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! :)