May 6, 2013 -- emailing with Lindsay

Hi Sarah!!

How's it going???

I totally spaced that your p-day is now on mondays! are you at the computer right now??

Yes I am :-) How's it going?

YAY! I figured you'd be close by!

I totally spaced that your p-day is monday, and not tuesday. so i missed writing last week, and got back from St. George last night, and meant to get an email out this morning before work. 

How are you?? Hanging in there? :) 

We were in St. George to go see Brian Regan...that comedian guy. You know him? 

haha it's all good :-) I'm hanging in there :-) Doing great actually!! We have a really solid baptismal date for a guy named Jaime on June 2nd, so that's super exciting :-)

I've heard of Brian Regan...was he pretty funny?

Yay for baptisms!!! That's AWESOME!! How old is he? Is he married with a family? Is this the guy you found that day that it was pouring rain and your tire popped?

I had heard a lot of hype about Brian Regan being suuuper funny. I thought he was...ok. The funniest part was when he came out for the encore, and people started yelling out skits that they wanted him to do, whereas the main portion of the show was him trying out new material that just wasn't as polished and the timing on his jokes weren't as good, if that makes sense.

What else are you guys up to today?

That's funny. Haha He's like 40ish...we don't know his exact age. But he has a 17 year old daughter. I guess him and his wife just got a divorce, and so he was struggling with that a whole bunch. We haven't met his 17 year daughter, but hopefully one day we will. Yeah, this is that guy. Super exciting though :-) We have plans to have 5 people with a baptismal date by the end of this week. Keep us in your prayers :-) haha

Hahaha That's awkward. That's good that he was at least a little funny though. A good chuckle at least :-)

We're not doing too much...after this we go to Walmart and get groceries and whatnot and then we go to the church and hang out with some of the other missionaries in our zone. We usually play volleyball or something. It's pretty fun. What are you up to this week?

I started working with a lady in Rhode Island on that BYU-Idaho pathways program. Did I tell you about that around Christmas time? 

That's cool :-) No you didn't tell me about it! What is it? I think one of my old roommates did that for a while...but I don't remember.

Basically it's a program that gets people up-to-speed with their English skills so they can start taking on-line courses through BYU-Idaho. So I Skype twice a week with this lady, Betzy, who lives in Rhode Island, but originally from Guatemala. She's taking like an English 101 class, and her verbal english skills are ok, but it's her writing that is needing a lot of help. We've been working on vocab and writing...turns out English is a hard language to teach! And I have no english teaching skills! And BYUI has given no training on how or what you're supposed to do in these skype meetings! So it's been interesting. I was trying to explain what "although" and "though" mean, so I told her it's kind of like "but"...well, she thought that "but" = what you sit on, not but as in "yes, but no"! I couldn't stop giggling. :)

hahahaha that's great :-) We teach an english class here too, every wednesday. Like you, we have absolutely no training. We just have to go and teach...it's actually really fun. None of our students and super fluent, but they probably sound like I do with Spanish. They can get their point across, but don't exactly sound perfect or anything. Haha we taught them about verbs in the past last week. Turns out, it's really hard, and there are a lot of irregular verbs. Like a whole lot. But they're catching on, so that's super awesome. Anyways, I have to get off now, pero, te amo mucho!!!

Can't wait to talk to you on Sunday :-)

Hermana Bowerman

Yay! See you Sunday! Loves.

April 29, 2013

Hola Madre!!!

The house looks amazing!!!!! The floors are way lighter than I thought they'd be, but I love it. Geez you saw a lot of friends this week...Fun for you :-) Funny you should mention the rain...haha So on Saturday, was the first day I actually felt like a missionary. We started in the morning, and it seemed like a pretty nice day, so we decided to ride our bikes. While in transit to the apartment complex we were going to, it started to sprinkle. That should've been my first sign that it was going to be a long day. We get to the complex and our first appointment fell through. But we have a lot of people that we are teaching there, so we decided to try and see if anyone else was home. They weren't. And it started to pour down rain. And then, my tire on my bike popped. So, we had one other scheduled appointment with that family that I told you about, so we went and taught them, and it was way good. We had another appointment with a lady and her daughter, and they only live like a few minutes away, or so we thought, so we decided to start walking. And guess what? It started to rain harder. And we were walking, and it started flooding. So, we are walking through ankle deep water to get to this appointment, only to find out that they weren't even there. Awesome. (And even though this story sound really negative, we were laughing the whole time. And there's a happy ending, just wait) So, fortunatlely we have another set of Hermanas in our district who have a car, so we called them and they were able to come pick us up. We get home, and we had about an hour to change out of our sopping wet clothes grab dinner and get our car and go to our last appointment of the day. We get there, and he lives by himself, but we had a member come, and he just happened to bring his wife (thank goodness, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to go inside, and it was still pouring...tender mercies!!) So we had the lesson, it was amazing!! And we committed him to be baptized. And he said yes!!! We have a baptism date set for June 2nd. We were so beside ourselves. Such an amazing feeling. Going through the rest of the day was so worth it because of that lesson. Love it.

Anyways. Also this past Tuesday, we got to go to the temple with our zone. Super fun. The rooms are just way smaller there...so it was funny trying to get like 50+ people in there. But it worked :-) And then, I got to the veil, and who was there to bring me through? President Crawford!! It was a really cool experience to see them there. Then afterwards we went to a mormon book store that I remembered that my friend Caitlin used to work at. I asked the lady working there if she knew her, and she told me that on facebook it said that she was engaged!! So that was really exciting to hear about.

Nothing else too terribly exciting happened this week...we have a lot of investigators, which is great, but not all of them are good at keeping commitments, so that's something that we need to work on.

Something I wanted to ask for...CD's are awesome. We drive a little bit more than I thought we would, and it's always nice to have something to listen to while in transit, instead of listening to the same thing every time...just saying :-)

Anyways, I gotta run, but I love you mucho!!! I hope you have an awesome week, and have fun moving in!!

Hermana Bowerman

April 22, 2013

Hey momma!!

So I'm in an area call Jacinto City. I think it's actually fairly close to Houston, so definitely still in Texas. The weather here is beautiful right now!!! Mid 70s humidity...not too shabby!! The first few days were pretty dark and dreary...lots of clouds and rain. But it was definitely needed!! They've been in a drought for a while I guess.

So, Jacinto City is pretty cool. Tons of people to talk to, and most people are at least willing to have a little chat, so that's super awesome. We are teaching currently about 10 people regularly, with more and more people who are interested. I love this work so much!!! It can be frustrating at times, especially when people forget their appointments, aren't home, don't come to church, or whatever the reason may be, but once something clicks, it's so awesome to see the changes that they make in their lives.

So last week...we got to the mission home on monday at about 1 or 2. we ate, had some training, met with President Crawford (super awesome, BTW...oh and good thing I didn't bring my flute...he said no...) and then we went to bed. Sister Daines (who Grandma Jenny told me about) was actually my temporary companion for a couple days until we met our actual companions. Then we got up in the morning, had a little bit more training, and then went and met our companions!! I'm actually in a trio...Sister Canova is our trainer. She's super awesome, really funny, and really sweet. I'm learning so much from her!! Then my other companion is Sister Lockhart. She's also from Utah, and she's super awesome too. We have a cute little apartment...some cockroach friends too...but it's pretty cozy. It's nice :-) I'll send you pics next week...I haven't been too good about taking them this week. whoops. We have a car, but we try to ride our bikes as much as possible, because our miles are limited. So we only drive when we have to go somewhere that's at the top of our area or something.

We have a few investigators...we started teaching a new family yesterday...mom and dad and two kids, 7 years old and 6 months. Super cute family though, and I think there's a lot of potential. I'm really excited to keep teaching them. We teach a few lessons every day, we contact people, and we knock doors sometimes. Long days, but they're always full of great experiences. Funny ones too :-) I've been told that I was in someones dream (they recognized my boots...not my face, but my boots) And I have been in a little prayer circle in someone's yard that I didn't know...and all sorts of other fun things. One guy that we taught yesterday pulled out this book and proceded to tell us what we believed. It was great fun.

Anyways, sort of limited on time here, but I love you so much!!! I'm still waiting for pictures, by the way... :-)

Hermana Bowerman

April 22, 2013

Hey papa!!!

Hahaha No, I'm not in Louisiana. I'm actually in a place called Jacinto City, which is fairly close to Houston. But, my first time at a member's house for dinner, and what did I eat? Fish. Yep. You Jinxed me. But fortunately, it was breaded and stuff, so you couldn't really even taste the fish. So I made it through without wanting to vomit.

Sounds like a fun time!! Tell Marsh that I love him, and have an awesome companion here who is from Utah :-) haha She gets home in like 9 months. Anyways. So, the work is good!! There's a lot of work to be done, that's for sure. Our ward has about 150 members I think, but only half of them usually come. So lots of reactivation and whatnot. We have about 10 investigators or so....we just started teaching a new family of 4 yesterday, and there's a lot of potential there, so that's exciting. We have one baptismal date with a 14 year old boy, but we have to change it because he didn't come to church yesterday...so we'll see. He's an interesting kid...14, covered in tattoos, he used to do drugs and drink...we get to help him out a lot :-) hahaha I have absolutely no idea how many hours we taught....we taught a lot though. It's pretty awesome :-)

So I'm actually in a trio right now. My trainer is Hermana Canova. She's super cool, from South Jordan, She's an RN...yep. ANd then there's Hermana Lockhart. We came on the same day, so we're both being trained right now.

Anyways...I still have to write a couple more emails, but how's everything going there? Are you guys moving in this week? Next? PICTURES?!?!

Hermana Bowerman

P.S. Te Amo Muchisimo!!! :-)

Arrived in Texas!

All the new missionaries serving in the THE (Texas Houston East) Mission

Yay for THE Mission!

Sarah with President and Sister Crawford

With Sister Lockhart, their trainer, and Sarah

Dear Families,

Your Missionary has arrived safely to T.H.E. Mission!  Upon arrival we met your missionary at the airport and took them directly to the mission home where they were feed Texas Bar-b-que and met the office staff.  An orientation by the office staff followed lunch while individual interviews were conducted by President Crawford.  That evening they were invited to share their testimonies.  The following morning was focused on training after which they met their new companion and were transported to their area of service.  They are now out diligently searching for our Heavenly Father's children and doing the work of the Lord. Thank you for sending your daughters and sons to us, they have added great strength to our small army here in the Texas Houston East Mission. We love them and are so grateful to have them with us. You will find attached a picture of  your newly arrived missionary with Sister Crawford and myself as well as their arriving group. 

Sincerely, President and Sister Crawford

Sunday Afternoon Walk to the Temple

(Left to Right) With Sis. Claspell, Sarah, Sis. Bloxham (Sarah's MTC companion), Sis. Whitney. (Claspell and Whitney are companions.)

With some of the Elders in her district.

With Sis. Whitney, who is in Sarah's district and her roommate.

April 9

Papa Bear!!! ¡¡Estoy muy bien!! haha All the computers here have tons of languages on them...anyways... Gosh. I feel like I have learned more here in 6 weeks than I did in all the years that I took Spanish. Es muy loco!!

SOO...I got my travel plans this past week!! I have to be at the travel office at 3 a.m. on Monday morning, and then my flight is at 6. I have a short layover and change planes in Dallas, and then I should arrive in Houston at around 12 30. I´m going to buy a phone card here so that I can just call you guys from the airport sometime...Be ready :-) haha It'll probably be in the morning though. But I'm not sure...

Conference was absolutely amazing!! It's so cool being a missionary and watching conference. It's cool because I have investigators, and there were so many things that I could pull out that would apply to them specifically. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I think I have to go with President Uchtdorf's talk on Sunday morning. It brought me so much peace and comfort, and I am so grateful for that. I also really liked Elder Kapishka(? sp) talk about how the only acceptance we need is Heavenly Father's. So awesome. And of course Elder Holland's talk. Apparenly Elder Holland is in one of the Elders in my district ward in Midway. Oh, and did you watch the thing inbetween sessions on Sunday (?) About the MTC and missionaries? If you did, the guy who had 3 little brothers from Sandy, he's in my district, and he's one of our zone leaders :-) haha

I feel so blessed to be here right now. The Lord truly is hastening his work, and I am so excited to be part of it!

I can't wait to see some pictures of the house!! Please send some :-) haha

So, I was looking for Arena on Wednesday, and couldn't find her anywhere, then finally on thursday morning she found me at breakfast!! I missed her so very much. Pretty sure everyone in the cafeteria were like who are those crazy girls screaming at the top of their lungs...haha But it was so awesome to be able to see her again. I see her every day because we have meals at the same time and her classroom is in the same building as me. She's apparently having some issues with her companion however...her comp isn't fully convinced that she should be here, and so she's constantly going to the bathroom to sob her eyes out, or looking for ways that she can go home, or whatever. So keep her in your prayers that everything will work out okay :-)

As far as my plaque scripture goes, I would like Alma 26:12 on there :-) I have found more than ever that that scripture is so true. Love it!!

Anyways...so little time, and so much to do!!

Love you forever :-)

Hermana Bowerman