Elder Bowen is serving in the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission. He is teaching in the Spanish language.

Monday, October 24, 2011

I can see Cuba from my house!

So transfers came and now I am with Elder Bo down in Key West.  We cover almost all the keys.  Except for Key Largo.  It is amazing.  We live in a trailer of one of the members, but it is super nice.  We can't actually see Cuba from out home, but at night if you go to the South side you can see the lights from Cuba.  We are closer to Cuba than continental U.S.  I didnt take any pictures because I left my camera and suit in the Homestead Elders apartment, which is where we leave everyone and take a bus down.  I forgot it there, but have it again now.  I will take pictures soon.  I feel great down here and am super excited for teh work here.  It is cooling down a lot now, and it feels less humid.  The salt air is a lot nicer too here, I love the smell and feel of it.  There isnt to much Spanish but there is some.  My companion is Mexican and is fluent in both English and Spanish, so he is helping me out alot.  He is from Arizona.  But so we got there the first night at around 7:30 and went and visited a recent convert right away.  The members there are really strong and love the missionaries.  I'm really excited for what is going on down there.  Then Thursday we had a full day.  As we were heading out we were in a neighborhood and Elder Bo says, "this is where I park my car."  I looked over and there was a Lamborghini parked in a garage.  It was awesome.  So we did some contacting, had some good lessons, and were back home.  The next day we were out knocking doors in downtown Key West, and someone said yeah comeback, but right now I'm super busy.  Goombay starts really soon.  Well Goombay is a Bohemian holiday celebrated down here and it has a lot of food and whatnot.  But it also starts off what is called Fantasy Fest(dont look up what it is), which we thought started today, not last Friday.  So we quickly called and got directions to knock contact anymore and start heading back to pack.  We had some lessons that day, but were not able to do near as much as we wanted.  So we packed up and came back up to Homestead on Saturday.  So we spent the past two days with the Homestead Elders split apart, one of us in the East, the other in the West.  I went in the West because there is more Spanish there and one of the companions is from Peru and is only learning English now.  Elder S.  So I went with them and we worked the area for two days.  It was really exciting to see how they work together.  Homestead West was closed last transfer and just reopened, so they have to do a lot of contacting and whatnot.  But so I worked with them and then this morning we got the call to come back up to Sunset, my last area.  We are all still in the same zone.  So I'm back in the same library emailing with Elder B and Elder S and their new trainees.  So this week we will be up here, and hopefully get to really help out.  Maybe I will see some of those baptisms after all.  But so until next Monday we will be out of the Keys, so I wont get to send any Key pictures until the next next Pday.  But it is beautiful down there and is really exciting.  We say they are training us to go to Cuba or Bahamas.  Which ever opens sooner for our mission  But so we are really excited for what is going to happen.  While we are gone we are having an investigator get baptized.  She is great, and has a great desire to be baptized.  We call daily and the members are helping her out.  We are super excited to be back down in the Keys.  So that has been my crazy week, cant wait to get back to working.  Love you all and thank you so much for your support.  I know this gospel is true and cannot wait to share it down in Key West.  I have seen how the Book of Mormon really helps people and know that it has brought innumerable blessings to my life.  I love you all and thank you so very much, cant wait to hear from you!
 
Con Amor,
Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A little late....

Well sorry last week I wasn't able to write a letter, but I am really excited to write now.  So I'll start off with last week.  It was a crazy week filled with miracles.  I dont really remember days any more though, but I'll say the two coolest things that happened.  First we went to go see C, who is a Media Referrals aunt in the same house.  We dropped off the Bible that was ordered a little while ago and C really wanted us to come back. It took us a little while because we would knock and she wouldnt be there, or she wouldnt have time.  Well this time we went and no one answered again.  We were pretty discouraged because she is so great.  We started walking away and we started talking about the coconuts in the trees above.  I said something about how I never had had one here in Florida.  Well the member we brought with us is with us a lot.  He is a recent convert and is awesome.  He is from Venezuela and really cool.  But so he said well lets get one.  He took off some of the dead palm fronds so he could climb it.  Usually we would have just gone away, but we were walking because Jose, the member, his bike was broken.  So we were walking with him.  He started to climb the tree after the fronds were out of the way.  Well after a minute this lady walks out crying.  We then realized it was C.  She said she came out because she saw Jose in the tree, and remembered him from the 2 times we had stopped by before and talked with her.  Well apparently the night before she was praying about that someone could help her take down the dead palm fronds because she was going to have to pay a lot of money.  The tree wasnt even on her property, but because she is where she is, she has to take care of the trees.  She never expected us to come.  We cleaned up all the trees and she expressed what a miricle it was for her.  We were then able to teach her the First lesson finally, and before I could invite her to be baptized, she said, well I will finish this book in about 3 weeks then I need to be baptized.  So we set her for this upcoming Sunday.  Well so later we go back and she had already read to Mormon, and it was like 3 days later.  We didnt have much time with her but left the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet.  We came back and she had completely filled it out and we reviewed it with her and then went over the commandments.  She said the study with the pamphlet was the best read yet.  She is super prepared and we are really excited for her.  Another family we are teaching had an interview with one great brother in the ward.  In the interview he invited them all to be baptized the 21st.  They accepted.  On Tuesday we had a FHE with both of them and it went great.  We talked about what needed to happen for the baptism and really got it set up for the 28th.  But they are already coming to church and they picked that day who is baptizing them. It was really exciting.  Now that brings us to this week.  Alot of that is from this past week to, but so we have been walking all week because Elder B's back tire is destroyed.  The catch doesnt catch anymore.  So we walked.  It was alright, but made it a little frustrating at times when members would cancell because we were really depending on them. It all worked out in the end though, and have had some great lessons this week, like some of the ones listed above.  Yesterday we had exchanges and I went out with the district leader Elder H.  He is awesome.  We had appointments with the family of 6 with dates, and C.  They both fell through, but we worked through it.  We went to go see a referral the Bishop gave us and were able to finally get in.  We werent knocking loud enough before apparently because it took some loud knocking for the dog to hear, and for the lady to get to the door.  Well we got in yesterday and had the first lesson.  It was exciting.  It was a spiritual lesson and we were able to extend baptism to her and her mom.  She wouldn't accept a date yet, but she is really excited and said she will pray and get an answer.  She has a lot of faith, we are excited for her.  So that brings us to today.  So I am being transferred.  We will find out tomorrow.  Everyone is the zone is changing companions.  Pretty crazy.  Cannot wait to see what happens.  But so next week I will be somewhere else having fun.  Well I Love you all and thank you for your support and everything you do for me.  I am so very grateful for your prayers and letters.  I can feel your strength.  Thank you all so much.  I love this work and this gospel.  I know that it is true, and that we are here on this earth to prepare to meet God.  I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and cant wait to bless us.  I can see so much of his love here, for me, and for all those that I am able to really get in contact with.  Love you all
 
Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen

Monday, October 10, 2011

No longer a Columbus Day fan!

This is all I got from Elder Bowen today:

I dont know if im going to be able to type later, the library was closed, and we only have 1 computer at the church.  The zone leaders took most of the time and left me and Elder B about 10 minutes each to write, and we have to write president first.  We have an appointment now with a family that has baptismal dates, so I need to head out.  I love you all, and really hope I can write later, but I dont know if I will be able to.  

Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for Columbus but so sad that the library was not open today!  Makes for a long week. 

Monday, October 3, 2011

Tonight, I'm going to talk to you candidly!

It sounds like Elder Holland's talk was one of Elder Bowen's favorites from his title! 
Elder Bowen could use some letters this week, if you find time to write him, I know he would appreciate it!


Wow what a powerful weekend!  As missionaries, General Conference was like Christmas to us.  My only regret is none of our investigators came to the church to see it.  Hopefully they were able to at least catch a little bit of it at home.  Some of the messages we felt were made for our investigators and are really going to try and encourage them to see it.  The temple announcements were very exciting.  Provo temple #2 sounds amazing, and all the others sound really exciting.  This week has been an interesting week.  Elder B suffers from Chronic headaches, which can get really bad during the day.  So this past week he had an appointment at with a doctor on Tuesday, and then he had an EEG on Thursday, which is really cool.  Today he will get an MRI and is doing a sleep study tonight.  So that has kept us a little bit off the street.  But we continue to do everything we are committed to do.  We invited someone to be baptized everyday except  Saturday and yesterday, due to obvious reasons.  We are up to 3 dates now, whereas just a week and a day ago, we had 0.  The invitations have really been spiritual experiences.  We also spend at least an hour every day knocking doors.  So besides the doctor on Tuesday, we only were able to have one more appointment.  Then Wednesday was a day of dropped appointments.  We went to go see a member referral we hadn't seen in a week or so.  Her place is really hard to get into because there are 3 security guards and gated all the way around, so we can only get in with an appointment.  Well we didn't have one, but decided we needed to try.  Somehow the security guards phone wasn't working and since we had the address he let us go in.  When we got there she had just walked in the door.  We couldn't come in because there was no man there, but we sang a song and set a solid appointment for Friday.  After that we stopped by a few houses and no one let us in.  Then we got a call from this awesome investigator saying she was toooooo busy.  AHHH man that killed.  We ended up going to a former investigator instead and had a great lesson.  He had always been saying we are all on the same team before and just let us in because he liked our company kind of thing.  But so we went in with 2 Nephi 28 in mind, and read it.  It isn't the nicest chapter, but he really responded to the not so feel good message.  We boldly expressed the difference and invited him to be baptized, he said that he needs to pray more to receive an answer about the  Book of Mormon.  It was really powerful and exciting because we left and he was now considering getting baptized for real.  This week we have also been getting dumped on.  My planner is destroyed.  It has been fun though.  Thursday we went to the EEG which is where they put all these crazy electrode things on your head and tell you your brain activity.  It was really fun to watch.  Then everyone that said they would meet with us Thursday, didn't pick up their phones.  We did get into a house for knocking though, so that was cool.  Then Friday President Anderson and his wife came and inspected our apartment and had interviews with us.  They went well and Sister Anderson really expressed her gratefulness for our area books.  We then went to the member referral we had set up on Wednesday, and her daughter, who referred us to her, was there.  We had an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation, which ended in talking about the temple.  The daughter bore powerful testimony of her love of the Gospel and how she knows she will see her Father some day again.  She then accepted a date and is going pray to make sure it is the right time.  She is so ready, and she has a lot of support.  Saturday we were stuck at the chapel all day for General Conference because it was out of our area.  Then yesterday was great because we had general conference and had a great house that we had knocked on a couple weeks ago.  We visited with him, and he really felt the spirit.  We are coming back in  a couple days and he said that he really cares for us now.  We met a lot of amazing people this week.  One day we talked to a guy who worked for the CIA for years.  Later that day we talked to a man who had been the best teacher in Cuba.  He had all these Soviet Union diplomas and stuff.  He was kicked out of Cuba though for writing books about how his students needed more resources in Cuba.  Then at the EEG the doctor was 75.  She was just about as good at technology as someone at her age can be.  She was quite good with her touch screen phone and really enjoyed the usefulness of her computer.  She was from Venezuela, and she came here when her brother flew her over because he was in the MLB.  Now he is the only Venezuelan player in the Hall of Fame.  There really are some amazing people here.  Today Elder B is getting his MRI.  We told him that he should bring some kind of animal with him and have it bite him while he is getting it done, so that was he can get its powers.  It started out being a Spider, since Spider Man is where we got the idea, but then we told him he should bring a Cheetah to be super fast.  It was pretty funny.  So that has been our week, pretty fun.  It is crazy that we are almost on week 5 of this transfer.  Time can really fly here.  Thank you all for your support and love.  I love you all and the gospel.  I know the words of the prophets and apostles are true. They are very powerful and exciting.  I know that bringing souls to Christ is very important and how we can feel some of the greatest joys.  I know Heavenly Father loves us, and cares even about little quarters on the ground for us.  I'm grateful for this gospel and all the love I can feel from my Heavenly Father.  I know this church is true and that the Book of Mormon is a testament to that.  Thank you all again, and I hope to hear from you soon

Con Amor,
Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen
Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission
7951 SW 6th St Suite 110
     
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324

Monday, September 26, 2011

Trying to Find a Date for the Weekend! Baptismal Date!

Well this week has been another great week.  Our mission president told us that October, we are going to have 100 baptisms, but to do so, we really need to focus in our efforts.  To do so statistically, we have to have 300 dates.  And we should have most of those before October starts.  As a mission we are well on our way, but Elder B and I are really trying to do as much as we can.  We didn't have any dates set prior to the call for more activity, so we are really trying to focus in teaching to peoples needs and bringing them closer to Heavenly Father.  It has really resulted in some amazingly spiritual lessons.  The invitation to be baptized has great power, and if they don't tell us to never come back, they show that they still have some kind of interest even if they don't accept the first time. But so Tuesday is when we really started focusing in on this goal as a Zone.  We had our district training that day, and we all got really fired up to do it.  We made plans as a zone as to how we would accomplish our goals.  So Tuesday we went out with a lot of excitement.  Sadly, most of our appointments fell through that day.  Satan knew our goal, and is trying to get us down by distracting our investigators. Tuesday we were able to meet some new people, but we didn't have any full lessons that day. Wednesday we were able to see this lady that we had contacted knocking 2 weeks before. The week before she really liked the Restoration, and we invited her to be baptized.  She said that she would if she gets an answer.  We were able to get some of her needs out with the invitation, and maybe had the most spiritual lesson I have been in yet.  she is so prepared, and is reading the Book of Mormon.  Thursday we were only able to have one solid lesson that day. It was a lady that had contacted us on the street and asked if we could come by and share our message with her.  It was a powerful lesson and we are able to meet with her often.  Friday all of our plans fell through.  It was a long day.  We thought we had some good lessons planned, but they completely fell through.  The whole day was spent on the bike.  This week we have been riding a lot more than usual because we have been getting some referrals in the far parts of our area.  Some days we have had to go from one corner to the other.  Saturday for some odd reason, Elder B wanted to go from our most Northeastern corner, to our most South Western house.  We didn't end up doing it, but for some odd reason he really wanted to.  Saturday we were able to have a few good lessons, and get into contact with some people and make return appointments.  It really set us up for the rest of this month.  Sunday was an amazing day.  We forgot it was fast Sunday until 10pm Saturday night, so we had to ask our dinner appointment to bag the food so we could eat right before we went to bed.  I felt really bad, but everyone was really understanding, and we had a great day on Sunday.  We set a date, and we knocked on a door.  The people that answered the door said that they are aware of so many false people out there, but when they saw us, our faces were like angels.  We had a short discussion with them after they let us in and we will be going back later this week.  The wife said that usually she is working when we came by, but she had today off.  It was really cool.  So many amazing things happened that day.  This week we are really hoping for more miracles and know that if we are persistent in our work, the Lord will bless us.  We are really excited about the coming week.  I love you all very much and am so very thankful for your support.  I'm so very grateful that you all spend time to write me and tell me about your lives and I can feel your love.  It means a lot to me.  I know this work is God's work and that I have been called by a prophet to be doing it now.  I love this gospel and I know that it is true.  I'm so excited for this weekend to hear the prophet and his apostles talk to us.  It really is a special time for us all.  It is really amazing that we can receive guidance in such an amazing way.  I know that they are all called to speak and be apostles.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that it is “the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” Thank you all so very much.  I love you all.

Elder Wesley Bowen
Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission
7951 SW 6th St Suite 110
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324

Monday, September 19, 2011

A Pirate's Life for Me

Arrggg it be talkin' like a pirate day again ayyy!!!
Atleast that be what me parents be tellin' me in.  I hope t' Davie Jones Locker it be so, o' else errebody be thinkin' tha' ol' Elder Bowen be talkin' strange. 
An' t' answer some o' those questions ye be havin' for me.  We mostly be havin' arroz con pollo, it be a favrite down here.  Good ol' Saturday we had somethin' that be called Bobo.  It be a Brazillian dish.  I thinkin' it be made out o' Yuka.  Atleast that be what I thinkin', the lasse told us it was.  It was a kind o' soup thingymabobber with shrimp inside.  Ever had that in Brazil papa?
 A lot o' families here be great, they all be treatin' us, with a lot o' food. 


I be really bad at pictcha takin', so these be my only ones.  For P-days we be buyin some food, writing letters, and usually we be playin' some basketball.  I have learned a ton out here.  Especially about being bold.  If the spirit be there, it be time to be bold.  This week I think I been followin the spirit well.  But so that is making today kind of fun, I hope you liked the pictures that I sent with that. 
So today Elder B is officially 8 months old.  He is having a midlife crises kind of deal.  We figured it out, and mission wise, he is probably in his 30's now, so it is a little early, but he cant believe where the time has gone.   He keeps hearing people say (mainly me), supposedly the second half of the mission goals by 3 times faster.  It is really disconcerning for him.  But so with his 8 months, he is experienced, and together we are working well together.  We had some really great lessons this week, and cannot wait for the return appointments.  Tuesday we got to meet with our new district.  There were quite a few changes.  Not really to our side, but our zone is now one district so that is the biggest change, and a new zone leader and district leader.  It was a pretty good meeting and I am really excited for this transfer.  Wednesday was a great day.  We knocked doors and got some solid return appointments.  After we had knocked for an hour, we went to a return appointment we had made the week before.  The last week we had left a Book of Mormon and just described it.  Thats what we did when we knocked the door.  Then on Wednesday we had the full first lesson.  That was powerful.  The lady had family in Utah that are lds, and had been to temple square.  She seemed pretty ready.  On Wednesday she told us, she really only wanted to learn, and if we needed to we shouldnt waste our time because she is happy as a Catholic now.  During the lesson Elder B did a great job pointing out the spirit, we tried to point out authority and how it works well, had the spirit, and were switching off speaking it felt like every minute.  We just really flowed really well together.  I think that is the best lesson we have had without a member present.  After we taught her to pray, she accepted to pray, but said she was to busy for church this Sunday.  This Wednesday we should be back and teaching another great lesson.  She had a lot of questions afterwards and is reading in the Book of Mormon.  If she keeps up the reading, she will defnately make it and be prepared.  Thursday was planning then we had an appointment with someone who we hadnt been able to teach for a while.  It was alright, but afterwards we agreed that we should have read out of the Book of Mormon instead because she hadnt been doing so, and that is what we are planning the next time most likely.  Friday Elder B had a meeting in Miami with all the ZL's DL's and other trainers.  So I had the District leaders companion with me most of that day.  His name is Elder P, he is from Hondurus, but lived in Las Vegas for like the past 10 years or so.  He was a great help because all of our plans that day were for Spanish appointments.  We also brought along a recent convert who is about 20 and we are pushing him to go on a mission.  He has a great understanding of the gospel, and he loves coming out with us.  His family isnt interested in the church though, so that is what is holding him back.  But so he is from Venezuela, so with the two of them, all we needed was someone that knew where the appointments were.  That was me.  We had some interesting lessons, and one fell through.  I decided that I wanted to change the back up to go see this referal we recieved.  When we got there, the mom answered the door, and let us in.  She gave us lemonade and gave us a return time the next day.  She said that she had a chance to join the churc in her country, but lost that, but now she wont miss her chance now.  She said that there is just something different about us and that we brought such a great spirit.  We left her with a hymn and prayer and she said she would come to church.  Nope. We never saw her though.  But afterwards Elder P said he wanted to trade places with Elder B because he really loved this area already.  It was a great day.  So we are excited for this week because we have some good appointments and hopefully they dont fall through like others have been lately.  We love this area.  They really like feeding us food.  Yesterday we had 3 food appoinments, that was a lot.  Thank you all for your support, and I love you all.  I hope to hear from you all soon.  I love my family and all their support for me.  Thankyou for everything. I know this church is true, and this week I have really felt the spirit guiding our work.  So many little things have happened that became bigger things.  Kind of like the scripture says.  I know the Book of Mormon is true, and by reading it we can come closer to God.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that we have a prophet today.  Thomas S. Monson.  I really cant wait for General Conference.  I love you all and tahnk you for my support.

Love,
Elder Wesley Bowen

Monday, September 12, 2011

Transfer #2

This week was the start of transfer #2.  We are really excited here and are really working hard.  We have a new missionary in our apartment now.  Instead of Elder F, it is now Elder Fi.  Elder Fi has been out for over a year, and he was actually called to Mexico, served in Salt Lake while he waited for his visa, got to Mexico and found out he couldn't get his medicine fast enough there, and now is serving here.  So he has experiences from all over.  Tuesday night we were able to visit a member a referral and have a return appointment for tomorrow.  They said they would read the Book of Mormon as a family.  We were able to start off transfers really good this week.  We went to knock doors on Wednesday, the first day of it, and we got into some awesome houses.  One, the lady was super prepared to listen to us.  We were able to give her a Book of Mormon, and she was really excited to read it, and to learn more about our church.  She had been to Salt Lake Before and took a temple tour, so she knows a little bit and is really interested.  Later we were able to see some great members.  Thursday was planning, and we had some great lessons planned, well they all fell through that day.  Every single one of them.  It was disappointing, but we went to go see a potential investigator and he wasn't home.  So we decided we would knock there since all other plans had fallen through.  The first door that opened we were let in.  We met a wonderful couple, who has his mom staying with them because she is sick.  We got to know them and then got a return appointment for Saturday.  Later we were knocking and met some other really cool people.  No one else let us in, but we were able to set some return appointments.  One guy said his name was Coach J and that we could come back in a couple weeks when he has organized all the sports teams he is in charge of.  We are really excited to go see him soon and teach him.  Friday we were able to do some service with some older investigators in the morning and have an appointment set up for tomorrow night for dinner and a lesson.  She is a gourmet chef, so first we will excellent food, then we will have an excellent lesson.  She had asked some questions about our beliefs on after this life, and now we are going to be able to go back and teach her the Plan of Salvation and really answer some of those questions for her.  Later we went to a return appointment we had gotten from knocking doors.  The person we had talked to wasn't there, but his dad let us in right away because it was pouring rain and was really excited to talk about God.  He really knew how to talk fast and we had trouble being able to say anything to him without being cut off, but hopefully we will be able to stop by again and share more what we believe because last time was all about what he believes.  We then got to teach the English class at the church and more people showed up than usual.  It is really fun to teach English and have everyone speak as much English as they can.  Teaching it is helping me understand Spanish a little bit more.  When we have words like Spirit or some they always say espirit or esome, so that is one of the little things I'm picking up that is helping my Spanish sound more natural, there are a couple other things too.  Saturday the Ward Mission Leader came out with us and all 3 people we had hoped on seeing were not there, and he had mentioned something earlier about a less active family.  We ended up visiting that family and we had a great talk.  We will be going back more often now to continually strengthen them.  Then we were able to go back to the couple and the mom and teach the Plan of Salvation.  They really enjoyed it and had some good questions.  We gave them the pamphlet and they said they would read it over and pray about it.  They are a really solid family.  Later that night we went to a less active members house, and when they had us come in, the BYU game was on.  We saw that BYU was up 13-3 and then that's all we saw.  We were really excited, but it is to bad we found out they lost.  Sounded like it was a good game, just the offense imploded on itself at one point.  BYU sounds like they can do pretty well, since they were competing well with Texas.  I heard they play U of U soon at BYU.  Cant wait to hear how BYU crushes them! haha.  But so back to the work.  Yesterday was Stake Conference and President and Sister Anderson spoke.  they had all the missionaries stand up and give the purpose in Spanish and English.  We found out that the purpose in Spanish changed at the beginning of 2011, so at one point we all were saying different words.  It was pretty funny, but I think the point got across.  He said that we know our purpose and we want to help the best we can.  Everyone really enjoyed conference.  A lot of the talks were also about how baptism is only the first step and how the temple is the real goal, and the blessings we have from the temple.  I think for the investigators that were there, it was a really good thing to hear.  So Stake Conference went well, and it has been a really good week overall.  Really excited for this transfer, we should be seeing some real progression with our investigators.  I love this gospel and I know that we are blessed for living the standards of it.  This week we saw the benefits of setting goals for each activity we do, and what we want to strive for.  I know that Jesus Christ died for us, so that we can return to live with him someday, have perfect bodies, and be forgiven of our sins if we follow the steps he has given us.  I know Heavenly Father is watching over us and wants to grant us our righteous desires.  He knows us and sees our potential. I'm so grateful for this gospel and the hope it brings to individuals and families.  We are here for a purpose, and really our greatest desire of our heart is to fulfill it, and we can only do that with an understanding of the gospel.  I know this church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is here for us now to provide security for our souls.  When it seems hard, it will get better, The night is always darkest before the dawn.  I love you all and thank you so much for your support and strength you give me.  I couldn't do it without you!

Love 
Elder Wesley Christopher Bowen 
Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission
7951 SW St Suite 110
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324