A week full of miracles!

Family! Friends! Hello from DC!

We had an amazing week in the Seneca singles! Sister Fifita and I have
been really working on talking with EVERYONE. There was even one time
where we didn't invite a family after asking them where a certain
house was so I just decided to awkwardly knock on their door like ten
minutes after they had already gone inside. No regrets! They weren't
interested, but we invited them to come to the VC sometime. We are so
blessed to have the VC in our mission. It really is such a great way
to leave the door cracked for those who don't want to open it all the
way.

Where to begin?? Miracle 1 - WE HAVE A NEW INVESTIGATOR! Best thing
ever!! His name is Jeff and he's a former investigator. The first time
we were going to see him we didn't because his teaching record said
his mom was a less active in the French branch so we wanted to talk to
the French elders first. We finally went back and couldn't find his
house. We could've just given up, but we eventually found it and we
knocked and knocked and knocked and then finally he answered and it
only gets better from here! He was home, super nice, and super willing
to let us come back later in the week. When we showed up he already
had three chairs outside set ion for our meeting (we didn't have a
third female to come with so we had to meet outside) and when he came
out he had his Book of Mormon with him! We reviewed the restoration
and then invited him to be baptized on April 13th (his birthday
present to Taylor)! He's definitely our miracle find for the area.

Zarina is a less active that we've been trying to get to church since
I met her in October and guess what... She finally came to church on
Sunday!! MIRACLE! We had a lot of miracles on Sunday. We got to eat
dinner with Laura and her family and it was just so amazing. The food,
the company, everything. I sort of felt like I was at home, enjoying
sarcastic conversations and we even had one of dad's favorite
desserts, strawberry short cake! Definitely a tender mercy from
Heavenly Father. They even teased me about going to the U instead of
BYU! Told you it felt like home, something that I really appreciated.
We miss out on those opportunities being with the YSA and eating out
all the time, it's nice to eat a home cooked meal with a family. Sis
Premont was telling us how much we mean to the group and I just
started crying. She said that we are the reason Laura started going to
the group and I was able to see just how important we are to these
YSAs. We might not have many investigators, but we're helping someone
and I am finally starting to see just how much we've helped. It feels
good to be appreciated like that. Sis caffee expressed similar
feelings at a meeting we had on Tuesday and I of course started crying
then too. I know what they mean when they say you will love the people
you serve, because I truly love these young single adults. So much. I
feel like I kind of understand how dad feels when he says he loves the
YSA back home. It's amazing. And it's all because Christ loves them so
much.

We had a lot of success tracting this week. There was one day when I
felt compelled to knock on a door and there we met the Castillo family
who didn't speak much English but accepted our invitation to learn
more from missionaries who do speak Spanish! Elder Alca and elder
hatch will teach them, and I couldn't pick a better set of elders to
teach them. Ps. Elder Alca is going back to byu-I after this transfer
so you need to look for him Taylor! He's the one who thanked you for
the cookies mom, so you can show her who he is. He's been my zone
leader ever since I got here and I don't think he'll ever know how
much I appreciated all he taught me and did for us as we struggled
with our area. Not long after finding the Castillo's, we found Bruce,
we aren't sure how interested he was but he said yes to missionaries
coming by! We then had some amazing experiences on Sunday night. We
went looking for less actives Sunday night and sister Fifita was
totally in tune! She picked a door and we met Leo, a man from china
who said yes to missionaries coming back over! As we left he said "god
be with you" and then taught us how to say it in Chinese, of course I
forgot though. But it was so awesome, finding people everywhere! That
night I didn't have a BOM in my bag but we had them in the car and for
some reason I felt like I needed to put one in my bag so I took some
stuff out and added a BOM instead. We continued to search for less
actives and I felt impressed to see someone else that we hadn't
included in our initial plans. So we go to her house and turns out she
wasn't home so we decided to tract a little. We were about to head
back when sister Fifita picked one more door to knock on. There we met
jami. Her husband is currently a pastor for another church, but she
was super nice and talked to us. When we asked her if she had heard of
Mormons she said that her father once read the BOM. I asked her if she
had ever read it and when she said no I invited her to do so. And
that's why the spirit prompted me to put the BOM in my bag!!! I am
soooo glad I listened to that prompting!! She threw out the "but the
bible says we shouldn't add to it" comment, and we didn't really have
a great answer, but we did share our testimony and that was when
everything changed. She sensed our sincerity and humility and then
said she would read it. Even though we aren't finding YSAs to teach I
feel the same satisfaction and same sense of fulfillment. We're still
helping God's children find the truth.

Love you all so much! Thank you for all you do and for the prayers you
say in my behalf. I'm here because of all of you, so thank you!

Love, Sister Rowley