The Only Thing That Will Matter

Well it's been yet another week of adventure.

M continues to be awesome. She passed her baptismal interview on Saturday. Earlier in the day she finally allowed us to do some service for her--we helped clean up her garden. Her husband seems to really respond to that. He continues to be unsupportive, but she is determined. She told him that she will be baptized on November 29 (to give him some time to come around). If he really doesn't want her to join, then she won't, but we are pretty confident that it'll work out.

T and J were also able to make it to church. She also came to the relief society activity on Thursday, so it was nice she was able to meet some people. Earlier in the week we were able to have a lesson with them in the home of a member of the stake presidency--that was really nice. T is just so excited to be baptized next month.

H also continues to do well. She loved general conference, her family has been doing family home evening, and her little first grade boy loved coming to church (he had been kinda nervous). She is looking forward to getting baptized in December :)

Another miracle of the week: a member of the branch told us she met a man who is on our roster, but hadn't been involved with the church since he was a kid. She said they had a nice family and were looking for a church. We stopped by and met his wife, who seemed happy to see us. They have been living there for three years and missionaries have never stopped by (which is kinda crazy 'cause Lebanon is such a small town, and e'rybody knows the missionaries. In fact, earlier in the week a nice looking lady offered us a ride home while we were walking in the rain. We hopped in the car and she asked, "It's the house on Jameson, right?") We texted her later in the week to invite her to church and she said that she couldn't make it that week, but requested we keep her in the loop. Good things to come :)

On Tuesday we had a mini zone conference at which we watched "Meet the Mormons" It was very good. It highlighted the lives of 6 individuals with their families. It was cool to see evidence of the Atonement active in their lives, and just a really good movie if you want to feel good.

It is the last week of the transfer, and we're gettin' a little nervous 'cause anything could happen. On Tuesday I asked President Cleveland what was happening. He told me it'd be good for me. So I'll probably have some sort of terrifying adventure for my last transfer O_o

But it was kinda cool: he talked about a talk that a current general authority had given to his missionaries when he was a mission president. It was about the difference between missionaries who let themselves be changed by their missions, and those who stay the same. Both types of missionaries might be obedient and have lots of success, but the one will be putting off happiness for success, while the other will find happiness through success. The first type will likely find more satisfaction from measurable success and leadership positions, while the other will know their success comes from willfully doing what Heavenly Father would have them do. That doesn't mean it comes without struggle. But when we use our stumbling blocks as stepping stones, we find the greatest progression. When all is said and done, it is just us and God. It won't matter what we've done, what positions we've had, the only thing that will matter is what we've become.

So I really liked those thoughts.

I hope e'rybody has the most fantastic of weeks. It's going to be a rough one over here 'cause we only get a partial preparation day today, 'cause Sister Mercer and I are going to the temple on Saturday. That part will be great, it'll just be hard until then O_o

Picture! The only decent picture I've taken in like the last two months...Last Monday was a day the elders had been looking forward for awhile 'cause I agreed to do the gallon challenge. Even the zone leaders came down for this grand event--they even provided the milk for me. For those who don't know what the gallon challenge is...I'm not going to say.

Here are the participants after the grand event: Elder Cronin, Elder Foster, and me.

A Cool Guy From My Home Ward . . .AND. . . . A Sermon For the Week

It's been a fairly uneventful week in comparison to some of the crazy adventurous weeks we've been having.

M asked us about tithing--which is what we'd been planning to teach that day. I have never seen anybody get so excited about tithing. She had originally been planning to get baptized this next weekend, but we'll be backing it up to give her husband more time to become supportive. We're prayin' hard!

On Wednesday we had exchanges on Purdue campus, which was exciting. There is a endless supply of people to talk to (vastly different than Lebanon) and I got to see Andy (a cool guy from my home ward) who is doing a psych study involving the effects of religion on people dealing with ostracism (or something close to that). As part of the study he has the missionaries teach a 20 minute message to some of the people doing the study. Purdy cool!

For district meeting, we were supposed to come prepared with a story from Christ's life and talk about how that describes our relationship with Him. I talked about when he was with his apostles and told them, among other things: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" John 15:14     I'd come across that scripture a day or two before and thought it was purdy funny. A good example for conditions of friendship, right? One of the less active ladies we've been working with asked why--if God loves everybody--does he not bless everybody regardless of their keeping the commandments. It's not that Christ withholds himself from being our friends if we don't keep his commandments, but we withhold ourselves. We cannot really learn of His love for us if we don't obey Him (1 John 3:2) One of the greatest blessings we receive from obedience is what we become because of our obedience. We will not develop the character that comes from forgiving everybody, if we don't forgive everybody. We will not develop the courage that integrity brings, if we don't do what we believe we should. We will not develop the self-mastery that it takes to live the Word of Wisdom, if we don't live the Word of Wisdom. And we will not develop the focused vision and understanding that comes from daily scripture study if we do not study our scriptures daily. 

I love the beginning of Mosiah 2, in which King Benjamin tells how Christ suffered the Atonement that we may be saved--something we will forever be indebted to Him for--and only asks in return that we keep the commandments, which gives us more happiness, and thus we are more fully indebted. Thus we truly love Him and are His friends if we keep His commandments.

Thought from General Conference this weekend: If we are not excited to share the gospel, then we probably do not know it well enough. Knowing it comes from living it. What does it mean to live the gospel? Simply repent: align your actions with Christ a little bit more, strive intentionally to be more obedient to specific commands, counsel, or promptings.

This is something I struggle with regularly. "If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" (Alma 5:26). When we truly experience the redeeming love, we are excited to share it. This is when I am excited 'stead of scared to talk with everybody. And this comes from accountability to the covenants we have made with our Heavenly Father. When we honestly assess 1) how we've been doing in regards to keeping our promises to God (keeping His commandments, consecrating our lives, etc.), 2) what we can change to do/be better 3)how we've been blessed inspite of our imperfections as we've striven to do our best, we will feel of His redeeming love. And there is no gift greater, and "it [is] desirable above all other fruit" (1 Nephi 8:12)

Phew. That's my sermon for the week. We've got some good things coming up this week. Tomorrow we are watching, "Meet the Mormons" with all the missionaries in the stake. That should be exciting. Aaaand today I have exactly 10% of my mission left. I got a "thank you for you service/keep working hard 'til the end" letter. It's like their trying to make me think about it. Jerks.

Hope e'rybody has a great week.

Sister Bowen

Missionary Work is Wonderfully Exhausting.

Phew. Missionary work is wonderfully exhausting.

M is just doing so well. Last Sunday she had expressed that it might be her last time at church 'cause her husband didn't want her to come. She was really sad. When we saw her later in the week, he had told her that he wanted to take her to some other churches before she made any big decisions. She told him she would go with him if he was up and ready (which is rare--he has a lot of health problems that make it hard for early church services), and if he chose a church that starts later in the day, she would come to ours first. She finished the Book of Mormon, and just loves it and wants to share it with everybody. She has her heart set on being baptized October 11th.

C and C (who came to church last week) are aiming to be baptized in December, but still aren't sure if we are Christ's church on the earth today. But they are excited to read the Book of Mormon, and that's how you find out, so they should be good, eh? Unfortunately, her grandma died last week, so she was out of town this weekend. We'll be checkin' up with them tomorrow.

And then we've been teaching H, who is thinking she also would like to be baptized in December. She recently married a man in the branch, and they've been coming to church every week. She is just a sweetheart, and we're excited for her to discover just how exciting the gospel is :)

And then Ti is just really excited to get baptized in November. We met with her and J this morning (we must love them--we've been teaching them on our day off O_o) and she is just so excited to "be right with God" and to move on from the bad things that have happened in her life.

One of the greatest things about working with these people is the opportunity we have to bring members with us. A wonderful lady has been a great friend for M, and they've really been helping each other in so many ways--the lady from church just has some crazy things she has to deal with in her life right now, and she and M have been a great support to each other. She told us that when we first asked her to join us for a lesson, she didn't think she was worth asking anything. And now she has a great purpose :)

Another lady that's been struggling came to H's lesson with us. She bore powerful testimony of the Word of Wisdom and the sacrament. She is so excited to be preparing to go to the temple to be sealed to her husband, and shared that excitement with H. That was really cool.

Although we've got a good amount going on, we've still been striving to find more people to teach, which has been hard. We found 6 new people to teach this last week, and they all decided they didn't care to learn more before the end of the week. It's hard when you know people have felt the spirit directing their paths, but they choose to do things their own way. But I'm probably guilty of doing that everyday, so I don't really have room to complain.

Anywhen, the general women's conference was fabulous. I especially appreciated Sister Marriott's and President Uchtdorf's thoughts. This week we've got exchange on Purdue campus this Wednesday, so that should be exciting. 

I hope e'rybody has a fantastic week.

Much love,

Sister Bowen

An Incredible Week!

Well team, it's been an incredible week.

Tuesday evening, M was texting us about how excited she was. She said she had been smiling, laughing, praying, and crying all day. She wanted to sing, but was sad 'cause she didn't know our hymns yet. When we saw her on Tuesday, she had already read most of the Gospel Principles manual she had gotten on Sunday. She showed us the remains of her cigarettes she had torn up when she read about the Word of Wisdom (we hadn't even talked to her about it yet.) She set a date with us by which she will be prepared to be baptized. She will be ready either way, but may or may not be baptized, because her husband doesn't want her to get baptized. So now we are praying really hard. If anybody needs something to fast for this next Sunday, that would be a great option.

Later in the week, we had an appointment with a gal named P. We'd scheduled on with her before, but she missed it 'cause she was in Lafayette with her Grandma who was in the hospital 'cause of cancer. We'd stopped by one evening two weeks ago--she wasn't home, but her dad was waiting for her in his car in the driveway, so we told him about the Restoration. This time when we went back for our appointment, she was not home, but her fiance R was. We taught him about the Restoration. When we were discussing the situation later that evening, we were wondering if she was dodging us. Then we got a text from her saying that she and R were sincerely considering coming to church this Sunday. We set an appointment with them for Saturday, but they missed it 'cause her uncle died earlier that day. Satan must be working overtime.

Saturday, we met these people who invited us in and allowed us to teach the Restoration. And then they came to church on Sunday. They really wanted a Book of Mormon, so the elders brought one to them after church. We're meeting with them again tonight.

Earlier last week we met an old man named D. He told us we could talk to him whenever, but he didn't know when his wife would be home. We didn't think much of it. We saw him again on Sunday, and set an appointment with him and his wife for last night. His wife wasn't there, but his daughter and two of her teenage kids were there. We had an awesome and hilarious lesson. The three younger folks were listening intently. I would say something like, "The most important thing is---" and then D would interrupt: "where'd you say you lived?", and the three others would yell at him. Then we'd try again, and at the climax of the statement he'd interrupt. Without fail. Soooo funny. But the lesson went really well. The mom and the teenagers were intently focused the whole time (which was really something for the 16 year old boy who was uber surprised to see us sitting on the couch when he came out of his room.) All three of them committed to be baptized if they came to know the message was true.

Also yesterday, we had a zone conference with Elder Perkins, of the Seventy. It was a great meeting. But one of the greatest parts was talking to the missionaries in South Bend who told me that K (a lady who we'd been teaching) got baptized on Sunday :D

On Sunday, we had 5 people (that we are teaching) come to church, and it was purdy exciting. Good things are on the rise in Lebanon.

Hope everybody has a great week.

Sister Bowen

5 Minutes Messages . . . Not Massages

Another week of adventure! 

We'll start with the not as spiritual stuff. On Monday we met this crazy guy named R. We were teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he asked us if we believed pot was a drug. 'Cause he has to be on it all the time to function. Then we walked over to his friend's house, where he was helping them move. And we helped too. And the place was quite exciting in a very gross sort of way. Is this real life?!

On Wednesday morning, our appointment fell through, so we went for a walk. We came across a man named D, who's finally turning his life around after years of alcohol abuse. He was very intrigued and excited about the Book of Mormon.

On Thursday, we went for an evening wander ('cause our appointment fell through) and happened across two men who were talking. Turns out one of them is the fiance of the mother of a young man who got baptized about a year ago, but has been off in Boot Camp. The other was the man's brother. And they were also very interested 

On Saturday, we tried something out of the box. There was a  festival downtown on Saturday. We took our whiteboard, wrote some questions of the soul on it and offered 5 minute messages (not massages) and sat over there. We shared some good messages (again, not massages) and found some sincere seekers.

We had to rearrange our schedule a little bit today to accommodate the part-member couple we found a few weeks ago while 224ing. They work 12 hour night shifts, and were eager to go on a church tour. And it was probably one of the best experiences of my mission. They were both very tired 'cause they'd come straight from work. 

T (the nonmember) was very aware of the feelings of peace in the church building. J (the member) hasn't been very active for the past few years, but would like to be. His testimonies of sacrament and baptism were heartfelt and perfect. They both stared for a long time at the picture of Christ in the Americas. When we walked into the Relief Society room, she just stared at the font, and asked at the end if she would be able to be baptized again. Near the end of the Restoration lesson, he turned to her and said, "If you come to know this is true and are baptized, I would like to be sealed to you." 

It was a tremendous experience to see her desire to put her past behind her and commit to follow Christ. 

Another miracle--M, a wonderful woman we are teaching was hoping her controlling husband would allow her to come to church, but didn't think it would happen anytime soon. We, along with a few members that had met her fasted for his heart to be softened. And by His grace, she was able to attend yesterday and had a wonderful time.

Next week, Elder Perkins is coming to the mission, and he's meeting with the missionaries here and in South Bend on Monday...so I won't be emailing 'til Tuesday.

It seems like things are finally starting to pull together a li'l bit, so it's been purdy exciting.

Hope everybody has a fantastic week.

(note: The 224ing is this: they have an appt at a certain house & they are not home. So they knock on 2 doors to the left, then 2 doors to the right, then the 4 houses across the street from these houses)

Angry Prayers

Well team, it's been another frustrating, yet somehow inspiring week. 

Sometimes I feel like divine intervention is working against us. We've been doing absolutely everything to have lessons with investigators with members there. Normally this isn't super hard. But here it is. I've never had so many instances in which we set an appointment with somebody for the next day, confirm it two hours before, and they still forget. Or when they actually keep the appointment  then the member doesn't show up. Weird. And insanely annoying.

But the inspiring part is that Heavenly Father still blesses us in unexpected ways. To take a step back, we have key indicators which help us to focus on what we need to do to help things progress--these make it easy to pray specifically for things to find success: for example, we may have a goal to teach two lessons to investigators with members. If it is an inspired goal, and if we do everything in our power to make it happen (which includes praying for it to happen), it usually happens. 

But that is a simple truth we have been neglecting lately. So we recommitted to praying to reach these goals. And somehow we did. Even though it's been super hard to get lessons to investigators with a member (I think this week we had 10 set up that all fell through) Heavenly Father still enabled us to reach our goal--usually through nonmembers being in places where we had appointments to teach members, and allowing us to direct the message toward them. 

I dunno if my description makes any sense, but it was a good reminder that this is God's work. And I should probably let Him help me more than I have been.

Also, I feel like I have found the value of angry prayers. It sounds strange, but it's real. I think God would much rather have us say an angry prayer than to not pray because we're angry. I feel like the ideal attitude we should have in prayer involves more reverence, respect, humility, etc. But life is rarely ever ideal, and I've been learning the necessity of doing what you're supposed to be doing regardless of the ideal situation. In many circumstances, it may not be graceful, smooth, or pleasant, but doing what we're supposed to be doing will always be better than refraining--whether it's because of anger, apathy, awkwardness, or anything else.

That's all for today, and I hope everybody has a fantastic week!

Sister Bowen

How to Teach a Drunk Guy . . .

Phew!

I won't lie, I'm super glad last week is over. But we did have some great adventures.

 . . .Like walking 40 minutes to the church for an 8 am meeting...in the rain. Aaand the church building was purdy cold...for the next 5 hours.

. . . Or heading in for the night and meeting a trio of drunk people. We told them exciting things about the gospel. The man of the group insisted on escorting us home for the evening ('cause it was dark out by then) but for some reason we felt safer without him O_o Before we left, his girl friend grabbed my arm and pulled me in and asked me to talk to him about fornication on the way home. I told him about how keeping the commandments makes us happy. Close enough, right? And thank goodness we managed to let him off before we got to where we actually 

live.

But one of the drunk ladies did agree to meet with us again...we'll have to check back when she's sober 

But everybody in town knows where we live--and people randomly drop vegetables off on our doorstep weekly. And anonymously. If only I super liked cucumbers and could eat tomatoes faster. Not to mention the pumpkin and watermelon still sitting on our counter.

We also had a fantastic district meeting--it wasn't particularly spiritual, but it was hilarious. We were all super sick--lots of coughing, sneezing, nose blowing. We couldn't hear each other 'cause our ears were plugged up, and everything was super funny. And then we made biscuits and gravy for lunch afterwards.

And we reached the highest temperatures for the year so far...our apartment was not at all a pleasant place to be those days.

It was a rough week--all but one of our appointments fell through for the whole week. But it's over now, and things are looking better.

We did have several miracles of note. The member we had lined up to come to our one lesson that did not fall through--had fallen through. We prayed to somehow be able to find somebody to come. We started walking over (it's just a few blocks away) and right before we got there, a member drove by and stopped to ask us if we needed a ride anywhere. We invited her to join us for the lesson, and she did! It was a great lesson with a lady named M. She is loving the Book of Mormon.

Another miracle happened as well. We'd had a rather unsuccessful Tuesday, and spirits were low beginning on Wednesday. We headed out for our first appointment--which fell through, and decided to meet some people in the area. The first lady we talked to invited us in, and we told her about the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. The next person allowed us to share the Restoration with her as well and set a return appointment.

We were ready to head in for lunch when we decided to talk to another lady outside. She was excited to see us and told us her husband was Mormon. They moved here in March, and didn't know there was a branch in Lebanon! He wants to get back into church and she said, "I wanna join the church and everything." So that was purdy cool.

Also, after church on Sunday, a man who got baptized about 4 years ago got married. We met his wife and she wants to take the discussions :)

Good things are coming. And we've got specialized training for new missionaries and their trainers tomorrow, so that'll be something exciting.

But the most exciting thing is that J got baptized on Saturday in South Bend! It was a great pleasure to teach him and see the change take place in his life the 3 months I was there :D

Hope e'rrybody has an excellent week!

Sister Bowen

Our super sick district + and then - zone leaders. (who were also super sick.)

~Elders Sneddon, Lawrence, Cronin, Foster, me, Elder Park, Sister Mercer, and Elder Bullock squattin' in front

~Elders Bullock, Cronin, Park, me, Elder Sneddon, and Sister Mercer in the cart.