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