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 :(

A Thankful Heart

Yo Yo Yo!

How is everyone?? Freezing? Its 70 degrees outside right now in Virginia nbd... :)

Haha anyway this week has been so good!!! Not even kidding Heavenly Father has been putting so many awesome people in our path. Not complaining!

Earlier in the week we had some lessons with some really nice guys. One's name is Kameron and he was just super sincere. As we started the lesson, he just nonchalantly pullled out a notebook and pen and started taking notes as we taught him haha! I've never had anyone do that, but it was awesome. I said the quote, "there's no growing in a comfort zone and no comfort in a growth zone" and he made me repeat it so he could write it down hahaha.

Then we taught this guy named Jonny and he is also just really awesome. I'm always amazed by people who are super open-minded about religion and other people's viewpoints. But it was cool because we were going to meet him on campus for the lesson and me and my companion both accidentally handed out our copies of the Book of Mormon on campus before the lesson so we didn't have one to give him! But then it turned out that he already had it on his Kindle! #elect. :)

Then that night we had a lesson set up to meet that Muslim guy Abraham that I told you about last week? Yeah, so we had never taught him but we assumed he would just come alone and we would teach him. Nope! He brought 3 of his friends and said that he would have brought more but he didn't know how big the room would be hahaha. So we just taught 4 Muslim guys all at the same time it was hilarious. They had no idea what any of the Christian principles were so we had to kind of start from the beginning and explain everything. But they were super awesome and we are getting them some Arabic Book of Mormons! And they said they would cook us some Arabic food? Who knows haha :)

The problem right now is EVERYONE is leaving for Thanksgiving break and is suuuupppper busy with finals. So no one has time to meet with us. I don't know what we are going to do over thanksgiving break but it will be interesting!

We are having Thanksgiving dinner at Elder and Sister Chuntz's house on Thursday! They are just the best, it will be so fun. :)

We've also still been meeting with our investigator Gina! She is doing pretty well and came to a baptism the other night and loved it. We are trying to figure out how best to teach her because she's not really retaining anything. We are shooting for her to get baptized in January, so we'll see.

Random story: we were street contacting on campus and we gave a card to this girl and so she looked at it, then got really mad and tried to throw the card really hard and hit us but instead it kinda just fluttered to the ground.... it was really awkward. So I just picked the card up and we kept walking haha.

Today we went ice skating for sisters pday! So that was fun :) We got to wear pants and it felt weird.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving this week!!!

Here are some things I am grateful for:

• The Gospel of Jesus Christ!
  
• That I get to be a missionary and put on my name-tag everyday.
  
• My Family!
• Tights (its cold out there!)
• Missionary approved music ;)
• Friends
  
• Utah! (When is VA going to get a cafe rio??)
  
• The Scriptures
• Email haha :)
  
• Prayer
• Pictures
• The missionaries I serve with
• All the tender mercies Heavenly Father sends my way.

I could go on forever... But I am so grateful for all of the blessing I have been given.

Psalms 100:4 "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name."
President Uchtdorf said "Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christlike attributes! A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues."
 That is so true. If we can truly become grateful, we can slowly but surely become more like the Savior every day.
I know that this is Christ's true church on the earth and I'm so grateful to be a part of it and to share it with others.
I love you all!
XOXO Sister Fowers

Sister missionaries

Kaycee and her companion 

More missionaries

Growing sunflowers in a tiny pot

Bible Study,Gospel Principles, and Pres

Hey hey! 

How is everyone?? Hopefully you're staying warm! I thought it was cold here in Virginia, but it sounds like it is way colder in Utah. It has been in the 30's and 40's here, and its super rainy today, but as long as there's not snow I'm good! 

I will admit though, that we already have a Christmas tree up in our apartment, listen to Christmas music in the car, and sing Christmas hymns every morning for comp study. You could say we're a little excited. 

This week has been so good though! We have seriously seen so many miracles. 

Before I get into all that can I just tell you a story I forgot to tell you last time? Hahaha. 

So, a few weeks ago we were just contacting on campus and we stopped a girl and gave her a card. She took it, walked away, and then turned back around and asked us if we wanted to come to a bible study that she was going to right then on campus. So we were like... sure! Why not? Maybe she'll come to church if we come to her bible study? So, as we're walking there we're talking to her and she tells us that the bible study ends at 9:00 but that we could leave whenever because the guy that is like the preacher was really cool and chill about it (not true). So we told her we probably would leave early because we have a curfew. 

So we get in there and its kind of like a non-denominational Christian bible study and its just a room full of about 30 people. We take a seat next to some random people and the guy is just talking about a lot of different topics in the bible. Its so interesting to compare religions, I love it haha. The whole time I just have to stop myself from being like "actually.... thats not true." Haha so throughout the study this guy just gets weirder. He went up to this girl who was leaning on her arm sleeping and he like ripped her arm out from under her head to wake her up and make her listen it was so weird. 

Then someone stood up and left early and he made this huge big deal about it in front of everyone. We were like uh oh.... he's gonna get mad when we have to leave early! So like 8:45 rolls around and we're already gonna be late, so I just look at my companion and we decide to just get up and leave anyway. 

So I was wearing a yellow cardigan that day, and as we stand up to leave the guy starts making a scene about us leaving. He was like "Yeah, yeah, go! Its alright the door is right there." But clearly he was mad that we didn't want to sit and listen to him anymore. 

So as we are walking toward the door, he stops and says to the whole room, "You see that girl in the yellow sweater? She was saved when she was a teenager." 

So I turn around and am just like uh...? What? 

Then he looks at us and is like, "Wait, wait, listen. Listen to me prophecy to you right now. Let me guess you are forming a women's organization that will travel over seas." 

At this point we are just really confused and feeling super awkward because everyone is staring at us and this guy is nuts. So we're just like "Um, yeah sure." It was like he was trying to prove to the whole class that he was a prophet it was so weird. 

Then he says, "Let me give you some advice. Get rid of the box." And he makes the shape of a square in the air with his fingers. Then he says, "If I never see you again, see you in Heaven." Then he just salutes at us and we just got out of there asap. Hahahaha. 

So, basically I had a crazy guy try and prophesy about me. It was so weird. I always read about other religions in the Book of Mormon and all the prophesies about how corrupt they'd get in the last days but I never actually saw any of that in Utah. Then I came here and hello! False prophets everywhere. I love our Prophets. The whole time that guy was talking you could just see in him that he was doing it for money or for the praise of men. 

Anyway, interesting weird experience overall. hahaha welcome to the bible belt! 

This week we have found so many new people to teach!! It has been so awesome! So many referrals poured in and we just had a ton more lessons. Prayer is real guys. :) We taught this guy named Joshua McCormick and he was just super cool. He is a touring musician though, so he's super busy and can't meet with us again until December.
So pray that his schedule will free up! 

Also, this Sunday Gina came to church! We have been teaching her a lot, but she struggles to keep commitments and come to church, so we're still undecided about when she should be baptized. We had these other three guys come to church as well, and we hadn't even taught them yet. We actually met one of them, his name is Abraham, in Monroe park and he is from Saudi Arabia and he wanted to come to church but wouldn't give us his number, so we gave him ours. Usually if we give people our number they never text us... so its lame. But he actually text us Saturday and said he was coming to church and bringing his two friends! 

Haha so they all come to church and they're all from Saudi Arabia. The friends names were Ali and Moo. They are Muslim and looked very confused the whole time hahaha. 

So we're in Gospel Principles and we did like a get to know you question and everyone went around and answered it. So the question was, "What is your coolest scar and how'd you get it?"

So everyone goes around and answers and it gets to be Abraham's turn and he says that his only scar was on his fingers from moving the coals around when he smokes hookah.......... hahaha. Yup! It was so funny and awkward.

Happy 4 months to me yesterday! Ahh time is going by so fast! I was talking to my companion this morning about going on missions and how everyone needs to go on one!!! Seriously. If anyone ever asks me if they should go, I will tell them yes. Every time. Because there are just so many things to learn on a mission and you can't learn them any other way!!!
Go on missions peeps!! 

Last week we had a testimony meeting at President Wilson's house about handing out books at the Book of Mormon play and it was just so powerful and awesome. At the end, it was about 9:00, so we all kneeled down in the family room of the mission home and had a family prayer together. President Wilson said it and it was just the most powerful prayer ever. He is just such a great mission president. It was so cool to see how much he prayed for us and loves us and how he speaks to Heavenly Father. At the end, we were crying. It just made me think of how much our Heavenly Father loves us and how much he wants us to succeed. 

Things are going so great here! I love Richmond and will be so sad if I have to leave! Transfers are in two weeks, so we'll see. Pray that I stay here!!! 

I'm so grateful for all the love and support, you guys are great! Happy almost Thanksgiving! 

Love you all!

XOXO Sister Fowers

You've seen the play, now read the book!

Well this week has been a little different than most! Some exciting things have been goin down here in RVA. :)

Last Sunday President Wilson had most of the missionaries in the Richmond area meet together to talk about the Book of Mormon play that was coming to Richmond. I had been hearing rumors that is was coming for a few months, but I wasn't sure when so I was so excited that it was coming while I was here!

So, we got to the church and President told us that there was going to be 8 shows over the course of the week and that we were going to be standing outside the theater at every showing handing out copies of the Book of Mormon and talking to people! We were so pumped!! He told us he expected to hand out a few hundred copies of the Book of Mormon and that is was mostly a public affairs deal, more than a proselyting thing. 

As I'm sure you know, this play is definitely not made by the church and is super crude and basically a satire that makes fun of missionaries. Haha so our plan was just to show people what Mormon missionaries are actually like. :) 

Tuesday was the first show and at first we were standing right outside the doors, handing out cards and books..... but then we got kicked off the property hahaha. The cops said we couldn't hand anything out in front of the theater. So! We just went across the street, to the corner next to the theater, and basically every way that people had to walk to get there. So it was no biggie. :) 

Before the play started no one really wanted to talk to us. I think we handed out some cards and a few books, but nothing crazy. A lot of people laughed in our faces, said rude things, yada yada. BUT, after the play was a different story. 

Throughout the week, no one wanted to talk to us before, but after the play ended we were giving out boxes and boxes and boxes of books. IT WAS CRAZY! People would come back and ask for a book and want to take pictures with the elders haha, I've never seen anything like it. 

This is what President Wilson said in his weekly email this week:

"Finally, a marvelous work and a wonder were done in connection with the play The Book of Mormon. We distributed approximately 2,000 copies of the Book of Mormon to theater goers. The missionaries that helped with this service represented us all very well. People thought our missionaries were cast members. They wanted to take pictures with them. Our missionaries were great in being friendly about the gospel and inviting people to learn more."

2,000 copies of the Book of Mormon! It was crazy. We handed out pretty much every Book of Mormon in the mission, and we even had to go get some boxes from the D.C. South mission, and we still ran out. 

Elder Collie, an elder in our ward even got interviewed on the news for it. I think you could find it online somewhere haha. It was just crazy.
 It was cool to be a part of it and give people a chance to see what the Book of Mormon actually is, and testify to them in just a few short seconds that we knew it was true and would change their life. :) One of the prophets said that the Book of Mormon will flood the earth, and it is! 

Other than that, we've just been busy trying to find new people to teach! It's hard to kind of just start over fresh with investigators, but I know there are

more people here who are ready! We just need to find them. :) 

Not much else is new! Last Sunday we watched the CES devotional and it was in the Odgen tabernacle and that was crazy to see! I saw some people in the audience that I knew. 

I hope all is going great at home! Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love you!

XOXO Sister Fowers