{Week 5}

This week has been a pretty good! Getting my ipod and ihome with efy music and stuff has been great!! Music is a big thing for me to feel the spirit and it keeps me busy rather than listening to my comps piano music all day... haha. So, on wednesday of last week, we had a special training meeting for two of our zones. It was pretty good and then afterwards, my mission president came up to me and asked me if i could meet with him. I said yes and then we went into one of the rooms at the church building. We sat down and he asked me about how i had been doing with my new companion and how i am dealing with everything. I told him i wasnt really doing well and i was feeling pretty down most of the time. He told me he has a lot of faith in me and he thinks i am a really good missionary. The reason he put me with Elder Barnes is because he said i can help him out in a lot of ways and he can help me out as well.It was great to hear President Moffat say that to me. It doesnt mean i really love him but i can understand somewhat of why he had to make the change.  Saturday was a great day! I got my first baptism and i was actually able to perform the baptism. His name is bryce and he is 9 years old. We have 2 people on date to be baptized on the 14th of march and one of them wants me to baptize them too! One is a 9 year old boy and the other is an 8 year old girl. The boy and i get along great! He loves sports and him and his brother think im so cool because im good at soccer and basketball haha.  Church on sunday was was great! I was really able to feel the spirit and get to know a lot of people from the wards. I get along with most the people in the wards which is great! We are still getting fed dinners every night which is great! I havent had one bad dinner yet! (fingers crossed). haha. On monday, we had exchanges with another companionship in our district. That was awesome because I was with elder Jones and me and him get along great! It was a great day! I get along with everyone in our district great! Pretty good week over all (:

{week 4}

This week has been a week filled with ups and downs. It has been so hard adjusting to a new companion who is brand new to the area and doesnt know anyone in the area... I mean im still brand new and trying to figure things out so basically we are just going around blind trying to find people haha. My new comp isn't really a people person and he is kind of awkward but luckily im pretty good at talking to people but im still struggling with talking about church stuff. I get so tongue tied during lessons but luckily my comp is good at talking about church stuff. On wednesday, i was really having a tough day and i was so close to just calling it off and coming home. I called elder ferguson and he was feeling the exact same way. We were both crying talking to eachother on the phone.. Then i called sister bingham and i told her how i was doing and how i was really struggling and she just told me that it wasnt what i wanted to do. She totally agrees with me on everything though. She agrees that my new comp should not be a trainer because he just isn't a very happy person but she told me just get through the transfer. I really just wanted to go home because life was so much easier at home but i knew that i shouldnt. Luckily i met with some other members that night and they really helped me out. Then on Sunday night, We were over teaching a less active family and reading scriptures with them and the spirit was SOOOOO strong. The father of that family is very active but his kids are not into the best things and they dont come to church. He told us about his mission and how at the beginning of his mission he was really struggling and missing home and he often cried and he said that prayer got him through that. It was so great to hear that.  Him and I teared up after the lesson when we were talking about it. He told me just pray and I will be okay. So this week, I have been praying like crazy! And it is really working! I really know how blessed i am to have had such great friends and such an amazing family growing up. Being out here has really showed me how family is so important and how lucky i am to have my family as my best friends too! My daily scripture reading is still going great! I hope all of you are still doing it! I am in mosiah 3 as of today. I haven't been reading as much because i am currently studying and going through preach my gospel too! Things are really looking up! I love you all! Keep the emails and mail coming (: Love, Elder Chase Bowler!

{week 3}

So, this week has been a pretty crazy week! So on wednesday we had a regular day and got a lot of work done and everything went great! Then on thursday, my companion woke up with a bunch of stomach problems so we decided to stay in that day and it was kind of nice because i got to get in a lot of scripture and preach my gospel study. then, later that night we decided to go out and work after dinner and we were having a lot success! then around 8:30 that night we had just got out of a lesson and we decided to go make some visits around the stake center. So we were riding our bikes and i was in front talking to my companion, not really paying attention to what was in front of me and a car pulled out in front of me so i went to skid out and turn my bike to the side but my momentum was taking me forward so i went to catch myself with my right foot but i rolled it pretty bad and i heard 2 pops. I couldnt walk on it at all but luckily, we were pretty close to our apartment so we went back and called the mission president and he said that it was most likely a severe sprain so he said to stay in on friday and call him back on saturday to see how it was going. So we stayed in friday and did scripture study, iced my leg, took naps, and ate a lot haha. So saturday comes around and my ankle isn't getting too much better so they told us to go in to the emergency room so we went and decided to wear regular street clothes because i figured they would be working on my ankle so i wore shorts and a sweatshirt. That turned out to be a bad idea... Ill explain later on. So anyways, the doctor said that i needed to stay off my ankle til about tuesday but still to get a little excercise and the mission president was also there and heard the doctor tell us that. So it was all good we figured... So we went back to our apartment and stayed in for a while but we were getting so bored and kind of depressed from being inside so we decided to go down to the stake center because we heard there was a church league basketball so we went to go watch. I went and sat down and elevated my leg the whole time but my companion was fine so he decided that when the game was over, he was gonna shoot some hoops just to relieve some stress and excercise a little bit. Then the zone leaders were there and they saw us there and told us we needed to go back home because we werent supposed to be out of the house but we didnt know we couldnt go anywhere at all so we said okay sorry, we'll go back home and they said okay thats fine since you guys didnt know. Later that night, we got a text from our mission presidents wife asking what the doctor said and we told her and she asked if we were gonna make any visits at all and we said yes, we will be going to church and taking our investigators with us and we were gonna do some work on monday as well and she said okay great job elders!
 My ankle is still hurting. Im really trying to stay positive about everything. Its just very tough but i know a mission is the best thing for me. I will have better news next week! We also still have 3 people on date to be baptized but it should be about 5 by the end of this week. I love you all! Thank you for all the love and support! I love Letters (: Address: 6088 S Shirl St. Taylorsville, Utah 84123

{week 2 email}

Hello family and friends! This week has been a much better than last week! I haven't been as home sick as much this week. Me and my companion continue to get along very well! Every Monday wednesday, and friday we play basketball at the stake center from 530 am to 630 am. Its a lot of fun because there is a bunch of guys from the wards that come and play with us. We have about 8-12 people show up daily. I've been getting a lot better at basketball! Im still shooting mostly 3 pointers because those are what im best at hahaha. Me and elder Ferguson had the awesome opportunity to teach a couple about the stop smoking program that the church has come up with and they are now non-smokers for 6 days now! It was crazy because they had been smoking for 40+ years. it was awesome to see such a change in them. Seeing them stop smoking really gave me inspiration that i should write to grandpa doc about it and tell him about the program and how i wanted the same for him and i wanted him to be able to go through the temple with me when i get back and get married. I really hope he got it. I sent it out about 5 days ago. As of today, we have 4 people on date. Soon to be 5 again. We had 2 people drop because they just wont come to church and they are moving soon so that was tough but we have a baptism for sure on the 21st! Last week, we were able to go to a family's house for dinner who had a red tailed boa constrictor that was 9 feet long and it was HUGE!! I wouldnt touch it or hold it because i was way too scared haha but it was crazy. We got to have a huge dodge ball game on friday with like 30 people and it got pretty crazy! One kid got hit in the head pretty hard and he was 14 and he actually started crying. It was crazy!! Right now we are reading the book of mormon as a mission and highlighting all the missionary scriptures and im getting so much out of it. My goal is 10-15 pages a day and i havent missed it yet! I can already see it blessing me tremendously. I actually love readinbg it daily. Its like my favorite part of the day! On another note, my companion that i had in the MTC went home. Im not sure why but i pray for him daily. Prayer is extremely powerful. On a mission, prayer is the most helpful thing you can do. ive seen it help me so much. Its crazy. We also got to go to temple square with one of our investigators on saturday night. It was my first time there as a missionary and it was so great. We got to go through the family video rooms. It made me and my comp tear up but we both knew this is where we are supposed to be. We really bonded over these last few weeks. Im loving it here more and more each day. Some days are harder than others but each day always seems to end up good by the end of the night. I love all you guys. I challenge you all to read the book of mormon. At least one chapter a day (: