Mysterious Sea Food Stuff

Yet another week of adventure!

On Monday, we stopped by to visit a part member family that we hadn't met before. The mom (the member) wasn't home, but her sons (members), husband, and sister (nonmembers) were home. They are all from Zimbabwe. We talked about family history--in a very interesting way--part of his job is studying genetics in recent history to help people determine the liklihood of getting diseases and what not. Super interesting!

Tuesday was fantastic. All our plans were kinda up in the air at the beginning of the day, but it was like we couldn't do anything wrong: everybody we talked to wanted to learn more. Even when we knocked on the wrong door for our dinner appointment, we got a new investigator. It was purdy awesome.

Friday, we were invited to the graduation party for a gal in the ward. Her family is Tongan, and so they had a huge family gathering with tons of friends and food. Part of the custom was to have a head table with the graduate and esteemed members of the community--for their family it was religious leaders. We had quite the experience sitting at this table of honor in the front of the room with the bishop, one of his counselors, and the elders. Our table was loaded with plates of fried bananas, ribs, mysterious sea food stuff, breaded halibut, and pork straight off the pig. What an experience!

On Saturday, we went back to the family from Zimbabwe's house for an appointment we'd set with the sister who was visiting. We didn't end up teaching 'cause she went into labor. We played duck-duck-goose with her four year old daughter until her sister could come pick her up to take her to the hospital. We helped her into the car and told them to let us know if we could help with anything. Little did we know they'd actually call! They didn't know that 4 year olds couldn't be in the room, so we rushed over to the hospital during our lunch break to watch the little girl. Sometimes you teach the gospel, and other times you help deliver African children (sort of) oh, the life of a missionary.

Also on Saturday, A went to the temple! She had wanted to go, just to sit in the waiting room, so we found her a ride (it was stake temple day). She loved it! The temple president came and talked to her for a long time (or maybe just listened 'cause she talks a lot ;)

She also got to meet President Cleveland yesterday at a baptism, so that was cool. She talks a lot about how she was baptized, but it wasn't real. She needs to be baptized by the right authority. She talks about how she's been being prepared for 43 years to find the restored gospel. She just loves everything :) At church yesterday she told us God had told her something in her sleep, and then two more times that morning, and she wanted us to come over so she could tell us. The big news was that she is supposed to be a missionary after she gets baptized :) Sweet A!

In other news, Sister McKendrick and I are both staying in South Bend for another transfer. It was kinda weird already knowing, 'cause normally we'd get all hyped up about transfer calls, but we almost forgot about them. We're happy to stay together 'cause we've got a lot going on and we get along super well.

To close, I just want to share a few thoughts on faith.

Everything we do in this life, we do in hopes that it will make us happy, whether immediately or in the future. We are promised that the gospel provides the greatest happiness we can find. Everything we do contrary to what the gospel would have us do is because we lack faith. We do not belief that the gospel decision will make us the happiest. This is the type of faith that I am working on. 

I've never doubted that God is real, that Christ is our Savior, or that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restored gospel, but sometimes I have a hard time wholly believing that it's all worth it. But I do believe it. I believe that all the sacrifices we make for the sake of rightesouness will be made up to us. We are asked to make large sacrifices sometimes, but--with faith--that becomes an exciting thing, because we know that Heavenly Father will make our reward that much more tremendous.

Much love,

Sister Bowen

Peectures!

Sisters in our zone: Sister Bunnell, Sister McKendrick, me, Elder Boyer, Sister Richardson, Sister Odermott, Sister Ruth

Our zone: Elders Brown, Matheson, Crawford, Adams, Boyer, Bair, Young, Van Shaar, Brown, Peterson, Easter, Lindhardt, Bramlett, Orth, Thompson, and Uthaichai, Sisters Ruth, Odermott, Richardson, Bunnell, me, and Sister McKendrick (and yes, the two Elder Browns are companions. The assistants have a terrible sense of humor)