This week was fabulous and I hope my email can capture some
of how amazing my mission experince is to send home :)
Monday we started off the week right with hiking up Manoa
Falls again. Its definitley one for the books, I always feel like I just walked
into jurassic park. Afterwards we did some grocery shopping, emailed, and went
and got shave ice (Utah Translation: Amazing Snow Cones). The best part of the
day was when we went to Goodwill (Hawaiian version of Savers) and I found a
really cute dress but there was no barcode tag on it so the manager just gave
it to me for $2. 😁🤙The Lord loves
me haha.
Tuesday we had a fabulous district meeting with our new District Leader, Elder Lidang. Elder Lidang is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. He attended Standford before his mission, fluently speaks 6 langauges, and is a convert from being Jehovah Witness. I love his trainings and cant help but take tons of notes. One of my favorite things he talked about had to do with personal revelation. He started off by asking, "Who has seen the Missouri river?" I of course proudly raised my hand. He said, "Sister Bowen, if you stood in the middle of the Missouri river and held out your hands and tried to stop it from flowing would you be able to stop it?" Then he talked about how in D and C 121 the Lord tells us he has so much revelation to give us, it would be like trying to stop the Missouri river there would be so much. He's just waiting for us to ask. He explained it better but I thought that was really cool imagery. Tuesday Sister Eberhard and I also did a really intense service project for the mission. The missionaries have a room in the mission office where they put everything they dont want anymore and can take whatever others have left behind. The picture doesnt do it justice of how much of a mess it was. Its supposedly Sister Walkers job to keep it clean but Sister Walkers has the least amount of time out of anyone so we cleaned it as a service project. It took a few hours and after 6 bags to goodwill and 3 to the trash, it was looking good. :) Well see how long that lasts after this next transfer of missionaries goes home... ;)
Wednesday and Friday this week we had exchanges with the Halawa sisters and the Auialimu sisters. I stayed in Honolulu for both exchanges with the 2 greenies being trained. Wednesday I was with Sister Mateus Nobre, from Brazil and she has never been out of Brazil before, so it was fun to see her be so excited about everything. One miracle we had was when we went to visit Clairence, an older man who LOVES our pamphlets because they are in jis Kosrae language. He told us to go back Wednesday and when we knocked a teenage girl answered the door and told us he was at the beach. Obviosuly i was a little upset with Clairence but it happens, so as we began asking if she could tell Clairence we had stopped by she said in her broken English, "Can you come in and teach me instead?" Of course we were happy to so we went in, sat down and just like that shared one of the most spiritual Restoration lessons Ive ever had on my mission. She thanked us over and over and Ive never seen somebody so excited to recieve their own free Book of Mormon. She was so excited to have it in her language too. We have our next appointment with her tomorrow and I am excited to see her again. 😊
Friday I was with Sister Niualiku, a Tongan sister who fell in love with our Micronesian area and the kids here and didnt want to go back to area. Haha I am reminded more and more everyday how lucky I am to be serving here in Honolulu, it's the best place to be.😊
Saturday we worked with Sister Bendixen to make mustache cookies for all the Dads in our branch and it was really fun to hand them out Sunday to our
Tuesday we had a fabulous district meeting with our new District Leader, Elder Lidang. Elder Lidang is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. He attended Standford before his mission, fluently speaks 6 langauges, and is a convert from being Jehovah Witness. I love his trainings and cant help but take tons of notes. One of my favorite things he talked about had to do with personal revelation. He started off by asking, "Who has seen the Missouri river?" I of course proudly raised my hand. He said, "Sister Bowen, if you stood in the middle of the Missouri river and held out your hands and tried to stop it from flowing would you be able to stop it?" Then he talked about how in D and C 121 the Lord tells us he has so much revelation to give us, it would be like trying to stop the Missouri river there would be so much. He's just waiting for us to ask. He explained it better but I thought that was really cool imagery. Tuesday Sister Eberhard and I also did a really intense service project for the mission. The missionaries have a room in the mission office where they put everything they dont want anymore and can take whatever others have left behind. The picture doesnt do it justice of how much of a mess it was. Its supposedly Sister Walkers job to keep it clean but Sister Walkers has the least amount of time out of anyone so we cleaned it as a service project. It took a few hours and after 6 bags to goodwill and 3 to the trash, it was looking good. :) Well see how long that lasts after this next transfer of missionaries goes home... ;)
Wednesday and Friday this week we had exchanges with the Halawa sisters and the Auialimu sisters. I stayed in Honolulu for both exchanges with the 2 greenies being trained. Wednesday I was with Sister Mateus Nobre, from Brazil and she has never been out of Brazil before, so it was fun to see her be so excited about everything. One miracle we had was when we went to visit Clairence, an older man who LOVES our pamphlets because they are in jis Kosrae language. He told us to go back Wednesday and when we knocked a teenage girl answered the door and told us he was at the beach. Obviosuly i was a little upset with Clairence but it happens, so as we began asking if she could tell Clairence we had stopped by she said in her broken English, "Can you come in and teach me instead?" Of course we were happy to so we went in, sat down and just like that shared one of the most spiritual Restoration lessons Ive ever had on my mission. She thanked us over and over and Ive never seen somebody so excited to recieve their own free Book of Mormon. She was so excited to have it in her language too. We have our next appointment with her tomorrow and I am excited to see her again. 😊
Friday I was with Sister Niualiku, a Tongan sister who fell in love with our Micronesian area and the kids here and didnt want to go back to area. Haha I am reminded more and more everyday how lucky I am to be serving here in Honolulu, it's the best place to be.😊
Saturday we worked with Sister Bendixen to make mustache cookies for all the Dads in our branch and it was really fun to hand them out Sunday to our
Members as well as to random Dads we met street proselyting.
The Bendixens are so amazing, they are my Hawaiian grandparents ans they are
always looking for ways to serve us and thr members of our branch. Saturday we
had lots of appointments as usual but the two that stood out the most was a
lesson with thr Thomas family and Linsel's family. The Thomas family consists
of 6 or 7 kids that are all learning about the gospel and love it. They come to
church almost every week and always sit around us in a big circle during out
lessons and ask great questions. We talked a lot about Baptism and Missionary
work and the temple this week and they were asking question after question,
really good questions and I loved feeling the spirit as they got excited about
baptism. Its a hard decision we have to make because they have been taught all
the lessons, come to church and have permission from their parents to be
baptized but their parents are interested in coming to church and dont listen
to most of the lessons. We dont want to baptized any kids in this area that
arent going to be taught and shown at home how ro live the gospel and continue
growing their testimony. But for now we are doing our best to teach them all
that we can.
Last, Linsel is a recent convert and super awesome. Her two little boys are the cutest boys I have ever met and their favorite game to play with us is "Down by the banks" hahaha. Heres some pictures of their adorableness.
Sunday we stopped by Jayann and Justino and Jayzareens house and brought a game we found in the costco room while cleaning it. We played "Guess Who" for a little bit and although it was a little too mentally intense for Justino, Jayzareen is so sharp and she did a great job.😉 She texted us later and asked if we were coming again tomorrow. I am so glad we are someone she can look up to as examples and someone she knows loves her in her world where there is nobody else she can look to.
Last, Linsel is a recent convert and super awesome. Her two little boys are the cutest boys I have ever met and their favorite game to play with us is "Down by the banks" hahaha. Heres some pictures of their adorableness.
Sunday we stopped by Jayann and Justino and Jayzareens house and brought a game we found in the costco room while cleaning it. We played "Guess Who" for a little bit and although it was a little too mentally intense for Justino, Jayzareen is so sharp and she did a great job.😉 She texted us later and asked if we were coming again tomorrow. I am so glad we are someone she can look up to as examples and someone she knows loves her in her world where there is nobody else she can look to.
Monday night was....eh....exciting ;) We were doing language
study at about 8:30 at night and as we were studying I suddenly heard water
splashing on the floor and the spirit immediatly told me a dish had plugged the
sink and it was overflowing (our washer dumps all the rinsed water into the
sink to drain). Before I even registered what was happening, I was running
across the room and threw my hands into the kitchen sink to grab out the dish.
Sure enough, the sink had completely filled and was dumping water EVERYWHERE. Sister
Eberhard at this point asks me what wrong and jumps up to see our tiny kitchen
drowning in itself. She panicked quite a bit and didnt know what the problem
was but by that time the sink started draining and we were left to sop up water
for the next hour. Fun times haha. I was laughing and after a while Sister
Eberhard started laughing too. It made me feel really good to be working
together as a companionship to fix a problem together. It made me realize that
although life is tough and a lot happens, like having a flooding kitchen, it
will be nice to have my future eternal companion to be there so we can fix it
together. 😊👍
Last but most definitley not least, we had P-day today because we had temple trip today!!!! I have missed the temple so much and it was great to go to the temple and thank my Heavenly Father for blessing me with so much, including my testimony which is such a precious gift to me, i cant imagine who i would be without it. After the temple the Bendixens, who drove us up, tooks us to lunch at Seven Brothers and dessert at Angels, 2 of Laies greatest eats 😉😋. It was a fun day and I cannot believe its week 5 of the transfer...Sister Eberhard goes home in less than 2 weeks and today is my 14 month mark. Time flies when youre serving the Lord. 😊
Its always busy here in Honolulu with all of our appointments and exchanges and duties as STLs as well as zone conference and temple trip this week, but thats exactly how I like it. The Lord was so involved in the arrangment of having me serve in Honolulu at this time and I am so grateful for that. I love how involved my Heavenly Father is in my life. He always has been, but now I recognize it, and I am so grateful for it. 😊
Last but most definitley not least, we had P-day today because we had temple trip today!!!! I have missed the temple so much and it was great to go to the temple and thank my Heavenly Father for blessing me with so much, including my testimony which is such a precious gift to me, i cant imagine who i would be without it. After the temple the Bendixens, who drove us up, tooks us to lunch at Seven Brothers and dessert at Angels, 2 of Laies greatest eats 😉😋. It was a fun day and I cannot believe its week 5 of the transfer...Sister Eberhard goes home in less than 2 weeks and today is my 14 month mark. Time flies when youre serving the Lord. 😊
Its always busy here in Honolulu with all of our appointments and exchanges and duties as STLs as well as zone conference and temple trip this week, but thats exactly how I like it. The Lord was so involved in the arrangment of having me serve in Honolulu at this time and I am so grateful for that. I love how involved my Heavenly Father is in my life. He always has been, but now I recognize it, and I am so grateful for it. 😊
Sister Bowen
P.S. if you have any diet or weight lose tips please let me know. Im not too worried about my weight, I know ill lose it when I get home, buuuut I did eat cheesy fries with bacon and a dole whip for lunch so it would be greatly appreciated. 😅
linsel and boys
Happy Fathers Day
before and after of the costco room
Hike and Shave ice last P-day 😋❤👌
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