Did someone say.............YSA??

Well guys, I now have solid proof that Heavenly Father loves me lots and lots and lots.

Because..... He sent me to another YSA!

I am now in the Rappahannock YSA Branch in Fredericksburg! Ask me how happy I am..... I'm really, really happy. :) I love YSA so much and this area is just on fire. We cover the whole stake and we are seeing so many miracles in just one week. The members love us and feed us lunch and dinner pretty much every day. #hellozion

Haha my new companion is Sister Weber! She is so awesome. :) She is from Star Valley WY, her dad is also a farmer, she's 19, she went to BYU before her mission but she will be going to Utah State afterwards- studying Business! Isn't it kinda freaky how much we're alike? But this is her last transfer, so we only get one together!

I don't even know where to begin because I have so much to tell you!

Lets start with some investigators:

1. James ---> He is is super funny black guy with a huge afro that loves to write poetry and like what every one else hates hahaha :) He's awesome. He has been meeting with missionaries for a few weeks and just struggles to feel the Spirit. Then one day last week after our lesson with him he text us and told us that he had felt the Spirit and described it as "a baby's hand gently pulling on his heart" :) Basically he had this crazy revelation that we're not sure was actually the Spirit cause he learned some kind of sketchy things, but he has a baptism date for June 6th and is working towards that! He also said in his revelation that God told him he needs to understand 2 more things before his baptism, but he doesn't know what they are....? We'll see haha :)

2. Joey ---> Joey is a young guy that is a recovering heroine addict. He has been clean for like 40 days now! Woohoo! But I guess he was in rehab and would have tons of hallucinations because of the withdrawals and just side effects from using drugs and the doctor told him he might have them for the rest of his life because of how much damage was done to his brain. But then his grandma sent him a bible! And as soon as he started reading it his hallucinations totally stopped. Then he met the missionaries a few weeks later. Pretty crazy huh? He basically meets with us in between NA meetings, but is really accepting of it and prepared!

3. Rebecca and Melissa ---> They are sisters and were raised Baptist. They met the missionaries a few weeks ago while they were carrying furniture into their apartment. We have been teaching them and they basically had a bunch of anti-Mormon material ready on their phone for when they got there. Ugh. So I pretty much just told them to seek the truth without using their cell phone and they didn't really like that.... oops :) Hopefully they come around! But It's it just shows that we can never prove the gospel right or wrong, we just need to be humble enough to ask God.

4. Austin ---> He is sooo prepared! He is the manager of a book store that a few of the members of the branch work at called Books A Million. We have lots of lessons there :) Anyway, he had been talking to members for a few weeks and then one day the sisters went in and introduced themselves and he's been meeting with us ever since! He is kind of rough on the outside- tattoos, piercing, drinks, smokes, etc, but he is awesome. He used to be agnostic and just very logical, but decided to turn his life around. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and came to church on Sunday! He loved it. Some converts gave talks and he felt like they were just for him. Then yesterday we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he said he feels like this is the path that he's supposed to be on and that he needs to do this. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and he said he feels like he is on the repentance step and that he knows he needs to be baptized. THE SPIRIT IS SO POWERFUL. It can change anything and anyone!
I have seen that first hand on my mission. All we need to do is be pure conduits for the Spirit to work through us to teach them. We just gotta get out of the way :)

5. Kelsey ---> She is straight up a miracle that just fell into our laps. She just showed up at church yesterday by herself because she just moved home for the summer because she's been going to school out at Virginia Tech, where a friend invited her to church at the end of March at the YSA branch out there, and then she met with the elders twice a week after that. When she met us she said, "So... I have a baptism date for June 13th... is that okay? Can I still do that?" Haha she is so sweet! We were like "ummm yes!" So we had her come to dinner at a member's house yesterday and we had a lesson and she just loves the gospel so much and knows its true. Her whole family is Southern Baptist though and are very non-supportive. But we are pretty much just prepping her for her baptism. :) So happy! Heavenly Father is just giving us so many miracles.

That's pretty much all the note worthy ones :)

We are also working with some super awesome recent converts and less actives and helping them get to the temple :)
 President Wilson always talks about being a "full purpose missionary", not just a baptizing missionary but someone who hastens all areas of the Lord's work.

On Saturday we also got to do some service and help feed the homeless! It was awesome. We just ran around getting them food, drinks, picking up their plates, pretty much acting like waitresses.
 But it makes me so grateful for all that I have and how much I've been blessed temporally and spiritually.
 Speaking of service, here is my new favorite Mormon Message that I'm obsessed with! Watch it :)

http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/lift-the-power-of-service

Also, happy news! Remember my investigator Sam from when I was at the Chippenham YSA? Guess where she is originally from and currently living? Fredericksburg :) Yup! So I called her when I got here and we are meeting with her tomorrow! I'm so excited! I don't know how it will go, but we'll see :)

Annddd.... this week is just going to be crazy busy. We have an all mission conference on Friday for the iPads and then all the sister training leaders will go out on splits with the sisters in Richmond for the night and then we'll stay at President's house and then have MLC (missionary leadership council) the next day! Then on Monday we will have a zone meeting where we get our actual iPads! So its gonna be hectic and crazy, but exciting :)

That was long email, but this transfer is going to be such a blessing. Sister Weber and I have a vision for getting 7 baptisms this transfer.
 In Proverbs 29:18 it says,
  "Where there is no vision, the people perish."
I know that as we set goals in faith that the Lord will help us to accomplish them!
 So we have big plans and even if they don't happen, we will be better for it.
 We won't perish :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day! I'm currently in George Washington's boyhood hometown, so it doesn't get more patriotic than that!

Love you all!

XOXO, Sister Fowers

ps. This pic is where we had a lesson one night! On a dock by the Rappahannock river :) And our recent convert kindly took our picture :)

Saying goodbye to my sweet one at transfers :)

Ice cream :)

Guess where I am??

Saylng goodbye to Sister Orcutt, the Southern grandma I never had!

Our investigator James bought us Korean food.

The Lord is full of surprises!

Hello hello hello.

Happy news of the day: ROSA GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!!

I wasn't able to go because it was so far away, but hopefully someone will send me some pictures haha :)

 I just love that little old french lady and I'm so glad she chose to be baptized.

 Such a tender mercy for me. 

On the down side, Tommy chose not to be baptized this week :/ but he is making a lot of progress and I honestly think he just needed the push we gave him and now its just might take some time for his heart to soften. But he'll get there! I love this scripture:

D&C 124:9 "And again, I will visit and soften their hearts, many of them for your good, that ye may find grace in their eyes, that they may come to the light of truth, and the Gentiles to the exaltation or lifting up of Zion."

Funny story of the week: we found this Muslim family the other week. They were so sweet and nice and let us in, they even brought mango juice out on this fancy platter for us haha. They are very devout though. So we went back the next week and took a member with us and when we got there they had invited their father in law over who is like a preacher for the local Muslim mosque! Hahaha we totally got set up. He ended up not letting us say too much, but was really nice.

 It's so interesting to learn about other religions and how much truth they have,

 but they don't have all of it! 

So grateful to have the true church of Jesus Christ :) 

2nd funny story of the week: on Saturday the sister that we live with were having a baptism. In our mission, we can only go to someone else's baptism if we have an investigator, recent convert, or less active there with us. So we tried inviting everyone. And I mean everyone.... but no one could come! We were so bummed. But we were determined to find someone, so 30 minutes before the baptism started we went out on a HUNT. Hahaha I would stop the car and Sister Mailata would jump out and talk to someone else in their car it was hilarious. Then we went to this apartment complex that has a bunch of buildings super close to each other so we could split up and be close enough to see and hear each other and starting knocking on every door by ourselves asking people if they would come to a baptism with us right then! We weren't having much success, but then a girl said she would come! It was crazy! We were so pumped, but then she bailed on us :( It was sad but it was a fun 30 minutes hahaha. 

 Surprise of the week: drumroll please.... I'm getting transferred. 

So sad!! And the biggest surprise about it is that President Wilson called me to be a sister training leader. Mom you probably don't know what that means... hahaha. I didn't before my mission! Its pretty much like a zone leader, but for the sisters. So we give trainings, go on exchanges, and just take care of the sisters in our zone. 

So..... that will be a fun adventure I guess!

 I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father either has a sense of humor with me

 or is just trying to teach me lots of things hahaha. :) Or both.

So we'll see who my new companion is and where I'm getting transferred to!

I'm so sad to be leaving Sister Mailata though :( She has taught me so much these last two transfers! She gave a trainging in District meeting this week and I just felt like such a proud mom. :)

 I know she'll do great on her mission and I feel blessed to have trained her. 

I will let you know what my new mailing address is next week! 

Thanks for all the love and support! Love you lots!

XOXO, Sister Fowers

My favorite little boy. His name is Kaden but he insists that his name is Lemon.

Saying goodbye to everyone........:(  The Van de Rijken's

Sister Precourt!

The District 3?

Sister Merrill and I twinning! AKA: she's wearing my clothes!

Johnny Rockets!

Families are the BEST!

Hello!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! 

I am so grateful to have a dad like you. I remember in my farewell talk I said that if I could just be as charitable and hard working as my dad, then I knew I would have a successful mission.

I still know that's true and try every day to be a little bit more like you.

 I hope you have the best birthday ever :) 

This week has been good! One highlight was zone conference on Wednesday. We had some really great trainings on being truly committed and consecrated to the work, obedience, and humility. All things that I know I need to work on and be better at. One great thing about serving a mission is you just have 18 months to try and really, really focus on bettering yourself as a disciple of Jesus Christ. So I'm grateful for that. 

One cool miracle we've seen this week is with our investigator Tommy! His wife Carol is a recent convert and he comes to church every single week with her. We've just been struggling to help him keep commitments, so we decided to push him out of his comfort zone a little bit and give him a baptismal calendar! You might not know what that is, but pretty much its a calendar with their baptism date on it and then things on each day that they need to do to prepare for their baptism. So we were bold with him and just promised him that if he read and prayed sincerely every day that Heavenly Father would give him his answer by May 16th. He wasn't sure about that, but said he would try. Then at church yesterday he said he's been doing it! We plan to meet with him tomorrow and get ready for his baptism. He knows it's true, so pray that he chooses to act :) I'll keep you updated!

Rosa update! I've heard she is getting baptized this Sunday at 9 am!! So I probably won't be able to attend the baptism, which is a bummer. But I'm still so grateful that she is getting baptized!
 Happy things are happening! 

Then on Friday we went on exchanges and I got to go back to Chippenham for the day! It was so fun to be back and see some old friends. Plus I learned a ton about member missionary work and just using all of our efforts and skills to hasten this work.
 Someone once told me,
"Members should be inviting missionaries to their lessons, in their homes, with their investigators, not the other way around."
I love that.
  I want to be a missionary forever, not just for 18 months. :)

It was also so good to talk to my family yesterday! Sister Mailata got to call her family on Saturday night and talk to them, and she was so happy. Families are the best! 

I'm out of time, but Happy late Mother's Day and I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you lots!

XOXO Sister Fowers

Skyping with the family

My little man!

The Orcutt's and I.  Love them sooooooo much. Tommy is hopefully getting baptized this wee! PRAY FOR HIM

Love this little gem!

MOMS.IPADS. All good things :)

Hola! 

This week has been so good! 

Last Monday we found out that our mission is getting IPADS! Yes I screamed for like 60 seconds when I found out. :) 

We will be having a whole combined mission conference on May 29th to be trained on how to use them and then we'll get them at the beginning on June! So that will be crazy, but fun.

 The Lord is hastening the work errrbody!!

Lice update: THEY'RE GONE. Woot woot :) now I can bury that deep in my past hahaha.

We also had stake conference this weekend which was awesome! Elder Allard came and spoke to us and it was a great meeting. Favorite quotes:

"Satan is very intentional in what he does. If we are not just as intentional, we will fall."

"If we're not united, we can't move forward."

"You can tell what's important to people by where they spend their time and what they talk about."

"Our agency is a gift! Salvation will be more sweet because we chose it."

"Revelation is a process, not an event."

*Plus, it was happy because all of the people I love from Chippenham were there!!! So it was full of hugs and happiness :) 

I also wanted to just give a shout out to my mama! She is the best and I'm so grateful for women in my life who have inspired me and pushed me to be better. There is nothing more powerful than moms. Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day and send some love to moms that you love. 

Love you all! Have a great week!

Here's a quote that Mais sent to me that I love:

"As we get caught up in the happy cycle of loving what we do, and doing what we love, work becomes a JOY we are not watching the clock, in fact we forget time exists. We are not working because we have a supervisor present but because we are lost in the love of it." 

XOXO, Sister Fowers

I got to see all my Chippenham loves at Stake Conference! Happy day :)

We rushed home after stake conference because Sister Merrill left the oven on........ then we found this :) haha

Comp Love