{week 30}

What a week! So if you guys didn't know, last Monday I had the opportunity to attend the Jordan River Temple with my zone. So since I'm all the way out in Grantsville, we had to get out of the house by 6:30 a.m so we could make the 8am session. We also had the other elders out from wendover come stay the night at our house because they would have had a 3 hour drive into salt lake if they left that morning and they're both foreign missionaries so we drove with them into the city. Missionary sleepovers are the best hahaha. So we ended up leaving later than planned in the morning and we were late to our session but it actually turned out to be a cool experience because we got to see 2 couples going through the temple and it wash h a cool experience to see them! My comp got kinda trunky because he has a girl waiting for him who he's gonna marry when he gets home so it made him think of her so I teased him for it. What also made this temple trip better for me is that I went in with a question for the first time and it was answered!! Crazy testimony builder. Easily the best temple session I've ever been to! I LOVE the temple. They're all so beautiful and the spirit is always so strong in the literal house of the lord. How lucky are we to have them so close to us?! Out on a mission, one of the things you learn besides church stuff is how to dress classy, how to play basketball well and how to budget your money. All necessities for life to come right?! Haha On Wednesday this week, we sent out a group text to all the youth we knew in the area and we got together for a sport activity and we got to play indoor soccer which was super fun. There was about 10 of us there and unfortunately 0 non-members but our goal is to get trust from the member kids and eventually have em bring their friends. It was a ton of fun and just nice to kick back and have some fun playing soccer with the youth. We had the chance on Saturday to do some service for a less-active guy and we went there and he showed us his backyard and it was full of weeds in their garden and I hate picking weeds but I knew that he needed help so I remembered the scripture in Mosiah 2:17 - "When you serve others, you serve God" and that made e work so much easier. After it was all done in about an hour or so, he ordered us pizza and thanked us a ton. Service is great and you always feel good after doing it! Those are the highlights from this week ladies and gents. Have a great week and don't forget to always chase what matters (; 

Elder Bowler

{week 29}

My life be like... So this week was another good week out here. I had the first opportunity this week to go on splits with some priests in one of the Wards and it was great! I went out with a kid named McKay and he just turned 16 and he is a pretty shy kid and he is 6"3 and he can dunk!! It was super cool because I got him to open up and talk about the gospel and you could tell how much fun he had that night. He's gonna be a great missionary someday. He's already got plans to go right after high school! Such a cool kid and such a cool experience. I wish I would have gone on more splits with missionaries before I left! Also this week, we had the baptism of brother Beech. I only got the chance to teach him twice but he is a super awesome guy and I'm happy I was able to see his baptism! He was confirmed by a patriarch and it was one of the coolest blessings I've heard! It was a great Sunday. Elder Brumbaugh and I have been having so much fun together and he's an awesome missionary and he is really teaching me a ton! I've truly learned how important it is out here to get along with and love your companion because when you do, teaching is so much better and the members love you and when the members love you, that equals more referrals which results in more people to teach which results in more baptisms and re-activations!! It's a complicated cycle but trust me, it works! (; haha. This morning we are going to the Jordan river temple for an 8am session so that's why I am writing this so early to you guys! What better way to start off your day than a session at the temple?! I love getting your emails every week! If there's ever anything that you guys have questions about anything, just shoot me a quick email and I'd love to answer any questions you have! Love you guys (: 

Elder Bowler

{week 28}

Week 1 in Grantsville, Utah and 7 months out in the mission field! Crazy. Almost 1/3 of the way there! But anyways, here's some news about the area. My companion is Elder Brumbaugh and he is from West Texas and we get along great. We're pretty much like best friends already which is awesome. We have a ton of fun every day and we get a ton of work done too. I love it out here in Grantsville too because it's like small town country and the people out here are so nice and welcoming! Our area is so much bigger than any of my areas back in Taylorsville which I love and we cover 9 wards out here which is crazy. A few of the wards out here remind me a ton of the Justin Ward back home just because there's a ton of youth and the building is built the same as the one in Texas. This week on the first full day I was here, we taught 5 lessons and we put 3 people on date for baptism! Grantsville was originally part of the salt lake mission so I don't know anyone out here but they're all super cool guys and it's just crazy how much differently they do missionary work compared to how my last mission president made us do it. They prayerfully select baptism dates and make sure they're progressing before they put hem on date for baptism which I like better than just putting everyone on date and then they just go less-active after we baptize them. It's great to be out here. So on Saturday, we went over to this referral we've been trying to contact for a while and they were finally home so we went in and talked to them and they were building a BBQ so we went out and helped them and then they said they had to go talk to someone real quick so we just stayed out there building the BBQ and they were gone for like 45 minutes and we built that whole freakin BBQ and then they came back and were like "wow guys, thank you for building our BBQ but we're not really interested in coming to church" like dang we were so bummed out because we thought for sure he was interested but it's all good haha. It's been an awesome week! Love you guys

Elder Bowler