10/15/12

hey everyone! it was so great to hear from yall! :) thank you so much for the emails you send me every week! :) i love reading them and hearing about all the great stuff happening back home! : i was able to get a new companion! Elder White and we are both excited to work and to get the missionary efforts in this area moving along in the right direction! :) in fact this week has been the most productive of my mission and we have seen a lot of success because of our efforts! :) its so great! :) we did a ton of tracting!!! and not very many people would listen, but i'll tell you what, the people that do listen they are amazing! and im so grateful for those few opportunities we had to teach them! :) those few experiences make it all worth it out here! i love just simply talking with people about the gospel! :) we taught about 5 people on their doorsteps about the restoration of the gospel and we places 2 book of mormons.. books of mormon haha! :) HODA DACH MOO FROW... mm..MANIER.. haha! oh gotta love the best two years! such a awesome movie! :) ive actually had a couple awkward experiences like that this week hahaha! :) on one door contact a retired golfer answered the door and we of course told him that we were missionaries sharing a message about jesus christ and he told us thanks but i already have a relationship with jesus christ and so he began to shut the door on us.. so i kinda panicked and just blurted out .. " KEEP LOVIN' JESUS!" hahaha my companion lost it!! hahaha he said i totally sounded like some black baptist dude hahaha! gotta love those awkward moment on the mission though! its good stuff! :) well i love you all and i am so grateful for all you love and support! :) LOVE YALL! 

ELDER ROWLAND

10/8/12

picture # 1- my old companion Elder Edlund..... but i took this picture today! so that is what i be looking like currently! :D

9/24/12

Grandy and Pops ! - How are things in Springdale!? Here in Texas there are no mountains... i know now how blessed we are to have the beautiful mountains of utah! :) im so grateful for all the love and support y'all have given me on my efforts in serving a mission! :) it really means so much to have a wonderful family back home that are encouraging me on my way! :) i love you all so much and i pray for you all every night and day for y'all :) 

Heidi! - how are ya!? :) im extremely mad at myself now for not seeing you and my new cousin before i left on my mission! i can wait to see you both in two years! :) thanks for the great example you set for me! :) youre such a sweet and good person! and friendly to everyone you come into contact with! :) again im so grateful for you and the great example! :) i pray for you and your family everynight and every morning! :) 

Wayne and Lise! :) i'd like to first off thank you for the help you gave me this last summer, letting me come and work for y'all and have you put up with me for a couple months! youre family has always been so great to me and my family! :) this past month on my mission ive realized how great of a family we all are together! :) and i am truely thankful for your love and support to me on my mission! you gave me the opportunity to learn how to work and i am so grateful for that! :) thank you again for all youve done for me and my family! it means so much and i cant thank you enough! :) your the best! i love y'all! :)

9/17/12

Hey everyone! i sent you a letter and hopefully you received it! it explained a little bit about my companion and the area i'm in! :) but if you dont know.. im in McKinney Texas! and my companions name is elder Edlund! he's been on a mission for 20 months and he's getting ready to be headed home! umm lets see what else.. the area is great! its a very very nice community! in money magazine the city of McKinney was rated the number 2 best place to live in the united states! its pretty cool! most of the people here are very busy during the day its hard to get in contact with the people cause they are all so work based! and the best time to meet with people is between 5-9 pm cause everyone is either working or busy with something! but that's okay! im still extremely excited and motivated to meet with people and talk to them about christ and the restoration of the gospel! :) this week me and my companion were tracking and i met my first baptist here in Texas! haha at first i thought he was a member as we were talking with him. so i asked him what ward he was in and he responded, " oh im not mormon, im baptist, but i've been studying your church! " which means he's been taking anti-mormon classes at his baptist church haha! it happens a lot with other religions in Texas hahaha! but its all good! i am able to talk with everyone! its not awkward for me at all to be able to talk with the people here! :) :) its awesome! i know ive been very blessed from our father in heaven to be comfortable with talking with random strangers! :) its great! as of right now me and my companion are teaching about 3 people who could potentially get baptized soon if they just desire to! which is splended! simply marvelous! haha :) hopefully i will be able to help them reconize the importance of baptism and having the constant companionship of the holy ghost in their lives! :) one lady in particular has been taught by the missionaries for the past year! and her only thing holding her back from being baptized is she is slowly giving up smoking! she started out with smoking 2 and a half packs a day and now she is to a half a pack a day! so she is progressing! it would be exciting to be able to see her get baptised! :) so every morning i wake up and shower and then work out! :) it great! the missionary before me left his pull-up bar in the apartment! :) so i use that every morning to do pull-ups push-ups and sit-ups! im getting pretty buff! haha jk not really! but it feels good to work out! i think it gets me warmed up for the day and wakes me up so i am able to study and work hard the rest of the day! :) so i had an awesome experience yesterday in church!!! :) me and my companion are over 3 wards in our district and on sundays we go to every wards meetings! so we go from 6:30-4:00! its crazy but its great to meet all the awesome people in this area! :) but anyways! we were sitting down in the chapel for the 3rd wards sacrament that day and this guy and his kids sit down in front of us and my companion says " hey brother brock ! " and i was like .. brother brock.... brother brock!!! you look really familiar! and it was Windel Brock! from out in enoch! the short guy that was in the stake scouting program with brother Wilken?? hahaha! he and his family bought some of our cups and plates from Adriana's!!!! :) it was sooooo cool! :) and he invited us over that night to have cake and treats! it was awesome! he sent a picture to dads phone i think! so ah it was so cool! :) so that was a way awesome experience to see them and everything! so there's like 2 things i hate about Texas haha! :) well 3! :) the water is drose!!! whys it drose!!! haha it is clean but it just tastes like dirt! is weird! its so dross ahahaha! and there is no mountains!!!! so i have no sense of direction! haha im so lost out here! hahah and the grass has little bugs in it called chiggers!!!! and they bit your ankles and burrow in your skin! so i cant really go on the grass unless its cut really short haha! :) those are the 3 things i dis like about texas hahaha! :) but other than that its awesome! :) haha i spoke in 2 of the 3 wards this sunday! it was good! the members here are way nice and they all are so excited to sign up for dinners for me and my companion! :) so you dont have to worry about me not getting enough food! :) its awesome!! :) i love you all so much! every night i pray for each and everyone of you and hope you all are doing just great ! :) so to sum it all up im working hard, im excited to be here, im anxious to teach the people everyday, and im doing great! :) i miss you all everyday! its funny how just random things that happen throughout the day remind me of y'all! :) i love y'all! :) 

oh! haha quick story for y'all! :) the plane ride was crazy! hahaha i was fine and didnt get sick until we landed! hahaha like 3 minutes after landing in texas i threw up hahaha it was so dumb! it was like my incident at lagoon where i threw up before going on the Wicked ride and then i was fine hahaha! :) but the plane ride was cool! :) i sat in the very back seat in the corner! :) it was fun! :)

In Brasil we serve missions

email from Ashley

Mom! This week i had such a special experience. I am glad that Uncle Ben´s funeral was special. When you told me he didnt have much time, i prayed that i would be able to return before he passed away, but in that instant i knew that i would not be there. What a wonderful blessing we have - eternal families.




Mom, i want you to know that i love you. I am grateful for everything you passed on to me and taught me. I am so grateful that you reserved yourself for dad and that you have always honored your covenants and promises to him. What a wonderful and touching example you have given me. "When you get bigger you need to marry someone very special. ...I know!!! I will marry Daddy!!! no honey, you can´t marry daddy because i already married him... Oh momma! What did you do that for?!" hahaha oh my dearest momma.... i now know why you did that for. I know why you felt so bad when you saw that dad´s car wasnt at home after you said you didnt want anything serious. I know why you never let what grandma said about dad get you down.... I understand the why of it all :) I know that because of your virtue and kindness and love dad was guided to you and our loving heavenly father prepared everything and guided you both to each other.

How grateful i am to have such special parents.