Hey, I'm in Indiana: 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