle in North Shields today but its so great to hear about everyone's mission calls. Garen and James and Dad said Doug too! I'm so excited for all of them. But just real quick I will tell you a little bit more about Sam. She is going to be baptised on the 16th of September and is very very excited. She is the most prepared person I have ever met and just eats up everything we tell her at church. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she was already living most of it except tea but when we told her about it she kinda of got a funny look on her face. She said, "tea?" and the way she said it I knew she would give it up and she did and guess what?! That week she lost 6 lbs in weight! She keeps texting us saying, "I'm feeling happier and happier and I know its because I'm living God's commandments" It is so great to find someone so prepared but it feels like we haven't even had to do anything because she reads so much, she wants to finish the Book of Mormon by the 20th! Another person we are working with is named Lee and he is from China. He remembers everything we teach him and it makes total sense to him. The only thing is that he has a problem feeling the Spirit, I know as soon as he does he will be ready to be baptised but I guess it is in the Lord's hand. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and we asked him to try it for 2 weeks but he said that wasn't long enough. He wanted to try it for 2 months! What a miracle, well gotta go.
Toe-pah-ze-nya (Polish/Czech)
Elder Rowley