Thanks for the pictures. I feel really sick, and this is going to be a short email because I cannot stay here to long. This Sunday President Anderson came to church and we also had a baptism of a pure bread Lamanite, from the Seminole tribe. It was an amazing baptism, and he is already inviting others to follow him and read in the Book of Mormon and see what it has for them. The Larry Echo Hawk talk about the Book of Mormon is what set him over. We also got to ride through the hurricane on our bikes because we are running low on miles. It wasnt bad. It was super cool to watch though because it was the outer edge that hit us, so we could see the could come from the north and last 5 minutes and keep going south. We are teaching a lot of families so that is super cool, but I have to go now, sorry for the short letter, I love you all.

Another Transfer

We had an excellent week this week, and we also got news that we are both staying in Okeechobee for another 6 weeks. It is going to be a great one. We have some amazing prospects, and we are so excited to see people coming unto Christ in our area. We also got news that the highest baptizing mission in the USA and Canada is outside of Utah, and its the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission!!! It has been super fun being apart of a mission that has grown so much. We have been so blessed with the opportunity to bring souls unto Christ and feel his Atoning sacrifice. This week we were able to find some really awesome people as well. We left a blessing with this one lady, and she was crying afterwards, and she accepted to be baptized right there. We went back later in the week and she was not there, but her brother was, and he said that she had been in a hard situation, crying and praying for something to happen, and then we showed up. Since we had left the blessing, he had seen a huge change in her, where she was now always smiling and talking about her baptism coming up. He said that he is not a churchy person, but because of the amazing change, he knows we are representatives of Jesus Christ and he too now wants to be baptized. It was an awesome experience, and they are doing super well now. We also had some other great experiences with people taking steps to get closer to Jesus Christ in their lives. We were also able to set some other dates coming up, so we are super excited to see the branch growing here. Elder Larsen thought for sure he was going since he has been here a while now, and was sad that he was going to miss everything that is coming up this transfer, but is now excited beyond belief to know that he is staying and that he will get to see all of it happen. We have been so blessed, and I am so grateful for all that God gives us. I know that he cares for us, and that he will send help when we need it. he knows the exact time and place, and will always be there as long as we are willing to give our burdens and strong wills to him. I love this work and I know that it is the work of Jesus Christ. I love you all and am grateful for your help and support.

Love Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Crazy Week

This week was a crazy week for us. We had some good fun. We had a lot of meetings, really far away, since everything is so far away from us, and with those combined with General Conference we were out fully pumped and fully excited to do missionary work. We focused on seeing everyone not as they are, but as they may become. We were seriously trying to help everyone, no matter their situation, come unto Christ and feel his love, strength, and healing power. We were having a particularly hard day as we were knocking on Wednesday, with a lot of opposition. We just kept going, and we turned a corner and saw a Spanish family getting home, we went up and talked to them, and we were able to pray with them, and the daughter that spoke English she might be baptized. We came back Friday and were able to help her see all the blessings of baptism, with the peace and healing that she would feel. She was not able to make it to church, but we have high hopes for her. We also showed a lot of people the parts of General Conference that they had not seen. We showed this one Seminole the Larry Echo Hawk talk about the Native Americans and the Book of Mormon, and he later called one of the members of the Branch Presidency and told him that he is now going to be preparing to be baptized because all his questions and concerns have been answered, and knows that this is what God wants him to do. He is so much fun, and we have been able to see a lot of progress with him and we are super excited to go out and visit with him again. So we have seen a lot of progress, and we also had a lot of great talks from the Stake this week about the Holy Ghost. It has been really great to see what is going on here at this time, and I am so grateful that I am grateful to be apart of the great work that the Lord is commencing here. I know that He loves his children here, and that He loves them everywhere, and that if we strive to see them as they may become through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we may be able to inspire, uplift, comfort, guide, strengthen, and love our brethren and sisters in a greater manner, with more inspiration to us as to what they may do for the Lord. I know this is His work, and that he wants to best for all of us. I love doing it so much, and I love you all so much. I hope to hear from you soon

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

General Conference

What an amazing General Conference, it is always just the boost that we need after a long wait. We really enjoyed it and have been talking about ways to apply what we learned now. We were not able to get anyone to come to the church and watch the conference, but we did help a lot of them watch it at home, which was exciting. They all enjoyed it, of course, no one better you can trust than the Prophet and Apostles of God right? We had an interesting week. We worked pretty hard to get people to conference, and we also almost had a baptism, but due to some health problems, it will be delayed until the following Sunday, which is okay. We also had a family tell us they are going to be baptized on the day after Thanksgiving because they are going to have their family down in town to see. Sad that it will take so long to join the Kingdom of God, but I guess better then than never. We have been able to start sifting through our investigators now to see who is really dedicated and who is just kind of allowing us to come by, so that has been good because we know where to focus our energies now and to start looking even harder now. Again i do not know really what to say, everything here in Okeechobee kind of always stays the same. It is going by really fast though, especially since this is a short transfer for us. I do wonder with the change in the stay in the MTC if that will affect our transfer cycles again because we had to move a week so the Creole program would come in on time into our mission, but now it might be like 3 weeks off again, so hopefully that does not cut my mission off by another 3 weeks, that would be a huge bummer. We are doing good here in Okeechobee though, sometimes lonely, so it is always nice to get mail, which I have gotten a decent amount of being here which has been a huge booster. I love this work, and I am grateful that I get to be a part of it, and that I can serve these people here in Okeechobee. I have learned so much, especially about loving people, and I am grateful for every minute that I have been given to serve my God. I love this gospel so much, and I know the hope it gives us is true, and that we all will be able to feel strengthened throughout our days as we ask for the Lords help, and that some day we will all be able to live in our families forever in happiness and glory. I love you all, and am thankful for all you do.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Big Things in a Small Town

This has been a pretty good week for us here in the middle of no where. I really am getting to know where I am at now. It isnt to hard on a count that everything is either way far away and we take one of the highways to it, or it is really close inside this little town. It has been fun though. We worked really hard this week and we saw a lot of blessings from our efforts, we just need to keep on pushing so we can have the success that the Lord wants here. We were really blessed. We had a family at church and two more, and they all loved it. We have a lot of people lined up to come to conference as well this weekend. We had like a million people that said they were going to come this weekend to church, but we just were not able to get them all there, so we will be continually working with them to get them to take that step of faith. We have a lot of hope for growth here, and we are already seeing it. We have already quadrupled our teaching pool, and we have a lot of people that are excited to come and be baptized, we just need to help them do the rest as well. We had one guy come to church that doesnt speak much english, but we paired him with our cuban, and they got along together super well, and originally the man had told us he was only going to come every other week because he wanted to go to his church as well, but he loved it and said he will be back next week, so we will be working hard with him to make sure he is able to feel all the blessings our Savior has for him. I dont know why, i just dont have much to say today, except that I am doing pretty well even in the middle of no where. I know that God is blessing us so much, and I am grateful to be apart of this branch at a time of such sucess. I know that God loves each and every one of his children, and that when we turn to him, and follow the counsel we are given and he has provided from leaders and the scriptures, we are able to feel his love even greater and overcome any difficulty that we may have. I love this work so much, and I love you all, always stay strong in the faith, and I cannot wait to hear from you soon.

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Okeechobee

Well last week I thought I was going to be leaving the Great White North, but instead I made it to the real Great White North, Okeechobee. I am as far north as it gets in our mission, and as far West(besides Key West) as it gets here. They just keep sending me to the farthest reaches of the mission, just a year later this time. It is nice though. A little more rural than I expected when I came to this mission, but it is good, a nice change. All the homes here are further apart and have a lot of land, so knocking takes a little bit longer. That and the fact that this place has been knocked over like crazy makes it an odd mix. It is nice though, I like it. One of the families here is related to one of the families down in Key West. They were amazing down there, they helped us out so much. The K family. They called each other and told them that I made it up here now, it would be cool if they came on vacation up here, I know they do it a lot. So far we have had some success. Suprisingly enough most of the people that we have met this week have been Spanish, which is great because I can still speak with them and I love teaching Spanish people, but there is not to much Spanish in the branch so it will be a little hard integrating them, and I have to teach them everything because my companion is an English missionary. His name is Elder L. He was origanally in the Oralando mission, but got switched when our mission took over one of their zones. He goes home in February, so he still has a little bit of time left. He has been here in Okeechobee for a while, but he is excited to get the work rolling here. We did a lot of things that really changed the dynamic of the work here this past week. With our new investigators we should start seeing progress pretty quickly here. We also have some families that have just been floating around waiting to be taught and baptized, so we are excited to get working with them, we talked to them yesterday and are planning on meeting with them all this week. We have also met some really nice people that have been helpful to us. That is basically all that is going on here though. I love you all, and I am thankful for all that you do for me. I love this this gospel and I know that it is true, and that no matter where we are, even in the middle of an ocea, or a farm town, or a big city, or the suburbs (been to them all now), there are people waiting for us. I know Jesus Christ knows us and cares for us, and he wants the best for us. I love this work and I love you all

Love,

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Goodbye Great White North

So this week I am being transferred, I will find out tomorrow where and who is my companion. I is a bummer because I only was able to be here 2 transfers, and the ward here is amazing, and the area is just so much fun. I will miss a lot of the amazing members here, but where ever I go I guess that is where I will be needed of the Lord. I grew a lot here, and am excited the upcoming challenges and the things to come. This past week we had an excellent week. We received a new part to our area, basically doubling it in area, which made it tons of fun to explore. We found a lot of Spanish, and were also able to double basically every single one of our Key Indicators as well. We went from 0-3 dates for the thirtieth since the last email, so it was going pretty well. My companion Elder G will be able to take care of it though, so I am not to worried, and I am excited to be watching what goes on in it while I am gone. Yesterday was a crazy day that I wanted to share a little bit about. We were in an exchange in the new part of my area. We went down and saw some other missionaries down there that told us about someone who is basically ready to be baptized, but is a little stubborn, so we went over and talked to him. He almost accepted a date for this weekend, said it sounded super tempting, but we just were not able to get past it, the new Elders will be stopping by this week and they should be able to get him there, he is really just playing hard to get. Then afterwards we went to see some less actives, which was good, and on the way to go knocking we were contacting and we contacted some crazy people. We tried to help the people as much as we could, and we stopped to talk to them for a while. This one guy was far from home trying to get back, and we got him into a good path, but most of what we did was talk to him. Afterwards we went and found some people we had blessed on Saturday with our Recent Convert and we were able to help them see the blessings of Baptism, and even this one girl that said she didn't believe in God was excited to learn more the next time because she is looking for something different, and really a relationship with God, so it was super fun. I guess talking about it doesnt seem so different, but being with the actual people, something was different yesterday, and we felt tons of Love for everyone we met. I love the people here so much, and I love the gospel. I guess that is why I am leaving because whenever I love the people so much, that is when President Anderson sends me somewhere else to grow even more love there. I love my mission and I know that it is what God wants from me, and that he is looking out for me. I love you all and I pray for you, Thankyou for your support

Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen