Well whaddaya know another week has just whizzed on by:] haha this week was crazy!
So we did a lot of service at good old Denise Hicks house, she has decided to repaint every room in her house so basically i'm like freakin picasso now. haha it's been an interesting situation, she says she isn't interested in the gospel but throughout the day she'll ask us questions on what we believe and la la la. we're hoping that somehow we'll be able to start teaching her! But i guess even if she decides to not accept our message man i'm gonna be one heck of an interior designer when i get home!
On wednesday we were riding our bikes when suddenly i got the impression to stop at this less active ladies house. We've stopped by a couple times and she has never really enjoyed us coming over, well when we knocked on her door she invited us right in! We helped put some of her patio furniture together and had a really good discussion on her coming back to church! Whether it was my thoughts or the spirit i'm not really sure, but it was a really cool experience to feel like i was finally in tune with the spirit! That night we biked clear the heck to the other side of fairfield for dinner while biking Rachel Britto had texted us saying dinner wouldn't be ready for another 45 minutes.. haha freak. So we trek back through fields and whatnot to find Monica checking her mail. Talk about good timing! We got to visit with her and once again she started crying saying that things weren't really good right now. I know that one day she's going to want to listen to our message. baby steps i guess.
4th of July was pfft not as good as it is in Utah but i still loved it!! We went to the ward breakfast and then we had this specialized training thing for 4 hours. Prez Pingree during it made the statement that what we get out of our mission will be what we focus on. I thought that was really interesting but true. Hopefully i'm focusing on the things i should be hahaha. But the training was a good experience and we learned a lot about faith. One of the gifts of the spirit is to have incredible faith, I don't know if this is faith but at times i don't even think to question things? I just assume well of course i'm going to be successful... why wouldn't i be? Of course things will fall into place... why wouldn't they? haha i don't know if that's faith or its just my terrible flaw of assumption. Either way i'll go with it:] Afterwards we went over to the Maiava's house cuz they were throwing a big poly party and you betcha Tau was all about it. Their grandfather blessed the food and during his prayer i couldn't help but think man, this guy is clearly speaking to God. Maybe it's a poly thing but man their prayers are good, humble, and sincere. Their daughter Saul loves me and when we were leaving she came up and said hey i have a surprise for you! She had bought me a pack of sparklers and said the last time you came over you said you were bummed that you couldn't light fireworks so i thought i'd get you these. Dang girl made my whole day! She's 12 and has NO filter, everything she thinks just comes right out and i love it so much:] We also went over to some other members houses and got to know their families better. Mama Blattman invited us over and we got to watch fireworks with her neighbors. This was Sister Tau's first ever 4th of July and she LOVED it haha i told her she'd have to come up to Utah for it when she gets home, cuz Texas doesn't even understand the greatness of Independance Day.
Exchanges were this week! Sister Rainsdon came and spent the day with me and we had some good times! Her trainer Sister Sullivan is going home in like a week and let me just say that girl is insane. She's the sister missionary that everyone just kinda avoids. haha she does not believe in laughing and enjoying your mission. I guess it's been really hard on sister Rainsdon, and the girl that was with Sullivan before went home because Sullivan made it so miserable for her. CRAZY. I'm all about working hard but i also know it's ok to enjoy your mission. You need to laugh and have fun or you mostly will hate your life while being out here. I feel that Sullivan may have missed a huge part of her mission by acting the way that she did, but hey everybody works differently. When Tau came back after spending the day with her she ran and gave me a huge hug hahaha. I'm just glad i wasn't the one that had to battle through a terrible exchange!
Saturday morning we did service for a guy named Chris Pantuso, he's starting a huge community garden where everything grown is donated to medical needs. and no we don't grow marijuana:] Well later that night we were walking around the neighborhood and guess who's driving by,, dear old chris! He yells at us Hey come knock on my door! So we headed over to where he lived. We get there and start getting to know him a little better. I was thinking in my head ok how can i bring up the gospel with him when suddenly he says Sister Bowden do your thing! haha I asked what thing? and he says act like you just knocked on my door. (we were outside) so kinda in a charades way i act like i'm knocking on his door, he answers and just start doing "my thing" It was really a neat experience and we got to start teaching him. I asked him if he would come to our church and he said he would love to! haha so we'll go back later this week and see if we can get things rolling:]
Oh! so yesterday was a pretty epic day in itself! We get to church and we're about 5 minutes in when Ryan walks in. As i saw him walking in instead of being excited that an investigator showed up, i felt panic. Like oh no, he found me, what do i do? He said it was weird not seeing us the past week and that he had promised to come to church. The whole time i just wanted to get outta there. But the testimonies were really good and i hope that maybe something someone said sparked something else in him. Me and Tau aren't going over there anymore, due to the fact that he has asked me out repeatedly. During Sunday School a lady named Joyce just showed up to our church! She said she had been searching for a church to regularly attend and this one was really close to her house. We asked her if we could come stop by and teach her more and she straight up said no. She wanted to figure things out for herself. So we left her with a book of mormon and hopefully we'll see her next week. Fingers crossed. After church we were biking over to a members for dinner and we got caught in a serious down pour. hahaha never in my life have i experienced something like that. We tried huddling under a tree to stay dry but eh that didn't work too well, a guy driving past stopped and said Man you guys look pretty wet... but then he just kept driving. haha jerk. I have heard in the past that every raindrop that hits your name tag your husband gets better looking, well dang my husband is gonna be looking like channing tatum after that storm! haha it was really funny though, and due to the storm we got to attend our baptism looking like little heathens! haha Chris Clark (Susa) got baptized yesterday! It was a really weird experience, his parents weren't really even that interested in the fact that their son was making this big decision in his life, i don't know. I hope and pray that maybe Chris will be an example to his family but only time will tell.
(deep sigh) well there it is. haha this week was busy and i hope that the next one will be even more so! Transfer number 2 is pretty much done which means i've been out 3 months! I'm just happy. I know Heavenly Father loves us and no matter the circumstance is wanting us to follow Christ's example. We get what we focus on. So i think taking a step back and looking at what are those things that seem to take our focus is something we should do constantly! The message of the gospel is one that can bring so much happiness into our lives, if we let it:] I love you all and miss you all the days! Don't go on too many adventures without me!
-Love Sister Bowden
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