Happy . . . Boxing Day? December 26, 2010/December 27, 2010

Editor's note: Thanks to the kindness of a senior missionary couple in Christchurch, we were able to talk to Elder Rowe via Skype on Christmas Eve. He got online right in the middle of our annual Christmas Eve party, so he got to say hello to extended family and friends who were here. It was great to both hear him and see him.

A few photos:

The missionaries from the southern half of Elder Rowe's mission, assembled for their Christmas zone conference. President Joliffe, the mission president, was snapping the photo and thus is not in it.














The monumental event for American missionaries in Christchurch: the opening of a local Wendy's. Look at the line! Elder Rowe's report: The $1 menu is the $3 menu there, and the fries don't hold a candle to the ones in Orem.

Christmas loot for Elders Rowe and MacTavish. He profusely thanks anyone who sent him stuff . Notice the ginormous tree.

Elder Rowe's letter:

Merry Christmas again! I hope you all had such a wonderful Christmas! I did, despite it being such a different one. And I was so happy to see so many of you when we Skyped! That was such a wonderful Christmas present. It was so great feeling like I was at home again and enjoying the Christmas Eve festivities! And then I went back to being a missionary. So all is good.

Today is Boxing Day, again. Yesterday (the 26th) was the official Boxing day, (meaning everything that didn't get bought for Christmas goes on super sales), but today it has been continued. So I may do some shopping. Probably not, but maybe.

Yesterday there was a huge earthquake! They say it's just more aftershocks from the original one in September, but there were about twelve shocks yesterday. But I also heard there was an earthquake in a place called Java (I feel kind of dumb because I've never heard of that nor do I know if that's what it's called) and that all of the shakes from yesterday were aftershocks from that one. So that makes more sense, because I haven't felt any shakes for a month or so.

Yesterday morning at 2:00 Elder MacTavish and I woke up from the first big shake, and that was pretty scary, because it felt huge! The biggest one I've felt so far! But there was a bigger one, I think, at 10:30, and that one shook me up pretty good. But all is well, no harm is done, to me, that is. I think some of the previously damaged buildings may have gotten worse.

Christmas Conference was really great though! All of the missionaries in the south Island met together on thursday here at our chapel in Cashmere and we had a wonderful talk from President Jolliffe on integrity. The talk was very inspiring and especially encouraging for a missionary. So I learned a lot from that. We also had a huge lunch prepared by ward members. Before the lunch, we split into three groups. One group was the "choir," which prepared four songs in an hours' time (with chimes during one of them). They were "conducted" (is that the right word?) by one of the missionaries who did the most amazingly hilarious conducting I have ever seen. The choir couldn't help but smile as he conducted because he was so good. I can't really explain it, but he practically acted out the words to the songs as he led the music.

The rest of the missionaries split into two groups. We had an hour to prepare our own versions of A Christmas Carol. Hilarious! Just some of the randomness that was involved included Scrooge portrayed as a Nazi/Arnold Schwarzenegger character, and Scrooge's ghost friend "Marley" portrayed as Bob Marley. You had to be there. But we all had a great time and it was cool meeting other missionaries and seeing some of the Elders from my intake.

I don't have much else to say. It's been kind of a weird week with all of the holidays and festivities. But I learned this week the power of the Book of Mormon when door knocking. We were able to get so many more new investigators by offering them a free Book of Mormon (rather than just saying "we're sharing a message about Jesus Christ"). So that was really cool.

Anyway! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Enjoy partying without me!

Just remember:

"True happiness comes only by making others happy"---David O. McKay

Keep doing what is right, and praying day and night!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder David John Rowe





Merry Christmas, One and All! December 19/December 20

Merry Christmas one and all!

This week has been a different one, but in good ways!

I was on exchanges with Elder Lund (one of the Zone Leaders who's from Ephraim, Utah) from Wednesday to Saturday morning and learned a lot and had some great experiences. His companion, Elder Spampinato from California, went with Elder MacTavish and  took the stress of preparing a baptism off my shoulders. I went to Elder Lund's area, Cashmere (where our chapel is), and got to be in a car for three days! It was especially great because it was rainy almost every day. Over the couple of days I learned a lot about what a powerful tool the Book of Mormon is. A lot of people who don't know what the Book of Mormon is, or how wonderful it is, are quite opposed to it. But once we are able to explain what it is and that it's not a "replacement" to the Bible, people love it! Certain people may not want to hear the lessons from us missionaries, but if we can get them to at least start reading the Book of Mormon, they'll eventually realize "I want to hear what those missionaries have to say!"

The biggest news this week was the baptism on Friday! Violah and Mako were baptized Friday night by Elder MacTavish and then confirmed a member of the Church on Sunday by the both of us. Rudo hasn't decided to get baptized yet, for reasons we're not exactly sure of, but we hope she will decide to within the next couple of weeks because she still is coming to church and loves it. We also hope to start teaching the Dad, Kaibos, pretty soon because he's now done with "Uni" (University) for a while now and should have a lot more free time. I hope so much that he will listen to us, because if he joined the Church, his family could become so much stronger and progress so much more. Because this Gospel is all about families and having Kaibos join, the Mapurangas will be an amazing addition to the family of the Church!

My plans for Christmas are basically to sleep in until 8:00 (that's President Jolliffe's gift to us), open all of my packages, and then I think we're going over to the Fesolaii's house for a big Christmas lunch. And I will most likely be calling from there (which will be 40 minutes). The rest of the day that isn't too planned is to visit some of our investigators who need a friend on Christmas and visit some other ward members who have invited us over.

But I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas! I love this time of year so much because of it's emphasis on people needing to remember Christ. And I've noticed that it has in some ways made people more keen on hearing our message because of it. I've always loved Christmas, but so far, this month has been particularly special because I've been brought so much closer to Christ and have thought about Him so much more, as I should, and am so glad we have a holiday to celebrate Him and all that He has done for us. I'm so grateful for Him and I know He lives! I know that because of Christ, our Savior, we can all be forgiven of our sins, and one day return to live with Him and our families. And I'm so grateful to be a member, and particularly a missionary, of His church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know this Church is true, and I'm so grateful to be a missionary and have the privilege of sharing such a wonderful message with the people of New Zealand.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope it's the best!

By the way, I'm sooooooooo happy about your job Dad! That's very wonderful and very relieving I'm sure. And congratulations to Melissa with BYU-Idaho! Cheeeeehoo!

Well I gotta go, but I hope you all the very best!

Just remember:

"True happiness comes only by making others happy"---David O. McKay

Keep doing what is right, and praying day and night!

Have a wonderful week!
TALK to you soon!

Love,

Elder David John Rowe

Hello There! Sunday, December 12/ Monday December 13

Dear my beloved family,

I'm glad to hear all is well in Orem! Because all is well in Christchurch. Well, with me that is.

This Friday is the big day! Violah and Mako are getting baptized! Both are excited and Violah always says she's "so happy!" On Tuesday, we taught Violah, Mako and Rudo about the Word of Wisdom. They were all pretty surprised about not drinking coffee, but they didn't drink it anyway, so they all committed to follow the Word of Wisdom, even Rudo who hasn't decided to get baptized yet, still said she would.

Violah's 21-year old daughter Niasha was visiting for a while from Dunedin while looking for a job up here, and to be polite she sat in on the lesson. We first talked a bit about the Book of Mormon with her before we started the lesson and she was pretty interested and said she would give reading it a try! She is quite active in her own church, but I think seeing her mom and brother get baptized into this Church will give her more incentive to hear the lessons from us.

We haven't been able to talk much with Rudo because she's been pretty busy or preoccupied, but she came to church yesterday and is making friends with some of the young single adults, so I think that will encourage her to at least keep coming to church awhile before she decides to get baptized.

Mako (I thought it was MaRko, because pronounced with an accent it's "Mawko", but there's no R so it's Maw-ko, not Mar-ko FYI) is doing great! He went to Scout camp with the rest of the young men on Friday and Saturday, so that was awesome and definitely made him feel like part of the ward.

The ward has been a real great help with the Mapuranga family and they already seem like part of the ward! So I'm really grateful for that! What every new investigator needs is fellowship and a sense of belonging in the ward, because as a ward we're there to learn from each other and help each other come closer to Christ, and if someone doesn't feel like they are needed or even wanted, they will leave. ( I hope I don't sound like a broken record as I say this every week)

So on Monday, we finally were able to make contact with a less-active member named Errol (we had the wrong address and for weeks we've been going to the wrong, empty, apartment down the street from him). So we met Errol and had a good chat with him about computer games, biking and fishing, and then as we had hoped, he brought up Church. He hadn't been to Church for about 8 years or so! He left because of a number of reasons, but he hadn't ever gone back because he didn't feel like he was needed or wanted (part of it was actually that home teachers stopped coming). He had gone to a number of different churches over the years but he didn't agree with any of them (because they weren't true of course). And so when we visited him on Monday, and then stopped to say Hi on Friday, that was enough to get him to come to church yesterday! I was so glad and surprised to see him sitting in the back of the chapel as we walked in. He was also warmly greeted by a ward member who was an old friend of his as well as the Bishop and others. Errol stayed for the whole 3 hours and really liked it! So that just reiterates the importance of ward members helping ward members. Just from having two missionaries come and say Hi, it brought Errol back to Church.

Also, I've learned this week as well how great the Book of Mormon is to have in helping people join the Church. It shows that we really aren't just some other church, but that we're the Church of Jesus Christ in these latter-days and that the Book of Mormon is proof of that. I love the Book of Mormon and all that is in it that can bless and help to guide our lives.


Random comments
I'm glad that Anna prays for my investigators individually! I love that and appreciate it!
I wish her and Jenny the best of luck with their tryouts! That will be awesome!
I can't wait for the Christmas package! Thank you!

We've had the opposite weather than what we should have. It's been pretty cold for the past 3 days! Crazy!

I don't know what Pres Jolliffe did professionally before being called as a mission president. And as for the question about whether Christmas is a big deal here, I will talk more about that  later on I'm sure (like after Christmas). But yes, it's big, because nobody celebrates Hanukkah or Kwanzaa so it's all Christmas. Though Christmas is all about barbecues and water activities. Really funny.

I'm struggling to find out how the phone call will work for sure, but I will be using a pre-paid phone card and probably a member's phone. And will call you in the afternoon on your Christmas Eve. Will you be out of the house for any reason then? We're 4 hours apart so it will probably be late afternoon 3 4 or 5? I will do my best to make it work the best.

Repeat from last week's sign off, but it's a good one. And I mean it! I love you!

"True happiness comes only by making others happy"---David O. McKay

Well I gotta go, but I hope you all the very best! 

Keep doing what is right, and praying day and night!

Have a wonderful week!

Love Elder David John Rowe

Buenas Dias, Tardes o Noches (Sunday, December 5 or Monday, December 6, depending on your whereabouts)

Hello my beloved family,

I'm glad to hear you're all doing so well!

I will answer questions first, because I failed last time.

1. It's pretty hot here! As I'm sure you can assume! But luckily this past week was a lot nicer because the sun wasn't as burning as it has been before. My arms are super tan and islander-looking, and I've got some sweet tan-lines. Well, the line from my sleeves reaches my bicep, the one on my neck from my collar, and my wrist from my watch. So it's pretty funny when us missionaries change into "mufty" (non-church clothes) and everybody is wearing t-shirts with their neck tan lines. I'm not sure how hot it is, but yeah, it's hot. Especially when we're riding bikes with a backpack on. So I greatly appreciate it whenever it's fairly cool. The mornings and evenings have the perfect weather, so I try to reserve door-knocking for the evenings. 

2. We bike soooo much, I couldn't even measure it. One of our dinner appointments/FHE was 6 miles away and we biked home from it in about 20 minutes. I don't know if that's impressive or not.

3. Elder MacTavish did not get transferred, but he most likely will next time. Or I will, either way, one of us will. 

4. My studies are going great! I'm currently reading in the Book of Mormon to finish President Webb's challenge. I was in Alma when he gave it, and I'm now in Jacob. So I'm kind of almost done. President Jolliffe asks us to read 5 pages from the Book of Mormon everyday anyway. But I'm also trying to finish the 2nd half of the New Testament. I find that harder to read than the Book of Mormon. Other things I read randomly are Jesus the Christ and Teachings of Presidents of the Church--either Joseph Smith or Spencer W. Kimball (books I scored off of other missionaries).

Dad and Kathy, I'm really glad you two could go to the temple together, I look forward to being able to go again. It would be especially nice if we could go to the Hamilton one when you pick me up. ;)

Whenever I'm really hot, I think how cold you guys must be and I'm jealous of the snow. But then I assume you're probably jealous of me, and it all evens out. So be grateful for the snow (when it comes back) and I will be grateful for the sunshine. 

I can't believe Anna has head gear! That picture is adorable! ;) So does she just sleep with it on or what? And braces for Jenny? Everyone is going to be so different when I get back! I need to see a picture of brace-face when she gets them on.

For calling on Christmas, we'll either go to the chapel, or use a member's phone. But what I do is buy a calling card and just use that for the paid time limit on it. But I will be sure to figure it out in better detail. I will be paying for it with that card, and it will probably be in the afternoon since you're 4 hours ahead.

The week has gone well. A particular highlight is that I got to put my five years of Spanish class to work this week. My Spanish was horrible, but the experience was really great. While door knocking on Wednesday, Elder MacTavish knocked on the door of a Chilean woman named Laura who didn't speak English. I told her I spoke "un poco" but she took that to mean she could have a full on conversation with me. After struggling with trying to speak Spanish with her for about 5 minutes, I was able to figure out that she's a member, but hasn't gone to church for many years (I think not since she was baptized when she was a girl). But she told me her husband, Sebastian, speaks English (what a relief) and that we could come back on Saturday to talk and have him translate. So on Saturday we went back and taught them about the Plan of Salvation. The husband is agnostic and didn't really care to "listen" but agreed to translate for us. So Elder MacTavish and I taught the Plan of Salvation, while Sebastian translated for Laura. Sebastian didn't seem to get much out of it, but as we continue to teach Laura while he translates, hopefully he will be able to hear the Spirit and not just the words we're saying. We hope to get Laura coming back to church, but it will just be hard for her having to go through the whole meeting in English. We have a few members in the ward who speak Spanish, so hopefully they will be able to fellowship her and she will be more willing to come to Church. Also, we gave her a Libro de Mormon and she was really glad to have it and to read it. During our lesson with her, we had her read certain scriptures in the Spanish Book of Mormon and I think that really helped the lesson a lot, because the Book of Mormon can always testify of truth, while having Sebastian translate for us might not have been doing so perfectly.

Update with the Mapuranga's: On Thursday, Elder MacTavish and I went over planning to teach an object lesson with tea bags (ironic isn't it?) about Baptism and the Holy Ghost with Violah (Rudo was at a wedding rehearsal all week for her cousin). Marko had a friend over, but left his friend in his room playing Playstation to come listen to us. He started asking questions relating to the Plan of Salvation so we realized it was important that we answered those and teach him that lesson, and that it would be good for Violah to hear it again anyway. So we brought out my handy Plan of Salvation diagram to teach the whole thing. Violah soon called in Marko's friend Kevin to come in and "show us some respect." So Kevin came in and he even had his own questions about the Plan. We were pretty surprised by two 12 year olds' questions about the after-life. They even had questions that we had to answer by mentioning baptisms for the dead! By the end of the lesson, as we hope all investigators will do, Marko and Kevin realized they need to get baptized to get to the Celestial Kingdom. We asked Marko if he would like to get baptized and he agreed that he wanted to. So him and Violah are set for getting baptized on 18 December! 

We talked to Kevin's mom about us coming over to teach him but she responded with a rude remark, so hopefully next time Kevin's over at Marko's he will be able to be taught. Marko and Violah came to Church yesterday as well as the ward barbeque on Friday (with Kevin). I was so grateful for those ward members who made Marko and Violah into the ward, but kind of suprised by those who ignored them. It's just a reminder to me that I should always make someone new or alone feel welcome. And that's a challenge I extend to all of you. Reach out to the lonely ones in need. Just simply saying "Hi, how are you?" to someone who seems alone can mean all the world to them.

"True happiness comes only by making others happy"---David O. McKay

Well I gotta go, but I hope you all the very best! 

Keep doing what is right, and praying day and night! (I'm going to start saying that one more often!)

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder David John Rowe