Dear Family,

When I send my memory card, it contains some good pictures I think.  I never deleted anything so some of it is really blurry or really random pictures taken by someone else.  I'll send the card and some other things in a package.  By the way the shirts are just $8 and we got our Hep A shots yesterday.  Sorry, the days blend together.  Like I said this week has been super crazy.  By the time you get this I will know my mission president.  Also, like I said, the Bahamas guy we met was awesome.  We took it as a sign we are going to the Bahamas.  :) He said he used to go on splits with the missionaries there.  He was super cool.  I wish Kelly good luck on her trek.  It will be awesome, I'm sure.  I haven't played volleyball yet.  I honestly like soccer too much and most people that play volleyball are really bad.  So those combined, I'm not going to play much volleyball.  Best part of the MTC is gym and my teacher Hermano Davis.  If feels like I have been here for a year.  We hear and talk about Florida, but sadly we were told if they do send missionaries to Cuba it will be Hispanic missionaries that go first, which makes sense.  I enjoy writing back, but I don't always have time.  I hope all is well.  Chelsie, I like the MTC, my room is all white and brick, I love my companion, and I love hearing from you.  You all sound like you are doing good.  By the way, one of the branch presidents is names Farnsworth.  He works at BYU, I wonder if they are related. 
Also next time you send pictures can you include some of us when we were all younger and some of California friends?  Like graduation pictures maybe?  That would work.  Thank you for your support and I love you all! 
Love,
Wesley (Elder Bowen)

Today is like the Christmas of the MTC!

This week was a crazy week.  We got our Bahama shirts on Monday.  As me and Elder Reese were walking to the field that day wearing our shirts, and this guy stopped us and told us he was from the Bahamas.  He told us that there is a Spanish branch on Nassau, and that we will love it if we make it out there.  His name was Isreal, so if I meet him again there cuz he said he is going back after he finishes as BYU this year, I will be so happy.  It was sooo cool.  We had a lot of treats this week too.  We had a fiesta... well as much of one as we are aloud to have with chips and queso.  It was super awesome.  Then later in the week we had some more treats, that was great.  We really enjoy getting food that does not come from the cafeteria.  Speaking of which it has been crazy this week.  We got 600 new missionaries here this week, and only half of the cafeteria was open, because they made the other half for the 150 or something like that mission presidents here this week.  It is all very exciting.  The hermanas in my district saw Elder Oaks and met our mission president.  We get to meet him later tonight and talk to him for an hour or so.  I'm super excited.  The Hermanas said that he is really cool.  Everything has been super crazy though with them here.  We are blocked out of most of the main building and gym for the week.  So gym has been crazy too, because we have like a million people playing soccer and volleyball.  It is just crazy.  Tonight we will probably get to hear from 1-3 general authority.  We have like a 2 hour devo then we have dinner and meet our mission president.  Today is like the Christmas of the MTC.  We have no class, general authority, mission president, clean clothes, and we get to write to our friends.  The only bummer is no temple. Next week is our last chance to go to the temple too.  It closes next Saturday and we go on Friday.  It will be closed the rest of the time we are here.  We have seen off 2 districts so far, half of the new district this Sunday because they are going to Guatamala MTC, and then the next week the district older then us leaves.  We will be the oldest, how weird.  It will be sad when the district above us goes because we have become really close to them, and we arent as good friends with the new district yet.  Except for the four that are leaving.  Oh well.  This week I saw Elder Pulsipher, he is actually standing by me now.  I also saw Elder Baxter from my BYU ward today, and Taylor from volleyball.  I dont know his last name, but it was crazy because him and Elder Baxter are companions.  Sometimes I feel like out of the Book Of Mormon when I think it is Alma rejoices because he sees his brethren again.  But not only that, but that they are still his brethren in the Lord.  It is a great feeling to see everyone.  That is crazy about the draft, we are all happy he is going to the Kings, they are probably the best chance for him to get a lot of playing time and learn.  We heard yesterday he was in Millwakee and everyone in gym groaned.  It is funny how everyone is a Jimmer fan.  Thanks for all of your support and for everything you do for me.  I read chelsies letter and I had a hard time not laughing.  The first line was "We all miss you, but we are fine." It was really cute adn funny to read.  then she had a "patttern" in her righitng. She's so funny.  I got the pictures and I enjoyed sharing them with everyone.  My maestro Hermano Davis is going out of town we wont see him for like 10 days, super sad cuz he is like the best person in the World haha.  our other Maestra is leaving next week so she can be married.  It is weird that it is changing now.  I got a letter from Collin as well.  He wrote in all Spanish, so I didnt know what it all said, but he talked about Cubans a lot I know.  Well I got to go.  I love you all, and yo se que la iglesia de Jesucristo es verdadera.

LOVE

ELDER BOWEN

Snail Mail 6/18/11

Dear Family,

Well I once again do not remember exactly what I put in the email so I'm sorry if some of it is a repeat.  Sorry I cannot re-email you this week, but i was going to do it right before the temple around 2 or 2:30 but we are getting our hair cut, Elder Reese and I.  I got cheated once again by a bad keyboard also so I lost about 7 minutes of email time.  They just do not have good computers here I think.  So the whole Cuba thing probably won't happen but you never know, and it would be so cool I think if it did.  We always talked about being the first ones to China or something and now there is a slim chance it might happen.  I figured I would let you know what kind of stuff we talk about now.  It is cool to see so many people I know now too.  Everyone is just flooding in now, it is great.  This week we spoke alot of Espanol, well at least more than the previous weeks.  Our TRC this week was cool porque we acted like we were picking someone up from their house and riding with them to church.  That is when we got to talk about baptism in Espanol, she had read El Libro de Mormon en Trece Nefi and wondered about it.  It was a really cool experience.  Our Bahamas shirts should get here like Wednesday we hope, so hopefully we will be reppin' those.  Do any of you want Bahamas or Florida shirts?  It takes about a week to get here.  Just let me know.  That's what I thought about getting Dad for his Father's Day gift, but I didn't know if he wanted it or not.  And it would be late because we just ordered them.  Tell me more about what's going on, you all sound like you are doing great.  Have fun on the pioneer trek.  I Love You All.  Se que la iglesia es veradera, y que familios poderia eterna si nosotros sequiramos JesuCristo.  En el nombre de JesuCristo.  Amen.

Love,

Elder Bowen

Happy Father's Day letter 6/17/11

I got some good letters this week.  It feels so good when I get letters.  I got the cookies from the Grants, those were super delicious.  My companion cannot stop talking about them they were so good.  I got your package the day you put it in I think.  It was great.  I had gotten over being sick by then.  So this is my last week being DL.  It is supposed to change every 3 weeks, but we got a new district in our zone last week, and I think the Presidency was still busy with them.  So it should be this Sunday that we get a new one.  Another district is leaving, it is weird how close to our zone we get in such a short time.  They cannot wait to be in Mexico though.  We look forward to that day as well.  This week me and Elder Reese ordered some Bahama shirts.  We would have gotten Florida, but the Bahamas flag is cooler so we decided that that was the better choice, and since it is in our mission it is worth it.  Our mission president gets here pretty soon we are really excited because we should be able to meet him here and then he will know us when we fly up there.  We are so excited to be out in the field, but thats seems so far away now that I just try and take it hour by hour.  I took some more picture this week, but still not that many, I'll try to remember to send home my card tho this week so that way you can upload some pictures.  So there is a rumor going around here about our mission.  Apparently we since Castro has stepped down, the church has been able to make some headway with his brother now.  The rumor is that maybe within in a year missionaries could be sent there.  And since they want to send more experienced missionaries, they will probably form it with the Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission.  So, it would be cool if we were like the first missionaries in Cuba or something like that.  I'm not sure how true it was, especially since rumors like that fly around the MTC like crazy.  Almost everyweek we are trying to figure out who is going to give our devotional.  It is pretty funny because every week we guess someone from the 12 apostles or 1st Presidency, but no one has come since we got here.  We have had some really good devotionals though.  This week we had the General Primary President, she had us sing Primary songs and it was a really well done talk, it was simple but had a strong message.  The week before we had someone from the seventy, I think his name is Brother Kikuchi, but I'm not sure if that's how you spell it, but it was a really good talk as well.  This next one will probably not be an apostle, because the next week most of them will be here training the Mission Presidents, like mine!!! So we will almost definately here from them, and hopefully we will see them, but they just take the gym, so the field is going to be super crowded, but worth it. I'll definatley let you know if we see them around.  We have had some good lessons this week and we are getting better en Espanol, pero we necesitamos much trabajo.  I actually answered some questions in Espanol this week about Baptism, more specifically Infant Baptism.  It was pretty fun and really cool that I was able to somehow answer.  Elder Mower sounds great.  I see him around, he eats right before me, so I see him a couple times a week.  I've also seen Elder Bateman, Elder Fitzpatrick, Elder Johnson, Elder Pulsipher, Elder Nelson, Elder Miller, and Elder Garcia, it is fun to see them all and know that we are all brothers in the Lord.  I cannot remember who asked about my schedule but it is basically 6 hours of class a day, 1 hour of gym, food, 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour of service a week, and the rest of the time is for studying.  I wont be able to rewrite this week, because I am getting a haircut at 2, which is when I was planning on getting back on the email, so next week though.  HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!  I know that saying isn't so much, but besides deordant or some random food item I dont know what to get you here:D thanks for the support and I Love you all.  Keep up the good work at home and I cant wait to get your letters. se que jesucristo es nuestro salvador y Dios nos ama

6/13/11 Snail Mail

Dear Familia,
Like I said we enjoyed the treats, but we got them on Tuesday.  I have stopped counting time, so I can't really tell you what happened when.  I got mail from alot of families in California, but I couldn't write back to any of them.  We get to go to the temple today and every Pday. 
I am getting a little sick.  Apparently I coughed alot in my sleep last night.  I don't feel so bad, but I'm taking some medicine today.  I really don't know what else to say, sorry, nothing really changes here.  We do the same thing everyday.  It was good to hear from the Voges.  I said I guessed Taiwan, Mandarin speaking.  Well I better get going soon, I'm just about out of time.  Goodbye.  Love you all.
Love,
Elder Wesley Bowen

Elder Bowen sounds great! 6/10/11

Well it seems so far that my computer works a lot better than last week.  I did get the treats but usually I think I get it a day later than you expect me to get it. So this week was pretty good. I did get a lot of mail.  I'm not sure I am going to be able to write everybody this week. I'm sorry if I am not able to write to someone, but know I appreciate the letter and will try and write soon.  Also if anyone would like to send me a picture that would be great!  We compare friends and family here, it is pretty fun to do.  This was a pretty good work overall.  We have really been picking up on our teaching.  Elder Reese and I would probably make some pretty good english missionaries now, cuz we work pretty well together, and it is getting easier to know what to say.  Now doing that in Spanish, we struggle.  Pero esta todo bien.  So I havent played any volleyball yet, there are a ton of people that play it and its really crowded, and its inside.  Being outside for an hour is like the best thing.  We got a new district this week tambien. some of them are HUUGE, like 6'7'' and huge football massive.  It is funny though cuz they still seem like younger than us.  Time is just a big joke here.  No one really understands it.  Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days, most of the time.  Sometimes it feels like it was forever ago.  Which is p day.  it doesnt come fast enough.  We had a really good speaker this week, from the seventy.  I forgot his name but someone said he was the first Japanese General Authority.  He was really funny.  He got up and said I am not completely like all of you.  I grew up, and ate a lot of rice.  and a lot of fish.  Now I am short.  He was really good.  He was super spiritual as well, but he balanced it well.  This week we should be getting an apostle or Thomas S. Monson, so says everyone, because it has been a while since one has came.  We can almost garuntee though that we will see most of them in July because they are the ones that teach the new mission presidents.  It is pretty exciting.  Like I said time is a joke, so I dont really remember everything that i sent before, well atleast what I sent and what I said i wanted to send.  Well the work is going well, we are learning a lot and we had a lot better experience in the TRC this week.  The guy seemed willing to do things and was ready to hear us.  He asked about Joseph Smith and both of us thought lets talk about Joseph Smith, but then we both decided just a second later that maybe we should do the full lesson, build up to Joseph Smith and clarify any questions he had along the way.  We went to Joseph Smith quickly though and talked to him a while about that.  At the end he closed the lesson with a prayer for us and was very specific about what he asked for. It was a great experience.  Our progressing investigator went pretty well this week.  The first two times it didnt seem like we were getting through at all and we prayed a lot about what we should do. We skipped over lesson two for our third lesson(we only have like 10 minutes to teach so lessons are usually in half).  We went over repentance and stuff, and she seemed to open up a lot more about her struggles and how we could help her.  It was good to be able to adjust our lesson the right way and make some progress.  So everything is giong well.  I'm happy that you are all doing work and keeping busy.  Thanks with all your support.  It really helps.  To clarify I have 30 minutes to email, and then  all laundry time to write letters.  I get a decent number written.  Pictures on the computer are OK but i cant print them or anything so I could only look at them on Friday and it would take away from my writing time.  So I would prefer to get regular picture.  I still havent taken that many pictures, but I am going to take more tonight and today and this week.  Se que Jesucristo es mi salvador y su evangelio es verdadero.  yo se que dios nos ama y que nosotros vivere con El.  yo se que la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdadera.  lo siento mi Espanol es not written right, pero this computer doesnt have Espanol on the bar at the bottom.  Well I am about out of time and my laundry is finishing up.  Love you all and thanks for the support. Until next week

Snail Mail 6/6/11

Dear Familia,
Sorry my email was short even though alot happened.  The whole switch the keyboard to Spanish took a while, just because I didn't think that would actually fix it.  Well I don't totally remember what I wrote, but I gave my first sick blessing yesterday.  The hermana feels much better now, but not all the way better yet.  *TRC was very interesting and we probably won't get anything like it again.  It was just a practice with a bad investigator.  That's about it but it taught me that testimony is the best tool I can use.  Me and Elder Reese have gotten much better at teaching together.  Our first lesson en Espanol es manana, pero nessitamos estudiar mas por lo.  Probably not the best Espanol but I try.  Today is going to be our first temple session so we are all excited.  We also got initiated into the zone.  It is a great zone.  They started making drum sounds with the ironing board, and played marracas.  It was exciting, then one Elder Smoot came out and did a sun dance, it was great.  My zone leader, Elder Dunlopp leaves this Monday so that's crazy but we are excited for him.  That's about it for now, make sure to put that I love the zone online. 
Love,
Elder Bowen

Elder Bowen also included letters to forward to 3 of his friends who are currently serving missions.   I'm pretty sure he could've done it himself but he was allowing me to read more of his letters for my benefit.  It was great and I was able to see more of his personality come out.  I don't think he or they would mind if I share a few things.   He wrote in one letter, "So now I'm in the MTC, I understand why the post office is needed in the world.  The only reason left is for us missionaries!"  He also shares that, "even though he's been in the MTC for only 10 days, it seems like forever, and he can hardly remember life pre-mish.  Maybe that's a good thing."  One of his teachers served in Chile and is really cool and speaks great Spanish.  He shares a bit more about the TRC, saying the guy tore them apart.  But it was funny afterwards because he is known for causing alot of problems. 

It was nice to hear a more relaxed Elder Bowen in these letters.  Thank you all for your continued support! 

*TRC=  The Teaching Resource Center (TRC) gives missionaries some experience teaching in their mission language.Volunteers who speak the language role play as investigators in these teaching situations. At the end, Missionaries watch a video tape of their teaching session to find ways to improve their language skills and teaching style.

Elder Wesley Bowen
MTC Mailbox 216
FL-FTL 0726
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793
 or  dearelder.com allows you to type an email that will be sent to him the same day if done before noon.

6/3/11 Email

So i am writing in Spanish because if i dont it writes all weird, i dont know why, so you might see some accents or stuff that i dont mean to do.  So Ryan, Jack, Leah, Ashley, Alex, Spencer, Grandma Curtner, and you guys all wrote me this week.  It was really nice to get.  This week started out pretty rough for me.  We started practicing teaching on Monday, and me and Elder Reese just could not flow very well.  We would stop not knowing what to say and we were very unbalanced. We talked about it and worked out how we would ask questions, how we would share scriptures, and just how to flow together well.  We have been doing much better since around Wednesday morning.  It was really hard for me, and the mail really encouraged me this week.  I was playing mostly basketball, but Wednesday i switched to fútbol because I love being outside.  It is fun even though i am really bad.  I just play defense, so when a ball gets close and just make sure the guy cant get past me and then I kick the ball as soon as I can.  It works out pretty well I think.  Basketball I was really bad at too, so I always played with others that were bad, and then I felt pretty good about myself haha, then I would look over and see that it is all false goodness haha.  My companion is from Salt Lake, like the actually city, not any kind of suburb, he lives down in the city.  I saw Elder Mower the day he got here at the MTC but I haven´t seen him since.  I saw another guy from my hall, Elder Nelson, that was really cool, and I continually see Elder Miller(from summer) all the time.  I saw Elder Lewis but he was far away.  We have some amazing teacher.  One is only back from his mission for 4 months and just got engaged, but he won´t tell us anything about her.  My other teacher is really good as well, she knows a lot of Spanish.  Yesterday we had our first TRC though.  It was an interesting experience.  Its a long story and I´m running out of time quick because we only have 30 minutes, which goes by so fast for some reason, so I´ll tell you about it some other time.  So I cant send pics on this picture so I will send you my card while im in the MTC, but when i get to the field i should be able to put them on the email.  Nuestros Español está muy mal.  Nosotros try, pero it isn´t coming very quickly.  I can bear my testimony, pray, recite the first vision, and my purpose en Espoñol.  That´s about it.  I did see Laura one of the first days in the gym, and I saw her on the field on Wednesday.  It is really cool to see her.  She calls me Wes though so everyone knows my first name, and sometimes people accidently say that instead of Elder Bowen when we are playing sports.  I am pretty much out of time, lo siento.  Yo amo el evangelio, y sé que es verdadero.  Sé que Jesucristo es mí Salvador y que José Smith fue un pofeta de Dios y que Thomas S. Monson es el profeta ahora.  Somos misoneros de la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Sanots de los Últimos Días.  I´ve got to go, I love you all, and thank you for the support it means a lot.  I look forward to hearing from you