HOPE

Hello!

This week was just wonderful. So many fun things! 

On Tuesday we had our mission Christmas Conference! I was going to send pictures, but I accidentally left my card reader at home today... oops! So you'll get them next week haha. 

But it was awesome because the conference is the only time our whole entire mission ever gets together, so it was fun to see old companions and catch up with people. :) I saw Sister Chipman there and she told me that Ian was getting the Priesthood that coming week, so that was yesterday. I was so excited!! I'm so glad he is still making progress. 

The meeting was so good though, it was about 6 hours of trainings on Christ-like attributes, lunch, and musical numbers by the missionaries. IT WAS SO GOOD. There's nothing better to learn about on Christmas than Christ. 

There was one training by a Sister on hope that I really loved. She talked about how a lot of times when we use the word '"hope", we use it with uncertainty. Like, "I hope the weather clears up." or "I hope that I get the job." We use it in a way that makes it seem like we are unsure or fearful. But real hope, the hope that Christ had, was certain. It was sure. Preach my Gospel defines hope as "An abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to you. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance. It is believing and expecting that something will occur. When you have hope, you work through trials and difficulties with the confidence and assurance that all things will work together for your good. Hope helps you conquer discouragement." I had never really thought about that before. The hope that the gospel brings us isn't an uncertain kind of hope. It is a certain hope. A knowledge that God loves us and that He has a plan for us. I love that. That is why it is so important to share the gospel, because people in the world don't have that hope! 

On Christmas Eve we had dinner at the Stanford's house! Sister Stanford is like.... a really really good cook. So yum. But we watched a church movie, read Luke 2, and they gave us a gift! It was fun. Then we came home, made a ginger bread house, put our mattresses in the front room, lit up all our Christmas lights and had a little slumber party! So fun. :) 

Then on Christmas we spent the day visiting members! Everyone here is so nice and I just love them. Then I got to skype my family! That was fun. Weston and Reagan looked so big! It was good to hear your voices and talk for a little bit. :) Then that night we had a dinner at a member's house. Her name is Sudha Gupta and she is this little old lady from India. Hahaha I will tell you more about it next week when I send pictures but it was so funny. She kept piling and piling on food it was so funny. Then she gave us this dessert.... oh boy not my favorite. It was this sweet milk stuff with cheese patties floating in it. It was rough hahaha. I'll send you pictures. I'm running out of time but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! And have a happy new year!! Lots of love!

XOXO Sister Fowers

Christmas day skyping with my Family

Merry CHRISTmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I am so excited for Christmas. It's so fun on a mission. :) Pretty sure one of us has gotten a package every single day haha. We are so loved! So thanks everyone!

We have had a pretty good week! Sister Phipps has finally been feeling a little better the last couple days, so hopefully we'll get back to business soon! We've spent a lot of time indoors playing games and stuff so that's been kinda fun. At least its Christmas time when not a lot of people want to talk with us anyway, so we're not missing out on a lot of work. 

We taught Jeff again the other day! He is doing pretty well, but definitely isn't going to make his baptismal date of December 23rd. So we talked to him again and he re-set it for January 31st because he's going out of town for a few weeks. We taught him about prayer and scripture study and how it really is the key to his progression and receiving personal revelation. His problem is he is seeking answers from the wrong places. He looks things up on the internet when all he needs to do is pray! Kind of frustrating, but he'll get it eventually. My mission has definitely taught me that if we're not truly humble and willing to submit our will to Heavenly Father's, not only is He probably not going to give us an answer yet, but we probably won't even recognize it if He did! So Jeff just needs to be a little more humble and submit to Heavenly Father's will if you ask me. :) Then he'd be good to go! Pray for him haha. 

We have a fun week ahead of us though! Tomorrow we have a big Christmas Conference with the whole entire mission, so that will be fun. :) I'm excited to go back down to Richmond for it! Then on Christmas Eve and Christmas we are just spending all of our time with members and their families. So fun, they take such good care of us. :) Plus I get to skype you guys on Christmas! Yay! So excited to see you. 

Mostly I'm just excited that it's Christmas and we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ! What an awesome gift. It's so much more than presents and material things. The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of CHRIST! I think that's why it rings so true with all of us. So I hope we can all discover, embrace, and share that spirit with everyone this year. That's what its all about! 

"This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again." (The Gifts of Christmas by Howard W. Hunter)

I love that quote. If we all took that to heart I know that we would have the best Christmas ever! I know that my Savior was born and that He lives today. I'm so grateful to be His missionary! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Lots of love from Virginia!

XOXO, Sister Fowers :)

The ward Christmas party-fancy

Just chillin at the ward Christmas party

Christmas tree farm

Santa! He sorta hugged me a little-no bueno! haha

Holiday Hootie Whatie

Hello!

This week has been great, but a little slow! My companion has been a little sick so we've just been trying to get her better! So we've been taking it easy, but its been good. :)

We found a few more people to teach this week!

We were tracting and talked to a few friends just chillin inside, drinking some wine by the fire so they let us right in hahaha. Two of them were an engaged couple and the other was a friend that was in town visiting them. Their names were Tonio, Redge, and I can't remember the girl's name. But they were super friendly and had a strong Christian background so they just ate up what we were teaching them. At the end of the lesson we were talking to them about the Book of Mormon and they were so excited to get one and read it! So hopefully we can contact them again because they didn't set up another appointment. They were awesome though :) 

We've also been trying to contact this family named the Catalands for the past few weeks and never had any luck, but the other night we finally caught them home! They are from Guatamala and were super open to meeting with us and learning more, but they won't be in town again until January. Everyone has been telling us that, so the work will be a little slow unitl then haha. But they seem promising!

Our investigator Jeff is doing pretty well. His wife is super nonsupportive so he tells us how she yells at him everyday about becoming a mormon. So that's sad. Hopefully her heart will soften. But he's been coming to church every week so he's making progress! 

We also had our ward Christmas party on Wednesday! Wow it was an event haha. This ward goes alllll out! I wish I could send pictures of the decorations but the computers at this library won't let us connect our cameras to them!! So I don't know how I'm going to send pictures while I'm here...... sad :( sorry mom!

But yeah the party was super fun! We were in charge of his little service room for the kids and little kids are just hilarious. 

Also, I spoke in church yesterday! No big deal, they didn't tell me until the day before. But my topic was perseverance and I told a story about how dad would have me put the onions back into the rows during harvest when I was little and I kind of made a parable out of it haha. It was silly but I don't even know how many people asked me about the onions after, thats all they got out of it hahaha. Dad would be proud though. :) #farmerlife

Not much else has been going on around here! Just trying to get Sister Phipps back to health :) We got to watch the Christmas Devotional last week and it was awesome. I am so excited for Christmas!!!!! Best time of the year. :) 

Thanks for all you guys do! Love you lots!

XOXO, Sister Fowers

Secret Agent Status

Hey hey!

How is everyone?? I hope things are good! 

I am now in Woodbridge, VA in the Lakeridge 1st ward!!

My companion is Sister Phipps, she is awesome. She's 23 and is from Provo and has been out for 14 months! 

My new mailing address for letters and packages is-

12270 Creekview Cir # 203

Woodbridge, VA  22192

My area is pretty much as far north as you can go in my mission! My area even borders the D.C. South mission. So tons of people who live here commute to DC every day. Also, can I just take a moment and also tell you that tons of people in the ward are like government officials and work for the FBI and CIA?? Does it get cooler than that?? Don't think so. 

Haha our bishop is suuupper nice and he is in the FBI. I also had dinner at a family's house the other night and the dad is in the Secret Service and works at the White House. And tonight we're having dinner at the Stanford's and Brother Standford just retired from the CIA.
  IM IN HEAVEN. :)

It has been super weird getting used to a family ward, but this ward is great. Super nice and friendly. :) We've been doing a lot of tracting this week, which is fun because I didn't do any in Chippenham! 

We have some investigators, but not a ton. We are working with this guy named Jeff and its so funny because he is seriously just like Ian. Except like 20 years older hahaha. He has been investigating for years but we are determined to get him baptized!! So yeah, its going to happen. :)

We're also teaching this lady named Alicia and she is from Trinidad! She is really awesome, but hasn't come to church yet and isn't keeping commitments, so we'll see. She did say that her new years resolution was to get baptized though, so that was sweet! Pray for her! 

We have a few others but mostly we are just trying to find more people!! Missionary work is fun, its like this game of finding the elect, I love it. :) 

Thanks for all the love and support you guys are awesome! If you haven't yet, go watch 

He is the Gift! 

christmas.mormon.org

Keep sharing the gospel and being awesome! Miss you guys! 

XOXO Sister Fowers

Kaycee and her new companion, Sister Phipps

Transfers...........................

Drum roll please.................

I'm getting transferred.

I AM SO SAD!!!!!!

We got a call on Saturday telling us that I was leaving and I've been so sad ever since. Haha I hate goodbyes! Its so hard to leave all of the people in the ward and all the people that we're teaching, but I guess Heavenly Father knows what He's doing right? Doesn't mean I'm happy about it though. ;)

 I WILL MISS CHIPPY SO MUCH.

We'll get back to that later though, I don't want to think about it.

This week was slooooowwwwww. Like glacial pace, no joke. Everyone was gone for Thanksgiving break and it was just a struggle to find people to talk to or teach and campus was dead. We did go contacting at a big outdoor mall on Friday and there was tons of people there, so that was fun. :)

We had planned to have Thanksgiving at the Chuntz's house, but we decided to combine groups with people that were going to the Bishop's house, so we all just went there and had dinner together. Our investigator Gina even came! It was so yummy and good to just kind of feel at home and eat good food haha. :) The Witt's have this old fashioned player piano in their house and you just push these petals at the bottom and it plays songs for you, so we were playing Christmas songs on there and just laughing and having fun.

Can I just say I've like never been so excited for Christmas ever?? We sing Christmas hymns every day.

Speaking of Christmas....

...Have you seen He is the Gift??

If not, you need to watch it and share it!!

www.mormon.org/Christmas

The church is doing this huge push to get it out into the world and the video is so good! As missionaries we are sharing with everyone, giving out cards about it, and the church is even taking over Youtube to advertise it and putting it in Times Square for a month! So, if you haven't yet, share it on facebook, twitter, anything and hashtag #SharetheGift!

"Discover the Gift. Embrace the Gift. Share the Gift."

2 Corinthians 9:15 "Thanks be unto God
 for his unspeakable gift."

I love that! Christmas is so much more than what the world makes it to be and we need to share the true meaning with them. He is the gift and He is the true meaning of Christmas. :)

Back to transfers.....

I am so sad to leave and I basically cried all day yesterday hahaha. They say that your first transfer is the worst one, but I'll probably be this way with all of them ha! Basically I'm just sad to leave the ward, I love them so much. And I love Richmond. Maybe I'll do what Sister Roosendaal did, and come back and serve in Chippy again some day. ;) Hopefully! It'll be scary to go to a family ward and just learn how to be a missionary not in a YSA ward,
 but it'll be good for me.

Yesterday after sacrament meeting me and my companion went with Sister Chuntz to visit that ward member Angelica that I visited in jail a while ago. She moved to a different jail and it was just so humbling to visit and talk with her. She showed us her CTR ring on her hand and says that she reads the scriptures with people in the jail. It is amazing how no matter what mistakes someone makes, they can still have a heart of gold. So we can never judge.

As we were driving home I just felt so grateful for the chance I had to serve here, it really is the best area ever. I am so blessed!! I won't know where I'm going til tomorrow, so stay tuned next week to see where I end up!

I love you all and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now go and #SharetheGift!

Lots of love xoxo,

Sister Fowers

Thanksgiving dinner

Getting into the Thanksgiving spirit-making apple crisp!

This is Michelle, she got baptized in September and she is going on a mission next year! Yep she's amazing.

VCU you will be missed :(

A Thankful Heart

Yo Yo Yo!

How is everyone?? Freezing? Its 70 degrees outside right now in Virginia nbd... :)

Haha anyway this week has been so good!!! Not even kidding Heavenly Father has been putting so many awesome people in our path. Not complaining!

Earlier in the week we had some lessons with some really nice guys. One's name is Kameron and he was just super sincere. As we started the lesson, he just nonchalantly pullled out a notebook and pen and started taking notes as we taught him haha! I've never had anyone do that, but it was awesome. I said the quote, "there's no growing in a comfort zone and no comfort in a growth zone" and he made me repeat it so he could write it down hahaha.

Then we taught this guy named Jonny and he is also just really awesome. I'm always amazed by people who are super open-minded about religion and other people's viewpoints. But it was cool because we were going to meet him on campus for the lesson and me and my companion both accidentally handed out our copies of the Book of Mormon on campus before the lesson so we didn't have one to give him! But then it turned out that he already had it on his Kindle! #elect. :)

Then that night we had a lesson set up to meet that Muslim guy Abraham that I told you about last week? Yeah, so we had never taught him but we assumed he would just come alone and we would teach him. Nope! He brought 3 of his friends and said that he would have brought more but he didn't know how big the room would be hahaha. So we just taught 4 Muslim guys all at the same time it was hilarious. They had no idea what any of the Christian principles were so we had to kind of start from the beginning and explain everything. But they were super awesome and we are getting them some Arabic Book of Mormons! And they said they would cook us some Arabic food? Who knows haha :)

The problem right now is EVERYONE is leaving for Thanksgiving break and is suuuupppper busy with finals. So no one has time to meet with us. I don't know what we are going to do over thanksgiving break but it will be interesting!

We are having Thanksgiving dinner at Elder and Sister Chuntz's house on Thursday! They are just the best, it will be so fun. :)

We've also still been meeting with our investigator Gina! She is doing pretty well and came to a baptism the other night and loved it. We are trying to figure out how best to teach her because she's not really retaining anything. We are shooting for her to get baptized in January, so we'll see.

Random story: we were street contacting on campus and we gave a card to this girl and so she looked at it, then got really mad and tried to throw the card really hard and hit us but instead it kinda just fluttered to the ground.... it was really awkward. So I just picked the card up and we kept walking haha.

Today we went ice skating for sisters pday! So that was fun :) We got to wear pants and it felt weird.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving this week!!!

Here are some things I am grateful for:

• The Gospel of Jesus Christ!
  
• That I get to be a missionary and put on my name-tag everyday.
  
• My Family!
• Tights (its cold out there!)
• Missionary approved music ;)
• Friends
  
• Utah! (When is VA going to get a cafe rio??)
  
• The Scriptures
• Email haha :)
  
• Prayer
• Pictures
• The missionaries I serve with
• All the tender mercies Heavenly Father sends my way.

I could go on forever... But I am so grateful for all of the blessing I have been given.

Psalms 100:4 "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name."
President Uchtdorf said "Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christlike attributes! A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues."
 That is so true. If we can truly become grateful, we can slowly but surely become more like the Savior every day.
I know that this is Christ's true church on the earth and I'm so grateful to be a part of it and to share it with others.
I love you all!
XOXO Sister Fowers

Sister missionaries

Kaycee and her companion 

More missionaries

Growing sunflowers in a tiny pot

Bible Study,Gospel Principles, and Pres

Hey hey! 

How is everyone?? Hopefully you're staying warm! I thought it was cold here in Virginia, but it sounds like it is way colder in Utah. It has been in the 30's and 40's here, and its super rainy today, but as long as there's not snow I'm good! 

I will admit though, that we already have a Christmas tree up in our apartment, listen to Christmas music in the car, and sing Christmas hymns every morning for comp study. You could say we're a little excited. 

This week has been so good though! We have seriously seen so many miracles. 

Before I get into all that can I just tell you a story I forgot to tell you last time? Hahaha. 

So, a few weeks ago we were just contacting on campus and we stopped a girl and gave her a card. She took it, walked away, and then turned back around and asked us if we wanted to come to a bible study that she was going to right then on campus. So we were like... sure! Why not? Maybe she'll come to church if we come to her bible study? So, as we're walking there we're talking to her and she tells us that the bible study ends at 9:00 but that we could leave whenever because the guy that is like the preacher was really cool and chill about it (not true). So we told her we probably would leave early because we have a curfew. 

So we get in there and its kind of like a non-denominational Christian bible study and its just a room full of about 30 people. We take a seat next to some random people and the guy is just talking about a lot of different topics in the bible. Its so interesting to compare religions, I love it haha. The whole time I just have to stop myself from being like "actually.... thats not true." Haha so throughout the study this guy just gets weirder. He went up to this girl who was leaning on her arm sleeping and he like ripped her arm out from under her head to wake her up and make her listen it was so weird. 

Then someone stood up and left early and he made this huge big deal about it in front of everyone. We were like uh oh.... he's gonna get mad when we have to leave early! So like 8:45 rolls around and we're already gonna be late, so I just look at my companion and we decide to just get up and leave anyway. 

So I was wearing a yellow cardigan that day, and as we stand up to leave the guy starts making a scene about us leaving. He was like "Yeah, yeah, go! Its alright the door is right there." But clearly he was mad that we didn't want to sit and listen to him anymore. 

So as we are walking toward the door, he stops and says to the whole room, "You see that girl in the yellow sweater? She was saved when she was a teenager." 

So I turn around and am just like uh...? What? 

Then he looks at us and is like, "Wait, wait, listen. Listen to me prophecy to you right now. Let me guess you are forming a women's organization that will travel over seas." 

At this point we are just really confused and feeling super awkward because everyone is staring at us and this guy is nuts. So we're just like "Um, yeah sure." It was like he was trying to prove to the whole class that he was a prophet it was so weird. 

Then he says, "Let me give you some advice. Get rid of the box." And he makes the shape of a square in the air with his fingers. Then he says, "If I never see you again, see you in Heaven." Then he just salutes at us and we just got out of there asap. Hahahaha. 

So, basically I had a crazy guy try and prophesy about me. It was so weird. I always read about other religions in the Book of Mormon and all the prophesies about how corrupt they'd get in the last days but I never actually saw any of that in Utah. Then I came here and hello! False prophets everywhere. I love our Prophets. The whole time that guy was talking you could just see in him that he was doing it for money or for the praise of men. 

Anyway, interesting weird experience overall. hahaha welcome to the bible belt! 

This week we have found so many new people to teach!! It has been so awesome! So many referrals poured in and we just had a ton more lessons. Prayer is real guys. :) We taught this guy named Joshua McCormick and he was just super cool. He is a touring musician though, so he's super busy and can't meet with us again until December.
So pray that his schedule will free up! 

Also, this Sunday Gina came to church! We have been teaching her a lot, but she struggles to keep commitments and come to church, so we're still undecided about when she should be baptized. We had these other three guys come to church as well, and we hadn't even taught them yet. We actually met one of them, his name is Abraham, in Monroe park and he is from Saudi Arabia and he wanted to come to church but wouldn't give us his number, so we gave him ours. Usually if we give people our number they never text us... so its lame. But he actually text us Saturday and said he was coming to church and bringing his two friends! 

Haha so they all come to church and they're all from Saudi Arabia. The friends names were Ali and Moo. They are Muslim and looked very confused the whole time hahaha. 

So we're in Gospel Principles and we did like a get to know you question and everyone went around and answered it. So the question was, "What is your coolest scar and how'd you get it?"

So everyone goes around and answers and it gets to be Abraham's turn and he says that his only scar was on his fingers from moving the coals around when he smokes hookah.......... hahaha. Yup! It was so funny and awkward.

Happy 4 months to me yesterday! Ahh time is going by so fast! I was talking to my companion this morning about going on missions and how everyone needs to go on one!!! Seriously. If anyone ever asks me if they should go, I will tell them yes. Every time. Because there are just so many things to learn on a mission and you can't learn them any other way!!!
Go on missions peeps!! 

Last week we had a testimony meeting at President Wilson's house about handing out books at the Book of Mormon play and it was just so powerful and awesome. At the end, it was about 9:00, so we all kneeled down in the family room of the mission home and had a family prayer together. President Wilson said it and it was just the most powerful prayer ever. He is just such a great mission president. It was so cool to see how much he prayed for us and loves us and how he speaks to Heavenly Father. At the end, we were crying. It just made me think of how much our Heavenly Father loves us and how much he wants us to succeed. 

Things are going so great here! I love Richmond and will be so sad if I have to leave! Transfers are in two weeks, so we'll see. Pray that I stay here!!! 

I'm so grateful for all the love and support, you guys are great! Happy almost Thanksgiving! 

Love you all!

XOXO Sister Fowers

You've seen the play, now read the book!

Well this week has been a little different than most! Some exciting things have been goin down here in RVA. :)

Last Sunday President Wilson had most of the missionaries in the Richmond area meet together to talk about the Book of Mormon play that was coming to Richmond. I had been hearing rumors that is was coming for a few months, but I wasn't sure when so I was so excited that it was coming while I was here!

So, we got to the church and President told us that there was going to be 8 shows over the course of the week and that we were going to be standing outside the theater at every showing handing out copies of the Book of Mormon and talking to people! We were so pumped!! He told us he expected to hand out a few hundred copies of the Book of Mormon and that is was mostly a public affairs deal, more than a proselyting thing. 

As I'm sure you know, this play is definitely not made by the church and is super crude and basically a satire that makes fun of missionaries. Haha so our plan was just to show people what Mormon missionaries are actually like. :) 

Tuesday was the first show and at first we were standing right outside the doors, handing out cards and books..... but then we got kicked off the property hahaha. The cops said we couldn't hand anything out in front of the theater. So! We just went across the street, to the corner next to the theater, and basically every way that people had to walk to get there. So it was no biggie. :) 

Before the play started no one really wanted to talk to us. I think we handed out some cards and a few books, but nothing crazy. A lot of people laughed in our faces, said rude things, yada yada. BUT, after the play was a different story. 

Throughout the week, no one wanted to talk to us before, but after the play ended we were giving out boxes and boxes and boxes of books. IT WAS CRAZY! People would come back and ask for a book and want to take pictures with the elders haha, I've never seen anything like it. 

This is what President Wilson said in his weekly email this week:

"Finally, a marvelous work and a wonder were done in connection with the play The Book of Mormon. We distributed approximately 2,000 copies of the Book of Mormon to theater goers. The missionaries that helped with this service represented us all very well. People thought our missionaries were cast members. They wanted to take pictures with them. Our missionaries were great in being friendly about the gospel and inviting people to learn more."

2,000 copies of the Book of Mormon! It was crazy. We handed out pretty much every Book of Mormon in the mission, and we even had to go get some boxes from the D.C. South mission, and we still ran out. 

Elder Collie, an elder in our ward even got interviewed on the news for it. I think you could find it online somewhere haha. It was just crazy.
 It was cool to be a part of it and give people a chance to see what the Book of Mormon actually is, and testify to them in just a few short seconds that we knew it was true and would change their life. :) One of the prophets said that the Book of Mormon will flood the earth, and it is! 

Other than that, we've just been busy trying to find new people to teach! It's hard to kind of just start over fresh with investigators, but I know there are

more people here who are ready! We just need to find them. :) 

Not much else is new! Last Sunday we watched the CES devotional and it was in the Odgen tabernacle and that was crazy to see! I saw some people in the audience that I knew. 

I hope all is going great at home! Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love you!

XOXO Sister Fowers

Ease Your Burdens

Hola familia! (do I sound like an Hermana?) 

This week was just cray cray. It was probably the slooowwwest week of my mission so far. We had like... a total of 4 appointments actually follow through. 

All the rest didn't show. 

People are just disappearing its so weird!! So we've been trying so hard all week to find new investigators. Texting old potentials, street contacting, referrals, you name it. But hopefully this week turns things around! 

Last week on P-day we went to Belle Isle (I sent a bunch of pics of course)! There's a bridge that crosses the James River and under the bridge there is a little suspended bridge that people can walk across to Belle Isle, which is all these cool rocks and stuff down on the river. It was such a nice day and the leaves were changing, so pretty. 

It's been super cold outside this week, like freezing all of the sudden. IM NOT READY FOR WINTER. I've heard horror stories about winter in Virginia, so it should be fun. 

We had a super amazing experience this week. We met with an investigator, I won't say who it is just because its personal, but its a girl and she is just going through the hardest time right now. She's really young, in college, and she told us a little bit ago that she was pregnant with twin girls but that her family didn't want anything to do with it, and wouldn't help her at all. The father also basically left her to figure it out. Then one night, she text us and said that she went to the emergency room and that they told her that it was a high risk pregnancy and that she'd have to be on bed rest until the babies were born. We went and visited her, and she seemed like she was doing great despite the hard situation. Then, the next day she text us and told us that she had a miscarriage and lost both babies. We were just heart broken for her. We went to her apartment and just sat on her bed with her while she cried. We read Mosiah 24 with her and the spirit just filled the room. 

13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

That chapter is so powerful. We talked to her about how sometimes God doesn't promise that he will take our burdens, but that he will help us carry them. As we sat and talked to her, I just felt so unqualified. I've never, ever dealt with anything like this. Who am I to tell her everything is going to be okay? I can't even say that I know how she feels. 

But that is the whole message that we carry as missionaries. 

I will never know what she felt when she lost those babies. I'm just a young girl myself. But I do know, that Christ knows exactly how she feels.  He alone has carried her burdens. And he alone can make them light, just like Alma and his brethren. That is such a comfort to me as a missionary. I don't have to know everything or experience everything to help people. I'm just guiding them to the one person who does and has. 

Then she just turned to us and said, "can we say a prayer?" I will never forget that prayer. I know that the gospel is the only way we can truly find healing from life's blows. Life is so hard! But it's never too hard that we can't reach out to our Savior and ask for His help. 

I'm so grateful I get to help people in just the little ways that I can here in Virginia. There's nothing more rewarding! 

Thanks for all the love, I just love hearing from you all. :)

XOXO, Sister Fowers

Happy Halloween!

Hello everyone! 

Can I just say that its fun/kind of torture to go to the grocery store during the holidays? All i want to do is buy every pumpkin flavored baking mix that exists. Hope everyone has a good Halloween though! We'll be having a lesson or something since we're not allowed to go street contacting that night haha #missionaryprobs.

This week was transfers and I got a new companion! Her name is Sister Chipman and she is from Lewiston, Utah. Right by the border of Utah and Idaho, and guess where she went to school...... UTAH STATE woot woot!! She has been out for 10 months so we both actually went to USU at the same time for fall semester, kinda crazy! We figured out that we were both taking mission prep from the same institute teacher haha, small world. :) She is super nice though and I just love her. So life is good! 

We've been having a good week! We had some small miracles happen where we got back in contact with some investigators that had disappeared, so that was cool. Mostly we've just been doing a looooottttt of street contacting haha. We've met some cool people so just pray that they won't be flaky and not show up to our lessons! 

We met with Gina again and she is doing really well! She told us that she just believes that this is what God wants her to do. This weekend though, she was going home to her parents house in Charlotte, NC, so we found the closest church to her house and she was going to go! So we were all excited, but then she text us and said her family freaked out about her wanted to get baptized and wouldn't let her go to church. So..... now its looking like we have to push back her baptism date to the 22nd. Hopefully her family's hearts will soften. 

We also met with this guy on campus from Guyana? I don't know how to spell it hahaha. Its like a British colony in south america! Everybody know how much I love british accents......... lets just say i was in heaven. He was super cool though! He kept asking all of these super deep crazy questions and we didn't even have the answers. Sometimes we just need to ask "is this necessary for my salvation?" and if the answer is no, then don't sweat it! The gospel is a lot more simple than we make it sometimes. 

Our investigator Sam sort of dropped us this week...... I was so sad!! Ahh. She just doesn't know if she agrees with organized religion in general. We met with her one last time and she said she'd pray about continuing to meet with us but wasn't sure. :( 

Things are going great here though! I love to drive down monument avenue and see all the changing leaves and drive past the James River :) Virginia is so pretty. 

Also, I'd just like to note that today Taylor Swift's new album came out. Yep. #crying

I love you guys though, thanks for everything! You da best. 

Kaycee and her new companion Sis. Chipman

xoxo Sister Fowers :)

New comp once again!

This week has been so good! Its definitely an emotional roller-coaster killing off another missionary hahaha :) It just makes me so not excited for the day when I have to go home! Crazy. But Sister Roosendaal has been such a great companion and missionary and I know she'll do great when she gets home. All good things must end right? 

We've been having a sort of rough week with our investigators. It just seems like they are all kind of losing their desire to find out for themselves if its true. I'm telling ya, agency is a frustrating thing. I just love these people and want them to choose this!! But we can't force them, that's the tricky part haha. Hopefully we'll be able to regain that desire. 

We actually had a super cool experience this week with a girl named Gina! We went out contacting on Thursday and its Fall break at VCU, so nobody was really out. But we decided to walk down Broad street and see if anyone would talk to us. It was pretty late at night, around 8:00 and we stopped and talked to this girl. She said she didn't really know what she believed but that she was figuring it out and searching. We were like "that's perrrfff, cause we can help you with that!" Haha so we asked her if she'd have time right then to have a lesson with us and she said yes! So this 19 year old girl agreed to walk 3 blocks to our Institute building in the dark to talk to some strangers about God. Pretty crazy. But we taught her and she is just so humble and sweet! She loved everything we taught her and we asked her to read 2 Nephi 31 and then pray about it. She said she would and then we asked if we could meet the next day and she said yes.

So the next day we meet her at Barnes and Noble and the first thing she says when we asked her if she prayed about what we taught her is "Yes, what you said is true. I got this warm feeling in my heart and I know its true." We were like whhaaaa?? Such a miracle! She is going through some really really hard times right now and I know that Heavenly Father put us in her path. She came to church this sunday and is set to be baptized on November 8th! Hopefully :)

Another day on campus we met these two girls and they were telling us how they just got baptized into another church hahaha :) we were like shoot. But then we were like we'll come to your church if you come to ours! And they said they'd be down so we did it! Let me tell you, it was straight up the funniest thing i've ever done. Its called the Greater Richmond Church of Christ. We got there and about 90% of the congregation is black, so we stick out like a sore thumb, plus we have our nametags on, it was a sight. :) Then they stand up and start singing all these crazy black christian songs and clapping, the whole 9 yards. I was dying- it was everything i dreamed church in the south would be. :) Then they had a sermon and they talked about "what heaven will be like". It was so interesting to hear their beliefs compared to ours. Basically, they have all of the same beliefs except some about marriage and stuff like that. The biggest difference though, was the whole time the preacher would say things like, "the way i image it from this scripture is...." or "to me it sounds like..." or "we can assume that it means this..." they weren't sure about anything!! And it was a really good sermon, but the spirit wasn't there. I felt like I was just having a chat in a religion class. The whole entire time i just wanted to stand up there in front of all those people and TESTIFY that I KNEW, I didn't just THINK that we'd live with our families for eternity. There is so much comfort in the solidity of our church. WE KNOW THE TRUTH, we don't just think it. There's a big difference. But yeah, it was such a fun experience :)

Oh and TRANSFERS are tomorrow!! And I'm staying in Chippy!! Yay! 

Sister Roosendaal, is going home! So I'll be getting a new companion, wish me luck!! I can't get one to stick around I guess. :)

Also, Ian is doing really well. We had a lesson with him and he just seems like he has the spirit so much more than before, its cool to see the change in him. We're working on getting him to want to get the priesthood, he doesn't really understand it. So pray that he will. 

I don't have much time but thanks so much for all the love and support! Look for missionary moments every day! 

xoxo Sister Fowers

At the Richmond Museum of Fine Arts

Monument Avenue

I may or may not have gotten highlights! don't kill me mom!

The last few days with Sister Roosendaal