Give em heaven son! email from DAD

hey Jesse it's Dad, Give em heaven son! we watched the RM and I have
all those dumb quotes in my head now. I had all the priests over to
our house this past week and I cooked them Cajan Pasta. they all
helped to put the ingredients in the pan and I flipped it in the pan.
they all loved it David Covington had like  5 helpings he said he did
not like broccoli but he loved it in this dish!, then Sunday i taught
the lesson in priesthood on free agency and choices. I told them what
they choose to have in their life is like that pasta dish we made we
choose to put the right things at just the right amount to make a
really great dish.if they choose to put the right things in their life
it will turn out right too, if they don't they may end up with a
recipe that will not be good for their life, and have to back peddle
to fix it which results in a lot of wasted time. anyway I'm having a
good time with my priests and love them all so very much.. I pray for
each of them constantly that they will make the right decisions in
their life especially to go on a mission. I know if they do that they
will be so blessed and their life will be off to a great start. I
really love being the young men's President, i think this has been my
favorite calling next to ward mission leader. 

that really sad you would live far away from here, id like to give you a hug 1/28/13

Hey Jesse! I got a really neat email on facebook from a boy i met in
the mission. i miss my mission so much. This story has shown me that
missionary work is more than teaching lessons and baptizing.  love you
jess! im so proud of you. have a great week.  (This is the
translation! hope you can understand most of it! )


Jonathan Noronha
hello how are you I'm the big house(my area was called casa grande
haha) here once you told me about your family and gave me a book of
mormon, today I am baptized and my testimony is true that believed in
the promises, I was baptized on December 22, that really sad you would
live far away from here, id like to give you a hug
Wednesday

5:19 pm
Ashley Rowland
Jonathan, thats a huge surprise! And what a pleasure to receive a message
so special. You can tell the story of how all this happened? Do you
remember where we were at and when i gave the book of mormon? I'm
preparing to return to Brazil! Certainly when I pass by the big house
again we will see each other
Thursday

9:49 am
Jonathan Noronha
I was on the sidewalk and you gave me a book of mormon, I do not know why
but I accepted, read a bit, I already knew the Mormons, and knew the
book, but not very fond of the idea of being mormon, I'm former
Franciscan friar, and had already fell away. I was turned away from
the Baptist church, sometimes you saw me in
sidewalk or in a bar. when I got home from service you always passed
the bar, what caught my attention was your simplicity, you always
greeted me and never judged me, you really interested was in my
salvation, I took even a few
years until I approached a friend of another ward.
My, oh was fast, gathering my will and with my knowledge, I
baptized, now I have to stand firm to the end, I'm praying to God I
have a nice girl so I can get married in the temple and be happy
always. thank you so much. love Jonathan.

. Is there not something deep in our hearts that longs to draw nearer to God, 1/27/13

Dear Jesse Boy ! I mean Elder Rowland, its me mom. Sorry we did not
get to email you last week the computer was down , but come to find
out the internet only needed to be reset, ( I miss my Tech man) and
also another problem the Christmas tree downstairs is still up , I may
possibly have to wait for you to get home after next Christmas hahaha
HOHOHO!  Seriously how are you doing? We had a wonderful day meeting
Mikes family and getting to know them at the wedding, his youngest
brother leaves to Ohio Feb 20th . Maddy blew up a picture of you in
front of the Provo temple and we had it out for everything at the
wedding. It was of your great smile and with you arms outstretched to
give us all a hug! I know you will seriously like Mike , he has a
great smile like you and is not afraid to use it! Ben should be
getting his call this week so maybe we can let you know where next
week!  We fed the missionaries here on Wed , Logan actually had to
because I got home from work late!  Russ will be getting his learners
permit i think this week. I love having to teach gospel doctrine
actually , no but I Love studying to teach the lesson , I get so
excited about the topic and I learn so much, just wish I didn't really
have to teach . haha but I hope It helps me to gain the good habit of
scripture study.  I hope you know how much I love the gospel Jesse! I
would be nowhere with out it ! this weeks lesson had a great quote it
was by Ezra Taft Benson ... Is there not something deep in our hearts
that longs to draw nearer to God, to be more like Him in our daily
walk, to feel his presence with us constantly? if so , then the Book
of Mormon will help us do so more than any other book" I wish to be
nearer to God! Love Mom ! 

IAKWE 12/17/12

IAKWE! :) hahaha hey yall! its so great to hear from ya! makes me smile so much that i cant stop smiling all week long! :) people probably think im weird... but i dont care! :) i cant help but smile when i hear from my amazing Family and Friends! :) i Love Yall! :) so your probably wondering what in the world does that word say at the begining of this email... IAKWE??? Elder Rowland must be speakin gibberish! hahaha! i wish but nope! :) iakwe means hello in marshallese! :) pretty neat huh! :)  ive decieded im gonna learn some marshallese while im here in Oklahoma! :) hahaha! the marshallese people are so cool! :) i love serving in this area! :) its been a really neat experience so far! :) on Saturday we had a Specialized Training in Gilmer Texas! it was great! so because i am now serving in east texas its too far for me and my companion to drive to dallas for Zone Confrences and what not so all the missionaries serving in east texas all meet up together with the mission president and have our own little Conference and Training! :) its sweet! President Durrant asked us to bring 5 things ... our testimonies, a talent, a personal mission plan, 5 promises for our mission, and a Christmas story or our favorite Christmas memory! well i prepared all of those things except one.. my favorite Christmas story or memory! well during the training president Durant asked if i would stand up and share my favorite Christmas story or memory.... i was sunk... i was like GOOD LAWS i prepared for everything except my favorite memory or Christmas story.... so reluctantly i stood up praying for a miracle! hahaha! :) i stoop up and had not a clue what to say while all the other missionaries looked to me! at that moment i reached into my suit jacket pocket and to my surprise i found a letter! :) from Dad! :) Friday night i got a letter from dad and a BIG box full of Christmas presents!!! :D i opened dads letter and read it quickly and then put in in my jacket pocket and then directly after began to check out the box full of presents! well dads letter was that letter that i found in my pocket during our Specialized Training... i opened dads letter and began to tell all the other missionaries about the one thing i am truly grateful for ... my Family! :) at that point i completely realized what i had done! the Friday night i got dads letter i completely disregarded dads letter and focused on the wrapped up presents instead... holding dads letter in my hand i told the other missionaries about this experience.. i realized that at times in life we are blessed with many Gifts or presents! :) and as missionaries we go out giving the gifts ( the gift of the gospel ) to the people we teach! gifts are a wonderful thing! they provide so much happiness and joy in our lives! but how many times do we just focus on the gifts and not on the more important things.. dad wrote his testimony to me in his letter! he just simply wrote and bore his testimony that he knew that Jesus is our savior! and that Family are the most important thing in our lives! and how grateful dad is to have me as a son! ... i completely looked over the TRUE gift that dad had gave me through that letter he wrote, simply dad expressing his love for me and his family!! God so loved the world that he Gave his only begotten son! how often do we forget or overlook the love that Christ has for us!.. Yes, through Christ we receive so many gifts that bless and strengthen our lives, but until we recognize why he has given us those gifts and how much he suffered for us individually because he loves us! :) you think i was sunk before, well realizing this sunk me even more! haha! but sunk me in a good way! :) it put into perspective for me about the many gifts we have through the gospel! gifts of family gifts of guidance, gifts of knowledge, the gift of life, the gift of baptism, the gift of the temple! :) but all these gifts came through christ! :) as we recognize Christ more in all the blessing we receive then our gratitude for the gifts we have in our lives! :) Dad thank you so much for your letter! your testimony in that letter is the greatest gift ive ever received for Christmas! :D i love you all and i am so grateful for our family as well! :) we are so blessed to have each other! we are so blessed to have the gift of the gospel! :) i hope yall have a amazing week! :) and look for the most important gift of Christmas! the gift of our savior Jesus Christ! :) BAR LO YOK! :) (goodbye in Marshallese) email yall next week! :)

12/3/12 no matter how far you fall away from god, you can get back on track!

HAPPY DECEMBER!!! :) haha and i got some incredible news for yall! im going to Idabel Oklahoma! :D we got transfer calls saturday night just before going to bed and im heading to Oklahoma! Good laws huh!! :) this week! and especially this weekend has been just chuck full of miracles!!! :D i cant even begin to express my joy and happiness ive recieved from serving in plano texas! :) i have truely come to love the people here! i gotta stop doing that cause as soon as i get my feet set, i get transferred haha! :) nah! im a lover so im gonna love the people reguardless!! :) ah! so where to begin!.... so on friday we had a lesson with our investigator Reanna Richaleb! and she is awesome! she has been studying and has actually been baptist and catholic and is now a messianic jew. so she asked elder merrill and i to study up on where the bible eccentially referrs to the book of mormon! and to study up on the lives of Timothy, silos, and paul or saul, haha so elder merrill studied that and i did the studying for the bible and the book of mormon! and came up with a little diagram for her! i think i sent it home in a letter... but its about the Gathering of Israel, and the Stick of Judah and the Stick of Joseph (ephriam). and so on friday we had our lesson planned for her and we figured that this lesson would eccentially be a make it or brake it for Reanna, she's either going to agree or disagree and not meet with us anymore type of thing! :) well we went other presented the lesson and worked hard to answer her questions with clarity and simplisity! :) IT WORKED! :) the tender mercies of the lord are amazing!! :) and then on Saturday, the Solanos, a family that recently got baptized, their daughter had just turned 8 this month so her dad who just got the priesthood batized her on saturday!! :) and mandy( the girl that got baptized) came up to me right before her baptism and asked if i would comfirm her a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints! :D :D :D My heart was so full of joy!!! :D President Durrant was there at their baptism and stood in the circle with me and my companion to comfirm her! :D ah i love missionary work!! its the BEST!!! :D and then Yesterday we went to a church in frisco texas with a less active ( Greg Boykin ) and with his girlfriend a non-member ( amy ) .... good laws! im sending yall a picture of this great and spacious building we went to! GOOD LAWS it was crazy! we walked in and it seriously was just a Rock concert! lights, smoke, loud loud LOUD speakers! jammed packed with large numbers of people! HUGE place! the whole time they sang and waved their hands in the air prasing god, and calling all to be saved! me and elder merrill were dumbfounded! ! we left and invited both greg and his girlfriend amy to come to church with us just for fast and testimony meeting ! they both agreed! FYI- Greg is the one that stopped us in the carwash parking lot by wal mart and asked for us to give him a blessing. and he stood up and bore i strong testimony of how no matter how far you fall away from god, you can get back on track! :) after going to a gospel doctrine class right after sacrament i realized the difference in our church from all the other churches on the earth today! the church in frisco was simply just a business, selling salvation, through music, crafty launguage and flashy lights, it was all so simple, at the end of the presentation, the pastor invited all who wished to be saved to come forward and be saved... Except christ and it will be all good! i learned in gospel doctrine that it is not the case.. Christ suffered for us... we cannot be saved simply from believing on his name and calling it good! life isnt easy, we go through hard times, we suffer, we mess up sometimes, and when we mess up it is not enough to say simple that i have excepted christ, im okay. Repentance is a hard and difficult process, we must not look for a easy way out of trials in our lives, christ laid the path of redemption, and in order to make progress in this life we must follow that path! the world looks to christ as simply a quick fix from you sins and trials, yes they were praising god, praising jesus, but it was only to the satifaction of their worldly desires... our desires should be for the eternities! :D Family! :D and living with them for eternity in gods presence! :D  haha sorry that was a long story but i had to tell yall about it! :) the last story i have is yesterday at church guess who was there???? Principle Wood for Cedar City UTAH! :D hahaha i went over to her daughters house and was able to sit and talk with her for a bit and get a picture with her! haha such a small world! :) haha well i will write you all my new address in oklahoma when i get there! so yall can send me some christmas goodies! :D i cant believe its christmas already! its still 75-80 degrees here in plano so it still feel like summer! haha its crazy! well i love you all ! im so grateful for the love and support you give to me! im so blessed to have yall as my family! :) LOVE YALL! :D

Always Focus on the Postive! 11/19/12

Well hello my amazing wonderful family!! Good laws its so good to hear from yall! :) again we had another incredibly busy week! :) we had a zone conference with president Durant on friday all day! it was awesome! he told us a story about how his wife wrote him on him mission and how important keeping a eternal perspective on things is! and how important love is in missionary work, he said some quotes that i really like: " love listens, and remembers!" as missionaries its soooo important to listen to the people you come in contact with! and even more important to remember what they tell you! :) the next quote was from president Durant father ( George Durant ) president durrant called his dads phone and put it on speaker, and as his voicemail came up it said, " Hello this is George Durrant, im having the best day yet so far!" :) our attitudes are so important in our lives! ive really come to realize the importance of having a good attitude and being optimistic! :) this week me and elder Merrill had a truely incredible week! :) but last night my companion decided to look at all the negative things that had happened, such as we lost 2 investigators, or some of the ward members are so annoying... At that very moment i realized the importance of focusing on the Positive always just as George Durrant does. this week was truly amazing! :) monday evening we were coming back home to finish up the day by planning and such, and we went through the Walmart parking lot to get back home. well a car honked at us, so i just figured " oh they just want us to get out of the way, we are not supposed to ride our bikes in the parking lot. so we continued on our way, and then a second time the car honked again and a person in the car waved at us! so we waved back thinking it was some members saying hi! :) well the car honked one last time and pulled us over in a car wash, so we went over and come to find out it was a man named Greg who grew up in the church but got himself into trouble in his growing up years and had tattoos and had been to jail a couple 2, 3 times, and he saw us and stopped us and asked us if we could give him a blessing, right there in the middle of the car wash! :) it truly was a miracle! :) this week we've met with him twice and we are helping him to regain his testimony ! what a wonderful man! and what a wonderful oppertunity that the lord blessed us with! :) as well this week truely we have been blessed with the tender mercies of the lord so greatly this week! :) again its always important to keep a positive attitude! even with this great week my companion still focused on some of the negative experiences of the week! may i challenge us all to Always Focus on the Postive! :) this week look at all the great things we have all been blessed with! i love yall so much! im so grateful for the love and support you all have giving so graciously to me! :) i love being a missionary! love it! :) its so great to here about all yall back home!!! :) 

11/5/12 precious truths

Holy cow!!! :) today was awesome! so i just got to the library to email yall and before we got here we had 2 appointments set up that we went to this morning, ironically they both cancelled on us so we went to a ladies house that we tracted into the other night just to see if she was home, we weren't able to talk to her before because her husband wasn't home so we tried again just an hour ago and they all were home and we came in and sat down and had the most incredible experience ever!! :) she had a million and 10 questions for us and we were able to answer them and explain things about how god has revealed the fullness of his gospel back on the earth! :) i will tell you what we talked about everything, the restoration, plan of salvation, and everything in between! what was really cool for me is i got a letter from dad last night telling me to not be afraid to tell people that we have the answers that other peoples pastors or leaders cant give answers for! so as she was asking us all these questions we were able to connect them all with the bible and the book of Mormon and help her understand some simple and precious truths that have been lost through out time! it was amazing! :) and yall are probably thinking well good laws why isn't Jesse and his companion relaxing, cause its P-day, haha well, i dont know why but today we needed to teach this lady about our church and there are no accidents or coincidences! oh how i love the tender mercies of the lord that come as we serve diligently! :) I love being on a mission! :) this week went so great!!! we worked hard all week and saw great success because of it! :) so how is everyone doing back home! :) 

No one knows about our own personal struggles and trials, except Jesus Christ, 10/29/2012

hello my wonderful amazing family!!! :D its so great to hear from yall! :) so haha i got a lot of explaining to do about my new area huh! haha well i am in Plano Texas! me and elder Merrill are covering 3 large wards and we are doing so on bikes!!! :) so im use to the 3 wards thing because i had 3 wards in McKinney i was over, but i am not use to the biking haha! but im getting some good leg muscles from biking to and fro the city of Plano! haha! it is quite a challenge but i have seen my friends and family go through harder challenges and come out on top so im not to worried about the challenges of a mission, rather ive decided to always have a good attitude and smile! :) i feel the spirit so much great as i do so and everything goes so much smoother! :) Plano Texas is very diverse.. there are tons and tons of different cultures living in Plano. i will tell you guys another cool experience i had this week, me and elder Merrill were out tracking and we came upon a black lady sitting in her car. we stopped and asked her if everything was okay, and she replied that she was going through some tough trials in her life so we began to talk to her about some of the trials in life we face. and i shared some of the trials that Maddy has gone through in these past couple weeks and Candice (the black lady) really opened up and we talked about how no one knows about our own personal struggles and trials, except Jesus Christ, he is the only person ever to feel of every single sin and experience all of our trails and hardships we face in our life. i told Candice about how Maddy is a wonderful woman and through gods help and turning to Jesus Christ. Maddy has been able to get strength and be able to endure through the tough things put into her path. i then told Candice that she can find that same comfort and help from Jesus Christ through reading the book of Mormon! so we gave her a book of Mormon and testified how life may not always be easy but through the love of Jesus Christ we can be comforted in those times of trial and tribulation! it was a wonderful testimony builder for me! :) i love being on a mission and sharing the happiness ive received from my family and from the Gospel of Jesus Christ! :) isn't it absolutely amazing! :) well i hope you all have a wonderful week! im so grateful for all the love and support yall have given me through my mission! :)

10/22/12

well i have so crazy news dad!!!! im getting TRANSFERRED TOMORROW! so don't send any cards or anything cause i wont be in Mckinney to get them haha! im going to PLANO Texas! :) my new companion will be Elder Merrill, (one of the missionaries from the MTC with me!) crazy huh! im just starting out and they are putting two greenies together! we must be doing something wrong haha no just kidding! :) but i must say i am truly soooooooooooo sad that im leaving Mckinney.... i have come to love all the people here in the wards and everyone i came in contact with!! i love it here in Mckinney and Elder White has truly been the best companion ever, even though we have only been companions for 2 weeks! we worked like crazy in these past two weeks though! and yesterday we finally saw some of the fruits of our efforts!!! :D yesterday we were talking to an investigator named alex and we taught him the plan of salvation, and at the end of the lesson we asked him that once he knew these things we taught him were true would you be baptized and he said YES! and he wants to go on a mission!!!! it was amazing! my heart was so full of joy at that moment! :) i couldn't of had a better ending to leaving this area than with that experience i had last night! :) and i was talking to elder white afterwards and he told me, Elder Rowland: you can hold you head up high because you are leaving this area 100 times better than how you found it! :) Elder white is getting a new greenie from the MTC tommorrow and will be training him in Mckinney! i am so grateful for the short time i spent with him and all the success we had together here in Mckinney! :) i love this gospel so much! i know without a certainty that this work i am in is good and it is true! it brings everything into perspective! i love it so much! :) now all i gotta do is continue to work hard in my next areas and give it my all as me and elder white have and i know i shall see success for the rest of my mission! :) I love you all so much! thank you for all you do for me and all the love and support you have given me on my endeavors! :) i love Y'all! so much! haha speaking of yall! i bore my testimony in all the wards this Sunday and i said yall and then everyone came up to me afterwards and complemented me on getting the accent so quickly haha ! i love the people here.. im gonna miss them! well i love yall and i hope everyone is have a magnificent week! :) i will let yall know what my address is in plano texas as soon as i can! :)