Week

Challenge and Quality: an attitude of gratitude

Mission Experience: I am at a member's home borrowing an ipad to email for this holiday's P-day, so this will be brief, but I am so grateful for their kindness towards missionaries. I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for Joseph Smith, for good weather and open doors. For running water and a running car, for Preach My Gospel and all it teaches. For the Book of Mormon and its power. For open hearts and helping hands. For God our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. And for you! Thank you for your support.

Love,

Sister Rowley

Week Three!

In Preach My Gospel it says something like your attitude about your mission is a reflection of your respect for the priesthood. When we met with the Mission President a week or so ago, he taught us about the priesthood -- so to improve mission morale, he teaches priesthood? Cool! The power of God is real and faith in it strengthens us. Learning more about the priesthood gave me such a respect for God's order -- He doesn't just throw His power around to whoever wants it; they have to be worthy and use it as He allows.

Here are a few tidbits of what we learned:

Different Words with the Priesthood:

1-Conferred: receiving the whole priesthood. Example: When you receive the Aaronic Priesthood, you have all of it, regardless of if you're a Deacon, Teacher, or Priest.

2-Ordained: placed into an office, or a division of duties that go along with having the Priesthood.

• Offices in Aaronic Priesthood: Deacon, Teacher, Priest, Bishop.
  
• Offices in Melchizedek Priesthood: Elder, High Priest, Seventy, Patriarch, Apostle

3-Set Apart: set apart in a calling.

• Ordained is for life, as long as the man stays worthy -- so, once a bishop, always a bishop, once a deacon, always a deacon. But callings come and go. So when a bishop is called a second time, he doesn't need to be ordained again, only set apart. We don't really need to call him Bishop when he is not the set-apart bishop; it's just a tradition some people have.
• A Stake President is not an office of the priesthood, it's a calling. So it's not once a president, always a president. Cool, huh? Also, there was a tiny, unimportant thing he mentioned offhand, that it's not Young Women's President, because she's not the president of the young women: the Bishop is their presiding authority. It's the Young Women Program's President, so you'd say Young Women President, not Young Women's President. Hard to wrap your head around, but so fascinating.
  

4-Keys: the right to preside. It takes keys to give keys. It's so important to not overstep your bounds as a priesthood holder. That's why we recognize the "presiding authority" whenever they're in our meetings. Showing respect for the man with the most keys in the room shows respect for God.

5-Titles: Calling people by the right title, and those sorts of things are called the "unwritten order," meaning it's not written anywhere, but are learned from observation and revelation; President Slaughter has learned it from observing the leaders of the church, since he's worked with them closely, and it just shows such respect for the priesthood and that power. Examples: You just call a patriarch "Brother," because he doesn't hold any Priesthood keys. He holds the Priesthood, yes, but he doesn't have the right to preside. You can call any holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood "Elder." All 3 of the presiding bishopric members can be called Bishop, but not so with normal bishoprics; just call ward bishopric counselors "Brother." Only members of specific Quorums call their president of the 70's "President." The rest of us call them Elder, because they don't hold keys that apply to us, well they do, but not they're President over us like the Prophet is, and such. Both the President and counselors of stake presidency can be called President. These were just some odd, fascinating things that make me want to learn more!

Challenge: Study something you don't understand this week! The more I learned from President Slaughter about the Priesthood, the more I cared about it and my testimony grew. So learn something from the scriptures, from the prophets, from your local priesthood leader, from prayer. Prayer is probably the most important one. Pray about what you learn.

Mission Report: We've invited and are helping a wonderful man prepare for baptism on November 29, so pray for him too! And missionary work is so good. I've written too much already, but I love all I'm learning and hope you love learning every day as well!

Quality of Christ: Knowledge. The more I have read about Christ's life this week, the more my testimony of Him grows, and I want to share it even more. Christ is constantly talking about faith, and having unwavering, great faith. When Peter walks on water, his faith wavers and he sinks for uncertainty and doubt. But still, I mean, come on! Peter walked on water! I find it so inspiring that a mortal walked towards Christ on nothing but water with nothing but faith in Christ. What a miracle! So imagine even greater faith than that? Wherefore didst thou doubt? Christ says. I know you have faith, so why did you doubt? Great faith is unwavering. Knowledge doesn't take away from faith; God is light and knowledge. So keep learning and keep focusing on the right place. If Peter didn't turn his focus away from Christ onto the storm, he wouldn't have sunk. (But still, how humbling that Christ will always save us if we call to Him.) So keep focusing on Christ!

I love you all!
Sister Rowley

Week Two!

I learned so much this week and I don't even have time to talk about it! Missions keep you so busy!

Challenge:

Pay attention! There are opportunities everywhere. I love hearing experiences of how you're already doing this. So keep it up, and get back up if you have a rough week/day/hour. I am in awe every day of how God places people in our lives at perfect times.

Mission Report:

After church, Sister E was looking to give a book back to a Sister M who we had never met. We said sorry, and parted ways. A few moments later a woman came out of the church kitchen and introduced herself as a Sister M from the other ward. We said a cheerful greeting and parted ways, but then the Spirit poked me, I guess you could say, and I turned back and said, "Wait, are you the Sister M who needs the book from Sister E?" And she was, so we pointed her in the right direction and she almost ran down the hall. Sister E found us later and told us how grateful she was for sending Sister M in her direction.

That was such a small experience, but I was touched because it felt so real and so powerful and so simple to see how God placed us in the right places at the right time to talk to the right people to get that book returned. And if he cares that much about Sister E and Sister M and what they worry about after church, then of course He cares about His lost children who don't even have the blessings we do. So I know my companion and I will find the people we need to.

Quality of Christ:

I've been working on hope like Christ this week. Mosiah 24:13-15. I think the command to 'lift up your head' and 'lift up your heart' to be of good comfort is an action, not an automatic feeling. Sometimes hope doesn't come naturally, to me; I'm a bit pessimistic. Cheerful, but pessimistic about what I can accomplish on my mission. But that's okay! That's what I'm trying to develop. So if my heart hangs down, I push it back up, and keep doing that -- push-ups are the worst, but they're good for arm strength. If we get back up when we get knocked down, we'll have such a strong heart. God will strengthen us, and ease the burdens, and if we submit cheerfully and with patience, we will find Christ! Keep getting back up, keep repenting, and anything is possible.

Love,

Sister Rowley

Week One!

Texas is a beautiful state! I love the friendly people, my patient companion, and the reliable car.  The apartment feels safe, the bed feels comfortable, and the water clean. Our alarm clock changes sounds every morning, which I find amusing and confusing.

Also, the members are saints and I have not gone hungry since I've been here thanks to their scrumptious cooking. We've eaten zucchini boats, pulled pork sandwiches, grilled chicken, Chinese Take-Out... I've been gifted homemade jelly, and candied apples, child-made paper books and candy rings. And I've only been here 5 days. The huge hearts of these Texans are incredible.

Challenge!
On that note, my challenge to you this week: do something nice for a missionary in your area! It's so encouraging to have some stranger offer to take a picture and send it to your family, or offer you a bottle of water when it's hot (everyone here drinks bottled water...) Dinners are great, referrals are awesome, smiles and a handshake are lovely. Anyways, just keep being the beautiful, supportive people you are!

Mission Report:
Things are hard, and even though people are so friendly and the ward members so supportive, we haven't met any of our goals any of the time. Which, being reasonable with myself, I've only been here 5 days, and barely know anything about missionary work. Also, day 2 of my mission we took over the entire ward boundaries. So that's a huge amount of mileage to cover for 2 relatively new sisters. But, still... for a straight A, A- student, getting D's and F's is like General Conference without an airplane Uchtdorf talk -- kind of depressing, even though you know it's not required all the time. But we'll keep working and learning and growing in the mission field.

We met a lovely Catholic lady on the side of the road who listened to the entire Restoration lesson from us right then (I love Catholics; but they rarely want a message, so I think God was preparing this wonderful woman) while a cat wrapped itself around my legs and got hair all over my nylons and people peered out their cars at us as they drove slowly past like, What're they doin? So the work is going on, and it's kinda fun! :)

Quality of Christ:

I've been working on having diligence like Christ this week. I was reading in 1 Nephi 8, about the Tree of Life dream. I compared those who became ashamed after the fruit, and those who fell down.

"I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree. And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed." (vs24-25)

"...he saw other multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree." (vs30)

They both followed the words of God and pressed forward. But I love the difference "press their way forward." Make it your journey! Diligence is personal. Enjoy it. That was good advice for me. It's not anyone's journey but my own, so I only need to measure up to God's expectations.

Clinging makes me think of clothing that doesn't fit right. Or plastic wrap to put on food you're going to toss later. It makes me think of nails digging in, tips of fingers holding tight, but everything else pulling you away sort of verb. It doesn't make me think of a loving verb.

Continually holding fast sounds slow, patient, calm, trusting... My companion prayed for us one night, and she said, "May Sister Rowley slowly learn all... no, I mean, fastly learn all she needs to for this mission." She meant quickly, but I liked how she used fast-ly. God's time is fast enough for needs, but not too fast for what we can handle. I'm going to fall over when I get home I'll be so tired, but I'm gonna be so happy!

So keep the faith!

Love you all,
Sister Rowley