Banjir human Latin Astagah!

Banjir= floods  hujan=rain  laron= THOSE DEMON BUGS WITH HUGE WINGS THAT ARE ATTRACTED TO LIGHT ASTAFIRGHALLAH!!!!  do yall remember that train story when I was in bogor??/ when the doors opened and all these nasty laron entered?!?!?  ya. well. it's rainy season, so guess whats back. T____T

Hey fam what's happenin.  This week was soooo long and challenging and faith testing and just everything.

soooo it turned out that my child didn't get here until WEDNESDAY  and Monday and Tuesday we had bike problems so not much happened, contacted a few cool people.

Wednesday:  picked up my daughter

New comp: SISTER TOALA

From?  NEW ZEALAND

SHE'S SAMOAN!  SHE'S SO TALL SHE'S LIKE 6'2!!!

that day we also had 2 great lessons.  one with a new investigator namanya Ibu Y, she's so cute, she used to be catholic, but now she follows her husbands religion. I think I told yall about her last week, shes still amazing and she did her homework, (read from KM) and prayed about it,  SHE JUST HAD A BABY GIRL we got to go see her sooo cute,  she says next week she'll come to church.  and last time she said.  "I Miss Him. (Christ)"  isn't that beautiful,  we're helping her find him again, and it's by doing the most simple things..  President Erying says that as we serve others, read our scriptures and pray everyday, we really will 'Always remember Him' as we've promised Heavenly Father each week as we partake of the sacrament.  Just the little simple things that we do everyday can help us come closer to Jesus Christ and really become His Disciple.

My last 2 months here in Surabaya have been awesome, we've found so many new people to teach and I really thought we'd be having baptisms soon but all of a sudden it seems like all of the people who had real potential are slowing dropping off the face of the earth. and it's just like.  :o  what have I been doing the past two months?? Heavenly Father we are trying our best we're trying to increase our teaching skills and be obedient and from our point of view it's like there's no success..  it can be discouraging sometimes if I'm being honest, but I know it all comes down to our faith.  The Elders gave us their investigators daughter to teach who wants to be baptized with her mom!  Her name is Mbak V!  we're planning on seein her everyday this week to get her prepared!  Such a miracle, sometimes we do have to work as hard as we can, and sometimes it seems like it's all in vain, but when we hold through and are diligent unto the End the Lord blesses us!  so that was cool.

Sunday we found a really sincere new investigator. Ibu S, she lives by herself and works in Surabaya and her son lives with her parents in a desa (village(like legit junglely monkeys cool village))  her life is so hard,  when she was 7 months pregnant with her son her husband wasn't faithful to her and left her, she really opened up to us and when we talked about the covenants we make with Heavenly Father when we're baptized she received it! 

One thing I've realized with other Christians while I've been serving and learning about the gospel of jesus Christ is the differences between our church and every other Christian domination.. With the fullness of the gospel, we really can receive the blessnings of the atonement of Jesus Christ!  It's great other people love Jesus, and  I know God blesses them too,  but I know the only true way we cn receive forgiveness for our sins, be completely healed from pain or sorrows is if we're baptized by Christ's true authority and receive the GIFT of the Holy Ghost.. Heavnely Father is so loving, and he knows we will struggle with weaknesses and trials and all sorts of stuff, but with the holy ghost we really can feel his loved, be cleansed from our sins and feel free!

I know this gospel is the only true gospel that will bring us everelasting happiness, the only way we can really really apply the atonement in our lives!

Okay now to talk about training.. woah.. it's so weird being a mom.... it's only been like 5 days.. and I've learned a lot... like how much I need to stop thinking about myself and what I want,  I've repented don't worry, but MAN it is hard to overcome the natural man, but my child has helped me see how important it is to really just forget about ourselves and do the Lord's will, I need to be thinking about how I can help HER and our investigators.   It's so weird to think that almost a year ago I was in her shoes...  she's so positive though, I remember how hard it was to adjust to living in the crazy but beautiful country of Indonesia!  getting used to the FOOD the SMELLS the people, we are having so much fun though and we're always laughing.  Her testimony is so strong and beautiful,  I'm so proud of her,  even with her simple language I know that our investigators can feel the spirit when she testifies and that is what matters!

well, I think that's all I have to say for this week.  we're going to be finding like crazy again this week until we find that one red tomato who wants to follow the example of Jesus Christ.  this church is true yall,  oh oh I have a cool quote from the Liahona.  (this was when President Russel M. Nelson's grandpa(who already passed away)  visited his dad. and his dad asked his grandpa if this church was really the true church.)

"My son,  just as sure as you see that picture(of the first presidency), just as sure is the gospel true.  The gospel of Jesus Christ has within it the power of saving every man and woman who will obey it, and in no other way can they ever obtain salvation in the kingdom of God.  My son, always cling to the gospel.  Be humble, be prayerful, be submissive to the priesthood,  be true,  be faithful to the covenants you have made with God.  Never do anything that would displease God.  Oh, what a blessing is the gospel.  My son, be a good boy."  !!!  ISN'T THAT LEGIT!  Let's all try our best to be good boys and girls and just keep god's commandments, that's all he asks of us because he LOVES us and knows the commandments will help us and keep us safe and happy!  No no we're not gonna be perfect but repentance is real and amazing! Complete obedience to the gospel entitles us to all the blessings people of Indonesia!  have a nice week yall!  <3 Sister Rowntree

1) MY CHILD!!!!1 (:

2) she thinks our height difference is hilarious!!

The Fabulous 3

welp.  it turns out.  yes. i am still training.  but i have not moved to surabaya 2  SO I DONT HAVE TO WHITEWASH HALLELUUJAH!!!!

My child is coming tomorrow!!! (most likely) I'm so excited to train.  She is from New Zealand and she's polynesian, but I dont know how to spell her name, i'll let you know next week.

so this week i've been with sister utomo and sister Bourelle AND WE'VE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!!!  thinking about trios used to give me anxiety but this trio has been a BLAST.  sister utomo is finishing up her mission at the end of this transfer, and sister bourelle is one of my favorite sisters. we are litterally twins. shes just canadian and i'm american that's the only difference we love the same movies songs tv shows it's so fun.  we've seen many miracles this week too.

time is short so i'll just share 2 cool stories that happened last night.  so this week we were rejected hard core but on the way to that terrible appointment we met this sweet pregnant woman who used to be christian but has then become the other religion to follow her husband. we told her who we were and she said she needed someone to talk too.  so we went to her house yesterday.  she was so opened to us on how much she misses the bible and how she used to feel in her heart, she says she needs jesus to help her, but it's hard since she's changed religion.  we promised her the blessings and comfort she'll get from learning our message.  she even prayed to heavenly father in the name of jesus christ after our lesson. the spirit was so strong and so sweet, and it just hit me how amazing being a missionary is. we are here to help people come unto jesus christ.  Help people remember who they are and what they need. i was so touched by her.

and then the second story when i was still in malang i met this lady at the park, we told her who we were and she's like sorry i'm not christian and we're lqike oh okay. so we keep talking and then she's randomly like. but i want to marry a christian. and i'm lke. huh?  and she's like. i'm so confused. and i asked her if she knew anything about jesus christ and she's like no. so we gave her a plan of salvation pamplet and got her number cuz i was about to move to surabaya and she lived in the exact same area! so i finally get to surabaya and try calling and texting but she seemed not interested..... 7 weeks later i get a call from a number that's not ssaved.  

"Hello?"  "Is this sister rowntree? do you remember me?"  and i'm like uhhhhh sorry this number is not saved... .and she's like, you met me in malang and iwas like OH YA I REMEMBER YOU HI. and she's like, i'm coming back from church right now... and i'm like  WOAH YOUR'E GOING TO CHURCH NOW?!?! can we meet today?  

so we met her and her new boyfriend who is christian at this big park.  she told us about her hard life, and how she wants to find peace and happiness in jesus christ.  we shared the restoration with her and hse is the most humble person ever willing to accpet. she knows she has little knowledge about the savior but we promised as she reads the book of mormon she'll come to know it for herself that he's her savior too.  IT WAS SO COOL. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!  pray  for missionary opportunities  yall.  show your light, come unto the savior and follow those first promptings from the spirit. I love you all  have a nice week!

sister rowntree

1) my sweaty face and cute indonesian baby

2) lol this was from forever ago.

sorry i dont have anymore pics i forgot myt card reader and sister bourelle's card reader isnt working next week i swearrrr i'll send some bye!!

I am of child

WAHHHH!!!!!  THIS WEEK HAS BEEN INSANE!!!  LITERALLY. THE MISSION HAS EXPLODED.  why you may  asks?

TANSFERS.  I swear this was the most dramatic transfer of my life astaGA.

so yes I have some news.  (and this news will explain the title (: )

IM TRANSFERING

to......

SURABAYA 2. so it's not that far lol.  I'm just in the other building.. but do you know what that means.....

I'M WHITE WASHING SURABYA 2. which is 12 times bigger.  oh.  white washing= like... sending new missionaries in an area, (like not having just one missionary go in the area with a companion that already knows where things are.)

and top all of that.  IM OF CHILD!   I'M BECOMING A MOTHER!!! (Becoming a trainer (; )  finally after 11 months of being in the country I'm finally going to be able to train a new missionary!! I'm so excited!! but also sooo terrified because I HAVE NO IDEAE WHERE ANYTHING IS IN MY NEW AREA AHH!!!!  we literally hve nothing. lol.  I don't think there's many progressing investigators there cuz there's been no sisters working in the timur area for like 3ish months.....  sooooo this is going to be an adventure but I'm so excited.  miracles happen when you get lost and you don't know where you're going I swear!  it's like nephi when he's like "and the spirit led me beforehand or something I forget" that's how sister ratu and I found sister Y  (':  so I know the Lord is just wanting to me grow again.

mssions are so funny, you start getting comfortable and then the lord's like "nnNOOOPE!"  and smashes a piece of cake in your face do you get what I'm saying?  AND 2 MORE SISTERS ARE COMING TO SURABAYA, so they'll be in my old area... they're so lucky.... sister hyde and I have found over 40 new investigators this last transfer and we have 2 baptismal commitments so the sisters white washing my old area have it SOOOOOO good.  it's ifne. -___-'   (; just kidding, I will do the Lord's will.  yup so that was the explosion, seriously there were so many tears this week hahahaha

wow.   also sister hyde and I worked soooo hard this week. we found our 10+1 new investigators and IBU E and her son came to church! Puji Tuhan!  The lord is so good.  

I just want to share a little thought on faith.  with faith we can do anything.  that's like the main thing I've learned on the field is that I am literally nothing, and can literally do nothing if I don't rely on the lord in every aspect of my life!  wow!  I love this work, sorry this email is short.  Have a nice week yall and find some ways to strengthen your FAITH!

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!