Rowley in the House

Date: Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 4:41 AM
Subject: I Love You All!!

Hello Again!

Another week has come and gone so fast... it's incredible how fast the time flys! It only makes sense though, we are constantly working just about every hour of the day and I love it. There is nowhere else I would rather be than here on my Mission right now! It's been so much fun and I've grown so much already, I'm so excited that I get to be here for another 22 months!

Last week after P-Day we visited the first brick building in Shrewsbury. And guess what it's called? Rowley House! It was built by William Rowley a long time ago, I'm not sure exactly how long. Anyway, I'm really curious if we're related to him, can you send me some more pedigree charts? It's actually getting me kind of excited to do family history work someday!

On Friday we got to visit Newtown again and it was amazing. Elder Woolsey felt the great potential that is there just as I have before and still do. The branch there is really struggling though. The Branch President has been in for about 6 years and just last week the Branch was almost split up. They really need your prayers and faith, so will you pray for the members, and specifically for the less-active members, of the Newtown Branch? We're working to get as many people as possible to pray for this area because it really needs a miracle right now. I know that we can all see a miracle here and I'm excited to share it with you when it happens. Although the Lord could delay our petitions for Newtown for months or maybe years, I know that a miracle will happen there!

Thank you for praying for my mouth to be opened and filled with words, it has happened. I'm always going to be working on speaking with people, but I feel that I have really improved in the last couple weeks. I am worrying less and less about what to say when I speak with people and my faith that my mouth will be filled with the words to day has increased. Thank you so much!!

The other night Elder Woolsey and I were doing some tracting and got drenched, it was amazing. I am really loving the rain, it is so beautiful! I just bought myself an umbrella so I don't worry, I'll keep dry. Anyway, the next night we were tracting a street near that one and at one door a really nice older lady answered the door. We spoke quite a bit about the Gospel with her and she reminded me a lot of Aunt Edna, it was amazing. She has a friend over there in Utah who writes to her and I've been hoping and praying for her friend to tell her more about the church so she will join someday. As we stood there and spoke with her I could picture her joining the church, it was incredible! I've been able to do that with a lot of people, I really love it. We really are all brothers and sisters and children of our Heavenly Father!

On Monday we got to go on an exchange with the District Leader and his companion. His companion, Elder Ritter from Germany, came here to Shrewsbury. He is right our from the MTC and is already an amazing Missionary, I learned so much from him! I really grew to love him in the one day that we spent with each other. I really enjoy growing to love people unconditionally, I love feeling just a little portion of the infinite love of our Father in Heaven!

Things with Elder Woolsey are tough but fun. He has been on his mission for almost 18 months now. Every time we see a plane go by he says "hey, guess how far away that plane is?" and then "6 and a half months!" And thats when I say "21 and a half months for me!" And I tell him how he is going to go home and be jealous of me still being here! He is a great Missionary and I'm learning a lot from him.

Well, I guess that's about all for this week. I love you so much, your prayers and support and letters and packages and everything mean so much to me. I wouldn't be nearly as great of a Missionary if it weren't for you. Thanks for making me who I am today! Oh and to those who have written me letters, I'm sorry it's going to take me a long time to reply! We only have about a couple hours each week to write letters with all we do on Preparation day so I'm a little limited in what I can do. But I will do my best to write you back!

The Church is so true and I love it so much. Being a Missionary is the greatest thing any person can do, whether you're a Member-Missionary or a Full-Time Missionary. Joseph Smith was a Prophet and Thomas S. Monson is the living Prophet on the earth today. Jesus Christ is the head of the church through Thomas S. Monson. The power of the Holy Ghost is real and we can enjoy it every day of our lives. I wish I could share with you a hundredth part of what I'm learning each morning in study and throughout each day, but I cannot. I now know what they meant when they talked about that in the Book of Mormon. That book IS true no matter what anyone else says. It will change our lives every time we read it and we can grow closer to God by abiding by it's precepts than by any other books precepts. I've said it before and I'll say again that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of my testimony. Jesus is the Christ and He loves us unconditionally. Heavenly Father lives and loves us so much. I know that as we give our all in our prayers to Him, He will open the windows of Heaven and we will be blessed like never before. I'm experiencing that here. I'm experiencing I say, Become a Missionary. There is nothing greater.

I love you all. Keep the letters coming! And keep praying for me and all those around me here. Are you getting the blessings I'm sending you?

With much Love,

Elder Rowley

p.s. You can mention on the blog about the fall here, it's beautiful! Elder Woolsey and I were at Attingham Park yesterday and we thought we were looking at a painting of some trees on a hill-side in the distance but we could tell it was real, it was amazing! (This was in a separate e-mail to me.)