Hunter Week 14: Contacting in the Snow

Good Morning! It’s been a very snowy week here in Utah! We probably got 3 or 4 snow storms in one week! So we have been shoveling a lot of driveways as service for people! Elder Heeding is doing great and we are getting along! He is a very hard worker, and is an awesome companion to have! Monday we did a little service for a member to help move some stuff, and then we went tracking in some apartments in our area which was fun and got one return appointment. Tuesday we went contacting and went by a couple of our bishops and ward mission leaders to introduce Elder Heeding to them! We had one lesson as well with Braxton, our recent convert, and did one of the new member lessons.

Wednesday we did a service project for Brother Gomez in helping out in a Spanish cultural event that will be in the Conference Center downtown. We just put costumes in protective bags so that they are ready to be transported down there. So that was a lot of fun to see all the cool costumes. We did a companionship study with our Zone Leaders, Adamo, and Crowther, which was great! We had both lessons we had set cancel on us, so we did a lot of finding in the evening. Thursday we had our Zone Conference which was great! We talked about the commandments and the white handbook. It was awesome! We met with our new investigator, Chris Rzepkowski, and taught him the Restoration. He is the son of our recent convert, Rebecca, and he is 11 and wants to be baptized as well! Then we went out contacting after our lesson.

Friday we had our District Meeting which was great! It snowed very hard that day so after we did some weekly planning we went out and just shoveled people’s driveways from about 2 to 5. Then we met with our other new investigator, Aymen and taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His cousins weren’t there so we will have to get them up to speed. Then we went out contacting. We found two new investigators. First Demetra, a black lady with a couple of kids. Then we found Willie who is from Tennessee and has a pretty deep southern accent! Haha! So we will be meeting with both of them this coming week! Saturday was an all contacting day! Went by a couple list of names we had form wards and knocked out most of them. Sadly not that many were interested but now we narrowed it down to about 2 or 3 families we are trying to teach now.

Sunday was church and sadly not that many people came to church this week! So we are going to share a scripture from Moroni about church to all our people and invite them all again to go to church. So, hopefully we can get some more folks coming. Then all of our set lessons fell through we had for the day. So we contacted a few people, and got one return appointment. So that was good! But ya, my week was awesome, and we are going to have a lot of people on date for baptism soon! Our goal is 14 for this week so we are praying that the Lord will help us as we go out this week and invite people. I hope everyone has a great week! Love y’all!

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

Hunter Week 13: Chicken Feet

Good Morning everyone! It’s a cold snowy morning here in Utah today! I hope everyone had a great week! It’s been a wonderful start to the transfers here! On Tuesday we went to the Mission Office to met Elder Heeding. We had to do some introduction stuff and some basic training. Afterwards we had lunch together with all the trainers and greenies which was nice! Then we went back to our place and got everything unpacked. It was a little crazy with three of us so Elder Heeding had to sleep on the couch! Later that evening we had a lesson with Braxton, our recent convert, and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to him. Elder Heeding did a great job at teaching! Our lesson at 8 canceled, so we mainly contacted the rest of the evening.

Wednesday we went contacting in the afternoon. And went by most of our potentials but not much luck since most people were at work. We were supposed to go out with a Ward Mission Leader but he canceled so we mostly contacted folks all day long.  Thursday we had weekly planning which went great, and we talked about all the people we are working with and set goals for the area and us as a companionship.  We taught Rebecca the last recent convert lesson. However now we are going to teach her son, Chris, who is 11 because now he wants to be baptized as well so we will still be seeing them. We taught a new investigator, Don Peck. He is a golden investigator! He asked us how he can be baptized! Haha! So we are going to start teaching him next week and set him on date ASAP.

Friday we had Heeding’s first District Meeting which went great! Then we went out contacting in the afternoon.  In the evening we met with Aymen and is cousins, Wor and James. We taught the plan of salvation, and they knew their stuff and asked lots of questions. We also set them on date for baptism in March! So it’s going well with them!

Saturday was the big day for Elder Denkers! We ate lunch at In-N-Out his favorite restaurant with our District Leader. Then we went to the Mission Office and helped him get rid of some stuff since his suitcase was too heavy. haha. After that they drove him down and dropped him off for his over 15 hour flight! So it was great to see him head to the Philippines, but I’m going to miss him for sure!  Later that evening we met with Jeremiah and set him on date as well for March.  So that was great! Sunday we had church and then a correlation meeting at 3. Then we went contacting in the evening and found a new family to work with the Owens. So it was a really good night!

Hope all y’all had a good week! Thanks for the love and support! Love y’all!

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

P.S. I got to eat some chicken feet this week. haha!

Hunter Week 12: Working Hard

Good morning everyone! It’s been a great week here in Utah! It’s been a pretty warm week here. So it’s been nice! As I’m sure all of y’all are curious about what’s happening this transfer I tell you the big news! So, I’m a staying in Hunter East Stake and Hunter Stake. I am going to be training again here! My new companion’s name is Elder Heeding, and he is from Missouri! I’m looking forward to meeting him and helping him start his mission! I am super excited to met him tomorrow! Elder Denkers will be with us till this Saturday and then that afternoon he will board the plan for the Philippines! I am definitely going to miss him, but I know he will do great out there! So we will be a trio for most of this first week. haha!

Besides that, the rest of our week has been wonderful! We have been finishing up the new member lessons with Braxton. And with Wyatt, our new 9 year old investigator, is doing well and we are doing great through the lessons and he will be on date soon! We helped someone move this week! It was our recent convert Linh and we just helped move some heavy stuff out of his apartment which went well! He is going back to California to help his dad. We also are on our last lesson with Rebecca another convert. We have gone on visits a few time this week which went well and we are still trying to find new investigators to add to our teaching pool. Sunday was great! We had church and then a stake correlation in the afternoon. We got some referrals from that which will be great to go and contact later this week.

Other than that this week has been great! Later today we had some members throw Elder Denkers a farewell party/dinner of sorts. Brother Nelson is doing a cookout, and since Elder Denkers will have his birthday in the Philippines they are doing a mini birthday party before he heads out. We are looking forward to that! I hope everyone has a great week! I’ll be sure to take pictures with Elder Heeding so y’all can see his face. I think he is from Potosi, so if anyone knows where that is let me know. haha! I love y’all and stay warm!

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

Hunter Week 11: Open Doors

Good morning everyone! It’s been a great week here in West Valley! We had our interviews with President Palmer, Wednesday, which is always awesome! He told me and Denkers that he is probably going to whitewash our area which means two new elders replace us! However, we will know for sure this Saturday! It’s hard to believe that this transfer is almost over! It goes by too fast sometimes!! Had some exciting news this week! Elder Denkers got his Visa for the Philippines! So he will leave just a few days after the transfer on the 17th! He’s super excited!

Thursday we had a really successful night! We had a lesson, and we had Brother Nelson drive us around and contact some of our referrals. We ended up contacting almost everyone on our list! We got a return appointment for one former Investigator, Aymen! He is a 10 year old black kid, and we set up a lesson with his mom for Friday.

Friday we had our lesson with him and it went great! He currently has his two cousins living with him while they are looking for a home. They happen to not be members. as well! So we taught all three of them. Wor (10) and James (13) are his two cousins’ name. We taught the Restoration, and it went well and we gave them Book of Mormons. We set up the lesson for next week and we are hoping to get some real progress going. The mom is a member btw.

Saturday we started the new member lessons with Ray, our recent convert, which went very well! We watched the Restoration movie thing and we discussed it with him and it went very well! Then we met with Braxton, another recent convert, and taught the Plan of Salvation. Both of them are doing well!  We also taught an investigator named Jeremiah who is 10. We taught the Plan of Salvation which went well and they said they would be at church!

Sunday, we had Church and Jeremiah and his little sister were dropped off by their dad to church. Their dad is less active, but he wants them to get involved in the Church. The rest of our day went great and we met with Brother Nelson later that day which went good. I hope everyone’s week went great! I love y’all!

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