Sunday
April 13, 2014
We're fasting again today, this time for the 40 day fast that the
whole mission is doing. It's a process of purification that allows us
to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. We were given a
talk to read that talks about the experience an elder had with the 40
day fast as a missionary himself. He was taught this process of
purification by one of the prestigious leaders of the church - the
paper doesn't specify who, but for some reason my mind keeps picturing
elder holland. We fast today and make a list of all things the spirit
pokes at us to write down. We then go on a 40 day fast and refrain
from all things on our list. We covenant with Heavenly Father every
morning, that we will avoid all the things on our list. We try our
best, we rely on The Lord, and then we go through our list at the end
of each day. We pray again, specially addressing everything on our
list, what went well and what did we not do? Why didn't we do it? What
can we do to change? The article we were given to read tells us about
the experience this elder had. The temptations will become that much
stronger, satan does not want us to reach this level of purification.
But the end result is amazing. This elder reached a point where he had
quite literally done ALL he could and then handed the rest over to
God. The stories he tell are amazing, and far better told by him (I'll
try to take a picture of it of something and send it to you), but it
was apparent that the spirit was his CONSTANT companion. He said
things he would have never said otherwise, and the result was eternal
salvation for many. Our mission has been struggling with baptisms and
having people on date, so doing this together is definitely inspired.
I'm positive that we will see mission miracles because of this 40 day
fast. I think the iPads might have something to do with our decreased
in baptisms. I think they are still very much a distraction for us.
I've discovered that we rely on our iPads instead of our scriptures,
testimony, and even preach my gospel. We need to use our iPads in
addition to three other sources, and these other source must always be
priority in the life of a missionary.
Monday
April 14, 2014
the wangs didn't come to church. i was really sad about it at first, but i had a small moment where the spirit told me it was okay. It was very fleeting and very quiet, as most encounters with the spirit are. We had fasted for them and i started to wonder why. what was the point of fasting if did nothing? i was able to (for the 50 millionth time) recognize the power of agency. the spirit told me it was okay, that this will be a step by step process with the wangs. as sister fifita would say, "slowly but surely". they made a huge step in allowing us to come over for dinner, telling us their conversion story, talking about the temple, and brother wang made an even larger step when he said the closing prayer that night, acknowledging that they need to come back to church and asking for that help. slowly but surely, the wangs will come back.
there are jews EVERYWHERE in kentlands. e v e r y w h e r e. very rarely do they kindly talk with us. most of them peak through their window, see our nametags, and say they aren't interested - often times in very mean tones.
once upon a time sister rowley wanted to make mac & cheese for her and sister chapman. and then the entire process, from start to finish, was an epic fail. bought at 16oz box of noodles instead of 8oz, thought we could just make double and have tons of leftovers so we pour it all into a pot that we're pretttty sure everything will fit into.... false. overflowing pot of pasta. so we split it up and try two. one of the other pots doesn't even heat up. so we make one batch and then make the other batch. i'm eating what i think is cooked noodles only to discover they are the half cooked noodles. put everything into a bowl, double the cheese & milk & salt --- oh wait, we don't have salt! who needs salt when you have greek seasoning?... it has salt & pepper in it as main ingredients, it should be fine! put suran wrap over the top? oh wait, we don't have suran wrap, let's just use a paper towell. microwave for 3 min, stir, 2 more min, stir until it gets creamy. when will it ever get creamy? NEVER. it was awful. it didn't necessarily taste awful, but it was super stringy and the cheese definitely didn't spread evenly over all the pasta. but wait, the tragedy isn't over yet. totally forgot to put it in the fridge before we left so we had to throw it out when we got home. as i go to throw it in the trash it falls out of the container all over the kitchen floor. sister rowley for the win! hey, at least i'm a cooking disaster here instead as a newlywed! we were at mary ellen & rick's last night for dinner and turns out i don't know how to do something as simple as cut carrots, i failed to ask for a peeler & mary ellen looks at me and starts laughing and asks if i'm going to peel them. and then i was using the knife wrong & everything. this is why i stick to baking.
okay, mary ellen & rick... they are AMAZING!!!!! they were tracted into right before we got here in october. they are as golden as they come. oh my goodness, i love them so much! rick looks like he could be a bishop and mary ellen looks like the world's best YW or RS president. they get baptized on mothers day!!!! it will be so neat to be there and i'm so glad i have this opportunity to get to know them. when you guys come get me, i definitely want to introduce you to them. i was nervous that they wouldn't like me that much, just because they've worked with so many other missionaries and they have a special place in their hearts for the sisters who found them, but i feel as though i'm hanging out with another set of parents when i'm with them. i have so many great proxy parents out here, the cookes, the VC couples, everyone is just so great! i am so blessed!
okay, mehdi. mehdi is our miracle find! It's amazing how everything worked out so well when we met him. We had been tracting for awhile by then, and we had walked away from a few houses without being as bold with our invitations as we could have been. We didn't teach doctrine and we sort of shrunk when they threw out their "no". Right before going to Mehdi's house, I told Sister Chapman that I didn't want to do that again, I didn't want to let one more person slip by without teaching them something about the gospel! We knocked on Mehdi's door, introduced ourselves, and got the "I'm not interested in religion" answer. I refused to let that stop me. We continued talking with him and acknowledged what he said, but left him with an invitation anyways - one that was bold. We left him with a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. His response was so much more than I could have ever hoped for... he PROMISED to read it! We didn't get a super solid return appointment, but he did say we could come back. It's amazing how we are able to progress with each doorstep and each person we meet. It's as if Heavenly Father gives us the opportunity to fine tune ourselves all night, so that by the time we knock on that one elect door, we're ready. We went back in that neighborhood the following week to give someone else a family proclamation. Afterwards, we saw a man working in his garden and decided to see if he needed any help. Turns out it was Mehdi!!! We didn't realize we had tracted that far down on the other side of the neighborhood!!! Heavenly Father was giving us another chance to get that solid return appointment. We're going back Tuesday night!! We found out that he hasn't started the Book of Mormon yet, but his wife has!!! We are so excited to go back and look forward to talking with his wife and teaching them about the restored gospel and the happiness that comes from following Jesus Christ!
i had a really neat experience with my latest blog post (fill your vase). it sort of just flowed right out of me. the response was more than i could have hoped for or expected! people were commenting & sharing the post! even commenting on the blog itself! it was just amazing. heavenly father has been really blessing me and helping me with my blog lately.
guess what! the RS president in my new ward and her husband both graduated from jordan high!! beetdigger pride all the way here in maryland!
sister chapman and i decided that missionaries are professional stalkers, now online. we dropped by the FROG yogurt shop this week in hopes that we would find the iqbal family. no luck. okay, so maybe we tried 3 times. see, professional stalkers. and yes, we also stalked them online (yay FB!).
3 nephi 12. that was my favorite thing i learned and studied this week. i was studying it sunday morning, the day we started our 40 day fast and it just went so perfectly along with this idea of purification! i love when things like that come together. i love being a missionary, truly love it. i love you all and look forward to some letters & emails this week - my mailbox has been sad & lonely :]
love,
sister rowley
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