Monday, September 29, 2014

Weird Things!

Helloooooo :)

This week was just crazy. I never thought missions would be this stressful. THEY'RE SO STRESSFUL. Hahaha 

Last Monday we went out to lunch with some of the sisters and senior sisters, so fun. :) I sent a picture!

Tuesday we had another lesson with Shyanne and we taught her about obedience and following the prophet and she is just so amazing. She is so sassy and just calls me a goof all the time and says I have a baby face hahaha :) We had her watch "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee" by President Monson and she said she loved it. 

We also had another lesson with Ian that night and we taught him about the commandments and the Word of Wisdom. He is sort of addicted to coffee, so he's been struggling with that. He also brought up stuff that he'd been reading on the internet again so I just got kind of mad at him and told him that he needed to be humble and stop trying to be converted by what other people tell him on the internet and start seeking answers from the Spirit, because the Spirit is what is going to tell him what God wants him to do, not what others think he should do. It just hit me when I told him that, how the only way we can truly know if we are doing what God wants us to do is if we follow the Spirit. But Ian is doing better, hopefully he can just gain a strong enough testimony to help him follow through.

Wednesday... oh boy. What a day. Haha first of all, it was raining all day long and kind of dreary. Then we had an appointment set up with our investigator Sam at 2:30. So we asked a ward member to come to the lesson!

Then, last minute, Sam text us and said she had cut her finger and didn't want to walk to the YSA center in the rain, so she wanted us to just come teach her at her apartment. 

So.... the member that was coming said she would drive us there since it was only like a two minute drive away. So we get in the car and start driving through the rain, and we are literally one block from the building when we stop at a busy intersection to turn right and BOOM. We get rear ended. 

Yep.

So this member is like in the middle of turning right, so she just keeps driving and pulls off to the side of the road (bad idea). Then the car that hit us just drives off. Yep. 

They hit and ran our member! Plus, to top it off her car was brand new and we are standing in the rain consoling this girl who is crying because her car just got hit and they drove away. 

And then the member didn't come to the lesson anyway. So...... not the best day ever. Hahaha oh the life of a missionary. :)

On Thursday we had our first lesson with a girl named Marisa, she came to church last week before we had ever taught her and she is literally amazing. She is 18 and a freshman and VCU. She said she loved church and had all of these funny questions for us when we met, but we taught her the restoration and she is so prepared. She was raised Methodist but never really went until her senior year of high school. She told us that the day before she came to church she had this dream/vision of Christ too, so crazy. She has so much faith and is just so open and non-judgmental. I love her. She came to church this week again and it was so great. We are meeting with her again this week and I can't wait to see where so goes. Plus she is bringing a friend to church next time! Yay!

We also met with this little Chinese girl named Tiffany that we met on campus and we taught her the restoration. We were talking about families and she just started to cry, it was so sad. She has a really broken family and the spirit was so strong. 

On Friday we met with this guy named Casey (yes that was confusing the whole lesson). We taught him the restoration and it was just so funny because he was raised in the middle of nowhere and is obsessed with blue grass music. Classic Virginian right there. He is awesome though, because he kept talking about how he would ask God yes or no questions and then he would feel this burning warm feeling in his heart and that's how he would know what he should do. We were like that's the Spirit!! Hahaha he set it up perfectly :) 

Then after the lesson we had a baptism in the ward again!! And guess who came..... Shyanne! :) It was such a powerful baptism and one of them had a water-side confirmation and it was amazing. So Shyanne was crying and feeling the spirit. We kept teasing her that she was next haha :) but we weren't kidding... ha!

Saturday we started the WEEK LONG BOOK OF MORMON READ-A-THON! We seriously just read all day and my eyes just started to do weird things from reading that long hahaha. 75 pages is a lot for one day! But we are still goin strong :) 

That night was also the General Women's broadcast and we watched it at our bishop's house! They had a bunch of people from the ward come and we all had a potato bar! Plus Shyanne came! She was just crying and taking notes the whole time, it was so cute. The ward loves her and she is hilarious. She kept telling me I looked tired hahaha :) 

The broadcast was SO GOOD THOUGH! Ahh, such great talks. I loved Uchtdorf's- amazing! Just what I needed and it got me so excited for conference. :) 

Some weird things that have happened lately: 

1. We were walking back at the end of the night and I stopped and talked to two giant black guys who were about to cross the street. They were super unfriendly but I kept talking to them and then the walk signal went on so we walked across the street with them. One guy was super not interested and his friend was just listening to us, not talking. Then I told him what our purpose was as missionaries and he straight up just started laughing so hard. Like really, really loud and hard. I was like what the heck?? I'm being serious here! Hahaha it was so awkward. Then I just got serious again and told him to look at mormon.org. People are so unfriendly!

2. One day it was raining and we were walking on campus and my companion went to hand this guy walking past us a card and before she could even say anything he straight up ducked from the card and started crawling on the ground to get away from us. Like what?

3. We were walking on campus, past Freshman dorms, on the sidewalk. As we are walking we start feeling this weird mist in the air hit our faces. We were like why is there water in the air?? Then all of the sudden a giant wave of water hits our heads from above. Yup. Someone poured a  bucket of water onto us from their window from the top floor. We were not happy.

Just a few of the weird things we get on campus. 

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY NEPHEW JAMO! That is crazy that he is 3! Tell him I love him :)

Everything is going great! The work is picking up and I just love it. :) 

Hope everyone has a great week!

xoxo Sister Fowers





Monday, September 22, 2014

sisters, jail, church, and meet the mormons!

This week was so good! So many good things happening. 

So on Tuesday, we met with Shyanne again. She is the cutest, sweetest, funniest person ever. I just love her so much. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and she just ate it up. She loves the bible and we were basically just having a gospel discussion with her and she was saying more profound things than we were most of the time. She is so prepared! By the end of the lesson she looks at us and says, "Oh, I just need to be baptized! Lets do it!" So yeah she's awesome.  

That same day we met with Sam, an investigator, and Ian again. Sam had us come to her apartment and so the whole time we were teaching her the Plan of Salvation she was making peanut butter cookies. Hahaha so it was a different lesson. But she is super chill and has tons of mormon friends from northern VA. 

Then that night Ian took us out to Noodles and Company (yumm) and we taught him about tithing, fasting, and fast offering! It was a really good lesson and he committed to live it! 

Wednesday we had Sisters Meeting!!

All of the sister in the whole mission get together and have little trainings and workshops and just get to be together! This meeting the theme was the young women's values! So we had little classes about all of the values, had lunch, played games, had a clothing exchange, and President talked to us. :) 

My favorite part of the meeting was when President Wilson got up and talked to us. He was talking about Sister Wilson and how when he was looking for a wife he was looking for 2 things: someone who was as committed to the gospel as he was, and someone who would be a great mom. Then he just started to cry and said "My vision for all of you sisters is for you to be cute moms someday, with cute little kids. I see you as the fun,loving mom who talks to everyone in the grocery store and shares the gospel with them. Then your kids will see you sharing the gospel and they will want to do the same. And then they will grow up, and they will be loving and wonderful people, just like their mom."

I love that. Of course we are out on missions for the people who we will teach, but there is so much more! Sister Anderson told us a few weeks back that, "Someday your investigators will become your neighbors and your district will become your family. Missionary work doesn't end when you go home." So I just love how our missions and the things we do in this short 18 months carry on throughout our whole lives.

Then on Saturday we had some interesting plans! A recent convert that Sister Roosendaal knew when she was here is actually in jail right now and we got to go visit her! I've never visited anyone in jail, but it was straight up exactly like the movies. Sister Chuntz, the senior missionary in our ward, came with us and we all talked to her through the glass on a phone. It was crazy. 

She is from San Salvador and is so cute. She asked us to sing her a hymn through the phone and one of her favorites is There is A Green Hill Far Away. So we sang it to her and she just started to cry. It was so sad, it just broke my heart. It just made me so grateful for the life I've been given.

That night we taught Ian again! At sister's meeting we found out that my old companion who taught Ian with me, Sister Clonts, couldn't come to his baptism if it was on the 27th because of the young women's broadcast. And Ian loves her so I had a feeling that he would move his date.... yup I was right! So now, he is set for Oct 11th! (mom's bday!) But he is struggling with his testimony and just getting into weird anti-mormon material. So we'll see how it all pans out. 

Then on Sunday, guess what! We had 4 investigators at church! Yep, maybe that doesn't sound like a lot but its a new personal record and it was cray cray. 

Shyanne came, Sam came, Ian came, and this other girl Marisa who we haven't even taught yet came! Ahh it was awesome. :) They all had such a great experience. Plus we had Sunday Supper after church, which is when the ward feeds everyone dinner every fifth Sunday, and Shyanne and Sam stayed for it and it was so fun. I just love them. So it was a great Sunday!

Oh and the Book of Mormon read-a-thon starts this Saturday for our mission! So if you're down for it get reading on Saturday all the way through next Saturday

Also, I don't know if you guys have seen previews for this new movie called "Meet the Mormons" but it's coming out Oct 10th and its supposed to be awesome! As missionaries we get to watch it before it comes out, so I'm pumped. :) But yeah, invite your friends to go watch it with you! 

Everything is still great here in VA! We have started to buy yummy, fall smelling candles and every night we turn off all the light in our apartment, light the candles, and write in our journals. So cozy. :) I'm ready for fall on the East coast!

Love you all and miss you! 
xoxo Sister Fowers









Thursday, September 18, 2014

Hedgehogging It!

Hola! 

What's up errrbody?? Hope everything is going great in the homeland haha :)

This week was so good! On Monday we just spent the day letting Sister Clonts say goodbye to the ward since she was being transferred. We went out to lunch and dinner with a bunch of recent converts and it was just so fun. I love the ward members here. YSA's are so fun because it's just like they're all your best friends! 

After lunch we went to Katie's apartment and held her hedgehog. Yep, so cute. 

Then Tuesday was transfers! Ahhhhh I was so nervous. 

I was just hoping and praying so hard that I would get a companion who would work well with our investigators and I was just so nervous because I would be the only one who knew the area and I hardly know it! So I was just feeling really unprepared. 

BUT, good thing Heavenly Father had a plan haha. 

Turns out my companion is Sister Roosendaal! I had heard about her because she's served in Chippenham YSA before! 

Ahh, it turned out so perfect. This is her last transfer, so she goes home at the end of October and she served here back in Nov-Feb and already knows a ton of people here and all about the work!! So basically Heavenly Father answered my prayer on the reals. Because if it had been someone who knew nothing about the area, I don't know how well I could have worked everything out. Plus she was so happy to come back to Chippy and that hardly ever happens, so it was awesome on both ends. :)

But yeah, she is so awesome! She's from Farmington and went to Davis High School. :) I already love her and know it will be such a great transfer. 

We met with just awesome people this week! 

We had a second lesson with this guy named Josh! I actually taught him his first lesson on my very first day in the mission, and my very first lesson in the mission! Then he went on vacation but now he's back for school! He is such a cool guy and the only way I can describe him is "a real Christian". He straight up says he would join the church if he knew that God wanted him to and he loves everything we teach him, so hopefully he can keep progressing. :)

We also met with this guy named Xander on campus and it was so funny. He is a theater student and we read through the book of mormon with him and he was reading it so dramatically, like you would read a script and it was just cracking us up so hard. Then he kept loving everything I said and would agree with everything I said, but nothing that Sister Roosendaal said even though we were saying the same thing. So funny. But he's super cool :)

Then we got a referral for this girl named Shyanne and went to her house and taught her the restoration. She is super religious and showed us all of these religious books she studies along with her bible every day. It was crazy. She loved everything we taught too. She was so cute, as I was saying the first vision, all I had said was "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head..." and she was like "wowww" and shaking her head and smiling. Hahaha it was so cute. :) She said she would come to church though, but never showed up or text us back. So hopefully she doesn't disappear. 

Then on Friday we went to just drop by a former investigator that Sister Roosendaal had taught when she was here and she was home! Her name is Cathrine and she is so cute. We were just visiting with her and she starting telling us how she's going through all of these hard things and that her parents were probably getting a divorce. But then she said that she had randomly thought about the sister missionaries that very same day and that she felt like God had sent us to her. SO COOL. 

Then on Saturday some of the other missionaries in our ward had 3 baptisms! Ian came and I don't know what he thought. We had to meet with him after and settle more of his weird concerns haha. But he's still on date for Sept 27th, so just pray that it actually happens! 

Then yesterday we had church, a few lessons, and then the ward put on a waffle night to watch the C.E.S. Devotional by D. Todd Christopherson! So that was fun. It was good to watch it and it just got me so pumped for general conference! Woot woot! 

Speaking of general conference, i have a challenge for you all! 

So, as an entire mission we are doing something super awesome the whole week before general conference. We are reading the whole Book of Mormon in a week! 

We're not going to do any finding that whole week. Just appointments we set up the week before. Other than that, we're going to be reading all day every day! In order to read it in a week we have to read at least 75 pages a day.

So..... if you're up for it, try and read the whole Book of Mormon in a week :) it's going to be so fun! 

Other than that, not much is up here in Richmond, VA. It's finally Fall weather here so that is heavenly! Ah I love it. Can't wait for the Fall leaves either. 

I'm doing great though! I still love being a missionary and I think I always will. :)

Love and miss you all! 

xoxo Sister Fowers



Transfers! Sister Clonts and Sister Jenson 
Sister Roosendaal! 

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Step-mom say whaaa??

I feel like I just barely emailed you, since my last p-day was on Tuesday... but I'll try to make this good anyway. 

On Tuesday since it was our p-day, we went to the science museum here in Richmond! Which was good because it was about 100 degrees outside and humid. But we went there and got to watch this video about space in one of those big imax dome screen things, and it was sweet. Closest thing to a movie that we can watch and it was so fun. :) 

Wednesday on the other hand, wasn't so good. It just started out on the wrong foot. All of these people were canceling their appointments with us, telling us they weren't coming to church, recent converts were telling us they wanted to leave the church all together, and it just wasn't good. 

Then we spent the rest of the day contacting and literally no one would talk to us. 

No one. 

So we were just like, what the heck?? Today is the worst day. And then our lesson for that night cancelled.

Luckily, we had a lesson with Ian, which went pretty well. 

But at the end of the day I was feeling pretty bummed. Then I flipped to two scriptures.

Doctrine and Covenants 112:10 "Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers."

2 Corinthians 9:7 "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."

And then I realized that I needed to be humble and cheerful. Heavenly Father knows that some days are hard and that we aren't perfect, but he still expects us to work with a smile on our faces. We just need to be humble enough to trust that he knows what he's doing. :)

On Thursday we met with a lot of recent converts and less actives and had another lesson with Ian. He is doing really well, but he just has a really hard time letting go of all of his doubts and political issues. He can't accept that God knows best and sometimes we have to just be obedient. Then Sister Clonts shared this scripture with him:

Hebrews 10

 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;

 33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.

 34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

 35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

 37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

 38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

 39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

While she was reading this to him he started to cry. Hopefully he can just remember to have faith, because faith and doubt can't exist at the same time!

We also got two new investigators this week! A girl named Sam and a girl named Peighton. We had great lesson with them and they're both on date for baptism on Oct 11th! So we'll see how they progress. :)

Then on Saturday we literally had the perfect day. It was so weird. We ran into all of our favorite people on campus and when we were driving home we even saw fireworks. So, like i told you before, transfer calls were on Saturday. So all night we were waiting to see if we'd get a call. 

Right after the fireworks ended and we were driving home, we got a call from President Wilson.

Yep. Sister Clonts is transferring and becoming a sister training leader! 

So that means I'm going to be getting a step mom! (Sister clonts is my "mom" because she was my original trainer, and now I'll get a follow up trainer so they'll be my "step mom"). 

That also means that I'm now leading the area after only one transfer and will have to explain and introduce my new trainer to everything and everyone here. No pressure. 

Ahhh! SO scary. But hopefully Heavenly Father will give me a great companion and it will all work out! So on Tuesday I'll get a new comp!!But I'm staying here in Chippy thankfully. :)

Also, on Saturday Ian went with his girlfriend to the D.C. temple visitor's center and went shopping in the Deseret book store there. Guess what he bought..... two little sister missionary figurines. Yep. Then he brought them to church and had us sign them. 

Today we're just going to dinner and lunch with a bunch of members to Sister Clonts can say goodbye! Then we have FHE tonight. 

Everything is great here though! I love Richmond and all the crazy people here. 

I love being a missionary :) 

Sister Fowers

Science Museum




Zone Meeting






Ian


Athalia


Tuesday, September 2, 2014

#ONDATE

This week was so good! 

On Tuesday we did something creative and had a lemonade stand on campus! We made a big jug of lemonade, set up a table, put out some Book of Mormon's and pass along cards and got to work! A bunch of missionaries would just go out contacting around "the compass" where we set it up and when people stopped to talk we would tell them to go get some free lemonade! Then a few missionaries would stand by the lemonade stand and talk to them as they got some and would give them a Book of Mormon. It was stinkin' hot outside but it was fun to do something a little different. :) 

On Wednesday we had a zone workshop, which was good. Then that night we had a lesson with Ian! We taught him how all of his weird political and cynical issues with the church could be resolved by doing one thing: reading and praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true. It was such a great lesson!! We just shared personal experiences and talked about how if he knows the BoM is true, then the church is true and that's all he needs to worry about. We knew that we needed to try and set him on date for baptism when we went into the lesson, but we weren't sure what he would say. BUT! We did it anyway. So, at the end we just simply told him that if he really wants to feel God's love and forgiveness, which are his main concerns, he needs to get baptized. Then we asked him if he would prepare to be baptized on September 27th. And guess what... he said no. Then we explained to him how it's not set in stone if we put him on date and that it's important to have a vision for himself, that's why we want him to do it. Then we asked him again. And this time he sat there for a minute and then just said..."sure!" Ahhh we were freaking out! Honestly when we first started teaching him, we thought there was no way he'd ever get baptized just because he had so many problems with the church but here we were! So we set him on date and made another apoointment!

On Thursday we met with a guy named Torrey that we met on campus and taught him the restoration. It was.... kind of a weird lesson. He was awkward and didn't say much and all he asked us at the end was what the deal with blacks and the priesthood was... so yeah. Not the best first lesson of my mission hahaha.

On Friday we had what's called Return and Report, where all of the trainers and trainees (like me) all meet together with the mission president and the AP's after the first 6 weeks of our training, which is halfway through it. Normally at return and report they would just go over how to be better trainers and trainees and have some little trainings on how to effectively plan and stuff like that but this time President decided to switch things up! So, before I got here president was talking to Sister Clonts about how he wanted to have missionaries come into our area, Chippenham, and go on a little field trip to campus to learn how to street contact and talk to everyone! She was like "yesss!" Because our area is so different from other areas and you actually have to street contact here! So president decided to do this little field trip for return and report!! When we found out we were so excited for 2 reasons.
1. We are pros and doing this already, this is our turf!! and 
2. We would recieve all of the potential investigators that all these missionaries contact because they're in our area. So they're doing our work for us pretty much. HOLLA! 
So... the night before return and report and the morning of, me and sister clonts were praying that we'd have a miracle and have a lesson on the street and get a new investigator, which doesn't happen very often here, because we already know how to street contact. 
BUT, little did we know, we would be splitting up and going out with different missionaries. SO, when we found that out we prayed that we'd BOTH have lessons on the street and went out contacting! We both got assigned to go out with Hermanas, and they were both trainees. Hermanans work with spanish people so they literally only work off of referrals. The Hermana i went out with had never street contacted anyone and had never even knocked a door.... so she was nervous! But i tried to show her how and it was so fun :) But guess what, WE HAD A LESSON ON THE STREET!! There was this guy sitting on a bench and we went and talked to him and taught him the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and we're meeting him this week! Ahhh i was freaking out. And when we were done i found out that Sister Clonts had had a lesson on the street too!! 

Guys, Heavenly Father answers our prayers!! But only when we go out and work. So that was a cool little miracle. :)

Plus, from all the missionaries going out we got like a total of 78 potentials and set like 4 people on date for baptism in two hours. 

We taught another lesson on Saturday to Ian and then he came to church again on Sunday! So we were happy about that. 

Then yesterday, Ian calls us and says "So... when is like the soonest baptism??" 
So we said "Well we have them on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of every month, so there is one on the 13th! why?" 
And he was like "Well i was just wondering if i could somehow sign up for that one?" 
WHAT! WE WERE FREAKING OUT. The person we thought would never get baptized is asking if he can move up his date?? It was nuts. 
So we moved it forward!! 
Then, sadly, he found out one of his close friends couldn't make it that day, so he moved it back to the 27th. 
BUT, he still wants to get baptized! Hopefully he follows through and that will be my first real baptism of my mission!! So exciting. So Ian is officially on date for Sept 27th

Weird experience for the week, yesterday we prayed on the street with a hobo. Hahaha he was very drunk, but he stopped us and asked if we would pray for him right then. 
I said, "Do you want me to pray for anything specifically?" All he said was "Pray that my enemies will stay away from me, and for my son, Charles-eh." Yes he said his son's name was Charles-eh. So i did and i was trying very hard not to laugh. There are literally so many crazy people here it's not even funny. 

Oh and transfer calls are this Saturday!! Sister Clonts thinks she is getting transfered since she's been here the longest, but hopefully she doesn't! Most likely i'll stay, but you never know! So next week I'll let you know what's goin down! 

Also, this is a little example that my companion sent to her family about how we street contact and it's preetttty accurate. Enjoy. 

"Me: Hello! Can I give you a card?
Person: Sureeeeee
Me: Awesome! Have you ever heard of Mormons before?
Person: yes
Me: Sweeeettt.. how so???
Person: I mean just around...like I know it is a religion or whatever..
Me: Yeah! Mormon is just a nickname...the full name is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Are you religious yourself?
Person: (Here is open to change; I'll give a few examples of common ones)
      1. No I am not religious but I am Muslim! (that doesn't make sense to me but they hardly understand English so maybe that's why haha)
       2. Yes I am a Christian! (Sweet we are Christians too! Which they don't believe...whatever)
       3. I am more spiritual than religious.
Me: That's awesome! (obviously i change my answer based on their response but this is generally what i say.) Well our purpose as missionaries is to help people increase their relationship with God. Do you have a belief  in God?
Person: Yes
Me: Are you looking to strengthen that relationship at all??
Person: Sure....?
Me: Would you ever be interested in meeting with us as missionaries and talking more about that?
Person: well not right now I have class...
Me: No that's okay! Sorry what was your name?
Person: Bob
Me: Nice to meet you Bob! I'm Sister Clonts and this is my companion Sister Fowers. Do you think we could get your number and we could shoot you a text sometime and we could meet up and talk more?
Person: Sure... it's 123456789
Me: Awesome! It was so nice to meet you Bob! We will text you in a couple of days! Have a great day!"

I sent some pictures and I'll take some more today, don't worry mom ;) 

Love you all and thanks for all the love and support! You da best. 

xoxo Sister Fowers