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 :(