One Year DONE!

So. Many. Adventures!

So yesterday the library was closed, so we have a little time to email today :) But yesterday was wonderful 'cause Elder Bair has two guitars and is letting me borrow one! My fingers are blistered 'cause I lost my calluses. This will indeed be an exercise in self control O_o

Aaaaand I've been a missionary for a whole year! That's uber weird. Thursday was our year mark. To celebrate we went to lunch at Fazoli's, did service at the food bank, and taught this wonderful 15 year old boy named N who wants to get baptized (and came to church this week!)

Part of our mission's goal is to teach as many lessons in members' homes as possible. Because we are teaching a lot of people in our apartment complex, and because we have a member that lives there who is home all the time and loves company, this was really easy for us. But she had to get shoulder surgery on Tuesday. She came home the next day, and on Thursday we tried to check up on her to see how she was doing. This was tricky 'cause you need to be let into the building by somebody who lives there to even knock on doors, and her phone has been having issues, so we couldn't reach her. That night her neighbor had the apartment people open her door, and they found her stuck on the ground 'cause she had fallen :/ we have no idea how long she was stuck there, but now she has to go to a rehab facility. So sad! But it will be good for her to have people who can help her.

On Wednesday we had exchanges with the sisters in Warsaw. One of the sisters I'd been on exchanges with a few times when she was in Columbus, and the other is a 2nd transfer trainee. And these sisters are so solid! So that's always nice to see. They are emotionally stable, work hard, and have the faith to entitle themselves to receive grace to work miracles. That's always nice for us to see. The night I stayed down in Warsaw there was also a crazy thunderstorm :D The lightning was kinda like a strobe light O_o

There was a really sad part about this exchange. We went to check on one of their members who had missed church the past two weeks and who had stopped responding to the missionaries texts and calls (she had previously been very involved in church, and joining the missionaries for lessons). She had bleached her hair, gotten a nose ring and started smoking. We asked if we could share a message with her. She hesitantly agreed. We read part of Elder Bednar's talk about spiritual loads with her and talked about how we need trials to grow stronger. She was fairly unresponsive and said, "I'm done being strong." I didn't know this lady beforehand, but the sister I was with said it was like she was a completely different person. It's was incredible how much somebody could change in 2 weeks.

Saturday was another interesting day. I was a little sick, which was hard, but we began by attending a baptism for somebody in the Mishawaka ward. Right after that there was a wedding for a couple in our ward at the church building which we attended--the reception at which we found a new investigator we'll be teaching tomorrow. Then we left, taught a few lesssons, and came back for another baptism for a young set of twins in our ward, and then another lesson to close the night. I felt like a zombie.

And then pretty much woke up dead the next morning :P Plus I forgot my nametag at church, which made things uncomfortable. It was a really hard day all around. There were still miracles, such as meeting with a new investigator who is really excited about the Book of Mormon, and things like that, but Sister McKendrick and I were just super drained from the week.

Every single day for the past transfer and a half has been such a great adventure, I wish I could describe everything, but we gots district meeting in like 10 minutes so I gotta wrap it up.

Much love! and don't forget to pray!

Sister Bowen

PS W and A AND their friend M got baptized down in Franklin this past Saturday :D purdy exciting