Hello from the MTC!!!

Hello from the MTC!!!

High 5!

1. I have a name tag! It's official!

2.The spirit here is ridiculous! For the first time I can describe it as THICK. It's the best.

3. We pray ALL the time. Someone counted one day and it was like, 97...!

4. Sunday nights we get to watch a movie and this past Sunday I watched Character of Christ by Elder Bednar. Amazing. It was life changing and so powerful. Turn outward.

5. I love all of my investigators SO much.

Down Low, 2 slow.

1. The showers...awful.

2. One of the girls who I was rooming with woke up on Monday morning to leave for Argentina and had a seizure. So sad and really scary for all of us. Satan is real. She had to go home but she's in our prayers and hopefully after some medical treatment with get reassigned stateside- Spanish speaking. 

Woah, I've officially been here for a week! Sometimes it feels like it's been way longer but sometimes the opposite. Regardless, I have come to love this work with all my heart. I have learned so much and still have a ton more to learn, and for that, I'm excited! 

My companion is Sister Wilson! I love her. We work so well together and it seems like all of my weaknesses are her strengths and all of her weaknesses are my strengths. I really do hope we get a chance to be companions again in the field. We have had AMAZING teaching experiences together.

Honesty hour for you...Whenever anyone would tell me that missionary work was hard, i didn't really believe them, until now! Holy cow, each day is spiritually exhausting. I love it though because even though all of my studies are spent on my investigators, I gain so much out of it personally. We watched a segment of a devotional that Elder Holland gave. He talked about how we have to go with our investigators to the Sacred Grove and Gethsemane in order to bring them higher. How cool, right!? I get to visit those places and so many more each time I teach and it allows my conversion to deepen each time. I really have come to more fully understand the atonement and my relationship with Jesus Christ has been strengthened. It is an honor and a privilege to wear His name on my chest every day.

My district is amazing! 3 of us are going to New Mexico and the other 5 are going to Oregon. The very first day I was here, I learned very quickly that we are called to people, not a place. The Lord is preparing the people in New Mexico for me. Some will be for me to strengthen and others will be to strengthen me. I learn so much from others. The missionaries here teach me every day.

President Soares from the 70 came to talk to us for our Tuesday night devotional. It was SO good. He talked about the lasting effects of missionary work and how much we don't realize in our year and a half. It makes me think of Oma and Opa and how much those missionaries who taught them have really impacted our family.  

SO much happens and I really could go on forever but I absolutely love it here. I'm sad to be leaving so soon but SO grateful for the experiences I've had here. There is no work like missionary work and I'm so excited to get out into the field! I leave Monday morning at 5:30. My flight is at 9:45 and I hit New Mexico ground running at 11:30! Thank you for all of your continuous prayers and support.

After every district prayer, whoever said it says, "Proclaim the name!" And we all reply with, "That's why we came!"

God speed!

Love, Sister Bowen