Monday, June 18, 2012

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





Tuesday, June 12, 2012

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




Wednesday, June 6, 2012

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