27/28 November 2011

Elder Rowe at one of his many Thanksgiving lunches. Notice especially the bottle of homemade Ranch dressing in his hand, "The first one in a long, long time,"  he noted.

Another Thanksgiving feast, thanks to another senior missionary couple. The sisters were sick and missed out on the food.

It’s been a wonderful week.  As always.

I was in the tiny town of Hawera again at the start of the week, where I was able to do some delicious hours of door-knocking with Elder Robins. Elder Robins is from California, somewhere in the Mojave Desert that I’ve never heard of. We were in the same district in Christchurch, so it was fun to be able to go on exchanges with him. We were informed of a little shop that sold A&W Rootbeer for $2.50 a can and Elder Robins got way excited because he hasn’t had it for a year and a half. I’ve had the magical nectar a few times on my mission, but I think I was just as excited.  So we bought some on Monday and then went back on Tuesday to buy some Shasta rootbeer, which wasn’t as good, but it was only a dollar. They also had Tiki Punch and Black Cherry, so we splurged.

On Wednesday, Elder Tukuafu and I met back up and we went to the Taranaki district meeting/Thanksgiving feast. It was amazing! Elder Robins was way excited for Thanksgiving, probably more than any other American missionary. He was able to arrange an actual turkey for the lunch because the Branch President worked for the poultry company or something. Turkeys are about 50 bucks here for like a 6 pound one. But I think he got it for much cheaper than that. But the lunch was definitely more than I could ask for, being in New Zealand and all, a place where they weren't lucky enough to have their white and Maori ancestors get together for a feed. For the meal, we had homemade rolls and stuffing, and homemade ranch dressing, and Elder Robins and I made mashed potatoes and candied yams. Superb! All thanks to the Hirschi's, the senior couple from Brigham City.

On Thursday we had our own district meeting, and had another Thanksgiving. I have to admit, it wasn't as amazing, but delicious nonetheless. Maybe it's because we were at the church rather than in a home like we were the day before, so it wasn't as Thanksgiving-ish. And maybe because Elder Kim brought spaghetti as one of the dishes. But it was still awesome! I had more Thanksgivings than you, can you believe that?

We've had a lot of success this week (not just eating a lot), with a lot of really good new investigators we're working closely with. The Taukapos are doing good still, we've been seeing them a lot, and are mainly trying to work on the dad in coming back to church so that he can baptize his kids.

We were pretty gutted yesterday when out of the 13 people were expecting at Church, only two made it. But that was Anthony and Kitirangi, so they're pretty much our main focus right now, so that's what matters. We had our Primary program yesterday, which is always a treat. 

Thanks for all you do! I love you ! bye!

-Elder Rowe



20/21 November 2011

Hello my family,

Well, It's been a good week. I had a great time while I was in Levin from Monday to Thursday, and was able to learn a lot from Elder Kaumavae and his Tongan flavor of doing things. It was really fun for me to be able to be back in Levin and see a few familiar faces. I realized, however, that members aren't very good at remembering missionaries' names, or maybe it's just mine that they had forgotten. I was able to see the Huavi's really quickly and was glad to hear that they're still coming to church and praying. It was also weird for me to back in a small town again, where you could say Hi to anyone and they'd at least acknowledge you if not greet you warmly with a G'day.

I always enjoy exchanges because I always enjoy a little bit of change in my life, but only good change. The best part about exchanges is the "exchange" of ideas that happens. I always love learning new ways of teaching, finding, and talking with people. Especially from enthusiastic, and sometimes crazy, new missionaries. And it's always great to come back to your area to see what miracles had taken place while I was away/ share with your companion what miracles had happened while he was away. So it's great. In fact, I'm going up to Hawera again today for another exchange!

In other news, the Taukapos are doing really well. Yesterday, we drove up to their Tongan church which finishes at 12 and talked to Sis Taukapo about her daughters coming to church. She agreed to drive them and she would follow us. We were hoping she would just stay, and when she got there, I don't know what it was, but she did. It was probably because the Tongan sister in the ward that she knows was outside waiting when we drove up. That was really great and she felt really welcome. So the whole Taukapo family was at church yesterday, expect for the dad who was still at his other church. It's okay, he'll come eventually!

It's always great going to the Taukapos, as of yesterday, I think I've officially become Kolipoki. Sis Taukapo was telling us that she and her husband watche "The Other Side of Heaven" all of the time, because they love it so much. And since I'm usually the only white boy in that house, and am even more so when the other two missionaries come over there, I'm quite honored to have become Kolipoki. Though I think that means I'll shortly have to learn the language.

Well I gotta go, Thank you for all you do!

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

November 13/14, 2011

It's another lovely day in Levin. Yes, Levin, I'm back once again! This time I'm with Elder Kaumavae, my Tongan toko. I'm here for exchanges for a couple of days and will get to see a few of my favorite people as I'm here. My main concern however is if people will actually be able to understand the two of us. Elder Kaumavae has only been speaking English for a few months since he started his mission (I can understand his English just fine but others seem to have more of a difficult time) and I've got something wrong with my voice because of a cold, so it'll be an interesting couple of days as we attempt to share the Gospel in our unique way.

We had Zone Leader Council yesterday in Wellington, which is always a treat. Whenever I go there, I'm always so weirded out by it's hillyness and narrow roads. I just can't imagine living there and being in fear of dropping a basketball or skateboard and never seeing it again because it's rolled down a hill and you can't chase after it in time! But yeah.

Elder Tukuafu and I had a really good week and saw a lot of success with our investigators. It was a good week for the two of us before the never ending exchanges begin and we get split up each week. The Gibbs/Anthony and Kitirangi (whichever you know them better as) are doing really well and always seem to have more of an enthusiasm for the Gospel everytime we see them.

On Saturday, as an Elder's Quorum activity, we played a game of "touch rugby" with the other Palmy ward and we were able to have a good few investigators come, including Anthony, and Kitirangi's brother, and a few less active members. Rugby is the secret to get every male Kiwi to come to church. Sort of.

The Taukapos are also doing really well. The two daughters were able to come to church on Sunday after we picked them up with some members outside of their Tongan church which had just finished. They loved it and hopefully they will be joined by their parents next week. We've finally figured out however that the mom is a member of the church and she didn't really know for sure. But she is, so I wonder what her reaction will be when Elder Tukuafu tells her.

Give Parker my biggest congratulations and please give me his address ASAP when he's out of the mtc.

bye!

6/7 November 2011

Elder Rowe and Elder Tukuafu modeling their love for Palmerston North

Well hello there! It's been a good one alright. It started off with a bang (a good bang) and ended quite nicely.

To answer your question, New Zealand does have daylight savings time, but it's of course, opposite. It was a couple of weeks ago, and it gets brighter and brighter every night. And that makes missionary work so much easier! It doesn't get dark until 8 and eventually won't get dark until 9:30 later in the summer. Or at least that how it was in Christchurch, but that's a lot farther south. It's pretty funny because in the winter, people start getting mad at you for knocking on their door at like 5 because it's "too late," but in the summer we can knock until 9 and no one says anything about it.

Last Monday (Halloween) we had a wonderful night after our P-day, but not because it was Halloween. Elder Tukuafu went down to Wellington with one of the Assistants and the other one, Elder Lekias (whose Dad is actually the Mission President in Auckland) came up here with me. That night we went over to the Taukapo's, our amazing Tongan family, and taught them a bit about the first half of the Plan of Salvation, leading up to Our Life on Earth and it turned into the importance of baptism. It was a pretty powerful lesson and were able to set a date for baptism with the mom, the two daughters (13 &11) and the son (9)! They committed to setting a date for November 29th, which is the birthday that two of them share. So it's great!

We then saw them again on Friday and had a Family Home Evening with them. We sang an opening and closing song, which we made copies of from our Tongan hymn book (which I've been diligently savoring). However, the closing hymn, Love at Home, was two pages long, but we failed to copy both pages...But it was ok! For the lesson we taught the rest of the beautiful Plan of Salvation that Heavenly Father has for us. They really enjoyed it, to say the least. Afterwards we played a really fun game, which I'll have to be sure and teach you all when I get home, if you don't know it already. It's called Musical Instruments, though I don't know if it will be as fun without any Islanders there. They get really into FHE games, and I just think I might waste you guys at it. We'll see.

Anyway, the Gibbs are also doing great. Anthony and Kitirangi both came to church with the Brother and Sister Gibb, but we weren't quite able to talk with them afterwards, but I'm sure they loved it of course. We've had a really good week with them. We taught them the Atonement, answered some personal questions they had, and then taught the Plan of Salvation on Saturday with beautiful simplicity. They both really want to do the right thing and just need to work on getting married so that they can get baptized. We're aiming for December.

Elder Tukuafu is great. We get along really well and have a lot of laughs. Mainly because of my dorkiness, but that's expected. It's funny because 4 of the missionaries in my district of 8 speak Tongan. 3 are Tongans and the other Elder Kim from South Korea who is almost trilingual.

Well I gotta go! But thanks for everything you do!

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 30/31 2011

Hellos to the Rowes!

It's been one of those weeks. You know, being a missionary, one of those great weeks.

Happy Halloween by the way! I think Halloween is a lot less of a big deal here than it was in Christchurch, but that's not saying much. I'm sure tonight some kids might go trick or treating, but that's about all that really happens. We're going to an FHE tonight with our investigator family and will probably have a feed. But it won't have anything to do with Halloween. ha ha

Speaking of them, we've been teaching the Taukapo family for the past couple weeks and we're so close to finally setting that baptismal date with them. Hopefully it will be tonight. The Taukapos are a part-member Tongan family. Brother Taukapo has been less-active for awhile and him and his family have been going to a Tongan church. But the mom and two teenage daughters both want to get baptized in the "Mormon Church." It's all just a matter of having more support from the Dad and having him get back to Church to help his family. But they're great and will most likely be coming to church this Sunday.

My new companion, Elder Tukuafu is straight from Tonga, but learned English at Liahona High School, so he speaks English better than me. He's really awesome, for lack of a better term, and we get along quite well. It's kind of funny because he's Tongan and all, but I wouldn't be suprised if he told me he grew up in New Orleans and played the trumpet. If you know what I mean. Let's just say.. he's a Groovy Brotha.

It's also really wonderful that I now have a Tongan companion so that things will be able to happen more quickly with the Taukapos. It's not that they don't speak English well, it's just that having him testify in Tongan to the parents will be a lot more powerful and meaningful to them. So it was definite inspiration in having Elder Tukuafu come here.

It's pretty crazy for me to be the "senior" Zone leader, I'm definitely so lost. Well, not really, it's just a lot for me to handle. I'm not stressing, just slightly overwhelmed with it all. Gratefully, Elder Tukuafu has been out for 18 months and so he's more experienced in that category and he is helping me a lot. So no worries.

I got to go to Wellington again last week and that was fun again. Except, for some reason, it was before the transfer and so Elder Tukuafu didn't get to hear any of the things that I'm supposed to share with the District Leaders. Have you guys ever been on the Kezerian's blog? It's pretty cool, and I'm on it recently, so that makes it even cooler!

Thank you for all you do for me and your love and support. Keep being wonderful!

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