Last email from the MTC!

Hola! This week has been a pretty good week.  It seems to be going by kinda slow though, but that is kind of expected when it is impossible to not count down a little bit.  I dont have my travel plans again, but I will tell you when I call so you can follow it if you want.  This week was great though overall.  Monday we committed our progressing investigator to baptism so that was good, and we have been having our best lessons lately.  Only one more lesson with him before we go.  Tomorrow is technically our Preparation day, but since our email is scheduled for today we are doing it during our break from infield orientation.  But to continue on with the week.  Wednesday was our hosting day.  That was tons of fun.  I waited a while until I saw a gold Lexus.  Sure enough it was Ryan, and I had to chase him all the way down, because they told him to go to the end.  It was awesome.  I met his brother, mother, and father.  Then I took him in.  He seemed pretty excited and I see him everywhere now, along with Elder Pugh.  When I got back I just picked an opened space and a white Yukon drives up.  Through the glass I see some hands waving so I think, great they are excited to be here.  The door opens and Sister Joost gets out.  We took a couple pictures and everyone said their goodbyes and me and this Elder from New Zealand took Sister Joost to the Sisters to be taken care of.  So that was all exciting.  I proceeded to host 2 more Hermanas and then I was off to gym.  So I guess you can say that the hosting day was a successful day.  Yesterday was a good day too, but it seemed to drag on forever.  One of our teachers, Hermano Davis, he is getting married on August 4th.  He tells us nothing at all about his life, but we all really admire him and want to get to know him.  Whenever we would bring it up he somehow successfully would change the subject.  Well so we somehow found out his fiances name and we wrote proabably 200 girl names on the board before he got there and wrote next to it, Hermano Davis is getting married to... So he told us her name was up on the board twice.  He actually told us and erased all the names but hers.  He erased the first one, and then turned to us and we were super tense.  He talked for a little bit, then turned around to erase the other one, and we had put it on the board in permanent marker, so when he did it, it didnt come off.  It was SOOOOO great.  We all started busting up laughing and he kept saying, ¿Como Saben?Diga me! it was so funny.  For translation that means how do you know, tell me.  He kept bringing it up and we changed the subject just like he does to us all the time.  It was a great class, and it was fun to joke around with him.  So that actually happened Wednesday.  We have had a lot of fun with him.  Today has been all about in field orientation.  We have all been in the main building with everyone else leaving in the next week, and we are talking specifically about stuff we dont get in class, and we learn a little more about what the field will be like.  It has been pretty good overall.  It should last all day, so we will be really busy.  Tomorrow we get to start packing and to do our finally laundry and whatnot.  Just get ready to leave.  It will be a crazy day tomorrow.  Even crazier will be Tuesday waking up at 3 AM, but I am really excited to get going.  Sunday we will sing in sacrament and the rest will be normal.  Monday we have class, but if there are anythings we need to do, we are allowed to go out and do it when our teacher says we can.  Then that night as a zone we will sing Para Siempre Dios Este Con Voz, which is the Spanish God be with you till we meet again. Im pretty sure thats what it is called.  Its a pretty cool thing.  We have already sang it 7or 8 times since we got her to people leaving.  Some full districts, and some missionaries just going to different MTC´s.  Finally its our turn.  I´m greatful for the opportunity I have had to be in the CCM and all that I have learned here to prepare me for the rest of my mission.  Next you´ll hear from me will be in the airport, and then when I´m in Florida.  I´ll let you know how humid it is, haha.  se que el evangelio de Jesucristo es verdadero.  La iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días es la iglesia de Dios, y que José Smith fue un profeta y tenemos un profeta hoy, Thomas S. Monson.  I love you all and I cant wait to go.  Love you bye!

Quierida Familia,

Les Gracias por su support.  Thank you for being an example in my life.  I hope you all had fun with your visitors and I hope I can see Collette when she gets dropped off.  Hosting was really fun this past week and I hope I get to do it again, because 2 Elders from our district have to direct traffic instead.  I don't think I will have to do that but I'm not sure yet.  This week has been full of excitement and I'm so excited to go to Florida.  The MTC has been fun and I'm going to miss deportes every day and just being around so many different people that all love this gospel.  This next week will be a weird week.  Our next pday is on Saturday or maybe Monday, so we can pack.  As far as talking on the phone I can for a little while in SLC or a little in Dallas.  We will only have like an hour layover so I don't know how much time I will really have.  So I don't know if you want to wake up early that day, but you should tell me when you want me to call.  (*Response from Mom: ANYTIME!!!!  JUST CALL!!!) Thursday was great because I got a letter from Hannah and Ryan. Ryan said that Jack is starting his papers and that Alex might be able to turn in his papers around the end of winter semester.  Leah and Ashley read all the emails you send and are always excited.  So basically everything is good in the MTC hood.  I feel like I'm about as ready in Espanol as I can get even if I had another month.  Now I just need to be immersed in it.  It will be a culture shock I'm sure.  We met an Elder from Orlando and he said Miami is a different world.  I'm glad you saw President Hale and President Uchtdorf.  Elder Reese's family was there too, but in the overflow.  LIke I said in the email, everyone loved your packages.  By the way, when I said Taylor from volleyball a couple of weeks ago, I meant Tyler from Thursday night volleyball at the ward.  He is companions with my friend Jared Baxter from BYU.  I think that is all this week.  I love you all and this Gospel.  I'm glad I can serve my Lord.  Thanks for the support.
Con Amor,
Elder Wesley Bowen
MTC Mailbox 216
FL-FTL 0726
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793
(Until 7/25)
After that please send me mail at:
Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission
7951 SW 6th Street Suite 110
Ft Lauderdale, FL 33324
* Missionaries are allowed to call home now from the airport when departing to the mission field.  They also can call on Christmas and Mother's Day.  As you can tell, they are also able to write emails and letters once a week on their Preparation Days. 

7/15/11 Pizza and travel plans!

We made a Rice Krispie pizza and sent it to Elder Bowen this week!

This week has been crazy.  Good crazy.  I got the pizza I think on Monday.  Everyone thought that it was funny.  One of the Elders in my room loves the pizza, he especially thanks you for it.  I cant really remember anything crazy happening on Tuesday, but we had devotional and a review and it was pretty good over all.  Oh also that day one of our teacher was bearing his testimony and he started choking up mid sentence, and Bam the spirit hit us all like a train, it was an awesome experience to be there at that moment.  We have done a lot of practicing this week in helping Investigators do the things they need to do to feel and understand what the spirit is when we are with them and what to do when we are not with them.  Then Miercoles came around.  It was great, we got out of class early so we could be trained to host.  Then we were the first in the cafeteria so no line, y they had quizas the best food since I've gotten here, plus helado.  Then we got to host.  That was cool in of it self.  Only 320 missionaries came in this week so I only hosted 2 missionaries but it was cool.  The first one was from Reno and going to Denver Colorado, and the other was from Mexico going to Orem.  They were both pretty cool Elders and seemed excited to start their mission.  I was sort of able to remember that first day and how crazy it was when I was talking to them.  Then yesterday came.  Jueves is always a long day for us because we have 3 hours of class, lunch, 1 hour of TRC and 2 hours of Class all in a row.  We didn't get the mail we expected either at lunch.  But then Elder Reese and I decided we needed to go and laminate our Predicad Mi Evangelios before we leave so we went to do that, and since Elder Reese is the DL now, we decided to check the mail again.  In there was our TRAVEL PLANS!!!  It was Soooo awesome.  Everything seemed so real finally.  We often forget that we are leaving so getting that slip of paper verified that we actually are leaving. We don't have much time to call but I should be able to call a little bit.  The other 5 Elders and Hermanas in our Zone leave later but arrive sooner than us and don't have any kind of lay over.  We are pretty excited about our plans over all though.  So we are super excited to be heading out finally.  They assign travel leaders by last name, so I'm the travel leader so hopefully nothing goes wrong haha.  Super crazy that we are almost on our last week now.  I got a letter from Ryan yesterday as well.  I wrote him back and told him to tell me what car he will be coming in so I can chase him down when he gets here and host him.  What car will Collette Joost be coming in so I can see her.  If anyone else reads this they should tell me what car and what time they get here.  Hosting is a pretty lax thing so I should be able to see whoever tells me what they are coming in.  I saw Elder John Fry on Wednesday, he was like one of the first people coming so that was pretty cool. I hope Kelly had fun in Volleyball camp and I hope you had fun with all the visitors you have had this week.  Tell me if I forgot anything I have a little more time left for later.  I love you all.  Se que el Evangelio es verdadero and el Libr de Mormon es las palabras de Dios.  Se que mi mission es que Dios quiera. 

Elder Wes Bowen

MTC Mailbox 216

FL-FTL 0726

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604

Snail Mail 7/11/11

Dear Familia,

Well it sounds like this week has been a good week.  I want you to know that I feel like I have been amongst spiritual giants, but when I trust in the Lord, I am able to do well.  Mis Espanol is coming along.  Sometimes I say Espanol instead of Ingles, it is pretty funny.  This week we lost the district older than us, but it is ok.  We didn't become zone leaders which means we don't have meetings like crazy, which is good.  The new districts coming in seem scared out of their minds, I hope we weren't like that.  Today we cleaned the temple, well most of our district did.  Elder Fisher and I stood by the doors and told people the temple was closed.  But Elder Stovert and Elder Crowley got to clean the roof of the temple.  They just went up there and swept until it started raining.  That was super cool because this whole week we joked about cleaning the angel Moroni and that is as close as we could get.  There's a saying here, "Two years fly by, but 9 weeks takes forever."

Love,

Elder Wesley Bowen

7/8/11

So this week has been a weird week in general.  On the 2nd of Julio we got to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks, so that was pretty cool.  We had a celebration right before it where we sang American songs and this guy that was assistant to 3 Presidents spoke.  It was an awesome celebration.  They played bagpipes too and had a huge drum which was awesome.  Then we saw the fireworks, it was crazy because we didnt get to bed until around like 1130, which is way different than usual.  Then on Sunday we got listen to Elder Oaks daughter play violin.  She is pretty good, and she was funny.  The weeks are flying by now, this next Wednesday I finally get to host and we should get our travel plans soon.  Now that the district older than us is gone everything feels weird.  Gym is the weirdest for me because they were the ones that I played pug soccer with the most.  I finally played sand volleyball this week, so that was cool.  This week I saw Elder Mike Mckinley (hope that is right) and Elder Ramsey Carol, both from BYU so that was pretty exciting.  Hermano Davis came back this week so we were all happy to see him, but without him we had Hermano Black(Negro) and he was tons of fun.  He went to San Jose, California on his mission, so we got to here some great instate stories.  Funny story, we went to go contact the newest district last night, so we did it in Ingles, and I said, "We are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ... de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias"  I blanked on how to say it in Ingles.  It is funny the little things we do now in Espanol automatically instead of Ingles ahora.  We are getting pretty excited about getting to Florida now, it finally doesnt seem like it is forever away.  I got the treasure package yesterday, and I opened with my companions and the Hermanas.  The Hermanas loved the treasure box.  By the way when I say companions, I mean companions.  This week we had a new companion because his companionship left last week and he lives this Monday.  His name is Elder Williams and he is from Valencia, CA.  It is fun to talk about all the people that we know with each other, but kind of weird at the same time.  For some reason his call told him to come in a week early so he doesnt get to his mission in New Jersey until Monday.  So basically he was here for 10 weeks instead of 9.  It was weird teaching with him as well.  We definately were not used to the flow of 3 people teaching.  It took us a while to figure it out, basically what has happened though is 2 will teach and the third will testify.  It changes every time who is testifying and who teaches.  Our new teacher for Hermana Peterson is Hermano Goodrich.  He went to Espana on his mission and has the funniest accent.  we always make fun of him for saying "Thatherdothio" instead of "Sacerdocio".  He is a really good teacher though and he is a pretty smart guy.  We like him a lot.  So for funny story about me in my sleep, this week I woke up spinning in the middle of our room, and I remember dancing in my dream.  It was pretty funny.  Also this week me and Elder Reese decided we will shine 1 persons shoes every night.  We announced it to everyone Wednesday night when we had introductions with the new Elders.  Last night I did my first pair, and like 3 people called for it to be done in the next three days, so hopefully we are helping some Elder out and we dont do a bad job on their shoes.  I definately wouldnt consider myself the best at it yet, but last night went alright.  I think that is about it for this week, but next week I will hopefully have some stories about hosting.  Oh also today we going to go and clean to the Temple.  That should be fun.  I think I should be hosting the next week too, so maybe I will be able to host Ryan Carlson and see Collette Joost(sorry if that is spelled wrong).  I think thats when they get here, atleast I hope so.  Well thats al for this week so Bye, love you all

Pictures!!!!

At the temple

I was so happy today as we received a letter and a memory card of pictures from Elder Bowen!!!

Mis familia,

Se doy gracias por sus support y cartas.  Ahora, peudo entender casi todas cosas, cuando los personas hablan lento.  Los galletos fueron magnifico, gracias.  Alright, that's about todas Espanol I'm going to write hoy.  I wrote to Elder Gingrich in like half Espanol because his letter fue solomente Espanol.    Pero, primero, How was Trek?  Have you had anything from the trees yet?  Is this week going any faster?  I'm sure it will when the girls are both out.  Summer always goes by way too fast.  So this week me and Elder Reese have an otro companion.  His name is Elder Williams and he is from Valencia!  His call told him to come in a week early and he was put in a threesome in the district above us.  But he can't leave for another 10 days, so he is with us.  Elder Mower knows him because they were both on youth committee together.  We are still working hard and what not.  So now for the pictures:  Mi companero is the LeBron fan.

See Mom, missionaries wear stripes!

Now, I'm good.

My district with Hermana Peterson

The 4 of us in the inferno dying of heat.  

Our Bahamas shirts

Elder Williams from our California Stake

 Hope you like the pictures. 

Well, I Love You All, have a good summer.

Love,
Elder Wesley Bowen



Met the Mission President! 7/1/11

So the weeks are flying by now.  My favorite maestro wasnt here this week, Hermano Davis, and our other teacher, Hermana Peterson is now gone. Ayer was her last day.  But so to start off, I met my mission president on Friday.  He seems pretty cool.  There were I think 11 people in total going there in the MTC now, 10 Elders and one Hermana.  His wife said that she loves to make food, and when we heard that we knew we were in good hands.  Today I think is his first day officially as the solomente Mission President there.  Also on Friday, me and Elder Reese were the last people to make it in the Gym to hear the special Devotional, everyone else had to go to the overflow.  There were 7 apostles in the same room as us.  Elder Bednar, Elder Oaks, Elder Holland, Elder Scott, Elder Anderson, Elder Nelson, and Elder Ballard.  It was awesome when they walked in.  Elder Bednar gave the talk and it was awesome. It was all about how to be a PMG missionary and that "We can do it!"  He is a great speaker.  So that was the end of the excitement with all the apostles and First Presidency here.  It was really cool.  Some elders and hermanas in my district saw Elder Oaks with a bloody nose.  We thought it was pretty cool that we could just see them around being normal people.  So I think it is about 600 missionaries coming every week so things are getting crazy here.  A lot of my good friends are going to leave this week on Monday morning.  They are all going to Paraguay or Argentina.  Elder Hill(mas grande), Elder Borgeson, and Elder Smoot.  It is weird how close we got to them in such a short amount of time, but they are some awesome Elders.  We got the pictures on Wednesday,  it was so much fun to go through those.  My district saw me with long hair and when I was younger and said they couldn't believe it was me haha.  It is a lot of fun to share past expierences with everyone.  So I think you asked if I have TRC everyday, and no I do not, only on Thursday, and it is a different person everyweek, and they are supposed to follow a certain script, but they never do.  It's ok though because we still get to practice.  Ayer was our first day in solomente Espanol for TRC.  It went ok.  We gave the first lesson to someone who was pretty receptive.  It was weird though because they didnt have enough volunteers so we had to have 2 threesomes.  So Elder Fisher joined with me and Elder Reese.  It was all good though.  We do teach our teachers multiple times a week.  They become a character and we go through the whole teaching process and teach them Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.  That is where I feel like we get the most experience because we get to plan specifically for their needs.  We call it our progressing investigator and we get are switching this week.  They are siempre solomente en Espanol.  I'll send my memory card home this week.  I just wasnt sure how I should send it.  But I got a safe way.  Ummm I'm not really sure what else happened this week, the weeks blend together like crazy here.  So tell me if I forgot anything.
Elder Bowen