June 24, 2013

This week has been a major improvement from the last. I'm not quite sure what happened last week, but our companionship unity was out of balance. But now we are back on track and ready to work. I think the zone conference really helped us to center our focus on the same things. I really liked the broadcast from last night as well. It really helped to motivate me to work even harder, especially after seeing the success in other missions in the world. One of the things that really stood out to me was how everything comes back to the bishop and the ward mission leader. Right now, we are struggling with both of those people. The bishop is still really sick. Our Stake President did come to our ward yesterday and gave the ward a challenge to pray for him as a ward. He promised us that if we have the faith, then our bishop will be healed. I sincerely hope that our ward follows through with this because if they do, then it will be a great blessing. I think it will help with ward unity, especially if they see how when they all come together they can bring to pass miracles. I'm not quite sure when we will start using the technology that they mentioned...we'll have to see! Our mission president sent us a letter this morning saying that he knows as much as we do at this point, but he thinks it will be soon.

Things in our area are going really well. We taught quite a few lessons this week, and we really put our faith into it. One of my favorite examples was when we passed by to see an investigator. She wasn't home, but we decided not to get back into our car until we taught a lesson. We knew of a less active that lived across the street, so we decided to knock on her door. She didn't answer, so we just decided to knock on her neighbor's doors. Nobody really answered, but then we saw the husband and daughter of our less active come home. So, we decided to go up and ask him if he needed help taking in their groceries. He said no, but told us that his wife was home. So, we went in and saw her. We were able to teach a really great lesson about the Restoration. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson - something we have been lacking in previous lessons with her. It was such a miracle that we were able to be there at the right time to see her. We also went by and saw our recent convert Jaime. (Pronounced Hi-may, just in case you were wondering...) we weren't quite sure what we wanted to teach him when we went into the lesson. All we had in mind was talking about agency. So, we went in and started, and the Spirit really took over. It ended up kind of being a mini testimony meeting (we had a member with us, and he kind of initiated it) and it was so great. Jaime has such a strong testimony, and he has seen so many blessings since he joined the church. One of those blessings includes a better relationship with his family. He went and visited his dad for the first time in a long time on Father's day, which was super great. He has a better relationship with his daughter, and even his ex-wife ( just as the mother of his daughter) and he went on and on about tons of other blessings that he has seen. I know that this gospel blesses families.

Something that I am personally working on this week is being a bigger part of the teaching process. Whether it be contacting, How to begin teaching lessons, or other lessons, I decided to not be afraid to speak Spanish and just go for it. I've noticed that when we teach in English, it is so much easier for me to speak through the spirit, but when it's in Spanish I usually get really afraid and back off a little bit. But I really took the promise in D&C 100 to heart. I've really noticed a difference. I still stumble a lot and I'm pretty sure I sound like a caveman when I speak Spanish, but I am able to get my point across. I really like the story told by Brigham Young about the man who could do no more than bear a simple testimony, but that testimony was so strong in his eyes. Right now, all I have is a simple testimony. So I am going to be better about sharing it more frequently.

Sorry for the lack of pictures...for some reason it never seems to work, but I'll try and figure something out. I'll get something to you soon!! Something that I am going to start doing though is a video journal. Sometimes it's kind of  hard to sit down and write about everything in my journal, but lots of times, we get stuck waiting for trains, so it's the perfect time to do a quick video :-) haha I'm going to try it soon...I'll let you know how it goes. (This was an idea from another missionary) 

There's nothing super exciting going on this week...just the norm, but we are getting close to transfers! It'll be interesting to see if I stay or go...I've heard that there are 9 new hermanas coming in, so that will be interesting. I hope everything is going well back home!! I love you dearly and I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Love,

Hermana Bowerman

June 18

Well...this past week. To be honest, probably one of the hardest yet. We just didn't have the most successful week ever, and that was really hard for me. We didn't get to see a lot of people, and I kind of took it personally, I just kept wondering what I was doing wrong, and what I needed to change. Also, sometimes my companions don't get along too well (They're super similar, and so they annoy each other a lot) So I usually end up being in the middle of it all. But yesterday we had a zone conference with Elder Christoffel Golden Jr. (Not sure if you guys remember him from conference...) But the conference really helped change my perspective. Elder Golden talked a lot about faith. He said faith = personal righteousness. I really liked that analogy because in the end, I can't change my companions. I can't change our investigator's minds, But I can have personal righteousness and increase my own faith by doing that. He also talked a lot about Faith, Hope, and Charity as well. He showed us how faith and hope really just go in a cycle, but in the middle of that cycle is charity. When we have charity for every one, we have the pure love of Christ, and we can increase our personal righteousness, thereby increasing our faith, and that goes into the cycle of faith and hope.

It was really just such a great conference. Something else that helped a whole lot, was we had exchanges this past week as well. Hermana Canova went to a different area for a day and Hermana Pitts, another Hermana close by, came here. We had such a wonderful day. There were so many miracles that happened. We saw tons of people that we haven't been able to see for weeks. Also, super random miracle that happened, we were walking up to an investigator's home when this guy who was driving by in a car called out to us. He said, "where's the other one?" We turned around, super confused, and he repeated his question.  We realized that he was talking about Hermana Canova, and so we explained that she was in a different area for the day (Mind you, we had no idea who this guy was) And so, we just talked to the guy for a minute, and he told us that we had come by like 2 weeks earlier and said we would come back, but we never did ( we kind of assumed he talked to Jehovah's Witness or something...). So, we set up another appointment with him for this week! Super random. We'll see how that one turns out.

Nothing else super eventful has happened this week...We did set a baptismal date with our 14 year old investigator, so we'll see if he can get there in time. We weren't able to see Karina and Reynaldo this week because Reynaldo was traveling, and when we went by Karina, she was sick. So that didn't work out too well...hopefully this week we can go by and see them.

Anyways. I hope everything is going well back there!! I love you so very much, and I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Hermana Bowerman

***

One more quick story...

Funny experience that we had last week though...we got this referral from some English elders for a lady named Gladys. We went by, and met her, went in and had a quick lesson with her. She's a baker, and she LOVES to talk. And she talks very fast. So we had the lesson, and then afterwards we asked her if we could leave with a prayer, she says of course, and she stands up. We decided to pray her way this time then teach her our way the next. So we stand up, hold hands, and ask who she would like to offer the prayer. She was kind of confused at first, so we asked if she would like to say it, or us. She said, " Oh, me of course, I'm the host here!" And so we bow our heads and wait for her to start. And we wait. And wait. And waited some more. About 20 minutes later, she lifts up her head and says okay. And that was it. Holy. cow. The most bizarre thing ever. That whole time I kept checking my watch ( mind you it was almost curfew...) and we had absolutely no idea what to do. So we just stood there. Hahaha So hilarious. Anyways. She seems super promising though, we have a return appointment with her this next week.

June 10

Hey there!! Sounds like a great Stake Conference. That's kind of cool that both the old and the new Stake President's were part of my setting apart :-) haha I'm so excited to hear about the piano!! When you get it you should take a video and send it to me. I miss that piano so much!! I love the new chair though!! Super pretty. Is that in the craft room or in the living room? There really hasn't been anything super eventful this week. We've been really focusing on getting new investigators though because our pool was dwindling a little bit. Our most eventful lesson was with the couple that we are teaching, Karina and Reynaldo. We have extended a baptismal invitation before, and they do really want to be baptized, but they wouldn't accept a date. Their previous answer was that there were a lot of things they still needed to work out. We knew that they weren't married, but we weren't sure what else still was a problem. Turns out, Reynaldo is still not divorced from his ex-wife. He is, however, headed to Georgia this week to see his kids and her, so hopefully they can get it worked out. They have such a strong desire to be baptized. They can see the changes the gospel has made in their lives already, and they are practically members. They come to church every week, participate in the activities, buy plates for the Boy Scout fundraisers, and everything. They just need to baptized now! Our recent convert is doing well also. He still doesn't have the priesthood because there have been a lot of problems with our bishop being sick, and so he hasn't been there for a while. He's supposed to come back this next Sunday hopefully, so then Jaime can get the priesthood and start exercising it. There are a lot of problems with the leadership in our ward though. A lot of people either don't show up on Sundays, or only show up for part of it. And a lot of the times those people are the leaders, like the bishop, Young Men's, Primary, etc. We have never had a ward council since we've been here, and a lot of the presidents don't have councilors either, so if they don't show up, then there's nobody there to help out. It's kind of a problem. We're teaching a 14 year old boy right now, and we've been teaching him for a long time, and I don't think he's ever met the Young Men's president. Mom - I got the package on Wednesday. Super fast!! And I LOVE all the clothes :-) They fit perfectly!! And the rolls were super delicious :-) Thank you so much for everything!!! You're the best :-) I love you so very much!! Con mucho amor, Hermana Bowerman

June 3

This week has been really good. We had really good numbers for seeing less actives/recent converts this week, and it showed in church attendance! We had a lot of our less actives come. We also had the confirmation of Jaime who got baptized last week. It was super great, and he was the talk of the ward for the rest of the classes and such. Everyone was asking him how he felt and everything, it was pretty funny. But it was super great. We also extended a baptismal invitation to another couple, who have been consistently coming to church for about 5 weeks now. They didn't give a definite yes or no to the invitation (we've given it several times...) but they did go on and on about how they can already see how much this church has blessed their lives. They communicate with each other better, they feel more peace in their home, they have more patience with their kids, it was so awesome to hear them talk about their blessings. We gave them a goal of July 7, and they said they will try to prepare, so we'll see how these next few weeks go. Oh, and they also love us so much, that they signed up on the ward list to feed us this Saturday :-) haha Super great. We talked as a companionship a lot this week about charity. We made it one of our goals to have more charity for everyone. Another goal is to see everyone as being someone with potential. We tend to play favorites with our investigators sometimes, and so we put a little more thought into their lessons or whatnot, but if we can see everyone as having that potential of being baptized, then we'll want to put just as much effort into their lessons as someone with a baptismal date. Personally this week in my reading, I read a lot about the Atonement. It was interesting to me to see that even people like Alma, and the sons of Mosiah, and all of these great people that we read about in the Book of Mormon, they all had a past. Before Alma was struck down, he went about destroying the church. It was just comforting to know that even though we all make mistakes, we can all also be forgiven completely. We can all turn our lives around, start over, and become the person that Heavenly Father wants us to become. All of our investigators are doing well...still trying to figure out how to help a lot of them go from being just an investigator to progressing to having a baptismal date. Some of them are just frustrating. Quick question though...is there more than one church building in Katy? We met a guy from there and he asked where it was...I could only remember the one down in Old Katy...is there one on Fry? He said he thought he saw one there right across from Walmart? I'm not quite sure. But it was kind of cool to be able to remember the streets over there a little bit :-) Anyways. This week is going to be a great one!! I hope yours is as well :-) Love always, Hermana Bowerman