I can see Ireland and England from my house

Date: Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 4:19 AM
Subject: 7 Months...

Hello!

How is everyone this week? Is the sun shining in Provo? It's trying to here. This morning as we were driving into Douglas we could see the mountains of the Lakes District in England across the Irish Sea. Oh and on Saturday we got to see Ireland from the other side of the island! It sure is beautiful here!!

Well, 7 months has already come and gone. It's crazy how fast time flies! I've loved every minute of it so far, even the difficult ones! Before any of us know it I'll be on a plane heading home! But until then, there is much work to do.

Our boiler still isn't fixed but maybe we might get the part this week, we'll see. We are very happy that Sister Radcliffe is back though! She returned on Friday evening and told us a little bit about her amazing experience helping out in a school over in Rio. She helps us out so much. All of the Ward members here take such good care of us, we are so blessed!

Yesterday was a wonderful day at Church! We were extra happy to be there because we had missed last week. I never realized before what an incredible blessing the Sacrament is! I love it! We were privileged to see Peter and Chris there as well as Wanda and her son! They all enjoyed it very much and plan to come to General Conference! We are excited about General Conference by the way, it's going to be amazing. We also got some pretty exciting news in Sacrament meeting that I'll probably have to tell you more about next week! Oh and we also saw a somewhat less-active recent convert there (who was Baptized last December) who has been struggling recently. That was really good! I love Church.

On Friday we were excitedly expecting the Assistants to President Bullock to come over to go on exchanges with us, but they couldn't. One of them had what they supposed to be Appendicitis! We have since heard that he wasn't operated on and is doing fine now! It was a bit disappointing to not have them come, but everything works out according to the Lord's will!

On Wednesday last week we had an amazing experience with the youth. We were invited to do an "MTC Experience" with them and it was amazing. We taught them how to teach, testify and commit people and we really learned a lot. After we taught them they had "practice investigators" that asked them questions, it was really well planned out. It reminded me just how much I would love to teach at the MTC there in Provo when I return in about a year and a half!

Other than that things have been going well. Please keep Whitney and Andres and their family (our new investigator family from the other week) in your prayers. They are often poorly and it's difficult to see them. Please pray for them to recover so we can continue teaching them! Prayer works! I know if we pray for them then they will be blessed by the restored Gospel!

We haven't seen our friend from Bulgaria in a little while but have been in contact with him by phone. He needs some prayers as well. We really want to see him again soon, we are so excited for him and his family also to experience the great blessings of the restored Gospel as well as all of our other investigators. He's too good of a man to not have the Gospel in his life!

Actually we didn't teach as much last week, we spent a lot of time street-contacting and tracting. We were blessed with some great success though, which we are excited about. We have a few appointments with potential investigators lined up this week and hope to get more soon! Please pray for us to have new investigators! Again, prayer works! Never underestimate it's power!

And the Church is still true. Jesus is the living Christ, the Son of God. He loves us. He knows us. He knows how to help us in our sufferings. I know that that is true. The Book of Mormon is true and it is the word of God. It does bring us closer to God than any other book as we abide by its teachings. I love that book. It is the keystone of our religion and the keystone of my testimony of the restored Gospel. The fullness of the Gospel has been restored. That is true. This is the only true and living Church on the face of the earth today. There is a Prophet of God on the earth right now and we get to hear from him this weekend! I know that we can learn and grow much from General Conference. I know that the Plan of Salvation is real and true. It is perfect even though we may not understand it perfectly. God does love us and wants us to return to His presence. We can do that through Jesus Christ and no other way. It will probably always be difficult to follow the way, but it will also definitely always be worth it. The work done in the Temple is true and it is amazing. I love the Temple. Go to the Temple as often as you can. I wish I could go more. We have so much work to do there, but we also have so many blessings to receive there as well. The Temple is the best place on earth! I love being a Missionary and I know that this work is true!

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful week and keep up the incredible work. Keep praying for those Missionary experiences, they will come, I know it! And when they do please please don't forget to let me know about it! I recently received a letter from a past Assistant to President Bullock who told me of some of his Missionary experiences on his way home from his mission and a few when he got home. It was amazing to hear and that great joy of Missionary work was still with him! Anyway, I love you all. Keep the letters coming.

Love,

Elder Rowley