MTC!

Why hello friends and family,

This is my last week at the MTC, and last week has been awesome. So for a start I had to go to the doctor to get my ingrown toenail removed and got to take a field trip and then we rushed back to make our appointments. My toe is fine and healing well.

So our teachers pose as investigators and we teach them to help us and give us feed back so we had been teaching a fake investigator named "Jordan" and we had to teach her in the morning because she was leaving town but that night our other teacher said change of plans she has left but drop by and follow up on commitments, check up and say hi so we knock and her "boyfriend" answers the door and all I had was a pamphlet in my hand and no lesson plan lol so we taught him about prayer.  The next day we had another lesson with him and the spirit was in that room and it filled my chest and when I opened my mouth the words that came from me were not my own thoughts it was the spirit and he felt it and we committed him to read pray go to church and be baptized. 

My District

This weeks lesson I've learned is always strive to have the spirit in your life always ask God for what you need or want always be specific in your prayers and you will receive specific answers.  Also we sang hymn number two the Spirit of God "the spirit of god like a fire is burning" this statement is so true my teacher told us the spirit we had during our pi was real and the feeling I had was literally a fire burning in my chest then we sang this the next day. But any way we have this building where we do what we call TRCs and there are People who either are referred or could be inactive or members but we teach them lessons and sometimes you don't know if they are real or fake.  So anyway you get 4 lessons with them and we got new ones yesterday and one of them was this older lady from the south and her mom her sister and daughter all became converts.  She started telling us her story how her mom, daughter, brothers, and sisters died in her life time and the spirit kept prompting me to say something about eternal families and so when she had a break I said have you ever heard that families can be together forever and she started to cry and said no but you have no idea that is what I needed to hear and we talked about the plan of salvation, the priesthood, the Book of Mormon, prayer, and baptism.  She broke in to tears and shouted yes she would love to be baptized and that she knew what we were telling her was true she said she felt the spirit burning in here and I testify that the spirit was heavy in that room and the words I spoke were not from me. we ended up going way over and she wanted to talk more and she was so excited to read the scriptures she asked where she could get one and we offered her one but she said she would go down to the MTC store to buy here own and then later that day in class one of my teachers who I was sharing this experience with said wow did you know she is an actual investigator and I said no.  Also when you commit people to baptism you have to tell the office so they can put them with local missionaries who can do the baptisms and things and we were the first ones to report that for her and she's been doing these appointments for awhile. She had told us why she didn't join with her family and she was very bitter due to life's events and people but because we listened to the spirit we were able to reach her needs to help her grow closer to Christ. I testify to you that god knows us better than our selves and knows what we need to succeed and if we listen to the spirit we can grow immensely and become the best that we can be.  Also remember that through helping others and turning outward and to Christ we start to see the change in ourselves. I challenge all of you this week to seek out the spirit to pray and read with full intent to act on those promptings and answers and never ignore them and to also serve someone this week even if its giving someone a call who might need it you never know how a simple hello or how are you doing can change someone's life or day and always allow your self to be a tool in hands of the Lord because he works through people and you could be the answer to someone's prayer. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         love, Your Elder Bowles 

P.S. So I've been doing choir here at the MTC and tonight at the devotional we sing with Lexi Walker and rumor is there is supposed to be a general authority tonight as well!

Pictures from my week

My District

Elder Bowles and Elder Ford

Pday!!! Emails from Home

Help

"I will carry you Brother"

Sister Tenny one of my Trainers and Teachers

She is from Arizona and knows my Brother Spencer when

He served his mission there.  Now she knows both Elder Bowles'

1st PDay(Preparation Day) and Pictures

Ok so I think my whole family and Chelsea Jones are just a little crazy being that today was Elder Bowles'  1st Pday were he can email us, we were all glued to our devices or computer hitting refresh every couple of minuets (okay every 30 seconds) to see if an email had come through.  When it did it was well worth the wait!  Below is his email and a few of the pictures he sent. 


Why HELLO!!!!!! family and friends,                                                             

So first off  I'll start with my first few days here have been amazing I love the MTC.(Missionary Training Center) So to start off my comps. name is Elder Ford he's from east Tennessee he's super awesome he is 22. lol

The other two elders in my district are Elder Johnson (from Arizona) and Elder Landon (Shelly, Idaho). The Elder in front is Elder Schmit who is in my branch.

I have an awesome district the sisters are great we all spend alot of time together couped up in a class room so we know each other very well there is 8 in our district and 3 districts in my zone/ branch. so the food is not bad lol I hate days where all the choices have some sort of tomato sauce.

So on to my week. Well I've had an awesome time and experiences here. So to start I got assigned sacrament coordinator and I just have to prep and then assign 4 people to bless and pass. I had such a fun week.

So in learning things I really dont know as much as I thought I did but I have learned and grown so much in my testimony, my knowledge, faith, and spiritually. We got to start teaching our teacher in a role play investigator and that was really scary. But after learning each day and applying that and listening to the spirit our lessons have gotten better I've been blessed with awesome teachers. So 3/11 was my hardest day but it wasnt a bad day it was a powerful day. Ether 12:27 reads "and if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto to men weakness that they might be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me,  and have faith in me, then will i make weak things become strong unto them before me." this means that if we are prideful and come unto him he will humble us only to strengthen us. and remeber there are two kinds of pride one is you hold yourself above others and the other pride is holding yourself to a lower standard so in my instance this week we were working on teaching a simplified version of the doctrine of Christ and I was really struggling and he kept making it harder and harder and I got to the point where I was feeling inadequate as a missionary I couldn't teach the most important lesson I felt like everyone around me had a handle on it and because I lacked some scripture knowledge I was struggling and I had a brake down in class I legit cried as the teachers was trying to help me I was able to settle down and he helped me write a summary to study and took extra time out of class to bring me to the point that everyone else was at and as I pondered prayed and read scriptures that day I came to this scripture. I no longer felt lost or behind I was humbled and strengthened through the lord and I know that if we put our full faith and trust in the lord he will qualify us and bless us in many ways. Sunday was my next best experience having all day church but no class was nice but it was so spiritually uplifting I did choir that evening and we had an amazing devotional then we watched this movie called character of Christ by David A. Bednar and it truly changed my life and grew my testimony I really wish you guys could here it but its only for the MTC. I will share some things I can remember best, he talked about how we need to turn outward and to Christ and to others and he shared an example and story of a mother who lost her only daughter in an accident but the first thing she did was making sure the other parents of the kids in the car were notified before she even worried about her dead daughter and then also she asked Bednar if he wanted to see the body after it had been preped so his last image of her was her disfigured body and then on the day of her funeral a sister called and complained she was sick and didnt get food brought to her so on the way to her daughters funeral she took her dinner that she had preped....... we all need to be a lil more like this sister when we are selfless and give unto others will we find true happiness and divine faith and glory.  I love you all and hope your having a wonderful week miss you all and can't wait to here more from you.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Your dearest, Elder Bowles.

Leaving the Nest

This last week was a whirl wind of activity as we finished up all the last minute Stuff before Elder Xander Bowles left for 2 years.  Thursday March 2nd started this crazy cyclone as we went to The Portland, OR Temple.

 Monday and Tuesday where full of sorting packing and making sure he had everything that he needed.

 Tuesday night he was set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Wednesday He flew out at 6am to the MTC(Missionary Training Center).  He will be there for 3 weeks as he learns and prepares to introduce and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of the Colorado, Colorado Springs Mission. 
           I thought that it would be easier to see him go since I had been through this once before with his older brother, I was prepared for this....  No I definitely was not!  As he packed my eyes kept leaking.  When he was set apart as a missionary they continued to leak.  At the airport I couldn't contain my tears of Joy, love, and heartache.  It really hit when I walked into the house and all was quiet.  Elder Bowles has this exuberance and energy that surrounds him.  When he comes through the door he bounds in with a greeting you could probably relate to like Tigger from whinnie the Pooh.  I will miss him always telling me to be positive and his perspective on The Gospel. 

We were so grateful to all the friends and family that came to the airport to wish him well on his Journey including a skype call with his best friend. 

We were grateful for his Grandparents and Cousin that were able to Pick him up from the airport that gave him a familiar face to help him complete his journey to the MTC.

As Parents we raise our children to be responsible independent adults,  we pray for them, guide them and love them.  When it is time for them to leave the nest we couldn't be more proud, but the heart still hurts even if you know that they will be watched over and that they doing the things they were destined to do.  There is a void that will be there till they come home again.  Even though I know that life will never be the same again even when he comes home, my joy will be complete as I see the Man he has turned into and not the boy that I sent out.  These times make being a mom so worth it as you see your children soar, fall, and learn to pick themselves up and soar again. 

He sent us a quick email Wednesday afternoon saying that he made it to the MTC and that his Pdays(preparation day)  will be on Tuesdays.  Tuesday can not get here fast enough.   I look forward to sharing his Journey and  adventures with you all over the next 2 years.

Redheadedmama