A Week of Adventure

This was a week of adventure!

Monday evening we were stuck inside 'cause of freezing rain

Tuesday, we were in Bloomington with four zones. The trainings were excellent, and I love Bloomington. When we got back at 8:30, we were pleasantly surprised to find our power had been shut off (because of a mix-up with our electric bill). And we were on exchanges, so there were four of us left to do everything in the dark. What an adventure!

Wednesday, Sister Jeffrey and I were companions for the day, the power was restored, and the weather was beautiful. We met a good handful of people to teach.

Thursday, was purdy normal. Except this crazy thunderstorm started during our last appointment for the night. We were driving home amidst heavy rain, intense flashes of lightning. Not to mention the blaring tornado sirens. It was purdy surreal. We loved it :D

Friday, we had movie night. 50+ people showed up, including 2 investigators so that was purdy exciting. Not to mention that watching 17 Miracles is always enjoyable. I love the example of these people who sacrificed everything to receive the blessings of the temple, while some of us can't sacrifice much smaller things of no consequence. What great faith those pioneers had.

Saturday, S got baptized! She is a wonderful gal who we've gotten to teach. She was adopted by a family in the ward, so she couldn't be baptized when she was eight (now she's nine), so she came ready. She is a little ray of sunshine, so it was a pleasure to be able to teach her :)

Sunday, one of the less active ladies we've been working with came to church! I think she hadn't been in 10+ years. Another family that hadn't been to church as long as I've been here finally made it. They add such an energy to the ward, and I hope they come every week. I got to teach Gospel Principles, which is enjoyable. That evening, there was a stake youth fireside about missionary work. All the missionaries in the stake came (two zones, about 40 missionaries). I got to speak a little on "Preach My Gospel." And then the young women asked us questions. Some of them are so excited to go on missions!

Oh, and Relief Society was hilarious. I was sitting by the older lady with dementia. The lesson was about tithing (based on Elder Bednar's talk). And she thought it was the funniest thing. She kept busting out in laughter. And then she got super angry with her son (for no reason apparent to us--he wasn't even there). She kept saying, "I'm gonna kill him!" She whispers, but it carries. At one point she swore. I almost died. On a more spiritual note, the lesson was fantastic. Ladies shared their stories of how they developed faith to pay tithing.

~There was the standard We couldn't afford to pay it, but my husband said we'd try. Then we got a check in the mail for the same amount from a place that had overcharged us.

~I was at work, with no gas left in my car, and I could chose to eat, make it home, or pay tithing. I held the envelope in my hand until the mail man came, then threw it in. And waited. My boss asked if he could use my car real quick. I told him the tank was empty, and he said he'd take care of it, and brought it back with a full tank.

~One lady, who the ward just has tremendous respect for shared how when she was young, recently married, and newly converted, she almost divorced her husband because of tithing. After they had paid everything, they had $5 a week. And people randomly kept dropping food by, without any knowledge of the situation.

The Lord doesn't need our money, individually. But we need the blessings from paying it. It's cool to see physical manifestations of Heavenly Father's blessings.

It was a great end to a purdy satisfying week. This week looks to be almost as adventurous, with two exchanges, and mission leadership council. Tomorrow will be my 1/2 way point. It's been kinda fast O_o but awesome.

Love you lots!

Sister Bowen

Some peectures. Finally.

 ~Me, S, and Sister Blacker

~ Take 2

 ~Me and Sister Blacker

~Me and Sister Jeffrey

Sometimes It's Hard to Be a Missionary

Not a ton to report this week.

Missionary work is hard, but it's just life though.

We were at a dinner appointment yesterday, and we were talking about faith as it relates to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about how it leads us to keep the commandments, and to do whatever it is that God would have us do. It takes faith that these things will be to your benefit and happiness. A lot of times we'll relate that to the joy promised with the efforts of doing missionary work and invite members to experiment on the word and invite friends to learn more about the gospel.

The lady whose house we were at has really had a lot of great opportunities lately to share the gospel, but they haven't made it to the next step yet. She asked us how we handle that. And it takes faith--sometimes we're granted glimpses of the fruits of our labors, but more often than not, we probably don't see the results.

We talked about Abinidi. He boldly proclaimed the gospel and died for it--without knowledge that it had any effect. But Alma heard, and did something about it--that's a big deal.

We talked about how sometimes we are the seed sowers, and sometimes we are the harvesters, and if we could see the whole picture, it probably would be more satisfying to be the seed sower.

We talked about the way we react to spiritual promptings. Sometimes we'll receive a lot of inspiration and revelation on how we can be a better person from a particular church meeting. We'll resolve to do and be better. And then we come home and stay the same. We don't like to change, even if it's for the better. People feel the spirit when they hear about the first vision or the plan of salvation, we invite them to do something about it, and they agree to. And then second guess the reality of the spirit they felt, or get lazy. Just like we do :P

It takes a special person to change religions, no matter how true it might be.

Somebody told us the other day that this is the most snow Indiana's ever gotten. And we're lucky enough to be here! It's getting a bit old though. On Friday, we weren't allowed to drive 'cause the roads were so bad. We couldn't really ask members to sacrifice their lives or their Valentine's date night to take us to appointments :P And then people's Friday activities/events got moved to Saturday, so all those appointments cancelled too.

And that was the week--cancelled appointments, lots of snow, and people who told us they'd be at church and didn't make it.

Such is life, eh?

We got kinda down and depressed and frustrated. With the situation and with ourselves. But we're looking forward to being better missionaries, and better weather (which might come someday). This week we've got a baptism, zone conference (in Bloomington!), exchanges, a missionary movie night (where members invite their friends--we're watching "17 Miracles") and a youth missionary fireside (with no fire involved :P) So it looks like it'll be a good week with lots of good things goin' on.

Hope all is well

Love,

Sister Bowen

A Misplaced Phone and . . . . Soccer

Well, Sister Blacker and I are in Franklin for another transfer! Not super exciting, but we're glad to stay, 'cause we love the ward, and there's a lot of good things going on :)

Saturday was a great adventure. We got to go to Bloomington for R's baptism. It was really exciting to see everybody there. I've missed it. When we got back to Franklin, there was a baptism for our ward for a man named D who the elders have been teaching. After that, Sister Blacker and I had gotten permission to do a member exchange so that she could go to a baptism in Plainfield for a gal she taught in Indy YSA. I stayed in Franklin because we were having a class to "learn more about Jesus Christ" (that had been advertised in the paper and on Facebook) and we were supposed to teach part of it. It's kinda funny 'cause when you go on splits with members, people greet you then look around to see where your other half might be. It was a great and exhausting day.

It was kind of a crazy week over all. We drove down to Columbus on Tuesday morning to start an exchange with Sisters Knight and Sessions, and then Sister Knight and I drove back up...and left our phone there. It was fine 'til the evening when it started snowing like crazy, and the cars got grounded. We had to make some calls to coordinate/cancel appointments and find a ride back down to Columbus. So we met some neighbors by borrowing their phones to make some calls. The last neighbor we bothered, let us use her phone so I could call Sister Blacker to see if she could make some calls and then get back to me on the same number. So we stuck around for awhile and taught our neighbor a lesson. She was very interested, so we'll see if that goes anywhere.

Our ward mission leader (who drives a plow truck) gave us a ride to meet up with the other set of Columbus sisters (Sisters O'Brien and Hansen). So Sister O'Brien came with me and Sister Knight went with Sister Hansen, so Sister Knight could get back with her companion and then Sister Hansen would go with mine. And we still didn't have our phone. O_o And I didn't see my companion for two days. Weird.

And we had a lot of things to prepare for. We did a training about effective questions in zone training on Friday, I spoke at a baptism on Saturday, and taught a class that evening, and on Sunday, Sister Blacker was teaching Gospel Principles. We were uber busy. But that's okay, 'cause that's how we like it.

I've been thinking lately (a dangerous past-time, I know) about people who get hurt and stop coming to church. We're meeting with like 4 part member families, and that sort of thing happens far more often than it should. Some of them have had severe physical or emotional abuse at the hands of church members. They feel like a large part of their suffering has come through the church--and partly it has.

Then I think about soccer. Soccer has caused some of my greatest physical and emotional pain. Sore muscles, loss of breath, bruised shins, strained quads and hamstrings, jammed fingers, loss of a tooth, and a broken collar bone. The emotional agony of failing to make a team--a goal I'd worked for my whole life, up to that point, hurt beyond anything that I'd imagined or wish to ever experience. But despite the pain, I always go back. I go back because I love soccer.

It's a great blessing to be able to teach Christ's message of love. He gives us church because He loves us. And our task is to learn to love Him, and act according to that love. We triumph over our anguish because we love Him.

That's all for this week :)

Much love,

Sister Bowen

Here's me with R and B from Saturday :) B was afraid the church building would fall in on him. After R got baptized, he said, "When I do that, the water will probably turn black! They'll have to dunk me four times!" He's so funny.

What a Great Blessing!

What a great blessing it is to be a missionary.

We met with an older lady last night. She's an active member, who I hadn't met before yesterday because she's been out of commission because of some back problems. I didn't expect a lot from the lesson. We meet with members to teach the gospel, and to help facilitate their receiving the blessings of doing missionary work. Most older people talk about how they only know church people these days, and they've done their work.

We asked her what "the gospel of Jesus Christ" meant to her. Most people will say things about Christ's teachings. She said, "I think it comes down to faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and then enduring to the end" She's the only one who just knew that. (Not that we're quizzing members when we ask that sort of question, 'cause we're not.) She told us how exciting it was when she first learned about the restored gospel when she was 20, "And it's been exciting ever since." 

She talked about how it really hit her when Elder Gifford Nelson mention in general conference that Elder Perry had said that the hastening of the work is on the same plane as the restoration of the priesthood and the first vision. She mentioned how we can watch it happen or be a part of it, and she said, "I want to be a part of it!" And she is--she's done a lot of good with those around her, and shares the gospel with those she meets at the store and wherever else she goes. What a great example.

And that's how I'd like to be. I hope that my mission changes me enough so that I can retain always the clarity that I have now. I hope that I can keep this pattern of doing things against my natural tendency for the sake of righteousness. I hope I begin to make the best choices in exchange for the good choices I do make.

I read Elder Nelson's talk about choices from last general conference this morning. I really appreciated his comments that we developed certain spiritual gifts before we came to earth, and we can choose which spiritual gifts to develop here, too. He talks more about developing self-mastery. I've been thinking a lot about that, and how I wish I'd developed that sooner, but I'm grateful to be able to work on it now. I hop out of bed without pushing the snooze button now. I go out and talk to strangers now. I manage (or try to manage) my eating habits now. I'm actively striving to do what Heavenly Father wants me to do now.

I've been studying a lot about faith. I always hated when people talked about how belief is power, 'cause it's not. But faith is a principle of power, because if we truly believe something, our actions align accordingly. If I believe keeping the commandments will make me happier than I could be otherwise, why don't I keep them better? Christ was all powerful because He had perfect faith in Heavenly Father's guidance for Him, and aligned His behavior accordingly. God would have us be intelligent, responsible, hard-working, honest individuals because the most satisfying form of happiness (in my mind) comes from becoming something great. And He's given us the guidance to become such, through the commandments. And Christ provided the Atonement to enable us to overcome those things that prevent us from keeping the commandments. How cool is that?!

Well that's my sermon for the week :P

And R (from Bloomington) is getting baptized on Saturday! And I probably will be able to go! I'm purdy excited for that :) Here in Franklin, we've got some tough people to work with, but things are still going well. We've got a sweet 9-year old girl getting baptized later this month, and some other things in the works. February should be a good month. Unless we get 20 inches of snow this week, like some sources are predicting O_o

Much love,

Sister Bowen

And here's a picture of the Indianapolis temple, as of Friday :)