Well i can't believe that here we are again! Another week just slippin right by:] This past week was quite a challenging one, but i am very grateful for the things that i was able to learn throughout it!
Tuesday morning in the middle of personal study we got a little knock on the door. I went to answer it and it was one of our neighbors! He handed me a folded up piece of paper and said I've had some questions and I just wanted to get your thoughts on them, I ask him if we could come stop by sometime to discuss his questions and he says absolutely! I close the door open the paper and just thought... oh great... His questions were things like "Do you believe you'll have your own planet one day with your mormon family? and "Was Joseph Smith a mason?" Just really lame questions that you know aren't because he's searching for truth... I feel like this was just a little heads up for the rest of the week.
One night we had some extra time on our hands so Sister Bonner wanted to try and contact a potential investigator. We get to this house and he wasn't home but his mom wanted to talk to us. Turns out that she has spent months researching our faith, and man she has read A LOT of books and with that I mean a lot of anti-books. I'm pretty sure she knew more about Joseph Smith's life than I did. She was going off and it was mind blowing to me how much effort this lady had put in to proving that Joseph Smith was not a prophet. I got the opportunity to bear my testimony to her on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that it has only strengthened my faith in the Savior. Sister Bonner then asked her if she had ever prayed about the things she had read and she hadn't!!! Through all her studying and searching not once did she get on her knees and ask God. He is the one with all truth and yet she completely disregarded his thoughts on the subject. My advice for everyone is to do as the scriptures indicate ASK OF GOD, not google. In the end it's His opinion that is going to count anyways.
This whole experience though had me thinking on the power of words. "By His word the world was created" and I know that by His word it could also be destroyed. We are His children so do you think that possibly we possess that same power? "Death and Life are in the power of the tongue." That's a pretty hefty scripture... I mention all of this because the things that that lady said potentially had the power to kill my faith and testimony. She literally was out to destroy my beliefs.. I feel that all of us should be mindful of the words we use, and just be aware that they have the ability to give life and encourage or they can do the exact opposite.
As we were out driving around Martin Luther King Dr (aka the ghetto of our area) we saw a group of kids playing basketball! And some of them were members of our ward, we hopped out and decided to join in. We split up into teams and basically it was 2 pretty dang good black kids... and then me and Bonner. One of them kept saying "Oh call me Kevin Durant! call me Kevin!!" They thought they owned the place haha so Bonner looks at me and says "They must be humbled!" Hahaha oh it was so great:] We beat them. I BEAT KEVIN DURANT AT BASKETBALL!! How sweet is that? And the best part is that one of them ended up coming to church yesterday! SO sick:]
We had some incredible teaching moments this past week and I have really felt so grateful for the restoration in my life! The gospel is so good, yes we have some ups and downs in life but I know that we can find renewed strength and support from its teachings!
Oh sad news... Me and Bonner will no longer be companions:/ She is getting transferred tomorrow. The killer B's are no more:/ I'm actually pretty bummer about it, we saw it coming but it still sucks. The work that we have been able to accomplish this past transfer has been awesome!.. and i'm slightly concerned that I won't be able to keep that pace on my own. Things will work out though right? Ah the only constant in our lives is change. woof.
I hope that you guys have an incredible incredible week!! I love you all and miss you dearly!! Stay strong:]
Love, Sister Bowden
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