WEEK 14 Nov 30, 2015 Thanksgiving, Splits, and Mathew 10:16

Another great one! So this week I got to go on splits with Elder Reynolds! He is from New Zealand! We went into my area so that means I got to lead the way! We had some great lessons but teaching Herimael is always my favorite. He is a champ. The next day Elder Schroedter and I went to pick up Elder Bassett! He is going up to ‘fort d’ but his flight wasn’t until Friday. The cool thing is that Elder Bassett and Elder Schroedter were best friends before the mission! Crazy how that worked out! Super fun going on splits though.

Rest of the week was great, teaching members and less actives. So this Sunday guess who showed up to church? Herimael! we were waiting for forever at this bus stop and then we got a call from the other elders that there are two new investigators they didn’t recognize. We went to church to find out it was him with his wife! Even with his walking disability he made it to church. Really, really awesome guy.

We did celebrate thanksgiving... haha not like the feast from home but it was awesome. Mashed potatoes, some gravy, corn, and a delicious boiled chicken haha.

    So scripture of the transfer is Mathew 10:16. Elder Schroedter showed it to me and I love it. We decided it is about missionaries! "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

Well another great p day! We got suits made and we just have to wait a little bit to pick them up! Went to the queens’ palace today but had a little trouble trying to get in so we just walked around and took pictures haha. All healthy now by the way, no longer sick! Loving it here in Madagascar!

Elder Bowen

Missionaries from Tomatave are here

Transfers (Elder Bowen...bottom right)

WEEK 13 Nov 23, 2015 Teaching Investigators to ENDURE

   Another Great One! My companion finally got better and we got back to our regular teaching schedule! We continued to teach Herimael, one of our bomb investigators. He says he loves to learn and the gospel really just makes sense. The last time we were teaching him his family came in and sat in on our lessons. When we were done we invited them to church and they said they all wanted to go! Yes! Best investigator!

     So yes, it finally happened and I got a little bit sick on Thursday so our schedule fell a little. But, it picked back up on Sunday and we had 8 straight lessons after church yesterday! It was great! 

   To answer questions on studying, we study anything personal for an hour. I study in English, as does my companion. Then we have a companion and language study which is us practicing lessons, talking about lessons, talking about the language, etc. There are many things members struggle with here including smoking, drinking, and not married people having kids. There are some really dependable people and some that are really not dependable..which really stinks because some people live so far and we walk everywhere.  

     So this week we focused a lot on enduring to the end. We go and we ask people, what is enduring to the end? And they usually say well being good and following the commandments. Correct! What else? Haha and that's where we start teaching. It's more than just keeping the commandments and avoiding temptation. Its continually strengthening our faith and trying to become more Christlike. no one is ever done enduring to the end. Why do we endure to the end? To get eternal life and eternal happiness! Easy as that! 

  A few other things, they don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here.  Cinnamon bears from Rocky Mountain are something I miss and working there..but still love it here. We've had fun playing soccer for p-days. I'll try and send videos but it depends on the cyber.

Well I still love it here. Great week ahead! 

Elder Bowen

WEEK 12 Nov 16, 2015 Stealing Keys, Birthdays, Spiders, and 5 Gospel Principles

Another great week! This week started out slow because my comp has been sick. We got to go out some days and not on others. Investigators are still freakin great. Herimael is just awesome. He loves to learn and says this gospel really makes sense. Mazava be!  We did have a fun time running into a drunk guy. He invited us into his house to teach him and we went in and very soon found out he wasn’t all there... he was rambling on about something and then he turned to me and accused me of stealing his keys! After checking his pockets three times he found them in his pocket haha. Then he got on his knees and begged for forgiveness hahaha. Good time, but he said we could come back and teach his family! So we will try again, next time hopefully to get him sober. He said he wants to learn to stop drinking so we think we can help! That’s about it for lessons this week though. Numbers were a little low due to my companion’s health.

We did have a birthday in our house though... which means flour and eggs which is tradition here! It was elder Tio's birthday and we surprised him in the morning with some eggs on his head and flour in his face! Super awesome! Things are going great although it would be nice to have some chicken noodle soup or something like that.

I am still in the same house and there are these freakin spiders! So we had this big one out our window and I sprayed with bug spray to see what would happen.  So it feel down and one of the elders from our house went and picked it up and started chasing everyone around with it! We learned that these are poisonous and you get bit and you definitely will get sent home for treatment.  That would be awful!

So the lessons this week were mainly focused on the gospel and the five principles of the gospel. I have learned some people look at them as steps: Get faith, repent, get baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and then endure to the end. But the gospel isn’t a check list. We teach them that we must continue to grow out faith. Faith leads to action and we must act on it to grow our faith. Repentance is a continual everyday thing. No one is perfect and everyone makes at least one mistake a day. Then, there is repentance. People think it’s a onetime thing but that covenant gets renewed every Sunday with the sacrament. Receiving the Holy Ghost and keeping it with you! We must continue to invite the spirit so that it can dwell within us, then endure to the end. Doing all the things listed above can strengthen our testimony and bring us happiness. The gospel is so simple and it was made that way so that everyone can understand, even me! Well the people here in Madagascar are amazing! Really do love them! And still healthy so I’m counting my blessings!

Elder Bowen