Penny Lane

Date: Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 4:33 AM
Subject: I Love Liverpool!

Hiya Everyone!

How's your week been? How's the weather? How's school and work and family and friends and everything? Tell me all!

I love it here in Liverpool. Everything here just points me towards Charity, which is the Christ-like attribute for the week. We really would be nothing without Charity. Anyway, I love the people here so much. People on the streets, the members, investigators, Missionaries, Elder Cowley, everyone! I think I owe a lot of it to the Lord number one, and Elder Cowley. He is one of the most loving people I've ever met. He's so good! He's raising my bar and I love working with him so much. I'm going to learn a lot from him in the next 6 weeks.

The city is a lot different than you'd think. It's dirty. And run-down in some areas. But that's why we have the Gospel and we take it in there and the Savior changes people who change themselves and get themselves out of the slums. That's the story of a few of the members here. They are such amazing people. Anyway, the buildings in the town aren't as big as I would have thought, but they are big. There is a massive Church of England Cathedral in town, as well as a building that looks similar to the Salt Lake Temple. But I still don't know much about town because we are hardly ever there. This city is massive. Absolutely massive. and I love it. We usually only stay in a small area because we have so many people to teach in this area. It's great. Oh and I'll be getting some pictures on Penny Lane for everyone!

The people are absolutely amazing. I love them so much. My MTC teacher, Brother Murphy, is in the ward and I had a great talk with him yesterday. The time has just flown since then. Also, there are a few Americans, one named Brother Bogue, served his mission in Finland! I had a nice talk wih him as well. I already knew some of the people here because we came here for exchanges when I was on the Isle of Man, so it wasn't too bad in Church yesterday, people were saying "I know your face from somewhere." It was great. I'll tell you more names in the future.

Our investigators are incredible. Toma is the most amazing Romanian man I've ever met. He and his family all came to Church yesterday. The other day we were there and the kids were all giving us high 5's and it was great. They have 5 or 6 kids by the way, 3 of which we can Baptize. I love those kids already, they are so happy and have so much fun. They are also a very poor family, which is just evidence that you don't have to have money to be happy. Elder Cowley and I taught Toma and his wife, Michelle in church yesterday and it was great. We sang hymns and they sang from the Romanian hymn book that previous Elders gave them and it was incredible. Toma is scheduled to be Baptized on the 28th of November and then we're hoping he can Baptize his family. Please pray for him to be ready for his Baptism! Miracles are on the way!

We're also teaching a man named Ian Farley who will be Baptized on Friday. He is great. He loves golf and physical training and football and we get on well. We've already had tea with him in members homes a couple times since I've been here and he is great friends with the members. He will do great in this ward. Pray for all to go well in preparation for his Baptism this week!

There are also a few more who I haven't been able to meet or I've only met once. I'll tell you more about them in the future. Oh wait! I almost forgot about Zuzeyo! Zuzeyo is our Zimbabwean brother. I love him. The other day he made us African food and it was fantastic. Wow it was good. Zuzeyo is great, he's made a lot of changes in his life and is also preparing for Baptism. I already love him as well. Pray for him also.

Yesterday was probably another of the best days of my mission. Toma and his family came to church and also Ian and then after Church we were able to go to a members home for Tea. On the way there we were running late and we had to catch a couple of buses and we rang our Zone Leaders (Elder Newson and Elder Stacey) who "just so happened" to be just around the corner. Well, the gave us a lift to our appointment and we had the greatest roast dinner from the Parry's. I love them already. The Gospel has changed their lives. Anyway, we had a recent convert named Wayne, Ian, and a somewhat less-active brother named Josh there, it was amazing! It went really well and after that we had a great night street contacting. We felt that we needed to try by a potential investigator that we missed an appointment with recently, and he was in and we were able to teach him! His name is Ronnie and he can use your prayers as well. There are so many people here to teach, it's crazy and I love it!

The study of hope last week was amazing. I learned that hope is synonymous to confidence and that discouragement is opposed to confidence. There was one day last week that I struggled to share the Gospel with people on buses (yep, we speak with people on the buses about the Gospel). I asked Elder Newson (one of our Zone Leaders) for some help and he gave me some advice that filled me with hope as I prayed about it. Now my hope and confidence is stronger and I plan to always speak with people on buses! The Gospel really does change people. It's changed me so much. I also grew in my Charity from this experience, which was a nice lead off into that attribute for this week. I'm excited for this one, it will be great. The Church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is true. It will help us. We need to be using it as much as we can. The Lord has so much more to give to us if we will use that sacred record more. Jesus is the Christ and is the Son of God. We cannot get anywhere good in life without Him. Through Him we can obtain every good thing, and eventually the best gift, the gift of Eternal Life in the Celestial Kingdom. That is my hope for all of you. So endure to the end in faith, repentance, the Sacrament, and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you so much and thank you so much for everything you do for me and for the people here. Blessings should just be flowing all over the place over there. I hope so. Write to me about it. I love you!

Love,

Elder Rowley