Take Heart!

High 5! 

1. Worldwide missionary broadcast! On Wednesday we got to watch a broadcast, just for missionaries and it was awesome! We learned a lot and it was cool to think that ALL the missionaries around the world watched the same thing and received the same training!

2. Jim, the less active man we found, came to church this week and he loved it! We are excited to see him work to and get to the temple!

3. Darlene, our apartment manager, is on date to be baptized on February 27th!

4. We have a new investigator named Norman. He is a cancer survivor from Bermuda! He is super awesome and has so much faith. We are excited for him to continue learning because he is so prepared for more! #NormanTheStorminMormon

5. We just started teaching a new couple, Charlie and Sheri! They are really interested in the Book of Mormon and how it can help their family. All of their children are adopted and they are super excited to see their family become more unified. 

Down Low, 2 Slow.

1. Our super awesome investigator Issac is hiding from us because of his wife Catholic, I mean Katherine. (That's how she introduced herself to us, haha!)

2. Transfers are Monday :((( Hold mail until I know if I am staying or moving.

Enos 1:12 "And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith."

We are asked to memorize a new scripture every month and this was the scripture from a couple months ago. I was thinking about it and found it significant that we aren't given what we ask for with out laboring diligently first. This thought led me to the Brother of Jared. He did as the Lord commanded and built barges in order to cross the sea. When asking the Lord how he should light the barges, The Lord responded by allowing the Brother of Jared to come up with his own answer. He went on to find sixteen, white and clear, small stones. In Ether chapter 3 verse 4 he humbly takes them before the Lord. "[...] I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea." The Lord answers him in verse 6. "And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these words, behold, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones one by one with his finger. [...]"

This life is time for us to learn and grow and the Lord gives us opportunities to gain knowledge and experience by giving us a brain! It is important to study the scriptures, including modern day revelation, and pray every day in order to be guided by the spirit in how to overcome trials and make decisions. I know as we take our solutions to the Lord, He will more easily be able to guide us through life onto exultation. 

Elder Holland gives us some encouragement as we do our best. "If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived." 

God speed!

Love, Sister Bowen

PS. Funny story for the week...Sister Morris says I talk about green chili in my sleep :) #ILoveNewMexico

Finders Keepers

High 5!

1. Another AMAZING week in El Dorado! We attended a child's baptism this week and had 3 investigators there and a less active family! One of the non-members has been hesitant about meeting with us but after the baptism was SO excited to set up an appointment and start the lessons. She expressed to us that she could feel something different there.

2. While we were helping a family move this week, we ran into a family who recently moved in near by and wanted to talk to us. We took a break from hauling stuff up and down the stairs and taught them right then and there! They are a super cute Navajo family with 3 young children, and have been looking for a church! Pray for the Mann family!

3. We have recently started teaching a part member family in our ward and they are doing SO well! Brother Williams was recently remarried to a wonderful women from Ecuador and she is super interested in our church! She loves reading the Book of Mormon and in her best English says it makes their home feel better! She is preparing for baptism and he is preparing to baptize her.

4. We are teaching our apartment manager!!! Weird, huh!? She is SO awesome. She stopped us one day and asked what we did and then asked us to meet with her on a weekly basis! She has a very good relationship with God already and will make a great member :) Pray for Darleen!

5. We went on splits with members multiple times this week to cover all of our appointments and had a lot of fun :)

No down lows this week!

3 Nephi 14:13-14 "Enter ye in a the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat; Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

My companion and I were talking about these verses and trying to picture the differences between these two gates! There is one gate that is broad, shiny, and attractive to the world, but it leads to a path of thorns, sharp rocks, and the great and spacious building! The happiness that comes from walking this path is temporary and cannot last beyond the gate. The other gate is simple. It's narrow and not appealing to the world, but behind it, it widens to endless possibilities and complete and lasting happiness. 

I know as we keep the commandments, our choices open up and we will be confronted with open doors and more opportunities to become who Heavenly Father wants us to be. May we use the greatest gift we have been given, our agency, to stay on the straight and narrow path which leads us safely home to our Father's presence, through the second gate I described. All the blessings you can imagine will be yours to keep!

God speed!

Love, Sister Bowen

 (We had some fun visiting the Albuquerque Zoo this week!)

The Healer's Art

High 5!

1. We had our best week yet in El Dorado! We broke our record for lessons taught and found some solid, new investigators. Our area is BOOMING :) (finally)

2. Coby Anderson is getting baptized on February 6th! This is especially exciting because his dad will be the one to do it and he has been less active for 10+ years. We can't wait to see their family in the temple!

3. We are teaching a recent convert's younger brother. He is a 15 year old Navajo boy. His name is Stetsin. They recently lost their mom :( We are excited to watch his life change though, just like his sisters did about a year ago.

4. We were invited to a non-member family's home the other night to teach them. They are neighbors with some members and are looking for a church. The member neighbor came with us and it was awesome :)

5. We had stake conference this weekend where a member of the 70 came and spoke to us! We all felt really uplifted and our mission president and his wife spoke in the Sunday session. We always love hearing from them.

Down Low, 2 Slow.

1. The Spanish branch in our stake is struggling so they have taken a few families out of our ward to serve there for a while.

2. We found a less active this week who we have been looking for since we got here who did NOT want to see us. He yelled at us, to say the least, and told us that Brad Pitt should be our prophet. Sad. (kind of amusing looking back, haha)

I love studying the Atonement because there is always more to learn! I read an article this week that compared the story in Numbers about Moses raising the staff with the serpent on it to how we are healed today. 

"Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent out of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." (Numbers 21:7-9)

All that the people were asked to do were to LOOK at the staff, and they would be healed. I know that today, we are asked to do the same- turn away from our sin and our pride, and LOOK to Christ. In 1 Nephi 17:41 we learn that, "[...] because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished." 

None of us are beyond the reach of our Redeemer to heal us. Our best efforts may be limited but His are not. All of us can be made whole through a Savior who had no debt to pay and had committed no wrong, but who still took upon Him all the pains,afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and deaths of His people. He suffered these things so that He would know how to succor, or give aid to us. (Alma 7:11-12) I love the picture in my mind that Elder Oaks paints in this quote. "Having descended below all, He is perfectly positioned to lift us and give us the strength we need to endure [...]." 

I know that "many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." (Psalms 34:19) We all face difficult times that test us, but I invite you to change your perspective and align it more with our Savior's. If anything else, press forward through your unique trials so that you, like the Savior, might be able to help others who later, face similar challenges and you can say, "I know what it's like; let me help you". This is our duty, as members of the church and as children of God. Studying the Atonement will help you as you seek to help others and point them to Christ.

Like the good Samaritan, when He finds us wounded at the wayside, He will bind up our wounds and care for us. (Luke 10:34) My favorite hymns to go along with this are Where Can I Turn For Peace, #129, and Abide With Me, #166. I invite you to read the lyrics and ponder the message they contain about our Savior's everlasting and healing Atonement.

God speed!

Love, Sister Bowen

Strive!

High 5!

1. We have a new investigator and she is already on date to be baptized, January 30th! Her name is Amy and she lives in our same apartment complex. We met her one night at the mailbox where she poured her heart out to us about all the struggles she is facing. We promised her that our message could help her, taught her the next day, and she is SO excited about being baptized!

2. We knocked into a part-member couple this week! The wife was baptized right before moving to ABQ from Las Cruces and it was a miracle because they don't have a phone and had been praying for someone to find them so they could go to church! Her husband isn't a member (yet) but he is very open and he loves coming to church on Sundays.

3. We also found Jim this week! He is actually an inactive member but is looking to come back! When he moved here from Texas he visited a lot of other churches but has come full circle and knows THIS is the only true church.

4. One of our favorite families who has been less active for a while now is progressing! They come to church every week, are in the middle of retaking the missionary lessons, and go to the temple prep class! We are SO happy for them and can't wait to be with them in the temple!

5. Because of our lack of solid investigators we did a TON of finding this week. We had members out tracting with us so we could do double the work. It paid off! We found a lot of new potentials!

Down Low, 2 Slow.

1. I am missing my best friend's wedding TODAY! :( CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS Brianna & Isaac!

2. I've never dealt with so many drunk people in my life...due to New Years, haha.

My spiritual thought this week is to have all of you watch this 3 minute video! We watched it in Relief Society this week and I LOVED it.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-01-010-strive?category=youth-media&lang=eng

God speed! I love and miss you alllll!

Love, Sister Bowen