Hunter Week 10: Like a Rough Stone Rolling

Good morning everyone! I hope your week has been great! It’s been another wonderful week here in West Valley! We have been going out on visits with some of our ward mission leaders. Monday we went out after pday with our new one, Brother Nelson, and that went great and we set up a return appointment with a Hispanic family that invited us back so that was awesome! Tuesday we met with Ray for his last lesson before his baptism Saturday! It went really well, and we finished up the commandments with him. We also set up a time for his interview as well as the program.

Probably the best part about Tuesday is that we got a car from our AP’s! Apparently, their car was in the shop during transfers, and so they had a spare and gave it to us! It has been a huge blessings! We are so glad to have it!! Then we also had a new investigator lesson with Oscar with our ward mission leader as well! We met at the Church building and had a great lesson with him! He had those typical golden questions about: How he could improve his life with his family? How can learning about Christ help me? I just want to be happy with my family? We were able to talk to him about that and did our first lesson, the Restoration, with him and it went great! So, we are super excited to start working with him! Wednesday we had two visits set up in the evening. The first one was with the 5th Ward. We met up with the Ward mission leader and went out and visited people with not too much luck. So we set up a time next week to have a correlation with him and the ward missionaries. Then we went out with the 11th Ward and that went well. We contacted the few names we had and had a great time.

Thursday we had our interview with Ray which he passed! So that was awesome and we just confirmed some things for the baptism. Then in the evening we met with Rebecca, our recent convert, and did one of the new member lessons which went great! Friday we had our district meeting which went great as usual. Then we helped out a little in a service project afterwards helping this member family with their flooring which was good. Our lesson at 4 canceled sadly. Then nothing too successful happened in the evening. Saturday was a great day! We had Ray’s baptism at 12 which went great! The Spirit was very strong, and it awesome to see him get dunked! Then in the afternoon we contacted a few names that we had a lot of success! We contacted everyone on the list. We may have a potential new investigator from that as well! Her name is Maria Soto. She is Catholic and lives with her son who is a member. She doesn’t want to abandoned her traditions and cultures, but she felt like us coming over and visiting for a minute was a sign from God that she needed to met with us. So we are going to start teaching her this week! Super excited about that!

We had Stake Conference in the East Stake in the evening which was great! Then Sunday we had the rest of it. We had to leave early to get to Ray’s ward for the confirmation! That went really well, and President Palmer came as well which was awesome! So, now he is officially a member of the church! So, this week went by pretty quick, and I hope all y’all’s week have been wonderful! Thanks for all the love and support! Love y’all!

Elder Bowie
Hunter & Hunter East Stake
Salt Lake City West Mission

Hunter Week 9: Its Snowing!

Good morning everyone! It’s been a great week here in West Valley! It was a little slow this week mainly because my companion, Elder Denkers, got down with the flu a little bit. However, we had a great week! Tuesday we had our Zone Conference. It was awesome to hear from all the speakers and to learn things to apply to our area. Of course, it was great to hear from our mission President!  Wednesday is when Elder Denkers got sick really bad. I had a little bit of it as well, but he was sick as a dog all day long. So, that was really slow, and we had to cancel our lessons. We have a lot of great concerned members that came by and gave us drinks and and chicken noodle soup!

Thursday he was still a little sick but we did go to our lessons. We taught Rebecca, one of our recent converts, one of the new member lessons. Friday we had District Meeting which went well! Our lessons canceled on us Friday sadly so we didn’t get too much done. Saturday we met with Rey one of our investigators which went pretty good. He is set on baptism for next Saturday, so we are excited for that! We will met with him next week to start planning it with the ward. Speaking of baptism, we went to one as well Saturday. It was someone in the Samoan area that me and Elder Miller found and started teaching. It was awesome to see her get baptized! She was an 11 year old that had less active parents coming back to church. So that was great to see that happen!

Sunday we had Church, of course! We had a stake correlation in the Hunter Stake which went well! We talked about how the members can be more on board with missionary work which went good! We are also setting up visits with different ward mission leaders to go out and find some new people to teach! So that went great! After the correlation we went out with Brother Roos, one of our WML’s. We went out contacting and we found Oscar who was a referral we had. We found him home and we set up a time for us to come back and start teaching him! So that was fantastic! But ya, our week went great and of course we got a great snow storm Saturday which was wonderful! Feel’s like winter here finally! Hope all y’all had a great week as well! Thanks again for the love and support!

Elder Bowie 
Hunter and Hunter East Stake 
Salt Lake City West Mission

Hunter Week 8: The Lord's Work

It’s been a great and pretty warm week here in West Valley! We had a lot of great experiences this week! Monday we had our lesson for that evening after P-Day fall through. So, we went contacting with our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Gomez! He is a great guy! So we went contacting to some referrals we had but not much success came from it sadly. Tuesday we had a pretty similar day. We were going to met with Braxton the 10 year old that we baptized last transfer to do one of the Recent Convert lessons, but it fell through. We happen to be with Brother Gomez and he was free as well and we did the same thing as the night before and contacted names this time with great success! We contacted most of the names. Not everyone accepted us, but we got them checked off the list and had something to report to the Wards. We did get a few lessons set up which is always great as a missionary.

Wednesday was a good day. We had one lesson set up last night for today but it fell through (surprise, surprise) but we set up a correlation meeting with one of our wards in the Hunter Stake which went awesome! We had most of the ward council there and we talked about the people we were working with or trying to. haha. We talked and we got referrals for 4 family with people that are not baptized for us to go and contact in that ward which is great! So we are currently working on contacting those names. Thursday we had our weekly planning day for the afternoon where we plan out what we are going to do next week. In the evening we taught Rebecca who we baptized at the end of last transfer the recent convert lesson. It went very well and she is doing very well and is on track on getting sealed with her husband in the temple.

Friday we had District Meeting which was great. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and working with members. We had lunch and watched President Monson’s funeral at one of the senior couple’s house. It was really awesome to watch it and see the funeral. I am definitely going to miss him! Later we met with one of our investigators and we had a great lesson and we taught the Plan of Salvation which went well. They had a lot of good questions & are still coming to church. Saturday we went downtown with one of our investigators, Rey, to the Church History Museum for him to see about the Prophet Joseph Smith  and learn about the history of the Church. It was really awesome and their video about the first vision is the best part! It was really good for him! Plus it’s always fun to go downtown. We did this in the afternoon and then afterwards we had dinner. Later that evening we did our weekly progress reports and emailed them out to the Ward mission leaders in our area.

Sunday we had church, of course. Brother Gomez, our ward mission leader, got released so we went to his ward to see that and talk to our new WML Brother Nelson. We watched the YSA devo broadcast as well which was great, and it was a lot of fun to listen to that! It’s been a pretty good week and I hope everyone is staying warm back home! I’ve been pretty blessed here with warm weather for the most part. Love y’all, and I hope you have a great day!

Elder Bowie 
Hunter and Hunter East Stake 
Salt Lake City West Mission

Hunter Week 7: Gospel Fire

Good Morning, everyone! This past week has been awesome out here in West Valley! We had transfers happen, and now I am with Elder Denkers! He is from Anaheim, California and has been out for 3 months! He is a visa waiter for the Philippines and is a great guy! He definitely has that Greenie Fire with him! Haha! We have been doing great this week! We have been meeting all of the leadership in our area and have been discussing the work in each of our 11 wards which has been going great!

Since we had a lot of baptism last transfer, with Elder Gee, we are doing a lot of the new member lessons, and we are now trying to find new people. We found a new family this week and are now working with the two family members. So, that is where we are at in this area. We still have a couple of investigators, but we just keep looking for new people.

I had the cool opportunity to go to a baptism in my last area (the Samoan area). There was an 8 and a 9 year old that Elder Miller and I found and taught. Their baptism was pushed back because of Christmas. So, it was super awesome to be there and to see them again! I got to do the Restoration presentation there which was great with another Elder. Our Mission President, President Palmer, was also there which was great!

So ya, my week has been great! I am looking forward to this transfer and working in this area! I hope everyone else had a great week! Thanks for all the love and support!

Elder Bowie
Hunter & Hunter East Stakes
Salt Lake City West Mission

Hunter Weeks 5 and 6: Christmas and Now Transfers!!

Good mornin’ everyone! Sorry about not sending an email out last week! But, Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is had a great Christmas! This week has been amazing! We have been having a great past couple of days here in  West Valley! Friday we had our district meeting which was great! Afterwards, I burned my pair of pants for the big 18th month mark! We burned them at our ward mission leaders house, and it was a lot of fun! We went out to Costco afterwards for lunch! It’s was a super awesome time! We also did a little correlation meeting with one of stake presidents to set up a monthly correlations with the ward mission leaders so we can get people on the same page. haha!

Saturday, we had an another baptism! It was a 10 year old that we were teaching and had member friends bring him to church! He is a super awesome kid, and it was amazing to see him get baptized! Yesterday we had Church and we went to three ward’s Christmas programs which was great to see! We had lunch with a member afterwards. Then in the evening we had a half pday so we hung out with a member family, the Rogers, and had our Christmas Eve with them! We had nachos and drinks. We read Luke chapter 2 and watched the Church’s nativity videos.

Of course, I had the opportunity to call home today! It was amazing to see them and to talk with them for a little bit! Hard to believe that was my 3rd call home! It’s been a great 18 months! Hard to believe I only have 6 more months left (5 1/2) till I go home! I hope everyone as a great day, and I love all of y'all! Merry Christmas!

Alright, so for this week, we were super busy! We had another baptism this Saturday as well for someone that me and Elder Gee found at the beginning of the transfer and she was super solid! She is a young mom with 2 kids and her husband is less active. However, they both wanted to come to the LDS Church, and so we came into the picture. It was really awesome! The service was great and was simple! It was perfect! Another major thing that happen was that we got our transfer calls! I will be staying here in Hunter, but my companion, Elder Gee, will be leaving to the Jordan North Stake. I am really going to miss him. My new companion is Elder Dankers. He is a visa waiter for the Philippines, and is waiting in our mission. He’s only been out for one transfer, so I will be follow up training him which should be fun! I am excited to have a greenie and for this next transfer!

Hard to believe that it is 2018 now! I hope everyone had a great New Years! I love all y’all! Stay safe!

Elder Bowie 
Hunter & Hunter East Stakes
Salt Lake City West Mission