FAMILIA!!!
Ok so this week has just been so great i'm not even sure where to
begin! So on Monday we went to the Blue bell creamery, if you didn't
know this Texas LOVES their ice cream and blue bell is like their pride
and joy so that was neat and i felt like a fatty afterwards but whatevs.
(and no i have not gained ANY weight) haha.
Tuesday we had exchanges and oh my heck. It was probably the
funniest experience of my life! So i got to sent to Magnolia with Sister
Merrill, at the mtc me and this girl didn't really hit it off so well,
so i was not looking forward to it at all. Well i get in their car and
we start driving, find out she went to bonneville and la la la. Her best
friend was Jaclyn's husband!! Weird right? so we had all these crazy
connections and it was awesome! she's actually gone to UVU for the past 3
years so i don't know how the heck we haven't been friends. Well
anyways we get out there and they are whitewashing the area, so we
decide to go to the Relief Society activity and meet ward members. We
rode with the Relief Society president and after like a half hour we
kinda felt worthless, so i turn to merrill and say let's go knock some
doors or something. We tell the president were gonna leave but we'd be
back when she was ready to go. So we go knock and everybody's turning us
down well finally we get in this older couples house and we start
teaching them the restoration, it's sweet we're feelin the spirit
everything's golden. So we get out and it's like 9:05 and it's dark
outside. haha Merrill checks her phone and the relief society president
had tried calling her like 20 times. We start walking back to the house
we were at for the activity when all of the sudden a truck starts
pulling up to us, he gets pretty close and starts flashing his lights
haha it was a police officer. So turns out the relief society had a
panic attack, they called the cops and all the male presidencies of the
ward and sent a out a man search for us. hahahahaha oh my gosh. let me
remind you it was 9:05... so me and merrill get in the presidents car
and she is still just having her anxiety attack. I was dying trying not
to laugh. I feel like if it had been elders no one would have even said
anything until they needed someone to clean up the chairs. haha but
we're sisters so everyone is super concerned about our well being.
We were teaching a less active family on wednesday night and we
decided to share the mormon message with them called the Will of God.
well during it there were 2 quotes that really stood out to me. "I know
what i want you to be" and "thank you lord for loving me enough to cut
me down" In my interview with Pres. Pingree he had told me he really
like my initiative and confidence. I told him that i just had sacrificed
way too much not to give this everything i got. and he said Ya know
sister bowden the cool thing about that is that one day they won't seem
like they were sacrifices at all. I thought it was kinda funny but
anyways, these 2 quotes were said and it just hit me. Heavenly father
loves me so much. He knows what i am capable of, he sees my FULL
potential, and he knows what he wants me to do. That's why things
happened the way they did. If i had stayed home i never would have a
testimony of the book of mormon, while i wasn't necessarily doing bad
things or living a bad life, he knew there was so much more in me. and
that's why he asked me to serve a mission. He loves me enough to cut me
down and lead me in the right path. I'm so grateful for that.
We had lunch with a member on friday named Eva Beasly, she's from
the phillipines and lived in Jordan for 24 years. She now lives in an RV
in texas and has lived quite a life. She told us that a church she
doesn't have many friends because once people find out she lives in an
RV they think she's trash. I cried when she told us of how hurt some
members have made her feel, but the coolest thing was what she said
after. She said I don't go to church because of the people, i go to
church because of God. I would hope that more people would strive to be
like her, don't let others get in the way of your feelings towards the
church.
Robert was baptized on saturday!! It was awesome, man the spirit
was so strong. Afterwards we went to a youth stake dance for special
needs, I can't tell you how great of an experience it was to see really
pretty girls asking boys with special needs to dance. My heart was
softened and i could only wish that i had been more like that in high
school. unfortunately, i was more worried about dance and what boy i was
going to hanging out with to think about others. The people here blow
me away at how selfless they are. We went over to see Sister Shimshack
and we got her to pay her tithing!! That means she is one step closer to
getting back to the temple! we made it a goal that before we left we
would go do a session with her and i know that if she continues what
she's doing it will happen!! i love that woman so much.
Oh Sharlynn Mendiola!! She's doing so great! We've been teaching
her and she asked if her kids could start getting the lessons as well!
Which duh! we would only love that!! Last night we went over to the
Kema's house because they had invited her and her family over for
dinner. She brought all of her kids and her husband James! At first
James was really awkward and you could tell he felt out of place being
there, but after dinner brother kema shared some thoughts, we watched
Moments that matter most and at the end he asked James his thoughts.
James said I feel like this is fate. He could feel the spirit and we're
gonna start teaching him too! THEIR WHOLE FAMILY is going to start
coming to church:] i couldn't be more excited for them.
So that's exactly my thoughts... how can they even expect me to go
back to dating after this? My weekends out here are so much more
gratifying than any date i've ever been on. Life is busy, overwhelming,
stressful, but so good:] I'm grateful to be in college station texas.
-Sister Bowden
No comments:
Post a Comment