It's a Small World After All

Well it's transfer season. And I'm staying in Bloomington in the Clear Creek Ward!! But Sister Howard is leaving, so in 2 days I'll get a new best friend. But I'll really miss Sister Howard. And I'm training somebody. Which is weird 'cause I have no idea what I'm doing. Usually we don't find out anything about our new companion, but President Cleveland told me she's a visa waiter headed to Australia. And she spent five years in China, so she speaks fluent Mandarin. Kinda crazy that my failings could spread to the people in Australia, eh? So that's kinda daunting, but I'm excited to see Heavenly Father support me in new ways. Pray for me.

And the Mormon world is tiny. Yesterday after sacrament meeting, I stood up, turned around and saw Hayden (Jensen) Hamner. What?! Yeah, that's what I said too. Her husband is starting at IU, so they just moved into the ward. What are the chances somebody from my home stake would move into the ward I'm serving in?! O_o

This past week was excellent, yet a bit discouraging, but that's missionary work, I s'pose. Sometimes it's really hard to keep going, especially when I think about how long I'm going to be doing this without weekends off or vacations, so sometimes I secretly pray to get sick just to have a break from going out to talk to people. However, those feelings usually don't last very long in the morning, and when I start talking to people it gets better.  They need the gospel, and I have it. And I realize the great blessings that are promised for bringing people to Christ, and helping them realize their full potential. And that's exciting.

We had some experiences to remember on Saturday. We were tracting for a little while, when we can across an old man working on a house that he was renting out. The door was open, and he saw us through the screen door. He came out and asked me if I was ready to go to Heaven. I said, "I sure hope so," which probably wasn't quite the right thing to say, considering the tremendous confidence I have in our message. He commenced to preach to us very loudly about Christ, and how we (people in general) need to come unto him to be saved. It lasted for about 20+ minutes and he was so passionate there were tears in his eyes. He didn't let us teach him at all, but it was really great to be with somebody who had such great passion for the reality of God, and a passion for following Christ. At the end he held our hands (very tightly, which I felt was kind of unexpected for a 94 year old man) and prayed for us. It was really sweet.

Right after that, we had an appointment fall through, so we brought a member (Sister W) to try a few potential investigators with us. We ran into a "woman" who was 71 years old and had a lot to say. She talked to us for about a 1/2 hour, and near the end he looked at Sister W's arms and said it looks like she works out. We saw her eyes go to my arms and Sister Howard's arms, and she didn't say anything. She was purdy muscular, but she had kind of cheated. Because she used to be a man. She didn't tell us that, but we knew from another source (and other observational reasons) which makes the whole situation that much more...memorable.

But old people are frustrating. Because they like to talk a lot. And they think they have a lot to offer us. And they do, but it never seems to cross their minds that what we have might be something of greater importance. But that's purdy natural. I'd be the same way if I were old, I'd imagine. But they are really sweet.

That's all I have for today. Thanks Dallin for the letter it made me ridiculously happy! I will write back, but it does take me forever to write letters.

Hope life is wonderful! Well, life is always wonderful, so I hope everybody is seeing it that way...

Live long and prosper,

and look both ways before you cross the street.

Love,

Sister Bowen

Inspiration

One of the things that I knew would be hard about being on a mission is that you don't get a ton of positive feed-back, which is something I've always needed especially when it comes to gospel type stuff. After I give a talk in sacrament meeting, or give a lesson in Relief Society, I always feel super vulnerable until a few people have convinced me that I've done a good job. And that's just not something you get out here. Nobody ever tells you "I really appreciate the way described the spirit world.. I've never thought about it like that before" or "thanks for sharing your testimony with me. It really helped me get through"... That's just not something investigators are ever going to tell you.

But it something I need. The gospel is so personal to me that often times I can't share some points effectively without handing the person a piece of my soul as well. And often they don't realize what's in their hands and throw it away. It doesn't hurt, but it does wear me down.

But sometimes that piece of my soul inspires people. Sometimes our work does do more than I realized. Sometimes we share our knowledge of the reality of the grace offered to us and people let it change them.

And we experienced some of that this past week.

On Monday, we met a man named J. We were in the area to meet somebody else that we had an appointment with, but he didn't show up. We were heading out when a man called for us to come over to see what we had to offer him. The man was probably drunk, but we still began talking and he told us we needed to meet his friend next door. He got him to come out and we had a good gospel discussion. He asked to hear our testimonies before the night was over and we set a time to come back. A quick bio--J is a former Apostolic preacher who was pushed out of his own ministry by his partner earlier in the year.

On Thursday, we went back over to see him again. He'd told us when we'd found him, he'd been in "a back-slidden condition" and not living the way he knew he should be. He said that our testimonies inspired him and that after we left and recommitted himself to God. He said that he wasn't looking to join the Mormon church, but if Spirit testified that it was true, he would drop everything and join. (We really appreciate that attitude, because there are way too many people who are "comfortable" in their religion and are much more likely to listen to their pastor, or whoever (that's being paid for his work) rather than to the spirit) We shared Joseph Smith's account of the first vision with him. He felt the spirit and knew what it was, which was also exciting. We left him with a Book of Mormon and he was really excited about it.

We went back on Saturday, and he'd read all the intro/testimonies, parts of Mosiah, and all of Moroni. He had some good questions and said he wanted to come to church. And he did come to church. We think he had a great experience, but we haven't gotten to talk with him much since. We look forward to see where that goes.

We've been told that there is power in our testimonies, but I'm not sure if I truly believed that before. 

I'm tremendously grateful for a Heavenly Father who does answer our righteous petitions, for the Holy Ghost which does bear testimony of our testimonies, for people who truly desire the spirit to lead their lives rather than let their comfort zones dictate their ability to progress--because there truly is little growth in our comfort zones, and little comfort in our growth zones. It's amazing how we can still feel so much peace when we do have the gravity of souls on our shoulders--the gospel is purdy great like that.

And I apologize that this letter is probably super boring to anybody aside from my Mom, but here is my simple testimony to conclude: I know that we have a loving Father in Heaven. I know that His plan and His laws are for our good AND for our happiness.  I know that, because He loves us, He continues to speak to His children today through a prophet. I know that Joseph Smith did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and that through him the true church and the "dispensation of the fullness of times" (Ephesians 1:10) has been brought to the earth again. And I know that He will prevail, that the scriptures are real, that the work is indeed hastening, and that there will never be a better time than the present for ALL (myself included) to repent--turn toward God--and do their best to be led by the Holy Ghost. And most of all that love is the motor--the power behind the Atonement and the only motivation strong enough for us to do what is required of us. And I close this part of my testimony today in the name of Jesus Christ, in hopes that its power my uplift and inspire individuals to take a step closer to their Heavenly Father, be a little better, and have a little more hope (1 Peter 3:15/Moroni 7:41).

Much love,

Sister Bowen

Leben ist gut

Mission life continues to be awesome, although nothing in particular to report from the past week.

I had been in something of a slump for most of the week: I'd wake up every morning not wanting to be a missionary, but wishing I could be in Provo with Reginald and human friends too. Some of the people we'd run into say something about how they thought it was great that we got to do what we loved doing. I'd think about how that isn't true. There so much that we do that I will never love doing. I will never love knocking on doors to talk to strangers. I will never love making billions of phone calls. I will never love pouring out my soul to people who are so closed off. I will never love trying to teach people who claim to believe in Christ, yet aren't willing to take the smallest of steps to come closer to him.

And it's undeniable--that's a huge part of what we do, and although I will never love doing these things, I will never regret it either.

And there are some parts that I do love. I love the ward members, especially the ward missionaries. I love the people that sincerely do want to change, and are willing to. I love sharing my experiences with people who sincerely appreciate them. I love when people accept our invitations to come closer to Christ and begin to apply the Atonement in their lives. I love learning how the spirit works with me. I love learning how Heavenly Father works with me. I love witnessing the miracles in our lives everyday. And I love seeing direct and consistent answers to my prayers daily.

We got to go on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders, and Sister Howard and I both learned a ton. We are excited about the changes we've made in our planning, studying, and goal setting, and they've already had a profound effect on the progress of our investigators.

And there's always the humor of the week. P's been out of town for a good chunk of the week. At one point in the week he called us to tell us he was at Bosley looking into hair transplants...but decided not to go for it 'cause it's too expensive. I wish we could take videos of the people we experience out here...some experience, whether they be humorous or spiritual, are so far beyond words or pictures.

But the work is good, and we're are blessed with a huge teaching pool and an awesome ward. Leben ist gut.

Sister Bowen 

Two Months in Bloomington!

Well, the highlight of this past week, I got to sing the Nevada State Song when we had dinner with the Andersons! Okay, actually that wasn't the highlight, but it was a great adventure. There's something about ridiculously singing a song with two other people while their 4 kids, two visitors, and your companion are just laughing because they don't appreciate the majesty of the great state of Nevada. I hope I'm still in the ward for Nevada Day, although that might get a little out of control ;)

The real highlight was, of course, P's baptism!! He was sooo happy! He lined up the entire program, complete with The Star Spangled Banner as the closing hymn. He had requested Sister C (this wonderful lady who's a professional opera singer) to sing Amazing Grace. Her son accompanied her on his guitar, and they really did a fabulous job. Brother M, Brother M, and Bishop F gave really great talks. And there was much rejoicing.

Other good moments of the week included reconnecting with a couple former investigators who seem very interested in the gospel, and finding M. We tracted into her. She was in the last house on the street that we almost skipped because it didn't look like anybody was home. We asked her if she was interested in family history. And she was! So we set an appointment with her to work on family history. Before we left, we asked her if she knew anybody who would like a message about Christ. She said, "me!" And then we met with her later and taught the whole Plan of Salvation. And she loved it! She might just be "golden" ;)

P at his baptism. And Brother T who baptized him. P is pretending to put his arms around us 'cause he's not allowed to for real ;)

Sister Howard, Sister Saunders, and me at transfers before we said good-bye.

Missionary work continues to be terrifying and wonderful. And I think I get better every week. And I've been in Bloomington for exactly two months today!  

All is well! Kinda funny how that phrase was used in a time of intense trial huh...I think I'm beginning to understand more fully how that works ;)

Love,

Sister Allie Bowen

All is well and the church is true!

I bet you are all wondering what it's like to have a birthday while being out on a mission for exactly two months. So I will tell you. It's fantastic. You begin by getting up at 6:30 am (weird, right?), and then laying on the floor/pretending to exercise. Then you really do sort of exercise. It's a little tougher than usual because you do 22 push-ups and sit-ups instead of 21. Then you open a package from your mom that's been taunting you for a little over a week. It contains 22 wrapped items of a ridiculous nature so that you can figure out how to use them in object lessons. It's completely ridiculous, but you can't stop smiling because you know your mom loves you.

Then you eat breakfast and get dressed. And then study for an hour. And then for another hour. Then you clean the apartment for an hour. SO FUN! And then you pick up another set of missionaries to go to the library to email friends and family, which is always fantastic. After that you go out for lunch to celebrate your birthday. Also fantastic. Then you grocery shop and wash the car. And then you go to the park and play soccer with five sets of missionaries. You've been suffering with soccer withdrawals, so this is also fantastic. After that you put back on your missionary attire and meet up with P and President H (2nd counselor in the mission presidency) at the stake center where Peter passes his baptismal interview. Which is super fantastic. Then your gps takes you on a mild adventure to get to the house for a referral from headquarters--which we ran out of time. Then we ended the evening with an awesome chat with Brother M, our ward mission leader (who is also awesome) which greatly inspired us and good stuff. What a great day!

We also found out it was P's son's birthday, too. That's kinda crazy because that makes 3 of our investigators who share a birthday with me. And Alex Trebek.

On Wednesday I got kissed! We serve lunch at the Shalom center on Wednesdays and eat lunch there when we are finished. A man (who we'd actually met my first day in Bloomington) who's not all there mentally, sat down and said very politely that he was sorry, but we were preaching false doctrine. And then he invited us to his church. He just kept talking and talking, and we had to get back to the kitchen to clean up. I apologized that we had to go, and thanked him for his insight and invitation. He walked with me to the kitchen, talking the whole time and then leaned over and kissed my shoulder and said "God bless" and walked away. So many fantastic things happen every day!

Sister Howard and I had another great adventure yesterday. PRIMARY. The primary chorister went out of town and asked us to sub because she couldn't find anybody else. So we agreed. 'Cause that's what Jesus would do. But He was probably less terrified of children than we are. So we enjoyed two of the most stressful hours of church we have ever experienced. And we never want to have children. Or at least no more than 20 O_o   And we get to do it again next week. It's a good thing we have both been set apart which gives us much more courage than we normally would have ;)

Last week we also got to teach this awesome man who we ran into exactly a month ago today. We had given him a "a watered down" version of the Restoration (that's really funny because it was pouring rain and we were all outside) and promised to bring him a Book of Mormon. We hadn't been able to reach him since. That's because he was biking to and from West Virginia. On a bicycle.  He seems really genuine in his desire to know for himself if what we teach is true. Which is awesome because that's what it requires to really come unto Christ and be converted. When Brother M offered him a ride to church, he declined saying that he rides his bike anywhere he goes. We're praying that he will not forget the spirit that he felt before our next visit!

All is well and the church is true!

Sister Allie Bowen

It's My Birthday . . .

Well. Sister Saunders is gone, so life is much quieter. Not that she was loud or anything, but there's only two of us now...and we miss her. But she will be awesome up in Purdue with the YSA (young single adults).

But we're also excited to revamp things. We're branching out and getting a lot of new investigators. Yesterday the bishop boldly called the ward members to give at least one hour a month to missionary work, so we're really excited for the good things that will come from that.

It's kinda crazy how bad things always seem to happen to those trying to accomplish good things in their life. P, who's been being taught for years, really wants to get baptized, yet his memory's kinda shot (because of a couple strokes), so it's hard. A little while ago somebody said something about the Priesthood having been restored and he said, "I didn't know it was missing." Even though we talked about it for the previous two lessons. But recently he lost his wallet in Chicago, his dog ran away (but then came back), he fell and twisted his knees badly, and then a car he was working on fell on him. But he's okay. And wants to be baptized. Teaching him can be uber frusterating, but it's also great 'cause he's so funny! But we're not actually sure if he knows he funny or not, so we try really hard to control our laughter. He's a good man, and we're hoping he can get baptized soon.

We also went to an Apostolic church yesterday. That was quite an adventure. It was much louder than I was used to, but it was great to see people with such great enthusiasm for their Savior. And they were all super friendly. Good stuff.

We've had some great adventures with random people, tracting in the rain (although I call it "attracting" 'cause we're trying to attract people to their salvation ;) and it sounds happier)

That's all I've got for today, I s'pose.

"Look to God and live" <--now there's some good advice ;)

Much love!

Sister Bowen

Our trio's down to two

This past week was very exciting, the highlight being that we got a new toilet! Okay, that's not true. I mean it is--we did get a new toilet--but that wasn't the highlight. But seriously, it works like a dream! That is, if dreams flushed and did other toilet type things.

R got baptized on Saturday!! It was a really nice service, which sincere speakers and the spirit was there. We're all so happy for him and I'm so grateful for his excitement for the gospel :D

In other news, transfers are this week. And we are losing Sister Saunders who will be training a visa waiter somewhere unknown at this point. She's been in the Clear Creek ward for about 6 months, and the ward will really miss her. Sister Howard (who is just finishing her training) will finish my training in Clear Creek, and we are so excited, because the ward just so excited and ready to help with missionary work. Exciting things for this area are coming.

But we will really miss Sister Saunders too. But everybody does. More men have professed their love for her in the past two weeks than I've experienced my whole life! (But that makes sense: she is ridiculously attractive, spiritual, obedient, musical, caring, and many other good things). This, among other things, led me to the conclusion that Heavenly Father made me super awkward around guys (or just all the time, I s'pose) so that I would come on a mission. Probably not completely true, but it's a nice thought.

I've learned that God loves everybody, and everybody has access to the Holy Ghost. I knew that before, but I know it more now. Part of me wishes it weren't so, because then it wouldn't take as long for people to realize that what we have really is the entire puzzle. The spirit testifies of truth. Other churches have some truth, and so the spirit is there when bits of truth are testified of. I guess previously I had kinda thought that the spirit would be completely new to people. But it's not. But there's much more to it than people realize.

But that's part of patience on my part. I just wish people would be more willing to take the time to see that it all makes sense. There's so many people that talk about how their religions have some things they don't agree with, and then say that every religion is probably like that. But it's not!

Something that kind of cracks me up is when people are hesitant to ask us questions because they don't want to ruin our faith. It's like they think we're idiots or something--do they really think we'd be out here if we didn't KNOW it was real? Or that we hadn't been asked those questions before? or that we hadn't considered themselves in our personal conversion processes? Weird right? But it is sweet of them to worry about us like that.

But I love this more and more everyday. Well, maybe not everyday, but it is definitely and upward trend. The gospel truly does make people happy, and so naturally missionaries should be happy. Yet, the souls and welfare of others do weigh on us. Kinda like with Heavenly Father in Moses 7. I like that chapter...

I've included a picture of us from yesterday. Brother Anderson (the one whose parents I met that are from Carson City) told us we had voices of angels (this comment was inspired by our soulful rendition of "Come Thou Fount" in sacrament meeting yesterday. It was purdy great--we made up our own arrangement and performed it a capella, which actually worked because Sister Saunders has perfect pitch which keeps us in key.) So we figured it'd probably be our last Sunday together, and Brother Anderson suggested that we take a "Clear Creek Angels" picture. I really love these Sisters, which is quite convenient, because I spend ALL my time with them :D

Much love!

Sister Allie Bowen