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

My First Baptism!

This week has been so good and so weird at the same time! 

All week we were preparing for Ian's baptism! We had a few lessons with him and you could just see that he was ready and he heart was softening and humbling. 

On Wednesday we got to watch Meet the Mormons! It was a great little documentary with a lot of great people featured in it. If you get a chance to watch it, the last story is super awesome and made me cry a lil' bit haha :) I'm a sucker for a missionary story.

We also had interviews with President Wilson this week and it was so good! At the beginning he always asks if we have any questions for him and I just asked what his advice for me was as I finish up training and how I can have a successful mission. 

He said that I should just lose myself in the work. To never let companions or things at home become problems. My investigators should be my only problems. And just that as I set aside pride and embrace my mission fully, I will be the most happy and the most successful that I can be.

I love that.

Then on Thursday Ian got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yayyyy!!!! My first real baptism on my mission!

Guys, I don't even think you can understand, but when we first started teaching him I seriously thought it would take a MIRACLE for him to get baptized. He was in such a dark place and didn't have very much hope when we first met him. 

But! The Spirit and the gospel changes people. And it softens hearts and turns everything around. It makes miracles happen!! I know that it wasn't me, or Sister Clonts, or Sister Roosendaal, or anybody else that can really take credit for his conversion. We were just guides to help him find his way and it was so cool to be a part of that. 

Elder Chuntz baptized him because when Ian first met with missionaries in the spring Elder and Sister Chuntz taught him. Lets just say all they did was argue and it just wasn't Ian's time yet. But it was so cool to see him come full circle and for Elder Chuntz to be able to baptize him. 

My companion and I taught the restoration to everyone at the baptism while Ian was getting changed after the actual baptism and it was just a great experience to testify of the restoration and to be able to see the outcome when we really learn that it's true. 

Then after the actual baptism Ian got up and shared his testimony. 

And it was bomb.

The whole time we taught him we just had to keep saying "Ian you need to trust God, be humble, and have FAITH! You're never going to be saved by logic. You need faith."

Then he got up at his baptism and talked about how he read Ether 12 and realized that he needed FAITH and he needed to ACT on that faith. Ahhhhhh I was like YESSSS! FINALLY! 

He just needed to learn that for himself.

Then he went through all of the people who taught him and introduced him to the gospel and just thanked us and said a bunch of nice things and it was just sweet. 

So basically, it was an awesome baptism and then he got confirmed on Sunday! Happy day :)

On a less happy note, a bunch of our other investigators are kind of going crazy and disappearing. We went to visit Shyanne yesterday because she wasn't answering any of our calls or texts and we could hear her inside the house telling her little brother to tell us she wasn't home......... so that was really sad. Hopefully she comes back around. 

I don't have much time, but I love you all! Thanks for all the love and support and prayers! 

You da best.

xoxo Sister Fowers

Ian's Baptist October 9,2014

Found a T-Swift calendar!

Fillin da font!

Conference, VA, and BoM!

I don't have a lot of time this week so I'll try and make it quick! 

THIS WEEK WAS SO GOOD!!! 

Oh my goodness, so many miracles here in Richmond. 

First off, I, Sister Fowers, read the whole Book of Mormon in a week. 

Yep. It was tough but it was honestly one of the coolest things I've ever done. Reading it like a novel is just different than studying it like scripture. It made sense to me in ways it never has before. One thing that really stood out to me as I read was this phrase that kept repeating all throughout the book: "...but His hand is stretched out still." I don't even know how many times I ran into that phrase or one very similar to it. All throughout the BoM, people are accepting of the gospel but they eventually reject it and become prideful. BUT, God's hand is always stretched out still. All he asks is for a broken heart and a contrite spirit and for us to repent and come unto Him. So I just loved how I got to see how merciful and loving Heavenly Father was to them, and still is to us today. 

One other verse that I loved was Alma 26:1....

 "And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?"

....then I changed one word.

"And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Utah that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?"

I love that. When I started my mission I never would have imagined all the people, experiences, and blessing that would come because of it. I'm so grateful to be a missionary.

If you've never read the Book of Mormon all the way through, do it! It'll change you I promise. :)

This week we've been meeting with our investigators and so many great things are happening!

Ian is planning on getting baptized this Thursday! Hopefully everything works out. He is a great guy and has come a loooonnnggg way since we first started teaching him. So pray for him please!!

Our investigator Sam came to not one, but TWO sessions of general conference. Yep. She is seriously so cute and I just love her so much. She wasn't really progressing and then earlier this week we met with her and she told us these spiritual experiences she had when she came to church and prayed for the first time. It was amazing. Heavenly Father has prepared her so much. So pray for her too. 

I'm running out of time but conference was BOMB!

We actually watched priesthood session with the senior sister missionaries and it was so good! The choir was elders from the MTC! Ahhhh it was so cute and made me cry. I love missionaries. 

Some highlights from conference:

• Boyd K. Packer is still goin strong, love him.
• Lynn G. Robbins talk about which way we face? So good.
• All the talks in other languanges? SO SWEET! I bet missionaries and people all over the world that speak those languages were loving it.
• Uchtdorf's talk was awesome.
• "I always knew it would be easier to follow the Savior with her by my side."-Eduardo Gavarret. So cute. 
• "Decisions determine destiny"
• all the talks about prophets
• DAVID A. BEDNAR. oh my goodness he gave that talk while i was sitting next to our investigator and it made me so happy. It's true!! We share the gospel because we love it. 

I love conference, I love VA, I love the Book of Mormon, and I love you! Life is good. :)

Reading the Book of Mormon at Belle Isle-James River