Testing, 1,2,3 Leeds 4

Mum,

Thanksgiving rocked. We went to a buffet called Red Hot and they had so much food. It was a proper feast! Haha, I sent dad a picture. And yes it did snow, I sent some pictures to dad and I thought it only snowed like this in Utah? Haha, Our district leader from Florida called us and was like, "I was just calling to make sure you two are still doing good in the snow" I was like "No, we're both from Utah." It was funny. Our district in great even though there are only 2 teams and we are really really young. I went on exchange twice this week and wrote about a lot of it to dad so you'll have to read it from him but we also had some trials this week. Nobody came to church because it was stake conference and we couldn't get rides, we almost didn't have a ride either! It worked out good though, we also had 34 hours of finding this week! That is total madness! It is the most of my entire mission but it didn't feel as bad as the last couple of weeks. This next week we are going to improve our effectiveness so hopefully that number will go way down. We had a funny experience while knocking though. There is an amazing 15 year old convert named Martin McQueen (remember that name, he will be an Apostle someday) and he went knocking with us. For some reason he was the best luck ever! Usually knocking is ineffective and lame but with him it was amazing! We could tell he was getting cold though so we packed it in for him a bit early. We have also devised a massive transfer plan for what we are going to do with this area. I told Dad and Luke this but every missionary has a testing area, like a do or die of their mission and this is definitely mine. We are so young that we have to rely totally on the Lord to learn how to do things. But we have prayed about and code-named a plan for the transfer and area that I know is inspired and will help this area. It's getting pretty exciting and Elder Jensen is going to have his first baptism on the 18th of December. Our 6 month mark! Its gonna be crazy amazing! Haha, and this week I got a call from an office missionary who told me president wants me to take driving lessons, so we'll see what that means for the future. Elder Jensen is doing great mum. He has weak hearing (50 decibles or more) and when he wears a hat won't be able to talk to people on the streets so it will be up to me! Haha, oh well it is fun and he isn't bothered by it so we have a laugh about it. Oh and Sam is allowed to write elders via snail mail so let her know she can. Thanks for checking up on her for me, she is the standard for who we want to baptise now! Well I love you mum. I'll talk to you next week and hopefully we'll have even greater news to report!
Elder Rowley

Dad,

Haha, Thanksgiving!! I was so excited for it and we went to an all you can eat buffet to celebrate. We were street contacting and kept saying, "Happy Thanksgiving!" It was so funny. I don't think any of the members even knew it was thanksgiving but when us missionaries got together we talked about it a lot. Still my favourite holiday by far! Haha, well this week has been a crazy one. On Monday I got a call from my good friend Elder Swain (I used to live with him) saying that he and his companion (Elder Jensen's last companion) were going on exchange with us on Tuesday for the whole day. I was so excited and we had a blast talking about missions and life in general. He is a great guy and I'm sure you'll meet him someday. We also talked about this area, he used to serve here when it was a lot better and we got to talking. He told me that every missionary has a testing area and that this was mine. It's the chance for me to show President and the Lord what I can do in an area. It's kind of intimidating but exciting at the same time! I knelt in prayer and asked the Lord for help to know what actions to be made. Me and Elder Jensen talked about it and we are making a transfer plan to improve the area, its exciting! Its a great opportunity to figure stuff out on our own as well, our district is the youngest ever. Our district leader has been out 6 months and then there is us and then someone who has been out 3 months. The amazing thing is that we are doing great! Nobody came to church because of conference this week but next week we are planning on 23 as a district! I have never set so many high goals in my life but there is nothing stopping us from achieving them! Our goal is to baptise 2 people on the 18th of December which is the last week in the transfer and our 6 month mark. It will be a great mile marker for Elder Jensen to baptise on his 6 month mark and we might baptise like 6 as a district on that day. Crazy crazy crazy! Well you're right, it did snow this week! We got loads of snow and I'll send a lot of pictures of it. I also went on exchange with Elder Young in Leeds 2. He has been out 3 months and we had some fun times. We taught a houseful of Filipinos and then we went to the crazy Czech house. So to explain, the Leeds 4 elders are teaching a family of Czechs who don't speak any English. Two of the kids are getting baptised and the rest hopefully in time will understand what it means. The house is utter madness. Kids running, screaming, naked, in Czech and English. The dad and mum don't speak a word of English and both smoke and so does the oldest who is 31. His name is Franta and he speaks little English and when he does it is so funny. We spend like 20 minutes just trying to explain words to them. Then there is Slavik who is 12 and getting baptised. He breaks and punches everything and always asks, "You fight me Elder Rowley". It is so funny! Then there is Teresa who is equally equally Czech. When we teach the greatest teaching tool we have in Google Translator. Yes, it's that bad. It was the funnest night ever though! That was probably the craziest thing that has happened here but it was so much fun. This next week is gonna be even better and we have to bring 6 people to church to baptise them on the 18th! Haha, it will happen! Love you dad. I missed you during Thanksgiving but it will still be there when I get back. We are gonna play football in the snow today! Here are some pictures soon.

The spirit of Thanksgiving

Mum,
Still looking, we've met some really great people and are working hard every day but there is still a lot of opposition. For two days straight every single appointment we had flogged us. It was lame! But we talked to a lot of people on the way and got appointments with even more people, who also flogged. Oh well we're still working hard! I finally got your package. Clif bars! Haha I was so excited! And that music that Steve sent is amazing. The Lower Lights Hymn Revival is great, I listen to it all the time and sing it in between (I've already apologised to Elder Jensen for it) We did have some great opportunities this week though. We met this girl from Botswana and taught her a really good lesson, by the end she wanted to know if she could meet the prophet. We looked at each other and said, "Sure!" It was exciting. Then we had a ward activity called, "Taste the World" where people brought food from all over the world. We have food from the Philippines, Africa, South America, and some English food too. It was really fun and the ward brought some nonmembers that we got to talk to. The food was really good too! There is some sad news though. There was a former investigator that Elder Jensen had taught before I got here who is in ICU for liver failure because she is an alcoholic. She probably won't live past this next week and we are trying to give her a priesthood blessing but the family might not let us. The other downside is that we taught one of her roommates who is having a hard time with it all and he was touched by the Spirit and said that he wanted to be baptised with her when she got better. We're praying for a miracle and that she will pull through and that we can baptise them both. We'll see what the Lord has in store for us though. Well I'd better crack on, hopefully I will get to a bookstore today and find you those books and maybe do a little more Christmas shopping but we shall see.

Love you all. Ing-at! (Tagalog for take care!)
Elder Rowley


It's the first picture and the house on the left. That very top window is my study window so you got it. If you go one street over onto Ring Road the chapel is on the corner of Kingswear Parade. I can see it from my window. I do have some pictures of the other houses though because I've been taking pictures of the fog in to mornings and that is right across the street from us. I'm excited for you to go to Duchesne. I was talking to President Lindley about deer hunting earlier in the week and if made me realise that this week was thanksgiving. Take a picture of anything you'd like, I'm just excited you're going. That will be really fun. On Thursday we'll probably be eating at a member's named Ilsy, she is from Africa and loves missionaries and the Filipinos come over and it is a right good time. If having thanksgiving with a Columbian, 3 Africans, and some Filipinos isn't in the Spirit of thanksgiving I don't know what is! Ya we have been working really hard to get Elder Jensen that baptism so I know that the Lord will make sure it happens in the end. This week has been mad though. For two days in a row every single person we tried to see flogged us (that's English for not showing up) but oh well. I am trying to learn how to work this area, it is quite different from Newcastle but it is a fun adjustment. When you move an area you tend to loose a lot of fears and try a lot of new things so that's what I've been trying to do. It is really fun but hopefully we get more effective about it. We had a great activity at the church called "taste the world" and there were lots of foods from different places and it was really fun. The members brought some nonmembers too so I was a great night. We were hoping all those people would come to church with us on Sunday but we were disappointed to have nobody there. Oh well I guess we will have to work in degrees. This week was a major improvement from last week and I know we can do better and better. President Lindley gave us some training on Thursday morning and he said the he could look at his board of missionaries and pick out those that he could put anywhere with anyone and after three weeks they would be reaching the standards for the mission (it's what the mission president expects of our key indicators like lessons with members and church and stuff) and they will baptise after 6 weeks. I think that we can do that here in Leeds 4 and get it just in time for Elder Jensen to for sure be here for it. So while this week wasn't everything that we wanted it to be it was a major improvement from last week. All we can do is take it one day at a time and we'll be able to look back and see our progress. It's like you always taught me about taking tests, just one question at a time. I did have an extraordinary experience this week when we gave a member a blessing. Other than her name being really long and in Portuguese it was great. It is amazing to be able to feel the Spirit work through you in a such a powerful way. We are hoping to give a blessing to an investigator in the ICU with liver failure that I told mum about. She will probably die but we wanted to do all that we could to help her and have her and her friend be baptised together. That is one of our biggest goals this week. Well for Christmas I'm not really bothered. If you think of anything I might like send it my way but don't worry about anything. Mum sent some music from Steve Vistaunet that is amazing so I should be set but if there are any books that you could think of I could read that would be great, (I've been trying to read in my spare time at the flat and it is really fun, I'm almost half done with Jesus the Christ and wanted to read Articles of Faith but I don't have one) so that is all I could think of. I'm just like you though, I couldn't really care so I'm a pain to shop for! But if you'd like anything let me know! Love you dad. I'll miss you during Thanksgiving but shoot a muskrat for me this year!
Elder Rowley

Urgency!

The flat on Hollyshaw Lane

Mum,


Leeds is great. It's a whole other animal but it is great. There is an entire Leeds stake and I think it is 5 or 6 wards. Me and Elder Jensen are doing great and both are going to work really really hard. Nobody has been baptised here since Feburary so we've got our work cut out for us. We've been walking so fast lately its pretty funny, I keep yelling urgency! That's what they've told us that we need to have a sense of urgency about the work. And ya we live with the Harlows and they are great but the member that they are talking about is Rosie Wray. She is the mission mum of the world! She does our shopping our wash, takes us the fancy dinners, and buys us everything we need and some things we don't! She bought me some trousers last week. I kind of looked at Elder Jensen and said, but I don't need trousers. She has a massive heart and loves all the missionaries she meets. That seems to be how everyone here feels and since I've lived and served with everyone who has served here (Elder Black, Elder Swain, and Elder Laduke) they think I'm alright too! I keep meeting such amazing loving members of the church and how much they love their missionaries that I want to find someone like that so bad. It really has given us such a great desire to push forward and push we have! We have knocked so many doors this last week its not even funny, we have chased down and yelled down and waved down everyone we meet. Asking everyone is they want to come to church and even some people on the street if they would be baptised! The work is very different here and I pray I'll be able to keep up and catch on quick! I am so happy that Matt is the Bishop! How great is that! I'm so excited for me and Jon to come home and see him and the bishopric all together! Its so funny. And yes I will find that book for you and for Jenny. And no I haven't gotten your package yet so I'll be pretty excited for it this week! I send dad the address so you should be able to look up our new flat. I hate to say it but I hardly thought about home at all this week, I guess it means I've been working hard enough! Just kidding, I have a picture of the family by my bed and think of you all often. Take care of everyone and let me know if anyone needs anything from across the pond!
Love you loads mum.
Elder Rowley!


Dad,
Matt?!? That is so amazing. I am laughing so hard right now, that is going to be a major party ward. I'm so excited to be back when he is all adjusted and things. That is so funny, I can't get over it. Leeds 4 is amazing, the ward is so strong and there is a strong priesthood leadership which is amazing. The recent converts are amazing as well, there is a 15 yr old boy who is so ready to go on a mission it is amazing. He is the only one from his family who stayed in the church and has only been a member for 2 years but he is amazing. Don't be surprised when you see an Ensign article about him! And the people here love missionaries so much! It is great but I can see that it may be a temptation when things get hard but we are gonna work our butts off! This area hasn't baptised since February so Elder Jensen hasn't seen a baptism on his mission yet. We are going to break the cycle and we are already working really hard. We almost did 24 hours of knocking since I've been here and its only been 3 days! I'm really excited but a bit disappointed with this zone. I told Luke about it so you can ask him but there are so many missionaries here but the work is not going as well as other places. It is definitely difficult but it will be worth it in the end! I'll take a lot of pictures of people and send them home so you can see them. I'll tell you a quick funny story and then I'll have to e-mail mom. So last night we were waiting for a bus (they don't come as often here) and I saw this woman in the window at the house a ways away. I looked at her and waved to her in the dark. I was surprised that she waved back! I turned around smiling and looked back in a few minutes and she invited us over. She yells down from the window, "Do you want a can of pop?" It was so funny. She sent her son down and he gave us both a can of pop. I'm gonna start waving to everyone now! That story isn't very spiritual but it was really funny. Hopefully I'll send some great spiritual stories next week. And sorry that is not our house. We live with members in the third story of their house. The address is 70 Hollyshaw Lane, Crossgates, Leeds, LS1 7AG. Well we are going to go play football now. Send Bishop Marvell my love and the family as well. Love you dad
Elder Rowley

Life Flight!

Well papa I'm moving! I'm going to the Leeds 4 ward with Elder Jensen. The Elder who came out with me who I sat next to on the plane. Its pretty crazy to think about serving with someone I came out with but I'm excited. I told mom I couldn't sleep last night and I'm already packed. I have learned from some other Elders that we live with members in Leeds 4 which is going to be a change, probably for the better! And the funny thing is I'll probably only be Elder Jensen's companion for 6 weeks because after this next transfer he will have been there for 6 months. It will be weird to have so many 6 week companions. Other exciting news is that an Elder I came out with is training this transfer so that will be pretty crazy. There are so many exciting things happening that I just can't take it! I will definitely miss Newcastle though, a lot of other areas aren't as diverse which i think is less fun. Yesterday I almost had an entire conversation with someone in Persian! We teach people from all over the world and we ever had 5 people at church last week! That is the most of my whole mission but that record isn't gonna last long. Jon Duerden said that he is gonna have to go home on a stretcher and I told him they are gonna have to take me home on life-light. It makes me so excited and I know that working hard is the key to success and happiness. Have you ever read Jesus the Christ? I have started reading it before bed and during lunch and stuff and it is really really good. I just thought I'd let you know how good it is. I'm trying to think if we had any stories to tell. It has been quite rainy recently and yesterday the rain was freezing! Don't worry I'm staying well but I don't really get bothered by the cold. Remember that one time I was up at Sundance waiting because I thought you said if I missed the bus to just wait instead of getting the next one? Every since that day I have never really been bothered by the cold. Kind of a nice advantage to cold winters huh? I have been trying to take more pictures and hopefully I can send some today but England is really pretty. Since the sun is rarely up then when it is there is a cool twilight effect. I have been trying to take advantage of it so we'll see how it works. Christmas is coming up, did you want anything? I told mum what I was planning on sending Lindsay and Kyle but I need help for everyone else. Let me know if you have any ideas. Well Dad the church is true, thank you for everything you've done for me. I wouldn't be the missionary I am now without you. Thank you so much.
Elder Rowley


Guess what mum! I'm leaving Newcastle! I'm going to the Leeds 4 ward to serve with Elder Jensen. Yes, the Elder Jensen that I sat on the plane with. Pretty crazy huh? We are going to live with members and being so close to the mission home we get to take investigators to the President's fireside on Mondays. How exciting is that? I couldn't sleep last night because I was thinking about all of the new possibilities and challenges and such. I also have a long line of members that I need to say goodbye to in Newcastle. It will be hard and lame but I pulled out those thank you cards you put in my bag and I'm going to write some to the members here and start on the ones for people back home. Well we were definitely blessed a lot this week. For my entire mission we have always had a hard time getting people to church, usually only 1 person comes every week. But this week we worked our little behinds off and lo and behold 5 people came to church! There is a funny story about one of them. So we were waiting to go to tea with a member and they were stuck in traffic so we decided to knock on some doors around their house. We were kinda doing it to kill time until the member got back but we found a family of 4. At first Steve said, "I divn't believe in nowt" (Geordie for I don't believe in anything) so we were afraid it would be a lame door. Then as we kept talking to him he said he would love his wife to be baptised and when we explained a bit more about it then he said he would bring his whole family to church. When you bring a family to church it is amazing, the ward just adopts them. We were busy picking up some other people for church but when we got there Steve was waiting with the other Elders. He had a big smile on his face and said his wife was with the women and his children were in primary. They loved church and everyone loved them and they are going to be scheduled for baptism this week. Another amazing thing that happened is with a girl named Brooke. She is Chinese and is actually an investigator to the Zone Leaders but I have met her a couple of times. When they told her to start thinking about who she wanted to baptise her she came up to me after church and said she wanted me to do it! How crazy is that! Unfortunately I'll be leaving so I can't do it, but no bother! Well I'd better get going, I think I'm gonna start doing some Christmas shopping for everyone so let me know what you want. Love you so much mum. I'll be emailing from Leeds next week!
Elder Rowley

Deliver me

Ya, Luke was right about Halloween here, it was pretty lame. They didn't even make us come in early because nobody really does anything anyways. It was pretty crazy yesterday though because it was a Darvy match which is a rivalry game. Newcastle played Sunderland which is like the biggest rivalry in the North of England. There were so many people in the city centre it was amazing. It was just a flood of white and black (the newcastle uniform). Its pretty neat though, the mascot of Newcastle are the magpies. But that was a crazy thing that happened this week. this week was really up and down though. We had two really really good days and the rest were either really bad or alright. I'm gonna focus a lot on working hard though. Hopefully we'll be blessed for it! There was one instance I think I will tell you about though. So this ward has a member who is 94 years old (95 this month) and she feeds the missionaries all the time. She is just a little old lady but she cooks really good food and is a real riot. She tells the funniest stories too but the best thing happened last time we were there. I had heard that Minnie (her name is Minnie Selkirk) liked to dance and that she had a frog that if you pushed its hand she would dance to it. So this time I found the frog and pushed its hand. What happened next I was not expecting. The frog was dressed in like hip-hop stuff and started playing a rap song. Minnie starts dancing and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. She dances like a gangster! She was really good too, she did like this shuffle and it was soo funny. She is a real joy to be around. I need to start taking advantage of my mission cause its going by took quick. I might leave Newcastle next week! Transfers are almost here and it has gone by too fast. That's something I'll be working on. Well I got to go dad, we're going to holy island today! Hopefully I'll see a puffin! I'm so excited. Well dad, I love you. Keep up the good work and I'll talk to you next week.
Love, Elder Rowley
(oh ya, there is another Elder Rowley in the mission serving a mini mission so I might get a nametag with a Z on it. haha!)


That's a great picture of all those kids. I sure do miss them all, but oh well. They will just be older and funner when I get home. Halloween in the UK was a bit lame but we are both doing really well. And for Christmas I think I might just buy some things out here. Transfers are next week so today I think I'm going to try and use my card and buy a Newcastle football top or something. Just thought I'd warn you. I don't wanna buy that much stuff but football tops are always fun. Well this week has been a good one but it has been difficult. I'll just tell you about our Saturday which was amazing. So the main reason that it was amazing is because we were diligent every minute of the day. We were absolutely knackered when we came home but it was definitely worth it in the end. We went street contacting in the morning and then dropped by this woman who gave us her address. Turns out she gave us the wrong address but the person who lived there took a Book of Mormon and became a new investigator! Then we went knocking until 5 0'clock and it was amazing. We found loads of new investigators and it really made our whole week because we'd had some terrible days. I'm still a bit upset about that but there is nothing we can change except the future! Today was an amazing example of that. We met with Lee at 5 o'clock and we realised how much he cares for his family. He is finally beginning to understand tithing and said he will talk about baptism with his parents. I would be so happy to see him baptised! Then we went and saw this woman named Kathy who was taught in the 80s, she is really spiritually sensitive and is was great the first time we met her but since then it has been alright. Her dog died this week so we were afraid that she would only talk about that and it wouldn't be a very good lesson. But we were blessed and we talked about lots of the Plan of Salvation and she is believing it all and the spirit is with her when we teach her. We were also able to give her a blessing and her whole countenance changed afterwords, it was like she was 20 years younger! It was great and then we started walking home when something amazing happened. It was the night before Halloween and there were some people who were having parties on this street and this woman wobbles over to us with 2 kids in arm and collapses crying into my arms. I just stood there with a blank look on my face as Elder Wheeler tried talking to her. She was crying really hard and we calmed her down a little and sat her down in front of a house (it ended up being her house). I had no idea what to do or say and kinda just sat there as Elder Wheeler was asking her questions. Her little girl opens the post slot of their door and yells in, "Daddy, the police are here" So I started panicking afraid that the dad would flip out on us but when we told the woman we weren't police she said, "I know, you're from the church of Mormon, you were here the other day. I just need to hear some verses out of the bible" So we look at each other with blank faces and start flipping through our book of mormons. Later Elder Wheeler told me that the only thing he could think of was 1 Nephi 3:7 which he had been trying to memorise that day. So I start looking through frantically not thinking of anything when her little girl says, "Mommy, my daddy hit you" So we started realising what was really going on. I still had no idea what scripture to read when I had a thought to turn to 2 Nephi 4. Now this wasn't a strong spiritual prompting but a thought that came into my mind. So I opened it up and read to her from verse 30.

Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
31 O Lord, wilt thou redeem my soul? Wilt thou deliver me out of the hands of mine enemies? Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?
32 May the gates of hell be shut continually before me, because that my heart is broken and my spirit is contrite! O Lord, wilt thou not shut the gates of thy righteousness before me, that I may walk in the path of the low valley, that I may be strict in the plain road!
33 O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies! Wilt thou make my path straight before me! Wilt thou not place a stumbling block in my way—but that thou wouldst clear my way before me, and hedge not up my way, but the ways of mine enemy.
34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.
35 Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I bask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.

It was crazy because as soon as I started reading the verses (which happened to be perfect and even end in amen) the Spirit took over. I wasn't worried anymore about what her husband would do or what was going on, everything just came very naturally. I asked her if we could pray for her, got her phone number to check up on her, put a book mark where we read and gave her the book. It was so simple and felt so natural, it was crazy. It was a real testimony of the Lord prompting us in ways we don't expect, through simple thoughts and actions he paves the way for us. It was pretty crazy. Well that was our miracle for the week. I'll hopefully have more next week but I gotta go. Love you mum.
Elder Rowley