{week 40}

Malo lelei!! 

Aka good morning! Haha week 1 in the Tongan stake. It was
my first time driving a car in 10 months and it was a little scary at
first honestly but it didn't take long until I got back into the hang
of it. Oh and I've never eaten so much food in my life. They have this
thing that they make that is wrapped in coconut leaves and then there
is corn beef on the inside of that. It's pretty strange but it wasn't
that bad! I've really been struggling with eating a lot at dinners
though because they put a ton on your plate and they
expect you to eat all of it gone and I'm a tiny guy so that's been kinda tough
trying to get everything down hahaha. Oh and I started a photo sharing
album from my iPad so if you want to see what I'm up to with pictures, send
me your email address or phone number that is registered with apple
and I'll add you to the group! Send it to my email! So the work in
this area is really good! Our area goes all the way up past park city
and down to Lehi. It's crazy! The area is so big that we just drive
everywhere. We can't walk or bike at all so I
think I'll be gaining some weight while I'm here unfortunately /: We go into
all the surrounding missions. So we don't even really have a mission
boundary which is crazy coming from such small areas. Not much to write
this week. Not much new is happening over here. Just doing my best to stay
in shape! Hahaha here's a few pics of me and my comps!

Love Elder Bowler 

{week 39, transfers}

Once again, it's that time for transfers. 

So crazy story.. We got a
transfercall on Friday night from the Assistants and they told me
that I would be headed to the bennion stake with an elder from Brazil
but today while we were playing some indoor soccer and football, we
got a call from the assistants and they said elder Bowler, we will be
changing your transfer assignment. You will be serving in the Salt
Lake City Utah TONGAN stake!! Hahaha I'm so pumped. I get new Tongan
name tags and we can wear lava-lavas to church! I'll be serving with a
2 Polynesian companions too. I'm sure we'll get along just fine. Oh
and I'll have a car in my new area because we cover the whole Utah
county valley!  But besides that, I'm pretty bummed to be leaving this
area. It just might be my favorite area. I've made so many friends and
even people I consider my family out in this area. If I had to live in
Utah, it would be in Grantsville. So laid back and southern
hospitality. This week went really good. Oh and ifyou lost count, I'm 

on my 4th area with my 7th companion. Not too much new going on this
week. We laid someone's floor again this week so I'm getting pretty
good at laying floor! Hahaha well I'm thankful for all the emails I'm
recieving. You guys are awesome.

Love, Elder Bowler

{week 38, 9 months}

Good morning friends and family. 

Not too much happened this week except a really good zone 

conference we had with our mission president
and his wife. The main focus of the conference was about obedience to
the white handbook and preach my gospel. Some of the Utah missions
have been known to be disobedient so my mission presidents goal was to
resolve that before our mission was known for that. It was a really
good meeting and they both talked about how us as missionaries are
basically gods mouthpiece in reaching these people out here
who are being prepared for us and the only way we can do that is if we
let Heavenly Father work through us. It really motivated me to be as
obedient as I can and put in that effort. In other news, some other
pretty funny stuff happened this week... At church on Sunday, this
older lady came up to me and grabbed my cheeks and was like "Wow you
have the cutest face ever. I love your dimples and a young lady
someday is gonna be very lucky to have you. You're
gonna have such cute kids." I didn't really know what to say... It was pretty
weird hahaha. My comp looked at me after and was like what the heck
just happened... Well not too much to write this week but we still have 3
on date investigators and 8 preparing for baptism. The work here in
Tooele county is just crazy. Our zone is the highest baptizing zone in
the mission. Hard work pays off! I love the weekly emails and the
pictures. Oh and the pics are from a project we did as a mission to
describe our relationship with Christ in 3 words
or a 3 word phrase describing Christ. You guys are great. If you have any
questions about anything, just shoot me an email! I'd love to hear from you (:

love
you guys!

{week 37}

So to start off, I'm sorry I haven't been emailing some of you guys
back as much as I usually do. Life is busy out here! And I'm so
thankful for all of your letters and support. But anyways; on Tuesday of 

this week, a member asked us to come over and help them with their
floor so we went over thinking it would take a few hours... We ended
up spending 7 hours there doing service but it was great. I learned
how to lay flooring (Like a giant puzzle) and I got 4 mountain dews
out of it so not a bad day if you ask me! I've really come to
appreciate Mountain Dew on my mission hahaha. Not much else has
been happening this week. Conference weeks are really tough because
it's basically all of Saturday and most of Sunday but we still have
our investigators progressing and we did find a few new investigators
so definitely not a bad week in my book! How great was conference
though?! So good. I missed the first Saturday session because we were
helping one of my favorite families in the area move houses.
Thankfully they just moved down the road and not out of town! Haha we
had about 30 people there helping out at both houses. I had never seen
so many people out to help at a move. Such a cool ward
with such great members! I think my favorite talk overall at conference was the
talk given by Elder Von Keetch. Why? Because what he said is so
true.  Commandments, Rules, & laws aren't put there to restrict us but
rather to keep us safe. The lord wants us to be happy, safe, and blessed
and the way he has promised that we will have those things is by obedience
to the commandments! Kind of like how our parents give us rules when
we're growing up to keep us safe. I know I personally struggled with
feeling like they were just rules fencing me in but looking back, all
those rules kept me safe and out of harms way. They give us those
rules because they have had experience in life and they know what
things could happen amd they see the bigger picture. It's the same
with our father in heaven. He knows all. He gives us commandments
to keep us safe and out of danger. Not to fence us in, but rather to
guide us. I know that by living the commandments and doing what our
Heavenly Father asks of us, we will be blessed. It's a promise and the
lord is bound when we do what he asks. Try it out. You never know what
could happen (:

Elder Chase Bowler

{week 36}

Almost October already... Man time is really flying by out here in the
best part of Utah. Not too much to report on this week. As of today,
we have 4 / soon to be 5 progressing investigators, and we just picked
up 2 new this week!  The work out here in Grantsville is just awesome
and the people are so nice.  I'm lovin the small town country feel! If
I had to live in Utah at some point in my life, it would be in Tooele
County. I'm just writing this email on my wayback home from golf with
my landlord. We get to play every Monday morning. Wehave a game goin
where we keep track of all our wins and losses and we add them
up and whenever I get transferred, that's who is the better golfer out of
the two of us whoever has the most wins. I'm down 3-1 right now. But
a comeback is in the works! We had 4 elders in our apartment last night
come down from wendover so it was like a missionary sleepover hahaha
doesn't happen too often but we always have a great time. So a pretty
cool experience we had this week... One of the less-actives we've been
working with has been trying to stop smoking for about 2 months now
and we've been working with him ever since I got into the area.
They're a young family. They have 4 kids. 18,12,7, and 4
years old.  The mom of the family is very active in the church and has
gone through the temple and everything. The only thing holding the
husband back has been smoking. He came to us and told us that he wasn't
proud of the way his oldest 18 year old son was growing up to be and so
he wanted to set and be a better example for his 12 year old son and
ordain him to the aaronic priesthood. About a month ago, we gave him
the stop smoking program we use as missionaries and promised him that
if he followed these steps, he would be able to quit smoking. Craig is
now a non-smoker of about 3 weeks dry. This past Sunday, he ordained 

his son to the aaronic priesthood. They are planning to go through 

the temple next month as a family to be sealed for time and all 

eternity. I love that family. The Wife texted us Saturday evening 

telling us how she has been praying for this for 20 years and now it's
finally happening. One of the coolest stories on my mission so far. 

Thegospel is true!

Elder Chase Bowler

{week 35}

Good morning friends and family! This week has been pretty crazy honestly! So on Tuesday, we were on exchanges and I was with an elder named elder hunt. He's a super chill guy and he is from California. You always learn a ton on exchanges. Elder hunt and I had a ton of fun that day and I had the opportunity to give a blessing to one of our less-actives we are working with. Giving blessings is the best! The spirit is always so strong when you're giving them. My comp and I are doing great. He loves Grantsville just like everyone who comes out here. I've come to the conclusion that I would rather live in a more country place rather than the city just because the people are so much nicer and I love how everyone is so close out here! But I don't think I could live as rural as it is in Grantsville... I think Texas is just perfect hahaha. On Saturday, we had a crazy busy fun day. We started out with a baptism that was an autistic girl who was 8 years old. The bishop just suggested that we be there to show our support to the family because they were less-active. It was a great experience. It was so crazy because the girl was being kind of rowdy in he font but right when her dad started saying the prayer she just immediately settled down and was reverent. It was crazy. She is probably closer to Christ than most of us regular people are. Sometimes we take what we have for granted and we think "I wish I just had this" when we don't do enough at looking at the beauty around us. I know I'm guilty of that and most of us are. When we truly count our blessings, we realize that we have it pretty great (: but anyways, after the baptism we went out and proselyted for a couple hours. Then we had a golf tournament with one of our wards to build some member trust and to get to talk to a few less-actives. We played a 4 man scramble. My team won with 2 under on 9 holes. Not too great but it was a ton of fun and successful! Then after that, one of our ward mission leaders asked us if we could play on his soccer team because they were short players and he said registration was free for us so we decided to play. It was 8v8 and there is actually quite a few non-members on the team which was a plus for us to talk to them about the gospel in a non-threatening way. We ended up losing the game 3-4 but I had the 3 goals so it was a good game! Hahaha then on Sunday my comp and I had to give a talk in one of he 9 wards that we cover and by this time giving talks is pretty easy for me but it's still nerve-racking when you're sitting up there but once you get up its great! My comp spoke first and he's only been out 3 months but he's a great speaker! After he spoke, I spoke and I got up and I was like I've been out about 2 weeks and the crowd laughed but then I said I was kidding and I had been out about 9 months. It's always good to start with a joke to wake up the crowd!! Hahaha it was great. The church is true, the book is blue! Love you guys!