The Importance of Ice Cream

Oh, life is adventurous. Church got cancelled again yesterday 'cause of snow :P Which is always tragic.

One day, some of the sister missionaries we watch out for were really struggling. They have a tough time overall because of learning disabilities, but they broke down a little bit. Our evening appointment fell through, so we went up there to bring ice cream and talk it out with them. Sometimes it's nice to feel useful. Although, helping people mentally is like squishing spiders. You step on them and hope it worked :P We'll be helping them with their weekly planning this week, so hopefully that will be of use for these sweet sisters.

On Friday we had mission leadership council, which lasts all day. It was awesome as usual. We recieved inspiration for how to do our work better, and just be better. A lot of times we'll practice teaching various principles or using different methods. 

Near the very end, President calls me up, and says, "Sister Bowen is  a very special sister. She doesn't say much but she is probably smarter than I am" (That's the key--if you're quiet, people think you're smart.)

He set up a scenario. I was a missionary, Elder Smith was a random person on the street in Carmel. I was supposed to give him a pass-a-long card with a picture of the upcoming Indianapolis temple (that is really in Carmel) and pique his interest.

Sister Blacker and I greeted him and asked if he was familiar with Mormons. I handed him the card and asked if he'd ever seen a temple before.

 He said he hadn't.

 "Well there's one right over there!" pointing over his shoulder.

 "Oh cool. Can I go in when it's done?" "Sure! We just have to take care of some things first"

That's when President ended it. And said "In all these temple role-plays, I have never seen anyone go like this pointing like I had done. I'm not sure if I wrote out the situation adequately, but needless to say, I am a really good missionary. :P

Other than doing terrible role-plays, things are good. We're working with a few great people, and striving to find more people to teach. We've kinda been in a motivation slump lately. For both Sister Blacker and I, this is the first time since we were trained that we aren't training, so we don't have that drive to be a good example. We still work hard, but we could do better. And we really want to, but it's hard. Ah well.

I've been thinking about how being on a mission really has made life easy though. Our bills are taken care of, so we don't have to worry (except when the mission office struggles.) We don't have a lot possessions to worry about. We don't have boys to worry about (which means we eat a lot less ice cream.) We only have to worry about making time for the little things that are important, like reading scriptures and going to church, or putting in the time for our callings. So I'm enjoying it while I can.

Thanks for all the prayers and support :)

Much love,

Sister Bowen