Blessings in Lufkin

This week Rory was baptized! He is an incredible person! He was prepared to receive the gospel! Elder Koenen and I joke around with him about how he taught himself practically. All we did was ask if we could come to his apartment and gave him a pamphlet. He is an amazing person! He is going to be receiving the priesthood in a few weeks! We talked to his family at his baptism and we are going to be visiting with 3 of his siblings this week! It's amazing! I feel so blessed to be able to meet Rory! I hope we will be able to teach the rest of his family as well!

I love the Lufkin ward! It's amazing! We have so many amazing people here and the ward is trying so hard to help God's children here in reaching out to others and fulfilling responsibilities and I'm so excited for how everything is going! I love the leaders here! I also love serving with Elder Koenen! I have learned so much from serving with him! He will probably be transferred next week but there's a possibility he could stay. If he does then he will have been in Lufkin for 6 months - that's a long time for one area.

This last week we were looking for more people to teach and we have found 4 new investigators and we are going to have even more next week!  Things are still going good here! We aren't planning on having a baptism on Saturday but we are not against it. Hopefully we will have a baptism again soon with some of the people we just met!  It is such a blessing to be able to teach others and love them and serve them. Autumn, the 9 yr old we are teaching is so cute. Her mom has some struggles with some of the commandments but we stopped by one day and she asked us to teach Autumn the word of wisdom. When we told her no coffee or tea she said, "No coffee, I love coffee." We still are working on helping them get to church and over come the challenges they are facing but her mom bore a beautiful testimony. I just hope we can help them receive the blessings that come from living the gospel completely. 

Well I love and miss you all! Keep on doing the small and simple things like reading the scriptures praying and going to church. It makes such a major difference in our lives. I can see that now. Have a great week! Love y'all!

Love your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen 

(This is the July 29th email - yes I'm behind again - The Mommy)