Hola familia!
Thanks for the email and updates. It sounds like all is going well at home. I am glad you all had a great Easter focusing more on the Savior, that's about all we did here with the exception of a small chocolate egg Elder Stilwell and I got from a member. Things are going great and the time is flying so fast. I can't believe I have already been in Uruguay for over a month! We found another investagator named Diana. She is super prepared and went to a baptism and church on Sunday. She said she prayed and recieved an answer and has no doubts. It makes it all worth it when you find the few that are actually ready. It hasn't rained too much lately, but the winter gets much worse says my comp so that other rainjacket or cover for my backpack would be great. Well it sounds like the weather in Utah is starting to warm up and the summer is close. It's so wierd that we are at opposite seasons and it is getting cold here now. We had interviews with President Da Silva this week. It went really good and he seems like a really cool mission pres! It was at our house and his wife came too. We spent a little time cleaning which apparently paid off cause our zone leaders said we got the cleanest house in our zone award. Ya we are definetly working on keeping people active and rectivating others. Its so crazy we will knock a door and the person will listen to our message and a few minutes later tell us that they were baptized. Anyways thanks for everything, you guys are a great strength and support to me!
Love,
Elder Bowden
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Month 1 in the Mission Field!
Hola Familia!
Wow! The temple is going up super fast! Thanks for the pics its cool to see how the progress is coming. How is everyone doing? I think we are having stake conference here too soon. That's great that you learned so much from the conference. It's kind of unfortunate that we have trials , but they always strengthen our testimonies. Finally, we had the baptism which went great! We had to walk like three miles I swear everyday to her house the week of the baptism. My companion did the baptism and I got to stand in on the confirmation. It was great to see the fruits of our labor and all our hard work finally come to pass. I got my letter from the Wolthuis family this week. It had about 5 pics of Perry and surrounding areas, it was great to see some familiar territory once again. I email from a Cyber cafe that is about a block away from our house. It costs like a dollar an hour to use the computer so it's not so bad. I also have to get my monthly balance of 3300 pesos from an ATM. They just gave me a debit card when I arrived at the mission home. There is an ATM in Toledo so we had to get our money out when we go to zone conference or to a small city called Sauce (like 15 min from our area). We made Chinese food today! It was tasty and my comp is actually a pretty good cook. Oh, and the other Elder made pumpkin pie from the squash that is growing in our backyard! It's not even our squash plant but it grew through the fence into our yard. I still cant beleive Shay is getting married!? You can tell her she better send me an invitation! We have found a lot of newer investigators lately and it seems like my comp and I are working together more cause my Spanish is coming along pretty fast. It rained on Sunday I mean yesterday! It's crazy how fast time is going and how much the time is blending together already! Yeah, it was blowing super hard and raining a lot. When we got done walking to the church which is only like 5 blocks away my pants were soaked! I guess this is the Uruguay winter I have to look forward to in the next couple of months! Well I don't have much more time left! I will write more letters if I can! The church is true and Our Heavenly Heavenly Father know each one of us and what we need. Keep looking for missionary experiences and I'll keep sharing them! Love you all and thanks for all you do! You're Great!
-Elder Bowden
Wow! The temple is going up super fast! Thanks for the pics its cool to see how the progress is coming. How is everyone doing? I think we are having stake conference here too soon. That's great that you learned so much from the conference. It's kind of unfortunate that we have trials , but they always strengthen our testimonies. Finally, we had the baptism which went great! We had to walk like three miles I swear everyday to her house the week of the baptism. My companion did the baptism and I got to stand in on the confirmation. It was great to see the fruits of our labor and all our hard work finally come to pass. I got my letter from the Wolthuis family this week. It had about 5 pics of Perry and surrounding areas, it was great to see some familiar territory once again. I email from a Cyber cafe that is about a block away from our house. It costs like a dollar an hour to use the computer so it's not so bad. I also have to get my monthly balance of 3300 pesos from an ATM. They just gave me a debit card when I arrived at the mission home. There is an ATM in Toledo so we had to get our money out when we go to zone conference or to a small city called Sauce (like 15 min from our area). We made Chinese food today! It was tasty and my comp is actually a pretty good cook. Oh, and the other Elder made pumpkin pie from the squash that is growing in our backyard! It's not even our squash plant but it grew through the fence into our yard. I still cant beleive Shay is getting married!? You can tell her she better send me an invitation! We have found a lot of newer investigators lately and it seems like my comp and I are working together more cause my Spanish is coming along pretty fast. It rained on Sunday I mean yesterday! It's crazy how fast time is going and how much the time is blending together already! Yeah, it was blowing super hard and raining a lot. When we got done walking to the church which is only like 5 blocks away my pants were soaked! I guess this is the Uruguay winter I have to look forward to in the next couple of months! Well I don't have much more time left! I will write more letters if I can! The church is true and Our Heavenly Heavenly Father know each one of us and what we need. Keep looking for missionary experiences and I'll keep sharing them! Love you all and thanks for all you do! You're Great!
-Elder Bowden
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
1st BAPTISM!!
Hola familia!
Its great to hear that things are still going great. Things here are going great as well. We have been having pretty good success finding people to teach but the hard thing is they don't have enough faith to keep the commitments we ask them to keep. It's so hard to help others come unto Christ if they are not willing to keep commitments. We have been teaching a lot of single ladies, they seem to be the most receptive, well women in general. We also teach a lot of part member families too. That is what we want most anyways, to complete families and to get them to the temple. We have a baptism this Saturday with a 9 year old girl named Makayla. She is the only one in her family who wasnt baptized so it's good to have the whole family, now we just have to get them all active. It is really unbeliveable how many less active people there are here. Many people make the initial decison to follow Christ's example and be baptized, but they dont quite understand the enduring to the end part. The average day of a missionary.....hard but rewarding. We wake up at 6:30 everyday.Excerise for a half hour and then eat and get ready for the day. Then we have personal study from 8 to 9 and companionship study from 9 to 10 then its out to work. We have an hour for language study and an hour for lunch. Other than that its all talking to people. We usually have about 8 lessons everyday some of them with members and the rest with new or progressing investagators. We also teach less active and recent converts. It's really hard when we have an appointment with someone and they aren't home, then we usúally just contact around the area until our next lesson. Usually we find someone else who is willing to listen to us and it turns out ok, then we have to reschedule with the others. We walk so much here, its insáne. I am sure Im losing weight cause we usally just eat a large lunch and nothing but a small snack for breakfast and dinner. Hey...I'm not complaining cause other missionaries put on a lot of weight. I don't know if I told you but I went on a companionship change with our district leader and thát was fun. It was cool to be in a different area with a different comp but teáching the exact same stuff. Im sad to hear about the farm, but good thing we have the plan of salvation. That's crazy that the kid who hit our surburban was here. Well im glad all is going well at home and everyone is working hard. Keep sharing and serving all those around you, that's where the true happiness comes from. I love the mission field and the the blesssings my famíly and I are recieving because of this great work. Love you all and I will write some more letters today. Thanks for the support and sacrifices. Oh and you might want to get an international calling card for mothers day and or the other times I get to call home. Elder Stilwell said that thats the cheapest way to do it. I will give you more details next week.
Love Elder Bowden
Its great to hear that things are still going great. Things here are going great as well. We have been having pretty good success finding people to teach but the hard thing is they don't have enough faith to keep the commitments we ask them to keep. It's so hard to help others come unto Christ if they are not willing to keep commitments. We have been teaching a lot of single ladies, they seem to be the most receptive, well women in general. We also teach a lot of part member families too. That is what we want most anyways, to complete families and to get them to the temple. We have a baptism this Saturday with a 9 year old girl named Makayla. She is the only one in her family who wasnt baptized so it's good to have the whole family, now we just have to get them all active. It is really unbeliveable how many less active people there are here. Many people make the initial decison to follow Christ's example and be baptized, but they dont quite understand the enduring to the end part. The average day of a missionary.....hard but rewarding. We wake up at 6:30 everyday.Excerise for a half hour and then eat and get ready for the day. Then we have personal study from 8 to 9 and companionship study from 9 to 10 then its out to work. We have an hour for language study and an hour for lunch. Other than that its all talking to people. We usually have about 8 lessons everyday some of them with members and the rest with new or progressing investagators. We also teach less active and recent converts. It's really hard when we have an appointment with someone and they aren't home, then we usúally just contact around the area until our next lesson. Usually we find someone else who is willing to listen to us and it turns out ok, then we have to reschedule with the others. We walk so much here, its insáne. I am sure Im losing weight cause we usally just eat a large lunch and nothing but a small snack for breakfast and dinner. Hey...I'm not complaining cause other missionaries put on a lot of weight. I don't know if I told you but I went on a companionship change with our district leader and thát was fun. It was cool to be in a different area with a different comp but teáching the exact same stuff. Im sad to hear about the farm, but good thing we have the plan of salvation. That's crazy that the kid who hit our surburban was here. Well im glad all is going well at home and everyone is working hard. Keep sharing and serving all those around you, that's where the true happiness comes from. I love the mission field and the the blesssings my famíly and I are recieving because of this great work. Love you all and I will write some more letters today. Thanks for the support and sacrifices. Oh and you might want to get an international calling card for mothers day and or the other times I get to call home. Elder Stilwell said that thats the cheapest way to do it. I will give you more details next week.
Love Elder Bowden
Monday, April 4, 2011
Week 2 in Uruguay!
Hola Familia!
Thanks for the email and words of encouragement! It sounds like you all enjoyed conference just as much as I did! The priesthood session was especially good. The spirit was really strong and I received many inspirations and revelations as to how I can improve. Wow the mission field is great. This week was much better than last week and hopefully we will have some baptisms in the near future. Spanish is coming but sometimes not as fast as I would want...but I know its on the Lords time not mine. I will let you know if I need anything but for now I am OK. I am glad to hear the BC temple is going up so well I cant wait to go to it when I get home. I am not sure when I will get to go to the temple here but I heard its only like 2 or maybe three times during your mission. Its ok though cause I am saving living souls and can save the others when I get home! It it definitely hard to be a missionary but I can see the many blessings daily! It is an amazing experience to be so close to the Lord. Like I said about the Spanish....I can understand the phrases that we hear often and other vocab that I know, but it is really hard when someone tells a story and uses different words. I just keep seeking the guidance of the spirit as I listen and speak. I just keep sharing my testimony and it seems to bring the spirit. It says in my patriarchal blessing that I can use my testimony to bless the lives of others and that's what I intend to do. I really don't have a lot of time to do a ton of stuff so I will send you pictures when I can. Tomorrow is district meeting and I am going on companion changes with our district leader so I will let you know how that goes. The people here are pretty great....we live in front of a high school though and they are pretty crazy and disrespectful, I guess that's how it is all over. It is insane how much they mate here! Its so crazy everyone always has their little cup of the tea stuff. I don't think I want to try it though it looks pretty gross. Oh and you could definitely send our kids here if you want cause they will fit in perfect with all the Uruguaysans...they watch so much TV. We will knock or clap a door and the people will not talk to us because they are so busy watching TV. It's even funnier when people turn off the lights or try to hide. For the most part people are pretty receptive. Well I'm out of time so I will leave you now. The church is true and the Savior lives. Love you all so much.
-Elder Bowden
Thanks for the email and words of encouragement! It sounds like you all enjoyed conference just as much as I did! The priesthood session was especially good. The spirit was really strong and I received many inspirations and revelations as to how I can improve. Wow the mission field is great. This week was much better than last week and hopefully we will have some baptisms in the near future. Spanish is coming but sometimes not as fast as I would want...but I know its on the Lords time not mine. I will let you know if I need anything but for now I am OK. I am glad to hear the BC temple is going up so well I cant wait to go to it when I get home. I am not sure when I will get to go to the temple here but I heard its only like 2 or maybe three times during your mission. Its ok though cause I am saving living souls and can save the others when I get home! It it definitely hard to be a missionary but I can see the many blessings daily! It is an amazing experience to be so close to the Lord. Like I said about the Spanish....I can understand the phrases that we hear often and other vocab that I know, but it is really hard when someone tells a story and uses different words. I just keep seeking the guidance of the spirit as I listen and speak. I just keep sharing my testimony and it seems to bring the spirit. It says in my patriarchal blessing that I can use my testimony to bless the lives of others and that's what I intend to do. I really don't have a lot of time to do a ton of stuff so I will send you pictures when I can. Tomorrow is district meeting and I am going on companion changes with our district leader so I will let you know how that goes. The people here are pretty great....we live in front of a high school though and they are pretty crazy and disrespectful, I guess that's how it is all over. It is insane how much they mate here! Its so crazy everyone always has their little cup of the tea stuff. I don't think I want to try it though it looks pretty gross. Oh and you could definitely send our kids here if you want cause they will fit in perfect with all the Uruguaysans...they watch so much TV. We will knock or clap a door and the people will not talk to us because they are so busy watching TV. It's even funnier when people turn off the lights or try to hide. For the most part people are pretty receptive. Well I'm out of time so I will leave you now. The church is true and the Savior lives. Love you all so much.
-Elder Bowden
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
