Happy Birthday Kayla

This week has been great, I've had a lot of fun, and we have seen so many miracles!

We started teaching 3 new families this week and are hoping to continue with that for the next transfer. We received transfer news and Sister Fifita and I will be staying together along with the Zone Leaders so we hope to continue with the progress we have made here. In our last mission leadership conference call, the AP thanked Maui for "the example that they were and the standard they had set for the rest of the mission." I take absolutely no credit in that, I am just so proud of all the missionaries we have over here and for the work that they do and all that they have accomplished to lift the whole island of Maui in missionary work. 

We got to attend a football game at the oldest school west of the Mississippi, Lahainaluna High, and although it was only a game for the Junior high (We were there for one of our investigating families and their son) it was fun. 

Nana and Papa sent me a Birthday package this week and there was a mini cake inside!! Haha you know the one she always makes with the chocolate chips on top? It was crazy, and I still can't believe I am going to be 20...Ashley Bowen is still 20 in my mind hahaha. 

I got to see Lori and the gang this week and we went to Bubba Gumps! It was so fun to see someone I knew in my mission haha, for most of the world Hawaii is vacation but for me is in nothing but a mission ;) 

On another note, our apartments is infested with mosquitoes and gas is 5 dollars a gallon on Molokai but how can that get you down when you have the gospel of Jesus Christ? ;) 

I love you all and can feel the strength of your prayers :) My testimony of Prayer and Fasting is so strong because of the things I have experienced on my mission and I love knowing my Father in Heaven is so willing to help me in anything. :)

Have a good week, Ofa atu

Sister Bowen 

Ready for a long email?

We havent had a full P-day since the first P-day of the transfer because of all of our appointments and so with the little bit of time we did have this past week we went and played volleyball with the Elders which was a blast, even though I am terrible at volleyball despite my hope that I would magically become good at volleyball because I am serving a Polynesian mission 😉 Tuesday we had district meeting and talked about how amazing the week before was! We had a miracle week for the whole mission and had so many baptisms and new investigators. I know the power of fasting and prayer because of this week and I love our weekly district meetings to talk about the work and see how we can do better. I always leave so excited to work!

We met a new investigator who was in the area book . Maggie was more energetic than anyone I have ever met and talked like we were all old best friends. She's impossible to explain and I wish so badly I could send a package of "Maggie" to you because she is one of the greatest people I have ever met. She was so excited to hear i liked snowboarding and went on for about 20 minutes about how Utah has the greatest snow on earth. 😉 The craziest part was this: She told us she watches general conference every 6 months and her favorite speaker is President Uchtdorf...we couldn't believe it haha. We are going to continue working with her and hope to set her with a baptismal date this week! 

We had a great lesson with Carlos and talked about Faith. He feels like he is "lesser" than everyone at church because of the mistakes he use to make and because he says he doesn't have enough Faith. He is continuing to stump us with questions and despite his doubts he is at church every week, reads the BOM and makes time for lessons every week. He is such an inspiration to me. 

This week a couple of my fellow missionaries in different parts of the world talked about how much they love the temple and were happy they got to visit this week. I haven't been to the temple in months and I miss it so much!! We really are so blessed to be able to live so close to 3 at home, I can't wait to attend as often as I can 😊 I understand why you tried to go every week now mom, sorry I ever said anything negative about it and thank you for your example.❤

Friday is when our miracle happened. 

Background: The ward counsel here in the Lahaina 1st ward has been a challenge at times. So me and Sister Fifita decided and started visiting just the ward counsel members in their homes. We visited the bishop, the 1st counselor, and 2nd Counselor, the Elders quoram President etc. etc. It took multiple visits, talking story for hours with some of them, and serving them, which was hard on me and Sister Fifita because we didn't get to work towards getting new investigators or baptism with anyone the whole week.  It was a miracle to see the all of the auxiliary leaders (except 2) fall in love with us and continue to invite us over. They didn't say anything negative in ward counsel and thanked us for visiting them. I have learned so much since being here in Lahaina but one thing that stands out to me is the power of a visit. Visiting teachers and home teachers are assigned so when that person goes to church or needs help they have already broken that ice. When we see the ward counsel in the halls at church it's no longer awkward for anyone and I am honestly shocked how 1 initial visit where we didn't stay that long and all we did was talk story changed that. I have a testimony of introducing yourself to others and visiting and home teaching, who knew right? 

😊 

So we have spend an especially large amount of time with the 1st counselor and his wife, the young women's President, the Kanihos. We had our initial visit Sunday night, went over for dinner Tuesday night, stopped by Thursday night, and Friday night we went to a softball game, because Brother Kaniho coaches and one of the guys he coaches with is an inactive member and none of his family is baptized. We got really close with this family and now we have it set up to go every Friday for a softball game to get to know the Hong family (coach) and a couple of the girls who's parents are inactive. It was been awesome to be working so hard and so much with the Kanihos. 

This week it has also rained sooo much and been cold. It's better than being hot, although I am no longer tan haha. We also gave a lesson in Young Women's (#membermauitrust) called "Why do the choices I make matter." It was a fun lesson to give and the girls were very talkative😊 

Last but not least, Sunday night is the night we report our numbers to the district leader and we were pretty bummed out because we had 0 new investigators that week and we usually have somewhere around 3. As we were getting ready to drive home (we live 30 min away from our area) I had the prompting to go visit an active auntie in our ward. I thought that was strange but we went and as we pulled up the Tongan wards relief society President was there, Ane Hafoka. She told us to park in the middle of the street (there was no parking, she was going to watch our car...parked in the middle of the street😂) and let us run inside and talk to Auntie about her less active son really quick. We did that and when we got there, unknown to the Ane and us, the whole part member family was there! We talked to the less active son and his nonmember wife and set up FHE with them for next week. We left with 3 new investigators (their kids were also unbaptized) and got to meet the family who we have been trying to get a hold of for months. 😄 It was a miracle all around and i am so excited to start teaching them. 

A mission is the best thing in the whole world and I am so grateful to be here. I can't believe today is my 10 month mark, it had flown by. We get transfer news this week already and I am praying I will stay here with Sister Fifita but as the song goes "I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord" 😊 

Have a good week❤ 

Ofa atu,

Sista Bowen

P.S. Sister Swenson is taking such good care of us and she made us 20+ frozen dinners so when we don't have dinner and they can't feed us we can still eat a good dinner, no more cereal for dinner😉😄

P.P.S I can look at emails all day on my phone on p-day so if you end up sending your emails later that's okay don't worry😊

Mate ma'a Tonga

This week me and Sister Fifita worked hard to gain Lahaina member trust and its a slow process but we are getting there  :) 

Jordan emailed me which was awesome and I saw all his great sweethearts photos 😄 

I hope all it well at home, I am loving my mission and hope you are all receiving blessings at home. Sorry it's such a short email this week, it's been a long week ;) 

Ofa atu,

Sista Bowen 

Malo o lelei a ofa a tu!

Every week I tell myself there is no way I could possibly become busier, more exhausted, and more in love with the work here on my mission. 

It has been overwhelming for me to receive messages from many of the less active and active members in my last wards telling me they miss me and commenting on my Facebook posts about how they could see Christ through me. I feel so grateful to them for allowing me to be a part of their testimony, they will never understand how much they have strengthened mine. It reminds me that every area I am placed and every companion I am put with is for a very specific purpose and in the words of Ronald A. Rasband in his talk 'By Divine Design' - "The Lord is in the small details of our lives, and those incidents and opportunities are to prepare us to lift our families and others as we build the kingdom of God on earth." My testimony has been strengthened through my mission and through those I have met in ways I know I could have NEVER had it strengthened, and for that, I will forever be grateful to my Heavenly Father for watching out for me and prompting me to serve a mission. I am also so grateful for you Mom and Dad for being examples to me my whole life of obedience, love of the gospel, trusting in the Lord, and diligence. I would not be where I am now without you both. 

We flew to Honolulu this week for the Mission Leaders Conference and had a great time as always learning from our mission President and brainstorming ideas for this next upcoming year. I am grateful to be apart of such a wonderful mission and to be trusted by our Heavenly father enough to be a sister Training Leader. I am also grateful to be companions with Sister Fifita who taught me this week that even when life throws curve balls at you, you just take it and run because like Dad always says, "I'm going to have to go through this at some point so I might as well go through it now." 

Sister Fifita has taken the rough patches in her life and turned them into amazing things. She is such an inspiration to me and we continue to work together flawlessly. 

I was really disappointed this week when I found out that there are indeed gigantic spiders here on the islands. I watched a cane spider the size of my hand ascended the side of a car we were ascend next to. Sister Fifita refuses to look at pictures I've taken in fear of scrolling acrossed the picture I was able to take of it. 😉

The work is slowly but surely progressing and I love every minute of it. I love you Mom and Dad and tell my siblings their alright too 😉❤ 

Have a good week and I apologize this email came so late, MLC pushed out p-day all the way to today. 

Love you and miss you so much

Sister Bowen