{week 9}

This week has been a pretty solid week overall! On Thursday, I had exchanges with a guy named Elder Corless and he is from Oklahoma and he loves country music and he is totally a redneck so we got along great! He is a pretty fun guy and its so nice to interact with other missionaries for a day to see what a good companion can be like and me not having to do all the talking! haha Usually about twice a month, we have dinner with a family named the Ottisons and they are so great and so funny. Their family is a lot like ours because they all have so much fun together and are total goofs and i love it! Eating with them makes me feel right at home! On friday, I had my first real "bible bash" haha. My  companion is very very smart in the scriptures; like he knows most of the bible, book of mormon, doctrine and covenants and pearl of great price. He doesnt have much social skills but he is very smart and we had an appointment with a jehovahs witness and they kept trying to tell us how wrong our religion was and that was the first time on my whole mission i was so fired up! I told him at the end, "we can argue all we want but until you read the book of mormon sincerely, you will never know if it is true or not and i know that if you do read it with a sincere heart, god will reveal to you that it is true." and he shut up after that hahaha. In my book of mormon reading, i am in Alma chapter 44. Ive been reading quite a bit lately! Scripture study in the morning is seriously the best way to start your day! SO much knowledge comes from the scriptures! Then on saturday, me and elder barnes were having a pretty good day until about 8 that night because we didnt know who else to go and visit so we talked about it and then went to a few more places but by 830, we were out of ideas. I suggested tracting but elder barnes decided it was a better idea to just ride around the block to waste time like what the heck!!! I was so mad. He said he thought he dropped something over there and he was going to look for it but still who does that?! Anyways, on a better note... This sunday was honestly the most spiritual day of church ive had in probably my whole life! In our first ward we go to there was a missionary farewell and he was going to australia for his mission ( i was jealous) haha but anyways, he gave such a great talk about how even though studying the scriptures seems like its so boring and seems like were just reading the same things over and over... It pays off to practice because practice makes perfect and by reading the scriptures, our testimonies are strengthened every time we read and if we keep feeding our testimony, it will just grow and grow and grow until satan will have no power over us! Then in our second ward, The stake presidency all gave talks and they were all super great and there was a special musical number with 5 people playing 2 violins, 1 cello, 1 piano, and a flute. It was the most beautiful song ive ever heard played at a sacrament meeting! The work is kind of slow right now unfortunately... we are struggling to find new investigators right now but i know that through hard work, we will find one soon!! Im still staying really positive about everything and really learning to appreciate the little things and to be so happy that it makes others happy because nobody is going to want to hear this gospel if we arent happy to share it. Elder barnes and i have been getting along much better. we talk about basketball most of the day because he loves the orlando magic and i love the lakers. He hates dwight howard too haha. He thinks the magic are better than the lakers... yeah right!! haha Oh and i almost forgot, WERE GETTING IPADS THIS WEEK!! Hope youre all doing great! Keep up the book of mormon reading! Love, Elder Bowler 

{week 8}

Great week this week!! Had another baptism and confirmation! His name is Hayden Richards! His grandpa baptized and confirmed him and we were able to stand in the confirmation circle. I gave a talk and it went pretty good! He was my first 100% baptism like i was here when we found him, i taught him every lesson and i was able to see him be baptized and confirmed! We are teaching another guy right now who is a less-active. He is a very strange guy but i love talking to him because he has so many crazy stories and its so funny! He loves me because i like talking to him and we could talk for hours haha unfortunately Elder Barnes doesnt really like going over there because he doesnt really like to talk much but i stay usually about 30 minutes or so and talk to him and teach him a little bit. In my book of mormon reading, i am in Alma 28 and its so interesting like the book of mormon is really interesting once you really get into it! In elders chorum this past week, there was a great lesson given. He gave the lesson about how we need to be able to make ourselves happy and it felt like he was talking to me personally the whole time! It was exactly what i needed to hear! i really took it to heart and really decided that only i control my happiness and i really dont have anything to be upset about... sure my companion isnt the best missionary and is very quiet and different from me but being with him has taught me to be more independent and learn to do things on my own. The guy giving the lesson said that if you can trick yourself into thinking that youre super happy; eventually you will be happy. You need to appreciate the little things. Like ive got the best family, the best grandparents, the best parents and such a great ward and great friends like dorian and dawsen cook and especially Jake Frandsen. Without all those people, i really dont know if id be out here but im so grateful for all of them! I really dont have anything to be upset about... and everything to be grateful for! AFter church on sunday, we were biking across a street and we saw an orange Bentley!!!! Like it was probably worth a million dollars at least. It was the coolest car ive ever seen!! In my mission district, we have a lot of guys who love playing with nerf guns so i decided to get a new nerf gun and it is sweet!! So much fun playing zombie nerf wars!! hahaha. This past week, i was able to have exchanges with 2 other elders in our district and theyve both been companions with elder barnes and they both said he is probably the toughest companion theyve ever had! So it only gets better from here! We go through tougyh times so we can appreciate the good even more! Being happy and praying has been a huge help in teaching and finding. Id just like to add my testimony and say that i know this church is true and i know that heavenly father restored the true gospel on to the earth through the prophet joseph smith and i know that by reading the scriptures and praying daily, we can receive help for any sort of struggles we are going through! Have a great week!! Love, Elder Bowler

{week 7}

Much better week this week than last week! Ive found out that ive just got to have fun with everything. I've gotta keep busy and not let my companion determine how i feel and act. Yes, he is still super tough to get along with and yes I want to punch him most of the time but I'm learning how to be independent and make the most out of a tough situation. Prayer is still playing the key role in me getting through this whole thing. Realizing that my investigators come before myself has really helped as well. We have another 9 year old boy being baptized this saturday and we asked him who he wants to baptize him because his dad is a non-member but his grandpa could baptize him so we thought that is what he would say but he told me he wanted me to do it and he said he already talked to his mom and grandpa about it and they said it would be just fine. The mom and dad really like me and so does he. His name is Hayden and he loves to play sports; especially soccer and basketball which is great because whenever we finish a lesson up with him, we go play basketball down at the church because its so close! Brother and sister bingham are still being like my mission grandparents/parents. They are seriously so awesome. We go over to their house usually about 2 times a week or so and play a board game called aggravation. Brother bingham loves playing with us and he loves having me over. Turns out that they have a grandson whose name is also chase! hahaha She said me and him would get along great if we met. on wednesday of last week, brother bingham knew i was having a tough time being with elder barnes another transfer so when he dropped us off after giving us a ride, he waited for elder barnes to get out and told me to stay in for a sec. He told me to just make the best out of everything and dont take any s***. i didnt expect him to say that but it worked! Ive been working on being exactly obedient and it is really paying off! So much blessings. My comp however doesnt like to get up on time but im working on him! We have some pretty good potentials and hopefully more people to baptize! Ill keep ya posted! My talk on sunday went surprisingly well! A ton of members from the ward came up to me afterwards and said it was a great talk! I was super relived it was good because i was super nervous. The people in the wards really love my personality too. Ive made quite a few friends out here! One older lady came up to me after sacrament and she told me i gave a great talk and she said "Aw elder Bowler, you looked so cute up there. Aw so handsome elder bowler." Shes a 55 year old spanish lady. Shes super nice and funny! Good week this week! Keep up the book of mormon reading! im in alma 14! Tell all the kids i love them and give them lots of love! Love, Elder Chase Bowler

{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 (: