Oct 24/25 2011 - The All Blacks Won!

Elder Rowe and Elder Strattford, Taking a Break

Greetings from Aotearoa!

The Rugby World Cup is finally over. And with a close final game, the All Blacks beat France 8-7. So missionary work can now go back to normal and we can now continue to door-knock after 6 pm. It's been pretty fun though, being able to see all the excitement that everyone had and all of the flags that were put up--from all the different countries, not just New Zealand. No one dared to put up Aussie flags, but there were plenty of Tongan and Samoan flags, so it always made it easy to tell what nationality the people whose door we were knocking on were.

I'm writing today because yesterday was NZ's Labor Day and so we were able to move P-day to today so that we could do our emails (because most places were closed yesterday). And I'm writing so late because we had district meeting today so that we could have our special feast of Pig head, lu, and otai. However, Elder Kim failed to defrost the pig, so we ended up getting Domino's pizza to tide us over until the pig finished cooking an hour or so later than we planned.

It's been a good week. I was in Waitara for a few days last week and had an amazing time with a greenie, Elder Strasser. It's amazing how much one can learn from a new missionary. It's also awesome, because just a few months ago, hardly anything was happening in that area and now it's booming. I think it really just shows how important attitude and diligence are. So learned a lot. I also experienced the oddities of being in the rain one minute, then sweating the next, then being freezing cold and wet soon after. Waitara is an interesting place.

Last Tuesday, we had Zone Training. Luckily, I didn't have much to do as a Zone Leader, though I'm going to regret it next transfer when I'll have to do it all by myself and not just follow my companion's lead. Because this Thursday Elder Stratford is going to Paraparaumu and leaving me to train Elder Tukuafu as a Zone Leader. I don't even know what to do as a Zone Leader! Oh man!

Elder Christensen is going to my hometown, Christchurch, and he's even serving in the same ward/area, so it makes me wonder how many people are going to think that he's me. Everybody in Levin and Palmy seem to think we're twins.

Palmerston North is still doing really great and our families that we're teaching are doing fantastic. Baptisms to come!

Gotta go! Love you! Bye!

The pig head, apparently not on Elder Rowe's list of favorite meals

October 16/17, 2011



Elder Rowe and his very cool companions

Hello my family!

First of all, Happy Anniversary in Hawaii! I expect heaps of pictures next week. OK?

It's been a good one here in Palmerston.

The biggest news of the week was yesterday when Keoni was confirmed a member of the church and received the Holy Ghost. After church he was given the priesthood and ordained a Deacon. I think him getting the Priesthood yesterday was the biggest spiritual highlight of all that we've done with Keoni. I thought about what you said Dad, of how he looks like a future stake president, and just thought how awesome it will be to see where he is in 20 years. And to see how much he has done for others as a member of the church. I hope particularly, for his less-active and non-member family. He is doing great and his mom was so happy on Sunday. He's just kind of sad that he won't be able to pass the sacrament for 2 weeks because next week is Stake Conference. Haha

In other exciting news of the week, I tried an avocado popsicle last Monday. So now I'm just as cool as Robby. We were given them from our Fijian/Filipino family that we're teaching, and I must say it was quite good! I think it was basically just blended milk and avocado frozen together, but it's much better than it sounds.

Also this week we had some really great lessons with the Gibbs. The Gibbs have recently returned from less-activity and now we're working closely with their daughter and her partner Anthony. Anthony is really keen to learn more about the Gospel and after we gave them the Book of Mormon on Friday, they started reading it that night. We planned to teach them about the Book of Mormon and they got all excited when I mentioned Nephi and they told us all they had learned about Nephi and Lehi and the two rebellious brothers. So their doing great and will definitely be setting a baptism date this week with Anthony.

Our other really keen investigator is a guy named Shane who recently got out of jail. He is already making changes to his life by taking different courses like anger management and other things. He really feels the Spirit when we come over and really wants to get baptized and be the best he can.

On Saturday we had a really interesting conversation with a Muslim guy from Somalia in his home. This was the second time we had talked to him. We found out yesterday that he really isn't interested in learning about the Church, but instead hopes to convert us to Islam. So we testified of the Book of Mormon and told him to pray and ask God if it's true and then there would be no need for debate. So I hope he does, because it will bless his life immensely when he comes to learn the truth.

Basically, Elder Stratford and I teach a lot of very different people from such a variety of different backgrounds. But the Church is true! and it's for everyone, no matter their circumstance. So that's why I'm here, and I love every minute of it.

I will be going to Waitara this week for exchanges and will get a good long look at Mount Taranaki. It's even more magnificent than the pictures.

Thank you for your love, prayers, and support,

Happy anniversary again. Please eat a shaved ice 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



October 9/10, 2011

Elder Rowe on his favorite street ever

It's been a wonderful week, though a different one, as always. Different is beginning to seem normal lately.

Well, first of all, Keoni got baptized on Saturday afternoon by the young men's leader of the ward. So that made it really special for him. It went wonderfully and he was smiling the whole time. His whole less-active/non-member family came and hopefully they felt something. We think his younger sister is starting to show an interest, so hopefully she'll sit in as we continue to visit Keoni.

At the start of the week I went on exchanges up to Hawera, a small quiet town up by Mount Taranaki. I was with Elder Lammi, who is the District leader up there. I worked with Elder Lammi a lot while I was in Napier, so it was fun to be working with him again for a few days. Hawera is a funny old-fashioned little town with American flags hanging in the main square. I was really confused but then Elder Lammi told me that the American rugby team stayed in a hotel in Hawera during their games, so it was just a welcoming rather than the town's desire to be Americans. There was also a really big sign saying "Welcome to Hawera" With a Kiwi-bird on one side with their flag in the background and a bald eagle on the other with the stars and stripes. Yeah, big fans of America. I wish I got a picture, it felt like the Fourth of July or something. Also in Hawera, I finally finished my year-long search for "Rowe Street." When Elder Lammi and I were looking on a map for a street to go knock, we discovered Rowe Street and knew there had to be at least one person who would become a new investigator because of the awesome name-sake. We walked there in the pouring rain and discovered, to our dismay, that it was a tiny street connecting to long ones (like an H) and there was only ONE house on it. Across from the house was Pak-n-Save. So we knocked on the door of this Golden opportunity, I introduced myself as Elder ROWE and then... she said she wasn't interested. Haha.

On Wednesday when we exchanged back, Elder Stratford then went on exchanges to Fielding and I was left in Palmy with Elder Kaufusi, a "greeny." So I was kind of worried about being left in an area I didn't know too well with someone who probably didn't know too much. But where was my faith? Elder Kaufusi is the man, and he taught me some great door knocking skills. We were able to find 4 new investigators in like half an hour, whereas it normally takes a whole day to do so. So it was great, and I was able to learn a lot about finding, teaching, and my own area, in just a few days that I was with a missionary who's only been out for a month.

Wasn't Conference amazing?! I just wish the whole world would watch Conference, and then repent and get baptized. It's too wonderful. I think my favorite, because I face so much opposition of it as a missionary, was Elder Tad R. Callister's talk about the Book of Mormon. The Church is truuuue! And it can't be argued.

Well I gotta go again! I love you all and all you do 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

October 2/3, 2011

Elder Rowe and Elder Kim - "Best Day so far in the mission"

My dear whanau,

Hello! How are you?! It's great to hear from you and all the exciting news that's been happening. Except the fact that you were sick... But glad that you're better.

Conference weekend! Isn't it the best? I haven't even watched it yet, but I'm way excited. That's awesome about the temples! Especially the Provo one. When will it be done? Because maybe I can get married there. Just kidding! I don't have any such thoughts. This weekend we'll be able to watch Conference at the chapel. So we're totally excited. And yes, we hope to invite everyone we can to hear a Prophet of the Lord speak to the world. So that will be great.

I've been exercising a lot since being here in Palmy. Elder Stratford and I play basketball with the other Elders in the mornings and it's much more effective then my attempts at jump roping that I did in Levin. Also, today, and almost every P-day, before emails, the four of us go to a "gym" with one of the members of the ward and do boxing training. As a work out of course, not as self-defense training. But it's definitely the most exercise I've done my whole mission, or even in the past few years. So hopefully it will turn all this excess baggage into the muscle I once had.

From Monday to Thursday morning this week I was back in Levin with Elder Kim, my replacement. He's Korean, from Hamilton, and he is "crack-up" (which means he's hilarious). We had an amazing exchange! I loved being back in Levin and seeing some familiar faces such as Levi, Hemi, and the Huavi's. The best thing about the exchange was Wednesday. Elder Kim and I both agreed that it was the very best day of our whole mission so far! And he and I came out at the same time, so it was a great celebration of our year mark for us. What made it such a wonderful day was the fact that we were so busy. It seemed like we never stopped. In fact, in the evening we had to run to our appointments. We taught two lessons on our same street, and then ran to the car to get to the final appointment at 8:30 (half an hour late). It's hard to describe how wonderful it all was, but overall what made it so great was all that we were able to accomplish. Our lunch and dinner breaks were only about 20 minutes each, because we just didn't have the time. So, yeah, it was awesome. And I sent those pictures as just a taste of how happy we were.

This Saturday, will be Keoni's baptism! So he's totally excited and all will be working out great! I'll let you know how that goes next week!

Something else really cool that I found out recently, was that there are now Kiwis on Mormon.org! Have you been on the website? We use it quite often actually to help people with an interest in the Church to have more of an interest in the Church. The best thing about it is the videos. If you go under the OUR PEOPLE headline at the top, and then to "I'm a Mormon", there are a bunch of videos of members of the church and their stories. But the best thing about it is that recently they put up videos of Kiwi's. And I know one of them. His name is Paora, and he was in my ward in Christchurch. He plays for the national basketball team, the Tall Blacks (a poor spin off of the All Blacks' name) but I hope you can find that video, because I've totally been in their house. So check it out!

gotta go!

Bye

I love you

25/26 September 2011

Elder Rowe, celebrating a full year in the mission

Dear Family,

It is beautiful outside today! I hope you're jealous.

It's been an interesting week as I've done many new different things as a zone leader. Elder Stratford and I did a fair amount of traveling this week for meetings. We went to Wellington on Thursday for Zone Leader Council, which was pretty neat. I got to see a couple of Elders who I haven't seen for awhile and that was fun. I was able to learn a lot of different things that I never really thought of as being a part of missionary work. I went away from the meeting with a strong and anxious desire to accomplish all I can and make our the Palmerston North Zone the best in the world! Which will soon happen of course.

Then on Friday, Elder Stratford and I drove up to Wanganui with the District Leaders to teach them everything we learned from Zone Leader Council. Then I got more "pumped up" as we "counseled" and discussed what we planned and hoped to do this transfer. The weird thing is, I still don't feel like a zone leader. Even though I've been doing heaps of zone leader things, like meetings and phone calls and such, I still feel like I'm just the zone leader's companion. (But that's not because I'm letting him do all of the work.) Hopefully it will hit me soon enough. I'm going on exchanges to Levin with Elder Kim this week, so that will be awesome to see a few familiar faces.

Zone leader life, however, seems much different than what I'm used to as a missionary. We seem to have to do so many other things than just teaching and finding, and there often seems like we don't have much time for those things. But the Lord is still blessing us in different ways with wonderful people that are put in our path to teach.

We've been teaching a 12-year old kid named Keoni who really wants to get baptized. He's been coming to church by himself for a while now and we've been teaching him and he's getting baptized on the 8th of October. His family all went less active a few years ago, but for whatever reason he's come to church and his mom is really excited for him to get baptized. She'll hopefully be getting active again soon. Keoni's older brother, who is on home detention has been sitting in on the lessons, and of course, he's become interested in the gospel as well. He'll be taking a bit longer to work towards baptism, but it's just been amazing to see the change in his attitude towards the gospel as he has listened and participated in the lessons. I mean, c'mon, how could anyone NOT be interested in getting baptized? Keoni's mom is working on getting her 3 other kids interested in the lessons. I'm sure all they'll need is one lesson with us and they'll want to get baptized. Not because of Elder Stratford and I, but because of the Holy Ghost--the Comforter and Testifier of the truth.

I burned my shirt on Friday night to celebrate my year mark. It was the shirt I brought from home that I wore for too many years and that I never planned on wearing as a missionary, so that worked out fine. I'll try to send a picture, but the USB doesn't seem to be working.

One year doesn't seem right. I feel like I've been out so much longer than that, yet only one year left seems like way too short of a time. It's not enough to accomplish all I want to.

Happy Birthday again Dad. I'm glad it went well.

Gotta go! I love you!

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