Week 38 - But You Sure Do Suffer For It!

Wengapo family:]

Well heck, i'm not even sure where to start this bad boy. It seems that a mission tends to be a constant up hill battle and sometimes I really just wanna take a break for a minute haha but I guess I don't really have time for that. 

Transfers!! My new comp is Sister Newhouse which is awesome because for once in my life I am NOT training! it has been a huge blessing to me not to have to explain everything and also to have someone who has her own ideas and thoughts to toss in. The only problem that I now have is that after her I will have basically served with every cool sister in our mission.. haha tau, combs, and newhouse. Sooo that's a good sign:] we're actually getting along just great and she has the funniest sense of humor. 

Michelle Henke called me this past week and asked if I would be her escort in the Salt Lake Temple December 20, 2014:] to say that I am excited would not even do it justice!!

So what else happened this week? oh just a whole lot of disappointment for this sister missionary. Caroline's parents told us that no they won't let us teach her, another part member family told us no they don't want to take the lessons, every person we seemed to talk to on the street or in the parks all said NO. Can we just throw it out there that I'm living in disappointment city right now? It's just been a real struggle in this area and so a lot of my thoughts have been on faith. I woke up so many mornings and I told myself ok Heavenly Father today I will find a new investigator, and then I'd go out do all that I could and still come home with nothing. I'd wake up pray say the same thing and still once again come home and nobody to teach. It's starting to wear on me and that's the honest truth. I can't even say how many times this past week I've thought what is the point of me even being here? This isn't making any sense. But I do know that things will start coming together haha I just gotta figure out how.

We've been teaching a less active lady named Regina Kim and she is a powerhouse. I love her so much. She has a severely autistic son and has gone through so so much with divorce. As we were at her house on Saturday she made the comment This was never in the young women's manual! No one ever told me that things were going to be like this and my reply was and that's exactly why they need someone like you in the YW, so that you can have an influence on them and they will see that life doesn't really go the way we plan it too. That caught her by surprise and she then promised us that she'd come to church:] awesome awesome! Made my whole week.

We get to help teach mission prep every sunday morning and I have really come to love doing that. No matter what you share even if it isn't the greatest all the kids in their think it's gold, they are all so eager to learn so that's been an awesome teaching experience for me. They really are like sponges just wanting to know how to teach, my favorite thing is to throw them a question right while they're teaching and see them kinda panic. haha they don't need to at all. I think the best thing you can do while teaching is teach to them like they are your best friend, that way when you share your testimony you really do mean it and they can feel it.

During sacrament meeting yesterday I was sitting their kind of in my own thoughts just thinking about a million different things and the thought came into my head open the scriptures. haha so I did, just popped them open to D&C 6 and dang. Heavenly Father sure does answer us. I think it's in verse 15? that it talks about how you have been enlightened by the spirit because that's how you got to where you are right now. Man, He does answer us. I know that specifically in my life Heavenly Father has led, and even drug me to do what is right. I just want to do that, I want to be diligent in my efforts but man it's so hard when you don't see the fruit of your labors. 

I know that a part of me serving in Katy is to get this ward moving. I have some pretty good ideas circling about in my brain and i'm gonna start putting them together. I think I've just been waiting for someone to show they care about the work here, but they aren't going to until I show how important it really is. We had a break the fast for our ward yesterday and I was reminded just how much I really do love the members that I am serving. I got to go around from table to table and just make people laugh and talk. I think that's one of the coolest things about serving a mission, I've been able to meet so many different people and see how much the gospel really does help our families. 

My sweet companion showed me a quote that literally explains to me a T. "You are so good. So good, you're always feeling so much. And sometimes it feels like you're gonna bust wide open from all the feeling don't it? People like you are the best in the world, but you sure do suffer for it." That just explains how I feel. I care so much, I want so badly just get things moving here but i feel like i'm fighting for something that no one even really cares about. I love the gospel and I know that when others find the truth it can help them in more ways than they even realized when they decided to enter the waters of baptism. The fight continues and I'm not quitting just yet:]

I love ya all and hope that things are just getting started for this new year.

Love, Sister Bowden