week 54 - Transfers and Trios

This week McKell didn't send a group email,  but she did send me a video and it was special to me so I typed it up -

Hey Mom,

So I don’t have a lot of time today because we had transfers and then we went hiking and hiking took a long time, so I’m making a video to respond to your email.  Things have been better this week I’ve been able to…  well they have been better today and yesterday.  Things have looked up, your prayers have definitely worked.  And I wanted to ask you how you deal with it when one of us kids is upset or when one of us is going through something that you can’t control, that you can’t change.  How do you deal with that without it tearing you apart?  Because that was what I was doing last week.  That was what was making me have a hard time and it really tore me apart.   Like it really really had me up set.  And I know that I’m not supposed to carry a burden like that, like no one should.  I know that I’m here to help people, I’m here to lift people up, but I’ve got to make sure that I’m doing ok too, because if I’m out then I can’t help anyone anyways.  So I just wanted to ask you for advice on that.  I’ll tell you more about it next week, when I have more time.  But things are going good that way. 

We’re in a trio now with Sister Strada, and Sister Garcia, you already know her.  We had family home evening last night at Manny and Julian’s house.  It was good.  We lost the keys, but then we found them… in my bag.  Everyone was mad because everyone was searching and they were in my bag the whole time but it was fine.  And I’m really excited to still be here in Santee and I’m excited to be in a trio.  It will be really good.  I love you so much, and I’m so grateful for you.  You’re the best mom ever.  I was just telling Sister Garcia about this the other day.  I was thinking about Manny and Julian and how their mom is not there for them a lot and how they just need like motherly love and I said “I just wish that my mom could just come here and just love them.   And just be their mom for them.  Because they deserve that, they’re so special.  They deserve a mom like you, you took really good care of us.   But hopefully they will go stay with you guys over conference.  It’s still over a month away, but if anything they’ll stop by and say hi so you’ll be able to meet them. 

So just keep me in your prayers.  I know you do already.  Ok we love you, I love you.

Bye…

Week 53 - Week of Happy!

Hi everyone!
 
This week I found so many things to be happy about.  First, we went to the temple on Thursday with James to do baptisms for  the dead! It was so good to take James to the temple! Such a spiritual experience. It was the biggest privilege to be baptized in proxy for James's mom. And afterwards, I just felt such a big "thank you" from her. For helping and teaching her son, and then for helping her receive the ordinance as well. I love the gospel.  

Also, Thursday we did weekly planning, which I have come to dislike less after a year of doing it, I understand more of the necessity for it.  We also that day went and taught our family that got baptized. We have a thing where we see our investigator every day for the last 2 weeks before their baptism just to make sure they are ready for their baptism and that Satan doesn't get a hold of them.

Then on Friday we had a ward activity which started out as the most stressful thing ever but then turned out great. And the next day our sweet family from Haiti got baptized. ❤ they are so awesome. We are currently teaching the Carmona kids, they are looking good to get baptized on the 25th.

Saturday morning we went to the temple with James and another recent convert named José and the elders came and Manny and Julian came as well it was really good also our ward mission leader, Martin, came as well. Then we came home ate lunch and went to the baptism.  It was kind of crazy and it was a little bit last minute but I think it all turned out OK.  Julian was able to baptize our investigators and it was cool to be able to see him do that.

Sunday we had a special stake conference and Elder Hallstrom from the presidency of the 70 came and talked to us. My companion knows how to translate but it was good and I listened to it in Spanish and English. Then we had lunch with Martin.

Monday we had MTE's which is like a giant exchange with other zones in the mission. It was fun,  sister Sego came to Santee with me. We had a good day yesterday but we got lost on our way to dinner and almost ended up at the Imperial Valley! But it turned out really good and it was a good bonding moment.
 
Transfers are next week and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting transferred. I'll be fine, because all of the people here that I love so much I will see again in like 6 months or so, so it will be okay.

Keep praying, keep going. I love you all so much!

Hermana Fowlks

Week 52 - God is so good.

Hi everyone!

Good week this week. We did lots of good stuff! Yesterday was a super good day, full of miracles! We had zone meeting, where we gave a training on retention, or on keeping converts in the church. Which is cool because this last week we went and did family history with James so he can take names to the temple on Thursday! I'm so pumped. Then later on Monday we were on our favorite street, Bradley, with Julian.  We were going to see an investigator when we saw someone walking so we started talking to her and asked her if she knew anyone we could help.  And she said "Well this might sound selfish but you can help me." And we said of course! And she said "God is so good." And just broke down crying. It was amazing to see how the Lord put her right in our path.  We are going to see her tomorrow!

We also went on another hike today. It has become a P day tradition.  But we got super wet. We also had the old lady luncheon last week where we just go and eat lunch with old people and talk with them. It's super fun!

I love you all, have a good week!
Hermana Fowlks

 

 

Hiking in the rain!

 

Chick fil A !

 

 Me and my friend.

 

Zone Meeting February 2017

Week 51 - La gente piensa que vendemos drogas (people think we sell drugs)

 Hi everyone!
 

Tuesday we had an interesting night. We were on our favorite street, Bradley. I say Bradley is our favorite street because we're there literally everyday. The thing about Bradley though is that it's super sketchy at night. So usually we take Manny and Julian with us to walk there at night just in case. But Tuesday night, we felt bad for all the times we had taken them out and thought they might need a break. So we set out on Bradley (don't worry mom I took my pepper spray with me) and we see this guy and we start talking to him. It happened to be in the parking lot of a liquor store. And the guy working at the liquor store comes out and yells "Hey I thought I told you not to sell drugs in the parking lot!" And we were like "Uh were not selling drugs." And he just laughed and went inside. We finished the contact with the other guy (his name was Joshua) and it was like 8:55 so we thought that maybe we should start heading back to the car because it was like a 10 minute walk. (For those of you who don't know missionaries have to be in by 9:30.) but something about the guy who yelled at us caught our eye. So we decided to go and contact him! The thing was, that he was working as the cashier at the liquor store. And we thought, "well we can't buy anything there." But then I looked in and saw a paleta! (Which is like a popsicle thing) and I thought, hey we can buy that! So we did! And it turns out the guy wasn't interested, but he gave us a referral for his friend! So moral of the story is listen to the Spirit. And trust it! 

 

This Saturday a few of our investigators should be getting baptized! Their names are Stheker and Adeline. They are a family from Haiti, and are so awesome! One of the hard things about them is that Adeline doesn't speak any Spanish. Only kreyol. But it's okay! Because her husband and James translates for us. They are so so sweet and we love them. 

I love you all! Have a good week! I want to invite you all to find a way to make the gospel personal to your lives. And apply it. :) 

Hermana Fowlks  

McKell's mom here - as you can see McKell's emails are becoming short as she is very much immersed in her mission and the people she is helping.  She has had some wonderful experiences working with and helping refugees in the area as well as one very special family with two young men preparing for missions, Manny and Julian.   I asked her about giving more detail so we can understand how she is feeling about her mission now that she is one year in and this was her response:

 

"Sorry I don't put so much detail in my emails. It's like tunnel vision. I'm right in the middle of the tunnel, so I don't see much of the front or the back of the tunnel. I only see right where I am at. I'm so into my mission right now. I love everything. Especially our members here."

Hiking Kwaay Paay Summit

 Sunday selfie with Julian and Sister Garcia

 

 

 

Week 50 - The Rain Came Down!

Hello all!
I hope you've had a splendid week. Mine was great! But it was so wet.  It rained so much. There was literally a flash flood! And we got together a few people (us, the elders, and some members) and we bailed people out! That was pretty much our entire weekend. We also found a cool guy named Pablo. He's so awesome, but he doesn't believe in God very much. What's cool is that one of our members was the exact same way, and they have been able to get along very well. Hopefully he will come to church this Sunday! This week we have a big worldwide broadcast so that will be exciting! And I'm so sorry I don't have a lot of time.  But one of our members keeps track of what he does with the missionaries, so this will give you his perspective of what has been going on this week:

 "Ever since Saturday it's been raining and we've been looking to do service and we helped remove water from a flooded bottom half of an apartment complex and help remove water from my house!  We were soaked and super cold and miserable but that makes our bond as memebers even stronger. We've still been walking & street contacting and visiting a young man named Pablo and his family. Which has great potential in my opinion. He reminds me a lot of myself as an investigator.  Also, we've been teaching this elderly man who only has knowledge of the Jehovah Witness's  Bible only.  He showed great interest when he read the introduction of the Book Of Mormon so we just planted the seed. And we went for a hike today! Which was tiring but awesome!"

Missionary work is so awesome. Everyone we talk to doesn't always listen, but we always are trying to help other people and that's what I love about my mission.

So there's a summary!  I hope you all have a great week!  I know that the work is true. And that is church is true.

Hermana Fowlks
mckell.fowlks@myldsmail.net

Sister Fowlks and Sister Garcia bailing out the rain water!

Week 49 - I need to learn Creolle

Hello all!

So this weeek was super busy, and super fun! We were able to find and teach some more people from Haiti! The problem is that the wife only speaks Creolle. Thus the subject title. But it's okay because we're taking James with us a lot and he helps us translate! It's so awesome! I'm so proud of him when I see him teach. We also had a family home evening at the Familia Arellano (that's Manny and Julian that I always talk about) so we got to wash the dogs again to help them get ready for it! It was really fun.  This family is such a good example to me of giving everything to the Lord and they have such a great desire to help everyone they see. So special!

Besides that, things are great! I love Sister Garcia and I'm learning so much from her.

I love you all, and I'm so grateful for all of you!
Have a good week!
Hermana Fowlks

    This is when we went bowling today as a district.

             

              And our ward mission leader that wanted to take a selfie because we
    were both wearing floral.

 

Then when we went out with James.

 

 And a picture we took during service because

          Manny was wearing his bear mask!             

Week 48 - Its Good To Be Alive

Hi!
So this week was SO GOOD.  But ended so sad.  Because my companion got transferred! But it's okay because my new companion is named Sister Garcia and she's awesome.

So we had James's baptism on Saturday which was like the most amazing thing ever. He was baptized by Manny, who has been such an amazing friend to him through the whole teaching process. And then also Sis Klopfer and I sang a song in Haitian creolle which I'm sure sounded interesting but it's all good! And then James gave his testimony at the end and it was amazing. There will be pictures I promise!

Then on the day of Tres Magos it was super interesting.  We were just knocking this guy's door and he invited us in for a Rosca de Reyes which is bread that is full of cream cheese.  And so we went in!  And the thing about this holiday is that they're celebrating when the three wise men went to go see Jesus.  And they eat this bread that if you find this little plastic baby inside you have to make tamales.  Kind of random, but it's all good!  And so we go in and it's me, Sister Klopfer, and Julian.  And they realize that the year before on this day that missionaries showed up as well!  So they're like "What if they are the three kings?"  And then they called us the tres Magos for the rest of the night. Super weird! But it was good and were going back to teach them next week.

And I think that's about it! Thanks for all the love and support. ❤️
Hermana Fowlks

 

James' Baptism with Julian and Manny.  Manny baptized him.

 

Blitz with the YSA selfie

 

Sister Klopfer saying goodbye to Julian and Manny

 

The Missionaries did a blitz with the YSA ward. 

 

Manny and Julian tagged our car to say goodbye to Sister Klopfer.