short and sweet!

Hey kids and cats! (pretty sure dad used to say that when he came home from work?) hahaha :)

This week was good! 

Monday we had sisters pday with all the sisters in our zone! We went bowling, it was fun :)

 I love all the sisters we serve with.

We went on exchanges on Tuesday and we saw some awesome miracles! I stayed in our area with Sister Halls and we didn't have any set appointments for the day, so I was just praying and hoping that some good things would happen. So we went to this apartment complex and we just stopped by a few potentials and everyone was home! We seriously just went from apartment to apartment teaching lessons. It was crazy. We taught these two girls who are roommates that we had helped move into their apartment the week before and the lesson was BOMB. So good. The spirit was so strong!

 But we texted them last night and they dropped us :( Whyyyyyyyyy. We think they got into some anti material. I hate when that happens!! Dang Satan. But we found some other people who seem really promising.
 That seems to be our struggle lately, we find lots of people, but they don't seem to stick.
  So we're just going to keep trying! 

We met with my recent convert Kelsey on Wednesday and she is doing so good!! She is the cutest member ever. She does missionary work and reaches out to less-actives and is just the greatest. She even paid her first tithe this week! She is also applying to BYUI for the spring semester, so pray she gets in! I love seeing new members just embrace the gospel :)

We had interviews with President Wilson on Friday and they were so good. 

I love that guy so much. :) 

I talked with him and learned a lot about the temple and the covenants we make there.

 I'm so grateful that we can go to the temple and just get away from the world!

 Its such a sanctuary and fortress from the worries of real life. 

Keep going to the temple everyone! As much as you can. 

Then on Friday night we had another exchange with some other sisters! We spent a lot of the day street contacting and trying to find some people to come to a baptism that was happening in another ward. We found 4 people who said they would come! Guess what. They all bailed! Hahaha typical. :) But we've been staying busy and just trying to find the people that are ready! 

I don't have tons of exciting news this week so I'll just keep it short and sweet! We did run into Monster again though and he might come to FHE tonight hahaha :) #yesss

I hope you all have a wonderful week and a happy first week of school! 

Thanks for all the love!

XOXO,

Sister Fowers

"Word of the month: Patience"

This week was long but good. 

We've done a looottttt of finding. Find, find, find! That was this week haha. :) We've found a few solid people though, so good things are happening. 

We had a lesson with a guy named Jack the other day. We met him in downtown Fredericksburg because he is a street guitarist! Ya know, like the people who sit and play for money. So we stopped and talked to him and he said he is Catholic but that he'd be down to meet with us! So we met with him on Friday and had an interesting lesson... everything seemed to be going good and he accepted the baptism invite at the end readily! But then he said he wasn't sure if he would meet with us again. So that was a bummer. But he said he had lots of LDS friends growing up and he seemed really interested in the activites in the branch. So pray for him!

We met this other guy named JR too. We had an appointment with the gangster named Monster, remember him? Hahaha :) Well he didn't show to our lesson, but we found some other people instead including JR! He is 19 and when we were talking to him and his friends he just kept asking us tons of questions about who we were and what missionaries did. He kept saying how awesome it was that we were so devoted to our faith and that he's always wondered what Mormons believe. So he was super sincere, so we gave him a pamphlet and told him to read it before we came back. We have an appointment with him this week, so we'll see how it goes. 

There's a church downtown that has a little message board outside and we walked past the other day and it said, "Word of the Month: Patience".

 I said a little, "mmhmm, amen." haha :) Because it is true! 

The topical guide to the scriptures says patience is
"Calm endurance; the ability to endure affliction, insult, or injury without complaint or retaliation."

Those months when the work slows down you can either become impatient and ungrateful, or you can trust in the Lord and His timing.
 Sometimes I don't understand everything that happens, but I always try to remind myself that He loves us. So His timing is the best timing for me. 

I love Hebrews 10:37 that says, "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." So even when things don't happen when we want them to, if we seek His will, we will be blessed with all that we have been promised. I love that.

Then on Saturday we had another day of service! Our stake is doing this "Day to Serve" thing and our branch decided to go gleaning for it! Don't know what gleaning is?
 Don't worry, neither did I hahaha. 

Its in the scriptures though! 

Leviticus 23:22 "And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest:
 thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God."

Basically its when you go to a field that has already been harvested and pick all of the crops that the farmer missed. Then you take those crops and give them to the needy. So we went and gleaned a corn field in Colonial Beach :) it was a fun little change of pace. We even ate some of the sweet corn right there in the field, it was so good. But the people told us we picked 5,300 lbs of corn that will go to the food bank! So that was awesome. 

Then on Saturday night we got to go down to Richmond because two of Sister Nordstrom's investigators were being baptized! It was a great baptism and I will just never get tired of baptisms. It is the happiest thing in the world. I love seeing the gospel spread and move forward and it amazes me that it just never stops. That's how you know this is His work. It keeps going and going and going. I'm so grateful to be a witness of it and a small instrument in His hands. 

Oh! And funny story of the week!

Last week a member took us out to dinner to get sushi :) and the girl he is dating came with us, Abbi. So we get our sushi and if you've never really had sushi, it comes with ginger and a big blob of wasabi on the plate. So Abbi hadn't ever had sushi, so she got a roll with avocado in it, not fish. So we get our food and all of the sudden we just hear Abbi say, "Oh no...." and it turns out she had stuck the whole chunk of wasabi in her mouth thinking it was avacado! Hahaha it was sad, but really funny. She had to drink a lot of water after that.
So don't do that when you get sushi everyone hahaha :) 

Also! School here at Mary Washington University started today! Yay! It's a closed campus, so we don't get to proselyte there every day, but we can go every Thursday. We were there visiting a recent convert last night and saw a cool miracle though! There was this girl that walked by but she was too far away to talk to, but later we gave this other guy a card and as we were talking to him she walked by again and he turned to her and said, "Hey! Aren't you mormon?" and she was like "Yes I am." and it turns out she got baptized 4 years ago and is super inactive, but came up to us and asked for a Book of Mormon and told us she went to stake conference yesterday just because she felt like she should! So we set up an appointment with her and she seems like she wants to come back, so that was a cool miracle. :) 

The Lord works in mysterious ways! I hope you all have a wonderful week. 

Thank for all the love and support!

XOXO, Sister Fowers

Day to Serve

the pure love OF Christ

Hello lovely people :)

Hope life is treating you all well! This week has been good! 

Tuesday was transfer meeting! 

Can I just say how sad I was to send Sister Johns home? 

So. Flippin. Sad. We're like besties, so that was a bummer. 

But it all worked out because I got an awesome new companion :)
Her name is Sister Nordstrom! Yep, just like the store.
And that's totally my favorite store, so its obviously meant to be ;)

 She is super sweet! She is my same age, from Elko, Nevada, went to LDS Business College before the mission, has been out for 10 months,
and I'll be training her to be a sister training leader!

 So it will be a great transfer. 

This week we spent a lot of time going to visit all the sisters in our zone and get to know them and set goals with them and things like that. We're over 5 sets of sisters and all of them are training a new missionary, its kind of crazy. Lots of new sisters! But its fun. 

On Tuesday we had an awesome lesson with our recent convert Austin! 

He is just my favorite human, he kills me. 

We were teaching him the new member lesson on the Plan of Salvation and I asked him what part of the plan has made the biggest impact on his life and he said that it was the Atonement and knowing that he can change and be better and that simply knowing he can be forgiven has made all the difference. I love seeing the Atonement work in people's lives! 

And the craziest thing is, Austin had a friend growing up that was just crazy and partied a lot and when Austin was investigating this friend was giving him a really hard time. But! Guess what. The Chippenham YSA missionaries in Richmond tracted into Austin's friend and because Austin just got baptized he let them in! And now his friend is preparing to be baptized. :) So crazy! And Austin got the priesthood yesterday so hopefully he will be able to baptize his friend! 

So many miracles happening, makes my heart happy :) 

We had a lot of people not show up to lessons this week though.... which is super lame. So we are just trying to find the elect! They're out there, so we just gotta find them. 

We had an awesome day on Saturday though! So the community puts on this thing every year called "School Dressing Days". Its pretty much a clothing and school supply drive that less fortunate people in the community can come and sign up and just get free backpacks, clothes, shoes, supplies, etc for their kids as they go back to school.

 It was such a great experience to see all of these cute little kids who have nothing and how happy and grateful they were to just have enough for their needs. 

We even got to wear Mormon Helping Hands vests, which is like my dream, nbd. ;)

  Service is the most rewarding thing though! I love it. 

I have been studying a little bit about charity lately, and something that my mission president said has always stuck with me. 

We have all heard the scripture in Moroni 7:47,

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."

Usually when people talk about that verse, they say that charity is the pure love that Christ has for us, which is true. But, what my mission president said is, what if charity is exactly what it says, the pure love of Christ? The pure love that we have for Christ. 
If we truly love Christ with a pure love,
 we will automatically and naturally, 
love and serve and have charity for those around us.
 So the more we love our Savior, the more we love our brothers and sisters. 

Things are going great though! The work is good and I love this city and I love Virginia
and I love the people in it. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and look for those little opportunities to love and serve!

XOXO, 

Sister Fowers

Cute Sistas

Missing my Sistas

Chatham Manor once again

The biggest pizza

Mormon Helping Hands!

Love with your whole heart!

Hello!

Also, I'm the worst aunt. 

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO MILLIE! 

Hope is was great :)

This week has been a good one. Lots of ups and downs!

Lets start with the whole Nana situation. 

So I told you how last Sunday, we met with Nana and she told us that she still wants to be baptized. She has been waiting for a whole year and still remembers everything the missionaries taught her, but her dad is super controlling and doesn't want her to be baptized. They moved here from Ghana a few years ago and I guess there are just some cultural differences ya know?

 Anyway, we weren't going to say no if she wanted to be baptized! 

So we got to work trying to make it happen. 

On Tuesday we had a lesson and went over the baptismal interview questions and she had all the right answers! She knows the church is true and what she needs to do, but she's not super committed. So after that she promised she would read the Book of Mormon and keep meeting with us. But then she kept canceling our appointments and just wouldn't show. 

So then on Friday we tracked her down haha. We literally like waited outside of her apartment until she came home and then chased after her! She just kept walking but we followed her and convinced her to let us come inside and talk to her while she cooked dinner for her dad. 

So we had a huge talk and she kept telling us that her dad would come around and that she wasn't ready to be baptized this Sunday. We pretty much gave her a huge pep talk and talked to her about Peter and the story of when he walked on water, and how she was letting fear creep in and push away her faith! She was being so stubborn. But she finally agreed to have her baptism interview the next day and to fast and pray that night to know if she needed to be baptized. 

So then the next day, we called. and we texted her. and we knocked on her door. and then we did all of that again. and again. and.......... nothing. She left us hanging. We had planned everything for the baptism, and made the programs and everything. And she ended up not being baptized :/ BUT! We did everything we could. That's the tricky thing about agency haha :) 

You just love these people so much and want to help them so badly and then sometimes they break your heart. But I've learned that

  all the best people know how to love with their whole heart.

Sometimes that is hard when you get let down, but it is always worth it.

 I try to do that more every day. 

But she will come around and I know she'll be baptized soon! 

Our lesson with Cris also cancelled again :( 

He got sick and then hasn't been very committed to meet with us.

 Pray that he comes around!

We found a few new investigators this week though! Yay!

One of them is named Darrius. We were walking downtown and saw him sitting on a bench outside the library, so we went up to him and asked him if we could talk to him for a few minutes! It was so funny, because we could tell he felt so awkward haha. But he listened and we had a great lesson on the Restoration. He committed to read the Book of Mormon and then we met him again the next day. He hadn't read, so we decided to read with him. The Spirit was there and we asked him how he felt as he read the Book of Mormon and he said, "enlightened and open". We are meeting with him again on Wednesday and he might come to FHE tonight and bring friends!

Sister Johns and I have also been doing this thing lately where we go finding by going to all of the most ghetto apartment complexes in Fredericksburg and teaching everyone who is sitting outside hahaha :)

 It is so fun. I love the people here.

 Last night we taught two gangsters named "Monster" and "Rugga". 

Monster gave us a fake phone number and then we repeated it back to him and changed the numbers and he acted like it was still the right number and so we called him out, it was so funny, his friends were laughing so hard that two white girls just called him out. We got the right number though ;) 

We also have another invesigator named Dante who seemed really solid, but now he hasn't been answering the door. Bummer. Hopefully we'll be able to catch him though!

Also, tomorrow is transfers!! Ah, I am so sad that Sister Johns is leaving. But I'm grateful that I got to serve with her! She is awesome. I will be staying here in Rappahannock and I will let you know who my new companion is next week! #newcompsfordayzz

I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember to just be happy and be good :) 

Love y'all!

XOXO, Sister Fowers

ps. I didnt take any pictures this week... weird right? More to come next week ;) 

Thanks to Sis Wilson for always getting a pic for us on transfer day! Sister Fowers and her new comp!

"Sister Johns......................are you alive?"

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WESTON YESTERDAY! 
Hope it was so good, someone give him a big squeeze for me :)

This week has been just crazy. Not a ton of missionary work went down, but its been good haha.

On Tuesday Sister Johns left me and went to the temple because she's going home, so I spent the whole day with some other sisters in the zone and didn't do any work in our area. It was good though, we found lots of potentials for those sisters and just had fun talking to everyone. :)

 That's one fun thing about being a missionary. 

You just talk to complete strangers all day every day and don't feel weird about it! Its the best.

Then on Wednesday we had MLC down in Richmond. It was great! 

One thing that I learned a lot about was doubt and courage. 

It was a training that one of the A.P.'s gave and then I gave the same training in zone meeting. 

One story that I love is in Mark 9:

"20 And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.

 21 And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.

 22 And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.

 23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

 24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

I love that. Sometimes its hard to have that pure, unflinching faith. 

But its okay because

  He doesn't ask for perfect faith, he just asks us to be believing.

 I've learned a lot about that lately. 

That we are not perfect and we mess up and we doubt, but that he never gives up on us if we just keep on believing and enduring until the end. 

C.S. Lewis said, "The great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him." 

Isn't that so amazing? It reminds me of the Apostle Peter, and how he messed up all the time. He was so far from perfect and even denied Christ. But he always went back to his belief and never gave up. 

Whether its a mission, or a calling, or our life, we can never ever give up, 

and that is real faith to me. :)

Then.... on Wednesday my companion got super, duper, duper, sick. :( I feel so bad when my companions get sick! So she was sick for a few days after that and basically dying in bed. And we didn't get out much. So that's always a bummer. But we still tried to make up for it this weekend when she was feeling a little better!

On Saturday we went to the county fair because our recent convert Kelsey got us in for free and we went and visited her and her cow because she shows cattle :) and then we went contacting at the fair and tried to talk to people, it was fun. Then for dinner we bought a turkey leg hahaha. #hadto 

We did have a cool miracle last night though! We had dinner at a member's house and then we were just way determined to have a lesson even though we didn't have any set up so we just started calling everyone and asking them if we could come see them right then! And our investigator Nana said we could! And then we miraculously found a member to come with us last minute. So we had a lesson with her about baptism and she wants to be baptized so badly but she's so scared that her dad will like disown her. But we talked about it with her and she wants to be baptized this Sunday while Sister Johns is still here! So we plan on meeting with her every day to see if she's actually ready. But you never know, miracles happen! So pray for Nana :) 

We have also been trying to meet with our invesigator Cris all week. He has literally bailed on us 3 times this week and just not shown up. So..... we are bummed about that. He is super prepared and wants to keep learning but just has bad friends and priorities right now. So we are planning on having a lesson with him tonight before FHE, and will probably have a little DTR with him haha. 

Things are going good though! Transfers are next week and I'll be getting a new companion once again! Story of my life ;) I will miss Sister Johns a lot..... but it will all work out! 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep doing missionary work!

Love you!

XOXO, Sister Fowers