Hi everyone, this last week has been amazing!! I'm finally out of the Missionary Training Center, and it's been awesome! On the Fourth of
July our district was all crying because we were going our different ways. It was great though, and I'll definitely miss them. But ya, on the 5th of July, Elder Quinnelly, Maltos and I had to take the train up to Murrey where we would meet our Mission President. It didn't take long to get there and when we got off he was there waiting for us. He's a great guy and he took us over to the Mission Office which was in a stake center in West Valley City, Utah. I had to split from Elder Quinnelly which was sad. My new companion is Elder Dunham from Atlanta, Georgia. He's a pretty cool guy, and we had matching ties. He's pretty cool. I got to go to Kearns, Utah which is we're I'm assigned now. I serve in the East Kearns Stake which covers the NE parts of Kearns and the south part of West Valley. Our Stake has a Samoan Ward and most of them only speak Samoan, so we have to have a guy to help translate if we teach anyone from that ward. I'm leaning some phrases though like hello and how are you. Also, I get a Samoan name tag which is really cool! I haven't gotten it yet though, but I will! But ya, Kearns is an interesting place so far, and it's been a ton of fun. I've already have had some amazing experiences even though it's my first week!
My first lesson was with a family on the 6th. Her husband is in the military and is currently at Colorado where he's stationed at. He can only come home every now and then so it's difficult from her and her two boys (13 & 9) to come to church. We taught them the Restoration, mainly for the kids, and taught them how to feel and recognize the Holy Ghost. The cool part was that the youngest said he already felt the Spirit when he read his scriptures or when he prayed to God. So after this awesome experience we invited the boy to be baptized on August 27th and he and the mom said yes! I was so happy for them! We might have to move the date so that the father can be there but it's awesome! One of the Bishops, Bishop Jensen, who took us there and helped with the lesson took us to our dinner appointment and we did some tracking on that street because we were a little early.
After that we walked over to our next appointment at the other family. They're a Samoan family from our Samoan ward (they speak English thank goodness) and half of the children have not been baptized because of their father. Their father was an abusive father and just a few weeks ago he literally took everything from their house and put it in their front yard and set it on fire. Their TV, couch, everything. He got sent to jail fortunately, but the family of seven kids doesn’t trust anyone. I showed up at the tail end of this. Now after just two visits with the missionaries they are giving us hugs and having fun with us. We play football with them once a week and it's really amazing to be able to see this wonderful family come from a place so low and to see the joy they have now on their faces. I love it and I am so so thankful to the Lord to be able to be a part of it. It is amazing. We have a baptismal date for all the kids, and the mother is already a member but just hasn't been to church because of her husband. They'll be at church this Sunday and I can't wait to see them there!!
After that we road with Elder Hurtado and his Companion, Elder Soaras, to play soccer at the church in Bountiful. We played soccer with a bunch of Hispanics. It was fun. We got a ride from this Hispanic dude who lifts weights for a living so he was really buff. We got home around 10 and did some planning. On Saturday, we met with the zone leaders, Elder Whitehead and Leavitt, to play football with the Samoan family. Their kids are so cute. This one boy who is 7 or 6 was so into the game and took down his older brothers. It was so funny. He's so cute a serious about the game. We won at the end so that's always good. We are dinner and read 3 Nephi chapter 27 verses 12-20 with them. They loved it. I can't wait for the boys to be baptized!
After dinner we met with the first family I had met and taught the Plan of Salvation and it went really well. Brother Jensen took us to one of the WML, Ward mission leaders, and we introduced ourselves to him. We headed back home after that and this nice old man who was LDS stopped by and gave us a ride back home. We walked over 20,000 steps today so I was so thankful for it. God is truly out there for me. So ya, on Sunday we had Church til like 3 because we went to three wards sacrament meetings, and our appointment afterwards wasn't home so we just contacted some of the part member families and went around the area. It was cool and we met a lot of people. Their were a few weirdos, but we showed God’s love for them, and did our best to teach them. We taught the two Samoan kids Jared and Etti (can't spell there last name) after the Samoan sacrament meeting. They can't speak English so he had Brother Tufele come to translate. We taught them the word of wisdom and law of Chastity and they agreed to follow it which was awesome! They're getting baptized this Saturday and I'm saying the closing prayer at it, and there uncle will baptize them. It'll be awesome!
But ya, my first week here in Kearns is great! I feel the spirit everyday and I just love it out here. Even though it's one of the more run down places the people here are awesome and there are members to help us. Their is actually quite a lot of non members here in Utah usually like Hispanics who are Catholic. It's almost weird not seeing any Baptist churches though. But ya, the weather is great. We just had a cold front come in so its like in the 70's today and tomorrow before it goes back up to the 90's. I hope everyone's week has been awesome and I look forward to emailing everyone next week!
Love you,
Elder Bowie
Kearns East Stake
Salt Lake City West Mission
bowling for P-day
