Christmas

So yesterday was Christmas, it was pretty fun.  We opened up a lot of ties and we also got some nice other things.  Thank you all so much for being so thoughtful and thinking of me this Christmas.  This week was really cool.  We had a trip up to Fort Lauderdale, where we got to see all the missionaries.  For Thursday we had to ride up on Wednesday, and come back Friday, so it was a real trip.  It was awesome to see all the missionaries, and to recieve some training.  We also got to play white elephant.  It was fun.  I brought up a gorilla head made out of a coconut.  It was cool.  Elder Badillo brought up a sling shot that said Ammon on it, so it was legit.  I had to steal everytime in the game because no one else was stealing, so I had to get it going.  It was fun, but I ended up with 4 cans of Tuna.  It was pretty funny, and we also got to sing songs.  Our Zone sang, Oh Holy Night in Espanol.  It was super cool and spiritual.  The other zones were good too, but Im pretty sure we were the best.  So we got back safely, and I was able to talk to my family on Skype yesterday.  It was pretty exciting, but short.   Now I feel pretty focused on the work now that I done that and have some good work to do.  Thankyou all so much for your love and support and for all you do for me.  I know this church is true and that the Lord blesses each and everyone of us according to our obedience.  He is watching us and waiting for us to call upon him.  Jesus Christ is our Savior and he suffered the atonement that we can return and live in the Kingdom of God.  Thank you all so much, and I love you.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

A Great Week!

This has been a really awesome week for us.  We were able to have al lot of fun things happen and had a lot of good lessons.  We are really excited about the work down here and cannot wait to keep it going here.  There is this one family we are teaching.  The daughter is the one interested in Christ, and she is 6.  But the parents want to learn too because of her.  It is really cool, and we have no idea where she found out about Jesus, but she really likes him, and the lessons we have are pretty fun with them.  We also have been able to meet with some other really cool families, and have some really awesome lessons coming up.  This one lady said we could come back last Tuesday, and we did, and she said that she didnt expect us back(second time we came back and she didnt expect it), but she said she didnt have time to really talk much.  So we talked for a little bit about how she has a crazy life, and then we asked if we could leave her with a prayer.  She said yes of course, and then she talk to us about her church and whatnot.  Then I asked if she would take a book, she said yes, until she saw it was the Book of Mormon.  She siad she wouldnt ever read it or touch it, but then we brought out some of her concerns and weird misconceptions about us, and she took the book and should be reading 3 Nephi 11 this week.  We will be back there tomorrow.  She was a lot more receptive after we resolved her concerns.  It has been a good week.  We are also going up to Fort Lauderdale this week.  It is good but sad at the same time, because we will be gone for 2 and a half days, and 2 of the days are the most productive days of the week for us usually.  But it will be god to recieve some new training and to see some missionaries again.  Really excited.  Should have pictures next week.  I love you guys.  I know this church is true, and that Chrsit died for our sins, that we could be saved from our sins, but not in our sins.  He loves us, and will comfort us when we need it.  Thankyou all so much for your support and love

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS,

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Finally!

This week is Kelly's Birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  How could I forget?  Kelly should repent for not having full faith in me :P So this week started out as a continuation of last week.  We had very little success with lots of hours of knocking.  We were putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to do good, but we were having so much trouble finding anyone to talk to that we were getting frustrated with ourselves.  After a full week of not getting into a single new home, we Finally started finding people on Thursday.  We had an appointment up like 3 Keys, so we designated that day to be the day that we would go and work in the slightly higher keys.  We were able to get into one new home, and we also were able to talk to a man we had met the last week.  He is super cool.  This time we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and were able to talk for a short while about it.  After a short spiritual discussion he asked us about what we do and whatnot.  We told him we knocked doors all day, we werent paid, we love this gospel basically.  He said since we put so much effort into what we do, he would put some effort into reading and praying.  He is a really funny guy, and we are really excited for him in the future.  We know he will have his prayers answered.  Friday we went down to some areas we hadnt knocked in Key West.  It was slim pickings again, but we were able to get a return appointment with this one lady.  We came back the next day and we knocked first for a little bit, and we had some good success and will be meeting with some new people down there now.  We then went and knocked the ladies door, and she said that there wasnt any man (we told her the day before about the man rule).  I asked her what she could do so we could come in, maybe a neighbor or someone.  Her eyes opened wide and she went and asked a neighbor like 3 doors down if he would come and sit with us.  We were brief but felt the spirit pretty strong.  The man had to leave quickly so thats why we were quick, but she told us as we were leaving that God works in mysterious ways, and this time since we came back she knew that we had been sent there and she couldn't see us leave.  It was pretty cool.  Yesterday we were able to get 6 new investigators also.  One from a recent convert, and a family of 5 we met knocking.  It was really cool.  We were able to set the family with dates, so that was really cool.  We are so excited for the work going on down here.  I know the church is true and that the gospel is very important all our lives.  I know that Christ was born humbly, but lived divinely.  He taught us all the things we need, and he also suffered for us in our infirmities and our sins, our pains and our afflictions.  I know he loves us and that this special time of year we get to celebrate his birth.  I know I can't celebrate his birth and life better than telling people about him and inviting them to come unto him.  I love this work and am so grateful to be out here.  Thank you all so much for your love and support.  I love you all and want to you to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas.  I'm so grateful for all you do.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

PS I got the two packages.  It was fun getting all them, cannot wait to open them.  So christmas will be 30-35 minutes of a call.  We can use skype. We were invited to 2 members house that day, one for lunch, the other for dinner and a lesson with some nonmembers.  We will ask them if we can use one of their computers for skype.  If not we will be on the phone.  Do you have a Skype account?  Elder Voges still in the Provo MTC?  I'm glad Elder Grant and Elder Carlson met.  It would be cool if they were companions, they would probably get along well.  Hopefully I'll hear from them soon.  I wrote Jack last week too. Thankyou so much for everything you do.  I hope you have a good week.  Love you all

Trying to Find the Key to Success

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK CHELSIE!!!!  This week we have been doing a lot of knocking again, with minimal success.  It was a bummer, but we are going to continue on in diligence.  We are trying to find the Key to Success.  We are trying to find little adjustments that we can do to get more people interested in what we are doing.  The problem is people close the door a lot before we can say anything.  We have knocked almost all of the newtown half of Key West since I got here, and a lot of the Old Town.  So one of the Keys to Success that we came up with is to use another Key.  We have mostly worked in Key West, Stock Island, and Key Haven since I got here, the lowest three keys.  We had an appointment in a higher key, so when we went up we knocked.  2/3 people that answered in the hour or so of knocking were interested and said we can come back.  We are pretty excited to go back.  So we are seeing if there is some success that can be found in the other Keys.  We are going to continue to  explore the higher keys.  The problem with Key West is that it has all been knocked a bunch.  We bring members to knock with us sometimes, and they will sometimes comment about how they remember knocking the same complex like 8 months ago.  Just in a short transfer we were able to knock out a good portion, so most people know what we are doing when they see us at the door.  But the upper keys have had less attention, so hopefully we can find some gold in them keys.  We are working pretty hard, and trying to use Christmas now since people should be thinking of Christ more.  We have a good portion of people that said we can come visit them, so we are continually passing by, but since no one wants to set appointments we have a hard time catching them at the right time.  We are looking forward to the coming weeks though.  We should start seeing some more success as we go.  I'm so greatful for all your support and love.  I know this church is true and that there is no greater work than missionary work.  I know I'm called to be here by the Lord, and I know that Jesus Christ lives.  I am so excited to celebrate his birth at this time of the year now, and cannot think of a better way than to be sharing his gospel.  I love this gospel so much.  I love you all too.  Thankyou for what you all do for me, and the love you show me.

 

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen