I'm an Indian Princess . . . no really!

What an adventure a mission is!

We've continued to be uber busy everyday! There's a scripture in Thessalonians about recent converts being the greatest joy of missionaries. Often that is true, but often they are the most stressful part! We've got a lovely lady we're working with who was baptized last month...and she really struggles. She knows that God lead her to this church, and she prayed about and knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but she refuses to do any of the other things that build faith (study accompanied by prayer, and obedience) Aaaand she has some pretty severe mental stuff goin' on. And blames my poor companion for all her problems, but not to our face--she tells everything to another member who lets us know. So that's one adventure.

We're teaching another man who is one of the most sincere people we've taught. He loves the Book of Mormon. And he also has been addicted to heroin for 30+ years. So he's been working hard to get off of that. So sometimes he's too sick to meet or come to church 'cause he's suffering so bad from withdrawals. So there's another adventure.

We had a wonderful zone conference on Friday. We were all sitting, ready for the meeting to begin, when President Cleveland motions me up to the stand. He told me that Sister Cleveland needed my and Sister McKendrick's help. So we went out with her and she told us we were needed to help with Elder Hodges' (the senior missionary who is in charge of mission cars) training. Soooo we dressed up like Indians and waited in the hallway until Elder Hodges (dressed like an Indian chief) came up to the stand. We walked in bare-footed while he gave a presentation: "How...not good" and preceded to talk about how he'd been nice (usually he dresses up as a shepherd with a shepherd's crook) but now he was out for scalps...not killing, just scalps, unless our scalps weren't worth it, then he'd kill. And we were his Indian princesses, standing in front of about 100 missionaries. 

President Connolly (of the mission presidency) gave a reeeally good training about increasing faith, and how there are three levels of faith--all involving prayer, study, and obedience. The difference in each level was the degree to which we were involved in each, and our desire. It was purdy empowering. 

Right after zone conference we started exchanges with Elkhart, which was good. I enjoy exchanges, but I don't like starting them. Especially if they're with a sister that I don't know very well. But Sister Williams and I had a good time. I hope she learned something useful. I stayed in South Bend, which was kinda tricky, but good.

There were many small miracles throughout the week, and we're excited for all that's going on in the weeks to come :)

Hope all is well, and much love,

Sister Bowen

Missionary Exile

Well here I am in South Bend! Also known as missionary exile. Most other areas are within about an hour of Indy, but here we are 2 1/2 hours north of it, almost in Michigan. Buuut I get to be companions with Sister McKendrick, which is purdy great. We were in the same MTC district (almost a year ago O_o) And there's only 3 of us from there out here, so we're excited to be together. 

She's from Highland, UT (8 out of 10 companions have been from Utah now) and she's a really good missionary. I'm grateful to be able to learn from her and hopefully pick up some of her sweet skills. She got to help with transfer planning for this transfer. She said that President Cleveland had already picked me for her companion and told her "finally you'll have somebody you can get along with!" He was mostly joking 'cause I don't get along with anybody. Just kidding! He was mostly joking 'cause Sister McKendrick is purdy chill, but gets work done.

I don't really have a lot to say today. I really miss Franklin, but that'll be okay once I get to know some people here. I just really hate meeting people, so that'll be a little rough, but character building--and who couldn't use more character?

I don't really know most of the people we're teaching very well, so I don't have a lot to say about that.

Indiana seems to have forgotten about Spring, and it's been in the high 80s as of late. That's super nice though, 'cause a lot of people are outside, and we've been able to talk to a lot of people. So that's always good!

We've got a lot of good things coming, and a few people preparing to be baptized next month, so we'll see how that goes. We stay super busy, which is good 'cause it keeps me out of trouble, and typically means we're working hard. Hopefully I'll have a better handle of what's going on here next week!

Much love and sunny skies

Sister Bowen

Me and Sister Mumford from a couple weeks ago :)

When feeding puppies is service, you're in a good place :)

Gosh, I hate the anticipation of transfer calls--especially since this was the first time I really had no idea if I was staying or leaving. Aaaand I'm leaving, which is kinda sad 'cause we've got a lot of exciting stuff going on, but I'm always up for new adventures :)

We had a lot of really cool things happen this week. We went over to H's on Wednesday. She started out by asking if we could start coming Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We gladly agreed! At the end we asked the boys if they wanted to be baptized, and they both said yes! So they're getting baptized in a couple weeks :)

Also, B--the awesome marine from Bloomington got baptized on Friday! But unfortunately we couldn't make it :/

And D continues to be wonderful :)

On Tuesday, we spent a chunk of the day inside 'cause Sister Mumford wasn't feeling so good, we were kinda unmotivated as we headed out in the evening to go meet a less active lady who'd moved in from Shelbyville. She wasn't there again, but we met her sister. She said that she was kinda busy 'cause she had some puppies to feed. We offered to help, and she gladly accepted. When feeding puppies is service, you're in a good place :)

On Saturday, we had the missionary dream come true. We had about an hour and a half before dinner, so we parked in a neighborhood across the street, intending to go check back on some people we'd previously met. We ended up spending about an hour in the car just coordinating things for the next day. The whole time, these people whose house we were parked outside kept coming out and going back in, probably wondering what two creepy girls were doing sitting there in a car. Eventually, the lady backed out of her driveway--in her car, of course--and pulled up to our window to see what we were up to. To make a long story short, we are now teaching her. We always dream about people coming to us, and sometimes it happens!

That's all I gots for today. I could be anywhere next week! I've got it mostly narrowed down to IU, IUPUI, or South Bend. We'll see!

Much love, and warm weather!

Sister Bowen

Peectures!

Feeding puppies!

Aaaand sometimes getting out of the car isn't as easy as it should be :/ #skirtsinthewind

an UBER eventful week!

Hello World!

This has been an UBER eventful week! 

First of all, J GOT BAPTIZED! He's the Pentecostal preacher that Sister Howard and I found last August. And last I'd head he was messing around with drugs. Wednesday afternoon we got a call from the sisters in Bloomington telling us he was getting baptized on Saturday and wanted us to come! The story is that they had prayed to know when to see him, and went on Easter. When they got there, he said he'd been waiting for them. He told them he just needed to do it. He knew it was what God wanted him to do, and he just needed to get it done. I think he had to get special permission, but it's done now. And what courage he had. He told his family, and they were not happy. And outside of church people, they're everything he has. So it was really a great experience to go be there, and to see him again.

Next is D. She was a lady we met about a month ago, who had been given a Nauvoo Pageant CD but really wanted "A Mormon Bible," which we gave her. She was unable to meet again because her husband is very much against religion. Her brother contacted the mission office to tell us to go over that day (Friday) because she'd been reading the Book of Mormon and had a lot questions--turns out she was also stayed home from work because she was sick, so he knew we'd catch her. We invited her to be baptized. She agreed, and we set a date for May 24. When she came to Stake Conference, she let us know it'd have to be postponed a week because then her brother could come baptize her. What a miracle she is. She is so prepared, and she's sane too! So that's really cool.

Then there is J. Her son and mother-in-law were baptized last year, but she backed done because of the Word of Wisdom. We met her the week before last because we were trying to help her mother-in-law get back to church, and we started teaching her too. Last night we invited her to be baptized, and she agreed. So she is preparing to quit smoking and aiming to get baptized in June.

In other news, we had exchanges with a sweet set of sisters. And it was exhausting. The previous exchange had been invigorating because the sisters were just so teachable, so faithful, and so happy. These Sisters were a second transfer trainee and her trainer. I had the trainee, and we wandered through a neighborhood to talk to people. We found a wonderful lady named S and told her about the Book of Mormon. She said she would definitely read it and pray about it. Then it was the trainee's turn to talk to people. She didn't know how. She didn't realize that this was something that missionaries did. Aaaand suddenly we understood why they've only found 2 new investigators in the past 11 weeks :/ It's just hard because it's not her fault at all. Her trainer (who I love dearly) just enjoys struggling. She has all the tools she needs to be a good missionary, but loves to let her situation control her. She only has two transfers left on her mission, and I hope she can figure things out before then.

And that's partly why Mission Leadership Council was awesome. President spoke a lot about faith and sharing miracles: "Remebering may be the highest form of devotion" If we remember how Heavenly Father has blessed us, it can get us through times of personal spiritual drought. And sharing those miracles helps bring/restore faith to others. He also gave us a ladder diagram, where the bottom were those with little faith who let their situations mandate their happiness and success. And at the top were those who exercised their faith despite their circumstances and made success. It made me really think about my faith, and where I was on the scale. I hope when the other sister sees it, it will open her eyes as well.

This transfer has been like the greatest adventure. And I even have some pictures to  send home! (You're welcome mom ;)

Me and Sister Howard with Jonathan post baptism

Me and Sister Howard with Brother Martinez (the Ward Mission Leader in Clear Creek)

Me modelling how to wear a skirt as a dress...with all my companion's belts

Me on the ground 'cause I couldn't make it to the front door.

When I almost burned holes in PMG and my planner while planning.

Happy Easter!

Greetings world!

It's been another week full of adventure.

Monday we had our basketball clinic with President Coach Cleveland. It was super fun/ny. I think we all a good time--not sure if we got any better at basketball though O_o

On Tuesday we had training on how to give church tours. It's a kinda cool thing. The tour isn't for the purpose of showing the church to people, per say, but we sorta teach the restoration lesson as we go along. It's super cool. And spiritual. And President is purdy serious about it. We've tacked a 1/2 hour on to study everyday to practice it. It's gotta be good.

Wednesday was the specialized training for all the sisters in the mission. In the morning we learned a lot of cool things: President Connelly shared some very enlightening thoughts about women and the priesthood. Sister Clark gave an inspired training on finding joy in the work through giving it your all. Sister Cleveland gave a presentation about what God expects of us. Sister Tolman did a musical number that was absolutely fantastic. It was a great morning.  

In the afternoon we were taught by some ladies about eating healthy and managing stress. And then they taught us some exercise  stuff that we can do to not be bums. Aaand that's where the adventure started. The lady was showing us how to do lunge jumps. And then there was a lot of screaming. One poor sister in the back was laying on the ground. While the appropriate people tended to her, they told us to keep doing what we were doing...while she was still laying on the ground screaming. Can you say uncomfortable? The lady instructing us felt super bad. She said, "Oh, I broke a sister missionary" And because we're all girls and are compassionate (except those of us who don't have hearts anymore) we all felt suuper bad. Her knee was sticking out at an uncomfortable angle. She tore her meniscus and may have to go home for surgery. She one of the sisters in my stewardship, but unfortunately I don't really know her yet--our exchange had to be postponed 'cause she was sick. Aaand  she's not coming back to that area this transfer 'cause their apartment is up three flights of stairs. But other than that, it was a fantastic day.

On Thursday we met with a really interesting man. Every time we talk about him, all we can say is "he's so interesting!" He's the one from two weeks ago who blew up cocaine plants. When we were leaving, he told us two quick stories. On about how he put up two big boulders on his property to stop snow-mobilers--and how if people hit the rocks, there would be a cap on how much they could sue--or something like that. Then he told us about when his daughter was in an unpleasant situation with a guy in his car. I think he said he arranged for the car (a jaguar) to be taken to a chop shop. And then offered to let the guy's father pay him $10,000 to forget the whole thing. The guy's dad did some research on our friend, and paid up. He said, long story short, that he would be that kind of insurance for us. It was almost like having somebody like Liam Neeson from Taken watching out for us. Except for the fact that he's 70, and seems much more mellow. And we don't even know what his real name is. You meet the most interesting people. And he wants to learn more and introduce us to some young friends. We'll see where it goes O_o

Friday to Saturday I was on an exchange with Sister Allred who is a new missionary serving in Columbus. We had some great appointments set up, but they all fell through. That was okay because we met a lot of people.

Sometimes we talk about what kind of investigators we tend to teach. Sister Mumford tends to teach kids. Her previous companion tended to attract old ladies. My investigators seem to be middle-age to older men. That's who we taught in Bloomington, and that's who we've been finding a lot here. So that was everybody we talked to. Kinda funny.

So for Easter, I've been thinking a lot about the Atonement, and what that means for us as individuals (watch mormon.org/becauseofhim if you haven't already) Because of what Christ did is the only reason that life has any meaning at all. It truly is the greatest gift and greatest manifestation of love ever. John 3:16. So how do we repay him? The last two versus in Matthew talk about the apostles commission to teach and baptize. That's our role too. I was thinking about that in reference to Helaman 10:4-5. It's hard to do it without weariness, but we are blessed tremendously. I was also thinking about Isaiah 6:5-8. He volunteered without hesitation to serve. And because of that he was purified. What another great blessing. I've been thinking a lot about the gospel in reference to happiness. Living the gospel (faith, repentance, making covenants, the holy ghost) is supposed to make us happy. Was Christ happy? I think he must've been, but it doesn't really talk about that in the scriptures.

I think one of the blessings about striving for righteousness, is that when we do sorrow, it's not for our sakes, but for others.  

Yesterday, Sister Mumford taught gospel principles which was about how we are a covenant people. One part of it said something about how it is hard for mortals to fully comprehend the significance of the promises we make. And I think that's really where faith comes into play. Much of the faith we exercise is to keep commandments, and we can see the positive effects of that in our lives through experimenting on the word, and evaluating the results. But when it comes to determining whether or not consecrating our lives to our Heavenly Father will bring us the most satisfying form of happiness attainable, we can't know for sure in this life.

Well that was quite a novel. I hope everybody had a great Easter. What a great time it was to reflect what the Savior has done for us, and what we can do better for Him.

~Sister Bowen

Fifty Dollars!

What an adventurous week it has been!

On Monday, we got to play soccer with a bunch of missionaries. We've played a lot of chair soccer, but not real soccer. It was sooo fun!

Tuesday we had a fantastic district meeting and went out for lunch with our district. Then we drove home so I could be lame and take a nap--'cause I wasn't feeling too good :P That afternoon we headed out and tried to talk to everybody. We were doing some inspired wandering, and greeted this man who was blowing leaves outta bushes. He turned off the blower and came over to talk to us. We gave him a run-down about the Book of Mormon and exchanged phone numbers. His name is J, and he's super nice! That night we started an exchange with the Indy 1st sisters. I got to bring Sister Loveland down with me. She is a brand new missionary, but she's really good.

Wednesday, we went to do companion studies...and I was lame and apologized and told this brand new sister I had to go lay down, 'cause I felt purdy cruddy again. We had some service scheduled for the morning, so we went to go help clean an apartment. I figured if I could do that, we'd be good for the rest of the day, and if I couldn't we'd probably have to figure something out for our appointments that day. Part of the way through cleaning, and went into the bathroom and threw up. But then I felt much better! And the rest of the day went really well. K committed to stop smoking, and is very motivated to change her life. Then we went to see the less active lady (the one I talked about last week, who's life is all over the place, but who's faith has grown tremendously in the last few months.) Unexpectedly, her husband was home (who recently got out of prison, and I'd never met before.) We talked a little about the restoration. He said he was coming to church and read the Book of Mormon. He asked us what kind of bonus we'd get for getting him there. We told him a high-five from the spirit. He said that he was a big deal because he's so stubborn, so we should get more. We told him we'd probably get a high-ten. He liked that. Aaaand the whole family made it to church.

Friday, we met a handful of new people. One weird instance was when we were talking with this gal who seemed super open fairly interested. Until we mentioned the Book of Mormon. Then she mentioned how her pastor had gave a sermon about it a couple years ago...and then we could sense her becoming more and more closed off. It's so sad that these people with such great intentions (pastors) and do so much harm and inhibit people's progression.  Later in the ay we went to the private viewing for the man who died the week before. We weren't sure how we'd be received, because sometimes we feel like we bother people when we keep showing up. But the family was sincerely glad to see us. So that was nice :)

Saturday, we were suppose to do another exchange, but the other sisters were a little sick. So we didn't. The highlight of the day was when we tried to call J to set up an appointment. The number didn't work. So we stopped by. He wasn't home, but his mom was (we hadn't realized that he lived with his parents.) We talked to her for a long time. She told us about his drug addiction, but how he's been clean for two months now. She was glad that we'd talked with him a little, and we have an appointment to meet with both of them this week.

Kinda funny story, I don't remember which day it happened. We wandered into a guy in his late-teens and a guy in his 60s. They were neighbors, and the older man was helping the younger one with his truck. They were putting guards on the tail lights. The older one warned us that they were men at work and things weren't going well. We offered to try to help. The younger one offered $50 if we could fit the guard over the light. I picked it up and did it, without much of a problem. One of the more amusing moments X)

So things are good. We're finding a lot of people, people are coming to church, and the gospel is real. Life doesn't get much better! And this week is pretty exciting. Today we have our basketball clinic with President Coach Cleveland, tomorrow we have a special training for giving church tours, Wednesday we have a specialized training for all the sisters in the mission, Friday district meeting, and Saturday exchanges. So much adventure!

I hope all is well with everybody!

Much love,

Sister Bowen

Miracles and Adventure

Greetings world,

It has been a week of miracles and adventure.

On Monday evening, we had a HQ referral to contact--it turned out to be a special needs lady. We were talking to her outside when her mom came out. We told them about the Book of Mormon and set up a time to come back. 

Then we talked to the grandmother of all these kids that were running around next door. She was very strange, but pleasant enough. 

After that we went off to check on a part member family, we drove past and continued on because their cars weren't there (yes, we are creeps like that.) 

A block or so down, we saw a man sitting at the edge of garage trying to get rid of a TV. We went and talked to him. He was also really interesting. He worked for the government--he did some profiling, and blew up cocaine plants. We talked a little about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. He asked us why he would want to be a part of our church. I volunteered that 1) because it's true 2) because it's true, and God really loves us, it makes us significantly happier than we could be without it 3) it brings strength and perspective. And Sister Mumford added that it brings people a lot of peace. We scheduled a time to come back and went our separate ways.

We'd missed a call from the elders about this family that we'd helped to move in a couple weeks ago. He'd been in and out of the hospital because his cancer had taken a turn for the worse. They are not members, but their daughter who lives in Indy is. He was dying, and they wanted to see if we could come pray with them. So we did. It's hard to pray for a dying man's family. What do you say? I dunno what I said, but I hope it helped. And we talked a little bit about the spirit world.

Tuesday morning, we got a call from his daughter. He died that morning. Later on Tuesday, we talked to one of the wonderful less active ladies we've been working with. The ward was worried that she wouldn't be as receptive when her husband returned home from prison. He got back a few weeks ago, and they've been having problems. But she was doing great. She talked about how she's been reading the scriptures a lot, and praying more. She expressed how she wished she had done that when they had problems in their family years before. It's amazing to see how fast she developed her faith so that it could carry her through this.

On Wednesday, we had a first lesson with this wonderful lady. She was very receptive, and the spirit was strong--that's what happens when you talk about how much our Heavenly Father loves us and discuss evidence of that love. She was excited to meet again. I love lessons like that.

Friday, we had zone training, which is always an great revelatory opportunity. 

In the afternoon we talked to some neighbors. The lady was happy to meet us, but when she learned we belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she closed off. She talked about how we teach things that just can't be true "Jesus and Satan were not half-brothers!" We agreed, and talked about how we were all brothers and sisters when we lived with our Heavenly Father before this. She talked about how she had been saved in her youth, and that Christ is the only way. We agreed and talked about faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Then we prayed. Their hearts had been softened by the spirit, and we don't know if it'll go anywhere, but we left on a very high note.

And then general conference was fantastic. How grateful I am to have a prophet on the earth today. How grateful I am that God still speaks to us today. Listening to the prophet and apostles is probably my favorite way of obtaining personal revelation. Often times things I need to do become so much clearer. That's one of my favorite roles of the spirit--clarity. "It beginneth to enlighten my understanding"

I hope everybody enjoyed conference as much as I did. We've got a lot of work to do, but it truly is the key to happiness--doing the Lord's work. Taking on a load that will provide sufficient spiritual traction, that we may return home

That's all for today,

Much love!

Sister Bowen