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.