Another Transfer gone

Well, that was a fast transfer. Elder P became assistant at transfer meeting this week, so that was pretty exciting. He was a fun Elder to be with, we got a long super well, it just went by too fast. Elder S is amazing, my new companion. He was trained by Elder F, my first Zone Leader, who told me my second transfer when he was training him that we would be companions, pretty cool. He is from Orem, Utah, and also went to BYU and stayed in May hall. We have a lot of fun together. We did have a little rough of a beginning though. We did not have to much success finding people at the beginning of the week, and we actually ended up leaving more blessings than either of us have ever left before in a week. It was kind of sad because we just did not find many cool people out of it. We had one day where we left 11 blessings, and either no one was responding , or they were Spanish. The Sisters in our area were able to capitalize on the Spanish we blessed and they have some cool people to teach now. But finally, after a long time of knocking doors and talking to everyone we could see, and getting a lot of negativity, and then finally on the 12th blessing, we saw a miracle happen. We found saw a home with a truck, and Elder S said it looked English, and I said no, it looks like a Spanish home. We went up to it, and we were both right. They were of Spanish decent, but spoke English. She opened the door, and then her husband drove up as we were talking to her. They both were excited for baptism when we extended, and have been looking on where to go, they just moved in, and had a new baby. We are super excited for them. It was a good weekend, where we did a lot of looking inward, and finding how we can improve. We saw so many miracles as we humbled ourselves, and just put the Love of others and of God before anything else. I love this work, and I love how it makes me grow. God always has a plan, and he works in mysterious ways, that always seem to make us grow in amazing ways. I know that Jesus Christ lives, and that he knows us, and exactly what we go through. I love him. I love you all, and the example you give me.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

This week has been a crazy one. We did not quite do as good on finding as we should of, but we still saw some miracles happen. We had some people preparing to be baptized this Sunday, but slowly they all started to fall. One was not doing so well because he had some problems with the Word of Wisdom, which we taught him early in the week, so we knew that General Conference was going to be pivotal to him. We came and talked to him about it right before again, and he set aside everything he had planned to come to General Conference. He came to every session, which was a miracle because Elder P and I had been praying to have someone come to every session. After the final session, we sat down and talked with him for a while with our Bishop. Bishop bore pure testimony to him, that with ours and that of the prophets and apostles, he knew he needed to change. He got baptized right afterwards, we had started feeling up the font before hand. It was an amazing miracle. The baptismal font had not filled up all the way, so we had to do the baptism on our knees, it was an amazing experience. Right after we went to his home and took anything and everything that was his that had anything to do with the Word of Wisdom. He was completely changed from when we had taught him it originally. He is doing amazing now, and has already started sharing the gospel with his friends. It was so amazing that we could be apart of his life. In the zone we have seen a huge need to revamp the teaching pools of everyone. This month we will have a giant focus on New Investigators, and we have a lot of good plans to help followup. We learned a ton in Zone Leader Council about how to improve all of our trainings, and we have come up with some ideas to uniform our trainings together, still allowing plenty of space to follow the spirit, and also how to be more prepared for District Trainings. We are so excited for this month. I love this work so much, and I am so grateful that we are able to be apart in others lives to help them come the Jesus Christ. I know that He lives, and that He loves each one of us, and He wants to forgive us. I know that He has His prophets and apostles here on the earth, leading us now. I love you all

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Miracle Week

This week was a week of miracles for us! We were slightly discouraged at first, because we hadn't had anyone in sacrament for 2 weeks, so we went out and found people right away. We had a lot of good things happen. We decided we wanted to go out and declare repentance to everyone, and to also serve everyone and everything. We had multiple amazing experiences. One family we had been teaching for a little while, but the girls had only come to church once, we were having problems reaching. We stopped by on Saturday for one more try, and the mom was home. We happen to ask if we could clean her car, and she said yes. We cleaned her car and talked to her for a while. It was awesome. She really opened up to us. She then went and picked up her girls and let them go to the Young Women's Broadcast on Saturday night. The girls had an amazing time, and then were baptized the next day after church. It was such an amazing experience. Then we had an investigator call us on Saturday morning and tell us that he couldn't come to church because he couldnt leave his pastor, and he asked us not to stop by anymore. We were heartbroken because we had an amazing experience meeting him, so we told him to Pray about it. He did and he called us back like 3 hours later, and asked us to come by. We came by and he expressed how excited he was to come to church, and new that God had been preparing him for this baptism. We are so excited for the amazing miracles that God is providing, and we know that it is him guiding the work here.

In the Book of Mormon I studied a lot about the humility and diligence this week, really trying to understand even greater those principles. I also read a little more around, and read in Mosiah 4:11 an amazing verse. I was so excited when I read the verse. It all started to connect a little bit more for me. It made me think about the training Sister Anderson gave about gratefulness, and I realized how intertwined being thankful and grateful are to humility and diligence. I am so grateful for the time that I am able to serve here, and will keep giving it my BEST!

I know that God loves us all, and he wants the best for us, and is always giving us the things that we need, even the trials we need, to be able to grow and become as he sees us. I love this work so much and I know that it is the greatest thing that I have ever done. I love you all, and thank you so much

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Introspection

This week was not the week that we were hoping for. This week Elder P and I worked more in our area than we have since we have been together, partially due to miles and not being able to do companionship studies far from home, but either way we worked extremely hard in our area. We started out great reaching almost all of our midweek goals on Monday, and then we just did not have much success after that. We found some amazing people during the week, which we thought were going to be amazing, but we had a really hard time getting back into contact with them. The entire week we tried to introspect, and I think we did it to the point that we wore ourselves out and were looking beyond the mark. We had a huge desire to get people to church this past week, so we invited everyone everywhere to come to church and prepare for baptism, and we had so many people who were committed and excited to come, and then no one showed up. We talked a lot about it after church, and repentance came to mind. We have continued to talk about it, and we feel out of our desire to get everyone to church, we focused too much on the application and not enough on the why, repentance. This week we are going to be declaring repentance the best we can, and making sure that everything we do is tied to bringing people unto repentance, and having urgency to move forward, and not procrastinate the day of their repentance. We did have some amazing spiritual experiences this week. We met with a new investigator who is a Native American Cuban. We hit it off really great because of the things I learned when I was in Okeechobee with the Seminoles, and he even knows some of them. Then in the lesson we had a strong feeling to share Alma 34:32, but it wasn't coming out, and then he asked about the Law of Chastity, and he read the verse before, and after, and he said those were the most powerful sentences he has read in his life, and he now realizes that life is here for us to master our bodies. Later in the week we met with someone who Elder P contacted while he was leaf blowing. He accepted to be baptized, and he is preparing to be baptized once again so he can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. He is really awesome, and called to make sure that we were coming by. Overall we are doing good. We have done a lot of good things and are continuing onward. I know that the Lord will help us, and he always provides miracles when we have the faith. I love the Lord, and I am so grateful that I can be here to do his work. I love you all so much!

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

More pictures from Okeechobee

Hectic week

A sister in his current ward emailed these pictures to me and said she will be like paparazzi when he is around!

This week has been a whirlwind of excitement. We had some amazing things happen in our own area, and we were super excited for all the miracles that we saw. First we had an amazing two lessons with, a referral that we received this our first day together. We taught her the first time on Tuesday, where we set her with a date for the next Sunday because she had just made it to church. She was super excited, but a little aprehensive about her date. It was one of the most spiritual lessons of my entire mission. We testified to her of baptism, and showed her with Mosiah 18:8-10 that she truely was prepared to be baptized. The next day we went over and taught her everything else for her baptism, because she was going to be busy the rest of the week at work. Her husband had prepared her a little bit, but it was an amazing experience that we had with her. We taught about tithing, and she told her husband that the time has come that they must start to pay their tithing. She was so faithful in everything, and she understood so much of it as well. She was very anxious, but she made it to Sunday, and had a huge smile after her baptism. Another experience we had, had to do with our planning. Elder P and I have tried to apply the things we learned at ZLC and in the zone training we studied for, and we have been seeing miracles. We knew thata couple we had met two days before were going to have a hard time coming to church, especially with day light savings time, but we prepared an amazing lesson plan during weekly planning, then during companionship study the next day we went over it, created even a little bit more, and then practiced it with the other Elders in the apartment. They were so amazed by the power of the lesson, and we testified to them of the power of planning. We then taught the couple and they were so overpowered by the spirit, and knew they needed to come, and promised they would.
We had an amazing Zone training this week as well. It was very powerful and us and the zone learned a lot. The assistants came, and really helped out in it, and were always identifying the spirit so people would write down the impressions they had. It was a great week for us.

In the Book of Mormon we had some amazing studies this week. I studied a lot about how Nephi became who he became, starting from 1 Nephi 1-4. In those chapters Nephi goes through a lot to start with, and is put into a humble circumstance, "My father dwelt in a tent." Through the hard times he had, he started depending on the Lord, even, "crying unto the Lord," and the Lord did visit him and he received a confirmation to follow the words of his father, and from that point on, he never did stray. That study combined with Elder P study of 1 Nephi 17, we were inspired, and also shared our insights with a lot of the members of the zone. It really helped us be resolved throughout the entire week.

We have been so blessed here. I love my mission, and I love all that the Lord does for us. I know that He cares for me, and all of his children here, and he is always preparing people to come to him and receive the blessings that he has prepared. I love you all, and I cannot wait to hear from you.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Zone leader

This week was a great week in the H Zone and the P area! We had a lot of awesome things go on here, and we are really excited for the work that is going on here. We have a lot of new faces, and a lot of new experiences going on, and we are so grateful to be here at this time to be apart of this great work. We are also extremely happy that we were able to reach 42 baptisms as a mission, breaking a record for a single week for us. We have 3 sister companionships training, 1 elder training, 2 new district leaders, and 2 of the training sisters are pink washing in. We have had a lot to do to start off this transfer.

In the P area we had a great week. We have been super busy, and looking to use our time the most effectively. We also started out early on praying to find a family that would follow Christ in their lives. Thursday night we went to a spot we had prayed about, and asked God for that exact thing, that we might be able to find a family that night. We followed the feelings we had and the third door we knocked we met a great family. We could not go in, but we said a pray with them at their door, with the spirit so strong. As we invited them to be baptized they accepted right away, and accepted for March 10! They were so excited. They missed our return appointment on Friday, but we were able to set another one up for Saturday, where we found out that Teddy was looking for greater peace in her life and balance, and her daughters are looking for greater guidance in their lives, and they also have always wanted to be baptized. the mom did not make it to church, but her daughters were able to be there, and they saw the baptism. They both felt the spirit strong there, and knew that that is what they wanted to do. We were able to testify to them that night that they can be ready this coming Sunday, and they are so excited. They are coming to a FHE tonight. We also had an amazing experience on the first day, where a family asked if they could teach them at the church, and we are going to be visiting them tomorrow. The husband is a member, and wants his wife baptized so they can be sealed in the temple.

I was able to go to a Zone Leader Council for the first time this Friday, and it was amazing. We received so much revelation, and I am so excited for the work that we have to do here in H. I am so grateful for the Lord and all that he does for me and the people around me. I know that Jesus Christ lives, and that he loves us, and will support us through anything. I know that we can receive greater inspiration as we follow him and desire that in our lives and plan to help others in the best ways. I love this gospel, and I love this work. I love you all, thank you so much for all that you do.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

He's a zone leader now :)

And on the back row in a picture for once!

Picture from Okeechobee

Me Voy

This week was a crazy week to end in Okeechobee. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I received to serve in this branch, and learn so many things here. It was definitely an adventure here, it was really hard at first, but I loved it, and saw the blessings come come as I pushed forwards, and I love the people here so much. I know they are in good hands with Elder D, and this branch will continue to progress. This week we had some good things happen. We solidified a family to be baptized next week so next transfer and month will start out strong for Okeechobee. We also have a bunch of other people lined up for the next week, so Okeechobee should be a big producer here in March, I am excited for whoever comes here. We had some spiritual strong lessons this week as well. One of our investigators,who lost her Aunt on Friday, called and asked if we could come over that day and talk to her. We shared with her the plan, and it was one of the sweetest times that I have ever shared the plan with someone. She said that she knew that it all has to be true, and she was so grateful that we were able to be there so quickly to support her and give her the comfort that she needed at that time. We were able to build great confidence in her, and she is excited to baptized on March 10 with her 2 sons as well. She just has to make it to church. It was an awesome experience. We also went knocking everywhere this past week, and people in every direction asked us to pray for someone who had died in their family Friday morning, and we found out that our one investigator is apparently related to people all over Okeechobee because it was all for the same person. It was cool how the Lord led us to be able to comfort those people as well, and give them the opportunity to experience the gospel in their lives as well. Elder D and I had a lot of fun, and worked really hard this week to see if we could have any miracles happen. No baptism miracles this week, but we were able to prepare a lot of people for their own baptisms in the coming weeks, and I know that the Lord is really blessing this area. It will be really good for another missionary to be here and keep the fire going. I know that the Lord loves me and he is going to keep helping me as I do my best and keep pushing forward so I may be able to help others come unto Christ. I know that he has a plan for us, and a lot of the time it is not what we expect (i.e. coming to Okeechobee), but he has his reasons for it and he will always teach us something as we humble ourselves before him and follow him. I know that God and Christ live. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that as we push forward in faith in Christ, repent, keep our covenants, listen to the promptings of the spirit, and push forward through adversity, we will receive the grace and strength that we need, and we will all be with our Father once again. I love you all, and I am grateful for all that you do.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Miracle Week

This week was a super good week. We had a ton of miracles happen here. We had a super amazing training this Thursday where Elder O. Vincent Haleck came and spoke to us with his wife. At it President A had us all sign a piece of paper that quoted Doctrine and Covenants 4 as being our promise and Mosiah 5:15 as the Lords promise. Right before he had us all sign it, he said that it is going to be placed inside the Florida Fort Lauderdale Temple cornerstone, so our names will be inside the temple with that promise he said until the coming of Christ. It was an amazingly spiritual moment. We were really trying to do everything we could to do to fulfill our purpose this week. One amazing thing that happened is we were driving down the road back to Okeechobee after a baptismal interview, and I had a feeling to see this one lady. We had seen her before, and it had just been a giant struggle about the Book of Mormon being in the Bible or not, so I had o go back because she did not show any desires to do anything before, but felt it again, and I asked my companion if he though we should, and he said sure, so I flipped around and we went and saw her. It started out just about the same way, and then at the end, Elder D started to reason with her about the Book of Mormon and she ended up crying saying that she knew it was the word of God, and I know that it would not have happened if it was not for following that impression. Yesterday I was on an exchange with Elder B in Fort Pierce, and we knocked for a short while, and the first floor we knocked we had no success, and everyone was screaming and cussing, so we decided to move to the next hall over, and we contacted a lady outside that said yes to baptism, and then we met another amazing lady. She was so awesome. She opened up, and it started out the exact same as a role play we had had earlier that day with Elder S, where there was baby crying and she couldn't really talk to us much, but the we prayed with her finally, and she said that she had prayed earlier that morning to hear God's messengers, and we showed up and she knew it was of God and committed to be baptized the 3rd of March. It was a sweet experience. We had so many other amazing things happen, and it was really awesome to see the Lord blessing us this week. I know that the Lord cares for us and loves us. I know he has a plan for each on of us, and wants us to be able to have success in our lives. I know that he will do provide the way as we seek his will. I love you all and thank you all for what you all do, it is really amazing.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

More pictures

Older pictures

Mission pictures

Lots of Knocking

This week has been a really good week. We had a big push in the zone to get 300 blessings as a zone to break all records here, and it really gave us a lot of fire. We went out and harvested with a lot of fire, and a lot of enthusiasm, and we saw some super awesome miracles come from it. By Saturday we already had 28 in Okeechobee, which was more than was required per companionship, but we knew as we harvested for at least an hour like we do everyday, that the Lord would bless us for continuing on in faith. The first door we knocked was awesome. When she came out we gave her the approach, and she asked us that we pray for her family, and as my companion said the prayer, we could hear her sobbing. The spirit got super strong. As soon as we ended she said she didnt know why she was crying, she just felt so good. I testified of the spirit to her and how she can receive it through baptism on the 24th, and she said she would be there for sure. She is so excited for us to come back so she can learn more. We also had an amazing experience teaching another family. Elder D and I taught the husband of the family that we had not met yet, and he is even more desirous than his wife. We came back the next Thursday and we were able to teach the entire family, and the spirit was so strong there as well. They both expressed that they knew the Book of Mormon to be the word of God, and could understand more than they ever had before. The awesome thing is they are married, which seems to be extremely rare here in Okeechobee. We are so excited for them. We were also able to have some fun exchanges here where I was able to bring one Elder here, and go and visit another area. We have had a lot of exchanges here in the past 3 months and it has been a lot of fun. I love the work that I am able to do here, and the things that the Lord does here. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and he has given us and will give us many opportunities to come unto him. I am so grateful that I am able to see so many miracles and learn how to lean upon the Lord in my life as I am here. I am so grateful for all the love you all show me, I love you all for everything you do.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Faith February

We had a few really awesome experiences knocking doors this week. On Wednesday we were harvesting, and no one was really responding very well, and then it came time to go see someone, and there were 3 more houses on the other side of the street that we had not done yet, and we decided to do them, and of course the very last one of them we met a man, who was very excited to be baptized. Then on Friday we were knocking another street where we met a few really awesome people. One lady told us that we could not come in because her mother was having therapy treatment(and there was not a man there anyways) so we said a prayer with her at the door, and she started crying during the prayer. We identified the spirit, which was so strong, and we invited her to be baptized, and she said, "well, that sounds good, but I am Catholic and was baptized as a baby." and we testified to her how she could take this step now, and receive the strength she needs at this time to get through her trials, and she accepted very quickly. We were also able to have a lot of new youth come to mutual, and one came to church this week. It was super exciting, and we are seeing a lot of progress here. We definately had a different week than what we had expected, but it was still a good week with a lot of things going on. We have also been able to go on a lot of exchanges, and we will be able to have more exchanges coming in the next few weeks, so we are having a lot of fun, and working all over the place. We are also having Elder O. Vincent Haleck of the Seventy come and visit our mission next week. I think that he is the new Elder that covers our area, I'm not totally sure, but that is what I think. It should be pretty exciting though when he come to visit us. Our mission is still doing really well, and I am sure that we are only going to be getting better and better as a mission. I am so grateful for the time that I have been blessed to be here, and for the strength and guidance that Heavenly Father gives us. I am so grateful for His love and all the experiences He lets me have. I know that He loves each and every one of us, and is always providing opportunities for us to learn and come closer to Him. I love this gospel, and I know that it is true. I love my mission, and I love you all. Thank you for all you do

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Exchanges exchanges

This week was an inspiring with zone conference and some good exchanges. We learned a lot and have been planning like crazy to help our investigators use the Book of Mormon better in their lives to have the blessings that we have, and to bring them closer to our Heavenly Father through baptism. We were able to learn in our training this week about how to use the Book of Mormon better in every lesson, and it was a very inspiring training that has helped Elder D and I continue to plan better for our investigators. This week we had another baptism, which was another great experience. Her name is E, she is a great person. She was so excited for her baptism, and she is helping the young women grow. She even invited some of her friends to her baptism. It was super cool, and I am so happy that I was blessed to be here for her baptism. We have been working pretty closely with the youth as well, and it has really been paying off. We have been able to call on them at almost any time, and they are excited to come out and teach with us, and we have been able to receive some great referrals and one of the members told us something great. He said that, "I was worried my son was going to go on a mission, but since he has been coming out with you the past few weeks, we have seen him grow, and love what he does with you all, and he is excited to have that opportunity for himself." It was really amazing to hear that for me, and the dad is now working on times when he can come with us as well. We are continuing to do better and better here, and I love the work that is going on. I love this work, and I love what the Lord does for us. I know that he is always there for me, and he is helping so many people come unto him quickly. I have been so blessed, and I know that God is looking for all of our success. I love you all, and all that you do for me.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

This week we had some awesome things happen. On Saturday we were knocking doors, and we just kept on going. It was raining, and we were not seeing any success. We had a district training about going one more, and we just were not going to stop until we had to. We harvested for twice as long as we planned in the rain, and nothing came from it, and I kept asking myself what more do we need to do. Then we had a dinner appointment with a member that night with a girl we have been trying to teach, but nothing has come of it. Well they picked us up late, so we got there, ate, and left, but the son and his girlfriend (the one we are trying to teach). In the car ride they were talking about something, and it came up that she had received her answer to be baptized, so she is going to be baptized this coming Sunday now. We are so excited for her, and I had a strong feeling that it happened that night because we had gone the extra mile. It was an awesome experience. We also were able to have the members come out with a us a decent amount this week, and we saw a lot of success from that. Our recent convert baptized his sons this Sunday as well, which was super exciting. We were able to see a lot of blessing from the Lord this week. Elder D and I are getting along great and doing awesome work. I know that we were placed here together to do some great things, and I know that the Lord has prepared people and He is blessing us to be able to meet them. I know that we are his children, and that He loves each and everyone of us. I love him, and am grateful for my opportunity to serve him with all my heart might mind and strength. I love you all, and thank you for all you do

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

6 more weeks

Another 6 weeks in Okeechobee, itll be the longest I will have ever have been in an area! I am super excited for this one. This week we had an amazing week. The Lord just keeps on providing for us. We started out the week with some good exchanges. Elder Bj came here with me, and we did some good harvesting. We found some people to go back too, but overall, we didn't find anyone that I was amazingly excited to go back and see. We weren't able to recontact them during the week, and we were planning on trying back again on Sunday, because we had someone to visit up there anyways. Well Saturday came, and we were biking around, just not having much success, and I thought occasionally of trying to bike up north to see if they were home, but them we got a call. Elder D answers and freaked out. He handed me the phone and said, "He wants to be baptized, do something!" So I took the phone, and we found out it was someone who I had blessed with Elder Bj earlier in the week. He was dying to be baptized, so we said we would be to his house as soon as possible, it took about half an hour going as fast as we could. We got there, and he was solid, super excited and just really wanted to make some changes. We set him with a date, and he was super excited to read the Book of Mormon, and to come to church. He is still super excited to be baptized, and now come to mutual this Wednesday, and bring some friends. Elder D has also just been amazing in everything. One day I was using the restroom at the gas station, and I come out hearing him teach the worker about the Word of Wisdom. It was amazing to see him boldly testifying no matter where he is. We had tons of fun this week, and a bunch of other things happened as well. We are doing super good here, and I know that the Lord is watching out for us. I know that he loves each and every one of us, and he knows how to help us the best. He has many things prepared, and he always has doors opening for us to achieve the things he has prepared for us. I love Him with my soul, and I am grateful for my opportunity to serve Him. I love you all, and am grateful for your support, and all that you do for me.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Long Trip

This week was a crazy week. We had a lot of things happen. The beginning of the week we spent Preperation day in Fort Pierce, and ended it trying to have a baptismal interview there, but it fell through. The next day we had district training and then we had an exchange. Then the next morning we drove back to Fort Pierce, to pick up Elder D, and from there drove to Boca Raton, where we caught a ride with another trainer to Plantation for a trainers trainees meeting. It was a crazy long day, and we didn't get home until 6. Then the next day we had to be in Vero Beach to do another baptismal interview, which went great, but put us back in Okeechobee around 6:45. It was a lot of driving. We some how were able to do just about the same amount of work though as a normal week. The Lord blessed us as we were trying to help out other missionaries, and trying our best to work the little time that we had here in Okeechobee, it was a great experience to see how he can make sure we get work done, even if we are not there as much. One street we knocked, and then we had to give a member the sacrament, but Elder D this time said 1 more door, and after the reinvite to be baptized on a date she accepted to prepare. She was super excited and I was so happy to see Elder Dmaking that point. We have been so blessed, and I am so grateful for all the opportunites that the Lord gives us to become better, and to have success. I know that he cares for us, and he is watching over us every second, and wants the best for us. He has prepared a way for us to succeed, and as we continue following his commandments, we will have his guidance to reach that success. I love this work, and I love you all, thank you for what you do, and the support you give me

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen