{good week!}

Good morning! What a week this week! Last week's letter was kind of
boring but I promised this week would be better and it really was! So
this last Wednesday, we had a lesson with a family of investigators
that I had only met once but the elders in this area had been teaching
them on and off for a while... Anyways, they have 2 teenage kids (Boy
and Girl) who do not get along very well and just have been having
some personal struggles lately. So I was kind of nervous going in to
teach them and Elder Vizzini didn't really know what to teach them
because they had been taught for a while but just weren't really
progressing but we went in anyways and we let the spirit guide. We
went in and we talked for a bit with the parents and then the two
teenagers came in a little later and we kind of directed the lesson to
be about families and why family is so important even though it can be
challenging at times. And we had each of them say one nice thing about
eachother as a family and my companion and I did the same and it went
SUPER well!! After the lesson, the teenage boy had told us he really
liked to ride scooters so I told him I used to ride and so we went
outside and I did a few tricks with him and he thought that was the
coolest thing ever that a missionary knew how to do tricks on a
scooter hahaha. I even tore up my shoes on the heel a bit from the
wheel with no brake because of it but it was worth it to just get him
to be comfortable with us! Then we left and the mom texted us the next
morning with this text "Thank you guys so much for coming to our home
and focusing so much on our kids. It's like you guys knew exactly what
to say. After you left, they continued to get along and our son even
said that he was really starting to like the missionaries! I know that
we are kind of slow with all this but thank you for not giving up on
us. I wish you guys could stay and teach us forever." We called it the
miracle of the transfer. It's experiences like this that make being on
a mission so worth it! We are so pumped to see where things go from
here! Hopefully a baptismal date will be coming up soon for the family
but we'll see! I'll keep you guys posted!

Another cool thing we did this week was play some baseball with
another one of our investigators who is a teenager. We had a home run
derby win 5 of us. Elder Vizzini, me, Brighton (Investigator), his
dad, and his cousin. It was so fun to play some baseball again after
so long. It went really well and Brighton was really able to see that
we aren't just here to teach him and get him baptized but that we care
about him and we like to have fun! We have a lesson with him next week
and I'll also keep you guys posted on that!

Me and my comp are still getting along really well. Sometimes he gets
mad at me because I tease him so much but he knows it's all fun and
games. Oh my gosh... The other night, we were at our apartment and it
was about 10pm and we are sitting at our desks just talking and
winding down a bit and then my companion sees a huge spider on the
floor and he starts freaking out! And he was like screaming and
telling me to go kill it so I did but I made him clean it up because
he saw it first and so he did and as he was going to the trash can to
throw it away, I just kinda yelled a little bit and he freaked out and
threw the spider remains in the air and screamed and I was just
sitting there dyingggggggggggggg Hahahaha!!! I thought of Pops when
this was all happening lol.

The work out here in Tooele valley is the best. I love it so much.
Transfers are coming up next week so I'll keep you guys posted on my
photo sharing as to what is happening! The gospel is true! Love you
guys!

{18 months}

Happy 18 months!! Crazy to think I'm 3/4 of the way there! It's really
been flying by these last few months! So something cool that happened
this last week... So my comp was asked by a guy in his old area to
participate in a musical fireside on the east side of salt lake and
the family we went with took us to Nielsen's afterwards and for some
reason, it looked super familiar... And then I realized that we had
gone there when we used to go on vacation to St. George!! Haha and
then after that, they were like, "well since we're up here, may as
well go see President Hinckley's and President Monson's house!!" So we
got to go and see both of their houses and man, you wouldn't think
that a prophet lived at either of the houses! They're just humble
little houses which I thought was kinda cool to realize they just
lived in normal neighborhoods even though they are such high up people
so that was pretty cool! Besides that, the work is going good in the
area... We had a few people that we were teaching move away which
really freakin sucks but we know things will all work out! Tonight
I'll be burning some pants for the 18 month mark. I'll put a video up
on my photo sharing! Love you guys and thank you for all the love and
support!!

Elder Bowler

{Hello}

Good morning friends and family! Can you believe we're already in
mid-June?! Time is really flying by out here. So I just had to start
out my email with saying sorry for not writing a weekly email the last
few weeks. Life is busy out here and emailing isn't really on the top
list of priorities but I promise I'll get better!! So I have been out
in Stansbury, Utah for the past 3 weeks and man it has been so fun!
It's about 10 miles from Grantsville and reminds me so much of Texas!
The people here are so legit and very willing to let us in and talk to
us. Plus, there is a bunch of cool families that I've met that are way
cool as well. The work out here is pretty good as well but we're kinda
in a slow spot right now but we've been getting a lot of referrals
from members so it will be picking up soon! I also found out that a
kid I taught about 6 months ago in Taylorsville is getting baptized in
the next few weeks and that's so great to hear that him and his family
are doing well. And I also met one of my ward mission leaders who used
to live in Harriet Creek. Weve been talking about Justin every time we
meet! Oh man, another thing I love about serving in Stansbury is that
there is a golf course in our area boundaries and the best part about
it is that ITS FREE FOR MISSIONARIES!! So for those of you that
thought you would be able to finally beat me in golf when I got home
(Dad, pops, Tad, Cody, Jake... Think again!! Hahaha in other news, my
companion and I are doing really well. We were in the MTC together so
it's just been like hanging out with a friend. We're both really
different in personality and what we like to do but we still have a
ton of fun together. He is a great singer.. Like I'm not even
exaggerating. People call him the David Archuleta of South Africa in
this area! Haha it's been a fun first few weeks together. Something
cool that stuck out to me this week was in Sacrament yesterday.. We
were attending the YSA Ward and this sister had just gotten back from
her mission and she was from Wyoming but was in Utah for an internship
in something in the Medical field but she gave this story about
herself how one day she was walking through Target and she was just
thinking about he church and the gospel and she was just thinking like
"is it really true?" And as she was thinking this, she thought "well
the gospel makes me happy and I love the idea of having a father in
heaven who loves me and I love the belief of life after death" she
talked previously about how she had never had a crazy spiritual
experience that the church was true without a doubt but she knew the
Gospel made her happy. And I just really appreciated that because
that's all we have to do... We don't have to know the church is true
without a doubt, we just need to have the faith and believe it can
make us happy and bless our lives. So take a look back and ask
yourself, "does the gospel make me happy?" If you get the answer that
it does, that is your testimony that the gospel is true. "All that is
good is of God and nothing evil cometh from the lord" (Omni 1:25).
Love and miss you guys a ton! (:

Elder Bowler