Week 1 with Elder Briggs

August 25, 2014

This past week has been great! 

On Tuesday we taught H. and then went over to East Plano to give a baptism interview to an investigator in the 7th ward. It was a fantastic interview! I love being able to take part in baptism interviews. I didn't realize how spiritual and uplifting they are. In the interview I asked A. (the investigator) what his story was of finding the church. He spoke of the misisonaries knocking on his door and always ignoring it until the time when he had broken his leg. It was a hard time for him because he lost friends and his life started to slide down hill. He talked about the sister missionaries he met when he opened the door that day and how they gave him a card with the Elder's phone number on it. They told him to call them. He remembered when he lived in Mexico as a kid finding a Book of Mormon but not being able to read it and wanting to know what was in it.  He called them that Sunday when they were in church and asked for them to come by and left his number and info. They got in contact with him, he read the Book of Mormon and overcame addictions he had. The motivation to overcome past addictions were simple and yet powerful. 1. To be happy 2. To be able to give his future wife and children what he didn't have. The gospel does just that! It makes us happy and blesses our families. What we do effects everyone around us especially our families! 

We attended A.'s baptism on Saturday! It was wonderful to be able to see him make covenants with the Lord and be baptized for the remission of sins. 

We met with J. this week. We had dinner and taught the Plan of Salvation. It was great! He has a weird work schedule so he will come to church in 3 or 4 weeks when he gets moved to a new schedule. 

We taught T. this week! We taught her about how studying the scriptures is a commandment along with prayer. We invited her to have nightly family prayer and scripture study. She didn't make it to church due to getting her 4 girls ready for school on Monday.

Elder Briggs is great! He is fun and has a great personality. I feel like we have really similar personalities. We get along great! 

I love y'all and hope y'all have a great week!

Love your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen

A. & Elder Fackrell

Elders Briggs & Bowen!

Crazy Week

August 18, 2014

Well this has been a crazy week but a good one.

We went to the temple last week so our prep. day is shortened and I have no time. But we have transfer news. Elder Reid is getting transfered to South Dallas and I'm staying. My new comp is going to be Elder Briggs. I'v never meet him before, but I'm excited! 

Love y'all!

Week of Fun

August 11, 2014

This week was really good and really fun!

 

We went on exchanges on Tuesday so I went with our chinese missionary Elder Lee. We had dinner with a Hindu family. It was the best Indian food I have ever had!  We had a great lesson there about the temple and I loved being able to get to know them. With Elder Lee we got Happy Hour at Sonic on our way to a lesson and ate at an Asian place. It was a good day!

We taught T. with a family from South Africa! It went great having them there. To be honest we were a little suspicious of inviting them at first but they got along great! You can always trust the Ward Council to tell you of a good fellowshiper for an investigator. After all they know everyone better than we do and the bishop has the keys. We talked about her baptismal date and how she is going to have to make some big steps to be able to be ready for it. She likes drinking wine on occasion and tea but she said she would work on it. She is making progress though. We have seen her faith grow a little each time and she really does want to get baptized. We are hoping to get her to church this Sunday with her girls.

We had a great lesson with J. at a member's home yesterday! We taught him the Restoration and specifically the apostasy. He is really starting to understand. I'm really surprised because he loves being the center of attention and making jokes all the time but he really is learning. Yesterday he said that he didn't understand why God is known to be merciful but does things like flooding the earth and killing so many people. As we told him about the bigger picture things got more clear. We told him of the spirit world and how God was really just bringing them back home to teach them there and how that wasn't the end for those people. He said, "Ok well that makes a whole lot more sense!" We are going to meet with him again on Saturday and have a lesson and dinner because he loves food. His 2 daughters are out of town curently at there mom's place but Elder Reid and I can see him coming to church with his daughters sometime soon. We are planning on inviting him to be baptized during our lesson on Saturday!

H. didn't make it to church and said he really wanted to be there. Elder Reid had a lesson with him on Tuesday night with a great member in the ward who we didn't know very well. It went great from what I heard. H. is starting to gain a testimony and has started to love the Book of Mormon. He asked us where he could get a quad set of scriptures at too. He asked for 4 copies of the Book of Mormon to give them to the Rabbi's he does a Bible study with at a Messianic Jewish synagoge if they will accept them and said he would ask them if we could share the Restoration with them. The Spirit has been working in his life. It's incredible!

 

Being a missionary is fun! We get to walk the streets going door to door and meeting all kinds of people and then the miracles take place in our lives and in the lives of others! Teaching people is the most fun! You get to see them grow and change, start to understand and then even start to love it!

 

It's something to be loved. There is no greater news than that of the gospel! It isn't something we do; it's who we are! The difference it makes is incredible as it carries us to a higher quality of life filled with peace, love, hope and eternal blessings of Joy!

I love y'all! Have a great week!

 

Love your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen

When One Door Closes, Another Opens

August 4, 2014

This past week has been great and busy.

We meet with S. on Tuesday. That is when he told us that he is currently on probation. We feel that there has been a misunderstanding about the process for him to be baptized. He told us on Saturday that he is not going to be meeting with us. We have gotten in touch with his father and talked about the situation. When he is ready they will involve us again but until then it is in the Lord's hands and in His timing. 

We meet with H. on Tuesday and read in the Book of Mormon with him. He came to church on Sunday! It was a miracle! He stayed for all 3 hours too! At church he was welcomed in a way unseen by most. Multiple families welcomed him, including some who met him at the BBQ. A family in the ward realized that their daughter knows his son and that he had visited with their daughter when he was younger. A ward member even knew his dog, CC and said it was nice to meet him and that they lived in the same neighborhood. After church we asked him how he enjoyed church. He said he felt welcomed and at peace during the meetings but that he didn't want to hurt our feelings or reputation if he didn't join the church. 

Later on that evening we were driving through his neighborhood on our way to an appointment and we saw him looking at some furniture on the side of the road. We asked if he needed any help and then got to talk to him more about his feelings of church. He felt the spirit and seemed to be confused because of it all. He is probably wondering how he being Jewish could feel such peace and welcoming love at church. We will be meeting again on Tuesday.

We found T. and B. We meet with them on Thursday and answered many of B.'s questions. He has heard all the common rumors. We were walking the fine line of not bashing and having a intense conversation. Towards the end or it T. asked some really sincere questions. So we have a return appointment. They have 3 young kids. We are hoping and praying that they will be open to accepting the restored gospel.

We also had a 9 o'clock miracle. We knocked on J.'s door in an apartment complex and he was just talking to his wife and family asking why God doesn't answer prayers. What a beautiful opportunity it was to be able to teach of prayer. We also have a return appointment with them. 

It just goes to show that when one door closes another path is provided for us. Of course the Lord will still work with S. and all others who have met with us for a time period. He works with all of His children. He guides us to those who are ready to work towards baptism according to His will and timing. It requires patience on our part and continued faith, hope and charity, but in the end we are guided by the Lord's hand and molded by the path He leads us on. 

Love y'all! Hope you have a great week and a great trip to Lake Powell! Take pictures and try to have as much fun as a missionary! Good luck with that because this is hard to beat. Love y'all!

Love your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen  

Mission Leadership Council with President & Sister Taylor

Drew's Zone

Drew's Zone being funny.

Elder's in the Zone selfie style!

Plano!

July 28,2014

This past week has been great!

We taught S. twice this week. We also scheduled a baptismal date for the 8th of August! I'm very excited for him! There is so much in store for him! We have taught him the first three lessons and he is progressing very rapidly toward his baptism. He has great support from his father which is helping him to feel comfortable at church and helping with a smooth transition. We have also had great help from our ward missionaries in teaching. Our teaching is simply to make sure he is completely ready even though he already knows everything. Just proves once again that this is the Lord's work. We didn't do anything to make this happen, the Lord did.

The Plano 9th ward is doing great! The ward council and ward mission truly are starting to become one with us in our purpose of helping others to receive the restored gospel. In ward council we had a great discussion about our recent convert K. and how the ward can help her. I feel as though the ward will be excellent at helping her with staying in the church. It's really neat to be able to see how the church operates. It truly is amazing! 

We had a BBQ with the ward where we had 2 of our investigators in attendance. It was great to have them there. The ward reached out to them and helped them feel welcome. Things in our area are great.

Tonight we are going to be helping the 4th ward in their area. They found a miracle baptismal date couple! We are excited for them. They are hard working missionaries they just have been having a hard time finding people to teach. So hopefully we will be able to help them out!

This is the Lord's work! This is His church upon the earth. All that was lost is restored. And because of that it makes a tremendous difference in this life. We can make it through the hard times because of what the Savior has done for us. We are never alone.

I love y'all!

Love your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen

Miracles in the Lord's Work

July 21, 2014

This past week has been Miraculous!

Yesterday at church we had a great sacrament meeting and at the conclusion of the meeting the person sitting behind us tapped my companion on the sholder and introduced himself as D., a member of a Cross Roads Ward. He then introduced us to his son S. by saying, "This is my son S. (Age 24) who wants to get baptized." We told them that we could help them out with that and scheduled an appointment for this up coming Tuesday. We brought him to the Gospel Principles class and got to know him a little better. He has taught himself how to fluently speak 5 languages, half of them being dead languages. He is also a semi-professional musician and is currently working for Visa credit cards providing them with high tech identity theft protection for their world wide industry. In other words this man is incredibly intelligent. In Elders Quorum the lesson was on the Holy Ghost. During part of the lesson it spoke of how a person may have the spirt caome and manifest itself unto them and then withdraw. He spoke in the class of how he has had that exact thing happen. A year ago he clearly heard a voice tell him that all the churches on the earth were lacking truth but that he was to be baptized in "the Mormon church" because of the way we baptize. He then spoke of how no other church has athourity except ours and that he intends to be baptized and go to the Salt Lake Temple to do baptisms for the dead, to heed the voice of the spirit.  S. has been taught the missionary lessons twice and we are going to go over them once again simply to make sure he clearly understands the doctrine and is willing to live it. We feel that we will go through the lessons very quickly possibly in one or two visits. He wants to be baptized as soon as possible and we feel that he will be able to be baptized on the 2nd of August or the 9th. This truly is a miracle and a witness that this is the Lord's work and He is preparing His children and gathering them in.

We also taught many lessons with members. We have a great fellowshiping family for our investigator T. and they have helped us to be able to visit her. We have had a great lesson on faith and she has started to read in the Book of Mormon. She is struggling to make it to church. She always seems to have something come up. But we are continuing to work with her.

We met with D. this week with a ward missionary. He has not been keeping commitments to read in the Book of Mormon though. He is not progressing and we are going to have to direct our focus elsewhere. It makes me sad that we won't be able to see him as much. It really is an act of faith to delay an investigator you love. But if he starts to make changes soon then we will be able to  help him out more. However, the ward missionary we introduced him to lives on the same street as him and will continue to reach out to him. He is in good hands.

We had another miracle with the C. family! We had spoken to them about possibly meeting on Saturday. Saturday came around though and they hadn't gotten in touch with us and confirmed a time for us to come by. They called us at 1:20 PM and asked if we were coming by. They told us that they only had untill 2:15 pm to visit with us so we told them we would be there as soon as possible. We got in our car and drove from the sotheren portion of our area to the northern with only needing to stop at 1 red light which was changing as we got to it. We made it to their home in record time and a record of green lights in a row. It sure is incredible how the Lord can get you somewhere so quickly when He needs you there. We read 2 chapters in the Book of Mormon with them from the begining of Mosiah and the lesson went great!

We went on exchanges on Tuesday with our district leader Elder Evans! Things went great! As we were tracting we met a man who was on his way out but had spoken to missionaries a few days before meeting us. He had met them at Chick Fil A and had given them his info. He thought we had recieved his info from them so he was expecting us. He scheduled a time to meet with us and gave us his info and we taught him on Sunday. He asked questions about the Plan of Salvation and we were able to come to a good level of understanding. Elder Evans and I also taught our investigator H. later in the evening. We talked about faith and invited him to be baptized. He said he wasn't ready for that yet but that he would come to church on Sunday. (which didn't happen due to his air conditioning unit leaking through his living room ceiling and his landlord scheduling the emergancy technition to come durig our church services.)

Things have been great in the Plano 9th ward! The Lord's work truly is being Hastened in its time. It is His work and He oversees all that takes place! We are serving along side Him, in His vineyard. As we become one with Him in His work we see the miracles take place! I am amazed at the things that have taken place that attest once again to the Divinity of His work!

 

This is His work and it is moving onward! The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is spreading abroad, touching the hearts of the honest seeker of truth everywhere! Jesus is the Living Christ and is the corner stone of His church as he leads, guides and directs it through His apostles and prophets! What a blessing it is to live in the long promised dispensation of the fullness of times!

 

Much love,

 

Elder Drew Bowen 

Another Great Week!

July 14, 2014

This past week was great!

 

So Elder Reid and I decided to try getting up early so we could have a little more time in the mornings. So we got up early every day this past week and we gave ourselves more time to work out. Elder Reid played football in high school so he knows all the football weight lifts so we did some. Let's just say it was a building experience for me. I haven't done to much weight lifting in my life because I just always ran or did push ups or crunches. Well I think I can honestly say I have never been more sore in my life from a 20 min work out! I'm pretty sure people thought I was an 80 year old when I was getting in and out of the car all week! But we were still able to do our work we just looked really funny because we could barely walk some days. That was probably the funniest thing that happened this past week. But we are much more fit from it all.

We were working in an apratment complex this past Saturday and a man walked up to us and said, "Hey are y'all mormons?" and we said yes. He then told us that he was Jewish but that he had a friend in California who was indoctrinating him who was a member of the church. He also said he was planning on getting baptized by his friend and asked where our meeting house was! I was shocked that he knew so much and was Jewish!  He also said that he is trying to convince his family to do the same and gave us his phone number to get in touch with him this week! Just goes to show what can happen when you have a friend for your investigators! He is living in our area temporarily but said he would love to have us come by to talk to him and his wife. It was a miracle.

We also got a referral from a member in the Allen 4th ward for a friend of theirs but they only had her address. They had spoken with their friend and asked if she would be willing to have us come by and share a message with them about the church and they said yes. So we went by and a man answered the door. We told him who we were and that K. had said she would be interested in us coming by. The man said she isn't interested and closed the door with out giving us time to say anything. As we were walking away a lady came out and called out to us. She said, "I'm K., sorry about my husband. I'm not feeling well today but are you the missionaries?" We said yes and she said, "Well I would love to talk to you guys some time.  Here's my number and I'm off work all week next week." So we will also be getting in touch with her this week to teach her. 

We also taught D. this past week. We feel that the Spirit is really starting to work on him and that he is starting to understand our message. He read a little from the Book of Mormon. He also asked us some really good questions and we were able to answer them for him. We have an appointment with him this week and we will be going with a member of the ward who lives on his same street.

We talked to 200 people this week! I think that is a personal record for me on my mission. We also taught some of our other investigators. And I just want y'all to know that I have one of the best companions Ever! Elder Reid is the best! He is always making me laugh and we always have a good time together as we work together!   

Well I love y'all and hope y'all have a great week!

Love your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen

New Mission President, Same Work

July 7, 2014

This week we met President Taylor!

 

It was so good to meet him and his family! He shared his vision that we should all have for the mission. The spirit truly was poured out in the meetings this past week that we had with him! He is an incredible man! He came in talking about how President Durrant is his hero and had us all share one thing that we learned from the Durrants! I love the Taylors! At Mission Leadership Council when we first met them they were so warm and loving! They have a fantastic spirit about them! And Sister Taylor made lunch for all of the missionary leaders! It was way good! Elder Reid says that this is why I love them so much but he is only partially correct! President Taylor's vision for the mission is for us to all be one. One with Christ, one with our companions, mission and members! I'm excited to be able to get to know him better and continue learning from him and Sister Taylor. The Lord chooses the best mission presidents for the Texas Dallas Mission.

This week we had some miracles happen! First off we met with a Hindu couple who have been letting us come over for the past little while and we had a great lesson with them! We studied in Preach My Gospel beforehand about teaching others who do not have a Christian background and then made a lesson plan for them. We noticed that in Preach My Gospel it mentions 2 or 3 times about having a member friend present. So we invited someone who we thought would be a good friend for them at church to come with us. The member helped so much! He bore a beautiful testimony at the end of the lesson and during as well! F. and V. seemed to enjoy having him there. V. even said the opening prayer for us! It was her first time! We showed them the Restoration DVD which was not what we planned but that was how we felt things should go. We talked to them about how important it is to read the Book of Mormon, pray, and attend church. We invited them to come next Sunday and they told us why they haven't ever come. They don't have a car but they said that they would like to come! We told them that we would help them out with the ride. I feel that they are starting to progress and recognize the spirt.

We also meet with our recent convert K. and talked to her about us going over the new member lessons. She is still solid and we have arranged to see her every Sunday to teach her the new member lessons and answer any questions she may have.

We met with K. who is a convert from last year. We finished teaching him the last new member lesson officially yesterday. We will be working on getting him a calling in the church to be sure he has a responsibility in the ward.

We found a new investigator who we are hoping is as open as he says he is. He studied theology and is currently attending a bible church close by. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and answered some of his questions. We will see where things go with our next visit.

We had a good lesson with T. this week. She was going to come to church but was late getting everyone ready in her family to come so she didn't make it. We are going to be meeting with her again this week and we feel that she is going to make it to church one of these days soon. She knows it's what she should do so it's just a matter of time.

Last of all we had a wonderful miracle with an investigator of ours who has been out of town recently, B. and M. We gave her a phone call and she said that she had missed seeing us and coming to church! She told us that she has been reading almost everyday in the Book of Mormon and that she is excited to be back in town and to come to church again! We are going to help her grandmother move in with her and her boyfriend this week and then teach them all a lesson again! She has seen the difference that the gospel makes in our lives and felt the Spirit as she reads. They will be ready for baptism in a little while with how things have been going for them.

The Lord's work truly is being hastened! He is working in the Plano 9th ward and bringing to pass His work! It's amazing to be able to be a part of it! Brings the greatest happiness ever! 

I love y'all so much! Keep on singing "the song of redeeming love!" (Alma 5:26) It is a beautiful song to sing! Love y'all!

 

Love your missionary,

Elder Drew Bowen