First Snail Mail!

This letter was written on his first day in the MTC and just got to us today! Some of the same info as his email but some new stuff as well!

Dear familia,

Today was a really good first day.  The guy that picked me up is my zone leader.    He is pretty cool and got me where I needed to be.  My companion is Elder Reese.  He is great.  He loves sports, is from Salt Lake City, and is normal.  He told me he is glad that I am normal as well because that one of his biggest fears was getting a weird companion. :) He is a Heat fan though so he is pulling against me.
 
We jumped right in today and were challenged to use as much Espanol as we could.  Tomorrow I have gym in the morning so I am really excited.  I forgot a hanger for my suit so it would be great to get that and 2 more hangers.  Other than that I'm pretty well set.  Our class and room are on the top floors so we do lots of stair climbing.  4 guys in my district are going to my same mission.  We also have 4 hermanas in our district, 3 going to Carlsbad and one to the same mission as me.  It is all going well so far and I am excited to get into the routine of things.  It is funny how much people change here because most our leaders have only been here 5-8 weeks, but they seen like a year older.  I know this church is true and that I am where I am supposed to be now.  I Love you all and love this church.  I already can't wait to be out serving the Lord.
LOVE,
Elder Bowen

Email Uno--He's doing great! Write him soon!

Hola Familia,

As you have probably guessed by mis much esponol, yo y mi companero estamos espanol officianodos.  Just kidding.  But really we have learned a lot already.  It is crazy.  Everything is already a blur of whats happened.  I told you about mi companero in my letter before, hopefully you got that.  Hes a great guy and is always really focused on what we need to do.  Since nosotros are such bueno comaneros, i am now the district leader.  Basicly I just interview the senior companions, get everyones mail, lead meetings, collect letters, and communicate to the Branch President what is going on with the district.  Not to bad.  We have a great district.  5 of us are going to Florida Ft. Lauderdale, 2 to St. Louis, and 3 hermanas are going to Carlsbad, CA.  We all have about the same amount of Spanish learned so we are all on the same page.  We have also started teaching really quickly.  We have been working on our first lesson since thursday, which seems like weeks ago.  Soon we will have to know it in Espanol too.  We are praying and bearing our testimony en Espanol now, but most of us still need to look over notes a little bit when we do so.  We have all gotten to know each other very well too.  Most of the people are from Utah.  People are from St. George, Farmington, Las Vegas, Indiana, Salt Lake, Mapleton, and Idaho.  Mi companero has gotten like 7 letters/packages already, so yo necessito mas letters.  Put it on fb to write me soon.  The candy and notes were great thanks.  So one thing i do remember perfectly is our former room.  We moved into a room everyone called "the furnace" and for good reason.  It was 95 degrees, no joke.  It is ridiculous.  I so after dos noches we got moved across the hall to a much better room.  Now we dont have to sweat while we heat.  It was kinda fun though because we were known as Shadrack Mishack and Obendaguys(dos elders).  But now we have escaped the firey temperature of the furnace.  Gym is what we all look forward to everyday.  Mi companero es muy bueno at basketball.  el es bien shooter.  Gym definatley gets us through most of the day, it is our release.  The rest of the time we are pretty much studying or in class, or now doing interviews and writing up paperwork.  I have really gotten to love espanol now though.  It is my favorite thing to learn about.  Dont get me wrong, teaching is a lot of fun too, and i definatly couldnt do Spanish all day, but it is easy to see progression in Espanol and its fun being able to put together my own words now.  So I was wondering what the scores were too, we all want to know.  Well thats pretty much my life until we start getting a progressive investigator and get onto normal schedule with the other elders y hermanas in our zone.  From now on my P-day will be on Friday, so expect my emails then.  se que jesucristo es me salvador y que Dio ama me.  Testifico que Jose Smith fue un profeta de Dio y que el espiritu es real.  Yo Amo el evangelio.  En el nombre de jesucristo, Amen

MTC DAY!

 Wes was set apart as an official missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints last night.  It was a beautiful blessing and opportunity for all of us to share our testimonies.  It brought with it a calming spirit that will be of a great help to us all as we drop him off today!

Pictures, last minute packing, visits with friends, lunch at Tucanos, lots of big hugs, then on to the MTC.  We all did pretty well.  We will miss him terribly but are so proud of him for choosing to serve his Heavenly Father!  We know he will be well cared for and do a great job!  Wes will spend 9 weeks in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT, preparing to teach the gospel and learning Spanish.   KSL did a special on the MTC--it was great!  Click here to watch!  

Farewell

Here's Wes meditating before his farewell talk.  :)

He did a great job!  And we had a beautiful lunch with family and friends afterwards.  Thank you to everyone--we appreciate your love and support!

We're on the countdown now!  36 hours until it's official!

Trip to LA

We took a family trip to LA this last week as a last hoorah before Wes leaves.  We were able to go to the LA temple for sealings, a stake temple session, and a wedding!  We're on the countdown now---1 week til the MTC!

Temple Day

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Today Wes went through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.    

It was snowing on us as we took these pictures!  It was cold---- BRRRR!

A special thank you to all of our family and friends who were able to attend.  Also thanks to our many friends who although were unable to join us, sent their loving thoughts and best wishes our way!