Joe's Baptism...

Alrighty then! 

Time for the weekly e-mail home I know everyone is just so anxious to hear each week! haha JK. So this last week looking back has taken forever but gone by fast just like every other week it seems. We didn't teach a lot this week, most everything we had planned and set up fell through.  So honestly I don't have a lot to report for this last week. Our appointment with Tiffiene fell through cause her BF freaked out and stopped that. So we're waiting around to see what happens there. They don't even like each other they're just living together cause they have a kid together. But she did come to Joe's baptism though and the Ward Picnic we had on Saturday. (that was pretty fun) anyways. So she has finals this week but our member who has been working with her will keep on her until we can get an appointment set up with her. She's still super nice and seems to be happy on the outside which is good she's just going through a lot right now. We still keep in touch almost daily with Mike and see him often. He came to church this last Sunday to see me confirm Joe (I'll talk about the baptism last). We're going over there tonight and hopefully can get him reading the BoM so he can see the change that comes with that (That's right Mike I said it. [he now knows about the blog and reads it fyi]). We'll see what happens. Wednesday we went on this "24-hour" exchange with the Zone Leaders up in their area. I was with Elder Kujanpaa (Quoy-ahn-pa) When their up doing their ZL stuff they are just robotic but alone they're not bad kids. It was good and I enjoyed it. He's a good missionary. So I don't have much else to write about. We had dinner with several members this last week. Like bishop for the first time since I've been here so that was good. Friday we had Joe's baptism. It went really well. We went to the church at about 3:30 to help fill the font up and get it all ready. It wasn't as big of a headache as Allen and Timmy's baptism which I'm glad. The service went well. He bore his testimony and the journey he's been on and how it's been a 7 year journey. 2 years with the missionaries. So it's been a crazy trip. He noticed the change in his life. Like being clean and all that. It's cool. Sunday I confirmed him a member and gave him the Holy Ghost. My first "Ordinance" he asked me to do it cause to represent the onslaught of missionaries who's had to "deal" with him (I never really did haha) but also he said I was the coolest the missionary he's met. Which was really cool he said that. Yesterday we rode our bikes to hilltop to try a LA/PM family, the Bakers. We caught them as we were leaving so we only talked for like 10 minutes. Then we rode to the Skousen's house for dinner. They're a cool couple. No kids cause of reasons. But it was a good dinner. The food wasn't done so we shared the mormon message "The Will of God" which was something they needed to hear and it helped them out which was cool. So after that we went over to Bro Miller's house and on the way there my back tire (which in reality is Elder Cornia's cause it's his bike) went flat fast. We weren't to far from his house so we walked it and when we get there I check the tire and find this stick in the tire. I took a picture of it and included it cause it's big and in all my years of biking I've never seen this before it's crazy. So Spanish came and go us from there. Elder Peters is doing alright as a DL. He doesn't know what he's doing and he's not meant to be a leader. It's apparent and it's hard cause I feel like his secretary sometimes keeping him together. But it's all good. He's a good kid and it's good for him. Maybe it'll help him mature and such. But that's really all for this week! Love you all. Please write!

Elder Derrek Bowler.

K and the Pics are of Joe's Baptism. (his parents came and his brother too. They're not members so that was cool) Elder K and I after a split with a member up in their area. and the stick I pulled out of the tire.

K so this is Joe's family. Charlie (2), Heidi (wife), John (dad), Gwen (mom), Alex (4), Joe, Joe's Brother (can't remember his name, might be josh) and His father in law on the far right. 

Baptisms...

Dear Family,

Hey guys! Calvin you look good! haha Cute hair too ;) Question. Can you do the Pec dance yet? haha I finally can now haha it's pretty tight. So this last week wasn't too bad. Like I said I got a lovely cold about Tuesday that I'm still trying to get over. I don't think biking in the rain helped too much but hey it's what I gotta do. I've been good at taking medicine and getting a little extra sleep. It's been annoying more than anything. Mike took us to Burnzies. That Bar/Restaurant and I couldn't even taste the food. I was pretty mad at that. haha. So it sucks but all those investigators that we found a few weeks back have all dropped off the grid. We lost contact with Victoria. Jennifer got kicked out of her friends apartment and was throwing threats and all that fun stuff at her. So we won't be meeting with her anymore, everyone else we lost contact with so yeah. We found one new investigator. Her mom was a member when she was younger and she's looking to get into church. The Rosenvalls (member family) have been working with her. She's been kept in the dark from us because no one wanted Elder Peterson to teach her and mess things up. So it makes sense and I see why. Poor kid though. He is struggling with Elder Wheadon though which I knew he will but Elder Wheadon dies in May so yeah crazy it's been that long already. Anyways back to our new gator. Her name is Tiffiene. (Tiffany weird right?) haha Anyways she's super cool, Early 20's and can definitely see god pointing her down this path. We meet with her again tomorrow for lunch with some members that she knows too. The Rosenvalls are moving to Alaska soon and so we're trying to get more fellowship with more members in the ward. So hopefully that all goes well. Mike is still in the same boat. He helped us with our dry cleaning this past week which was much needed and the took us to lunch. I'm still trying to figure out what to do to help him, but it's hard when he's sitting on the back burner. We'll figure it out. K so I swear everything points to Baltimore..  We tracted into a guy who was wearing an Orioles shirt that was Catholic. but He's moving to Delaware in three weeks. I mentioned I lived with a friend who was from there and he was nice. Took a BoM and a pamphlet and told him there are missionaries out there too. Who knows what will happen but all I know is I'm more of a planter of seeds than anything haha I don't know. So after all that I really don't have much to report on. We saw Brother Miller a few times this past week, We got him back to church after I kept buggin him about it. It was funny cause he was like a celebrity cause he was everyone's favorite and everyone asked him to do everything (I think it's cause he's gay) But also Joe Hamilton is finally getting baptized this Friday! He told us yesterday and we're getting everything worked out this week so it'll all work out on Friday! It's been a long journey for him. Ha I've only been over to his house like twice. I never taught him. (most of my baptisms are picked up from other missionaries except for Allen and Timmy) But I talked a lot with him at church and I'm still excited for him cause it's been a long journey for him. He also asked me to give him the Holy Ghost. First time. it'll be interesting and I'll let you know how it goes! other than that I don't have a lot for this past week. We got Pebbles to do the Cinnamon Challenge and also eat these two juicy peppers that are hotter than heck from the Spanish Elders and filmed it. It was funny. He did ok for his first week as DL. He struggled with numbers. Ha he's just all over the place with a lot of things. Riding Bikes is definitely an experience with him. Good kid though and he'll learn.  The Pictures are for this week me bored doing the classic "duck face" pose. And this little fetus we found walking. I think it's a dog but Pebbles thinks it's a rabbit. I'll let you guys decide for yourselves. I also want to thank all those who sent out letters and packages (for easter and all that) I really appreciate you guys and your service for me and all your prayers. They mean a lot. Love you all! And oh mom, My toe is the same. I can't tell if it is a hangnail or not. I dunno if it's doing what Alec's toe was doing so yeah I don't know. I'll ask Sister Nilsen about it. And when you get his call. Call Sister Nilsen and if she doesn't answer call Sister Niu. Thanks a ton!

Love,
Elder Derrek Bowler.

Rough, but good

Hey Mom and Everyone else!

So basically Charity you're right about my mission. haha lot of ups and downs like you're little line graph. So last week kinda bottomed out on finding, (0 new gators :/). And there were just a ton of other things that made it really really rough. I guess I'll go through the days but I think the biggest thing is that it was conference weekend and someone else was trying to make it harder than I needed to where I wasn't able to fully get everything I needed out of conference. But I did like conference and there were definitely a few talks that I really enjoyed. I'll get there though. So yeah this past week was longer than I thought it would be looking back on it but I made it. So last monday we really only were able to teach Brother Delafuente. We invited him to baptism and he had several concerns and how he went through a ton of different missionaries and he's worried if he gets baptized like what will happen to him if he decided he doesn't want to do this anymore and then go back to old habits. He's a good guy and they're a great family but he'll take a little more work. We can't fully treat him like an investigator which isn't the easiest thing but we're working on it. Tuesday wasn't too eventful, we tried to tract a couple places but not a whole lot came out of it. We did however tract into a Wicken. I did get a weird feeling when she opened the door and when she told us what she was it made sense. She took a Restoration Pamphlet for her 12 year old Wicken daughter who doesn't practice anything but reads anything. Then we went and saw Brother Miller. That was good like always. Had dinner with some members and then had a lesson with Jennifer Davis (the girl we picked up at church last week) That was good. She's only 20 (I swear everyone out here looks older than they really are... It's gotta be the hood haha) But she said she wanted a lifestyle change for her and her son which is good and she wants to be baptized! we haven't extended yet but we will hopefully tonight. Wednesday we rode bikes (I borrowed E. Cornia's.. I hated it cause it's not mine haha) but we rode out to try and contact Nicole Snededger's kids out in Hilltop and no one was there so we tried to contact several other less-active or part-member families, with no luck. So we rode back and it was nice and windy (no matter what direction we were riding we had a head wind. It's nothing I'm not used to right Brando?? PS Freakin Paraguay?? DUDE!!! That's so SICK! Don't drink the water ;) haha Congrats on that I'll write you about that too later on.) So on our way back it wasn't too bad. I tried teaching Pebbles how to bunny hop on a bike and it was funny but good (haha this kid cracks me up, He is the goofiest, clumsiest, kid. He kinda reminds me of a more awkward less pissy version of Calvin (no offense bro. It's a good thing.). More innocent too. Fun stuff and makes all of us (Barr, Cornia and myself) laugh and helps us make it through the rough patches like this last week. (I'll get to that later.) Ok so Thursday we had a surprise Specialized training and we get there a little late cause the GPS was being dumb, but we walk in and President is just going off, He was not a really happy camper so they slowly tried to bring it back but the reason for the conference (as I found out later on) was because Elders were being dumb and two got sent home and that's the worst thing in Presidents eyes. (Disobedience and sent home for it) But he offers for missionaries to go home if they're not gonna work and etc etc.. So he's really buckled down and then Sister Nilsen and the AP's tried to bring it back but we all left mostly feeling like crap haha not really but yeah. Then I find out that President wanted to talk to Elder Cornia and Elder Barr... I was just distraught cause I've been trying to help both of them to stay out, Especially Elder Cornia and I called Sister Nilsen a few days earlier asking her to send The Continuous Atonement for him and she asked why and I told him a little (not much) about his situation and I know he's really been debating going home or not. and we've been helping each other stay out here. and even though there are days where I'm just done I know I won't go home. But still doesn't change the fact that I thought he was going home cause he said he's kinda given up on God and everything and I wonder why he hasn't given him an answer yet. I don't really know of a time where I've "received" a big ol' answer, but I guess I can look back and see little things being put together, so I guess that's what keeps me going. But still it's hard especially looking back at the beginning of my mission and how ridiculously rough and dark that was (which was unexpected) but I try to look for the Lord's hand carrying me through all that and there are sometimes where I can't see it. But I guess I have to go through my own personal bit of Gethsemane to understand just a little bit of what Christ went through not only for me but everyone else too. So anyways, Finishing Thursday, We dinner with the Altman's (crazy family but good) We had pizza for dinner, (which reminds me that we had pizza every single day from Wednesday to Sunday. haha people always say we probably always get pizza and I haven't but this week it all came to bite me in the butt haha not sick of it but my body hates me) After dinner we had a lesson with Victoria. We watched the restoration video and we asked her if she believed is Joseph Smith was a prophet and she said she truly does. We invited her to baptism and then she said she'd think about it but then we talked about conference, she said she'd come (she didn't, we haven't been able to get a hold of her but we're trying). Friday was the hardest day of last week. I thought for sure Cornia was going home, but we find out later that Barr was the one that got reamed by President (he's only been out two weeks.. poor kid) and Cornia got pampered. Not what we expected. But President was going off on dumb little things. (apparently he just got back from the airport sending those two kids home and wasn't in the best mood) So they're both staying luckily but next transfer we'll probably all get switched around which sucks. I also got a letter from a good friend back home finding out she's now pregnant :/ it broke my heart and Friday was just an overwhelming day. So we'll see what happens in the future with a lot of stuff.. We had a lesson with Mike (earlier in the week he told us that he's "slowing down" with investigating cause he wants to check out the Methodist and Lutheran church. which sucks but he'll get there.) we're still gonna work with him and he'll still feed us and take us places and will still learn. He's a great guy. I told him to add me on FB cause if he's not dunked by the time I get off I'm coming back to get him. But he told me "holy cow your brothers are huge! I hope they play football!" haha it was funny. So we finished Lesson 4 with him and will continue to keep in contact. So writing all this out last week wasn't too bad on the outside. Then again there were a lot of empty hours with stuff falling through and a lot of different feelings going on but I guess that's a mission. Saturday we spent all day, (noon till ten at night) watching conference up at the church. I really liked President Uchtdorf's talks. Priesthood and Sunday. Elder Hollands was super good. I loved that one. Elder Cardon? on Saturday was a good one and President Monson's talks were good too. There were a ton that I knew mom was getting good things out of. Oh and it was cool to see Elder Porter give a talk. He came to our mission not too long ago. So yeah. We had Pizza with members both those days. I got some stuff to help me get better sleep. (I'm out cold through the night but wake up feeling like a train hit me and it's just rough getting up in the mornings again.) This Ohio air has done something to me. I have constant crap in my throat and it's annoying haha. anyways. So I'm trying to get used to this new stuff. Elder Bell (our DL) just got ET'd (emergency transferred) and we now have the craziest kid in the mission now in our zone (he was in my district when I was in Hebron and this kid is ridiculous) So Pebbles is now our new DL and haha It'll be good growth for him. He's not a leader and so I help him out. It's no biggie. It's good for him. But I've helped him remember most of his stuff so we'll see how this goes! We just found all this out yesterday. Yesterday we tried contacting all the Part-members near us nothing happened but sore legs haha we taught Tithing and WoW to the De La Fuente Family. Gave their oldest daughter a blessing. Today we went to the temple which was good. I read the part about receiving our endowments in the book Continuous Conversion (ps mom I love this book!) if you could send out another copy I would greatly appreciate it. I want Elder Cornia to read one too. Speaking of which. Elder Barr and I "went for a run" on friday morning. We rode our bikes to walmart (3 mile ride one way) to get Elder Cornia some stuff for his birthday. He got some stuff from his family but we went and got stuff to lift his spirits. Just dumb little stuff that 3 year olds use but stuff that he did at home (like a plastic baseball bat and ball and plastic golf set) and some other stuff but it took quite a while and he didn't know it but we said that Elder Barr blew out one of his knees and we had to limp back haha.. We played it off pretty well, but it was definitely worth it. It was good to see him laugh at our presents. haha. So that's my last week. Thanks to those who wrote! I'm working on writing people. I know I'm overdue on a lot of people! I'm trying!! Sorry! but thank you all for your love and support! oh and I forgot, Yesterday Elder Cornia and Barr got t-boned by some dumb white chick who hit them and drove away. They got her plates so she's screwed but the nice 2012 malibu kinda looks like the Stratus just with a smaller dent and with operating doors still. It's just been crazy. We've had a couple of good moments. Like I said Pebbles is here to make us all laugh. Just with dumb little things that only he can do to make people laugh where originally it would just annoy people but since it's Pebbles you kinda expect it (like today we were over at Spanish's apartment and Pebbles some how locked their bathroom door from the outside.. and the way he tells us was just funny. hahaha I want to keep him :P.) So Yeah Love you ALL!  the only pic I have worth sharing this week is me in my dumb bike get up.. I hate the helmet with a passion. But oh well. So that's the Week!

Love, 
Elder Derrek Bowler.
PS. That's awesome Alec put his papers in! and that someone paid for his mission! Call Sister Nilsen when you get his call. Cause She'll call me and let me know :D THANKS! LOVE YOU ALL

Best week :)

Hey Mom,

So thanks for the package! and the letter. It's good to hear from you guys. haha I go onto your blog to find out what's going on with everyone. And thanks for answering my question about Lex by sending her emails out. She's tearing it up just like I thought.  Anywho. So this last week was long (just like I said it would be cause it's the first week of transfers.) So I think I'll just go through the days? I'll start off by saying that this was probably the best week (numbers wise) I've ever had in the mission. Our numbers were better than any other week I've had so far. For example. We've found 6 new investigators. Which hasn't happened in this area for a long time and the weird thing is is that everything we originally planned for fell through. I'll explain. So Monday was the usual p-day, but we had a lesson with a part-member family The De La Fuente's. The husband is not a member and Sis De La Fuente has been working with him for years and he's stopped drinking and is actually listening to the lessons and comes to church and has made great progress personally. Now we're just teaching the lessons disguised as F.H.E. but she wants us to extend to him tonight. So we'll see what he says! It'll be good either way. Tuesday everything just back flopped and fell through and got all twisted around. The only thing I remember is going to Bro Miller's house to do my Laundry (btw thanks Beecher for your help! and mom) but we invited the Spanish Elders to come cause their whole day was shot and Elder Barr (the one from Gilbert) got like food poisoning and so we made them come with us and had a good time. Bro Miller is the funniest gay person I've ever met. He makes anybody's day better. So Wed, We finally rode our bikes..(can I just say I miss Mtn Biking so bad??) haha I was finding everything possible to jump off of or over. But we went to try and contact these referrals that the ward gave us for another part member family (couldn't find the house, we did yesterday but no one was home) so we rode back and had another mile and a half left and my shifter cable just so happens to snap on me. calving I don't know how you took my bike apart but ha whoever put it back together messed everything up.. My brakes are even switched?? anyways so my bikes down again. that night we tried getting back in touch with Chealsea Wimer no answer so we tried a potential investigator that E. Peterson and I found a while back Angel. So we have a return appt with him this week. Thursday was a real good day, we found 3 new gators. we walked around trying to contact a former potential I found in January. Nothing. So I had to take a leak and so we went to the Dodge Dealership across the street. Ogled at some of the cars. (I really like the new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, It's cool) anyways so we had planned to "Spirit find" down this one street. None of the houses felt good at all. So we were about to head back to the main road we came off of and this guy parked right on the corner and I thought his car broke down so I asked him about it and he just said that's where he usually parks. Then I realized I've seen the guy before. It was in a Marathon gas station we went into to get some things and he was just chillin there hanging out slapped my hand saying "Yeah man, Spreadin the word! Spreading the F***in' word!" I just laughed and so we talked with him and his buddy. I found out he's a drummer and his friend plays guitar (of course I related to them) talked music and shared a little about the restoration they said they were busy a lot and I forgot to ask for a number but we gave them both a copy of the BoM. and a restoration pamphlet and gave em our number. So hopefully we hear from them again. They had questions and It was an interesting lesson. It was more chill.. I don't know how else to put it. but they're both 19 going to college. so yeah then that night I we tried Chealsea again, not home. So I felt impressed to go try a former potential I found with E. Peterson Victoria and she we went and talked with her and taught her on her doorstep invited to read and pray and come to church (which she did) and she's pretty solid. Hopefully she'll get dunked. we found her tracting so maybe she'll be one I can claim in that category. Thursday I went and saw Dr. Sullivan. Elder Cornia and I love these drives cause it gives us a break. He's going through a ton of stuff (basically identical to what I did) and so is Elder Barr. (K E. Barr is like my twin.. haha he likes most of the same stuff I do. The three of us get a long great and will definitely hang out after the mission. Barr might fly home with me too) anyways so that was good. I realize a lot of my trials are there to not only stretch me but to also allow me to lift others up. If it wasn't for our friendship and support E.Cornia and I would have probably gone home. So he's a blessing. Friday the only good thing was that we had dinner and a lesson with Mike. He talked to us about more of his concers. And we are starting to work towards the 18th of May for baptism. Hopefully he can get over his concerns.. But he's awesome and such a great guy. funny too! Saturday was another one of those days where everything fell through and was long and not much happened that's up for reporting. Sunday was good. Had a good lesson in church that I enjoyed. We had 4 investigators at Church. Joe Hamilton, (the drummer) Ines De La Fuente, Victoria (had to leave after the sacrament was given but she said she enjoyed it) and Jennifer Davis.. (we picked her up as a gator at church! haha pretty cool) But yeah her friend who's in our ward has told her about the church and she came yesterday and said she wants to take the lessons! which is great! so we meet with her on Tuesday. So yeah our numbers were good and the Lord definitely delayed our original plans and knew the little things we'd do (like taking a piss) and placed people in our paths. Which was cool. The ward is gaining their trust in the missionaries. Which is so good. they've given a ton of referrals and everything. Ever since Peterson left the work has moved forward. It was a long and hard week but we've been blessed. Thank you to those who have written. I appreciate the letters. I swear this area is cursed cause everyone doesn't receive letters. So please send letters! Please write! K love you all.

Elder Derrek Bowler.

Oh and I forgot Sunday night we had dinner at the Billings. I absolutely love this family. We died eggs had dinner and laughed hard cause they brought their friends over from a different ward and it was just a good night. I painted the Columbus Temple on an egg and took a pic of it. and also Kaley wanted me to take a pic of her and her eggs. so that's what's included! K love ya.