The Leftovers!

woooooooooooah.  Guess where i have been transfered to.........  JAKARTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

and you wont even guess who my new companion is........  wait for it...........

SISTER DAVIS.   

AGAIN. ahahahahah it is the funniest thing ever, we are literally leftovers, let me tell you why i'm here in jakarta with all of my stuff still in malang .__.

K, so poor sister angelie had to go home ya?  and we have a bunch of missionaries going home too!  so after our WAY SICK WAY COOL AND SPIRITURAL meeting with Elder Soares, we got transfers.   I open my letter (sister rowntree you are hereby called to serve in Jakarta, you'll be serving here for 3-6 months)  I ALMOST DIED,  i only brought a weeks worth of clothing from malang BC I THOUGHT I WAS GOING BACK WITH A NEW COMPANION!!  nope.  NOOOOPE.  but all is well.  so bc we are lacking missionaries and becase the new missionaries are having problems with their visa's i have to stay here in Jakarta for only 3 weeks, hahaha so it's not too bad i have enough stuff!   

I'M SO PUMPED TO BE SERVING HERE IN JAKARTA!!!!11  THERE'S LIKE 12 MILLION PPL IN THIS CITY!!!1 its so great i'm just talking to people all day long (you know me i can never keep my mouth shut) so its so fun!!!  

Its kinda crazy so cuz some people here are soooo keras (hard)  like sassy, so when they see the book of mormon oh man, oh man, they freak out, but it's still fun, this one lady was so mean to me i almost cried and Sister Hariyadi was across the bus way so she couldnt come and save me, (and honestly my language isn't fluent yet) so most of the time i had no idea what she was saying, so iinstead of giving her sass back, thankfully she let me explain the book of mormon and bare my testimony and we eventually got her number so we can meet her and teach her!!!  cool huh!!!  as missionaries you have to give everyone a chance even when they dont seem interested, you never know who's ready for our message of truth and happiness!!

i learned so much from Elder Soares and his wife and Elder Wong and his wife, it was such an amazing meeting, we talked all about our divine nautre as children of god and how much he loves us and how much he wants us to succeed if we're diligent missionaries.  Mormon 9:20-21 was like a slap to the face.  it was such a wake up call to me, "god ceases to do miracles because of our unbelief"  WOAH that was me, i kept thinking over the past few months,  "ugh why cant i be happy, ugh i go out every day just to be rejected, no one cares, no one wants to listen"  WELL YA WITH THAT ATTITUDE SISTER ROWNTREE,  verse 21 says that "whosoever believeth in Christ, DOUBTING NOTHING, whatsoever he shall ask of the father it will be granted unto him"  and thats a promise!  God doesnt break his promise, so i need to do my part, i have to rise each day with faith and hope and joy and love in my heart and do everything in my power to find god's children who are ready!  I dont get to choose who is ready, thats why i have to talk with everyone,  during christ's ministry, was he rejected?  yes.  was he tired?  yes.  but he never gave up.  christ taught everyone, and any time, every where he wwent because he knew who he was!!  the son of god and he had a purpose!!  I get to represent the Savior, i've been set apart, missionaries really DO have power from on high, so i Have to trry!  wow, I'm so blessed to be here i am so grateful.

also i learned another cool thing about the sabbath day,  all of my life i dont think i really took keeping the sabbath day seriously, but for the past few years thats what our prophets have been asking us to do.   think of it.  in 1995 when president hinckley announced the family proclamation to the world, everyone was like, ya okay,  families are important no duh,  BUT LOOK AT OUR TIMES NOW.  the world is so so so sooo sooooo sad. so sad.  family isn't important in worldy views,  what god wants isnt what the world wants,  the prophet at the time knew this would happen.  so why are the prophets and apostles always talking about the sabbath day?  they know what's going to happen in the future, it will be even worse in a few decades.  The sabbath day is for the lord. to remember him.  before i was like "okay ya, i'm going to church cool."  but its more than that,  what else can we do to draw us closer to our Savior on the ONE day that he asks to remember him?  I challenge you all to think about what are some things you can do better to become closer to the savior on the sabbath day, and some things you can choose to do on another day.  I know it will bless your lives, (and heaven knows i need to be better when i'm home on the sabbath day too!)

WOAH ALSO IT'S RAMADAN I ALMOST FORGOT. soooo as missionaries we have to respect the religion here, so we cant eat or drink in public until it's 6 pm ITS SO COOL,  what a great experience for a whole month!!

and yes there was a bomb in jakarta, but everything is okay,  god watches over his missionaries, sister Hariyadi and I were going to an appointment that day where it happened.... but things didnt work out.... THE LORD LOVES US!   

Life is good, search for the happy things in life, dont like doubt or fear bring you down everyday, live in thanksgiving, i've learned so much on my mission and i still have a lot more to learn, but i know Heavenly Father wont ask me to do something if I cant do it without the help of my Savior.  I love this gospel, it's my only hope for a better day.  Have a nice week yall!

Love Sister Rowntree

1) SISTER FULGSANG MY MTC COMPANION!!!(:

2) more cute missionaries

3) Sister Hariyadi

5) this is how happy i am bc i'm in jakarta

6) Sister Davis and Sister Rowntree back at it again.  (also this was just yesterday and we contacted SOOOO many people and SOOOOO mnayy ppl wanted pictures with me bc of my hair shahahahahah SO WE MET A PAPUAN FAMILY (the black indonesians) AND WERE GOING TO MEET THEM AND TEACH THEM I'M SO PUMPED!!1 OKAY BYYEEEE<3

Sidekick in Jakarta

Halo Keluarga dan temanku!  minggu ini GILA BANGET.

Surprise!! I'm JAKARTA right now!!  Thursday, Sister Angelie got a phone call from President on Wednesday telling us to pack up for a week in Jakarta.  Now, I'll tell you the background story of why in the world we had to go in the first place! 

This past week and a half or so, Sister Angelie has been terribly sick, sick enough that we couldn't go out and work for days.  (So this email isn't going to have too much to say) I've been taking care of my poor companion (and watching the best 2 years over and over and over again)  Bad news... After we met with the fancy doctors here in Jakarta the news was that Sister Angelie had to go home ):  (to bogor which is like 40 minutes from jakarta without traffic)  So, it's been a really really hard few days, I know Sister Angelie really didn't want to leave the mission, but there's good news, with her new antibotics, if she heals after 3 weeks she can return!  BUT transfers are up, so she will not be returning to Malang with me, which means, I'M GOING TO BE LEADING THE AREA SWEET NIBBLETS, (if you cant tell, i'm a little stressed) but it will be fine... hopefully haha please pray for me, if yall knew me before the mission, you know i'm terrible at directions (especially my right and left) and the traffic here is still BACKWARDS, adu. It will be okay, so now.  Here i am in Jakarta with the Sister Training Leaders.  I'm like the side chick here, but I'm learning sooooo much with being here with the sister training leaders, i love them so so much,  they're great and they help me feel so much better about better about the way i teach and about my language.  They're so great, Sister Solomon is actually going home on WEDNESDAY crazy huh!  She's been my Sister Training Leader since I arrived in Indonesia in December!  It'll be sad to see her go!  I've had so much fun here, she's teaching me how to play the ukelele,  it's way hard!  but they sell Uk's in Malang for way cheap, so guess who's excited to go back to Malang on Thursday, i sure am.  

okay.  so i'm still going to be in Jakarta anyways on thursday because ELDER SOARES FROM THE PRESIDENCY OF THE 70 IS COMING TO JAKARTA! Soooo we're going to have ALL THE MISSIONARIES IN THE INDONESIA JAKARTA MISSION COME HERE!!! Which means..... I GET TO SEE MY MTC COMPANIONS AGAIN!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!  I love Sister Patton and Fulgsang so so much, I'm so excited to learn from Elder Soares too (so my next email will be way spiritual i'm sure.) So i will find out who my new companion is after the meeting on thursday and we'll head off to Malang together! I think there are about 90 missionaries only in our mission, maybe that's not a lot, but our mission is absolutely ginormous, it's the entire country!!  to get to the farthest end of the country to the other side is a loooong plane ride.  I can't wait to meet everyone too. 

I dont have much else to say, this week has been crazy, skyping with my cute family last week was great too, until Thursday, I'll still be here riding buses and being stuck in traffic in Jakarta, this city is so cool I hope I serve here one day.

Have a nice week everyone, this church is true,  I learn so much everyday from the scriptures, especially the book of Mormon, I know it is the word of God and my faith is always strengthened when I read it.  President Monson counseled to us all in conference to read from it everyday.  I know he is called of God to be the Prophet today and I substain him and I challenge you all to adhere to his words.  What the prophet tells us is from God, what God wants us to do is the most important thing because He knows best.  I know Joseph was called to restore Christ's original church back to the earth, I am so grateful for Joseph Smith's sacrifice for us all to have the wonderful blessings of the Restoration.  I know that without the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we would not have the knowledge of God's plan of Happiness for us all! How sad is that! but we dont have to be sad! God lives, He's real, He does have a plan for us!  And Jesus Christ is the center of His glorious plan.  I love my Savior, He has become my best friend, He's the only one I can lean on and rely on through the hard times, I sure hoep you all know that He's always there for you, waiting for you to come unto Him, so He can lift you up too.  I love you all, I can feel your prayers, and I thank you for them. 

Love Sister Rowntree

1)  Sister Angelie and I at the airport

2) Bye bye sister Angelie )):

3) Sister Nainggolan and Sister Solomon foto bombing  (oh yeah this is at stake conference in jakarta so guess what.  I SAW ALL OF MY BOGOR PALS AND MEMBERS IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!)

4) Sister Bourelle! <3

5) Mutia from Bogor!!! <3

6) Me and the Sister Training Leaders, Sis. Solomon and Sis. Hariyadi

7) Sister Hariyadi (:

1 month in Malang

WOAH I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YALL IN THIS EMAIL.  There were two Miracles this week, oh and shout out to Sister Shook happy birthday!  

First we had zone conferences in Surabaya, it was so amazing and the spirit was so strong and i felt SO PUMPED to get back to work, it was like my flame of faith EXPLODED again (bc the struggle is real here and i lose faith so fast hahaa)  SO 

Miracle 1:  after zone conference, my district had to ride a long 2 hour bus ride back to Malang.  We had just heard from our president "TALK WITH EVERYONE ASK FOR REFERALS, DONT MISS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE THE GOSPEL!" so that was in my mind, I get on the bus and i'm like.. hm... who is ready for our message? I decided to sit by this random Bapak.  I always start my conversations with "mau ke mana?"  it's a very inspired heavenly question... "where are you going?" ha. it has saved my life many times while contacting in indonesia.  turns out, this guy is WAY COOL he's a captain of a giant carrier ship, and he's been all around the world, he COULD SPEAK ENGLISH kinda so that was a life savor!!  He then asked me what i was doing here, and i gave him the ol shpil (i cant spell english words sorry)  he had SOOO many questions, i gave him a book of mormon and the restoration pamphlet for him to read.  He really is a miracle bc he wants to learn more.  the only problem is that hes out at see for 3 weeks and only goes home to his family for 3-4 days .__. sip.  BUT ITS OKAY!  we're going to visit his family anyways this week!  keep your fingers crossed!

Second miracle

so even tho PLD was so great, my faith dwindled again and i was super stressed out and sad until sunday.  I'm so grateful for fasting, there really is power from above when we fast.  I'm so bad at typing out stories so i literally brought my journal here at the Warnet and i'm going to type my journal entry from last night.

"WOAH. Sacrament meeting was great!  there was so much peace and i knew the spirit was there.  Then it waws testimony meeting.   I felt that familiar desire to bare my testimony, just like i used to do every fast sunday at home.  I denied the feeling, I kept saying "no no let the others go,  you can go up next month"  but the feeling wouldnt go away!  In my head i was like, "I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY"  i decided to testify about prayer.  When i got to the pulpit,  I said the most RANDOM thing.  I began to talk about our trials as missionaries, and how hard its ben and how I question Heavenly Father if i really am supposed to be here.  Then I testified of prayer, becausei know everything iwll work out."  Sister Angelie was shocked,  I was shocked,  the members dont need to know how we're struggling right?  But God knows His children,  and Sister ___ came to church that day,  she has joined the catholic church, and she heard my testimony, she talked to Sister Anglie afterwards and she is a return missionary! she told sister angelie all of these amazing things about her mission.  she has 2 kids, and they might not be baptized with proper authority in our church yet.  We have work to do!  even though its hard to meet with her, we will one day, and we wll reactivate her sweet family.  I know God knows and loves us one by one,  i know the holy ghost is with me even when I dont realize it!  Missionary work is so cool, but HARD,  but i cant give up!  I really REALLY have to rise each day with a smile on my face, hope and faith in my heart and eyes SEARCHING for people to find and teach and all will be well! (:"

it was so cool yall.  God is so so aware of us, i'm literally out of time and this computer wont read my card... so no pics sorry. and next week we're skyping!!!!!!! YAYYYY HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!! Say your prayers, read your scriptures and look for opportunities to serve the lord!  Thank you fo ryour prayers i ca n feel them everyday!  

Love Sister Rowntree

Sister Rowntree

Jalan Senopati 115

Kebayoran Baru

Jakarta 12190

Indonesia

(thats a hint yall it gets lonely here thanks ((: )