Divine Destiny

wow!  this wek FLEW by!

Surprise!  We had to say goodbye to Sister Ratunuman!  she was supposed to be here for 2 more weeks, but Sister Stefani randomly got transfered to Malang, so I will miss my old companion,  but I know I'll see them again soon in November because nowwww as Sister Training Leaders we can go into the other sisters area's for splits and to do a house check!  Sup[er stoked to be able to go back to my old area <3  Monday we celebrated sister ratu's 20th birthday,  she bought us all pizza ( i know what youre' thinking  SHE baught YALL stuff on HER birthday?!?!?)  it's an indonesian tradtion so i aint complaining :p  I surprised her with JCO frozen yogurt too, it was fun and we jammed with our ukelele's again with the elders!

Tuesday:  I left for Jakarta with the Zone Leaeers for MLC,  so fun the food was great and we were all called to repentance!  I lvoe repentance, I am so grateful for this gospel, like, us unperfect creatures mess up everday and fall shrot from teh glory of God like, wE ARE LESS THAN THE  DUST OF THE EARTH cuz when god says "dust, move."  it moves.  and when god asks us to do simple things like "pleaser ead your scriptures child, say yoruu  prayers, and go to churhc."  we're like, "nahhhh..."  like in Mosiah 4:5

"For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your NOTHINGNESS, and your WORTHLESS and FALLEN STATE"  MAN!  that's like a nice slap to the FACE!  I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES!  but even though we do mess up everyday, God stilll loves us!  It's like what Sister Joy D. JOnes says,  we are never worthless, we will alawys ahve worth, even when we're not worthy.  Repentance is so great.  we can try again and again and Heavnely FAther will be pleased with us if we're sincere!  isnt' that beautiful?  I feel pumped!

our investigators are great but we need to find more taht will act!   Our theme lately in our mission is really really focusing on the |Book of Mormon, to be personally converted to it and using it with power in order to help our investigators become converted.  I love the Book of Momron, and i"m trying to study it even more prayerfully so I can help my investigators here too.

This is sister Hdy'es last week as a missionary!! she's freaking out!  we've made huge goals.  we want 10 investigators to hcurch this sunday and to find 10 new investogators.  go big or go home  (lol literally)  so weird,  and I still can't believe i'm on my lsat 6 month stretch.  so weird, was the MTC really just a year ago?  weeeiirrrdddd.

well that's about it yall,  surabaya is still hot but it's great, we meet really cool peopel everyday.  Mission work is so legit and OH I ALMOST FORGOT.

Let me tell yallw aht i got from chruch eysterday.

I was called to repentacne AGAIN (but i'm feeling SOOO ALIVE bc of it.)

soooo i'm not sure if it was a worldwide church thing, but every class and talk in sacrament meeting was all about family history work!

can i just say that Elder Rasband's talk about here are no coincidences and it's all in God's plan is SO TRUE.  do yall remember how baad i wanted to serve in japan on my mish? lol.  did the apostles who assigned my mission know taht my biological father was apart of the wonderful islamic religion?  no.

HOW INSPIRED IS MY CALL, IS EVERY MISSION CALL!  while we were wathching the videos form the church about family histroy work i was like.  woah. l ike. I have NO IDEA about my birth dad's side.  his parents, their parents, were tehy aprt of that religion since forever or waht?  I HAVE NO IDEA,  and now i'm in a country where i can learn about out their religion!  I just know the lrod sent me her to (yes invite other s to come unto christ)  but also to learn about my birth dad's religion and maybe even my ancestors religion who knows.  Iknow taht this will opent he door for my family to learn more about this gospel and i know my ancestors are waiting for me to find their names so ic an take them to the temple! I'M PUMPED!!!    Ihope you will all start today, to help out your ancestors who are waiting for their ordinances to be done!

I looveeee this tgospel,  I love my Heanly Father, and I'm so greatful for the Precious gift of his beloved son Jesus Christ.  I'm so greatufle for hte Savrior's sacrifice, I know taht he's REAL and LIVES.  and this is HIS CHRUCH, and everyone needs this in their lives.  I hope yall will pray for  missionary opportunities to share how the restored gospel has blessed your life with yoru friends.  they need you.

I love you all thanks for the love and support!  have a wonderful week!

<3 Sister Rowntree

1) cute district\

2)mlc with zone leaders

3) MY CUTE 9 YEAR OLD INVESTIGATOR GOT BAPTIZED IN MALANG 2 WEEKS AGO!!!

1 year! (This post was written on Oct 22)

I CANT BELIEVE IN 3 DAYS I'M HITTING MY YEAR MARK I'M FREAKING OUT THIS IS WEIRD WHAT!?!?!?

Yall are getting two of my emails this week cuz last week the site was down so we didn't get to email! sorry!

OKAY SINCE THE PAST 2 WEEKS THINGS HAVE GOTTEN CRAY!

1. SISTER RATUNUMAN'S HERE!! my last companion! she's such a blessing and i didn't realize how much i missed her!  

2. i'm going to MLC tomorrow with the zone leaders!  so i'm a little nervous for the statistical reports but hopefully they'll tell me what i need to say lol. 

3. i've gotten to receieve updates about all of my investigators from Malang!  Our little 9 year old finally got permission from his parents to be baptized!!! (: he was baptized last week, he's such a champ and is such  a strength to his family.

UGH. our investigator that we've been teaching since july (Pak J) has been wanting to be baptized for MONTHS, and his daughter is literally like literally forcing him not to go. sunday morning when he's trying to leave she blocks him and refuses him to go and he has no support from his wife and they're getting all the neighboring christians to talk smack on mormons too and it's just so so hard for him and he's so sad and watns to be baptized but cant cuz he hasnt been to church. ughhhh satan is working so hard in that area.

Even Sister Y is getting persecuted about too, sister Ratu shared with me Sister Y's trials and it's been so hard for her, she didnt want to come to the womens' conference cuz she was just so sad and mad @ the world and us and her problems but she said that the holy ghost was like, "get up, you need to go. you dont have transportation  but you can walk ((the church is way far from her house)) you need to go." and she said she really really didnt want to go  ut she followed the spirit and from sister Ratus' words she was just in tears the entire session and said that heavenly father answered her prayers :') isn't that beautiful?

with all the hardships my investigators in malang are going through, it's just more proof of how real this work is and how real Christ's restored church is.  

I think of the early saints and what they went through, we can't even imagine, but even today we have to be strong in our testimonies of this gospel!

we ahve 2 really progressing investigators, ibu E, she's still not able to get baptized... we gotta get her to come to church, please pray for her,  

and Kak F, from papua, she's so smart and amazing! we taught her again on sunday, and we and SHE is convinced that God sent her here for a reason, she has a spiritual gift and she says she's seen her ancestors before and shse's asked us what are they waiting for, and we talked about the spirit world and temples and we told her, that ther ancestors need her.

She's going to read and pray about the book of mormon again and we specifically asked her to pray about baptism, I know she'll gete her ansswer because she's acting, she comes to church she does her homework, she is just so prepared.

this sunday was AMAZING TOO!! WE HAD S I X INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH!!! WHAT?!?!?!  soooooo cool!!! I've never had tat many beofre!!  so our new investigator brought her PENDETA to our church and he is OSOOOOO INTERESTED he loved learning yesterday, we iwll meet them again on thursday.

we also had a family come, they're so wonderful and Ibu was all teary eyed when the ward sang a child's prayer (it was branch conference) so president rowley was there and all the talks were amazing and exactly what all of our investigators needed to here. including myself!

President rowley talked about inspecting ourselves everyday, asking ourselves, did i do enough today? do i need to repent today?  did i have enough charity?  and the beautiful thing about the gospel is that we can repent everyday, we can wake up a new person everyday. so i challenge you all too to look at yourselves and ask what can you do to come closer to the lord!

also we had training after church about the book of mormon.  it's not enough to just read it, and say, okay i read a few verses i'm good for the day.  we need to soak it in our souls it needs to become apart of us. if we read the book of mormon everyday we're promised strength from above, power to overcome temptation.  we need to be constantly increasing our testimonies of jesus Christ.  I'm so grateful for the book of mormon.  I'm so grateful for the mission it is changing my life.  I hope you all have a nice week!  

<3 sister Rowntree

Sorry I couldn't email on the 15th! We had computer problems

What a loooooooong week!

It's like the days feel like absolute years, but the weeks fly by! We have so many great progressive investigators, and have had many miracle contacts and we have had to  drop many wonderful people, but we are here to harvest the field is white says the Lord so we will find those who are ready.

lol one time this week, we were WAY FAR from the city at the Branch President's house and we ended up late there cuz we got lost, so we had to SPEED back to get to our night appointments. i swear, i swear on my life our bike ride was like 6 or 7 or 8 miles, NO JOKE. okay maybe 7 i'm not sure we use Kilometers here in indonesia, but we did it in 50 minutes going up like 2 big hills. we. were. DRENCHED. in sweat. literally. MY ARMS MY FOREARMS were perspirating!!! like i thought cheer summer conditioning was like 3 years ago, oh wait, i'm serving in Indonesia speeding along crazy roads at night on a bike. holy cow. and guess what.

we get there.

AND THEY'RE BOTH NOT HOME!!

(our investigators live literally right by each other) and neither of them were home even though we already made an appointment. ugh. #missionlife

This week is going to be crazy, our lovely sisters in Malang are having a move. Sister Mentari is FINALLY going to the MTC in the Philipines, she's already served for 5 MONTHS. she hasn't gone through the temple yet, because there were not enough Indonesian's leaving on a mission so she had to wait! crazy huh!  I'm so glad she's finally getting to go to the temple for her first time, so since she'll be gone my old companion Sister Ratunuman is coming to Surabaya for 3 weeks!!  we're going to be in a trio!! I haven't been a trio since the MTC! (woah almost a year ago.. o.O)

It's actually really funny too, Sister Hyde is the one who trained sister Ratunuman! and now sister ratunuman is going to be killing off her own mother on the field! The sad thing is, bc we are a trio, it's most likely that Sister Hyde can't go to her last MLC and i'll just fly out to Jakarta next tuesday without her and just the Zone Leaders, I know she's really bummed out from that. and i'm even more nervous cuz i always just look to sister Hyde ya know and now crap. she ain't gonna be there, I gotta get my self together!

WE TAUGHT KAK F FROM PAPUA!! SHE'S A MIRACLE and she came to church!  she loves learning and we can teach her in english!! We tried inviting her to be baptized but she says she's not ready yet, I know she will be soon, President tells us to tell our investigators to not wait for the blessings that come by following Christ's example through baptism.  she is so wonderful, but we can only teach her on saturday and sunday at the Timur church! she's not even in our area but we got special permission to teach her! (:

Ibu E was supposed to get baptized this upcoming sunday but she didnt' come to church again yesterday. -___-' so we will be hoping for the next sunday on the 29th.  THIS MONTH IS GOING BY SO FAST.  she is so great though, she was having a hard time giving up tea but since wednesday i think she's gave it up! she just wants to keep god's commandments it's awesome. 

it was just another normal long and awesome week here in surabaya, we're still trying to find like crazy and we found 9 really good new investigators this week so hopefully they'll become progressive soon.  Missionary work is aweseome.

This sunday i heard a quote from sacrameent meeting that went along the lines of,  "a living prophet is more important than our 4 standard works (the bible, the book of mormon D&C and the pearl of great price)" and i was like woah, are you sure a church leader said that, but now that i think about it, it's so true, our living prophet speaks to god directly TODAY for US and what he says is what God wants us to do, and I know the President Monson is the Lord's voice today, and I'm so grateful for all of our prophets and apostles that lead and guide us today.  It's just another way God shows us that he loves us! I dont have much else to say, but i know this gospel is true with all my heart and I hope you all can find that out for yourself.  Have a Christ centered week yall 

<3/ Sister Rowntree

Missionaries singing. Click on this post to see vjdeo.

Thanks Sister Rowley, the mission President 's wife for e-mailing this!

GENERAL CONFERENCE!

It’s still blazing hot, and ya know, in Utah there’s a ton of roadkilled deer?  Well that’s how it’s like here in Surabaya with rats x10

Keluarga dan temanku gimana kabarnya?

Last night (Tuesday) we taught Ibu E again. SHE COMMITED TO BAPTISM! And now we’re going to try to work with her son too who’s 8 so he can be baptized!(:

It’s Thursday night and we just got home from the CRAZIEST bike ride of my life, holy cow.  SOOOO FAR, SOOOO DARK, HUUUUUGE TRUCKS on a crazy street, wow it was crazy. But we are alive, and our new investigator is so amazing. She LOVED church last week, and she says while she’s at work she’s counting down the days until church again (‘:  isn’t she wonderful?

Also last night Wednesday night, we met with our investigator who came to women’s conference and we taught her and her husband. (they can speak English) and she just poured out her soul to us, and we talked about temples and how her family can be together forever, and how the restored gospel will truly bless her life.  With tears in her eyes she asked, “really?  Will this /really/ help me?”  and we testified that it will, the spirit was so strong I even got teary eyed while talking about how the restored gospel has blessed my family and biological family.  The Lord is too good.

WOW. IT’S ALREADY MONDAY.

WASN’T CONFERENCE AMAZING?!?!?!?!?!?!?! OH MY GOODNESS. OH. MY GOODNESS. All of my fears and worries and challenges and questions and prayers were answered!!! Every single one!! I made a list.  So I guess I’ve just been going through a midlife crisis (or a HOLY COW I’M HITTING A YEAR ON THE MISSION AND I STILL DON’T HAVE MY LIFE TOGETHER crisis.) and I’ve just been so unsure of myself and just not feeling the best.  Glory to God on high!  Puji tuhan! Allhamduillah! He answered my prayers.  I got the most from conference from the Sunday session bc our ward had headphones where you could listen to it in English (‘:  NOT. That I cant understand it in Indonesian, but the voice overs sometimes don’t translate everything word for word or fast enough and I just really really needed to hear conference in my native tongue. 

Wow. I heard the voice of the lord.  Russel M. Nelson’s talk was literally just for me I swear on my life, okay I’ll just share what I got from it.

1.       What seemed to pop out to me over and over again was “Girlfriend you need to humble your little self “  I swear humility was spoken in so many talks, so that’s one thing I know I need to develop. And just relying on  the lord completely!

2.       2. That I am enough, and God uses the weak to bring amazing things to come forth.

3.       3. THE. BOOK. OF. MORMON. And coming to know my savior even more.  The word of god helps us come to know our savior, and when we know him he can heal us, and help us. But we have to make the choice to act.

4.       I forgot who said it, but something along the lines of, “if you don’t actively live the gospel, you wont have enough light to push away the darkness.” !!!!!! SO COOL SO TRUE!! I know its easy for people to say we just live normal lives, but we aren’t normal people, we are latter day saints, we are the Lord’s people and he expects us to act that way, to give our worldly desires to him. To think of him always.  WE MADE THE COVENANT WITH HIM WHEN WE WERE BAPTIZED, so shouldn’t we live it?  Wow I am pumped!

5.       During Sunday session I literally felt the lord calling me to repentance, I used to before the mission, like, for example, if I was in church and realized I wasn’t doing something or this person seemed more righteous or whatever I would like.. get bitter or feel down.. BUT WE CAN REPENT EVERYDAY! Isn’t that awesome!  Our whole lives should be daily repentance and trying to become better people.

6.       Woah and my testimony was strengthened about Joseph Smith too, I loved all the different pictures they’d showed throughout each talk like “the first vision from afar.” SO BEAUTIFUL. And the savior’s visit to the nephrites and he served them ONE. BY. ONE. Wow. So beautiful. 

7.       I felt so strongly for the first time in my life while President Erying was speaking that “The Lord atoned for YOUR sins.”  I have heard that 12 billion times in my life growing up in the church and I have testified about it 10 million times here on the field, but for once I finally believed it for myself! I cant even begin to describe what I felt on Sunday, with the powerful testimonies and the beautiful angelic music.  The whole room was just filled with the spirit and I truly heard the voice of the Lord speaking to my soul. It was so great. Wow I just.  I’M PUMPED!!  I cant wait for the liahona to come out to study all the other talks in english haha!

I’ve made a lot of goals that I desire to work on, the promises that the prophet, presiden erying and President Nelson explained about the book of mormon just PIERCED my soul. I want that strength, I want to be able to overcome temptation I want to come to KNOW THE LORD!  I hope you all gained something from conference, I hope the lord spoke to you and I hope you’ll be willing to change something in your life to come closer to Christ to be a strong disciple. He needs us to be strong, as the world grows darker and crazier, we have to be strong and firm in the faith in  Jesus Christ. 

I am so so grateful for living prophets and apostles, and I substain all the 12 and the leaders of our church, I know they are called of god and whatever they say is what the Lord would say if he were here.  I know it’s so so important to heed to their counselings to strengthen our families, and remain spotless from the world.  It’s okay to be different, what really matters is what our Heavenly Father thinks of us!  I love Heavenly Father, and I love my Savior Jesus Christ, I love Joseph Smith and I’m so grateful for his sacrifice in restoring the Lord’s true and living gospel, I love this gospel, I’m so grateful that I can repent everyday and become a new person every day. “ Look unto God and live.”

Our investigators are doing well we had 1 at church and she felt the spirit and it’s just the best thing ever. Sorry no pics from this week I’m a terrible person lol. But enjoy our music videos.  Love you thank you for your support!  Have a Christ Centered week yall! <3 Sister Rowntree

New area!

Well, since i’m in a new area, i guess i should try to describe what it looks like, right now i think rainy season is coming up because lately it has rained everyday!  I’m not complaining because surabaya is the hottest city in Indonesia, it’s also the second largest city!  Sometimes i stop and look at my life and say to myself, “i’m in the 4th largest populated country in the world, in the second largest city, and me and a few other missionaries are in charge of the salvation of the souls here. O.O”  that’s intense, but it’s such a priveldge, thank goodness it’s the holy ghost that does the converting and not us young missionaries right?

Surabaya is so cool, you still have the kampung’s here(cute little neighborhoods) where most of the houses are cementy and everyone lives close together, but then you make one turn and BOOM you’re on a big road and it’s like you’re biking through down town salt lake!  I love surabaya at night, the traffic, the lights, i love the city, this makes me miss jakarta.  So yes we ride bikes here, in jakarta we walk and take buses.

the house in surabaya is SOOOO NICE so much nicer than the one in malang so that's great. but there are more cockroaches...

my diet hasnt gotten so bad here, i'm getting fat again, we just dont have time in the morning to cook good breakfasts and when we go out and preach like, we only take 15 minutes or so to eat whatever is on the street cuz were go go GOING. which is fine but my rice chin says otherwise.

we're trying to go visit more members, but President rowley doesn't want us to just go to members houses just to eat. NGGA BOLEH

This week has been absolutely BLAZING. bLAZING. Hot.  I am literally 12 shades blacker than before goodness gracious.  But this week was also full of miracles!

Sister Hyde and I made a goal to find 10 new investigators this week, that’s a lot, and we worked SO. HARD. This week, we talked to EVERYONE. Asked EVERYONE for referals, in the blazing sun, in the rain, we kept going.  WE FOUND 11! WOO!

We have miracle investigators too,  #1 Ibu E,  she’s so great, the other night she strengthened mine and sister Hyde’s faith.  Her family is so so SO. Against our church, but she compares our church to food, she’s like, “Hey, if i have this cookie and i say it’s the sweetest thing ever and yall have never tried it, how do you konw it’s sweet for yourself without eating it first??” its the smae with the book of mormon and our church, she is so awesome, now her daughter i think is softening her heart, she’s actually talking to us now.  We brought up baptism for her, and she’s all for it, but she jsut has to come to church and pray for strength that her family will let her come.

#2 Kak F, she is from PAPUA!!!  My sister!!  I’ve always wanted to teach a papuan, she’s actually the Zone Leader’s investigator cuz she’s not in our area, but on Saturday we watched the General Women’s session (WHICH WAS AMAZING AND I DIDNT EVEN UNDERSTAND ALL OF IT CUZ IT WAS IN BAHASA BUT I SURE HOPE YOU SISTERS WATCHED IT AND HAVE MADE GOALS TO BECOME MORE RIGHTEOUS I AM PUMPED!)  Anyways, SHE CAME!! And she LOVED LOVED IT1!! She lives so close to the Timur church (me and sisiter Hyde are in the Barat church) and she opened up to us and was like, “I just feel like i cant speak openly with the elders cuz theyre boys..”(oh and she speaks perfect english ((thank you heavenly father))) so we asked President Rowley (who surprised us with his visit) and he gave us permission to teach her!(: we will be teaching her at the other church, it’s hard cuuz we cant go to church iwth her rcuz it’s not our area, but we will ifnd good members to fellowship her. (:

Heavenly Father is just so good,  right before I started writing this email, I was reading the scriptures.  This may sound weird but this week I was kinda slacking on my scripture study,  sister H and i are still trying to figure out our morning schedules together cuz you know every companionship does it differently and we take TWELVE years to plan and we leave early in the morning to get to appointments so therer’s literally been no time to study. So i’ve felt off this whole week, usually i read when i get home at night, but i just wanted to read talks which are great. But i still felt off, i finally said this morning, sister, get yo life together and open up the book of mormon, I started reading from Mosiah 3(which is amazing)  and while we were personal studyng adn before cleaning the house we had conference of last year playing so we could listen.. while I was reading the book of mormon my heart was just full of warmth and happiness and I felt the spirit testifying to me what i was reading was true.  So my testimony has been strengthened again, it is so so important to read our scriptures everyday, even if it’s jsut for 5 minutes. 

I’ve been trying to ponder about my relationship with heavenly father lately. Sometimes in lessons i feel like i say these things, but am i really saying wahts in my heart or is it just another lesson... i’ve been trying to find God, I’ve been trying to learn more about my Savior so I can really have a true testimony about him. Our living prophets and apostles have told us that we can come to know God through sincere pray, through daily scripture study, through service, through purifying yourself and becoming like the Savior and for the past couple of weeks, i have felt like Enos, having a wrestle with the lord in my heart, seeing if i’m out here for the right reasons.

I am so grateful for the mission.  I know this is what I need in my life to become converted to the Lord Jesus Christ.  The General Women’s conference literally was an answer to my prayers and the next morning i had to teach gospel principles about Our Heavenly Father.  I really can say for myself that I know that Heavenly Father lives, and that he loves us, and He is patient with us.  I always beat myself up bc i’m not a perfect missionary, or perfect person, or daughter/friend/sister..  but I know that I have worth and always will. I am so grateful for repentance, that everyday I can become a new person.

Man i just feel good inside ya know! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us so much!  And I really hope you all can find that out for yourself, for me i had to have that wrestle, I had to act, I had to make my prayers more meaningful, I had to open up the scriptures, and I had to give my will to the Lord and work harder than i ever have to find God’s children who are ready to accept the true and living gospel.

This gospel is true, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Lord’s church, the ONLY church that has His priesthood authority, the ONLY gospel that allows us to unlock the blessings of repentance, forgiveness and the Atonement in our lives. I know that He lives, and I know that President Monson is his living prophet today. I hope we will all heed to the prophets words, they are from God, what the prophet says is so important and it’s what Heavenly Father needs us to do.  I know the restoration is true, i know joseph smith saw god the father and his son that spring morning and I am so grateful that I was able to be raised with this glorious knowledge. 

God is good, Life is good, even though it’s hard sometimes I know we can get through anything because we have Lord on our side!  Please watch conference and ask yourself what you can do to become more true to the faith.  I love you all, I love this work, and I love my Savior. 

Stay classy yall <3 sister rowntree

sorry yall i'm really bad at taking pics throughout the week, my cmaera's too big, and sister hyde forgot to bring her camera too haha.  i'm trying to load a video of us singing, but it might not load in time lol. sorry. next week aja ya.

1) me being fabulous

2) rain rain go away