Hermana Bowers- Peru Lima North Mission: June 2015

Monday, June 22, 2015

Happy Father's Day!

Today at 7:33 AM

Last Temple trip of the Mission

This week was awesome, and one that I will never forget. Thursday we were able to take a trip to the temple,

but personally, and it was a super spiritual experience. As we were finishing and leaving the last room, I just
couldn't help but look around in awe. The Peru Lima temple is so beautiful, and it was my last time for a good
long while to go inside. It was a bitter sweet moment but I really felt the love of my Heavenly Father there and
was able to get some personal revelation that I was needing.

Sunday was a very special day for all of Peru here, because it received its second working temple in Trujillo.
The stake centers were converted into mini temples and nobody could enter without their recommend to the
dedication. Inside, the dedication was transmitted and we were able to hear from Elder Bednar, Uctdorf, and
the area presidency (Wadell, Uceda, y Godoy {the three of which I was able to meet personally here in the
mission!!]) and from other leaders. The spirit was soooo strong and it was the first dedication of a temple that I
could attend in a long time, so I just drank it all in. At the end of the dedication we all stood up and began to sing
a well known hymn "like a fire is burning" or in Spanish "tal como un fuego (el espiritu de dios)". As we were
singing and rejoicing I just had a really cool moment in which I was thinking of my circumstances where I was,
who I was with, and with in what language we were singing- and how i never thought in my life before that i
would be in these circumstances, and i was just overwhelmed with such a sense of gratitude for God and what he
has given me. Uctdorf talked about how this Sunday was fathers day, and how we were celebrating with giving a
gift to our Heavenly father with the new temple and how we should always live our lives with a an active temple
recommend.

Later in the night we had a missionary fun fireside in which we talked about ordinances and covenants and
how we can live our lives in a way that we can return back to our heavenly father. But not just us, but as
families. And I´m just so grateful for my family, and especially this week for my father Terry Bowers.

He started a tradition with my other siblings, he wrote a postcard each and everyday and mailed it to them.
And he continued this tradition with me. To the envy of all the other missionaries in the mission I received

postcards pretty much every week (except when there was a mail strike here in Peru. )I appreciate his full
support and love. His daily mundane information that helped me feel like I was there and still connected to
my family. The sacrifices that my father has made for me, really can not be expressed, but his love is this
simple but momentousness act of daily thought and love really has helped me in my mission and helped me
know that I not only have support from God, but from my parents as well. And for that I couldn't be more grateful. In this week I hope that we can continue with the spirit of Fathers day
from Sunday but also all the week all the year have this love and appreciation for our fathers and our parents.

I hope all is going well, and well we will see each other soon!

Hermana Bowers

Could it be a Cucaracha?

Well this days marks my 17 month mark here in the mission, and thus the beginning of the end, or the beginning of my last month in the mission. This week was full full full! The last p-day we had we went to Plaza Norte, close to my first area in the mission, and went piddling around buying doodads, and taking pictures with some famous locals that were visiting. We were able to buy food and get prepared for the week. This week we had the opportunity to go to the different zones during their zone meeting to be able to present my new companion, get the new missionaries excited about Historia Familiar and remind them about the program that we have to be able to help their recent converts and rescued members to go to the temple! It’s always an exhausting day using the public transportation here in San Juan to get around town, but we survived! Wednesday we did divisions, permitting my companion help out in a wedding of a family in San Carlos that got married so they could be baptized. She was a witness to the event, she got to sign the official documents saying that the event took place and it was an awesome experience, because this was the first family that she has ever married in the mission! Wednesday in the night was a rush to get everything in place, calling the converts-printing names- trying to find numeros de cedula to get their account working, to go to the temple Thursday.

It was our first trip to the temple this transfer, and boy was it a fiasco. There was a problem and the bus and the priesthood team that were going to help us with the work in the temple… never came. We found this out while we were waiting outside the chapel with our converts at 6 in the morning. So after some tense moments of stress, desperation and fervent prayer we found a solution and made our own way to the temple via train. With some miracles we got there, the temple let us in, the temple workers helped us out and the converts that came were able to enter and do baptism for the dead. We owe a great deal to an awesome convert, Miguel, who helped guide us through the train system and what buses to take, because neither my companion nor I knew how to get to the temple from where we were at. I can say with all certainty that Hermano Miguel was an answer to our desperate prayers that morning.

Friday was a dreary drizzly day, buy nothing that a Peruvian churro can´t fix (the best churros in THE WORLD), and these churros got us through the panic of trying to find keys to the chapel and the family history center. We were informed the morning of that the stake center had gone under a type of bug bomb treatment and that nobody could enter until the afternoon. So we frantically try to call everyone to tell them that were not going to be able to be there. But as we pass by to pick up keys from a nearby house, we see people inside! We ring the doorbell and a custodian comes and lets us in. We ask about the bug bombing and he replies "What bug bombing?". So it was all a big rumor, and we had to cancel everything for nothing. We were realy frustrated and tired of running around to try and find keys for the stake center, however the day ended well with a big group of converts that came to learn about thier Family History and find some names. We have a big list to go to the temple this 02 de Julio and were still 3 weeks out! I hope we can bring a huge group this next time.

This week, we also had an adventure with hot chocolate. My companion brought the swiss miss hot chocolate packets and was pouring my hot water for me, but while she was pouring i noticed something black escape from the pitcher into my glass. By now with the chocolate powered, the water was opaque and so I couldn't see if it was my imagination or not, and with my spoon i was trying to frantically stir and find the object. I couldn't, my companion doubted if i saw anything in the first place, so I started to drink with trepidation. about halfway through the glass, i found it... and it wasn't a cucaracha like I feared, but was just a harmless over-sized raisin that was there. So it was mystery solved, i finished my glass, and my companion and I had a good laugh.

I´m excited to see you all soon and hope that you all stay safe!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Bowers