Good Things

Hey y'all :) everyone in Virginia says y'all, so I do too haha.

I swear this is the busiest I've ever been my whole mission because every week I just think, "This has been the busiest week ever!" and its always true.

On Monday we had a zone pday, so that was fun :) We had a little pizza party and played volleyball. Elders really get into it..... haha.

Then that night at FHE a member, Cynthia, brought her non-member friend Chris! Then she set up a time to go get ice cream with us the next day so we could teach him a lesson too.
 I love seeing members share the gospel.
  Its just as simple as inviting.
And then seeing what happens :)

So on Tuesday we had another lesson with our investigator Austin! I could just go on forever about how cool he is. He has had such a dark, dark past, but is just so ready to change his life. After we taught him the word of wisdom he quit drinking, smoking, and drinking coffee.
Such a miracle!
And he said that as soon as he quit, all of the health problems that he's been having for years suddenly went away. Crazy right? And then we taught him about tithing and fasting and he is just all in.
 He is still planning on being baptized on July 18th :)
  So many good things are happening here in Rappahannock YSA!

Then that night we did some family history with our recent convert Kelsey, which was awesome. She loves it and is so excited to go to the temple!

Then later that night we met with Cynthia and Chris like I said, for ice cream! When we got there we could tell that a storm was brewing, but it hadn't started yet. So we got our ice cream, and then went and sat on a curb and started to teach him a quick lesson about the Book of Mormon. As we are teaching, "BOOM!" the thunder cracks and then it just starts pouring. And it doesn't rain here like it does in Utah. Its like the movies when you go outside and you just get drenched in like two seconds. Hahaha but that didn't stop us! So we just sat there and taught even though we were getting completely soaked and he said he would read and that he is super interested in learning more! So we gave him the Book of Mormon and he stuck it under his shirt so it wouldn't get wet and then we said a closing prayer and ran to our cars.
 Hahaha sometimes I just think,
  "Only on a mission would I be sitting on a curb in the pouring rain, teaching people about Jesus."

The storms have been crazy though! I love Virginia :)

Then the next day we had MLC again. So we went down to Richmond for the day. One thing I really loved, was President gave a training on how we can be "weird" after our missions. Not weird like socially weird, but just how we are going to keep living the gospel and not fall back into our old habits.
 I got some good ideas and just hope that I can go home better than I came out. :)

Then, since Sister Weber is going home in a few days, she went to the temple the next day!

 So Sister Pincock and I were companions for the day
 because her companion is going home too.

 It was so fun :) We worked hard and then for dinner we went to this little Latin Market that has yummy homemade popsicles and a little restaurant in the back. I got papusas (not sure how you spell that).

Then on Friday we had zone meeting! I gave a training on becoming Preach my Gospel missionaries. I learned a lot, I always do when I have to prepare to teach something.
I love Preach My Gospel though! Boy, would we be lost as missionaries without it.

Oh and my trainers were both back in town this week to go to the sealing of a couple they both taught! So it was great to see them both. Freaky to see them in jeans though.... just no haha.

We also found two new investigators this week! LaKrisha and Tiffany. They both had rough lives and are still struggling. Hopefully we can help them to overcome some of those hard things.
  I've gained a huge testimony of the Book of Mormon too and how it can heal us. We always read with our investigators and I love seeing them connect with it.

The Branch also threw Sister Weber a little going home party last night! It was so sweet of them.

 So transfers are tomorrow and I'll be getting a new companion once again! This will be number 9 I think! I'll let you know how it all goes :)

 It's been great being with Sister Weber, she's taught me a lot. Sad to see her go!

Love you all lots! Happy 4th of July!!!! Be safe and have a great week!

XOXO,

Sister Fowers

Our investigator Austin took a cute polaroid of us. He's a gem!

Both of my trainers were back in Virginia to visit-so good to see them again! With Sister Clonts

Sister Roosendaal! back in town!

Happy Father's Day!

First off, HAPPY LATE FATHER'S DAY DAD!

If you all didn't know, I pretty much have the best dad ever.

I'm so grateful to have a earthly father and a Heavenly Father who are the greatest examples of Christ-like love and service.

I love this Mormon Message :)

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013&lang=eng

This week was busy and interesting.

On Tuesday we had some lessons during the day, and then some sisters in a family ward gave us a referral for a YSA they had taught and told us they set up a lesson for us that night.

So, we show up at the church and this guy named Michael is sitting outside reading. We talk to him and go inside and see that he has a Book of Mormon, a bible, and a Latin bible. I could tell he was a pretty devout Christian, so I asked him why he decided to meet with us, and he straight up said,

  "I want to convert you to Catholicism."

And we were like, "Well.... we want to convert you to Mormonism so....." hahaha.

Finally our member showed up and luckily he was super smart cause this guy just went off about the Catholic church, and Latin, and how the Book of Mormon was written by Joseph Smith, and proof, and writing styles, etc and it was pretty clear how he just wanted to bash with us.

 So, I started to get bugged because the Spirit was just not there, so I pretty much said, "look dude, you're never going to be able to prove if our message is true by facts or worldly knowledge, so if you actually are seeking for the truth,
 just pray and ask God and He will let you know.

  That is our purpose as missionaries, not to argue with you, just invite you."

He didn't like that very much, but we kind of just ended the lesson because it wasn't going anywhere and invited him to read the book he was so sure wasn't true, before he made judgments. Then he went off about some ceremony he wanted us to come to.

THEN, best part. We asked him to say the closing prayer and he said, "Sure, but is it ok if I sing it?" "Uhh... sure..." So he sang the closing prayer. By himself. In Latin. Full blown, no holding back. For like 3 minutes. It was interesting............. haha. #THEAPOSTASYISREALGUYS

Then on Wednesay I went on exchanges with Hermana Ward! It was so fun to be a 'mana for the day, she translated for me so that was nice haha :)

 Plus I was out in the boonies, surrounded by tractors and felt right at home.

Then the next morning was our tri-zone conference with with Elder Perkins of the Seventy!

Before the meeting, Elder Perkins requested that all of the missionaries prepare a talk, a testimony, and be ready to teach a 10 minute lesson on the Restoration, and then he would just randomly call on people from the audience to come do them. So no one knew who would be called on to do it. Nerve wracking!

I had my talk and testimony all prepared, but Sister Weber and I didn't have tons of time to prepare our Restoration lesson, so we figured we would just wing it because the odds that we would get chosen were pretty slim. Ha. Bad idea.

So we get there, and neither of us have to give a talk or share a testimony, but then we get to the part of the meeting where two missionaries would have to role play in front of 3 zones and President, and a General Authority.

Just my luck, Elder Perkins says, "Alright, now we will hear from Sister Fowers and Sister Weber."

..................................oh my goodness. I have the worst luck hahaha.

So he timed us, and we were supposed to teach the whole thing in 10 minutes and we didn't quite get through the whole thing :/ Then everyone evaluated us while we sat there. Fun stuff right? Haha :)

 I did learn a lot though, especially about teaching simply and powerfully.

 So, even though that was like my worst nightmare come to life, I learned a lot and I guess it just shows that there's no growth in a comfort zone and no comfort in a growth zone. :)

 Missions are just like one huuuuge, 18 month long growth zone hahaha.

Then, that night Elder Perkins held a fireside for recent converts and investigators and we went because we had a recent convert there with us. But two other zones were there, including the Woodbridge zone, so guess who walked in!

  Rosa!

Ahh I just about died :) She was so happy to see me and kept kissing me on the cheeks and saying "I love you" in French hahaha.
 So I got to sit by her during the meeting and it was the best.

Then on Friday we had a lesson with our investigator Austin and it was so awesome!!! When we were on exchanges Sister Weber met with him and he pretty much said, "How do I make this official?" So they told him to pray about a baptism date, and on Friday he said that he wants to be baptized on July 18th, the day after his birthday :) Yayy!!! He has been reading and praying and just changing his life so much. He said every day he relates less and less to Laman and Lemuel and more to Nephi. So cute. So keep praying for him!!! He is trying to quit coffee and alcohol and is doing great.

Then that night our ward mission leader had a BBQ and we got to go and meet lots of non-members and just get to know everyone, it was awesome.

 YSA's are the best :)

So many good things are happening! I love being a missionary :)

Thanks for all you do! Love all you lovely people.

XOXO, Sister Fowers

ps. Here are some pics of me and Sister Weber after we got drenched in a huge rain storm :)

We got drenched!

Guess who I ran into..........my recent convert ROSA! Guys, tender mercies are a real thing!

Hermana Ward and I caught our first firefly on exchanges:) happy day.

Unwearyingness

Hello!

First off, guess what. I finally saw fireflies!

I've been waiting forever, they're so pretty.

 Virginia is the best.

 Except that its like 100 degrees.... that's not the best. ha.

Anyway, this week has been so busy and its just getting busier!

On Tuesday we had sisters meeting down in Richmond! Its always so fun to see all of the other sisters and just have a day to relax and learn :) It was all themed on serving the Lord with all your heart, might, mind and strength.

 Sister Wilson gave a training on serving with our whole heart

 and I just hope that everything I do in life I do with my whole heart. Never hold back :)

On Wednesday we had another lesson with our investigator Sarah! She is so prepared it blows my mind. We read 1 Nephi 1 with her and she loves the Book of Mormon so much. She is really busy though, so we can't meet with her for a few weeks. Pray for her though!

Then that day we had interviews with President Wilson! I had a great talk with him about his mission and he always teaches me so much. And it was the day before my birthday, so he sang me happy birthday :)

 THEN, I was the last interview of the day, so he was supposed to leave and go to a meeting, but as he was walking to his car and we were walking to ours he stopped and said,
 "Wait, do you have some time? Lets go get ice cream."
 He is the best. So we went and got ice cream with him and he just told the people he was meeting with that he would be late. #mypresisbetterthanyours ;)

Then Thursday was my birthday! I'm 20 now. Weird. But it was an awesome day :)
 Thank you for all the emails, cards, packages, and love :)

 We had tons of lessons that day and then went out to eat with a recent convert, Nathan.
 He always takes us to super fancy restaurants. :) So we had fancy food and then ate cake.

 It was a great day. 

We also saw a huge miracle that day! 

Remember our investigator Austin? He was the manager for one of our members and we had been teaching him and he was solid. But then he quit his job and started working at Best Buy and he just stopped answering our calls and texts so we panicked and thought we lost him! So we decided to go to Best Buy and try to find him.... hahaha missionaries or stalkers?? You decide. But guess what. WE FOUND HIM! He just happened to be working and we started talking to him and the girl that was training him came up and we thought she was going to get mad at us for talking to him, but instead she comes up and says, "Are you the YSA sister missionaries?" We were like umm yes?? And then we find out that SHE'S A MEMBER TOO! What are the odds of that?? Every job he has he gets surrounded by Mormons! God works in funny ways. :) So we talked with him and he came to church on Sunday!! It was crazy too, because this girl got up and spoke about how the week before the Spirit had told her she needed to speak next week and share a specific experience and then the experience she shared was exactly what Austin struggles with. Afterward he was like freaked out because it was so perfect for him. We are meeting with him on Wednesday too :) 

Then on Friday we had a lesson with our investigator James..... it was rough. Hahaha. Simply put we dropped him and just told him if he wants to come to church he's welcome, but that there's no point in meeting with him until he's ready to change. So yeah.

On Saturday we practiced a lot because my companion and I sang a musical number in sacrament meeting! We had like the night before to prepare, but I played the guitar and we both sang a medley of "I'm Trying to be like Jesus" and "We'll Bring the World His Truth".
 It turned out pretty well :)

We're also have a zone conference with Elder Perkins of the Seventy this week! So that will be exciting :) 

Basically we're just busy, busy, busy. I've never ever been so tired, but its a good thing :) 

I was reading in Helaman 10:4-5  this morning, and I love these verses:

  "Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."

I love that. Even when we feel tired, keep going and serving with unwearyingness :)
 Hope you all have a wonderful week!

XOXO, Sister Fowers

ps. here are some prime ipad pics of me and my companion hahaha.

Out to dinner for my birthday!

Doing face masks during conference calls.

Reunited and it feels so good!

Sister's meeting

Kelsey's Baptism :)

This week has been so crazy but so happy :)

We were just getting everything ready for Kelsey's baptism!

It was so awesome. Probably the most powerful baptism I've been to.

We got everything ready and set up and taught Kelsey her last lesson right before it started :) She was so excited and so cute, she even accessorized her jumpsuit hahaha. I don't know if I already told you this, but her family is super Southern Baptist. Her family even set up this intervention with her preacher and he pretty much told her she was going to hell and gave her an anti-Mormon book. So sad! But she just told him how it was and told us that it didn't really matter what anyone said because she knows its true. So, the only people from her family that came to her baptism was her mom, grandma, and cousin. But it was so cute because her grandma gave the opening prayer :)

Also, the boy who introduced her to the church at Virginia Tech came and baptized her! His name is Owen and it is so cool because he is a recent convert too! He got baptized in September and started bringing Kelsey to church and gave her a Book of Mormon with his testimony in it. And he is getting his mission call any day now.
 I'm telling you, converts are the best.

Then, another cool thing was that the elders that taught her at Virginia Tech skyped in for the baptism! So they got to see the whole thing and
 one of them even said the closing prayer over Skype.

We also did a musical number and sang "I'm Trying to be like Jesus", it went pretty well, its the spirit that matters right? ;) haha jk.

But the best part was Kelsey's testimony at the end. She just cried and talked about how the gospel has truly changed her whole life and how it literally saved her from the path she was going down. It was so powerful! And she wants to serve a mission in a year. :)
  SHE IS SO GREAT.

Then after the baptism we all went out to eat and just celebrated, it was a great day. :)

We might also be teaching her best friend soon!
 Kelsey already got a Book of Mormon to give her :)

Anyway, something I've learned this past week is about goals! Our branch president challenged everyone in branch counsel to make a list of 100 things we want to do in our lifetime, and then read that list along with our patriarchal blessing every Sunday. Kind of like a spiritual/temporal bucket list. And then prioritize that list.

 So I've been working on my list and its actually really hard to come up with 100 things!
 I'm in the 60's.

 But I've loved pondering who I want to be, what kind of family I want to have, and what I want to accomplish.
  We can do so much if we put our minds to it!
So that's my little challenge to all of you :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you lots :)

XOXO, Sister Fowers

Fillin the font! woot! woot!

She's so cute

We saved some of  her baptism water and gave it to her as a gift!

Selfies for dayz

Busy Bees!

This week has been craaazzzy. It's been a big blur haha :)

On Wednesday we went and visited my former investigator, Sam! Which was kind of a bummer. It was great to see her, but she just said she was content without having a relationship with God. I asked if we could come teach her again and she said, "Sister Fowers, you know I love you. But I'm going to have to say no." #heartbreak.

 I have faith that someday she will accept the gospel though.

 President Wilson always talks about creating our own "personal ministries."
Which means the people in our life that we keep sharing the gospel with our whole lives,
 not just when we have a name tag on. I love that.

Sam is definitely part of my personal ministry
 and hopefully someday she will change her mind. :)

Sad story number 2 from that day....... I DROPPED MY COMPANION'S CAMERA IN A CREEK. Yup. You heard right. We were having a lesson in this little park and we were sitting on this little bridge that went over a little two foot creek. After the lesson  Sister Weber wanted to take a group picture, so she set her camera on the rail. I wanted one too, so as I went to set my camera down next to hers, something terrible happened and plop! There goes her camera. Down to its watery grave. Pretty sure I've apologized like a thousand times..... hahaha. Luckily the memory card was fine and she still has all the pictures, but the camera is toast :(
 Not my best moment.....

Then that night we had a lesson with this referral named Sarah! She is 18 and worked with 2 LDS guys that would talk about the gospel with her pretty much every day. Her family is Baptist, but she told us she has never felt comfortable there and doesn't know what the Spirit feels like because her whole life people have told her that the Spirit is what you feel when the preacher comes into the congregation and pops someone on the forehead and they fall down... Sarah was like, "I never knew if I was just crazy and wasn't feeling what everyone else was, but that just seems creepy."  We were like, no, the Spirit doesn't make us feel bad. We will help you feel what the Spirit really feels like. :) We taught her the restoration and she had the best questions and just ate up everything we taught her! She had read 3 chapters that we gave her in the Book of Mormon since our lesson and loves them. So high hopes for her!!

On Thursday we had a few lessons, but the worst one was with a less-active. He had been showing up to church and FHE every once and a while but no one really knew who he was. So we went over to investigate and figure out who he was and if he was active. We took a member and pretty quick we could tell that he wasn't spiritually where he should be and that his heart was just really hard. He went on a mission a while ago in Utah and had tons of baptisms, but when we asked him where his scriptures are he didn't even know. He hadn't read them in a loooonnnng time. When he did find them, he was flipping through the pages and pulled out a paper and said, "this is the baptism program of someone I baptized and I don't even remember who they are." We were all just like..... umm sad. No one really knew what to say. We committed him to pray, and hopefully he did.

 But mostly I just learned that we can never stop living the gospel!! We can't come home from our missions and forget the people, lessons, experiences, conversion that we had. We can't ever be the same. Or we will fall away.

Then on Friday we drove down to Richmond and had our iPad mission conference! It was AMAZING. Elder Zwick of the Seventy came and Brother Hemmingway, who is the director of proselyting in the church. It was interesting because they didn't really teach us anything about actually using the iPads. all they taught us was how our heart is the only true filter we have. We just need to sanctify and purify ourselves and that is our only protection. They shared super powerful experiences and it was just a great meeting. I learned a lot. Then afterward we went on exchanges with some sisters in the area and then all the sister training leaders went back to the mission home to sleep for the night, which was so fun :) The next morning we woke up at 4:45 to go to the church and go play a game that's famous in the mission, its called Oompa :) haha and President swatted so many sisters it was hilarious. No mercy :)

 Then we had MLC all day and it was a long meeting, but we got our iPads and had a lot of trainings.

Then yesterday was just a miracle day! Our pday got moved to today because we had a zone meeting yesterday morning to hand out the iPads to the other missionaries. I had to give a training on our calling, which was kind of nerve wracking, but it went really well. :)

Then at FHE we had the coolest experience!! Remember our investigator Kelsey? She came to FHE and sat next to me during the lesson. She turned and whispered that she was going to have to move her baptism date from the 13th to the 20th because of her cousin's graduation. So that was a bummer, but I said, "You could get baptized this week?? :)" And she was like "I can? I didn't know that was an option?" But then she decided right then and there that she wants to get baptized this Friday at 6:30!! So we interrupted  and told everyone that she just decided to get baptized and that they should come :) haha everyone was so excited! The members just took her right in. A few members are even taking her to the temple today :) SUCH A MIRACLE! She's so ready.

 Heavenly Father is so good.

 Plus, a few people brought non-member friends to FHE and we plan to teach them this week!

So many good things! Everyday I just realize more and more how much this is His work and we really don't have much to do with it. We play such a small part, but I'm so grateful for that small little part. :)

Love you all so much!

XOXO, Sister Fowers

ps. this pic is of the cutest restaurant we went to in downtown Fredericksburg called Foode. It's in this little alley way. Love :)

Just playin with our new iPad :) #bathroom selfie