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.