PJ's in the Fridge!

Greetings world!

It's been another grueling week of sweat, lotsa walking, and miracles.

Tuesday we had zone conference, which is always wonderful :) and then we took our branch president's family for a church tour :) That was an adventure 'cause they have 4 kids ages 8 and under. One of them was running around without his pants.

Wednesday we met with this lady named M, who we met briefly last week. She had met with missionaries before, but when we talked a little bit more about the Book of Mormon and what the truth of it entails, she got purdy excited. Other than that, it was mostly a day of walking and appointments falling through. But we met a handful of very nice people.

Thursday we had exchanges. The Sister Training Leaders both came down here. I went with Sister Jones. We ran into a sassy guy named R that we'd met a couple weeks ago. When we first met him, he sorta listened to what we said, and teased us a bit. This time he said that we'd really intrigued him, and that he would really like to read the Book of Mormon, but he'd be too busy to meet for the next 30 days or so. He said, "Don't worry, though. I will call you, I'm persistent." I said, "Great! So are we!" 

Then we met with L, our deaf friend. His wife doesn't want to sit in on lessons unless we can get an interpreter, but we watched the Restoration with subtitles, and she sat in :) L told us he'd finish the Book of Mormon in two weeks. And I've been making a bazillion phone calls to try to find somebody who could come to lessons. Apparently Fishers has a good handful of LDS folks who know ASL, so it's just been a matter of finding one who'd be able to make it out. The good news is that our deaf couple is moving to Fishers purdy soon, so they'll have better resources to help them.

Then we met with our friend A who is from the Dominican Republic. We taught her more about Christ's Atonement. She described to us how she believed that the Fall of Adam and Eve was on purpose 'cause God knows what he's doing. We had her read a chunk of 2 Nephi 2, which she really liked.

Friday, we did a church tour with L (who is a few years older than me, and was baptized about 2 years ago) and her mom, who hasn't been super interested in learning more. We had a great experience and she agreed to meet again to talk about the Plan of Salvation. L's dad is not religious at all, but is a great guy, so L's mom has a hard time believing that he'd end up in the same place as Hitler after this life. I love that the restored gospel has such a simple response to such concerns :D

Saturday we met with D, the lady we'd met last week. And she was ready for us. She'd done some research, and had great questions (which I think we satisfied) She seems purdy open, and the spirit was strong. She felt it too. Later we walked the mile home in the pouring rain. My notebook is still wet.

It's getting a little warmer than it has been, which is rough 'cause there's no AC in our upstairs apartment. This morning, I put my PJs in the fridge, so hopefully that'll help :D

If anybody would like to join me, I'm trying to read the Book of Mormon through one last time as a missionary. But you'd have to play some catch up. If I read 2 chapters a day (starting tomorrow with 2 Nephi 22) I'll finish Dec. 1. Kinda cool.

~Picture from exchanges

Sister Mercer, Sister Cutler, and Sister Jones

Zone training: Elders Malan, Scribner, Bullock, Park, Sneddon, Cronin, Foster, Lawrence, Bush, Halverson, Hollinger, Hentish, Mortenson, Gurney, and Wolverton

Sister Mercer, me, Sister Woodhouse, Elder Woodhouse, Sister Barker, Sister Bradshaw, and Elder Van Shaar

"Sometimes God requires us to sacrifice."

Opening an area/getting double transferred into an area while training has not been my favorite mission experience, by any means. It's really hard when you spend so much time finding everyday, and 90% of the work rests on your shoulders. It's especially hard coming from an area where we had scheduled lessons with investigators and recent converts all the time, and my companion was a much better missionary than I was.

Although it's been difficult, Heavenly Father still shows his love for us every day.

On Monday we found this wonderful lady named A, who is from the Dominican Republic. She is really sweet, although she is just getting into the Bible, and was slightly overwhelmed by the message of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. But she is letting us come back this week to tell her more about Christ's Atonement :)

Tuesday we might a guy named J, who was willing to talk, but didn't really hear the things we said. He said his girlfriend might be interested in listening, and she'd be there on Saturday. Later that day, we sorta talked to a guy named L. L's deaf, so we wrote to him. We wrote to him about the Book of Mormon. He seemed to be excited. We asked if there would be a way to reach him, and he invited us in to show us how his phone works--which is more like Skype. To demonstrate he called his preacher...who did not look happy to see us, but it was pretty funny. When we went back on Saturday, L was happy to see us, but his wife was not. It's hard 'cause they're both deaf, but only L can talk. She was mad 'cause he was talking to us and she didn't know what we were all talking about :P I hate tricky situations like that. And there aren't any members in the area that know sign language.

On Wednesday we met a strange but awesome man named T. He runs a garden community share thingy in a little town just north of here. He told us when we met him that he didn't do things that were normal, but he does things that are right. An example is letting his ex-wife live in a house he owns with the man she cheated on him with. Not a normal thing to do, but that kind of forgiveness is incredible. We got home a little late that night to find a pumpkin, watermelon, and two zucchinis just outside our door, that were from him. 

On Thursday, we met with a less active member of the branch. She served a mission several years ago, but her life's gotten kinda crazy. We had a great meeting in which she tearfully said that she was sure that God had sent Sisters here just for her.

Also on Thursday, we called S. She is half-way through 2 Nephi, and she has been comparing the Isaiah chapters to the ones in the Bible (so she's realllly reading :D) She told me she didn't think she ever be able to leave her family or friends in her church, but then she kept hearing my voice in her head telling her: "Sometimes God requires us to sacrifice." People don't have those types of concerns unless they know the message is true, right? She said we could come by and pick up the Restoration DVD on Friday, and we talked more then. We expressed how our favorite parts of the Book of Mormon are in Mosiah and Alma. She is excited to keep reading :) 

Also on Friday, we met with a part-member family. They have a really cool dog that's half wolf, have German Shepherd. 

Saturday we came back to meet J's girlfriend. She was outside when we came up. She told us that she wasn't really interested, because she found her faith and that when people get to be in their 50s they've pretty much decided what's right for them. We got to know her a little bit and then told her about the Book of Mormon. She had seen the picture of Christ in the America's before, but didn't realize that the Book of Mormon is a record of the people there. She got really interested because it lined up with some stuff she'd learned about Israelite artifacts in South America. She requested that we come back next Saturday, if not sooner.

We've talked to a lot of people the past couple weeks, and although many of them are not ready, it's been cool to see some of them be closed off, and then really warm up as we just get to know them a little bit. For example, there was an atheist woman named M, who knew God wasn't real because of things people had been able to do to her. She was very closed off and mildly angry. As we talked about families she softened, and still did not want to talk about God, but was very uplifted by our conversation.

This next week, we're looking forward to zone conference tomorrow, and exchanges on Thursday. 

Much love,

Sister Bowen

A Family with 38 Kids!

We had quite the week of adventures this past week.

On Monday we got to teach S the Restoration. Near the end, she took a deep breath. We asked her what she was thinking. She brought up that she's been a part of the same church and community, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to leave. Since then she's read through 1 Nephi :) although she's been too busy to meet.

Tuesday, we met an awesome woman named T. We told her about the Restoration, and she was very interested. She's uber busy, but she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

Wednesday we met a guy named G who was working on his car. It's always a little nerve wracking to approach guys working on cars, 'cause they're not always in a good mood. But he seemed like he'd been deep in thought, and we shared a message with him that he really seemed to appreciate. Unfortunately his wife is not interested in meeting, but it was a good experience.

Friday, we had zone training, which was good. And we also taught a lady named C that we found last week. She used to clean a lady's house that was LDS years ago. She seems eager to change her life around and provide a better life for her kids. She is praying about a date to get baptized.

Right after that we ran into a lady named C. We taught her a little about the Restoration, and she was asking a lot of questions about how a church service went. She's been looking for a church, and really liked what she heard about ours, so she said she was excited to come on Sunday. She didn't come, but we'll go see her sometime soon to see where she's at with things.

Saturday, we met a family in the church that's purdy awesome. The woman of the home said to us, "We are the only family in the ward that has 38 kids." Crazy, huh?! Most of the kids are actually adults, and most of them are special needs. Two of them were shaken babies, and there's a handful in wheelchairs. And then there are some that have been through so many foster-parents that they don't really build emotional relationships with people any more. I expected their house to be like a zoo, but it was very clean and organized. We shared a message with about 12 of them, and they were all very well behaved. How cool is that?

Also on Saturday, I saw the biggest sunflower I've ever seen. Its stem was as big as my arm.

Yesterday, church was purdy cool. We got commissioned to teach the 5 year olds. They were very cute (thank goodness--it's an important survival mechanism). We were teaching them about how Jesus wants us to obey laws 'n stuff. Whenever we asked one of the boys a question, his answer was always about Jesus. Which was great, especially since the questions weren't directly geared that way.

That evening, we went for a faith walk (that's where you don't have any appointments and wander around with a goal to find two people to teach in the last hour of the week ;) We met a lady named K, who had meet with missionaries several years ago. We cleared up some things she hadn't understood from before, and she seems excited to start meeting again. Then we met a kid named C who is very religious (and belongs to a church whose pastor we've been warned likes to harass the missionaries) He shared how sad he was about his dad who is a heroin addict (who'd almost killed him in a car accident a few months ago). He mentioned how he didn't know if his dad was saved or not. He said he was, but he didn't act like it. He mentioned how a pastor had told him that once somebody was saved, they could do anything and still go to heaven. He didn't feel like that was what God intended for us. We shared a verse about enduring to the end. I think he appreciated the thought.

It's been hard to get out and talk to people everyday. Especially 'cause the town is purdy small, so we wander the same streets everyday. But we always feel purdy successful by the end of the day. In fact, I was telling Sister Mercer about how I was sad to leave South Bend, 'cause up there I felt like we were God's favorite missionaries, but we feel like we might be His favorites again now ;) My thoughts were summed up by a simple clause in the Restoration pamphlet: "Our Heavenly Father blesses us as we strive to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ." It's so  true. We don't have to be absolutely perfect. We just have to try our best. 

I hope everybody has a miraculous week. 

Much love,

Sister Bowen

Sister McKendrick, me, K, and R 

Sister McKendrick, A, me 

 Me, Sister McKendrick, K

A scene from our new apartment when we walked in :)

 Our district from last transfer Elder Havertz, Elder Lindhardt, Sister McKendrick, me, Elder Bromley, Elder Johnson, Elder Bair, and Elder Bramlett

Me and J

A Huge Scythe in the Closet!

Well team,

Here I am in Lebanon, Indiana with the brand new (and wonderful) Sister Mercer. It is a branch kinda between Indy and Lafayette, in the Lafayette stake. Everybody here rides golf-carts through the streets. Weird.

We got dropped off (we're sharing a car with the Lafayette sisters that live 40 minutes away :P) at our apartment which had previously been occupied (but not for the past few months) by elders. Filthy elders. I've got a few pictures, but I didn't bring my camera cord today. Aaand they left this huge scythe in the closet. When we flushed the toilet water gushed out of the bottom of the septic tank O_o. 

We had some options for the rest of the day. We went shopping briefly (the elders showed us where a store within walking distance was) and we could either clean the apartment, or go out and get to work. We decided to get to work and began to wander the neighborhood, where we found a wonderful lady named S that we are now teaching.

Lebanon is a strange place. It's very common for people to speed past you on the street in golf carts. We are the first sisters to ever serve in Lebanon, so the branch members are excited about that.

We spent a lot of time wandering the neighborhood and talked to a bazillion people and found a handful of new investigators. Your world is very small when you don't have a car or any knowledge of what's around O_o Sister Mercer is definitely going to be the best finder out of the new group of missionaries. She is from Bountiful, Utah, is the oldest of 6 kids (her brother leaves on a mission this week), and attended UofU for two years studying Biology.

We are in a district with two sets of elders. The companionship serving in Crawfordsville would fit in with the cast of The Big Bang Theory. SO FUNNY. I feel like we are in the middle of nowhere, even though I'm closer to Indy than I've ever served.

So. We will need lots of prayers to be able to get things started here (and to just survive O_o)

Much love,

Sister Bowen