Week 13 - Soul Searching Stuff

Well ohlo family!

So this week was oh just another glorious week out here in sweaty humid texas! Lots of biking and wanting to pass out, ya know, the usual.

 

We finally got in contact with the Day family! woop woop and we're starting the lesson with their 3 girls julie, jamie, and jenny. They are 9, 10, and 11 and want to get baptized. The only problem is their parents are super less active and have started some word of wisdom habits, but hey it's nothing a little Spirit can't fix, so we'll see how things start progressing there. 

 

We went and did service again at Sister Siemens ranch, we helped her clear out her hay room, and can i just say i have NEVER seen so many giant cockroaches in my whole life. haha one started crawling up my leg and i wanted to die. haha Hardy and Vought being the little dumbheads didn't even warn me. But it was really fun, by the time i get home i'll know how to run a ranch and everything! 

 

We visited again with Rachel Britto and sometimes it's so hard to keep the Spirit going, we'll have good aha moments and then i swear between their bull dog, their daughter Ava, and who knows what else something always destroys that feeling! haha It's gonna take everything i have to get this woman to gain her own testimony. But, challenge accepted. 

 

We also had a really good lesson with Collin Foerster! We gave him a copy of the children's Book of Mormon, the one with all the pictures and he couldn't put the thing down! He kept asking questions and wanting to know more and i thought it was a really cool moment for his mom to see how interested he really is. As we were leaving his house we saw this old lady out on her porch so we went to talk to her, we didn't really get to share a message but we sang for her and she started crying and asked us to come back next week. 

 

The best moment of this week though was actually while we were knocking one night before dinner. Let's get something clear, knocking on doors is probably one of my least favorite things especially since the whole tobacco on my face incident, but heck we decided to do it. We knocked on this one lady's house and when she answered she said sorry i'm taking care of someone sick inside and we've just had a death in my family. I don't have time right now, so i asked if we could leave her with a prayer and she said that'd be nice. As i said a prayer on this lady's porch I felt the spirit take over, and i said things that i honestly don't typically say in my day to day prayers. I said how grateful i was for the knowledge that we have of our families being together forever, and at some point i said how grateful i was for Christ and that through him we can overcome any hard thing. When we said amen, she was crying and just said thank you over and over again. I will never forget the feeling i had as we were walking back down the street. Tau gave me a huge hug and said Man you're the best trainer ever, haha but i'm not, The Spirit is. 

 

We also had the first "real" discussion with the Henke family, man Todd (the dad) just isn't feeling the Book of Mormon, but his 2 sons want to be baptized. So we've decided to focus our efforts more towards his 2 sons Cameron and Joel and have him sit in and listen to them, then have him be right up in the front when they are getting baptized. I know it's gonna make a difference. Michelle came up to us at church and grabbed my arm and said i really just want to thank you two. I asked her for what? And she said you two have changed my families life forever, we've never been this happy and i can't say thank you enough. I know, I know the gospel can change people's lives.

 

So this past week we hit my 3 month mark! Holla! haha but really some somewhat deep things hit me. As i was reading in alma 7 it hit me just how incredible the atonement really is. And how grateful i am for our Savior Jesus Christ. I'm striving to make my relationship with Him even deeper and stronger. It made me realize though i have very seldom of those "deep strong" relationships as it is. While i know others have felt very strong connections to me, I'm not sure if i have felt the same way towards them. I'm trying though to open up more freely, to let myself have those relationships with those around me. I also have come to realize how truly blessed i Macall Bowden am. But that's not the point of it, we are given our talents and strengths to influence those around us. It has very little to do with ourselves. I'm trying to personally see how my talents can help those around me, how my personality can give light to others. The best way i can show my appreciation to our Father in Heaven is by serving him for these 18 months. My faith runs deeper than any ballet contract, any "potential" boyfriend. My faith means everything to me and it's what sustains me through it all. I can not even express to you guys how grateful i am to be on a mission, the Lord knew how stubborn i'd be about it my whole life, so miraculously he prepared me in ways that i wasn't even aware of. I love this gospel. Even if i'm still crazy emotional Macall my heart will forever be changed:] 

 

ON Saturday night as we were biking home we decided to stop for some mucho mangos! The sun was going down and me and Tau started singing the Circle of Life from the Lion King. haha I'm sure people were wondering why two sweaty girls were singing in the parking lot, but hey it's whatevs.  I've never been happier, I've never cried harder for other people, I've never sweat so much, haha and i've never loved this gospel more.

 

Transfers are this week so i'll have to let ya know what goes down! We're being put in a trio for the next couple days which i'm totally stoked about, It's gonna be me and 2 polys! haha I love you guys so much! My prayers are with you daily and hope you know how truly grateful i am for all the sacrifices you have made, continue to make, and will most likely make for me in the future!

Stay strong, preach on:]

-Love, Sister Bowden

Week 12 - We Get What We Focus On

Hey my dear family!

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

Week 11 - How Can I Save You if You Won't Even Let Me HELP YOU?

My dear Family!

Well you are now receiving an email from a 21 year old woman, i feel so much wiser suddenly:] ha jk, i'm still the same. So this week has been well,,, another week! I actually hit a breaking point, and Sunday when we got home from church i just cried and cried. So there is a lot of anti-mormon literature out there, and i don't think in utah we realize just how real it is.  We knocked into a guys house and immediately he wanted us to come in, after talking for a couple minutes he whipped out some book on the book of mormon and how it's been revised and changed and a lot of other nonsense. Well this guy was going on and on and on about this book, i started panicing on the inside, cuz i had never heard any of those things before. When he took a second to take a breath, i just kinda jumped in and said ya know, if you spent as much time actually reading THE book of mormon instead of just reading about it, i think your opinion might be a little different. And with that i got my stuff and me and Sister Tau left. There is so much anti-literature down here. Other churches actually give lessons on what to do when the mormons come over. Haha are you freakin kidding me? That's what you learn during church? Cuz everytime i've been we usually spend time talking about Christ and how to better our lives... weird. All this week everyone bailed on our appointments, i couldn't get someone to listen even if i was martha stewart at a baking convention. It also gets really frustrating we'll see someone who clearly needs help, whether it's carrying in groceries, or something in their yard but when we offer they just look at us with this "a girl in a dress is really going to help me right now?" and i just wanna say YES. LET ME HELP YOU! how can i ever expect to save someone's soul if they won't even let me help them weed their yard! It's this whole southern way of living, they expect girls to just be these delicate soft damsels in distress. Well i'm not, i never have been so just put me to work!

We had PEC on sunday morning and the bishop was going over things, we told him how we wanted to involve the members to find people for us to teach and he was all supportive. Then when he got up to make the announcement, he said we've all felt very inspired since last sunday's broadcast and the sister's have a plan to get us more involved with missionary work here in fairfield. that was it. It was this awkward announcement and i just wanted to run up to the pulpit and say hey ward, listen up. I have biked a crap ton in 19802476782 degree weather, i have knocked on door after door, i have cleaned up horse crap, and weeded yards. I will do whatever you guys ask me to do, but please help us in finding people to teach. They all know their neighbors but they are so unwilling to share the gospel with them. I know that nothing is going to happen until the members start opening their mouths. After church we got home and i just lost it. I've worked my butt off for the past month and nothing has seemed to really leave an impression. I was so tired in every way possible i just hit a giant wall called fairfield.

(The good side of things)
My birthday was this past week! haha woo woo, i think i got more cakes and recognition then i ever have in my whole life! I also got to meet the legendary Cate Rawson, she's an inactive member that EVERYBODY talks about. She's very talented in basically everything she wants but got into anti-literature stuff. It was a good opportunity to meet her, and just get to know her before we try to shove anything gospel related at her. Ryan, the atheist man that wants to take me on a date prayed! So when we asked him to pray he said to not get our hopes up, we went back a couple days later and before we even brought it up he said by the way i said a prayer. I was so excited! i asked him what happened and he said after we had left he went back to his yardwork, his lawn mower hasn't been working for the past 3 weeks and the thought entered his mind "maybe i should pray" boom. the thing started right up. Not a coincidence. of course he said he prays that the lord will make an exception and let me go on a date with him but i told him that would never happen. He actually got online and looked up the missionary rules. hahaha he looked up what we can and can't do and he also looked up the book of mormon musical. He's kinda dancing all around mormon stuff i know he thinks about it a lot. I feel super awkward going over there at times, but Sister Tau thinks we gotta use whatever we can to bring others to Christ. Ha whatever she says. We do have a baptism set for next Sunday with Chris Susa! it's weird he had most of his discussions with the missionaries in Sugarland so i haven't really been able to build a strong relationship with him, but hey we have a baptism! even if we had almost nothing to do with it.

Mama Blattman took us out to eat at this awesome Texas BBQ place on friday, they had a live band playing and the whole texas atmosphere was there. Well as we were leaving i started doing a little ho-down and one of the guys yelled "give her another beer" i laughed and say i don't need a beer to have a good time and he got this puzzled look on his face. In the most unexpected ways we can share the gospel, if we just realize these opportunities. We also are officially teaching the Henke family! The mom Michelle is a member and her husband and children are Lutheran, slowly due to things happening though they are coming to our church. Our first lesson with them was a little rough, he had some major concerns with the Book of Mormon, but the second we put on a message from Elder Holland which talks about how it is true, and that God never ceases to speak to us. We shared some scriptures and during the lesson he started tearing up. I shared John 14:25 about the Holy Ghost being a comforter and our remembrance to all things. It was AWESOME! as he gave the closing prayer he said "If this is the path you would have us take, please lord keep us on it" His wife was crying by the end of it and i just know things are gonna come together for this family! We're going back friday so Holla! maybe that's gonna be our family to baptize:]

That's pretty much the jist of things. I love this gospel. I can't even explain to you guys how everyday i gain another testimony of it's truthfulness. I'm so grateful for that, because honestly that's what keeps me going, that's why everyone morning i still get up and get to work. I only have a short amount of time and i need to do everything in my power to make the most of it. I love you all and pray for you daily! Keep up all the hard work, miss ya mucho!

-Sister Bowden

oh ps, my zone leader from the mtc send me a red sox shirt for my b-day! haha love him. so great:]

Week 10 - The Church is True, the Book is Blue, and Joseph Smith is... a Pamphlet.

ell Hola Familia!!

This week has just been so great and i'm so glad i get some time to write ya a little something something!! Well i guess i'll back track to Tuesday. Tuesday was probably one of the hardest days of my life.  We had 0 luck, and i mean 0. Every person we tried to contact was just not feeling it, it felt like 102973894728937 degrees outside, and i could see Sister Tau was getting pretty disappointed. As we were walking to go see a less active sister i started saying a little prayer "Please just give Sister Tau a miracle" and i kept repeating that over and over again. Sister Tau looked at a house and said hey let's try that one. So we go and knock and a super nice lady named Monica comes out of her garage. She grew up methodist and la la la.. she loves the book of mormon. absolutely loves it, I was so happy i couldn't even handle it. We're gonna start teaching her this week and i can't wait:] I'm so grateful for a heavenly father who answers my prayers, they may not always be immediate, but he does answer.

Before we got here a 12 year old boy named Nick was baptized and he has a little brother named Colin, Colin is 8 and is wanting to be baptized. But i fear for my life when we are around these kids. I guess one time they poured gas all around their house and were asking the neighbors for matches or lighters. THEY WANTED TO BURN THEIR HOUSE DOWN! so i'm thinking there might be some psychological issues at hand... haha we'll see.

I'm so grateful for Elder Vought and Elder Hardy. They have seriously taught me that you can still be a good missionary and be yourself and have fun. At district meeting on friday we were telling why we decided to go on missions and both of them had similar stories to me. They had sports and all these other things going on, but, they chose a mission. They have seriously become like my best friends haha we've even made our own "secret district" called RLF aka real life friends. They both plan on going to uvu so all the time we'll talk about what's gonna happen when i finally get home. Hardy leaves in August and Vought leaves in October. haha i'm 87% sure they will be at the airport when i get to come back to the promised land. But yeah, they're great and have just really helped me become the missionary i want to be.

Oh! Chivaras family aka Rocky and Stephanie. So these hardcore 7th day advantists are probably the nicest people i have ever met, just super set in their religion. So me and Sister Tau decided ok there has to be a way for us to teach them annndd haha i came up with a great idea. We went over to their house and they were asking so how are you guys? what's been going on? and I had sister Tau say oh man... not so good this week has been pretty rough. We go on to tell them that Sister Tau gets really nervous when she has to teach new people, and because she feels comfortable around them, we were hoping she could practice with you guys so that when she goes out there she will be better prepared. ahaha they totally bought and we taught them the first discussion. It was awesome and there was a point in the lesson where they started to sincerely ask questions. I loved it, maybe a little deceiving but hey i gotta preach somehow!

ok so story time. There is a road in fairfield that connects one section of it to the other and everytime we ride our bikes down this road there has been this guy outside doing yard work. He always waves and whatever, well finally one day I said sister Tau we need to talk to that guy. we go up introduce ourselves and he asks what we're doing and why we're riding our bikes everyday. He says he's not too interested so we go on our way. haha 2 nights later we were walking down that same street and he yells to us "have you converted anybody yet?" and i just yell "were trying to convert you dang it!" he started laughing and told us to come over and talk to him.. well we start talking and all of the sudden he asks can missionaries go out.. like on dates? I busted out laughing and said no we don't do that right now, it's against the rules, we've been on dates but right now we are just here to serve the lord. He then says "well i think the lord would be willing to make an exception this time" oh woof. no way homeboy. well we actually ended up having a pretty deep conversation about the gospel. He's pretty atheist, and has had a bad relationship with his parents. We gave him a book of mormon and i'm excited to see what he thinks of it. I guess we'll see, it's my one and only chance to flirt and convert!

On Saturday Sister Mendiola got baptized!! wooo wooo! i was super happy, me and Sister Tau sang come thou fount in english/tongan and it was just a neat experience to feel of the spirit! Mama Blattman took us up to College Station, and it was a good experience getting to know her even better. She herself is a convert to the church and i just love her non-judgemental attitude towards everyone. She's the best.

But yes the broadcast last night was life changing! i'm SO glad to be a missionary right now! so much work is starting to happen and just people are ready! ... i just gotta find them:] I hope my husband realizes though that i plan on being a missionary the rest of my life. we're going to raise our family around missionary work because it's just so great. haha hope he's on the same page as me!

Well that's been my week, i love you all so much and pray for you daily! heck i pray for a lot of people daily. But i know this church is true. I know the book of mormon is the greatest book, that will seriously bring you closer to God. If your searching, you'll find him:] Much love, preach on!

-Sister Bowden
 

Week 10 - Bug Bites, Sunburns and Broken Fingers...

whell my dear family!

I'm not even sure where to start. This past week has been super hard, but super great! I have a mission mother out here named Mama Blattman and i love this woman so much. She's a ward missionary and seriously a lifesaver for me. She took us out to eat this past week at The Shack. and can i just tell you what i ate? haha a cheeseburger stuffed between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches! and it was divine:] ah loved it. definitely feeling that texas vibe!

 

We also had Elder Golden here doing a mission tour this past week, he's a 70. Lucky me i was sitting next to my two besties elder vought and elder hardy right in the front. I felt like he was peering into my soul the entire time. That man is incredible though.He talked a lot about the savior, and that we need to be careful with how we talk about him. Some people say things like Oh yeah jesus is my friend, but if we truly knew Christ and knew his suffering for us I don't know if we would have this casual friendship with him.   He also talked a lot about us raising our expectations. He also gave a little extra talk to the trainers of the mission, which in my situation i definitely needed. He gave a fireside for all those investigating the church currently and we could only attend if we had an investigator there. Much to my surprise we had a whole row a people show up! It felt awesome to walk in there and actually be able to see hey, clearly i'm doing something right in Fairfield. Which fairfield by the way is like a scene out of desperate housewives. It's like this little neighborhood of paradise, but secretly everybody doesn't really live the perfect life they seem to put on display. One of our goals whiled we're here is to unite the ward.
 

There is a lot of Anti-mormon literature here. I actually had a less active lady warn me that she would destroy my testimony if i continued visiting here. I'm not really sure if i should be more inspired to continue going over there or if i should take her advice and let it go.

 

We went to visit a less active family named the Bondoc's. We were just catching up with them and starting to share when all of the sudden Sister Tau burst into tears. She had her first little breakdown and i had no idea what to do, haha especially because it was in front of this family. We later went knocking and we met a lady named Denise. As we were sharing with her about the Restoration i suddenly felt something on my feet, i looked down and fire ants were covering my legs! ok you betcha they bit me. My feet look ridiculous and everybody always asks what happened. I was sharing the gospel that's what happened! everytime we go over to Denise's i think of Hot Rod and wanna say,, oh hey denise. haha but i don't think anyone would realize how dang funny i am.
 

Being on the bike isn't too bad. haha i actually would enjoy it if it weren't for Texas's blistering sun at 3 in the afternoon. Things have been pretty slow getting started, but we got out everyday and do the best we can.

I see Vivint boys everywhere i go, and it's so great because the first time i saw one i was riding my bike and yelled at him HEY HEY I USED TO LIVE IN OREM. hahaha well... he was from Florida and not a member of the church. But in me assuming he was we became quick friends and i was actually able to give him a book of mormon. So maybe just assuming people are already members is the way to go...

 

 We had to teach the adult sunday school class yesterday in church! I felt so inadequate.. i'm a teeny baby i can't be teaching these people! But i think it went pretty well, all of them seemed to enjoy it at least haha, We also had a family give us a whole list of referrals. Which honestly was an answer to my prayers. It's been really hard starting from nothing, I came from college station where we were just busting things out and then I came to fairfield.. with 0 investigators. That list is gonna at least give us something to work with so i'm happy! When we got home last night Me and Sister Tau were getting out of the car. I shut my door and she shuts here right after... well she actually shut my finger in the door as well.  It seriously hurt so bad.. It's all bruised and swollen and it's slightly making it difficult to type to you all today. but hey, i guess i don't really need that finger:]

 

Things are slow, but we're getting there. i know that as i keep being obedient and just doing my best the Lord is going to provide for us. I'm grateful to be here, no one ever complain to me again about how hot Utah is, because it has nothing on Texas heat. I'm not quitting, missions are hard but i know that it's going to be worth it. Each time i share my testimony with someone i feel it get stronger and stronger. I just want to be rock solid, I want to know that if Heavenly Father ever asks me Did you love me, I can answer wholeheartedly yes i did. I gave everything i could and even though it's hard, sacrifice brings blessings. He's only going to ask us to do things to bring us closer to him. I know it's true. I love you all and i love hearing about all your adventures! Keep up all the hard work and know i'm thinking about ya:] Much love fam bam!

-Sister Bowden

Week 9 - My Current Mountain To Climb

My Family!!

well... my life has changed quite dramatically since we last spoke.. i am

TRAINING.

OPENING A NEW AREA.

and BIKING.

 

I seriously had no idea what to say when President Pingree called Wednesday morning. So my life went from complete bliss and awesomeness... to what it is now. Which is a whole lot of uncertainty and me trying to just be a good example to my new companion!

 

The night before i left though i got to say goodbye to the Mendiola family, Sharlynn started crying, they made me a cake and went all out for me. I really am so sad that i got moved but I'll do whatever they ask me these days:]

 

So I am in Fairfield Texas! and they LOVE sister missionaries. The Elders a couple times before us weren't the most dedicated of missionaries and it caused a lot of bad feelings to come towards them. Fortunately for me, we set things off to a good start and the members know that we are here to get some work done. The first couple days have been actually really hard though, when we got to transfers the assistants handed me a new phone and a box and said here call this number and get a ride to your new area... awesome. We are living with members of ward, the Grovers! haha but actually they left on vacation so we're living with their dog zoey! When we finally found a way there I started calling the Bishop and Ward mission leader trying to figure things out, lucky me everyone seemed to be out of town. So did i feel completely left in the dark? yes. I've only been out fetchin 6 weeks! I have no idea why President didn't ask a more seasoned missionary! But i really have just been trying my best, constantly praying and really the Lord has provided. My new comp is Sister Tau! She's the coolest most loving girl i have ever met! She was born in Tonga but has spent the last couple years in New Zealand! hahah she talks just like Alex! It's been way sweet hearing about her life and family. She grew up in a "tonga hut" whatever the heck that is:] but she really is super great. She's new and a little nervous but she trusts me and i can't even express how much i appreciate that. The past couple days we've just been trying to find all the less active and part member families which honestly in a car would be much easier! haha We've gotten in touch with a few of them, had some doors slammed in our faces, but the highlight is we have 2 boys that are ready to be baptized! they are both 9 years old, there families are less active but they both have told their parents they are ready to be baptized. I honestly am so grateful for that, I have felt kind of bad for sister tau and i'll pray all the time, heavenly father please just give us a miracle so that Sister Tau doesn't get discouraged. I feel that the first 2 weeks are kinda critical for a new missionary to feel that they are making a significant difference. So let's just hope everything goes as planned!

 

Yesterday was a really good sunday! We were asked to say the prayers in Sacrament meeting just to make the ward aware that we were there. Afterwards a little girl named reese came up and handed me a picture. haha during the meeting she drew me and on the back it said "thank you for coming and inspiring me" melted my heart.

 

The District and zone that i'm currently i guess has been having lots of drama... I don't really understand how some of the sisters and elders have energy for it but whatever. I think a reason i was put down here was to kinda break that crap up and just bring our zone together. One of my Zone Leaders is Elder Hardy. aka Colton Hardy haha he's a wrestler from box elder and we know all the same people. He was really good friends with Trae Bennett and Ronnie, which i thought was pretty funny, but yeah so i already have a little bestie down here:]

 

On Saturday we went and did some service for a member of our ward, she has a ranch and recently was trampled by one of her horses. Just guess what i did.. haha i cleaned out stalls ALL DAY LONG. aka i cleaned out horse crap all day long, but i loved it. One of the girls there is training to be a jockey so we got to watch her race for a little bit... freak it was probably one of the coolest things i have ever seen!

But yeah that's somewhat been my past week.. crazy, crazy. Everything got turned upside down on me and i'm starting from scratch. But life is good, i'm walking by faith and just letting Heavenly Father lead things. all i can say is try riding a bike in a skirt. JUST TRY IT. haha it's definitely a new skill i'm learning, I'm also learning to just let others serve me. It's hard for me and i really hate feeling like a burden to people but in this situation, i'm having to ask others for help. I'm so grateful for the trust Heavenly Father has in me. I know that as i'm trying my best he's going to help me and Sister Tau. I'm really excited to see what Fairfield has in store for us:]

 

I love you and miss you all. seriously.

-Sister Bowden

Week 8 - Hit the Ground Runnin'

Well my dear family:]

This week has been well, interesting with a lot of ups and downs! We taught Coach Graves for the last time (at least for now) we went to visit him and he hadn't read 2 nephi 29, so after talking a little bit we decided to read it with him. I think it actually kind of hurt his feelings a little bit, he loves the bible and our intent wasn't to hurt his feelings, but goodness when the man condemns us to hell we kinda gotta bring out our big guns as well! So for now he's on the back burner.

We had to bump back Sharlynn's baptism which kinda sucks! She's soo ready to be baptized but most of this week she's gonna be in arkansas and we haven't taught her everything yet so the date is now June 22! It's gonna be so great! We went to Lulu's kindergarten graduation on friday and we actually came in contact with another investigator so that was sweet!

Oh my lanta. We had dinner at Barbara Moore's house this week and can i just say never again!! haha she made us catfish and oysters. I wanted to gag it smelled so bad with every bite i just had to psych myself out and say it's just slimy chicken it's just slimy chicken. haha SO GROSS. A member called us later that night and while she was moving out she had hired a lady to help her clean. She ended up bearing her testimony to here and sending us over to see her. Marta is awesome. As i was handing her a book of mormon i looked into her eyes and said I know this book can bring you so much peace and comfort into your life. I seriously felt the spirit so strongly. She later told us that her daughter had passed away 5 years ago and she still wasn't really over it. She came to church yesterday and it was perfect! We're gonna start teaching her this week and i'm so stoked! By the way, WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME HOW GREAT THE BOOK OF MORMON IS? haha i'm serious. I know you guys told us to read it and la la la, but seriously there's some dang good stuff in this book. During study time i seriously am blown away by all the things that i learn. I know that it really can change a person's life and help them come closer to him.

I was reading Eyring's talk Mountains to Climb earlier this week and was just blown away.  After reading it felt somewhat inspired to ask Heavenly Father to send me a mountain. haha i'm only waiting to see what he throws my way. It is soooo dang hot and humid here. On Saturday basically everyone and their dog flaked out on us, so we ended up spending a lot of time tracting, can i mention it was 103 with who knows what % of humidity. hahaha as we were standing on people's porches and doorsteps i was literally dripping sweat. Haha it was a rough day. We went over to Shimshack's to help her clean again and that ended up being awful. She wasn't in the mood to clean so we shared a thought with her, after we shared it was bearing my testimony to her about the temple and la la la. All of the sudden she said, there's something i haven't told you guys. It turns out Shimshack drinks coffee and alcohol, and that's what's keeping her from the temple. As we were walking home that night i can not tell you just how disappointed i was. I wasn't mad it just hurt my heart that she had kept that from us, that we thought everything was golden and then wham! While walking i thought to myself man,, is this how i've made my parents feel? When i had those extra piercings in my ears, or stayed out later than i should, or was just being my dumb rebellious self, is this what they felt like? Cuz if so, i am so so sorry. I just felt a little betrayed, hey i'm here to help you and you kept this huge thing from me? Man. Well anyways she's getting a blessing tonight and things should start rolling again.

After church yesterday we met up with Brother Mader! He's come to church 3 weeks in a row and is doing soo good! I don't know if i've mentioned this before but Mades has a HUGE smoking problem. but anyways we decided that yesterday was the day to talk about the word of wisdom. As we got talking he started putting up a fight, finally i just asked him, Mader would you die for the Lord if he asked you to? He said yes. Then i asked, Mader if the Lord asked you to quit smoking would you? He said no. And then quickly added well he's never asked me too. (Powerhouse moment for Sister Bowden) I then said Well Mader He's asking you today right now. Will you stop smoking? Boom, there's the spirit. He got a little fidgety and said ah, crap. haha he said he's going to stop, but we have to remind him everyday. He actually started crying and said he didn't want to let us down so everytime he's about to smoke he's gonna either call us or a member that he's pretty close to! We're praying for him and i hope so badly he sticks it out. I know that miracles can happen and this will be so awesome if he does it!

This week i really have come to love the time we have to study, there is just so much to study and learn. I love it! I feel like i have made huge leaps from where i started. I am a lot more confident in teaching and just letting the spirit take the lead. When i got set apart President Christensen said Just hit the ground running don't waste a minute of it. I'm trying my best to do just that, i have hit the ground running and everyday i want to keep that pace. I love this gospel. I know that if we face our daily challenges and make the most out of what we are given we're going to be so pleased with what we have accomplished. In Alma 26 there's a verse that says I can not say the smallest part to which i feel, and man that's how i am. I'm so grateful to be here in Sweaty Station. I'm so grateful for this opportunity i have to help others find Christ in their life.

I miss you guys so much! I pray for ya every night and can't thank you enough for all the support ya give me! Transfers are Wednesday! I'll let ya know how they go:] Love ya all! Stay strong, preach on!

-Sister Bowden