Flying Trampolines?

Greetings world!

This week's adventure started last Monday, shortly after I finished emailing. We went to the car wash where I caught a bird! He was a little guy that couldn't fly very well. And then we went to the church building where I caught the smallest frog I can remember seeing. It was an exciting nature day :) And then the world got super windy. We heard rumor of flying trampolines, but didn't see anything of the sort. 

Wednesday was an uber busy day. We had a lesson with a gal named K. She's 21 and super religious. We asked her if she would get baptized if she discovered for herself that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She said, "Oh, I already believe he is." What?! She explained that it's like how people who have never seen the ocean still know it exists because there are people who have seen it. There's got to be somebody on earth who has seen Christ, for us to know He exists. I'd never thought about it like that before! Needless to say, we're purdy excited to see her again.

Friday there was another miracle. A (who is getting baptized in two weeks) has a husband who has been super aloof, and uninvolved in the whole thing. After our lesson with her (we usually meet in this enclosed patio connected to the house), she invited us in to see her music room. She played Amazing Grace on her keyboard and sang, which was just fantastic in a hilarious A sort of way. When we were headed out, Sister McKendrick was singing part of the same song, when A's husband, R, called us back into the house and asked if that was her. He brought us back into the music room and started playing the keyboard and had her sing. A came back into the room, and we whipped out the microphone and the tambourine and sang. So funny! I asked about the guitar they had hanging on the wall, and they told me it was broken. I asked if I could see it, and it was just outta tune. So they were happy I "fixed it". When we headed out for real, R came out and welcomed us to use the music room any time we wanted. Such a small thing, but it really was a miracle.

Last night we went around talking to people in one of the nicer neighborhoods in the area. We met a couple taking their dog for a walk. We told them about the Restoration. They were nice enough, but didn't think we needed a prophet 'cause we have the Bible because we have the holy spirit. We started explaining more, but they didn't really want to hear it. It's kinda sad that we are just trying to share this great news with people while they just want to fight it. 

I recently read a talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell who said of Joseph Smith, "Just as prophesied, fools deride him, hell rages against him, and his name is 'both good and evil spoken of' (JS--H 1:33) This swirl needlessly preoccupies a few who seem to prefer chewing on old bones in the outer courtyard instead of coming inside to the resplendent, revelatory banquet, thus diverting them from giving due attention to Joseph's mission as a 'choice seer.'"  How true! People are satisfied with what they have and reject such beautiful truths--one of which is that God talks to us today!

Right before we met this couple we'd talked to a Greek Orthodox man (who is actually from Greece (it was really interesting to see the percentage of foreign people who live in this upper-middle class neighborhood). Who wanted to convert us. He was telling us how orthodoxy had been around longer than any other religion, unchanged, and encouraged us to check the facts because there is something to be said of that. We tried to tell him that we are the only religion that will encourage people the ask God for confirmation for everything we teach, and there's something to be said of that...but his phone started ringing :P It just reminded me of teaching J when he--while he still wasn't sure if our message was true--said, "I really like your church's theology" I don't remember if I said this or if it just stayed in my head, "Thanks! It's God's."

This week is purdy exciting--today we're back to proselyting after emailing and shopping, Wednesday we have an exchange, Thursday is Mission Leadership Council, and Friday is the rest of preparation day--we get to stay out 'til10:30. Weird!

Hope all is well,

Much love,

Sister Bowen

Me and Sister McKendrick

A Very Small Box

More adventures!! A little less culturally diverse this week though....

One of our investigators--a 19 year old gal, who struggles to be mature, completely disappeared on Saturday...we typically communicate with her everyday, but nobody knows where she is now O_o

Relief Society yesterday was an adventure. The lesson was about Elder Hales' talk about obedience...and one lady goes off about how (before she found the church) her sister was murdered so she started worshiping Satan even though she knew it was wrong. Another lady chimed in about how she understands 'cause there was a triple homicide in her family. And then our investigator, A, (she is an older southern black lady) gives a miniature sermon about Adam and Eve which ended in, "Because men will do whatever women tell them to!" The poor RS teacher! Soo funny though. Even funnier 'cause there were a couple ladies who just moved into the ward, and a couple gals who just moved up from Young Womens. Welcome to Relief Society!

Miracle of the week is a man named R. We took him on our first official church tour (something that the whole mission has been practicing for a few months now) and it was awesome. The tour goes around to pictures in the building talking about Christ's love, His gospel, the chapel (where we talk about the sacrament), Priesthood authority given to apostles, Christ's visit to the Americas, and ends at the baptismal font with a picture of Christ being baptized. We then share "the most important part of the tour" which is an abbreviated Restoration lesson. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted! Needless to say, we're purdy excited to give more church tours.

Yesterday was our 13 month mark. How weird! Sometimes I feel like being a missionary is like volunteering to spend a really long time in a very small box--most of the time it's fine, but sometimes you just really want to stretch your legs. But you also know that the small box is a very safe, happy place to be, and as soon as you get out, you'll probably want to get back in. 

Final thoughts for today. The gospel is so exciting! I read a devotional from Elder Hugh B. Brown this morning--the one in which he talks about preparing an in depth brief about the prophet Joseph Smith to have an intellectual discussion with a friend--here are the concluding thoughts of his friend: 

"Perhaps some of you are wondering how the judge reacted to our discussion. He listened intently; he asked some very pointed and searching questions; and, at the end of the period, he said, “Mr. Brown, I wonder if your people appreciate the import of your message. Do you?” He said, “If what you have told me is true, it is the greatest message that has come to this earth since the angels announced the birth of Christ.”

"This was a judge speaking—a great statesman, an intelligent man. He threw out the challenge: “Do you appreciate the import of what you say?” He added, “I wish it were true. I hope it may be true. God knows it ought to be true. I would to God,” he said, and he wept as he said it, “that some man could appear on earth and authoritatively say, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’”

I have the great opportunity to devote all my efforts to sharing the "greatest message that has come to this earth since the angels announced the birth of Christ." How humbling, inspiring, and true!

Much love,

Sister Bowen

Mysterious Sea Food Stuff

Yet another week of adventure!

On Monday, we stopped by to visit a part member family that we hadn't met before. The mom (the member) wasn't home, but her sons (members), husband, and sister (nonmembers) were home. They are all from Zimbabwe. We talked about family history--in a very interesting way--part of his job is studying genetics in recent history to help people determine the liklihood of getting diseases and what not. Super interesting!

Tuesday was fantastic. All our plans were kinda up in the air at the beginning of the day, but it was like we couldn't do anything wrong: everybody we talked to wanted to learn more. Even when we knocked on the wrong door for our dinner appointment, we got a new investigator. It was purdy awesome.

Friday, we were invited to the graduation party for a gal in the ward. Her family is Tongan, and so they had a huge family gathering with tons of friends and food. Part of the custom was to have a head table with the graduate and esteemed members of the community--for their family it was religious leaders. We had quite the experience sitting at this table of honor in the front of the room with the bishop, one of his counselors, and the elders. Our table was loaded with plates of fried bananas, ribs, mysterious sea food stuff, breaded halibut, and pork straight off the pig. What an experience!

On Saturday, we went back to the family from Zimbabwe's house for an appointment we'd set with the sister who was visiting. We didn't end up teaching 'cause she went into labor. We played duck-duck-goose with her four year old daughter until her sister could come pick her up to take her to the hospital. We helped her into the car and told them to let us know if we could help with anything. Little did we know they'd actually call! They didn't know that 4 year olds couldn't be in the room, so we rushed over to the hospital during our lunch break to watch the little girl. Sometimes you teach the gospel, and other times you help deliver African children (sort of) oh, the life of a missionary.

Also on Saturday, A went to the temple! She had wanted to go, just to sit in the waiting room, so we found her a ride (it was stake temple day). She loved it! The temple president came and talked to her for a long time (or maybe just listened 'cause she talks a lot ;)

She also got to meet President Cleveland yesterday at a baptism, so that was cool. She talks a lot about how she was baptized, but it wasn't real. She needs to be baptized by the right authority. She talks about how she's been being prepared for 43 years to find the restored gospel. She just loves everything :) At church yesterday she told us God had told her something in her sleep, and then two more times that morning, and she wanted us to come over so she could tell us. The big news was that she is supposed to be a missionary after she gets baptized :) Sweet A!

In other news, Sister McKendrick and I are both staying in South Bend for another transfer. It was kinda weird already knowing, 'cause normally we'd get all hyped up about transfer calls, but we almost forgot about them. We're happy to stay together 'cause we've got a lot going on and we get along super well.

To close, I just want to share a few thoughts on faith.

Everything we do in this life, we do in hopes that it will make us happy, whether immediately or in the future. We are promised that the gospel provides the greatest happiness we can find. Everything we do contrary to what the gospel would have us do is because we lack faith. We do not belief that the gospel decision will make us the happiest. This is the type of faith that I am working on. 

I've never doubted that God is real, that Christ is our Savior, or that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restored gospel, but sometimes I have a hard time wholly believing that it's all worth it. But I do believe it. I believe that all the sacrifices we make for the sake of rightesouness will be made up to us. We are asked to make large sacrifices sometimes, but--with faith--that becomes an exciting thing, because we know that Heavenly Father will make our reward that much more tremendous.

Much love,

Sister Bowen

Peectures!

Sisters in our zone: Sister Bunnell, Sister McKendrick, me, Elder Boyer, Sister Richardson, Sister Odermott, Sister Ruth

Our zone: Elders Brown, Matheson, Crawford, Adams, Boyer, Bair, Young, Van Shaar, Brown, Peterson, Easter, Lindhardt, Bramlett, Orth, Thompson, and Uthaichai, Sisters Ruth, Odermott, Richardson, Bunnell, me, and Sister McKendrick (and yes, the two Elder Browns are companions. The assistants have a terrible sense of humor)

Taking a Step Back

Aaand the adventures continue :D

As far as investigators go, A was the highlight. She is this wonderful woman we found two weeks ago. She is in her 60s and is very committed to Heavenly Father. She initially told us that she probably wouldn't come to church 'til August ('cause she teaches Sunday school at her church), but she prayed about it and came yesterday. Sister McKendrick and I missed Relief Society 'cause we were teaching a man we're teaching named L who didn't want to go to his third meeting, but wanted to keep his grandkids in primary. Somebody told us that when A was introduced as a visitor, she said "I'm not a visitor! I'm here to stay!" She loved everything about church. The things she noted were that we started on time, that everybody knew and greeted each other, and that she got to talk in Sunday School.  She told us she wants to get baptized the second week in July :D

Transfer planning was a cool experience. We drove up to the mission home a few minutes early, and there were three people in the driveway that we didn't recognize. The lady had been the daughter of a mission president who'd lived there in the 70's. Her son was the nephew of President Collins (the previous mission president). So they looked through the house and apparently it's not all that different from how it was in the 70s. So that was kinda cool.

Then we sat in President's office in front of the transfer board. Most of the stuff had already been planned (we don't help with Elder stuff at all, and some of the Sister changes had been made already.) So there were a handful of sisters who needed to be moved around and we got to give input into that, which is purdy cool. My favorite contribution was for who was going to Clear Creek. But I probably shouldn't say anything, and nothing is for sure 'til transfers anyway. It is kinda tricky knowing things and not saying anything. But needless to say it was a cool experience. Afterwards the Clevelands took us out to dinner.

Then we got to stay the night with the Carmel Sisters, which was great, 'cause that's where Sister Howard is now.  The next day was Mission Leadership Council, which is always a revelatory experience. And it's always good to spend time with missionaries, especially ones we haven't seen for a while.

Here are some thoughts for the week: Being a missionary is hard--yet being happy is the same at whichever point in life. Sometime you think "if only we had a lot of people to teach, then I'd be happy" "if only I had a better companion, then I'd be happy", "if only I could have a few moments to myself, then I could be happy." If we are reliant on our situations to make us happy, we will rarely be happy. A large part of happiness really does come from noticing the blessings in our lives, being aware of God's involvement in our lives, and being grateful for all of it.

Lately I've been sooo tired, and life is going so fast, that it's all I can do just to maintain what I'm currently doing, and the thought of doing better than I am (which also feels like an urgent necessity) is overwhelming. But then I take a step back and realize that I have made progress. And just being able to get a solid handle on what I'm already doing will be a tremendous accomplishment. That's kinda cool. A lot of time Satan can make us feel like we're sprinting in place, despite our significant development.

Aaand I have some pictures! (You're welcome, mom ;)

Our best district picture (out of many attempts, sad, I know)
~Elder Orth, Elder Uthaichai, Elder Boyer, Elder Bair, Elder Bramlett, Sister McKendrick, Elder Lindhardt, and me

The MLC people from the South Bend Stake after MLC--we all look uber tired after 5 hours of driving and a 6 hour meeting.

~Sister McKendrick, Elder Lowry, Elder Boyer, Elder Rider, Elder Bair, and me

'I feel like I turn into a witch'

Phew! Yet another week of adventure.

Highlights of the week include (but are not limited to):

Meeting with O. She recently graduated from a school in Kentucky and is dating a guy who lives in Provo. She has been talking a lot about the church with him, and believes it's true. The difficult thing is that her family is very Catholic, and her family would not be supportive of her joining the church. It's difficult right now because she wants to make sure she's not doing it for her boyfriend, and that it really is true. She's wonderful and we're excited to get to teach her.

M. He's a 17 year old boy who was preparing to be baptized. He had stopped meeting with us because he didn't think he was ready to make the commitments we were asking him to. But he came back around yesterday. He had noticed that he had a much harder time controlling his anger when he stopped meeting with us, which is a problem he's been dealing with. So he's back on track!

A low light was N. He loved church when he came last week, but his mom discovered that he's not allowed to go to church because of the protection program with his probation. And also that his probation will probably last for at least 10 more months. So he probably won't be able to be baptized for a long time.

On another note. I come home exactly 6 months from today. That's super weird.

And there's a lot of exciting things coming up this week. Tomorrow I get to give a training on Christlike attributes in district meeting, Thursday we're headed down to Fishers to help with transfer planning O_o and the we're staying the night for mission leadership council the next day.

In other news, D got baptized down in Franklin on Saturday.

And one more thing. In our apartment we've got a handful of Ensign magazines from the 80's. I've been flippin' through those, and found all this notes in one from ladies raving about an article about PMS in the previous issue. I thought that was super funny, so I had to look it up just now. Aaaand it also describes why this week was difficult: " 'I feel like I turn into a witch' "  But it's all good 'cause it gives me extra practice with self-control 'n stuff.

What grand adventures missions are :)

Here's a thought for the week. I was reading in the uber old Ensigns and came across Shakespeare quote: "Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt." 

Also a thought from my reading: The gospel is not weight; it's wings. And if you feel you don't have time for your church calling, you need to evaluate your priorities. Both sort of quotes from reliable sources I don't feel like looking up right now (is that bad?). 

But they just got me thinking. I've felt like my callings are a burden. And none of them (except my current one) have been a significant time commitment. But this life is the time to prepare to meet God (Amulek said that one) and what do we do to prepare? God's work. Serving His children. Developing Christlike attributes. All those are definately things we do through church callings. There are always things to learn, unanticipated challenges, and ways to serve. As Mormon's one of the things we're really good at is making divine tasks, miracles, and sacred experiences seem super mundane. And one of the the significant ways we do this is simply through the way we view our callings.

Well that's it for the day.

Much love,

Sister Bowen

One Year DONE!

So. Many. Adventures!

So yesterday the library was closed, so we have a little time to email today :) But yesterday was wonderful 'cause Elder Bair has two guitars and is letting me borrow one! My fingers are blistered 'cause I lost my calluses. This will indeed be an exercise in self control O_o

Aaaaand I've been a missionary for a whole year! That's uber weird. Thursday was our year mark. To celebrate we went to lunch at Fazoli's, did service at the food bank, and taught this wonderful 15 year old boy named N who wants to get baptized (and came to church this week!)

Part of our mission's goal is to teach as many lessons in members' homes as possible. Because we are teaching a lot of people in our apartment complex, and because we have a member that lives there who is home all the time and loves company, this was really easy for us. But she had to get shoulder surgery on Tuesday. She came home the next day, and on Thursday we tried to check up on her to see how she was doing. This was tricky 'cause you need to be let into the building by somebody who lives there to even knock on doors, and her phone has been having issues, so we couldn't reach her. That night her neighbor had the apartment people open her door, and they found her stuck on the ground 'cause she had fallen :/ we have no idea how long she was stuck there, but now she has to go to a rehab facility. So sad! But it will be good for her to have people who can help her.

On Wednesday we had exchanges with the sisters in Warsaw. One of the sisters I'd been on exchanges with a few times when she was in Columbus, and the other is a 2nd transfer trainee. And these sisters are so solid! So that's always nice to see. They are emotionally stable, work hard, and have the faith to entitle themselves to receive grace to work miracles. That's always nice for us to see. The night I stayed down in Warsaw there was also a crazy thunderstorm :D The lightning was kinda like a strobe light O_o

There was a really sad part about this exchange. We went to check on one of their members who had missed church the past two weeks and who had stopped responding to the missionaries texts and calls (she had previously been very involved in church, and joining the missionaries for lessons). She had bleached her hair, gotten a nose ring and started smoking. We asked if we could share a message with her. She hesitantly agreed. We read part of Elder Bednar's talk about spiritual loads with her and talked about how we need trials to grow stronger. She was fairly unresponsive and said, "I'm done being strong." I didn't know this lady beforehand, but the sister I was with said it was like she was a completely different person. It's was incredible how much somebody could change in 2 weeks.

Saturday was another interesting day. I was a little sick, which was hard, but we began by attending a baptism for somebody in the Mishawaka ward. Right after that there was a wedding for a couple in our ward at the church building which we attended--the reception at which we found a new investigator we'll be teaching tomorrow. Then we left, taught a few lesssons, and came back for another baptism for a young set of twins in our ward, and then another lesson to close the night. I felt like a zombie.

And then pretty much woke up dead the next morning :P Plus I forgot my nametag at church, which made things uncomfortable. It was a really hard day all around. There were still miracles, such as meeting with a new investigator who is really excited about the Book of Mormon, and things like that, but Sister McKendrick and I were just super drained from the week.

Every single day for the past transfer and a half has been such a great adventure, I wish I could describe everything, but we gots district meeting in like 10 minutes so I gotta wrap it up.

Much love! and don't forget to pray!

Sister Bowen

PS W and A AND their friend M got baptized down in Franklin this past Saturday :D purdy exciting

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