Hello from Kelso Washington

March 12, 2012

Hi all,

Today has been a rainy one but the past few days have been amazing!

We don’t have a lot of time here at the public library but I thought that I would send a quick email to let you know how I was doing and I will be sure to send more detailed info at a later time. We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Nelson of the quorum of the 12 Apostles this weekend.  Saturday we had a missionary meeting where each of us got to shake his hand and hear him speak for an hour. Saturday night we attended the adult session of the Longview stake conference where he spoke again and also the Sunday morning general session of stake conference.  I took many notes and learned a lot from him as well as the other speakers.  At the end of the missionary meeting Elder Nelson pronounced an Apostolic blessing upon us and that included the following:

1.      Come to love Jesus Christ and His Atonement for us.

2.      Be a true disciple.

3.      Feast upon the word and always apply those teachings in your lives.

4.      Have health, strength and safety on your missions.

5.      Continue in a lifetime of service to the Lord

6.      Love our families and bear testimony to them to bring them closer together.

7.      Have a shield of protection and to avoid accident and injury.

8.      Be a force for good.

9.      Be completely obedient

10.    Know God lives.

11.    Finally, he blessed us with his testimony as a special witness of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

I will let you know some of the other things that I was able to learn and write down when I email you next.

We weren’t able to get to Mt. St. Helens because of snowpack still being there but we thought we would try to get to some waterfalls instead so this morning we drove up the Lewis River and were trying to get to some waterfalls but as we got higher up in elevation the downpour of rain turned to snow.  We still got a few good pictures so ill send you a couple.

I am glad that you are having such a fun time celebrating and I hope that the rest of Elizabeth’s birthday goes well.

I love you Tons!!!

-Elder Bowen