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.

Week 47 - Why a Lamb?

Hello all!

This week was a very good one! We are working so much with James. We see him every day and every day he comes with more questions and a stronger testimony. He's so special! I feel so grateful that Heavenly Father has given me the chance to help him be baptized!  So James has this notebook that he writes down all of his questions and summarizes all of chapters and pamphlets he reads. This week one of his questions was golden:

James: "So, who is this Lamb of God that Nephi is talking about?"
Manny (our member): "It's Jesus Christ."
James: "But I don't understand. Why a lamb? They had so many animals to choose from! Why would they choose a lamb?!"

So anyways I thought that was really funny and we were able to explain it and all was well. But I love it because questions are how we build our testimonies and James has a lot of them! So to all of you, keep asking questions! Keep learning more about Jesus because as we come to know Him we come to love Him.

Besides that not too much to report! I did cut my companions bangs today so that was scary. But they actually turned out okay! Haha.   I wrote early because we now start p day at 9 AM and also we went to the zoo today so we did emailing early! The zoo was way fun. Our member gave us free tickets so that was super nice.

New Years we actually didn't do it with the zone.  We were in by 7, studying.  Whoo hoo!  Actually it was really good.  It had rained all day that day.  So we celebrated by buying Manny dinner at in n out and then going home to study.  It was a good time!  We don't really do parties  together as missionaries.....the picture was from our missionary leadership council meeting where they had some stuff on Monday. Sister Schmitt wanted to take a selfie haha. Yes I still like being an STL! This area is awesome. We are doing exchanges again with Poway this week but I will be staying here and Sis Klopfer will go to Poway. I should be staying here for transfers, I mean I've only been here for one transfer! I really hope I stay. I'll be super sad if I go. Sis Klopfer will probably go though which is sad.

I love you all! Have a good week. :)
Hermana Fowlks



 

 Sis. Klopfer's Mom sent us aprons for Christmas so we made breakfast!

 One of our members gave us free tickets to go to the Zoo.  

We went on pday of this week.  It was super fun! 

 All of the zone leaders and sister training leaders at leadership council meeting.

 Selfie with Sister Schmitt. 

Week 46 - Caroling with Cholos

Hello all!

I hope you had a good Christmas! Mine was awesome. Good to see the fam, good to eat like a billion tamales. All good stuff.

This week was SO AWESOME!  Drum roll please.....JAMES IS GETTING BAPTIZED! So we had a stellar lesson with him. I will sum up: So he's been struggling a little with accepting a date because he wasn't ready to give up some stuff from his old life. But on Wednesday we were on exchanges (I stayed here with Sis Echeverría) and he was like "I feel like I don't have to wait a long time to get baptized." So I was so excited! And I said "well, then should we set a date?" And I suggested the 7 or 14 of January. And so he said he had to pray about it and he would tell us the next day when we came back. So we go back the next day and he said he still hadn't received an answer. So we felt prompted to kneel down right there with him and have him ask Heavenly Father if he should be baptized on the 7. So we did! And what's funny is that we can't go inside his apartment because no women live there, so we kneel down in the doorway of his apartment. But it was still powerful! And so he says his prayer in Haitian, and obviously I can't understand Haitian very well but it was a very heartfelt prayer. And after he finished he sat there for awhile and said "okay I want to do it on the 7." And it was so exciting! And he's just amazing and is progressing so much. And I love him!  So that was just too good. And that was the definite highlight of the week!

I love you all so much and I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Maybe not in our time, but definitely in His. I know this is true and I know that the Lord works miracles in our lives every day, we just have to find them!

Love,
Hermana Fowlks

 

Sister Klopfer and I with Sister Schmitt (Pres. Schmitt's wife)

at the Christmas devotional in our matching polka dots!

 

Giant missionary selfie!

Me on Christmas morning.

Christmas dinner with some food from El Salvador!

"Caroling with Cholos"  Cholos are Mexican gangsters. 

These guys like to call themselves cholos but they are all just sweeties.

Left to right: Me, Hna Klopfer, Balta, Armando, Elias, Sergio,

Bottom: Eduardo, Darren, and a small child I'm not sure his name.



One  of our cute members gave us presents!

Week 45 - Feliz Navidad!

Hello all!

This week was just as busy as the last.

Tuesday night our investigator took us out to sushi which was interesting. I do not like sushi.

Sounds like everything is good at home! I love hearing about all the fun stuff that's going on. It's weird, I don't really miss Christmas at home or anything. I know that sounds bad, but I just love it here on the mission so much that I don't even have time to think about what I'm missing! I'm so lucky to be here during this Christmas time.

Anyways, we had a super good week! We got to give another training on Wednesday which was fun, James is progressing well he just won't accept a date so we're hoping he will do that this week. Also we had another branch activity where we did Olympics. It was really fun! And we have a new ward mission leader that we already get along with super well. And that was about it! Sorry not too much to report! But I'll attach a bunch of pictures. :)

Have a happy Christmas everyone!
Love,
Hermana Fowlks

 Merry Christmas!

 Sis Kloper and I with James, Balta, Elias & Eddie at the temple.

 Sister Klopfer and I with Manny, Julian, Elder Pritchard & Elder Hampton

 Car Selfie with my companion Sister Klopfer

 Exchanges in Poway with Sister Romero

 Squad pic

 Our cute member gave us coats for Christmas!

Week 44 - Fear Has No Place With Me

---

Hola Everyone!

This week was sooooo good!
 

I have never been so busy in my whole life. First of all, our training went well on Wednesday. So that was nice. 
 

I think one of my favorite things that happened this week was on Friday, during our lesson with one of our investigators. He's from Haiti. We were with our AMAZING member Manny, and Manny was talking about how he was kind of afraid to get baptized at first, but then he wasn't afraid when he started trusting in the Lord more. Then our investigator got real serious and said: "No piensan que tengo miedo. Miedo no tiene lugar en mi." ("Don't think that I'm afraid. Fear has no place with me." Thus the subject.) And it was so great. So that has become my moto. 

Sunday we got to go to the Mormon battalion! It was fun to go, and it was also cool do to the tour in Spanish.
 

Then Monday night we had noche de Hogar in the casa de la Familia Arellano. They're so awesome. This family is just 2 brothers and their dad, and they all got baptized like less than 2 years ago. Their dad is inactive, but these two guys, Manny and Julian, have some of the strongest desires I've ever seen to bring people the gospel. And they're just amazing.
 

AND we got to go do service with them on Monday to help them get their house ready for Noche de Hogar and what job do I get stuck with? GIVING THEIR GREAT DANE A BATH. Yeah, I wish I had a video or something because I'm sure it was hilarious. I will never ever complain about giving my little tiny dog Max a bath ever again.

Anyways, that was my week! I love everything about the mission. I never want it to end! And I love you all! 

Love,
 

Hermana Fowlks 

 Branch Christmas Party with the Elders

 Many of our Investigators came to the Christmas Party!

 Me wearing the cool vest of our member friend Manny

 Sister Klopfer and Me