{pictures}

{week 15}

Good morning family and friends! 

This week has been another pretty solid week. Our on-date investigator was at church with us again this week and he will be baptized this Saturday at a stake center outside of our mission! This is a pretty big deal because our mission president doesn't hardly ever give permission to anyone to leave the mission but he did for us! The reason this kid wants to be baptized outside our mission in another stake center is because his mom, uncle, aunts, grandma, and grandpa were all baptized in that building so they wanted it to be special and our mission president agreed to it! His name is Devon and he is 10 years old. (I'll send pics next week) So this week was pretty good! We had better numbers than we have had in a long time this week! The work is definitely picking up since elder Gilman and I got put together! I had an amazing experience this last fast Sunday. So fast Sunday's are usually so hard for me because as missionaries we don't eat dinner on Sunday's until 5pm so I actually was fasting for 24 hours. I prayed for specific blessings and I got specific answers! I fasted that we could find a family to teach and bring to church and on Monday we were riding our bikes around and I saw an old house me and elder Barnes used to go to but they told us they weren't really into it at the moment and that they would call us if anything changed but anyways we rode past that house and something (The spirit) prompted me to go back to the house and talk to them and we had a great meeting! They told us they had been going through some rough times and they think the church is exactly what they need. The mom and dad are members but have been less-active for years! The dad told us that he had been having trouble with smoking so we told him about the stop-smoking program and he was so excited to hear about it. He started crying and so did his wife because she has wanted him to quit for years! We found out that they have 2 unbaptized kids that they want us to teach the lessons too! We set up 2 different return appointments with them and that's all because I followed he prompting of the spirit and I found that family that I had fasted to find! Crazy testimony builder! I've also been having such great studies each morning as well! 2 hours just isn't enough time!! Preach my gospel and the scriptures help me so much with my testimony and teaching! I love both! I can't wait for Mother's Day coming up this Sunday! I love and miss you guys a ton! Keep doing what you're doing and reading the scriptures! (1 Nephi 13:37) Keep writing and sending pictures (:

Love, Elder Bowler

{week 14}

Good day ladies and gents,

So this week has been yet another good week here in the Salt Lake City Central Mission! The weeks are flying by like it's crazy! Me and my comp are really getting along great! We are always smiling and laughing and just having a fun few weeks! We've really come to have a great friendship! We plan on hanging out after our missions are done. He's only 4 months ahead of me so we'll be back around the same time! He's a country boy. He loves fishing and hunting and country music. But he's a big time worrier so I'm always making jokes and teasing him and just trying to get him to relax and enjoy his mission and have fun!! It's definitely rubbing off on him. His other companions have been kinda stiff guys and quiet so he said being with me is awesome and I'm his favorite comp so that is always good to hear! As you all know, we cover 6 WARDS now! We are super busy at coordinating with the wards and ward mission leaders. Ward mission leaders are huge in helping us out with getting referrals and teaching appointments. We had one of our new wards tell us this last Sunday that we are the most kind, fun, and good missionaries they've ever had! Our good attitude and hard work are paying off! We have a boy named Devon on date for May 9th to be baptized so we're pumped for that! The work is really going great. Our stake president told us he's so grateful to have such great missionaries in his stake. So great to hear that from him. The stake is really trying to get us as many teaching appointments as possible so starting next week, the wards will be setting up 4 lessons per week per ward so we will be having 24 teaching appointments per week! It's gonna be a lot of work but we're pretty pumped because it's gonna make us great teachers! Practice makes perfect! We found a family in one of the wards that has twins on missions and they had us over for dinner and they loved us! They told us we could come back any p-day and play ping-pong and billiards with them so we're pretty stoked for that! Some tough things have happened this week too like I lost my planner and I have no idea where it could be and my companion knocked my glasses off my head while we were playing soccer and the lenses are all scratched up. It's been a tough but great week but I'm staying positive! Oh another crazy story this week! So we met this atheist guy who is not a member of the church and he told us not to teach him but he loves us because we're just friendly guys so anyways he took us to Cheesecake Factory last week and he blew $140 just on the 3 of us to eat! So he took us back to our bikes and he said to me "hey do you want a Versace shirt and cologne" and I was like heck yeah! So he have me a $200 Versace shirt he never wore and however expensive Versace cologne is. It smells so good Haha definitely one of the highlights of my week! Missionary work is honestly so hard!! But I've found out that hard work is really the best way to make the time fly by and I'm in a way better mood because of it! Hard work, friendliness, and a good attitude are the key to getting people to talk to you and getting to teach them! If you're happy, people want what you have! Good energy is contagious! 

Love Elder Bowler

{week 13}

Good day family and friends! 

I hope you're all doing as good as I am! So, I finally got a new companion but to my surprise, I actually was a little sad to see Elder Barnes leave just because we have been together for 2+ months! But anyways, my new companion is Elder Gilman and he is from Yakima, Washington and his name is also Greyson! He loves to play soccer like me, he's the oldest in his family, and we have a bunch of other things in common. He loves to talk.... A lot. Pretty opposite from elder Barnes so it's taken a little bit to get used to but I'm doin my best! We also cover the whole Bennion East stake now so we cover 6 WARDS!! It is ridiculous how busy we have been and are going to be. The crazy thing that has happened is that we received 18 referrals last week and me and Barnes barely received like 15 the whole 9 weeks! People have definitely seen that Elder Gilman and I get along great and that we're happy so people like to talk to us and refer us to their friends! It's great! So as you can tell, we are staying pretty busy with work and the days are flying by! It's crazy! I actually found out another thing that was pretty interesting. So we lost 8 missionaries last transfer so some areas had to close down and that is why we cover the whole stake now. Anyways, Brother Bricko (Stake mission leader) apparently had a talk with my mission President and my mission President was telling him about how they were going to pull a set of elders out of the stake and Brother Bricko told our mission President that he wanted me to stay rather than any of the others. My mission president wanted to take me out of the stake because I have been here for longer than any of the others but Brother Bricko told president Moffat that he wanted me to stay and they had a big discussion about it and it turns out that I stayed hahaha. Brother Bricko was excited to see me  on Sunday morning  for our meeting and he told me all that had happened and it really made me feel great to know that I'm doing something right! And people are noticing! It is a huge confidence booster for sure! So, this past weekend Elder Gilman had a family member pass away and it's been pretty hard on him but he's still staying focused on the work and pushing forward which is a huge testimony builder to me because it really has made me think of how LUCKY we are to have the plan of salvation and that knowledge that we can see our family again and that there is life after our time on earth. "This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God" (Alma 34:32) We really need to do all we can to prepare to meet God in the next life which means scripture study, prayer, and just living good righteous lives. I love this gospel and the knowledge we have from it! This tough time for Elder Gilman has really made me think of Marie Wilson and she is the only close person that I've known that has passed away and that was so long ago but I remember that it was so tough. Yes, death is very tough but we will see our family and friends again in Heaven because of the atonement of Jesus Christ and that great plan of Happiness that Father in Heaven has blessed us with! "If we have faith in Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing" Love that quote! I hope you all have a great week and know that I am doing great and I love all the emails, pictures, and letters! I still have the same address so don't be afraid to send those letters!  6088 S. Shirl St. Taylorsville, Utah 84123  (:

Love Elder Bowler

{week 12}

This week has been another good week! So Wednesday I got all new stuff for my bike because the stuff was already wearing out! A member from one of the wards saw that I needed new tires, pedals, and grips and he gave me $100 to get whatever I needed for my bike so I got new grips, tires, batteries for my lights, and new pedals. So thankful for so many kind and generous members out here. Me and my companion have been given probably around $200 together just from members paying for our dinners randomly and giving us money at grocery stores and stuff haha. So thankful for the members out here! On Tuesday nights we have stake coordination with all of the ward mission leaders and the stake mission leader and his name is Brother Bricko. It is crazy how much he reminds me of Jay Wilson! He's such a cool guy! Anyways,  on Wednesday night , he was talking to the sister missionaries in our district and we didn't really know what they were talking about until afterwards they came up to me and told me that Brother Bricko like loves me and he talked about how im a very caresmatic and how I'm gonna be an A.P some day and he loves having me as a stake missionary! And that was great to hear from someone like him! On Thursday, me and elder Barnes got into a disagreement about basketball because he tried to tell me the magic franchise was better than the lakers and I was like oh heck no haha. That day was a pretty good day! We've been having a lot of success with less-actives this week and focusing on reactivating them because we are struggling to find new people but my faith is strong!! April is really flying by so fast already! My mission is flying by too! Already been out 3 months and it doesn't feel even close to that! Elder Barnes and I have really come a long way since we've been companions. I've learned a lot in the 9 weeks we've been together and although we started off kinda rough, we got it together and had a good time together! I'm thankful for the time we had together to really help me to grow in many ways! Even though it's been very tough at times... No growth occurs in the comfort zone! On Sunday, we went to church and we had a great church day! We had 5 people at church that we were working with so it was obviously a great day! (: Then on Monday, we get transfer calls that night so throughout most of the day we were just talking about what we think is gonna happen and we made predictions but we were all way wrong! My whole district got transferred and I am the only one staying and instead of covering 3 wards, I now cover 6 wards and my new companion is Elder Gilman. From what I hear, he seems like a pretty cool guy and he loves sports so that's always a plus! Im really loving the iPad's we have too! They make everything so much better and they make teaching easier and even more spiritual! They really make missionary life a lot easier and better! Unfortunately we don't have anyone on date right now :( but I love reading your guys' emails and pictures! Keep em comin (: 

Love Elder Bowler

{week 11}

Today marks 3 months in the mission field! It's already flying by!!
This week has been another solid week here in Taylorsville, Utah! So
this week there's been some ups and downs as usual but definitely more
ups! Sadly there was no real April fools jokes played this year because my companion would have got super mad at me if I did so I just chose not to haha but anyways, on Wednesday 

we had a zone training meeting which is basically when our zone gathers together to have a meeting on how we are doing as a zone and what we could do better! We have 10 

companionships in our zone. The topic of the zone conference was chapel tours and how 

important they are. One part of zone training is that we do role plays and the zone 

leaders were going to go through a full chapel tour and basically show us "How it's done." Haha so they needed an investigator and they called on me to be that and it went really 

great! And my mission president was also there and I'm pretty sure the zone leaders really like me which usually means they'll put in a good word in with president Moffat which is 

good because he likes me but bad because I could possibly be put in to leadership... Hope not! Haha then on Thursday we had a really good first 12-week follow up meeting which is 

just a meeting for trainers and missionaries in the first 12 weeks of their mission which I'll only be in for one more week! Haha but anyways that meeting went great and my mission 

president is really coming around! He's been super awesome and fun recently and it really makes it a lot better here! Every Friday, we play dodge ball with a bunch of less-actives and non-members and that is always super fun because we get huge crowds out there and we 

usually teach them a lesson and it's always fun pegging teenagers (; hahaha Saturday was 

an awesome day! I prayed really hard that I would be able to really get something out of 

conference and I totally did! All the Saturday sessions were so great! A lot of reference to families and the atonement. Great conference! Our prophet didn't look like he was in 

the best health though /: Then Sunday came along and we went over to the Binghams home to watch the morning session and then afterwards, sister Bingham made us Waffles with home 

made jams and it was SOOO good!! Then we headed off to Trax and we went to the Sunday 

afternoon session of conference which was super awesome to be there in person. Funny story... So getting in to the conference center, you have to go through security and take out 

all the metal you have so I did and for some reason I kept getting detected like I had 

metal on and I couldn't figure it out! And the people were like come on elder! And then I 

finally realized I had my big silver watch on I forgot to take off haha I felt so dumb! 

But anyways, conference was great! So good to hear general authorities talk in person! So lately, I've really been trying to be exactly obedient and it's been working out great! 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups, and 50 crunches every morning! So on Monday night, we had an 

appointment with a less-active guy whose name is Rick and we've been really trying to get Rick to come to church and he just never does because he really has trouble getting along with the members in his ward so we decided to go out and buy the Meet The Mormons dvd and watch it with him and we weren't really sure how it was going to go but we watched it and the spirit was so strong with him and afterwards, he was crying and he told me "Thank you for always being so consistent and not giving up on me. You guys have really made me want to change my life so I will commit to come to church this week. I love you   guys." I was crying with him. Me and him have really gotten to become very close since I've been 

meeting with him and we finished that night off with a big hug and then we left. Seriously one of the most spiritual experiences I've ever had. I know this gospel changes lives. I challenge all of you to do as the apostles have told us and conduct nightly scripture study

 and prayer and weekly FHE in your families. I know it can be tough at times but I know 

your families will be blessed for it and it will help your kids develop those scripture 

study habits that will bless them throughout their lives! Plant it in their minds now!  I love you guys! Thanks for all the love and support! Life is good! (:
Love, Elder Chase Bowler

Sent from my iPad

{week 10}

Good afternoon friends and family! This week has been a pretty great
week for the most part! So we got iPads on wednesday and i love it! We
get to read emails from home every single day but we can only respond
on Tuesdays. There is some really great and helpful stuff we can do on
LDS library as well. We now have access to so many mormon messages.
Its so great and it really helps the work progress! There is an app we
have that has a interactive pamphlet for each of the 5 Lessons we
teach with videos and paragraphs really explaining what everything is
and we just summarize those. I don't have to carry around scriptures
anymore either! Just my ipad and a few copies of the book of mormon to
hand out. Another cool thing is that I can save all the pictures you
guys send to me straight on to my ipad so send tons of pics! I love to
see them and look at them during the week and the members love seeing
pics of my family too! They think piper is the cutest baby ever. Most
of my pics on here are of piper and syd hahaha. On wednesday of last
week, we had exchanges with the zone leaders which i thought was
really going to be rough but it was the exact opposite! I had a great
day with Elder Nielson and he really taught me a lot! He told me I
would baptize a lot on my mission because I'm so good with people and
I'm always in a good mood. That was great to hear from someone in
leadership! He also said that I have been handling the whole situation
with elder Barnes great and he also had him as a companion so he knows
what it's like haha. Some funny stuff that happened this week... The
sister missionaries in our district thought it would be funny to play
a joke on elder Barnes so they took our helmets and left theirs for us
to wear. Elder Barnes was so mad oh my gosh seriously so funny. I'm
pretty sure he also used my toothbrush this week... Awkward. I used my
new one instead haha. We finally found a new investigator!!! Her name
is Jessica and she is 18! She isn't on date for baptism yet but
that'll be coming soon! That night when we found Jessica, we came back
to the apartment and Elder Barnes told me "This transfer is going by
really quick!" And earlier in the week he said "How fast your transfer
goes depends on how much you like your companion." HE DOES LIKE ME!!!
Hahaha that was great to hear. One Friday, we have dodgeball with a
bunch of members and non-members and we bring everyone together and
teach a lesson and play some dodgeball; anyways, on Friday night, one
of the guys plying dodgeball came up to us elders and asked us for a
blessing and he asked me to do it. It was such a great experience to
help him out with what he was going through. After the blessing he
told me thank you and then he said, "Dang Elder Bowler, do you work
out a lot?!" I was like not really, just 50 push-ups, 50 crunches, and
50 sit-ups a day! I guess it's paying off! On Sunday, we go to 3
sacrament meetings and elder Barnes falls asleep in every single one.  Then Sunday night we came back to the apartment and someone was
waiting outside for us and he gave me $100 bill and said "I noticed
your bike tires are kind of worn down. Take this money and go get new
tubes, tires, lights, and batteries" I was shocked! He said he loves
me and all I do and he knows what I'm going through is tough but he
said just stick through it and you'll be rewarded! Love that guy. Last
night was an awesome night too! We had a pretty great day and then to
finish off the night one of our appointments fell through so we went
over to the binghams and played games with them! And we're going
golfing with brother Bingham today! Pumped for that! I'm in Alma 55 in
my Book of Mormon reading! Hope you guys are reading every day! Have a
Great week! (:

Love, Elder Chase Bowler

Sent from my iPad