Week 72 - Heavenly Father answers prayers

Hello everyone,
My goodness this week was crazy!  The best part of it though was that we had one of the elders investigators get baptized! His name is Gregorio. He can't say my name right but every time he sees us he says "HERMANA DOWL!" Like super super loud haha and he's great. He's so happy to be baptized! The elders worked so hard with him and he is a changed man.

Also, this week we have Sandra getting baptized! When she had her baptismal interview on Monday she told us that she didn't understand everything, but she said she knew she would learn because Heavenly Father told her to be baptized. And so she is going to do it. We are so excited for her!! She's going to be wonderful.

Besides that, we are just working working working. Oh yeah today was transfers and we have a new addition to our companionship!  Hermana Packam! She's from Oregon and she's really nice. We're excited to bring more of our brothers and sisters to Jesus Christ.

I love you all!
Hermana Fowlks

Week 71 - Praying in the Street

Hey everyone!
This week was good!  The missionary work side of things is actually going pretty great. We were able to re set two more people with baptismal dates and they are so excited!  We took them to the temple and that's when they decided to be baptized. The spirit was super strong. It was cool! And yes we just went back and taught the man with the chihuahuas last night. He has lots of questions but I think he will be baptized.

It's not too hot here, it doesn't usually get over 90 because we're right by the ocean. 😎 it's awesome. And okay, homecoming on the 27th of August...  not panicking about that haha. I'm not ready for so many white people!  Haha just kidding. It will be good. Oh my gosh if you decorated my room Mexican that would be so so awesome. I would die haha.

Something happened a week ago that I forgot to share and I wanted to write it here. We were driving home from something and we drove past this man who looked like he was climbing the fence of the bridge. And the spirit told me to pull over and talk to him. But I didn't. But then the spirit was like "That man is going to end his life if you don't get over there right now." So obviously I turn around, my heart going a million miles an hour, and we start to talk with him. Sister Echeverria was terrified because this guy looked really sketchy and I didn't really have time to explain what was going on. I looked at his hands and they were really dried and cracked open. So I put a band aid on the biggest cut on his hand and then gave him my lotion and hand sanitizer and a bunch of other band aids. We then asked if we could kneel down and pray with him. And so we did, there we were kneeling down on the side of the bridge of the freeway. And as we prayed,  he broke down crying. We invited him to church where we could get him some food, and we gave him the groceries that we had just bought. (How convenient that we hadn't taken our groceries home, right?) anyways. It was really cool.

I know this is His work. He literally carries me through everyday. I wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't for Him.
I love you all, have a wonderful week.

Hermana Fowlks

Sister Fowlks loves books!

 The old district together again

Superstar Sister Missionaries!

It was fun to see Sister Garcia again!

The Temple with our investigators

Week 70 - Bigger than chihuahuas

Hola everyone!
This week we had a pretty good time. We were able to find a lot of new people to teach, including a family! They seem pretty interested, so hopefully they will commit to be baptized soon. We are constantly finding.

I had a really cool experience with Hna Brosio on an exchanges yesterday. We went to knock on a mans door and we hear just an army of chihuahuas behind it. Someone opens the door and says that we can't come in because the chihuahuas bite. But we were persistent, and finally he came out to save us the pain of having to have our ankles gnawed by chihuahuas. He said he didn't have much time, so Hna Brosio asked if we could pray with him. So we did, and after the prayer, he literally could not speak. It was crazy. Like, he was crying, but he didn't say a single word. He just waved goodbye.
We're going back to see him on Thursday.

I love this work! I'm so happy to be here. The work always has times where it seems like Satan is trying everything possible to make it not happen. And there is times when I feel like I am no where adequate and the thought literally comes to my head "I can't do this." You'd think after 16 months I would have it down. But I definitely don't! It still gets me down when I see people reject the gospel. I feel like I'm at the top of my teaching game, I am the best I've ever been at teaching and finding and helping. But people still don't accept it! Or I feel like I did something wrong and it's my fault they didn't say yes. Satan just works really hard. I know that feelings of doubt or despair never come from Heavenly Father, so I try to ignore them.  Even when it is hard I know that the Lord is with me, and so nothing can be against me that is bigger than Him.

I love you all have a good week!

 

 

Week 69 - Jose Luis 💪

What a wonderful week!

We are teaching like crazy. We are finding like crazy. I'm so tired that I have started praying with my eyes open to avoid falling asleep.  But the highlight of this week was the baptism of Jose Luis.  He was actually from my last area. He was the old guy that bought us Mother's Day presents. He has been waiting to get baptized for about a month now, and he is just the most changed man I have ever met in my whole life.  He used to make fun of his nephews for being members. But then he started listening to the missionaries and he got a priesthood blessing after being paralyzed for over 5 years and was able to take some steps. And he started reading the Book of Mormon, and started being kinder to the missionaries. And was finally baptized on Saturday! We were able to video chat into the baptism and watch it from the chapel in San Ysidro. IT WAS THE BEST.

I know that people can change. I know that God takes care of His children.
I love you all have an awesome week.

Hermana Fowlks

Hermana Echeverria and Hermana Fowlks

Baptism of Jose Luis

Visiting Isidro in the Hospital



Exchanges with Hermana Nougera