Sister Kayla Bowen: Miracles were worked by small means

Alma 37:40 - "...therefore they had..many miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day. Nevertheless, because those miracles were worked by small means it did show unto them marvelous works.

Aloha Dad :) Thanks for the email, I love hearing about the Hale Center, and the recording of Jordans singing IT IS SO GREAT!! I cant wait to go to Hale Center again :)

I'm glad you liked our song, some other sisters in our mission wrote it but I think its a perfect teaching tool so I adapted it ;) Honolulu is great and it sounds like everyone at home is great, getting excited for summer! Graduation here in Hawaii is a really big thing so nobody has been home and the traffic is nuts, but the Lord blesses us with safety and we still had so much happen this week.

By small and simple things are MIRACLES brought to pass. This week was miraculous and I feel so grateful to the Lord that he is allowing me be front and center to watch his work unfold. We were blessed with very busy days this week and unbelievable amounts of lessons but to keep it shorter (which it still isn't) here are the highlights:

Monday night we went to visit a Palouan family the Elders had referred us to and we had set up an appointment with the week before. We have been praying so hard for this family. When we got there we knocked and the mom (Malina) and one of her boys (Malu age 4) answered with big smiles and invited us right in. We walked in and met their oldest boy (Raymond age 8) and the Dad, Ashley. There were two empty chairs pulled up for us and the whole family sat ready for our lesson. We talked story for a few minutes and found out Malina is Protestant but trying to be a Catholic because her husband is Catholic and they want the same religion. (😄) We prayed and then asked them about what they knew about missionaries and our church. She told us her friend was Mormon and they went to the Polynesian Cultural Center together. Malina then said, "I heard you can be baptized for your family who have passed away in the temple, how does that work?" And "I also heard you can be married even after you die, right?" We couldnt believe it. NOTHING is better for a missionary than having an investigator ask a question like HOW CAN MY FAMILY BE TOGETHER FOREVER!!! Because that just happens to be something we know a little bit about. We felt teaching the Plan of Salvation would be perfect for them so we went right into explaining it. They loved the Plan of Salvation and asked a lot of really great questions. When we were teaching about the 3 kingdoms they said, "Most churches teach that there is only a heaven and hell. It's reassuring to know he gives us so many second chances." What. That's a comment you hear in relief society not in a first lesson with the missionaries. Then they asked, "Do you study the Old Testament?" Which lead perfectly into teaching about the Book of Mormon and The Restoration through Joseph Smith. We talked about how Joseph Smith was a prophet just like the prophets in the Bible. Malina then said, "Oh! Do you have a movie about Joseph Smith? I love movies like those." Well as a matter of fact we do. Their questions and comments were so unreal, it almost felt like one of the fake practices you do in the MTC. We showed them the restoration video and they loved it. They were impressed with our answers to their questions and the spirit was so strong. We asked Ashley and Malina if they would pray about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and they so sincieraly answered that they would. We closed with a prayer and as we were leaving I went to shake Ashleys hand and he pulled me into a great big hug. The kids love us and they are all excited to have us come back this week. WE WERE SO GRATEFUL TO HAVE SUCH AN AMAZING LESSON. I am praying that they will continue to feel the spirit and come to know they have found the true church! By small things (Leading the Elders to the wrong apartment) he has brought about something that has strengthened my testimony and will hopefully one day lead their family to the temple. 😊❤

Thursday we went to visit Clarence, a 60 year old Uncle from Kosraen, who LOVES his pamphlets. I have never met anyone (including the missionaries) who love our pamphlets more than him. We had a lesson and he told us he had run all the way from the bus stop home to be there so he wouldn't miss us because he was so excited to get his pamphlets in his language. He kept saying the whole lesson, "I can't believe you have these pamphlets in my language, they mean everything to me, I study them every morning with my Bible and Kosraen Mormon Bible." He is so adorable (see picture), and he met missionaries back when he lived in Kosraen. He told us his Uncle use to be a really bad alcoholic and after the missionaries gave him "the blue Mormon bible" he "Didn't drink no more and walked around the village with the Mormon bible." He obviously was very impressed with how much the Book of Mormon can change somebody like his Uncle so I was prompted to ask, "Would you like to change like your Uncle?" He said "why not?!" Clarence is going to be baptized 😊

Friday we had a lesson with our investigator Mercy who is so close to being baptized!! We asked her how her Book of Mormon reading is going and she basically described how it must have felt to be Sariah and have to listen to her husband and leave their home. "I don't know if I could do that." I guess it's a normal thing to have our investigators LIKEN THEMSELVES TO THE STORIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. We had a lesson about CPR (church, pray, read) and had a discussion about the Book of Mormon. It was almost more like visiting teaching...I mean ministering (😉) than a lesson with an investigator. I feel so much love for these people that I am blessed to teach and I get so excited when I see them understanding and loving what we are teaching. Mercy has an adorable little granddaughter named Marciann and whenever we come, she busies herself with her toys and acts like she isn't paying attention but Mercy reported to us that after every lesson Marciann teaches everything we have taught to her Mom and Grandpa. She taught them the 10 Commandments song, with the hand actions, drew a diagram I showed them of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and explained it, and explained the Word of Wisdom to them. If only our members would do missionary work like Marciann ;) She makes my heart so happy and I love seeing how neat it is that little kids are ALWAYS paying attention.

Sunday our 2 investigators Jayann and Justino had their baptism interviews and they will be getting baptized this week! I love these two so much and can't wait to see them baptized. We showed them some pictures we had printed off that we were going to give to another family in our branch that was baptized and they carried them around the whole day, looked at them, asked if they would get pictures taken and printed off, asked about the white jumpsuits, and it just made me so happy to see them so intrigued and excited about baptism.

I love this work and I love these people, I can't imagine having gone my whole mission without serving in the Branch. I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament meeting on Charity and couldn't help but think that missionary work is nothing but loving and supporting everyone, some members and some soon to be ;) Our purpose on this earth is to learn to love like the Savior and our Heavenly Father loves us. I am grateful for my mission for helping mr understand that.

I love you and I love emailing you all my miracles every week, thanks for your emails I look forward to them so much and love hearing about summer coming up. :) Have a great week, I love you!!!

Of a atu,

Sister Bowen