See You Soon!

See You Soon!

July 31, 2012

Dear Family

I am looking forward to seeing you all next week!  It is an interesting time for me with going home so soon.  It still doesn't quite feel real but I feel prepared.  I am ready for the next step in my life.  There are a lot of missionaries that say that they hated going home and want to start their missions over... I think that it will be great going home and that rather than wanting to start it over I will continue to use the experiences that I have had to boost me into the next stage of my life.  

I am glad that I get to show you Mom and Dad a little of what the past two years has been like for me.  I have had some more thoughts on our Itinerary and have it pretty much finalized.  I had my departing interview with President Greer this week and he told me that it would work for him to meet you on Friday. 

Thank you Dad for the update with the scholarship and for all your encouragement in past years to help me get the scholarships!

Good news with my back!  It is still hurting but not as bad.  The physical Therapist put me on the program that Joe Montana was on when he was having back problems.  It is helping a lot more than I thought.  He said that I might not want to do surgery for another few years (he said that it might not help the pain as much as I thought) He says that I have some early arthritis that doesn't show up till usually age 60 or 70.  He says that with these exercises I will be able to regulate that problem and get rid of most of the pain.   It will be good to get a second opinion though I think.

Thank you to everyone for all your support on my mission.  I will see you soon!

Love, 

-Elder Bowen

Biggest Hamburger of My Life!

July 23, 2012

Dear Family,

It was good to talk to you today on chat.  I will keep you in my prayers.

This past week was good except for being sick.  We had Zone Conference and that went well.  I gave my departing Testimony there and shared some of the things I have gained from my mission experience.  

We got to go on a tour of Smiths Frozen Foods as well which was really cool.  The Stake President owns it so he gave us a tour and took us out to lunch where I ate the biggest burger of my life!

We also had some more big summer lightning storms and got some good pictures out the back window.  It was loud and kept us up late again.

I gave a talk on service in the YSA yesterday and it went well... thanks to my mission I can give a talk on just about anything and for however long they need me too.  (one of the speakers didn't show up)

I am looking foreword to you coming up to spend some time with me up here and I am continuing to work on the plans.  Also am grateful for all each of you are doing for me:)

Love You!

-Elder Bowen

The Biggest Hamburger of my life!! (2 big patties, 1 inch of ham, 1 inch of Roast beef, 4 slices of Bacon, 2 tomato slices, 3 slices of cheese, and some really good sauce)
I finished all of it but a couple fries:)

 Lightning over the Prison

Another Day in the Mission

Dear Family,

I'm doing really good today.  The weather is pretty nice this morning.  The past week has been in the high 90s low 100s but then last night we had a big rain storm with lots of loud lightning.  Kept us up late with all the noise but its going to be in the mid 70s today so I'm not complaining. My guess is that you will probably get some of the storm we had.

Yesterday at church we received some good news!  I don't know if you remember Natalie that came by the house with her parents when they were scouting out places to live... but she/we have been teaching her friend for the last little while.  We were thinking that she was loosing interest in the church after we had taught her everything and answered all her questions but yesterday she told us that she wants to get baptized!

We had a good day of service on Saturday in Ukiah and a couple good trips up to Walla Walla for meetings.  This Friday we will be going to Hermiston for Zone conference and afterward President and Sister Greer want me to take some pictures of them in some of the wheat fields around... The feild is white already to harvest in more ways than one:) 

Thank you for sending me the pictures Mom... I appreciate them and it makes me feel like I was there! 

I Love You all!

-Elder Matt Bowen

Week of the 4th!

July 9, 2012

Dear Family,

I don't have a lot of time today but Ill hit on a few events of the week.  

We had a fire in our appartment complex, which was a significant part of the week.  We were there when it started and we helped alert people and gave info to the Firefighters.  We made it into the story in the paper (the east Oregonian)  and 3 of my pictures made it into the paper, one on the front page.  Our apartment is ok but has some smoke damage.  We just feel bad about all the loss that everyone else went through / are still going through.  

The missionary work was a little slower this week with people being out of town and busy with family but we still got some good things accomplished.  We had ZLC this week which was good as always:) 

Ill send the pics of the fire that made it into the paper:)

LOVE YOU!

Elder Bowen

50 Days If You Can Believe It!!!

I sure cant believe it!  

Time is winding down so quickly. Transfers are next week.  I am pretty sure I would be staying here in Pendleton but you never know i guess.  This week has pretty much been status-quo.  We have been working hard and have been getting lots of referrals lately.  We are trying to pick up the work in the YSA which is going well.  

We went around town last week and took some fun pictures that I will attach to the email. 

Love you all!

-Elder Bowen

June Pressin On

Dear Family,

This week was yet another good one.  It seems like most of my week here on the mission have been overall pretty good.  We had John Dupuis Baptism yesterday and it went really well.  We have a few more coming up and we have found some new people who are wanting to get baptized.  Things are really turning around here in Pendleton.  Our Zone is doing well too and spirits are high.  

This last week has been quite rainy up until Yesterday.  It was down in the 50s but now its back up to the mid 70s.  We had a cool experience last week out in the small town of Pilot Rock.  It was pretty cloudy but no rain yet and we were outside of one of our investigators homes talking.  She has been going through a lot of hard things and we were trying to comfort her and talked about the peace the gospel brings.  Her kids were inside screaming and fighting as usual witch didn't help out.  My comp asked if he could share a scripture as it started to rain.  She didn't want to hear anything out of the scriptures at the time so I asked if we could at least pray with her.  She said that we could so we said a prayer on behalf of her and her family. Her kids came to the door after and I told them they should say their prayers too (meaning on their own) but the mom thought I meant right then so they came out and we taught them how to pray.  My companion said the prayer this time and it started to rain a lot harder.  The two boys came close to me and I put my arms down around them to help keep a little rain off of them as we prayed.  After the prayer they weren't angry at each other any more and were a lot more calm (one of them has autism and is usually running around screaming but was now really calm).  We said bye and walked back to the car pretty wet.  As we left they went back in and the yelling and screaming started up again but it was good to think that that family had had at least a small moment of peace with prayer. Hopefully they will recognize that feeling was there when they were focused on God.  

I am excited about the trip that you will be taking up here.  As you are looking at lodging I will get some information from Dave Stapleton (the member of the mission presidency who owns the Hotels) and let you know next week cause I will see him tomorrow at Leadership Training in Kennewick.  I will also Talk to President Greer about what day you can meet them.  

Thanks for the email Elizabeth! It was fun to see the pictures of you and Michael:)  

I'm glad that you are enjoying the Dakine bag that I sent you Mom... Maybe when you come up we will stop by the warehouse and see if there is anything else.

I took a cool picture of the Sunset on Saturday. Hope you like it:)

The other Pic is of us out trying by people.  The house is actually the same one that I told you the story about.

Have a good week!

-Elder Bowen

2 Years Ago...

June 4, 2012

Dear Family,

I realized that Saturday was 2 years since I got my mission call and it brought back memories of the months before my mission and how fun they were with you all!

It is also just 2 months away from when you will come pick me up!  

  

We have a baptism this week in the Family ward and just had someone who the other elders here taught be baptized in the YSA.  

The weather here has been rainy but its nice to not have it be real hot.

We got to go to Vancouver for ZLC this time so I took some pics of the group and we got to stop by multnomah as well so Ill attach a pic that I took there.  

Elder Gibson and I are getting along well and working hard to find new people to teach as well as to help the people we teach progress towards baptism.  We are working with the Ward Council a lot and trying to get some more member referrals since tracting isn't the most effective way of finding:)

I hope that the first week of summer is fun for all of you!  Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers and for all the other things that you do for me!

Love You

-Elder Bowen