Transferred!!

Drew's email was almost non-existent this week.  It was a quick, hello, I'm getting transferred to Lufkin, Texas and I love you. :)  Thankfully the Hoggan family, a family in the ward he's been serving in in Frisco, kept me in the loop.  He found out that he was getting transferred on Saturday, he said his goodbye's to the Frisco ward on Sunday and then Monday he had one last fun outing with the Hoggan's for P-day at the local Kohl's.  Not sure if he bought anything or just went for fun, but Sister Hoggan said that he's grown like 2 inches since he's been out on his mission!!  That's a hard one for me to believe, being the short family that we are, and Drew is already so tall to us, but who knows!  I told Sister Hoggan that he's probably just been standing extra tall trying to catch up to Elder Degn. :)

So the Hoggan's put together an awesome traveling care package for Drew and drove him to wherever he needed to go to start his trek to Lufkin.  Apparently Lufkin is about halfway between Dallas and Houston, in the middle of nowhere (seemingly from looking at the map).  A fairly small town, population something like 32,000.  So I'm sure things will be a little different in small town Texas than it was in big city Texas.  But I'm sure Drew will take it all in stride.  He's just that kind of missionary.

Here are some pictures courtesy of the Hoggan's.  I'm sure they've already begun blessing the life of the new missionary that is now companions with Elder Degn.  Thanks so much Hoggan family!!  I hope to meet you face to face some day and give y'all a big hug!

Love,
The Mommy :)

Love that big smile!!

More from Texas this week!

The first picture is of the Texas back alley way. They are in almost every neighborhood. It's weird,  everyone's garages are in the back of the house. I believe the alleys make it so you don't know your neighbors but some people here like them. I guess that makes sense if you don't like your neighbors, haha.  

The second picture is of how flat Texas is. One day when Elder Degn and I were tracting  and we got on top of a small hill and this is what we saw and it was crazy how flat it is. I'm used to it now but when I get up on a hill I'm reminded that there's no mountains. And the third one is of Elder Degn and I standing in front of a corn field. Well I love y'all! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Bowen

 I love the random texts with pictures that I receive from members that are taking care of my missionary!  They took the Elders out for BBQ!

And out to dinner for Elder Degn's Birthday.  Happy Birthday Elder Degn!!

And sent a Happy Father's day text!  I love having my son serve stateside!! Especially in Texas with all those awesome friendly members!! Thanks to all of you out there!! :)

This last week!

This last week was great!

 

Our lesson Tuesday night with the family got rescheduled. Their last name is the Plummer's. They were really busy with their kids and the husband was getting ready to go to New York City for a week long business trip so we are going to meet with them a week from this Tuesday. 

 

But the rest of this week was still good. We met with a less active member on Saturday with his home teacher. He wants to come back to church and he finally came! It was awesome and he invited us over for dinner on Tuesday night. He was so happy at church. He was beaming with a big smile on his face and he came fully dressed in a suit too! It made me happy to see him there. He has some health problems but he still made it for sacrament meeting. He is so fun to go visit. I love his personality. He served in the navy for a while so he has some really fun stories. He has an awesome sense of humor. I'm really excited to have dinner with him.

 

Also we are going to be doing a fireside tonight at the Hoggan's house. It's going to be on choosing a college and having good standards. There's going to be non-members there so we are hoping it will be a good opportunity for young people to realize that we are normal people and feel comfortable talking to us. Elder Degn is going to be speaking about his football experience and choosing a college and end with his testimony of the Savior.

 

Also this week I got an amazing letter from Rebecca which I loved! And a package from the family. Thank you so much for the love and support! I love y'all! I hope everything is going good back home! Love y'all!

 

Your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen

A Family in Frisco!

This is Drew's email from June 10th!

This last week was great. On Tuesday we were finally able to teach a family! The wife wasn't home but her husband was and we taught him the restoration and invited him to read 2 Ne 31. We are going to meet with them again on this Tuesday and the wife should be there. We have been trying to get a appointment set with this family for a long time. They are busy just like everyone but we finally got one set. We are planning on setting a baptismal date with them both on Tuesday. We are very excited about being able to teach them! Its such a blessing! So the story behind how we found them, I was on an exchange so I was in a different area and I was with a different missionary. About a Month or two ago Elder Degn and my District leader went to a members house. It was the Hoggan's who live close to us. And they shared a lesson on prayer and the power of prayer. They then said a prayer with them and asked specifically for the missionaries to be able to find some one to teach. After that they went and they started knocking doors that they felt prompted to knock on. Well they knocked on this family's door and they answered and said "Oh that's weird we were just about to have family prayer. Can you come back on a different day?" So we went back multiple times but we never caught them at a good time and they eventually said well lets set an appointment so we can sit down and visit. So we did and we went back for the appointment with a member who was an acquaintance with them from work. Apparently they had worked together in Michigan before they both moved to Frisco. The husband had to work late that night though and they were going to call us to get a hold of us but they didn't have our number so they couldn't. She apologized that he wasn't there and asked if we could come back in a week. So we did and the husband was home but the wife had a girl scouts meeting and they didn't want to reschedule again because they didn't want us to think that they were dodging us so we met with the husband and had a great visit. And we are going to be going back. I really hope it all works out. They are a great family! So we will see how it all goes tomorrow night.

 

We also are going to start teaching a twelve year old in the ward who hasn't been baptized yet. His mother wants us to come and do the lessons for him. His father isn't a member but he is allowing us to come and teach him even though he doesn't want to be there as we teach him. I hope that we will be able to help bring the spirit into their home and that the father will notice it. We are really excited for the opportunity we have to help this family though. And the mother is amazing. She is so steadfast in getting her family to church each Sunday even under the difficult family circumstances.

 

Well that's all the exciting news from this last week. We are starting to teach more and we love it! I hope everything is going good at home. And I hope everyone has an amazing Father's day! I love ya'll!

 

Your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen 

 

Life in Texas!

Well, this last week was a good one. We had an appointment reschedule for this tuesday and we are excited to meet with them. We did lots of service at the food pantry and we biked many miles. We biked from one corner of our area to the other one to help a family move and then they only needed help with one piece of furniture which wasn't what we were expecting but we helped them out. They weren't at church however, which I was not happy about. They will come to church though because if they don't come soon, we know where they live :) and will go remind them of why it's so important.

 

Its funny that as a missionary you look at church with a completely different perspective. You think of everything people say and ask what an investigator would say, think or feel about it. Also you notice the small things. 

 

On Saturday we knocked in our complex and we met 2 people who we talked to about the restoration and they both are willing to come to church. We are going to follow up with them this weekend and teach them more and get them to church hopefully. The family that we are teaching Tuesday night is going to be great. I'm looking forward to it. The member we are taking with us works with the husband and they are acquaintances and they are planning on getting their families together. They pretty much kicked it off last Tuesday when they rescheduled. They tried to call us ahead but they didn't have our number so they even went to the church to see if they could find it there. So it makes me feel ok about them rescheduling because I feel like they really wanted to meet with us. As we were tracking on Saturday we got shooed when a man said "no no go go" as he waved his hands but we also meet a really nice man who asked us sincere questions. He was really nice. That's one thing that is really nice about Texas you run into a few rude people but you run into so many more nice people.

 

This week Elder Degn and I got to help give a priesthood blessing to the Hoggan family's grandmother who was feeling sick. We also consecrated oil. It is such a blessing to have the opportunity to exercise the priesthood. It is always a special and spiritual experience. The Hoggan family is so good to us. They are always feeding us and helping us with the little things. It's a blessing to have a good family like them in our ward. 

 

I wanted to say thank you for the pictures and everything. I love y'all.

 

Your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen.

Picture from a member

Received another random email from a member that had had Drew and his companion over for dinner.  She sent this cute picture to me. They are standing outside of their apartment in Frisco.  Drew says that they have the nicest apartment in the mission.  Looks pretty nice!  Love this missionary!  He an his companion have been working really well together.  So glad.  Looks like he's having the time of his life!

Memorial day week

This week has been pretty sweet! This week we followed up with some people who had said we could come back after tracting and they were home. It was neat. So last week we knocked into a youth minister for the Catholic church and we taught half of the restoration and we had a great discussion about our similarities and differences. Then this last Saturday we went back with a member and hoped that he would be home. We rang the door bell and nothing. So we knocked and nothing. And right when we though he wasn't home he answered. I was so glad. His name is Jeremy. The ward missionary we brought with us connected really well with him and the lesson went great! We invited him to church and he said he would be willing to come some time. I was really happy about that. Also we stopped by another person that Saturday and taught him the restoration too. He said he would come to church also but he couldn't make it last Sunday so he is going to hopefully come this Sunday. He doesn't believe in organized religion but we are going to do what we can to help him. Everyone has concerns and they can all be over come especially when the spirit works within someone's heart. 

 

Today we have a set appointment with a family and this is going to be our first lesson with them so we are excited to be able to start teaching them as well.

 

On Saturday when we were talking to Jeremy on his porch some one drove by and yelled out "Go home" and that was the first time I had gotten that one. Elder Degn and I had fun talking about it that night and swaping stories of people yelling random things from their cars. What was great about it was that Jeremy said "you are home".  I thought that was really nice of him to say.

 

So things are doing great here in Frisco and things are going to keep getting better. Well I love y'all and I hope everyone had a great week. I can't believe that Christopher is all ready done with his play. I'm sure he did awesome! And Sarah is already graduating/graduated. Well I love y'all! Have a great week!

 

Your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen

 

Notes from the Mommy

This is last weeks email - we got it on Tuesday.  Just so that no one gets confused!  We should be hearing from him again today, and hopefully I'll get it posted a little quicker this next time! :)