Elder Rowland December 23, 2008

Rowland Family


Thanks so much for all of the wonderful emails you have sent me . it has truly lifted my spirits. I love you all so much . This christmas is going to be so great and so bad without you at the same time. Why i say great is not because i hate sending christmas with you... its not that at all . Its great because i get to see really what christmas is about here. Here there wont be any presents or family to give gifts to or anything. This is a chance for me to grow up and change a little . Not in a bad way but in a way that i will be better able to serve the lord. I will have you in my heart. i love you so much. And its not so bad because my district is like a family to me so i will be fine. I have had a lot of lessons learned here. if i came home today i would be different to you i think in a good way. The language is coming a lot better. i can have a pretty good conversation about the gosple and stuff. Its going to be good. oH ! and some great news my misssion president in porto alegre wants to arrange a way for me to call home so i might be able to talk to you ! yeah! That would be awesome. I leave this next tuesday really early in the morning i think. i am not actually sure. they dont tell you untill the day before so its confusing till then . I hope you guys have the best christmas ever! you are so lucky to live in a place like utah. whenever i show a picture of our house to a brazilian they always ask for money jokingly because they think im a millionare . And in a way with you guys i certainly am. I love you so much ! Feliz Natal!
Love Elder Rowland

Christmas Present!

Elder Rowland December 16, 2008

Hey i cant tell you how happy i am to hear that you got he letters. I havent sent one since because i didnt know if they were even getting through. but i will keep them going from now on. you guys are so awesome. i love each and every one of your letters. and i wish i could send you letters that would get there on christmas but it looks like im only going to be able to email you. I was kinda happy to hear about jesse boy. He can do what ever he wants and he will be good at it so good for him. Oh dad... i was wondering if by next tuesday you could email me sams story? i want to read it to my district on christmas eve like back home.

The langauge is going great i am working as hard as i ever thought possible and its paying off . the lord is a huge help with all of it. I went to the temple today and saw some missionaries there that have been out for about a year now and they had brazilian compainions and it was really cool to see them communicating with ease. Tell everyone in the ward that signed my wrapping paper thanks so much. I felt like a million bucks when i got it. I have the best ward in the world. Well i am going to the temple one more time at the CTM and then i head out to porto alegre. I am really excited . Oh by the way tell Ben Rowland Para Bems ( Congradulations) on the shooting of the bunny thing. tell logan that i have been writing leslie . . he wanted to know. she hasnt written back yet but its okay. OH... the weather here is really hot. im sweating right now . i think its weird not to be cold during christmas. They do have christmas here.. its called faliz natal. they are giving us christmas eve and christmas day off so im pretty excited. Oh about my companion he is doing a lot better kinda. he had to go to a doctor for some medicine though... rediculus . but we are doing better. I have made some really close friends in my district . One is the boy from kanab. me and him are in the same boat with girl friends and we come from the same walks of life . i dare say that he is my best friend. he has a really strong spirit. That is something that i have found is true friends. Well i have to get going now so i will talk to you and send you some christmas pictures next week. I love you dad . o i wont be able to call on christmas this year but mothers day will be fine.
Elder Rowland

Elder Rowland December 9, 2008

Hey mom!
How are things going today? What is happening at home. I have some great news to tell you . We went prosolyting again this week end and i was understanding a lot more and talking a lot more fluently. But me and my companion were talking to a guy who was already a mormon. And i was standing there and i saw this small old man that looked a lot like Micky Rooney coming towards us. I saw him move out of his way just to come towards us. And he came up to me while my compainion was still talking to that guy. He stuck his hand out toward me and said, i Saw something in your eyes. It was such a neat experiance. I bore my testimony to him and i gave him a book of Mormon. The spirit was strong and he let me know he was going to read it by saying "How much my Friend?" We talked to someother people that day that were interested and the spirit was strong. I love it here mom. and i hope everything is well with you too.
love elder rowland
Dad

I am so glad to hear about grandpa. I am so sorry i wasnt able to explain those pictures that i sent, they only give us 45 minutes on the internet, but when i get out on the mission ill be able to explain them more. But the one with multipul elders in it were some of the missionaries in my district. i love each one of them they are so great! I have made some really close friends and i love it here . I am running out of time today but i will send you some letters with some stories on it. I hope everything is going well at home. I love You Dad Thanks for all of your advise and everything you do. Your my Hero. Tell Everyone i love them. Oh by the Way did you get the letters from me? Anyways i will send more pictures next week . Love you.

Elder Rowland November 25, 2008

Dear Dad

How are things going back home? Things are going pretty great over here. I´m still doing fine at the CTM and me and my district are becoming vetrens next week. Which means we are half way done. Its gone by pretty fast! We went prosolyting last friday and i gave away a lot of cards and bore my testimony to a few people , they responded to me but i couldnt understand them. But they understood me and it was a great experiance. We go again in december . Things are much different here dad, i am so greatful for where we live. There is a lot of corruption here, but i kind of like it. Because the people are all so great . Most of the people i talked to had tatoos earings and everything else you can think of , but everyone of them that stopped told me there name shook my hand , and listened to what i had to say ...(or tried to say) I love you so much dad. tell eveyone that i love them so much. Tell Russ happy birthday, and happy thanksgiving to you all!
Love you dad
Hey Mom! well its another p day! We went prosolyting this last weekend and as a district we had a goal of giving out 400 pass along cards in three hours, we gave out 580 ! It was such a great experiance! The things that i am seeing here is nothing like america, there are very poor people and very rich people here . Its quite humbling and it makes me love you guys more and more. I was truly blessed to have you raise me up. Tell Russell happy birthday! i´m going to send him some Brazilian Candy so it should get there in about three weeks. Tell him i love my old teamate. I´ll be email pictures to you next week so look forward to that .

Elder Rowland

Elder Rowland November 18, 2009

Hey Dad. Im so glad that the emails got through to you guys. I´m sending off some letters to you guys so you should get them in about 2 weeks hopefully. It made my day to get that packet of letters from you guys. i love them. I had a feeling one night that something had happened to grandpa. i dont know how but i just knew. im glad he is doing better . Make sure to send him and grandma my love. They are in my prayers. This week has been really amazing because ever since i got here anytime the teachers would speak in porteguese in would just fly over my head. i didnt get it at all but since praying a lot and working hard with the lords help i am able to understand a lot more. Its still really tough but if they talk slow i can understand a bit of it. I can see the results. And i do have angels all around me helping me in one way or another. Its such a blessing to be here. I guess i didnt really realize that i was actually on a mission and that i would be away from home for 2 years till about 3 days ago. And it was a pretty cool feeling to know that i was in the lords service. I have to be going now so ill email you next week. give everyone my love.
Elder Rowland

Hey mom!

Im so greatful i can email you so much now. It is going to help so much. I was sorry to hear about grandpa but im glad that he is doing better. i Sure do miss all of you so much. The missionary i left cedar city with is our district leader. hes the one with the black hair from Kanab. He and i are pretty tight. i like him a lot. hes a good guy. He left a girl home to and the really funny thing is that she gave him the exact same journal with his name on it that leslie gave me. but me and him have the same personalities. I had to talk in church the other sunday and it was a really sweet experiance. Except i was talking about how charity and i talked about how dad prefomed charity in the neighborhood. Like plowing the Fields and Helping out the neighbors anyway he could. But i said something totally wrong. I ment to say That i Didnt Realize that he was my hero, untill later... But what i did say was I Didnt Realize that he was my Dad, Untill Later...

yeah it was bad... Mom i Didnt realize how much i love you guys untill after being without you guys for a while. i love you so much. And dont worry, im not home sick, im just thinking about what a cool family i have. Im doing great and im getting by with a good companion. i Love you All so Much. oh by the way, if you send a package, make sure to put my missionary coat in it. i know its pretty expencive to send packages so just take it out of my acount if you can. and make sure you put the virgin Mary stickers on it so that people dont try to get in it. Happy Thanksgiving! I love you Mom.
Love Elder Rowland

Elder Rowland November 11, 2008

Dear dad and family
How is everybody? I´m pretty sorry i havent been able to send more than one letter since ive been here and this is my email for the rest of my mission. They have put me to work over here and i think the soonest ill be able to send a letter off is next wednsday. It takes about 8 to 14 days to get a letter to and from here. I am having a great experiance over here. learning the languge, getting to know new friends, and learning to be a missionary 24/7 i love it. Learning a new language has streatched me to the limit, its pretty tough, i was pretty discouraged for a little bit because i thought i was falling behind a little bit but through words of incouragement by you, and by teachers here at the CTM i have been doing better. I have been working and studing very hard. One cool experiance that happened is that My instuctor irmáo Lindinburge, promised me and my district that if we put our faith in the lord and worked hard and did everything i was supposed to, that in 2 weeks we would be able to carry on a conversation with a brazilian easily. We all felt the sprit and truth of this promise, and it greatly comforted me because i have 2 brazilian roomates that do not speak any english. My companion Elder Jones is a really great preson. he is from pleasant grove utah, and was a perfoming missionary in Navoo for the last four months so i feel as if i have the best companion. He was actually companions with Jason West. well i have to get on going here, so ill make sure to email you next tuesday which is my p day. I love you all so much, and hope that you are all well.
Hey Mom! how are you doing? This is my p day so i want to make sure i email you everyone of them. The CTM is so great here . i love it so much. My wieght is pretty much the same, so you dont need to worry about that. And I have a really good companion. I´m going to tell you about this thing you sould check out that will be a lot cheaper and easier to send letters and packages. Just go to MissionTies.com and then look up Mr. CHeny´s cookies. they have some really good deals with letters and other stuff so if you interested, and think its alright but ill let you decide. I have to go mom, but i love you so much. Tell everyone i made it and that i love them.
Love Elder Rowland.

P.S Missionaries here are saying that not very many letters make it through here so if you dont get any letters some hobo probably took it.

Me at CTM

Looking out at Sao Paulo

Elder Jones

Elder Madril, and others in CTM

Elder Wilson - A cousin from my mom's side?!? Relatives! Can you Believe it?!