Always Worth It

Hello!

First off, a lice update: THE BATTLE CONTINUES.

 I am now completely paranoid about everything in our apartment. So that's fun.
 Too bad we can't just light the apartment on fire hahaha.

This week we had some fun things happen!

On Tuesday we had zone workshops! We learned a lot about teaching using the pamphlets and how to introduce the Book of Mormon to investigators.

 I've gained such a testimony of the Book of Mormon on my mission.
Its so powerful!!

I just wish everyone in the whole world would read it. :) 

We've also been doing a lot with family history lately!! YAY! My favorite :) Our ward is doing a huge push for it, its called "Clover Hill Beyond the Veil". Haha and we got to meet with our recent converts and their home teachers to help them get into familysearch.org and find names! I love the excitement of finding a name and watching someone else feel that excitement as well. The Lord is hastening the work and not just missionary work, the work of salvation! Every part of it, including family history. :)

We also had an awesome lesson this week with a young girl we met named Keeara. Both of her parents are ministers at non-denominational churches hahaha. But, she has so much faith and really loved our message. Its cool to see how the Spirit communicates our message to people of all different walks of life. She committed to read and pray and be baptized if she knew it was true! It was funny though, as we walked out the door her dad said, "You know she's already saved right?" Haha welcome to the bible belt :)

I also got some news from my last area that Rosa might be getting baptized next week!! She's the funny little french lady that I taught!! So pray super hard that it happens and that I get to go:) 

We also had a regional broadcast on Sunday for the North-eastern US and Elder Andersen, Sister Reeves, Elder Kacher, and Elder Hales spoke. It was really awesome.
 Some favorite quotes:

"Are we converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ or the social aspect of the church?" 

"Repent so thoroughly that when you look back at your life you can see no evidence of your sins at all."

"Never shut the door of your heart or your home to any of your children."

"Miracles happen to humble members of the church who live simply."

I'm doing great and am just so grateful for tender mercies.
 I've seen so many on my mission and still see them every single day.
 He is aware of us and He loves us so so much.

Hope all is well where ever you are! Lots of love.

XOXO,

Sister Fowers

Zoo Round 2 with President and Sis. Wilson

When life hands you LICE...... make lice lemonade?

Just brace yourselves for this email everyone. Hahaha.

Let's start at the beginning though.......

For a while my companion's head has been itching. A lot.
 I remember one day I was like, "Maybe you have lice?"
 But then we thought nothing of it.

She kept itching.

We thought it was just dandruff or something, so we bought some shampoo and thought all would be well :) 

Then, a few weeks ago, we were driving in the car with a member, Sister Precourt, and she was telling us stories about how two of her kids and one of her nephews had gotten lice and how she is like an expert at getting rid of them.
 Jokingly I said, "Awesome, so if I ever get lice, I'll know who to call!" Little did I know...

We'll come back to that though.

Tuesday we had an awesome night. We had had a district meeting that morning and learned about finding with faith and helping investigators progress, something our district has been struggling with a lot. So, I kind of left feeling bummed.
 Kind of like I wasn't the missionary that I wished I was.
 Sometimes that happens after meetings, missionaries know what I mean haha. 

But that night I decided to try super hard to just apply all the things I had learned and have an awesome night. So, we had Sister van de Rijken come out with us and we visited some people and had a lesson with this little old lady, but nothing very promising. 

As we were driving back to our car Sister van de Rijken just started talking about planting seeds and how sometimes we don't see the results of our efforts. I know she was comforting us, but in that moment all I could think was, 
"Am I just going to be a seed planter my whole mission??" "Is there really no harvest?" Now, I know those were from the adversary, but sometimes it gets hard.
Missions are tough. But as we drove away from her house I was feeling pretty hopeless. 

We decided to stop by a potential named Augusta on our way home. As my companion prayed in the car before we got out, I was just saying my own prayer. Pretty much pleading for a miracle.

Then as we knocked, she was home! And she let us teach her on her doorstep. As I shared the words of the first vision with her the spirit was so strong. I said, "What do you think about that experience?" and all she said was, "Its crazy, but I believe it." 

In Ether 12:9 it says, "Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith." 

I may not have 100 baptisms on my mission, or even 2. But I know that if we just have faith and hope, God will take care of us. We will be partakers of the gift. That is a miracle in itself. :)

We plan to meet with Augusta again tomorrow!

Okay, now back to the lice. <-------------

On Wednesday my companion's head was itching, so she went into the bathroom for a little bit. Then she told me to come look and we saw tons of little black bugs in the sink with her hair hahaha. AHHH. Noooooooooo.

So I freaked out for a little bit, and then I called Sister Precourt. Hahaha. Boy am I grateful for her, she took care of us. :) She went and bought all of the stuff we'd need and came right to our rescue! We had to tell the other two sister that we live with to come home, because we knew we'd all probably have them. Turns out, Sister Mailata had the bugs and the rest of us just had the little lice eggs. Hahahaha so nasty. So basically we spent all of Wednesday washing our hair with lice killing shampoo, which basically seems like gasoline because it destroys your hair. :(
 Plus, Sister Mailata's hair is like the thickest hair in the world!
  So after we washed our hair in that horrible shampoo we had to go get haircuts :( Then we had to use little combs to literally comb every single strand of hair and get ride of every single little tiny egg.
We were all dying hahaha. 

Then we had to wash every single piece of clothing, bedding, and spray every fabric. And vacuum. Then we had to soak Sister Mailata and Sister Steed's hair in olive oil in a shower cap over night to suffocate any little lice that we missed. It was crazy though, because the next day we took off the shower caps any the lice were pretty much gone!
 It was kind of a miracle.
Which is kind of cool because we used olive oil,
 which reminds us of the Savior and the Garden of Gethsemane. 

So, even when we have lice, He knows how we feel and can heal us. :) 

Hahaha missons are fun.
Lots of fun experiences to tell the children someday ;)
 I'll send some fun pics too, so funny. 

Anwyay, all is well and hopefully all those little buggers are gone. Pray for us ;) 

Love you all! Have a great week!

XOXO, Sister Fowers

She has cute short hair now!

Thanks for the Hump day Fruit flowers! I have always wanted one of these!

More lice pics

Lice picssss

Getting a trim

Today they had to soak their hair in listerine. Poor sisters:)

Sister Mailata drew a picture of me?

Birthdays, Hump days, and Sunny days!!

Hola everyone! 

This week has been just so fun. :) Lots of celebrating! 

On Monday we went to the zoo which was lots of fun. I got to feed a giraffe out of my hand and Sister Mailata had never seen any of the animals in her life, so it was pretty entertaining to watch her haha. 

I also took some pictures with the camels cause my HUMP DAY is coming up! And I may or may not have sat on a fence and it may or may not have broken. Then I fell backwards and all of the sisters were just laughing so hard and so a stranger helped me up. 

Yup. Graceful right? 

Haha anyway, that night we saw an awesome miracle!

 We were tracting on this little street and as we were walking down the road, we pass a mom and a daughter walking their dog. We start talking to them and ask them if they have time that we could share a message with them and they said yes! So we said a prayer on the side of the road and taught them the restoration. Their names are Valerie and Kelsey and they were super nice and super interested. So high hopes for them!

BUT, part two is that as we were teaching them, their neighbor drives by and sees us praying. Then after the lesson, we go to knock on her door and she is totally interested too! She gave us her number and told us to come back. So we came back a few days later and taught her and her boyfriend and they are awesome. They had some super powerful experiences in the past, but are having troubles right now and it was cool to see how much they really need the gospel in their life.

Sometimes I think about how as missionaries we are literally answering people prayers.

  In person! Heavenly Father is so aware of these people and what they need.  

So many miracles happening every day! 

This week we also did some fun service things. :) We're still getting to know the ward, so Sister Precourt took us to every member's home and we gave them a little flower in a pot with the quote from conference,
"Don't bury your testimony in the ground."
I love visiting members and getting to know them.
The church is awesome. 

Also, we celebrated Sister Mailata's 20th birthday! The members just took her right in and we ate lots and lots of cake... too much! Haha but it was fun and she is great. :) 

Also, random- but there have been some crazy lighting storms this week! One night we woke up to lighting and thunder that literally sounded like it was above our roof. It was so loud!! Virginia has crazy weather. :) 

But it is beautiful outside now! So sunny and happy and warm. 

We also saw a miracle last night! Like a month ago, we were tracting late at night and we decided to pray for a specific miracle. So we prayed to know who we should find and then we sat and listened. My companion felt like we needed to find a teenage boy. So we went tracting and we found Camarey! He is a senior in high school and is so nice! 

But then we had a hard time catching him at home after that. :/ 

But then last night we went to visit him and he was finally home! We had an awesome lesson on his front porch and the spirit was so strong. And we found out one of his friends is LDS! So we are teaching him again on Wednesday. :) 

Then we taught a Muslim family that night and we traded a Book of Mormon for a Koran! .

This email is super scattered, but life is just going so great!

 I just love being a missionary.

 Thanks for all the love and support. 

Love you all!!

XOXO Sister Fowers :)

Zoo shenanigans

Once upon a time we went to the zoo and I sat on this fence and it broke.....................and I fell backwards.................in a skirt..................AWKWARD!

Happy Hump day to me!

Happy Birthday to my little samoan!

Thanks!!!! She loved it!!

Congrats to the Midlothian Zone missionaries-winners of "More Fit for the Kingdom"! average days exercised 22.7 and average weight lost 2.7 pounds.

Unending Grace

Hello everyone! 

Happy late Easter! It has been a great week :) 

First off, Spring in Virginia is so pretty!! There are trees with blossoms everywhere, and I love them. Plus its warming up and is just beautiful weather for missionary work. :) 

How was everyone's weekend?? I'm pretty sure General Conference is a thousand times better when you're a missionary. Its like the mission superbowl. 

I'll come back to conference though.

This week we've been still trying to find new investigators. We did meet with our investigator Tommy Orcutt this week though! The Orcutt's are the sweetest humans on the planet. They are so southern and just tell stories, they're so cute. :) Tommy's wife, Carol, just got baptized and the missionaries have been working with him but it hasn't seemed to get very far with him. He's very set in his Baptist ways and doesn't see the vision of who the gospel can make him. 

But we were teaching him this week and were just really blunt and asked him why he won't get baptized! He comes to church every week! Then my cute little companion says, "Tommy, what are you waiting for??"
 Sometimes I wonder if that's how Heavenly Father feels about us.
 We know that living the gospel will make us happy, so what are we waiting for?
Pride just gets in the way sometimes. But he will come around. :)

On Friday we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders too! We saw a cool miracle with a guy named Cory that we had taught once before in his garage. We stopped by and he came out onto his porch and we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. It was cool to see how all of his concerns could be answered through what we were teaching.
  Heavenly Father's plan is perfect!
It is simple, but it is perfect.
 Cory wasn't sure about it but he has a really strong desire to read the whole Book of Mormon and pray about it, so we have high hopes for him!

Then on Saturday we had General Conference! 

... the best. 

Some of my favorite highlights (probably not accurate quotes, but oh well!):

"2 ingredients for a successful marriage: a cookie and a kiss!"

"Real love last eternally."

"The decision to believe is the most important decision we ever make."

*There are over 100,000 missionaries!!!

"One of the greatest blessings of discipleship is peace of mind."

"Because of Him, we need not fear."

"Many things are good and important, but few are essential."

"If you can't hear the music, keep practicing."

"A Saint is a sinner who keeps on trying."

"No matter what, with His help, God expects us to keep trying."

"All I really want in life is to please my Father."

"The Church has never been stronger."

"Its beautiful to get back to the essence of the gospel."

"Is the gospel still wonderful to you?"

"We are all on the same journey back home."

"He still extends unending grace with pierced palms and scarred wrists."

"God loves us deeply, perfectly, and everlastingly."

"Obedience is a grand rehearsal for the next life."

"If you lose the spirit, you are lost!"

I am so grateful for prophets and apostles who lead and guide us. I have been studying the life of Christ lately and I loved Elder Holland's talk.
 He is the hands that grasp us as we fall, He is always there.
 I am so grateful that He submitted to the will of His Father, no matter what.
 What a gift. 

We also had transfer calls this weekend, but for the first time, we didn't get a call! Yay! I'm keeping this compie for once! So we're staying here in good ol' Clover Hill :) 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Thanks for all the love, packages, candy, support, etc. You da best. 

Lots of love,

XOXO Sister Fowers

You have to look at this picture first in order for the next one to be funny! haha Sister Mailata lifting me.

.............then there's me trying to lift her. We've been laughing at this  picture for a week!

Zone Meeting

Pretty trees everywhere! I love Sping!

Happy Easter!