Back to College!

Well team, it's been a good week. 

Yesterday we had adventures going to an AME Bethel church (African Methodist Episcopal) for one of our investigators. There were only like 6ish white people there. And we were two of them...plus a man who'd also come from our ward. There was a lot of energy and people were super friendly. Good feelings all around. We also did a mini-exchange with the IU Sisters so that Sister Goldrup could use her awesome Mandarin skills to teach one of their investigators. 

I also got to play a homeless man's guitar at a soup kitchen again. He came up and asked if I would play him a song. That's always a good experience. I haven't been able to play for about two months, and I've really been missing it. Heavenly Father does answer prayers. 

We've also been able to spend a couple days on campus. It's not in our area, but President Cleveland wants us to go 'cause 1. there're Asians for Sister Goldrup to talk to, 2. young people are so much more receptive than not-so-young people, 3. it's good training for us--much faster paced than non-campus areas. So that's been a great adventure for us.

In our letters home we are encouraged to share spiritual experiences. It's hard. There's so many that they almost become mundane. And usually take too much of a background to really explain. But one of my favorite consistent spiritual experiences in sharing Joseph Smith's first vision. The spirit is always there, and it's fantastic. I also love when people agree to get baptized. Or when you see direct and speedy answers to prayers. Or when somebody understands something gospel related that they hadn't before. Or when we just happen to be in the right place at the right time. There are just so many miracles.

Life is good. And I love being on a mission. On Wednesday I will have exactly 14 months...so I'd better make those good.

Love,

Sister Bowen

Field Trip!

Well, it was a different sort of week. On Thursday we vacationed to Kentucky with the Clevelands. Sorta. Sister Goldrup needed to go to some doctor approved by some Australian visa board, and the closest one is in Kentucky, so there we went. And it's not 'cause she's sick or anything, she just needed to get some extra stuff done 'cause she's spent so much time outta the U.S. (she's lived in London, South Africa, Beijing, and Jordan.) Wednesdayevening the assistants to the president picked us up and drove us to the mission home. There we had ice cream with President and Sister Cleveland and then stayed the night. We were going to leave at 9:30 the next morning, so President told us we could sleep in! But I couldn't bring myself to do it. I must be crazy. 

After Sister Goldrup's appointment, we went to lunch with the Clevelands and the Porters (who are the mission president and wife for the Cincinnati mission--they and the Clevelands got to be good friends in the training center.) Aaand then we drove back. Good times.

But, not everybody gets to leave mission boundaries, eh?

It's kinda funny. We go visit J still. He is progressing more than some of our "progressing investigators." He's still reading the Book of Mormon, and even asks us for assignments. Then we come back and talk about it. And he knows it's true, but he's in denial. But we understand that it will be difficult to change, especially after preaching something different for so long. But it's good. And we can be patient. Even though we want blessings for people NOW. Sometimes they don't want them 'til later. And that's okay.

And L's still being awesome. He still is working with wood, cord, and sharp things whenever we come over. He's still reading and asking good questions. That's a cool thing isn't? We think people are doing well when people have questions, but they're often apologetic about it. Joseph Smith wouldn't have gotten so many revelations if he hadn't asked so many questions. We like questions. My favorite is when people feel bad about asking questions because they're afraid it might weaken our faith. No joke--I like it so much, because they are just so sincere in wanting to protect us and like that we're are engaged in a good cause, even if they don't think it's quite right.

But here's my main thought for the day: Share the gospel with your friends. It might make you nervous to share, but you will never regret inviting them to learn more. And it really is as simple as an invitation.

But really, thinking about all the converts I know, or have heard of, they have only stayed active if they have family, or good friends in the church. Missionaries are sooo tired of baptizing people that stop coming to church within the year. It's ridiculous to expect missionaries to go find people to teach who will remain active without the ward's help. We find whoever will listen, be open, and keep the commitments we extend to teach. That doesn't mean that they will connect with anybody at church. But they need that connection to stay strong.

So. What's the solution? Members inviting their friends to learn! The time for the hastening of the work is here. For what?! The second coming! And that hastening won't come from thousands of extra missionaries trying to find random people interested. But it will come from members "girding up their loins" and taking courage to simply invite their friends to learn more, to give the thousands of missionaries something productive to do. 1 John 4:18

And pictures! Because I've been called to repentance...

  My shoe tan-line! It gets better everyday.

 Me and Sister Goldrup, the day we became new best friends. She's cute, isn't she? And my smile's uber awkward. Sorry.

Aaand me and Sister Allen. We went on exchanges. I'm purdy sure we had a class together at BYU. And she was in the same ward as Danielle and Ashley two years ago. She's awesome. 

Life's a Marathon or Something Like That

Well team, it's that time of week again. 

This week was much more positive than last. We had stake conference yesterday, which was awesome. President Simmons, the stake president, talked about the hastening of the work..."hastening for what?" Oh you know, the second coming! He talked about how doing the Lord's work (missionary work) is how we'll have oil in our lamps at the coming of the bridegroom.

That got me thinkin' about consecration. It's easy to feel like your consecrating everything to the Lord when your a missionary. I'm giving all my time (besides what I need for myself to live/function/not be gross). I gave up all the possessions I care about to focus out here. I gave up most of what I tend to like to think about (don't worry, it's nothing sketchy) for the sake of those we're teaching and serving among. But then I thought about one of my most treasured possessions. My comfort zones. I gave up a good chunk of that just coming out here and doing fairly standard missionary work--talking to strangers, making phone calls, wearing skirts in public places, etc.--but there's still so much I cling to. If I sacrificed my comfort zone completely, I'd be a much better missionary.

If everybody sacrificed their comfort zones (for the sake of following the guidance of the spirit) they'd be much better people. You're never going to reach your toes if you are satisfied touching your knees. We run into a lot of people who say their very comfortable with their religion. Nobody should be comfortable with their religion if it's really inspiring them to be better. I am extremely confident in the complete truth, power, and authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints--but if I'm living the way Heavenly Father would have me live, I would rarely be comfortable in it. It's like training for a marathon by never running more than a mile because it doesn't feel good to run more.

Why should we be satisfied with a 5k, when Heavenly Father is encouraging us to run a marathon?...but that's probably a terrible metaphor, 'cause I really hate running and would never want to run a marathon...but I do like receiving blessings, and I do love Heavenly Father, and I do love His children, and so I do hope that my training for my metaphoric marathon pays off, and that I can run a little more every time. And breath a little harder, ache a little longer, and sweat a little more than I would otherwise. Because it will be worth it. It's not so much what we do in this life, but what we become. And our attitudes in doing will greatly effect our becoming.

And that's all I've got for today, but thank you muchly for the support and prayers. 'Cause they're needed.

Love,

Sister Bowen 

It's Been a Rough Week :(

Well team, it's been a rough week.

J dropped us. Which was stupid. He said that he felt the spirit when he read the Book of Mormon and when we taught him, but red flags came up in his head (because our doctrine does conflict with his Pentecostal interpretation of the Bible...which is to be expected 'cause otherwise we wouldn't have different religions...) So he said that that internal conflict was confusing. And God isn't a God of confusion, so naturally what we teach isn't true. Although he said he really likes our theology and wishes it were true. Good news: IT IS! I wanted to ask him where the spirit comes from (answer: Heavenly Father) and where the red flags come from (answer: J's current understandings), but he wouldn't let us talk.

I've never been sad for somebody quite like this before. The week before he knew it was true. And then we weren't able to see him for another week because he was sick. I think he just too tired of trying so hard to figure out which way was right. But the game's not over. It's just on pause. He promised he'd finish reading the Book of Mormon...and I hope he does. And I hope is open to the spirit that will continue to testify of it. It's not a battle of right versus not as right, but it is an effort to save souls. It's just hard when they take off their life jackets.

Earlier in the week we went to check on B and B. We'd met a few weeks earlier. They are an older couple--she had read the Book of Mormon and believed it was true. So we were excited to be able to see them again. And then she told us that B had died a week ago.

And then a member of the ward (who we really love, and had signed up to feed us dinner that night) called to ask if we still wanted to come over even though she had just decided to leave the church. WHAT?

But the great thing about terrible weeks are that you can really see the tender mercies Heavenly Father gives you to help make it through. We did have some great lessons with wonderful people, and met a handful of other wonderful people. We're continually being humbled, refined, and just all-around better. It's kinda painful sometimes, but purdy exciting as well.

Oh, at church there was a couple visiting from Carson City. The Bruggers, I believe, from the Lone Mountain ward. I don't know why the Clear Creek ward seems to be such a magnet for people from Carson, but it's pretty great.

But life is good. And tomorrow I'll only have 4/5 of a mission left! Time does fly when you're having fun ;)

Much love,

Sister Bowen

A Day Late, But So Worth It!

I've got to keep it short today, because we got special permission to email today because the library was closed yesterday. That was super nice for my brand new companion, because her family just moved to India a few weeks ago.

And she's really great. Her name is Sister Goldrup, and she is from north Salt Lake City. Sort of. She went to high school in London and lived in Beijing for 5 years. She actually went into the MTC the week after I did, but she got stuck there for twelve weeks. She is waiting for a visa to Australia so that she can go there and teach Mandarin speaking people. Purdy cool, eh? She's really great and is learning the ropes fast. And now I appreciate Sister Howard a lot more too. It's kind of a fun thing to train because the first couple days, your companion doesn't really know anything except how to teach. So you get to do everything. Which is a lot, but I enjoyed it in a weird sorta way.

This week's an adventure because we are working without a car for my first time. It takes a lot more coordination, but it's good. And the new elders we got in the ward (Elder Lawrence and Elder Brown, from Oakley, UT and Lehi, UT, respectively) are letting us use their bikes on the weeks when they have a car and we don't. They're all-stars.

J's been doing awesome. Last Tuesday, he was talking about how the Book of Mormon has cleared up a lot of questions he had about the Bible--like how it'll say to baptize in Jesus name in one place, but then in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And other things like that that he's wondered about for years. His main stumbling block at that point in time was that he really liked the book of Moroni, but recognized many of the verses as the writings of Paul (who he loves), and didn't know if the spirit he felt was testifying of validity of Paul's words or Moroni's. I wish more people had that sort of problem. He also asked our forgiveness for persuading a gal who was preparing to be baptized as a Mormon to not get baptized. He seems to be scared because he knows it's true, but he was preaching something else for the past 10 years.

But one of the many cool things about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is that if anybody has any questions, or any disagreements with our doctrine they can to ask God (with real intent) and He'll tell them. Nobody else can make that promise--the promise that if they ask God, truly wanting to know and being willing to change, that they will feel the spirit testifying of the things that we have said. It's true that we don't have a monopoly over the spirit and it's ability to testify of truth, or even a monopoly over all religious truth, but we do have all of it--the complete picture. And I really like that we don't have to do the convincing. All we have to do is to invite people to ask, and invite them to do the work to merit an answer, that they might feel of the spirit for themselves and know. Really know.

The sad thing is when people would rather cling to tradition and comfort than come closer to their loving Father in Heaven. But sometimes we struggle with that in our daily lives--clinging to our desires when Heavenly Father would have us do something else. I think of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies in Alma 24. They knew that it wasn't about how long they lived, but how they lived. It wasn't about their personal fears, but about the promises they'd made with God, and the reward waiting for them after this life. And love. It's always about love.

Love,

Sister Bowen