ON MY WAY TO THE TEMPLE

                                               TEMPLE TRIP

All of us in the waiting room at the temple

Outside the temple 

           We went to the temple this week, and it was a beautiful experience. We brought four investigators with us, and of these four are two families that want to get married to be baptized. The other was our dear sweet Dalila who has a testimony that just can’t be contained so she likes to come with us to other lessons and testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. How awesome is that?! I was able to go inside and do a session with a member that came with us. I'm so grateful for temples, the amazing covenants we can make with our Father, and the work that we can do for others that hadn't had the opportunity to know the gospel during their mortal existence

This week was also the start of teaching an excommunicated bishop in our ward. He has been away from the church for two years and one day we had lunch at his house. We started talking and he said yes that he would accept the discussions again. This week was the first lesson we had with him, and he's been assisting the chapel ever since. Teaching him and seeing him struggle and grow spiritually is one of the most beautiful experiences I've had on my mission.

My beautiful mother was so kind to send my a copy of the book, Jesus the Christ. It was actually kind of a miracle how I got it. We had a work visit this week and we were waiting outside the offices till our companions came so we could swap back. As we were waiting the mail delivery man came to drop a package off. Saturdays are the p-days of the people who work in the office so the whole building was shut down and locked up. The man asked us what he was suppose to do with the package he had to deliver. we kinda shrugged our shoulders, but then saw that the package was indeed intended for none other than Hermana Bowers. We told him that it was actually for me, but I didn't have my I.d. or anything with me. all I had was my badge to say who I was. the mail man hummed and hawed a little but then relented and gave me the package. I had to sign and give the number of a bunch of people but just like that I got my hot little hands on my book and a lovely note from my mother. I've eagerly begun to read Jesus the Christ and makes notes, and I'm really excited to deepen my understanding and relationship with our Savior. Often I think that its just a automatic response, "Yes I know that Jesus loves me and he is our Savoir" but do we really understand that... do we really have a connection with him? Well I'm positively ecstatic to read and learn as much as I can.

Nancy and Jonathan, a family that wants to get married so they can be baptized that came with us to the temple

                                                         Migel and Luz with us on the bus

A typical lunch that I decided to take a quick snap of. it was rice chaufa with fruit and juice. its not a meal here in Peru if you don't have rice

                        Me and Dalila (one of our investigators) on the bus on the way to the temple

My companion and I early in the morning to collect our investigators to go to the temple with us

Happy Birthday America!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

So this week we had interviews with our Mission President again and had our rooms looked over. All Is good on this side of the equator.

One of the families that we have been working with said yes to getting married! The husband was really reluctant, and didn't want anything to do with the word marriage at first. However this last Sunday, we brought a couple to our ward that was recently married (well three years ago) and they bore their testimony about marriage and the importance of the temple. And at the end of the lesson, the husband said yea I can see that you guys are right and I will talk to my wife, or partner, about it. We finally got him to say yes and then he said he just needed to talk to his wife about the date of the wedding. This is super awesome, because its progress and it will also help the sister that we were teaching as well try and take the steps they need to become members.

We also got in contact again with one of our investigators that want to get baptized really bad, but has to find her own room to live in. We lost contact with her after a while because she found work -thanks to a member that offered her a job. BUT.... she ended up loosing the job due to medical problems, so were back to square one with the whole close to baptism sphere, but shes got her animo back again and were working with her to find another job and fortify her testimony to get her through this rough time.

Red ,White, and Blue for the 4th of July

Ahhh and this week I will complete 6 MONTHS! Tomorrow I will be able to say I only have one year left, and then after Wednesday, less than a year!! Crazy stuff! We had missionaries come again from the CCM and it was really interesting to have them ask me all these questions about when you get the hang of the language and how was my first couple of months. It made me ponder because it feels like yesterday that I was in THEIR shoes wandering around Lima with no idea of what I was doing! Funny how the tables turn yea?

Our nails that we did for p day a while back

That is it for this week! Remember the importance of your family home evenings and daily scripture study! With our obedience we can receive all the blessings that the lord wants to give us :)

Hermana Bowers
Reply, Reply All or Forward | More

Service this week as-A TRANSLATOR? yep that is what I did

Picture of some of the youth at a dance festival 

So no changes for me and my companion this transfer. Both Hermana Osinaga and I are still working for the Las Violetas ward! (and I´m really happy for that!!)

The last p-day we did nails with a member in the ward (mirla, the wife of the ward mission leader) and it was super fun! We had Hermana Gledhill with us since her companion wasn't coming to her zone till transfers. We were a trio for the majority of the week and probably had more fun than we should have as a trio.

Also, an awesome experience I had was to work as a translator! yea I was like "wait what, you want me to translate?" but I was at least able to communicate the general and basic idea of both sides so that was really cool to put my bilingualism in action. There is group of EFY kids that have traveled to Peru to see the sights and help build a school. They were going around to the houses of less active youth to invite them to come to a fireside that they were going to have later that day. They didn't have someone to help communicate the message, so our zone leaders called us us and we were able to visits with them. It was awesome to speak some English and see 16/17 year old gringos again. It was a really cool opportunity to translate and see the fruit or put into action the gift of tongues we receive as missionaries.

Its getting colder surely but slowly here in Peru, and today I was finally able to use this big huge jacket I had bought a couple weeks back. While there isn´t much sun hardly ever... I like proselyting better in the winter here in Peru than the summer. 

Happy news for our ward is that there are three women who recently announced that they are pregnant. They roughly all about have the same months, so in the next 4 to 3 months Las Violetas will welcome three precious new souls to the world.

What a marvelous thing it is to participate in the plan of salvation our heavenly father has prepared for us, and be able to come to the earth and have the experiences necessary to develop and grow. Its amazing each time I see a newly born baby, and think not that long ago this amazing spirit had been waiting and waiting to finally have their turn to come to the earth and receive their physical body. I hope that everyone can take a minute and study this plan that God has given to us, and remember our divine potential. remember that we are literally spirit children of God and that he loves us more than we can comprehend.

 
More dance festival pictures
Until next week -Hermana Bowers

Working hard in Peru

Luz and Miguel, the partners that we´re teaching who are preparing to get married, so Luz can be baptized. They finished reading the entire book of Mormon in 2 months! They are some of my favorite people to teach here in Independencia

So here are pictures of some investigators that we´ve been teaching. The woman's name is Luz and the mans name is Miguel. There are a wonderful couple who were teaching, and they´re getting prepared to be married in September! After that Luz can be baptized, and then they´ll start working to go to the temple. They had a chart where every chapter you read in the book of Mormon you can fill in a box. They finished the whole book of Mormon in 2 months!!! how awesome is that?!?!

This week was awesome because we got to visit a dance festival that the primary kids preformed and obtain some references. Also we started teaching this family that has tons and tons of questions about the gospel, and have a strong desire to be baptized (they have to get married first, but were getting there). We just taught them about Joseph Smith and gave them a book of Mormon last night. They have a really catholic background so were going principle by principle and explaining how baptism for small children isn't necessary and how we should pray to saints. Their neighbor also was in the lesson with us, and had tons of questions, and said that she wants us to talk to her husband as well. We super excited to see how they grow these next upcoming weeks!

Also, Dalila, our little miracle door contact got a job offer and a room to live in, thanks to some neighbors in the ward. Today she was suppose to start her work, and in a week move into the room with the member. Its in her hands now, but i hope she went and that she finally distance herself from the relationship she was in to start again and be baptized.


Well see how things go, and hope everyone has a fantastic 4th of July! (Independence day in Peru is the 28th of July so I hope well see some fireworks or something later on in the month).

                                                                                      Me with Luz and Miguel