October Letters and Pics

Yummy looking empanada!!
Kevin has to prepare nearly all his meals, so you see he is becoming quite a great cook

Quite a creative display - beets, carrots, eggs and tuna patties
(adapted from mom's salmon patty recipe.)

As you see, Kevin is very proud of his mail!
All you letter writers - keep it up.
It sometimes takes a few weeks to get letters, but you see, he does get them.

10/16/11

¡Querido santos en los estados unidos!

Thank you so much for the letter!!! i am constantly feeling of your love and support! i got all of your letters today and some last week on wed. They have to travel from the mission home to Chilecito in what is called the bolsa. Because we are soo far away we only get bolsa once a transfer so every 4 to 6 weeks. But i got all your letters within 3 to 4 week of the post date. And i still encourage you to write because i keep the letters, highlight parts and well I LOVE LETTERS!! Thank you for the letters from the primary kids. In one of the letters brother Hansen said it was just starting to cool down in Arizona. Chilecito is actually really nice compared to some of the other areas it is really nice and it is because we are super high up and next to a SUPER tall mountain that always has snow on it. It actually snowed on the mountain last week. I love all of your letters thank you so very much

One day I was pretty down about the language and we needed to call a member. This member is awesome, but has a really difficult accent, but my companion said I had to call. So I said a prayer in my heart for strength, and called. During the call i understood everything he said, and didn’t even have to think about what to say, i just said it and it worked out great!!! So little cool story about the gift of tongues! It is real!!! Another cool thing i have not told you yet, so i am grateful for the opportunity i had to teach in gospel principles in our ward because in our branch now I teach principios del evangelio. So its kinda the same thing except in a different language!! We had a great lesson about service. About a week ago we passed by this members house and their 2 year old had chicken pox. They were worried because we was still pretty young and they asked if we would give a blessing. I have given a blessing but just the anointing, so i just assumed my position as the person that does the anointing, but the mother said, Elder Rowse will you do the blessing. phew... first blessing.... a little nerve racking. During the blessing it was a really neat experience, i felt a really strong spirit to say be healed. Then during church yesterday they mentioned during our class how within the past couple weeks after the blessing they had went to the doctor and everything had turned out good. Their son is living and all is well. There were a few investigators and there was a really neat spirit!

This past week my companion and i have had a few disagreements but i have really been studying from chapter six and this week happened to land on charity. At first i have a ton of things to do and change so that i could increase my charity. But i had difficulty remembering all of the goals i set so i started to take it a little by little. I have not accomplished all of my goals yet but i have already increased a ton in my love for the people and my companion. Oh!! Guess what! i made the beets again, i took a picture of the meal because it was way pretty so next week i will send it. But everything turned out super well and it was WAY yummy.

So i am visiting with a lot of members teaching them that they are missionaries and trying to get them to plan visits with their friends and invite us over. i then realized well... i am still a missionary when i write my family. So as a representative i can invite you to do likewise. As i read your letters and your missionary efforts i am filled with joy for your work!! and i invite you to do more. Dad with AJ, you have made some way good progress with giving him a book of Mormon. I invite you to meet with the elders, tell them of what you have done, Then invite AJ and his family for dinner (and the elders also!) the elders then teach. You help the Lord in bringing another soul into the fold and receive blessings. Facíl! lo hará? So your assignment is to plan a dinner time with the elders and AJ.

Thank you for your letters!! I love you all so very much!!

10/24/11

Hello again!! I love reading your letters!!! i am so proud of you mom and your run!!! I am way happy to hear that you are making progress with nana´s history.

Phew, this week was packed. First of all things went a lot better with my companion this week. I took the initiative and we planned out our studies and we actually had companion study!! i tried thinking before i spoke and i had a list of things to do. It really really helped and this week was enjoyable. Now the important thing is to remember what i did, and keep doing it so we don’t lose it.

This week i did a lot of working... a lot of knocking doors and well i am trying to work with all my heart might mind and soul. I have been sleeping really good!!! sound all through the night hahaha. oh one thing that came to my mind. One thing i do every day in my journal is write a miracle of the day. That way even if i have a really rough day and everything goes bad, I still have to try and look for the blessing and the miracle. So far i have 134 miracles written down for the 134 days as a missionary.

Ok well i am going to jump straight to the stories i can think of. So the other district in Chilecito had a baptism this week and we worked super hard to have some of our investigators attend the service. We even walked for 20 min before the baptism started to try and bring someone but she couldn’t. The baptism was really good. We just change the schedule of the meetings we have sacrament meeting last like we had in our ward. They changed it so more members could come and so we could have more time to look for investigators. So we had to teach the first meeting but during priesthood my companion and i walked for a good 30 min to try and bring one of our investigators to church. The son answered and his mom was gone and he had to go. It was very disappointing, working so hard, walking in the dead heat with a suit in hopes that they would come, but they didnt!! We only had 20 min left before sacrament meeting and we had a 30 min walk ahead of us. Just then we got a call the boy that got baptized yesterday wanted me to confirm... :) so we ran :) hahaha i really felt like a missionary - running with a suit, dodging cars and trying to think how to confirm the Holy Ghost in Spanish. We arrived at the chapel just as the branch president finished announcing the first song. i ran.. walked reverently up to the piano and began to play. (panting and sweating none the less hahaha) After the song we had the prayer and then the confirmation. I was nervous, hot, sweaty, and yet calm. I did the confirmation and now there is another soul closer to heaven. It was a neat experience. A roller coaster of emotions but good none the less.

Another cool thing is that it rained this week!! It has not rained in chilechito for 8 years (at least that is what the people say) I was so happy when it started to rain. (a little sad beacause i had my suit on hahaha) but i began to sing and dance in the rain (the day had finished and we were all on our way back to the pension. This week was good. I am getting pretty good at knocking doors. My personal studies have been my anchor. I love them and i always feel the spirit. I invite all of you to try and take a good hour (less if your schedule is too difficult) start with a prayer specifically asking for the spirit to guide your thoughts. and then i want you to read in the book of Mormon. Every ten min write down your thoughts (even if they are on food or something else) just write what is or what was in your mind. You will find interesting results and guidance. I love you!! Have a wonderful day! OH!! Love you so very much and am grateful for all the support!!

Love
Elder Rowse