Familia!!
Well sweet mercy! Before I jump into the great moments of this past week
. . . YES Elder Holland's talk was SOOO good! No when my little incident
happened, I didn't think about writing the general authorities, but man,
it hit home and I really appreciated what he shared. That man literally
must have been my best friend in the premortal life - not. even. kidding.
General Conference is seriously like christmas morning as a missionary.
I absolutely loved all that was shared and I couldn't help but think "Ah! my family is sitting in that audience!" I did for a moment miss you
guys a lot:]
But,
like I was saying this week was just FULL of miracles! I truly feel so
incredibly blessed to be serving a mission. One night we were trying to
get in contact with one of our former investigators at the gas station
she worked at.. well it ended up being a huge hot spot for us! We were
able to contact and talk to a lot of people that were coming in and the
best part was later this week when we went to follow up on a mother and
daughter named Ella and Jennifer, we were able to teach the first
lesson powerfully and invite both of them to be baptized on May 10. They
accepted the invitation:] I have a firm witness that Heavenly Father
really will place prepared people in our paths as we show our obedience
and faithfulness to Him.
So
here in Montgomery we really push to have a member at EVERY lesson,
which at times can be kinda stressful but someway and somehow the Lord
always provides. One night our appointment fell through as they often
do, so we took our member out tracting. As it was getting dark the
member said hey let's just try one more. We went and knocked on the door and the lady said she was having a rough day and now wasn't really a good
time, then WAM the member starts bearing a powerful testimony on the Book of Mormon, that she was a daughter of God, on and on and the lady
just started crying. It was a really incredible experience to see this
member just take off! Sometimes I feel that their testimony is much more
powerful then mine, mostly because with the badge people expect me to
just testify of Christ all the day long, but coming from a normal woman
it had a totally different impact:] Members, you are so great! Never
never doubt what you are capable of.
Mickey
and Glenda are still just moving right along! We watched the Sunday
afternoon session with them and it was such a spiritual moment. I
appreciated SO much when L. Tom Perry started sharing his story with the
horses, it spoke right to Mickey and they loved it. As we were talking
afterwards Glenda blurted out, I just love this church! Mickey had just
one question . . . he said growing up me and my daddy were like this, we were
always close . . . will I be able to see my father again after I die? How
grateful I am for the Plan of Salvation. It was such an incredible
moment to be able to share my personal testimony that yes, he would be
able to be with his father again and that his father was probably a lot
closer to him than he realized. As we shared our testimonies on eternal
families Mickey started tearing up. I know that families were meant to
last through the eternities, I know that we were placed specifically in
our families to help in our journey back to our Heavenly father.
So
sister Bonner is the STL and that means that she has leadership
meetings and exchanges about twice a week so yeah sometimes I feel like I've been left in the dust to figure things out. This past week while
she was gone, I had no idea what to do so we took some time knocking
doors . . . well we go up to one . . . knock knock knock . . . me: "Hey! We are the
missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints" . . . (cut off) Lady: "You mean the Mormons?" Me: "Haha yeah that's
kinda become our nickname, but what we do" (cut off) . . . Lady: "There ain't no
way in hell we are talking to Mormons I am a Baptist and I have heard
plenty about y'all". . . (slams the door). Well my goodness! Angry, pregnant,
baptist ladies are definitely not on my favorite people to talk to
list! In Montgomery there are literally like 7 churches on every street and a LOT of Southern Baptists. I guess that a lot of the preachers
will preach against us and warn their congregations about the Mormon
missionaries . . . Yikes. Well, it's nothing that a little softening of the
heart won't fix:]
But
seriously things are just catching fire down here, I've absolutely
loved it and I am absolutely so tired every day! I love this gospel. I
know that Heavenly Father truly is a father to us, he loves us. Jesus
Christ is His son and our savior. I'm grateful for living day prophets
and the HUGE impact they have had on my life. Being a missionary truly
is the greatest thing, everyday I'm so grateful to be out here. I now
see things from such a different perspective. The greatest decision I
have made so far was to give up something I loved so dearly, to a God I
loved even more. I feel that He has never forgotten me for it, and has
brought greater blessings than I ever could have expected:]
I love you guys so very much! You are in my prayers and I hope that you do the incredible this week!
Love, Sister Bowden
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