Dragons to feed, Part I

Mum,

Thanks for the info about the card and stuff. Be sure to tell everyone thank you for me. About driving lessons, the mission rule is that you have to take two driving lessons before you can drive and I did that like a month or two ago so I won't need anymore. After a year I'll have to take my test (if I'm asked to) and they will refund 100 quid of it, so we should be fine. Don't worry about me going overboard moneywise, I'm not buying anything unless it is dirt cheap! I actually found a Brazil football top for 7 pounds on Monday! Steal! I'll send my Christmas package home this next week so keep an eye out for it! I'm glad to hear Jon is still doing great and the other ones too, I need to write more letters. Christmas was a lot of fun and boxing day was alright. It is like a second Christmas day here but we were still working all day so it was pretty unsuccessful. But we're excited for this week (even though its half gone) and it should be pretty epic. We've been doing loads of finding again and we're really struggling to find new people to teach. I've explained how weird our area is but I'm confident that we'll figure something out, we've got the Lord on our side anyways! Its funny that you should mention buddy though. We knocked on this guys door yesterday and he said he couldn't let us in because he'd just come in from town and he had to unload some insects cause he had dragons to feed. You should have seen his face when I started telling him about buddy. I almost demanded that he let us in and have us help feed them but he still said no. He was a really nice guy bud insisted that we not come in because his dog would go crazy. I was disappointed cause it would have been sweet but oh well. There is someone that we are working with that I haven't told you about much that I realized. So there is a less-active named Pamela who just started coming back to church and she has an 8 year old named Gemma who we will baptise this month. Since she is just 8 she doesn't count as a convert but she is still really fun to work with. She had the greatest answers ever! Yesterday I asked her how she would describe a prophet (mind this is right after we named a couple of prophets) her answer was, "its the person who God speaks through". It's pretty crazy how smart she is, when you ask her a question she will sit and think about it for a long time and then give the smartest answers. Its pretty exciting! Well I'd better get to work, we've got quite a day planned ahead so I'll talk to you on Tuesday (its another bank holiday on Monday).

Love you loads!

Elder Rowley

Gotta catch -em all!

Miracle realised...

Elder Rowley, Michael, Elder Jensen


Slavik and family



Mum,

The baptism was amazing, this guy Michael is great. It was funny because I hadn't actually met him until the baptism itself but there is plenty of time for that. Transfers have come and gone and nothing has changed in pretty much the entire mission. Elder Jensen's going to have to tough it out for another 6 weeks with me and a total of 7 1/2 months in Leeds 4. But it is a great place to be. We were a bit disappointed about church on Sunday though because we had like 9 people confirmed and none of them showed up. It was frustrating and it always seems to be the little things that come back in bite you in the butt. There is so much I still don't know how to do as a missionary! Oh well, I've still got some time and the Lord wants me to figure it out too! Haha, well I wish I had some information about calling on Saturday but I really haven't planned that far ahead. We have 3 full days of work before then so I haven't even thought about it. But I'll do what I can and see if I can call sometime in the morning. Hopefully you'll all be around! Haha, it will be a surprise for all of us to find out. Our mission p-day is this Thursday though and we are going to an American Air Force Base called Harrogate and we're getting pretty excited. I don't even know what we will do but I'm ready for some rest. I didn't realise how much I needed p-days until we had a week without one! But it is good and we only have 3 more days til we get some rest. Crazy and fun things keep happening to us though, I was in the car with the Leeds 2 elders and it just broke so we've spent all day pretty much doing nothing! But I guess that's how things work out sometimes. The main person we are working with right now is a girl named Tamara from Kenya. Her mum was a less active and she wants to get baptised but she is taking things really slow. She is really just waiting for an answer to the Book of Mormon and its frustrating cause all we can do is wait. Oh well, we are receiving help from on high about how to deal with people and it is great. We have also been trying to move out of certain areas that have been worked a lot and it has been an adventure. Our area is really splotchy and thus it makes it difficult to travel without a car but we manage. Last week we went to an area called Rothwell and we had some pretty high hopes. They absolutely hated us though! We got chased off, yelled at, and cursed by all sorts of people, including a man dressed in leiter-hosen carrying a beer. It was lame! But overall funny and we still had a pretty good week. I think the main thing we are going to focus on is finding some new people to work with and progressing them for a date in January. It is exciting but difficult as I'm sure Luke will tell you. But I've better head out, we've got to scrounge together and save this day! Love you mum, talk to you soon!
Elder Rowley



Dad,
Transfers and this week have been really out of whack so I do get to e-mail today but it is not p-day. We've have some craziness so I couldn't e-mail until about 4 o-clock our time! Haha, but we've been doing really good. Elder Jensen got to baptise Michael Spear and he is amazing, the first time I met him was at his baptism! We're really excited but now we've just got to find someone that we can progress to get baptised! The Leeds 2 ward also baptised a Czech boy named Slavik and boy was it a fun night. It was really exciting and made me want to work and baptised even more now! And as far as transfers go, you were right we are both staying. Only about 10 teams in the entire mission moved so it was a little boring.... but oh well. Elder Jensen will have a 7 1/2 month area and it is just another excuse to find someone for us to baptise next month! I was a bit disappointed to look back and realise that even though our work has improved over the last month there are few people we are solidly working with. It is frustrating but it means we have to be bold and find new people to work with. We are having some adventures and going to all sorts of new areas which is really fun. This part of the mission is really really splotchy and its difficult to get around because buses only come once an hour or so, but we manage. It is a lot of fun though. Sometimes you luck out and other times it sucks though. We went to an area called Rothwell and they all hated us, then we knocked on person of another faith (that proselytizes)'s door and he said they cover the area pretty well, I guess we figured out why they hate us! Haha, but I know that we are doing our job and that the Lord is going to bless us in the end. I just hate it when my lack of knowledge as a missionary causes us to miss opportunities. I realise now that my mission has been the only thing in my life that hasn't come easy to me. Everything else I've ever tried has just been a very simple matter and I can get it under my feet in a couple of days. I am having a hard time getting everything under my feet, I keep forgetting simple things and so on. It's very humbling and it is easy to get frustrated but I can't. I just have to move on, learn, and not make the same mistakes twice. If anything else, the Lord will just work things out for me in a way I can't understand! My mission has definitely been a blast so far though! I hope the next 18 months are even better. Chances are I'll stay in Leeds 4 for 6 months total so I've really got a chance to make things work! It's really exciting and intimidating but at the same time it's why the Lord sent me here! Well we'd better get to work Dad so I'll talk to you on Saturday.
Love you
Elder Rowley

Zack spotting

A friend of mine recently moved to the U.K. (Her husband is in the military.) They had an opportunity to go off base for the weekend and decided to go check out the Christmas market in Leeds. She asked me what Zack liked and put together a few goodies for him and decided to drop it off their flat if they couldn't find the missionaries at the church. Here is her report:

Zack was good. I found where the Leeds 4 chapel was, and since you had mentioned a baptism, we decided to drive by and see if anyone was there. Perfect timing. We got there just as the bishop was welcoming the new member to the ward. After the closing prayer, I peeked into the chapel and saw him standing right next to the door. He glanced at me, but having no idea who in the world I was, kept chatting with his companion. I stepped towards him, put my hand on his shoulder, and asked if he was Elder Rowley. His said "yes" kind of questioningly (is that even a word?). So I went on with, "I'm a friend of your mom's." --big eyes from Zack-- me, "Dalene?" --huge eyes from Zack-- So I spilled the story of who I was, why we were there, blah blah blah. He was completely flabbergasted. (Pretty sure I have never used that word) He said that "this is the most surreal thing that has happened on my mission."

So we took a quick picture, gave him his bag of treats, wished him well, and said goodbye.

Oh, his companion glanced into the bag, and while reaching for the bag..."are those American Cocoa Puffs?" Zack had to move quick to get the bag out of Elder Jensen's reach. :)

Sometimes you get a miracle

Dad,
Well it looks like all that praying has payed off. We've have a miracle week. We worked our butts of even though it wasn't possible that we would baptise and it was great. We had loads of members teaching, tried new things, went on exchanges and had a blast. We took driving lessons last week too so I can drive here! Haha it is so much fun. But the highlight of the week is that we are going to baptise this Friday. There is guy named Michael who found the church in London, was taught everything and then moved here. He was referred to Leeds 2 even though he was in our area and they talked to him and moved his date up to this Friday. He is in our ward so we'll baptise him this Friday. Its crazy because that is not how we expected the Lord to answer our prayers at all but it happened! It's really funny. That will be the first person baptised here since Februrary and it will be so good for the ward. I'm really excited. There is also a less active who came back to church and her daughter isn't baptised yet so there will be another person baptised in January. We're not giving up on that either, we're gonna boost this area to the moon. Our district is the youngest district in the mission but we are doing great and might even reach our goal of 5 baptised this month. Its pretty crazy! So exciting too. I'll tell you about another fun time I had this last week. On Friday I got to go on exchange with Elder Parham, our district leaders. He is so much fun and is the most colourful person on the earth. He has done everything and been in every state of life. He is a convert of 9, his grandparents served missions, he was homeless for a time. And just about anything else you can think of. It was so much fun to spend the day with him, he is an amazing missionary, a little unorthodox but amazing. We talked about a lot of things about missions and how difficult Utahns seem to have on their missions. They do great but a lot of the time it is missionaries from random places that excel the farthest. It all comes from the attitude that you approach the work. Sometimes it seems like people serve missions out of obligation or it doesn't seem a sacrifice while other know why their here and have a good time. That is the best thing about Elder Parham, he knows how to have a good time. We even stole the car from the other Elders for the night! haha, we actually needed it but it was fun to say we stole it. I've just had a great week and we have the same expectations for this next week. I'm excited to hear from the ward and it's great that you saw Elder Black, I still think of him often. I'll try and get my Christmas package sent off this week but I'm still doing some last minute gifting so we'll see, either way it will get there. Well dad, I love you loads and I'm proud to be your son. I'll talk to you next week.
Love,

Elder Z. Rowley


Mum,

This week was amazing! Haha, we set some really high goals and made a lot of them happen. In this mission we have what are called Standards of Excellence which are goals that mission wants to meet every week, when you reach them you get a call from the mission President on Monday and guess who he called yesterday! Haha, it was really exciting to see this area grow so much more, I love it. We were still a bit disappointed though that Elder Jensen won't be able to baptise this transfer but then......The Lord worked a miracle and sent us a man named Michael from London who is getting baptised on Friday! Haha, it was crazy and amazing. We didn't think it was possible but Elder Jensen still worked his butt off and the Lord blessed him with what he needed. Its pretty amazing to think about. I'll have more information and stories about that next week (with a picture) but I'll tell you a couple of other stories this week. So yes we did finally get people to church this week and it was great. There is a less-active that I went to see with a really solid member and when she came to church she brought her daughter who isn't yet baptised! So she will be baptised in January. Then we had this girl named Tamara who is from Kenya that has been investigating for a long time. Her mum was less-active but has come back to church and we are still working with Tamara to get her baptised soon. It is all up to the Book of Mormon for her and then she can be baptised any day. I did have another crazy experience this week which was similar to one I had in Newcastle. There is a recent convert that my trainer baptised that we went to see on Friday. She is living with a partner and wanting us to teach him the gospel so we came by. We were left downstairs with her two kids waiting for about 20 minutes for them to come down. We needed to move on so we told the kids to tell her to call us when she was ready. She then comes down and he goes out the door. Apparently they had had a big fight and split up and once again we were left to sort it out. For the next 30 minutes we heard her the story of her life and it was a bit too personal for the missionaries, she needed to talk to her bishop. We tried to take direction but it wasn't really going anywhere so we just asked if we could say a prayer with her. She said of course and Elder Jensen said a prayer. Suddenly evertthing clicked for me. I told her she had to go to church, she needed to talk to her bishop and repent. Needed a blessing from the bishop or her home teachers and gave her a scripture to read. Just like that woman who collapsed crying and was beaten by her husband in Newcastle, the Spirit took over! Oddly enough the scripture I gave her was the exact same one I read with the last woman 2 Nephi 4. It was pretty crazy! That was just another example of the Lord helping those he calls because I get so awkwarded out in those situations I didn't know what to do. It was crazy. Well Christmas is coming soon and I'll be sending a package home this week, hopefully. It might take me an extra week so everyone will be getting late Christmas presents this year! Haha, but that's alright, that's how we do things in the Rowley clan. Thanks so much mum for everything. I'll talk to you soon. I love you.
Elder Z. Rowley

The world was about to end

Elder Jensen warming up

Mum,

We had so much snow this week! Well, only about six inches but the world was about to end for people here. All the trains, buses, streets, schools, and shops closed down. They said don't go out unless you absolutely had to. So we did, it was great! I'm amazed that they didn't hold church in Newcastle but they do get a lot more snow that we do. I'll be sending a Christmas package soon and we're going shopping so keep an eye on the bank account. Driving lessons should only be about 20 quid so you wont' have to worry too much. Other than that the work is going good, even though this was a bad week. Unfortunately I lost focus mid-week and we suffered ever since then. We would still work but not hard enough for this area or for our missions! It was disappointing to say in the least and it was not fun to report at the end of the week. Not because we got in trouble or yelled at but because all our leaders care so much about us that they know our potential. It's crazy how when you let up just a little bit things fall apart. It is sad to admit but all we can do is learn from it and push forward. We are planning on having an amazing week though and instead of just hoping things turn out we are gonna work until they do. I'm learning a lot on my mission about life and about missions, unfortunately some of it is learned the hard way. Oh well, the ward and the missionaries and the Lord are forgiving and loving so that is all the more motivation to push forward. We are gonna try and have a bit more fun as well, I can tell we are getting stressed so don't be surprised if Elder Jensen writes home next week about how I randomly hit him with snowballs. I have also been writing church websites on the inside of foggy buses while we travel! It's the little crazy things we do in life that keep us all sane. So as far as stories go or amazing spiritual experience this week the most we had was our Zone Development Meeting. It snowed the whole time so they just let the meeting go on and on and on. It was frustrating because the church was in our area so we could have worked but no bother. It was quite spiritual and really fun too. It is great to have a zone that loves each other and wants to succeed. We also have massive testimony meetings at the end of them which are always good, even though I'm not comfortable bearing my testimony. It was a spiritual feast to say in the least! So this week was a challenge but like I usually say in my letters we will just have to work twice as hard this next week. I don't know what it is but everywhere I go people never come to church! It is the biggest struggle for me in my mission so far, I think Satan knows that as soon as they come once they will be sold, so he does all he can to keep them from coming. Oh well we have got God on our side we just have to use Him. We are still having fun though and are as happy as ever! Elder Jensen and I get on great and we tease each other all the time. It is a joy to work with him. Well I'd better get on with our P-day if you want a Christmas present! Well thanks so much mum. I got your letter from Thanksgiving and it made my day. I've got some pretty crazy cousins and I'm exciting to see them all again. Well I'd better go, give everyone in the ward my love. Have they had you report on me in church yet? That would be soooo weird. That makes me feel really old but I'm not. I play with all the kids toys when we teach people with children. Haha, well I'll talk to you next week mum. I love you.
Elder Rowley


Dad,


Well like I told mum this week has been a bit disappointing. It was mostly my fault is the worst problem! I just lost focus during the week and wasn't working as hard as I should have been. Don't get me wrong I wasn't a complete slack or waster as they say but I wasn't working the way that you taught me to. It is sad and frustrating but oh well I guess we can just look ahead. Our District Leader Elder Parham was frustrated too, mostly because he knows how good we could be. We have been working so hard and finally making progress but we just let up a little bit and we lost sight of our goals and things caved. To top it all of nobody came to church again! The funny thing was we sit down and look at each other a bit disappointed and said oh well and laughed a bit to de-stress when all of a sudden! Guess who walks in and sits down on the stand? President Lindley and his wife. It was just disappointing that we couldn't have had people there to show the President what we can do in this area. Oh well, the best thing about a mission is that you always have one more week. Don't get me wrong though we did still have a really fun week, just wasn't as rewarding as we'd hoped. We have been having fun in the snow even though everything grinds to a halt in this country. Instead of plowing roads here they just put down a load of grit which is like salt and rocks and stuff. It doesn't do much good and its really funny to see how people panic in the snow. We had one lady almost yell at us for being out in it. She was really angry that we were out. But with the snowballs and the chavs throwing snowballs we had some fun. We had a turkey bowl last week and played American football in the snow and boy was it fun. It is good to hear all the fun stuff happening at home. I'm excited to see the Crookston girls again. There are so many little kids here than remind me of them all, it is lots of fun. That is a definite testimony that we don't always see the benefits of our missionary work and that has definitely been one of the highlights of my week! Well I'd better get on, we are going Christmas shopping today and I'll hopefully mail some stuff home next week or this week. I'm taking driving lessons on Tuesday and it has almost been 6 months since I drove last! Wish me luck! Haha, love you Dad. Don't worry about me and Elder Jensen we are in the Lord's hands and he takes care of his own. We'll have plenty of miracles to report next week so we'll talk to you then! Love you loads.
Elder Rowley