19/20 June 2011

My dear family,

Happy Father's Day! I don't think anybody's actually heard of that here. Or maybe they have it on a different day. But Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Hey! How are ya? I'm glad to hear you had such an exciting week over in OO-tah. Mine has been good! Levin is swell! Even in the rain!

That's way cool about the Moodys. It sounds like they helped accomplish some amazing work. I'm glad Peter taught you the Haka. I expect a perfect performance when I return home. And then I'll show you how it's really done. ;) At the end of it, did Peter stick out his tongue and bugger his eyes? That's called the Pukana (something like that). I think one of the funniest/terrifying things to watch is little kids doing the Haka. It's the best. 

I was on exchanges in the first part of the week with my old District Leader, Elder Stratford, who is now my Zone Leader in Palmerston North. It was a big change for me to be on exchanges in Palmerston North. It's a pretty big city that reminds me a lot of Provo, but cleaner. But I've been in small towns like Omahu and Levin that it was kind of weird for me to be doing missionary work in the busy downtown area they lived in. I feel like I'm always saying this, but I learned a lot about talking to people. Just in the little while I was there I became much more comfortable with talking with everyone we walked past. Even though most usually wouldn't even say G'day in return. (Yes, they do say "G'day" here, just like Aussies) 

I also learned this week that ants never die. There will always be more who come through some other crack in the wall. Vacuuming ants doesn't always kill them either. 

Chris told Elder Cerros and I that he finished The Book of Mormon. I can't believe it! Well I can, it's just pretty crazy how much he's read. Our main concern is having him take it all in spiritually rather than just logically. One problem is that he's taking the whole thing as more of a history book rather than scripture, and so we just need to really sit down and have a real gospel discussion with him. We just haven't been able to see him much this week because he's too busy. But he's still doing well and your prayers are always helpful.

One of my highlights for the week was our lesson with Ace and Jackie. They're a young couple with two kids. When I say young, I mean Ace is 21 and Jackie is 18. I was pretty surprised when I found out, too. I was thinking they were in their mid-20's. But anyway, we've been talking to them kind of casually for the last couple of weeks on the doorstep or on the street when they're out for walks but haven't really had a real lesson until Saturday. They invited us in from the rain, and after the usual random chatter I brought out my Plan of Salvation cut-outs (you should know, Kathy, that I use those all the time) and we began teaching! After we said a prayer, of course. As we started asking them questions and the Spirit came into the room, they became more and more interested and kept asking more and more questions! Then Jackie said she's kind of always wanted to get baptized, and we assured her we could help her with that. ;) They had so many questions that we had to tell them to save them and we would answer them next time. So it was a really wonderful lesson and now we're actually making progress with them and they want to get baptized. It's fantastic!

I gotta go, but thank you for all you do for me. I love hearing from all of you! Don't apologize for writing too much. It's never too much!

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!

I love you all so very much!

Love,

Elder David John Rowe

June 13/14 2011

Elder Rowe enjoying a beach sunset in Otaki

Elder Rowe with his companion for the day, Elder Mataupu

A non-sunset view of the beach



Hello my wonderful family!

Once again, it's been a good week.

Because I'm sure you were concerned as to why I hadn't emailed you yet, I'll tell you why. Yesterday we had a North Island Conference with all of the missionaries in the North Island (in just our mission though, not Aukland). It was fantastic! Steven E. Snow and Tad R. Callister of the Seventy came and spoke to us. First we heard from President and Sister Jolliffe as they tried not to cry. They gave us their goodbyes because it was the last time we would see them here. They shared with us things that they've basically been teaching us the whole time that I've been a missionary, but this time it had much more of an impact because it was the last time we would hear them say it in the mission. We could tell that they truly meant it and could easily feel their attitudes of and their love for missionary work. Sister Jolliffe emphasized how much our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us. And President Jolliffe shared his mission motto:

NZWM Mission Motto:

Faith is the Power.

Obedience is the Price.

Love is the Motive.

The Spirit is the Key

Christ is the Reason

Of course, he provided more descriptive thoughts on each one. It's hard to describe how I felt, but the Spirit was very present throughout the two  (or maybe three) hour meeting. After their talks we heard from Sister and Elder Callister and then Sister Snow and Elder Snow took the rest of the meeting. The main message that I got from the whole meeting was the role of the Holy Ghost in our missionary work. It was amazing!

I'm almost out of time, but I had a good week! Levin hasn't been doing the best, but that just makes me work harder. So it's a good thing. Our investigators have all been seeming to struggle this week. I don't know what it is. But whoever said missionary work was easy? I love being a missionary everyday and sometimes I forget I had a normal life back home. That doesn't mean I forget you though!

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!

I love you all so very much!

Love,

Elder David John Rowe

6/5 June 2011

Dear Parents and Siblings!

Hello!

I'm glad to hear California is nice. I luckily don't have too much to be jealous of because the weather has been quite nice lately here in Levin. Today is really foggy and it looks really cool because there are really low clouds hanging out around the hills. Did I tell you there are Utah-like mountains here? Because there are not. But there are these hills in the east that almost remind me of home. I say almost because they aren't very big compared to the Rockies. When I've tried telling Elder Cerros how big the Utah mountains are, I think I exaggerate a bit. "You see that cloud up there? The one above that lower cloud? Yeah, that's how high the mountains in my backyard are." So he's pretty jealous because Melbourne (pronounced Melbin) is pretty flat and brown.

Well, this week has been good! We've been way busy and have been able to teach so many people. It seems that when we door-knock a street, at least one person will be interested enough to keep talking to us as we stand there on the porch. Levin is a great place for people with lots of questions. However, I'm not the missionary with all of the answers, so it doesn't always work perfectly. But that's ok because that's why we have the Holy Ghost to guide us. The people in Levin have a lot of desire to learn about the Gospel. They just haven't yet realized that it's not just something you talk about but it's something that you actually do. So Elder Cerros and I have had a bit of trouble helping people to progress in the gospel and not just learn about it, but we're getting there. Room for improvement is always a good thing.

Last week Elder Cerros and I went over to a Tongan family's home just to basically say hi. When we walked in they sat us down and brought out some soup and tapioca. Not tapioca pudding, but solid hunks of tapioca--bigger than potatoes. They were good, just kind of hard to eat because they're so solid. So I had to take it pretty slowly. A little while later, they brought out a bunch of toast and cheese. And then when I thought I was going to die, they brought out cheesy "spaghetti sandwiches." It doesn't sound like a lot, but it was honestly so much food! But we thanked them and then went on our way. We then went over to another less-active Tongan family's home. And they said, "Elders, come in! We're just having dinner, you hungry?" We thought we were going to die again, but luckily we were able to politely enough decline the offer because we had just eaten a Tongan meal. Lately, Elder Cerros and I have being saving our dinner hour for the very end of the night, just in case those kinds of things happen and we are blessed with free food.

The rule with Samoan's is that if everyone else is still eating, you have to keep eating. Manners-wise, it makes sense of course, but it's really hard because they like to keep on eating. So I've been taking it pretty slow lately. I've found the key is to take lots of little servings. So luckily my pant waists and shirt collars all have elastic stuff in them so they'll be fitting for a little while longer.  

Chris, the man, is going great still! He's still not baptized and hasn't set a date yet, but he's still reading the Book of Mormon and coming to Church, so no worries there.

Thank you for all you do for me! Have a wonderfully sunny week! Be sure to build a sand sculpture for 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!
I love you all so very much!

Love,

Elder David John Rowe