Week 33 - If any of you lack wisdom...

 

This week was pretty stellar!

 

We finished off Tuesday with some intense chair soccer with the Elders.  Elder Balderee kicked me in the shin and it's got a nice bruise on it, but it was WAY fun. Then Tuesday night we had an awesome lesson with Estela.  I think we'll be setting her with a date pretty soon! We've had to move kind of slow with her, but slowly and surely she'll get there!  Then during power hour that night we found a girl named Adriana. She seems pretty cool, and we've been able to talk to her a little through Facebook since she's super busy and is going to college right now.   So Facebook is an awesome tool to share the gospel! Hopefully she progress soon. 

 

Wednesday we woke up and it was still raining! So we got to run in the rain! Sis Speigner didn't really have fun cuz her shoes were getting wet and she really hates running.....but I had tons of fun!

We were also able to teach Adriana through Facebook after that. Then we had dinner with Sister Hayne and her husband. It was really good, I actually ate salmon and didn't have to gag it down! As long as I ate it with the salad that we had it actually wasn't too bad. They then gave us a referral from the Ramona Elders and for us, so that was good. Then we went and tried to find this guy named Mike, but actually found this old lady named Francis who is 97 years old! She is hilarious. She still lives by herself and walks with her walker and everything. And she was wearing a bright purple bath robe. It was hilarious! She was funny.

Then we had a lesson with Jose that went AWESOME.  Sister Valdez was able to come with us, and we were able to teach him about the power of the Book of Mormon.  What was cool was that he had been watching Mormon Messages about the Book of Mormon before he came, so the Spirit totally prepped him.  We set his baptismal date back to November 5.   

 

One of my favorite things that happened was in the lesson this week with Estela.  She has had a hard time understanding the message of the restoration, and so we were teaching it for like the third time, and we read James 1:5 from the Bible with her. And for those of you that aren't familiar with that scripture this is what it says: 

5- If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

And WHAM. It hit her. It was really cool just to see how one scripture can change a person. It made my testimony grow, that's for sure! 

Also, we met this very nice lady from the Philippines who gave us hats because my face was so red! It's cool because they were made in the Philippines and sent directly here. 

 

I loved the women's conference! It was so neat! I felt the spirit so much.  I could feel the love of the prophet through the projector all the way from Utah just when I saw him. It actually made me cry! I can feel the love Jesus Christ has for us through him. It's so cool. We will be watching conference at the stake center, all the missionaries will be there and probably a lot of members. But we will be watching it in English.

Training is going good, it's really hard and I feel like I am making so many mistakes. But I hope that as I do my best then the Lord will make up the rest. The greatest challenge I have is probably just making sure that everything gets done, and also giving instruction without sounding critical. That's hard, especially with Spanish. But it's okay!

 

All is well here in San Diego. God is good. :) 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Hermana Fowlks

 

Sister Speigner and Sister Fowlks in their fancy new hats from the Philippines!

 

 

Yay for mom sending us Halloween treats and cute witch hats!

 

 

Running in the Rain!

Week 32 - KARAOKE

Hello all!

 

I hope you're all doing well. :)
This week was really good. We had a couple of good teaching opportunities and I think we're going to be adding a few more people with a date! My companion is doing really well, and I think she's kind of adjusting to missionary life. Slow and steady. :)

 

This week we had a branch activity. When I think of ward activities, I think like okay food, some talking, and maybe like a spiritual thought. But they do it a little different here in the Poway Spanish branch. There was SOOO much food, and they had karaoke, people danced, and they had a bunch of cool stuff from Mexico and Columbia and everything. So awesome.

Also, tender mercies are definitely real and they happen! We were in Walmart today, and my companion wanted to buy some clothes. We had already been at Walmart for like an hour, and some of you may already know this, but I'm not the biggest fan of shopping. And on top of that I was on the verge of hanger. (Like so hungry you're becoming angry.) and all of a sudden this angel from the bakery appeared with FREE DONUTS. It was awesome. I was so happy.

And then, just to top things off, it rained today for the first time in forever! Happiness. :)
And I think that's all for this week. I'll attach some videos of the activity so you all can see.
I love you! Jesus Christ lives.
Have a wonderful week!
Hermana Fowlks

"Tender mercies are definitely real, and they happen!  It rained today for the first time in forever.  Happiness :)"

 

 Beautiful Sisters in the rain!

 View from our apartment in Poway

 The Spanish branch knows how to decorate for a branch activity!

 Columbian and Mexican décor.

Week 31 - THAT YE MAY COME OFF CONQUEROR

Hi familia!

This week was pretty good, training is making my hair fall out (not literally, nobody panic) but I love it. My new companions name is Sis Speigner. She's from Indiana and she's so sweet!  She's way out of her comfort zone, but as President Schmitt says, there's no growth in the comfort zone. So she'll adjust soon I'm sure. :) I'm trying very hard to be patient with her, and I am trying to teach her everything she will need to know for the mission. It's a lot of responsibility and a little stressful! I feel like I'm kind of on my own here.  But it's okay, her and I are both out of our comfort zones. ;) we get lost all the time because I don't know the area very well, and the gps system they have us use on the iPad's is garbage, so we're lost most of the time.  But all is well!  I just hope I can help her enjoy her mission but also at the same time help her grow and improve.  She can't speak very much Spanish, and as her trainer I speak pure Spanish to her.  So I'm sure that's a little frustrating to her, but already her Spanish is improving!  And it helps me too.  I'm actually surprised at how much Spanish I know....I thought I didn't know hardly any but I'm almost fluent!  So yeah, hopefully her Spanish can improve soon.  Tuesday we did transfers, it was fun to see Sister Garcia again! I had missed her very much.  She goes home in 2 transfers!  It was also fun to see some of the members of my old zone, and Elder Johnson from the MTC.  He's going to be a zone leader in the Valley with Elder Burt!  He's going to do awesome.  Then we went and played sports with the Elders!  It was soooo fun. I hadn't done that for a while, I'm thinking we might start doing that again.  Sis Bartholomew didn't like sports....well neither does Sis Speigner but we'll see.  Then later on Tuesday on our way back we missed almost all of our appointments because we got lost.  Tuesday night the bathroom drawer fell out on Sis Speigner's foot and did a number on it.  It was so sad!  Welcome to the mission, here have a big wooden drawer smash your foot!  Yeah, now it's all bruised.  Super sad.  But luckily she's toughening up...and hopefully her foot is not broken.

Wednesday we had to be at a training at the Mormon Battalion at 8 AM.  They had a special training for the trainers while the new missionaries (the babies we like to call them) took the tour.  I learned a lot about how important my calling as a trainer is, they put a little more pressure on us, and I got a little scared haha. But I feel better about it now! Also, they waived my driving suspension! Whoo hoo! That was a miracle. #blessed.
Then after the training, we went back to Poway and went grocery shopping, in which we discovered that Sis Speigner's mission card didn't work, so all of the groceries were bought on my mission card.....que triste.  But that's okay, our AP's are sooo awesome and fixed it for us so now she can use it! Then on Wednesday we did a lot of finding, we found a new investigator named Jessica. Which was exciting, because we've been really struggling finding people to teach!  But then our appointment with her on Thursday fell through.

Then Sunday we went to church, and Jose finally came to church!  It was such a miracle.  We finally brought an investigator to church. Seriously. It was so great! I think he liked it, but I think he prefers English, so we might end up sending him to English elders. :( but oh well, as long as he gets baptized at some point.)  Then later Sunday night we had dinner with the Valdez family. It was AWESOME I learned a recipe for salsa which was cool. It was really spicy though (which is good for me) but if I remember how your salsa tastes Mom,  I would say yours still comes in first. This one is definitely in second though. Then we did a bunch more finding. Not very successful, but that's okay. I'm working Sis Speigner to death haha. But it's good! It will set her pace for her whole mission so it's got to be good.

Monday we did a bunch more finding, we had a couple of good contacts but no return appointments. I'm working on my Chinese and my Farsi so that I can talk to everyone out here cuz this is a super diverse area.  I need to learn Tagalog as well, but let's keep it to 3 languages at a time.  Tagalog is a lot like Spanish so I can kind of get my point across....I love learning different languages though! It's so cool to see people open up when you try to talk to them in their native tongue.  Even if you do a horrible job. Haha. We then had a branch family home evening which was cool. This branch is so special.  Everyone loves everyone and we just have so much fun all the time. I love it here and I never want to leave.
Okay so this week I have been studying the power of prayer. "Do our spouses, children, and other family members likewise feel the power of our prayers offered unto the Father for their specific needs and desires? Do those we serve hear us pray for them with faith and sincerity? If those we love and serve have not heard and felt the influence of our earnest prayers in their behalf, then the time to repent is now. As we emulate the example of the Savior, our prayers truly will become more meaningful."     -David A. Bednar

So, whether you go to church or you don't, I invite you all to pray and to pray fervently. Not just for yourself, but for others and I promise that the Lord will not fail you. I know He lives.

Have a wonderful week everyone!
Hermana Fowlks

Lunch selfie.  Yes that is broccoli.  

 

Sister Fowlks with her baby Sister Speigner

Week 30 - Entrenando!

Hi everyone!

This week was a pretty good week, pretty normal. We found 2 super solid investigators and hopefully we can get them on date soon!  Transfers were this week, and, drumroll please....IM TRAINING! Whoo hoo! I've wanted to train my whole mission  and now I've got the chance! I'm super excited! It will be awesome. I'll tell you all about her when I meet her. I'm just going to have to rely on Heavenly Father a lot so she can become the missionary Heavenly Father wants her to be. :) but I'm so excited to be able to help her and learn from her!

I hope you all have a super week!
Love always,
Hermana Fowlks

 Sister Bartholomew on her last day in Poway.

 

Our District Meeting.  Left to right..  Sis Whitcomb, Sis Stirland,

Elder Riley, Elder Byington, Me and Sis Bartholomew



This was a Young Women's activity that we helped with.

 

These are the lovely things we get to wear when we go visit people in Dialysis!



 

Selfie with Pres. and Sister Valdez