Change is Hard, Even for Missionaries

In case anybody was wondering I had a purdy fantastic birthday. It just so happened that our zone's preparation day got moved from Monday to Tuesday 'cause we had interviews on Monday. Not many people have both their birthdays and preparation day on the same day while on their mission.

Sister McKendrick made pancakes and eggs for me for breakfast. When we went to the church building to play sports 'n stuff, the zone leaders marched into the gym with a cake singing happy birthday to me. The jerks used the trick candles that are like impossible to blow out. It wasn't 'til afterwards that we remembered you aren't supposed to have open flames in the church building O_o There's a great video of the whole thing, but the file is too big to email, unfortunately.

Later we had dinner at a member's home, and Sister McKendrick told them it was my birthday, so the put candles in the brownies and sang to me. At bed time, I went to get in bed and found a couple candy bars Sister McKendrick had left there for me. I don't think any one has ever made me feel so loved on my birthday before (she coordinated the cake thing earlier in the day--'cause elders aren't that thoughtful on their own.) What a great day.

On Monday in my interview, President Cleveland told me that I'd be released as a Sister Training Leader and train a new missionary this next transfer. I was really sad and a little angry. I didn't expect that to happen 'til next transfer, especially since Sister McKendrick got to South Bend before I did. That's been something I've actually been really depressed about all week, so that's made things really hard. You'd think I'd have mastered faith and humility by now :P Not to mention sleep had been somewhat elusive for the first part of the week, which greatly impaired my ability to do things :P

But we still got a lot done.

J is still doing really well. He hasn't smoked for two weeks, and he's been coming to church every week.

R was finally able to make it to church again, so that was purdy exciting.

There are sometimes when our plans fall through, and we are just too tired to do much else, so in our efforts to be obedient we walk around our complex. On our latest "faith walk" we found a man named J, who went to school to be a Baptist minister, but that hasn't panned out, so he now stocks shelves at Meijer's, or somethin' like that. We met with him a few times, and he seems very genuine and open, which is always exciting. But I'll probably never see him again :P

Anyway, I'm reasonably convinced there are many adventures to come in the next few weeks, and I'm trying hard to be excited for them. I'll letcha know where I end up next week!

Much love!

Sister Bowen

Creepy Children!

Yet another week of miracles :) 

K told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and is so excited to get baptized.

R accepted a baptismal date. We were considering what date to offer him to prepare for, and we were distinctly impressed to offer one which turns out to be the anniversary of a significant life event for him.

A got confirmed. She was just so happy :)

We have lessons at a table right outside our apartment almost everyday, and this herd of adorable young black children run over to sit with us. We had one impromptu lesson where we had J (who the lesson was originally for), M (a lady we had been teaching, but had disappeared for two months), her kitten, Sister G (a member who lives in our complex), and then our new friends, Anthony, Colaiby, Keena, Lyndell, and Amani (not sure if I spelled any of those right). At the end we taught them "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" So funny! And now every night they try to climb in our apartment window while we are planning. That'll have to stop O_o Creepy children...

This next week is looking pretty uneventful. We were anticipating a trip  to Indy to help with transfer planning, but that's not going to happen 'cause President is too busy with interviews and a conference 'n stuff to set aside time. So we're gonna do it over the phone.

But that's all good. Hopefully we can do some good work up here for the last week of the transfer :)

"Like Angels that Just Appeared From Heaven."

Well team, more adventures to share!

Monday we taught 4 lessons. Not bad for our day off! But we knew we had to get a lot done, 'cause we had a lot of things going on to take us away from our work.

One of the lessons was with a wonderful lady named K. She is the mother of a lady in the Mishawaka ward who got baptized a few years ago with her son. She had been with them for a lot of the lessons, but came out with a few questions unresolved. She seems determined to learn if the message is true. One of her difficulties is that it was hammered into her head that you shouldn't get spiritual truths from anything other than the Bible. 

That's something a lot of people deal with, but it got me thinking. To take only truths from the Bible is to deny God's consistency. Throughout history God has taken an active role in directing His children. Why would that change? 

We got in later that night than we had intended, 'cause another investigator really wanted to meet (how cool is that?) So we broke curfew 'cause we had to drive to Middlebury to start an exchange. What an adventure.

Sister McKendrick and I both worked in the area to help them find some people to teach, 'cause they've had a hard time getting things started over there. We had some success, but had to cut things short, 'cause President Cleveland let us know that morning that he wanted us to drive down that evening for the meeting the next day.

So on Wednesday we had an epic meeting with people from the missionary department. Apparently one of the men had worked for the CIA for a long time, which automatically makes him cool and smart. They did not talk about ipads, (which all the other missionaries thought they would), but they did talk a lot about how we can be more effective. It was super good, and I learned stuff I really wish I had understood earlier in my mission.

Thursday we had to spend a lot of time preparing for zone training the next day, as well on just catching up with paper work. Not to mention our normal planning session. We managed to teach a couple lessons, and then found out, as we were inviting people to A's baptism, that there was supposed to be a youth dance in at the same time as her baptism. Sometimes our ward council struggles with getting things scheduled appropriately O_o. So we made a bazillion phone calls and rescheduled it for Sunday afternoon.

On Friday, we had an awesome zone training, and followed that with a jam session with A and the elders. So funny! We had three guitars, two keyboards, a couple microphones and a tambourine.

Saturday, we were supposed to have a lesson with a guy from Bosnia, but it fell through, so we scheduled another one with a guy who lives in our complex. And that fell through--which we found out while sitting at a table outside with a member waiting for him :P So we saw another neighbor of ours outside and called her over. She sat down with us, and we talked to her a little about the Plan of Salvation. Needless to say she is excited to meet with us again. 

Sunday was the big day! A got baptized! She was so excited! And so many awkward things happened...some that I should not talk about in this letter. But everything went well, and she is just so happy. When we talked to her on the phone on Friday, she said "I'm just so happy, I don't know what to do!" When she shared her testimony, she talked about how she'd been praying for two years to find the right church. She had been praying one evening, she looked up, and there we were, "like angels that just appeared from Heaven."

That's been a theme to our work lately. We met K the week before last, and when we saw her this past week she expressed that she had been praying, and knew that we were a direct answer to her pleadings. We've had other such experiences recently as well. What a cool thing it is to be God's tool to answer prayers :)

In comparison to the past weeks, this week is fairly uneventful. We've got exchanges with Warsaw on Wednesday, and that's about it. We're just gearing up to do great things here in South Bend though :)

Peectures!

A! With me, Brother B  and Sister McKendrick

Me and Sister Clark. She's got like 2 weeks left on her mission, and I didn't think I'd see her again! But she got to go to the meeting on Wednesday. She's my missionary role-model, and I'll miss her :) But I'll probably see her back at school.

With the Elkhart Sisters! (In Middlebury) Sisters Herzog and Ruoho.

Our zone! Back: Elders Bramlett, Lindhardt, Bair, Johnson, Bromley, Peterson, Easter, Adams

Middle: Sisters McKendrick, Christiansen, Odermott, Evans, Ruth, and me

Front: Elders Thompson, Russell, Young, Ledesma, Haverts, Hardester, and Esplin. We have a good time :)

Tornado!

Greetings to the three people that read this blog!

It's been yet another week of adventures, but not quite as many from the standpoint of missionary work.

Monday night we had tornadoes! It was purdy exciting. Our power went out at about 1:00 in the morning. There was a lot of rain, thunder and lightning. Tuesday morning we weren't sure what had actually happened. We were purdy excited when we found this pile of branches that sorta fell on this truck in our complex.

That evening we saw this, and suddenly the branches didn't seem so significant

​

​Luckily, our power came back on at about 2:00 in the afternoon. Even the Warsaw and Plymouth sisters had lost power. The Mishawaka sisters lost power and water, so they came over to our place to shower. The zone leaders were without power for about two days. So fun!

The next day we had exchanges with the Mishawaka sisters, which was a good time. One of them is brand new missionary, and she is really great, and the other sister is a wonderful trainer for her. They are doing purdy miraculous things in their area.

Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council, so we left at like 6:45 AM to be in Fishers by 10:00 AM. There's nothin' like a spending 6 hours in a van for a 6 hour meeting. But, as always, it was tremendously enlightening and inspirational. We talked about key indicators, persuasion, and conversion, and ate Chinese food. Not to mention seeing all our missionary buddies :)

​Elders Rider, Lowry, Bair, and Johnson, and Sister McKendrick and me--the survivors of the epic journey.

Friday, we were supposed to plan in the morning, and then have preparation day for the rest of the day (and be out 'til 10:30!) So we planned, and then A invited us over for pizza 'cause she wanted us to come over. She loves us a lot. "Y'all are like my daughters. You can call me mom if you want to" She is super funny too :)

​Me and "Sister A" 

Then we went and wandered around Notre Dame campus for a little bit. This is me and Sister McKendrick in front of a building that may or may not be significant.

​We had been instructed to spend as much of the day as possible with members engaging in their 4th of July festivities, so all the missionaries had been invited to a Luau that was being hosted by a family in our ward, so that was our plan for the rest of the time. They had some cool Polynesian dancing going on, so we enjoyed that, but when that was over things started to get sketchy. So the sisters decided to leave. Apparently members up here don't like us that much 'cause it was the only 4th of July plans that any of us (out of 7 sets of missionaries) had been invited to. So we went to the church building and played ultimate frisbee, chair soccer, and the cup game. It was a blast.

Finally on Saturday we got some work done. A passed her baptismal interview!! We met with J, who is finally getting into the Book of Mormon, consequently his addictions have been significantly easier to hold off on. Purdy amazing :) That evening we met a woman whose daughter and grandson had joined the church a couple years ago. She had sat in in a lot of their lessons, but hadn't converted. We talked to her about her concerns, and we'll be seeing her again tonight :)

We were hoping that this next week might be more productive, but we found out yesterday we have a surprise Mission Leadership Council this Wednesday. We are also are going to Elkhart to help the sisters get some things going in their area all day tomorrow. We're planning on Thursday, Friday  zone training, and A's baptism is on Saturday. We'll see if we ever have time to get things done ;)

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)