I have been teaching lessons in spanish since week 1 :P i have just kinda started to get better at it a couple weeks ago. I had a pretty rough day yesterday speaking in spanish, not sure why, its probably because i hardly know anything. I can listen and understand what they are saying but i still have difficulty with sharing a personal experience or story. I can teach the lessons easily, but that is not what i am called to do, i am called to teach people not lessons.
In my journal count i have been a missionary for 46 days, and been in the MTC for 43. I only have 2 and a half weeks left! It seems to fly by so fast. I constantly tell the younger elders and districts that we are all they same. I am hardly "experienced", maybe "experienced" in the MTC i guess now that i think about it. But in 2 and a half weeks i will be come the new elder, and feel like i have no clue what is going on. but all is well!!!
I have had some neat experiences with the new elders that have come in. Being in the position i am in, they come to me and my companion a lot. We had one elder that got really really homesick and couldnt/wouldnt/didnt feel like eating food. He met with us (this is where i believe in companionship, i have not been homesick at all, i love you all very much, but i don't miss you like crazy. My companion struggled the first few weeks with homesickness and i just loved him and made him feel like he was at home) anyways back to the story, My companion was able to empathize with the elder and i was able to love the elder, we gave some advice to his companions and then we also reminded him that he could always receive a blessing of comfort. He asked for one and we had the wonderful opportunity to exercise our priesthood responsibilities. We had a really neat experience.
I will review the week The rest of Thursday was a wonderful experience. Similar to the one i just explained, After writing home we had our personal study, and i could tell something was bothering my companion, so after about 30 min into our study i asked him if all was well. He mentioned that he was having some difficulty receiving an answer and knowing if the answer he had got was the right answer. He said that he kept getting different answers every day. We spent the rest of the time discussing our thoughts on the idea. (I think we have all been in that situation multiple times). He also asked for a blessing of comfort. We had a very special time together. I love the power of the priesthood, and the connection it brings us with our Heavenly Father. Throughout the week i can see how him and myself have learned how to find answers when in that situation. Friday was great! nothing too special.
I think i invited you to read the book of Mormon with a question in mind if not, i am about to. Take about 2 min before you read, think of any question you want to know, then say a specific prayer asking for help to receive an answer while reading the book of Mormon, then read. You WILL get an answer, i know it. Read with patience, diligence and intent and the answer will come.
On Saturday I had an interesting experience (David might be able to relate) We had a substitute teacher for one of our classes. He is from Mexico and he wanted to play the "i'll ask a question and you have to guess what i'm thinking game" it was rather annoying, and if you got it wrong he would flat out say no (he justified it by saying it was the "latin culture" to be completely honest) Needless to say, it was a long 4 hours. He kept saying things about the "latin culture" and how "we" dont like this or that. It seemed to go against with everything that dad had told me, He said they didnt like when we tried to mimic their accent or talk like they do. etc. But here is the lesson learned. My companion and i both felt the same way, so we both said multiple prayers during and after to have patience and charity for him. We had him again on Monday and we actually felt the spirit and we learned some important methods for teaching. So prayer works. I can understand how David didnt get along with all his native companions, i hope the Argentine people are different then his "definition".
Sunday was excellent, the fireside was by elder stephen b allen and i loved it (he spoke before and it was just as good). Tuesday was a regular day. I do have one thing i want to share. During my personal meditation time i dont know why (the weather must have been really nice, and the mountains were pretty that day) but i am grateful for Gods creations! So i give all of you permission to go somewhere where it is not hot, and go camping (i recommend going somewhere not hot, or it will not be enjoyable). The temple reopened this week so i got to go again this week. I was very grateful even though it has been 3-4 weeks, it feels like an eternity since i could go, i loved it! I will miss going every week. It truly is a blessing to have a temple so close. Wednesday was the rough day. I had a lot of difficulty speaking spanish i dont know why but i did. It also happened to be the day that we taught the most lessons! i was getting pretty down on myself, but later i remember the advice given and all the support i am receiving from my family!! Thank you family! Continue to encourage sherry to send me packages. i love them! I am grateful for all you do, i love you very much. Padre, yo sé que tengo un buen semana, llena con el espíritu y gozo. os quiero mucho. adios
Amor,
Elder Rowse
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Highlights From Past Several Weeks
My "contacts" are Elders. We have a goal to teach 8 lessons a week to different pairs of Elders. Each of them pretend to be investigators and we keep a teaching record of them, what there life is like, where they work. Just as if they were real investigators. We gear the lessons to their needs, and then teach them. Once they have the baptismal interview with our district leader they are considered "baptized" and we teach more. We have 12 investigators. We also go to this thing called the TRC. Basically people outside, come in and volunteer. For us, they have to know spanish fluently. We then go around to the doors and practice tracting and trying to get a lesson. (the rooms are set up like a home would be). On wed. the guy we taught was Leonardo. He was from Oaxaca, Mexico! He spoke spanish very fluently and I could tell he tried to go slow for us hahaha. Luckily we taught a very excellent lesson in spanish. At first we thought the investigator he was playing was made up, but as the lesson went on we found out that it was his actual life. He has been away from his family for 7 years, they still live in Oaxaca, and he was sent here to get an education and work. His parents are divorced, remarried, and catholic. When Elder Burton and myself had figured out that this was his actual life, we really got into our teaching and it was powerful! Not because of our teaching, all the spirit. Both testifying and helping us speak the language.
Speaking of language. I have to teach myself everything, but I think I mentioned that earlier. I have made some funny mistakes now and then. I can only think of one right now off the top of my head. i said "no estoy hombre" after dinner. what I meant to say was "no tengo hambre" I'll let you figure out the difference hahaha.
In response to your question about my study time. I only get about 2 hours a day for studying Spanish. and that is me teaching me. We then have about 6-8 hours of classroom time, where there is a teacher that supervises. He teaches us from preach my gospel, and we also have our companionship study during that time. The teacher will occasionally help us with Spanish questions, but will not directly teach us lessons or anything. We mostly learn how to teach during our class periods (that is also when we have TRC depending on the day).
We did sing this amazing version of called to serve!! I loved it, we start out singing quiet all 2000 of us missionaries, then the second verse is medium loud and then the second chorus is loud and then we stand up on the last note (King) and we sing the chorus louder and ended it really cool !! The missionary spirit was WAY WAY strong :) I loved it.
Saturday was full of class, and study, and gym. OH! I will tell you about gym. so we have gym every day except p-day and Sunday. I usually go running for 15 min, and then either play 4 square or basketball. 4 square is the in thing here at the MTC. It is bigger than anything in the world! Bigger than the NBA or the NFL. I have good news! because of my healthy eating habits and exercising I have lost 6 pounds instead of gain 6 pounds!!! WOO HOO!!
Sunday was good. We had a special sacrament meeting and priesthood meeting, where the whole MTC came together instead of having it with our zone, biggest sacrament meeting I have ever been to. In the evening we had a devotional with a Brother Allen!! It was wonderful, I have definitely changed somethings about my life because of his talk. Monday was another full day, with eating, study, eat more, study, exercise, give service, eat more, and study more. Tuesday we had another devotional. Wednesday was the day I had the TRC. It also was another regular day, nothing too exciting.
OH! We were teaching one of our "investigators" and i can now witness of the power of the gift of tongues. I know it is real! I prayed long and hard before the lesson to help me teach with the spirit and to even teach. During the lesson we (as a companionship) taught very good, we traded of excellent, and I knew how to say exactly what i wanted to say. The word would just come and i would say it. I knew i had learned the word sometime in the past but i had no clue where it came from, well i did. The gift of tongues. I now know how essential having the spirit is when we are teaching. Without the spirit, I cannot teach. That scripture is true. one because i cant speak the language and two the spirit will not testify for you. I have continued to try and humble myself, work as hard as i can, talk as much as i can in spanish and for the most part my lessons have gone very well. I can speak the language, With the help of the Holy Ghost. Saturday was just as wonderful!! I always feel so happy and full of the spirit after teaching, I LOVE IT!!
On tuesday i had a neat experience in the TRC. We were teaching muliple members about revelation that can be received during church. This one mother and daughter, we sat down, talked a little. and then both felt prompted to share Mosiah 14:3-5. So we started with a prayer and went straight to the scripture. The spirit instantly entered the room when the daughter read. And i'm not sure how to explain it, but we all were tears or beginning to feel that way. We had a wonderful lesson on our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. I learned a lesson, let the scriptures teach, and just testify after.
So now to go over the week. Um. pretty much the same as the other week, actually identical hahah just with different experiences. Spanish is coming. I can teach the lessons in a basic language. I might have one or two words that i have to say in ingles.. english hahah but then i go look up the word after and learn it. One fun experience is there are a couple of missionaries (one from Argentina!!) that started to sit on our zone's table and me and my companion talk to them during meal times in spanish. It is nice to hear someone speak natively. They are nice and do talk a little slower and we talk slow in english for them too. It has been a good learning experience. I know i could not have made it this far without your prayers or without the blessing of the Spirit. I believe in the gift of tounges, i think i said that last time, but I BELIEVE IT :)
Some fun quotes from my class teachers (just a little side note, i have two teachers that teach our class, and they are awesome. we spend about 4-5 hours a day with each of them). One of them said "You are the most punniest group of missionaries i have ever taught" I dont know where he would get that idea.. hahaha My district is awesome, i love all of the missionaries. We get along very well, and i guess we can be punny at times. We mostly just say funny phrases in spanish that make sense in english but not in spanish. :)
I know each of you have a testimony and i am very grateful for your support and prayers. The times when i think "I can do this, i'm a missionary, how can i do this?" I remember my family. Dad did it, David did it, Phillip did it, Keith did it, Tyler did it, Andy did it, James did it, And we all will do it in the spirit world. This truly is a marvelous work and a wonder! I am excited to fulfill the promise that Nephi made in the book of mormon that the gospel in its fullness will be taken to his people. I am going to teach decendants of nephites that left before they all died.
We had a great devotional on tuesday about being cheerful missionaries. You all know I am a very cheerful person, but for the past couple weeks I have been sober (duh hahaha) but sober in a i'm trying to be like Jesus and not tell many jokes and focus only on my mission, i would occasionally joke or laught but mostly i walked around with a straight face and very serious. The devotional on cheerfulness was needed! The past couple of days have been grate, I am smiling again, enjoying what i am doing even more, laughing (still with quiet dignity), singing hymns as i walk. I am learning that one can still be mature and have quiet dignity or be a representative of Jesus Christ and still be able to smile and laugh. i encourage all of you to smile :) (had experience with that hahah)
Speaking of language. I have to teach myself everything, but I think I mentioned that earlier. I have made some funny mistakes now and then. I can only think of one right now off the top of my head. i said "no estoy hombre" after dinner. what I meant to say was "no tengo hambre" I'll let you figure out the difference hahaha.
In response to your question about my study time. I only get about 2 hours a day for studying Spanish. and that is me teaching me. We then have about 6-8 hours of classroom time, where there is a teacher that supervises. He teaches us from preach my gospel, and we also have our companionship study during that time. The teacher will occasionally help us with Spanish questions, but will not directly teach us lessons or anything. We mostly learn how to teach during our class periods (that is also when we have TRC depending on the day).
We did sing this amazing version of called to serve!! I loved it, we start out singing quiet all 2000 of us missionaries, then the second verse is medium loud and then the second chorus is loud and then we stand up on the last note (King) and we sing the chorus louder and ended it really cool !! The missionary spirit was WAY WAY strong :) I loved it.
Saturday was full of class, and study, and gym. OH! I will tell you about gym. so we have gym every day except p-day and Sunday. I usually go running for 15 min, and then either play 4 square or basketball. 4 square is the in thing here at the MTC. It is bigger than anything in the world! Bigger than the NBA or the NFL. I have good news! because of my healthy eating habits and exercising I have lost 6 pounds instead of gain 6 pounds!!! WOO HOO!!
Sunday was good. We had a special sacrament meeting and priesthood meeting, where the whole MTC came together instead of having it with our zone, biggest sacrament meeting I have ever been to. In the evening we had a devotional with a Brother Allen!! It was wonderful, I have definitely changed somethings about my life because of his talk. Monday was another full day, with eating, study, eat more, study, exercise, give service, eat more, and study more. Tuesday we had another devotional. Wednesday was the day I had the TRC. It also was another regular day, nothing too exciting.
OH! We were teaching one of our "investigators" and i can now witness of the power of the gift of tongues. I know it is real! I prayed long and hard before the lesson to help me teach with the spirit and to even teach. During the lesson we (as a companionship) taught very good, we traded of excellent, and I knew how to say exactly what i wanted to say. The word would just come and i would say it. I knew i had learned the word sometime in the past but i had no clue where it came from, well i did. The gift of tongues. I now know how essential having the spirit is when we are teaching. Without the spirit, I cannot teach. That scripture is true. one because i cant speak the language and two the spirit will not testify for you. I have continued to try and humble myself, work as hard as i can, talk as much as i can in spanish and for the most part my lessons have gone very well. I can speak the language, With the help of the Holy Ghost. Saturday was just as wonderful!! I always feel so happy and full of the spirit after teaching, I LOVE IT!!
On tuesday i had a neat experience in the TRC. We were teaching muliple members about revelation that can be received during church. This one mother and daughter, we sat down, talked a little. and then both felt prompted to share Mosiah 14:3-5. So we started with a prayer and went straight to the scripture. The spirit instantly entered the room when the daughter read. And i'm not sure how to explain it, but we all were tears or beginning to feel that way. We had a wonderful lesson on our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. I learned a lesson, let the scriptures teach, and just testify after.
So now to go over the week. Um. pretty much the same as the other week, actually identical hahah just with different experiences. Spanish is coming. I can teach the lessons in a basic language. I might have one or two words that i have to say in ingles.. english hahah but then i go look up the word after and learn it. One fun experience is there are a couple of missionaries (one from Argentina!!) that started to sit on our zone's table and me and my companion talk to them during meal times in spanish. It is nice to hear someone speak natively. They are nice and do talk a little slower and we talk slow in english for them too. It has been a good learning experience. I know i could not have made it this far without your prayers or without the blessing of the Spirit. I believe in the gift of tounges, i think i said that last time, but I BELIEVE IT :)
Some fun quotes from my class teachers (just a little side note, i have two teachers that teach our class, and they are awesome. we spend about 4-5 hours a day with each of them). One of them said "You are the most punniest group of missionaries i have ever taught" I dont know where he would get that idea.. hahaha My district is awesome, i love all of the missionaries. We get along very well, and i guess we can be punny at times. We mostly just say funny phrases in spanish that make sense in english but not in spanish. :)
I know each of you have a testimony and i am very grateful for your support and prayers. The times when i think "I can do this, i'm a missionary, how can i do this?" I remember my family. Dad did it, David did it, Phillip did it, Keith did it, Tyler did it, Andy did it, James did it, And we all will do it in the spirit world. This truly is a marvelous work and a wonder! I am excited to fulfill the promise that Nephi made in the book of mormon that the gospel in its fullness will be taken to his people. I am going to teach decendants of nephites that left before they all died.
We had a great devotional on tuesday about being cheerful missionaries. You all know I am a very cheerful person, but for the past couple weeks I have been sober (duh hahaha) but sober in a i'm trying to be like Jesus and not tell many jokes and focus only on my mission, i would occasionally joke or laught but mostly i walked around with a straight face and very serious. The devotional on cheerfulness was needed! The past couple of days have been grate, I am smiling again, enjoying what i am doing even more, laughing (still with quiet dignity), singing hymns as i walk. I am learning that one can still be mature and have quiet dignity or be a representative of Jesus Christ and still be able to smile and laugh. i encourage all of you to smile :) (had experience with that hahah)
Monday, July 4, 2011
First Letter June 16, 2011
First Letter 6/18
Dear Mother!!
How are you? I hope all is well at the house, I am currently doing laundry and writing while I wait for it to finish! I sent you a letter yesterday so it should be getting there soon. I hope all is well. So far I have been introduced to the MTC. Wednesday we jumped straight into the work, after dropping off my bags at my room i went straight to a class where we started in on preach my gospel. It has been great. The spirit sure does reside here is much abundance. I LOVE IT!! The food is pretty good. You can be proud of me i have had salad every day (sometimes twice a day). I am not eating any real fatty foods like the doughnuts or anything.
Thursday was my first whole day. I spent the morning studying videos about people and what lessons should be taught to them (it is a really interesting project that the new york times is doing. they interviewed a ton of people asking them all sorts of questions) I love the time i get for personal study! I cannot express enough my gratitude for the teachings you have given me. Truly like Nephi I have been taught by goodly parents :)
My companion is great! Elder Burton has the same love for studying the Gospel and our companion study is very insightful. I have already grown to love him like a brother. I am glad for the long classes i had at asu. our classroom instruction lasts for 3 hours and a time and we have two or three classroom instructions a day. They have not really taught us a lot about spanish, we mostly have to teach ourselves during the language study and also using this program call TALL. It is basically a computer program that teaches us the lessons and words. There are many different activities, like flashcards to learn the words, translating from spanish to english, or vise versa. There are times when we have to listen to what is said and determine what phrase they said. there are other times where they give us a sentence in english and we have to say it in spanish (they have this really cool headset that we put on, it makes me feel like an airplane pilot or something cool like that, i will be sure to take a picture and send it to you.
I have meet my branch president, he is way awesome! On Friday I was fingerprinted for my first time!! they needed my prints for my visa. I like gym, i didnt get to have gym until friday and it felt so nice to finally run and exercise. It could be very easy to gain a lot of weight here. All we do is eat, sit, eat, sit, maybe sit some more. The instruction is great!
Oh back to the language! Thank you so much for the help when we studied spanish every sunday. It has greatly helped me!! I can help all the elders and i can already converse with the teachers. They all ask me if i took classes or something. I happily tell them that... mi padre servi'o en Argentina y el ensen'o espanol. I still have a lot to learn of course but what we did has greatly helped and been a wonderful blessing! Thank you dad, I love you. How is the family? How is the house? is it quiet? run into any technical problems? I apologize if my thoughts are random, i only have 30 min on the computer and there is the timer thing at the top of the screen that makes me feel like i only have so many seconds until the end of the world so i am just typing like crazy! How is David? Tell him i love the Dr. Schols he gave me, i love walking in my shoes. And my branch president commented on the tie he gave me!
So guess what mom! They gave me a set of spanish scriptures and a spanish preach my gospel, that means i have two sets of spanish scriptures and two sets of preach my gospel (both in english and spanish) I also asked for you to send some pictures of Jesus Christ so i can decorate my room, and maybe a picture of the first presidency or anything you have there at the house. Feel free to send snacks too hahaha jk! um... not sure what else to say, i'm trying to think under a time constraint and it is difficult. I love you so very much! how are the articulos de fe coming? i have started to memorize other scriptures in spanish and have not memorized any more. oh!
Dad, you are the best! I love you. I cannot express enough gratitude for the help, guidance, and teachings you have given me. Happy fathers day. You are the number one dad. and this is verdadero. I love you.
I love you, I am not home sick, i do miss you but the MTC feels like home. I am doing what i have wanted to do for years. That is being a representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am teaching His gospel, and loving every second of it. I am saturated with His spirit, and can not think of a happier or better place to be. yo s'e que el evangelio es vedadero, y tesifico que jos'e smith fue un profeta. s'e que Dios nos ama. I love you all so very much and want to leave you with a challenge. Peter teaches us that without charity we are nothing. Pray for charity everyday! It will bring the love of Christ in our life and invites more fully the spirit.
MTC First Day
June 15th and Kevin is ready to enter the MTC. Van and Sherry took a few pics then went to the designated curbside where Kevin was met by a "host elder" to escort him in. He had spent a nervous morning waiting for his 1:15 p.m. entry time, but his host just happened to be a good friend from Heritage, James Cox. They met each other with a huge hug and all the nervous anticipation melted away. Kevin was most eager to get on his way - on his mission!
Sherry and Kevin; Van and Kevin; Kevin and James
This is it!! Kevin is a missionary.
Kevin is ready to say goodbye to his first companion, Dad, who stayed with him from his setting apart by Pres. Bluth on Sunday the 12th until he entered the MTC.
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