Week 63 -

Hello everyone!
This week was a great week. The coolest thing that happened was when our investigator Anais texted us and dropped us. She told us that she wouldn't be able to continue seeing us anymore. But we both felt like we should go over there one more time, so we did! And we ended up setting her with a baptismal date for the 20th and we have now started teaching her mom as well!  It was a miracle.

We also did exchanges, and I went to City Heights with Hermana Hernandez. We went and saw the Carmona kids too, and they are so wonderful. We love them!

Sister Garcia loved the stuff! She's worn the dress twice this week already. That's super sad about El Cajon haha but yeah it's way sketchy. That's why when we walked around there at night Manny and Julian insisted on going with us. They take very good care of us. Speaking of that....my finger is infected. I was trying to pop the pus the other day and then Elder Hampton was like here and took out a knife and cut it open. Which was fine and everything but then Manny and Julian's uncle bought us carne asada today so we went over there and Manny and Julian's dad is a nurse so he looked at it and they poked it with a needle and stuff and now it's wrapped but then we called sister Schmitt and she put me on antibiotics for it. So hopefully I'll be healed up prettyquick!

Good job on your talk Mom! There's a cool quote from Joseph Smith that says: "How I live my life is simple. When the Lord commands; I do it." So when you get asked to do something from a representative of Jesus Christ you should always do it!!

We are doing so well here in Santee, i love it here! Besides that, not
much to report. Have a good week everyone!
Here's more pics!
Love,
Hermana Fowlks

Me with the Carmona kids!

 Exchanges with Sister Hernandez

Week 62 - No time!

Hello Everyone!
Not gonna lie this week was pretty awful haha. But it's okay. Next week will hopefully be better.  IM SO GLAD THAT YOURE GOING TO MEET JULIAN AND HERMANA ESTRADA. Just take such good care of Julian. He loves you guys already just based off of what I have told him. He is such a Christ like and righteous person and I can't even tell you how much I love him. So take good care of him. He takes such good care of me. 😊 and of all the missionaries.

Easter was good, we had dinner with the Oteos because it was Hermana Oteos birthday.  And yeah it was pretty good, you know same old same old. Church and visiting and teaching people!  That's crazy about Preston.  I can't believe he's graduating. He still seems so little haha! And if his papers get turned in this week that means he'll probably get his mission call in like 3 weeks. 😱😱😱 no way.  If that's not enough to give you anxiety I don't know what is haha.

The cruise looks so fun! Yes I am a little jealous... but it's all good.  I mean living in San Diego and preaching the gospel everyday is pretty cool too.
The pics are of when we thought we had lice so we had to put bags on our head.  And also of Sister Garcias birthday and an egg hunt.  And also a cute little boy named Liam that calls me Elsa.  And a family home evening!
I love you all!

 

Week 61 - The Will of God

Hi family!

 I hope you all had a good week, this week was an emotional roller coaster for me that's for sure! We had a few noches de Hogar, and we were able to go to the Mormon battalion with our investigator Alberto.  He's so cool, because literally in like 4 days he read 1 Nephi all the way through 19. Wowito! Haha it was way cool.

The biggest thing that happened this week is that Hermana Estrada decided to go home. Now I know what you might be thinking, that she didn't endure, or that she's giving up the fight early. When she first started talking about it that's what I thought too. But heres the thing: I think Hermana Estrada wanted to be here more than anyone else. I have watched her struggle and fight with severe anxiety for the last 6 weeks and she is one of the biggest warriors I know. I'm so proud of her.  And when we all prayed and fasted and went to the temple, when she got countless priesthood blessings, we came to the conclusion and the spirit testified to us that she would be of better use to our brothers and sisters at home. So, she will be coming to visit you family. Get ready for her, she's awesome.

 I had a super special experience with her and sister Garcia a few weeks ago. It was actually after the second session of conference on Saturday, we were at dinner with the Gonzalez family. I noticed Hermana Estrada starting to get anxious, and so we decided to leave so she could calm down. We were getting in the car, and I looked at her in the back seat and her eyes were closed, she had tears running down her face, and was shaking uncontrollably. I quickly got into the back seat with her and pulled her into me to comfort her. She was having a full blown anxiety attack. She could barely breath, and she began screaming from the pain in her chest. I was praying and praying and we called the elders hoping that they were close by. They got there in about 5 minutes and immediately came to the side of the window that I was on. Hermana Estrada was laying in my arms and we were holding her hands and I was trying to help her listen to my breathing so that she could match it. The Elders came in, and put their hands through the car window and gave her a blessing. In the blessing, the elder said:
"The Savior is here with you. His arms are around you." I then realized in that moment that the Savior is here with us always, and when we are there to comfort anyone in the name of the Savior then He truly is there with us. I also learned that I truly am a representative of Him, that I have the sacred responsibility to do as He would do.

I love Him! And I love all of you. Have a good week. ❤❤

 Noches de Hogar (family home evening)

 Battalion with Alberto

 Zone Meeting

 Bowling with the district

Week 60 - Great Dane!

So this week was great!

We were able to find 2 new families to teach! Hopefully they progress. We also got transfer news....I am staying here in Santee for yet another transfer! I learned so much last transfer, and I am so excited for what more I can do for the Lord during this next one here. All 3 of us are staying. But they are adding a new set of elders to our area! So we will have 3 sets of missionaries in our ward. That will be awesome. So our area will change a little bit, and we will see what that brings!  I'm way excited. 

We had 2 people with dates last week, but we had a sad turn of events and had one of them suddenly move to LA.  And then the other one we were going to help him get married to his wife right, so that he could get baptized. Because his wife is already a member. But then he told us that he actually got married to someone 20 years ago when he first came to Los Estados Unidos and hasn't seen her since.  So basically he's got to move out before he can get baptized.....we will work on that. 

But I think that's about it! I love the work and I love the Lord. Put Him first and all things will turn out for our good. 

I love you all!

Hermana Fowlks

This is a member's dog. I thought I was leaving so I wanted to say goodbye to him. His name is Ace. And the member said I could have him after the mission...hopefully my mom is okay with me bringing home a Great Dane haha 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 59 - Curse of the pork

Hi everyone!
This week we saw tons of miracles. One was a referral we got during ward council to go and visit someone and when we went we found out that their husband was literally just waiting for someone to invite him to be baptized! Then they have a friend that's living there as well and he wants to be baptized! So we set them with dates and it was so awesome.  But then we went and found out that the husband and wife are not married and he's actually married to someone else that he hasn't seen in 20 years. So that's a bit of a problem but we will sort it out don't you worry. And he will be baptized I'm sure of it. :)

We also had a bit of an exciting weekend. I woke up yesterday morning at about 2 AM with the worst stomach pain. And turns out I had food poisoning. Which meant also that my companions got food poisoning.  And let me tell you. Three sister missionaries with food poisoning and one  bathroom is just not the best combination. It also turns out that the elders ate with the same person and got the same food poisoning. They also took our ward new mission leader and his little brother and they got food poisoning as well! So the missionaries of barrio el Rey have definitely been suffering over the last few days. Haha but the work continues!

I love you all and I know that his is God's work. When we put our faith in the Lord before anything else, it all works out.
Have a good week!
Hermana Fowlks

 

We have lunch every month with the old people in the English Ward.  They have a lot of really cool stories to tell us!

 So we did service and there was a dog there bigger than me. It was crazy.

 Sunset cliffs with Sister Estrada and Manny.

Week 58

Hey fam!
This week was really great. We did exchanges two times! The first was with Sister Echeverria and Sister Peterson. I stayed here with Sister Echeverria and we had tons of fun and did lots of good work. We found a family to teach so that was awesome. Then we did exchanges with Sister Romero and Sister Anderson. Sister Estrada and I went to Poway with them. Super good time there as well!

We've been having a lot of noches de Hogar (Family home evenings)  and they are so awesome.  It's cool because the members bring us people that are looking for Jesus Christ. They bring their friends and their family and then all we do is teach and invite and help. It's so cool. We had one at the Arellano's house last week then we had one with the Gomez family last night. And it was awesome because the Elders brought us an investigator. And as I was sitting there getting to know her she mentioned that her and her husband had been struggling to know which of all the churches were right. And I felt very prompted to teach her the restoration right there! So I did. And it was so cool to see her eyes light up. She knew it was true. Such a cool experience.

And that's about it! My finger has pretty much recovered from my
tragic fall....I'll send pics later.

I love you all soooo much! Have a good week!
Hermana Fowlks
mckell.fowlks@myldsmail.net

 

 

Sunset Cliffs

 Falling off the swing at Sunset Cliffs

 This is the cute baby of a family that was baptized.  We put a missionary tag on him and he was happy as a peach!

 Sister Estrada, Sister Garcia and myself at the temple.  We took an investigator from Haiti who was moving to New York, he was super interested in temples.  It was amazing!!

Week 57 - Video this week!

Hello Everyone!

So I didn't want to write a group email this week, so I'm making a video.  This week was really good!  We were able to do a lot of finding, we were able to teach a lot of people and its really cool because I get to testify of Jesus Christ every single day.  And I love it!  Like with anyone on the street, I get to bear my testimony.  It's sooo cool!  And it really makes my testimony grow, I love it so much.  We were able to set someone with a baptismal date!  Her name is Jackie, she is so sweet, she is so nice so she's hopefully getting baptized on the 8th of April. 

The biggest adventure of the week probably happened today!  Because we decided to go to sunset cliffs, that is why my hair is the way it is.  And we found this really cool swing .   I loved it, it was the coolest thing.  Because you could get pushed, and you could sit up there, and you'd be able to see the whole ocean.  Well not the whole ocean, but a big part of it.  And I was just like in my happy place,  I was just like  "I never want to leave here, this is amazing!"  And so after I finished swinging, a couple other people went and swung on it and I was like " I want to do it one more time before we leave."  But we decided to swing, and I came back and something happened and the swing was twisting and the swing like completely broke!  And I fell probably like a ten foot drop.  And I fell... and I like was so embarrassed, and I got up and I was like.. "I'm fine, I'm fine"  and one of the Elders was like "Look at your finger!"  and it was like covered in blood.  I was like "Its fine, its just bleeding a little bit"  and then one of our members was like "Uh.. its a little more than bleeding".  And it was like HUGE.  And I was like "Well, its broken".  But its not actually, and I can still move it.    But this is the damage (She shows us her finger).  Hermana Estrada did a really good job of fixing it.  She did just make me a quesadilla, so she's the best.  I mean... and there's Sister Garcia...  she helped fix me up too.  She actually just told me I was being a baby, but...  yeah.. she was gonna flik it... ok that's enough. 

But my companions are taking care of me.  I'm gonna be good...  I'm gonna be ok.  (Sister Estrada starts singing "I'll be home for Christmas"  in the background.) 
Well, I love you everyone.  I hope you have an amazing week.  I know that the work is true.  I know that I'm here doing the Lord's work.  And I love you all... BYE! 

PS.  We had a zone conference at this cool place called camp wildwood, which is pretty much just a girls camp.  But we went there, and had a few hours of training then went on a hike to this giant cross!  And we all carried a rock up the hike, which was supposed to be like a burden we had been carrying.  Then we got up to the cross and put it at the foot of the cross.  Super spiritual, super cool.