Hermana Mollie, Elder Riley and Elder Jake Bowman: Mollie

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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

June 9, 2014

Hi!

So I will see you guys in a week!

We got our General Conference Liahona Magazine two days ago. It has naturally been my new focus.

In the last General Conference edition (Oct 2013), I marked up all of the positive inspirations from the talks.

With this one, I am looking for" if..thens" or subtle commandments from apostles and promised blessings.

If I get the time, I am going to mark up positive inspiration as well. I have only gotten through the first five talks or so.

One thought by Elder Holland that I love is:

If people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods

who do not demand much

- comfortable gods,

smooth gods who not only don't rock the boat,

but don't even row it.

Spiritual Thought

Love one another as I have loved you.

If ye love me keep the commandments,

Christ-like love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part, because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it.

I've been thinking of righteousness and Christ-like love...

How does one demand things of people without taking away their free agency?

I have been working on this thought.

Righteous demanding.

Bishops ask of the ward members. Parents ask of their families. Wives sometimes ask of their husbands.

What is the difference between demanding and commanding? Are they the same?

Mother always says commands begin with verbs or action words. If followed, that action happens and the glory of the action goes to he that commanded the action.

I am jumbled in this thought. We have commandments to follow in our best interest, so we can find happiness and spiritual, eternal joy.

Through these commandments - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one - and how we can be one with God.

____________________________

We still are having lots and lots of rain. One has to love Temuco. I am really loving my sleeping bag.

We haven´t been up to much -

-Contacting and trying to bring investigators to church.

-Doing experiments in the microwave.

-Sorting our binder and updating our map ( more creating the map here is not organized at all. )

-I have created a pretty decent sugar cookie microwave recipe.

-Praying a lot and going in the rain.

-Hammering down some goals.

-More rain.

I am afraid this is why I don´t have pictures. I can´t carry around my camera with how much it is raining. It is too dangerous.

Here is a comic for you I've made awhile back...I can't remember if I sent it to you already.

(Click to Enlarge)

We have a lot of fun new investigators. We talked to two hippies the other day - an inactive member and his friend. They asked the most interesting questions. Agnostics.

Love you lots,

Hermana Bowman

10:03 PM Posted by Sequoia 0

June 2, 2014

Hi,

I'm sorry don't have much time.

We had a fun week, but we still have lots of rain. We've been working hard to bring people to church.

My companion tried to rescue a baby kitten from the mouths of two large dogs - (it died).

I made cupcakes this week. :)

So for your birthday I decided to clean out the freezer. This is something rarely done here on the mission...but we had reached a point of 4/5 ice and 1/5 space so cleaning was kind of required. Anyway, I had a sink full of snow and well... I made a snow woman for you! Happy Birthday, Mother!!!

I am fairly certain I have that letter from Sheri Dew stashed away in my carpeta, so don´t worry about it.

Good to hear that Sara is doing better.

Spiritual Thought

What is happiness? We had a whole conference about it the other day. In the end I decided it was to live to be the best person that you can be. Also, to live so that you let the Holy Ghost help you work at making changes in your day to day actions.

You then change for the better transforming into a better person.

This better person will better their surroundings and lift those around them.

Joy is a condition of happiness. Happiness is about who you are and how you are. It is to be at peace with one's soul, because you live what you believe and not any less.

Love you all lots!

Hermana Bowman

8:56 PM Posted by Sequoia 0

May 26, 2014

Hey all,

So, this week we are still working on finding new people- Always fun, and I will be trying to make a better map.

Visiting Mich after four days is perfect though it is a bit of a bummer that I won´t be over there for the fourth. By the way, so cool that Mich is going to have her own personal mini gallery. Well, we do have to love her photos, and her blog is great.

Here I am studying in morning. Like our messy table?

Thanks for sending me the fotos of Cat´s wedding; they look happy. I don´t understand completely about the military life houses, etc... but I will have to ask her.

Jake who ran with a lion won first in a half marathon - that is a little surprising but not a lot. Jake has always been fast.

I loved hearing about everyone. Riley sounds like he is having fun looking for new people like me.

This week we had an activity that we planned the gran postreton - a pastry competition. I didn´t even qualify. Who knew that in Chile cookies don't count as a pastry?

I didn´t really have time to cook anything else, though I do have plans to do a cupcake decorating competition. It´s in the head, but I have to organize it more and talk to the right people before I can get other people thinking it's their idea and then have them investing in it.

Another plan is to put a table out Saturday in front of our local grocery store. We have received permission to do so, but we lack resources so that is the goal for this week. Truck, table, handouts, etc.

Other than that our week has been good my companion is doing much better, but she has an allergy to smoke.

She fried some platanos. One of her favorite foods. She thought she was going to change sectors, but it ends up that she is staying here and will be my last companion or in mission terms she is going to kill me.

I will try and get you photos of the postreton next week.

Spiritual thought:
I have been studying lots of different things but the center of my studies has been eternity. All things of God, work in patterns or eternal designs. We are eternal beings, and we can also work eternal designs. What are the habits or morals or actions that we have developed that are eternal?

In Spanish, they are easier to identify, as Spanish has two different words for things that are permanently eternal and temporarily eternal. These are 'ser' and 'estar.'

SO when I say, "Jake is stubborn," is that part of who Jake is or temporary as in (for that moment) Jake is stubborn. ( ;p ) What things are we, and what things should we be, or do we aspire to be. And then what steps are need to acquire those things from being temporary to becoming 'ser.'

Anyway, that has been my studies.

Love you all lots,

Hermana Bowman

8:30 PM Posted by Sequoia 0

May 19, 2014

Hey all,

This week we had a lot of rain. Here are some 'stranded without rain gear' fotos.

Me stuck in the rain at church.

Yep, here we are in the rain. I have started carrying around an umbrella. The morning can be super sunny and the out of the nowhere it starts to rain.


Here we are at the corner of a house stuck in the rain sharing space with a junior companion. I'm the blonde.

My companion is doing well. She is very independent. Just sick a lot, but we have got it down to vomiting 2x per week and we are going to see if we can kill it this week. She gets cough attacks. We have a specific diet for her, and we are fairly certain that it is an allergy to smoke that is also making her sick. It keeps me worried, but we are working on it. She has an irritated colon at the very least. I think she also needs new glasses. Hers haven`t been changed in years, and she gets bad headaches. I told her I could help her pay for them if she needs help. But we have to schedule the exam now that we are sure of cambios.

Spiritually she is fine. She got through a very hard week. She adores her brother. He writes her every week, so that is good. She is not completely alone. He helps her financially, as well as spiritually - a very good brother. I have a lot of respect for him. He is 22 and in the mission Rancagua.

We are looking for new investigators and trying to bring people to church, which is hard.

A good missionary gift for a new missionary would be Mormon Messages downloaded in the language of the mission or plan of salvation drawings.

I would like to be out for Fourth of July. Michele said their is a cool celebration there. Just give me like a week at home or so.

Spiritual thought: I have been thinking about - am I offering what the Lord wants or what I think the Lord wants.

I think it is good to question your daily routines and pay attention to where our thoughts wander. We need to question ourselves and pray to become more aware of where we stray and where we waste time - time that can be spent on our priorities - Priorities with a purpose.

Ask yourself:

How well do you know yourself? What things do you do everyday? Do you notice them? Do we do everyday actions with exactness and purpose? Exactness is often expressed when we recognized purpose.

Love you all lots!

Hermana Bowman

7:53 PM Posted by Sequoia 0

Monday, May 26, 2014

May 12, 2014

Hey Everyone,

First off, about going to Michele's, I´d rather go sooner to be perfectly honest.

Here's what I've been up to this past week:

Internet Pub- This is where you can find large collections of missionaries every Monday

Walking in the morning I like the colors in the morning.

I told you that Chile runs off of different colors.

This week I have spent a loooot of time on the bus - over 20 hours in total.

I dozed the whole time, otherwise I just feel sick.


Construction and houses- Almost all of Chile is under some type of construction or another.

     This is in part due to the large amount of poorly constructed box houses that are always thrown up after earthquakes.

     Chile also has a lot of foreigners. I think it is almost 20 percent of the population here, but you should look it up. Chile has a very stable economy, and so it is expanding well.

    So the other day we were visiting Leslie, and she showed us this stove that her boyfriend's grandfather made.

It is a solid copper, wood burning water heater. I had never seen one before, so I had to take a picture. Copper is really common here in Chile. It is used to make everything. It was especially used in old things.

SO you see this window here. It has an excellent story.

We pushed my very small 90 lb companion through that bathroom window to break into a house the other day. It was a family of investigators. They were all locked out, and we had an appointment. It was freezing cold! Needless to say, we had quite a bit of fun. We were all laughing afterward. We went to a Family Home Evening at the family Malileo.

Here my companion is modeling.

So my companion had brought some dresses on the mission that she needed to add slips to. A less-active member that is living with her boyfriend- altered them for her.

Here is my companion with the person who added slips to her dresses.

The grandparents of her boyfriend gave her this house. She has big remodeling plans. She is really great.

Spiritual thought

The doing changes the being. We had a whole conference about it. Pay attention what you are doing. Where is your time spent? What goals have you set? Is your time spent on your priorities? Where are your spiritual goals lying in your life?

Elder Aidukaitis said,

"... If we are sincerely seeking the truth, we will do all in our power to find it, which can include reading the scriptures, going to church, and doing our best to keep the commandments of God. It also means that we are willing to do God’s will when we find it."

I invite you to think about the things you are doing,

and how that affect who you are.

Love,

Hermana Bowman

2:25 PM Posted by Sequoia 0

Saturday, May 10, 2014

April 28, 2014

Hey all,

Wow, Matt! How cool! Chile - Rancagua Mission. You are going to love it. You will have a lot of fun.

Hermana Martinez and Me back in Van Obispo (March)

I forgot to take a lot of pictures this week mostly due to lots of kind of awkward and failed moments, but hey - we keep moving forward.

The center of our week was odd. We spent three days in house, because my companion was sick and vomiting and didn´t keep anything down for three days.

The Relief Society president's house burned down, so there has been a lot going on in the ward to help out the family. They are all fine, but the house burned to the base, so everyone has been pitching in to help out. The mom is in the hospital with the severest injuries. She was in a coma but woke up the other day, but she couldn´t talk. She should be sent to Santiago this week.

Here's some photos of my new place.

The ward had an event planned this week called 'The Porotada.' It was a day to eat beans together for lunch, but everyone had been helping out with Hermana Tatiana's house, and no one came. We felt really bad for the hermano that had it all planned, but we are sure the next activity is going to be a hit.

I loved the fotos and letters from Michele and Riley. Tell Riley that I will get on 3 o clock Chile time for Mother's Day, so that he can do the arrangements.

Not a lot of time to talk.

We are looking to find new people to teach this week.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!
Have fun talking to people (it's what I do all day!)

Love you!

Love you all a lot!

Hermana Bowman

11:15 PM Posted by Sequoia 0

Sunday, May 4, 2014

April 21, 2014


San Ramon a Campo - part of our sector- hunting down a reference we received

Hey all,

These cuties here have a fantastic little love story that I want to share with you, Mimi (Michele). When Yuri the girl was sharing this story with us, she had one hand holding his under the table while the other was subconsciously swirling curls in her hair.

Yuri and Sergio are university students in Temuco.

They are studying Nutricion.

The first time she saw him, he was wearing jeans and a long dark draping down- to-the-knee coat that smelled of cigarette smoke. He had long hair that hung past his shoulders and covered and hid his face.

The first thing she thought is that he was beautiful and caring, and she wanted to give him a hug. It is in fact the first thing that she said to him when she first saw him.

Would you mind if I gave you a hug every time I see you?

He said he wouldn´t mind and she gave him a hug.

Yuri: I just had this feeling in my heart and when I feel something like that I just have to follow it.

Hermana Paiva (My companion of the day) - I´ve heard that you changed a lot. This last week at church you gave your testimony... that afternoon we had lunch with Hermano Sepulveda, and he was talking about how pure your faith is and how much you have changed. I´ve only really known the Saintly Sergio, (she said to me.)

Sergio-Yeah, I've changed a lot (he looked at Yuri)

Yuri- When I first knew Sergio he was alone and sad. That is one of the reasons I invited him to church with me.

Sergio- I have learned to have a lot more hope in my life, more purpose and direction.

Me- You quit smoking and changed and decided that you wanted to follow Christ?

Sergio: I believed in Christ before. I just didn´t understand about the atonement.

Yuri: I really think that God gave me this perspective of him. From the first time I saw him, I could just see how caring he was and could see what he could become.

Loved it. You had to be there, but they were super cute.

The other hermanas got up at 6 am to make me a crepe breakfast and this little poster.

23 years old - Boy, am I getting old

Other than that it was a nice normal day.

Correlation for Obra Missional looks really productive.
Notice the brother being strangled in the back.

You can see that we are distant Argentine relatives, no?


There are dogs everywhere here too.

San Ramon a Campo

One of my favorite plants here in Chile spans three walls of the house

These are the perilous stairs in our house that I have fallen down several times, because they are only half the size of my foot!

Intercambio with Hermana Peiva. She is a sweety from Argentina.

Kind of really love this street of triangle houses. This is where Elisabeth lives.

8:56 AM Posted by Sequoia 1

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

April 14

Hey all,

So I am in the sector or ward called Maquehue, in the city called Padre las Casas. It is in the hills. The ward is very big, but so is the sector. The ward has eight missionaries four hermanas y four elderes. We will see how things go.

Here we are on the escalator in the mall

I have high hopes - aka there is lots of work to do here, which is good I like to stay busy. I have lots of personal goals.

My companion is also great. She is from San Salvador, has 3 months on the mission, and is a great missionary- obedient, hard-worker, etc.

We currently don´t have anybody in the church - in that we are to build a new ward in addition to the one they have. The one progressing is 21years old with a 3 year wild child. She affectionately calls him her 'savage from the jungle' - an apt title.

The eight of us. We have a ward building, but it is a really big sector with 150 people in the ward. They want to divide the ward so they sent a bunch of missionaries to help build it up, so that it can be divided into two wards.

It is cold, but we have only been hit by one heavy shower storm this week- Streets turn to rivers and the world goes foggy. It is about the same as Florida rain, big drops and lots of them, but it is cold. A good used sweater here costs about 14 dollars. New is about $30-$40. I am fine sleeping.

Staining Easter eggs activity in the mission zone. We will be doing something similar that we have organized with the ward this Friday. Easter egg hunt and dying Easter eggs.

You have to love Easter. It testifies of the fact that life is eternal that we will all dye :p but we will also all be reborn or resurrected.

In the morning, we have a thick fog, which makes it hard to go running. You can't see more than about six feet in front of you. Hermana Ferrell and I are still trying to run. We will see how long we are willing to do so in this weather.

I will try and take more shots for you guys. We are going to the outskirts of the sector this week, and I will try to get you guys some good pictures.

Fun fact: I am in the house with Hermana Ferrell. My companion from the MTC. It is really nice to already have a good friend here.

Love you lots,

Hermana Bowman

10:59 AM Posted by Sequoia 0

Sunday, April 27, 2014

April 7, 2014

Dear Family,

Conference was fantastic - all of it! I really can't say I had a favorite talk, because there are many that I will be using to make goals in my life.

Our district:

Elder Cruz, Long, Douglas,
Lopez, Hermana Bazan, Palma,
My Companion and me

My favorite session was the first - Saturday morning. I liked the talk about gratitude, our potential, and our need to take a stand. One expression that I liked was when they talked about looking for and caring for our dead.

Not just the dead, but our dead. We can clearly see from the extensive lists of genealogy in the scriptures that ancestry and family ties are incredibly important to God. I know lots of our family stories, but I want to know even more.

      For my birthday, it is probably better for Daddy to put money in my account for clothes than you having to send them. I have found a handful of shops that are really cheap.

     My classes are good. I used ratemyprofessor. I will rearrange them when I get home.

     One thing that will surprise you is that here in Chile, I have learned to eat a little bit of spicy food. (You can't say no to some of their hermanas that were up at 4 in the morning, and took their lunch break, so the food would be ready for you.)

     Here I am eating a bell pepper raw - something I never could do.

Here we are with two little girls, teaching them about the gospel - faith, repentance, etc.

Our little investigators

We used a game we made up where they had to jump from step to step without getting caught by the devil (me) when they weren't on one of the steps.

They are super cute. I gave them and their sister Bowman's headbands she sent me. They loved them.

------------

My companion did 104 push-ups for the zone. They weren't pretty pushups or at all middle school qualifiable push-ups, but she did them with her little arms shaking. The next day, she was unable to lift her arms to put on her mascara.

This is an exercise we do in zone conference sometimes that helps us realize the power of the atonement. Push-ups are done for every person in the zone, so that each of us can receive a treat. Whether or not we want or accept the treat is not so important, as long as the pushups are done by one person.

     Usually, the boys do them. It was different for me to see a girl do this. I don't know why, but the entire time I was thinking really one of the elders should be doing this.

I think the elders thought the same,

as they stared with avid attention at their shoes and scriptures.

It made me think of all of the single mothers I know who are made to carry the load and how it shouldn't be that way.

     It also made me think about our society in which it is expected that a woman is treated the same as a man, which often leads her to carrying her own load and his too.

     It is sad how the men don't understand their value and recognize what their potential is for themselves and their families. Blessings would occur if they did.

In reality, each have designed roles created by God. Sometimes like when a 110 lb girl works hard at 104 pushups, it is really obvious.

It is not that we can't do all of the work,

it's that we shouldn't have to.

And perhaps Christ shouldn't have had to either.

------------

I will be moving down to Temuco - the farthest southern city in my mission and most dreaded for its cold and rain in the winter. The sector is called Michaeue or something like that.


Packing. Yep, a disaster.

I will be with the MTC companion of my current companion. Her name is Hermana Martiz.....I know! Version 2.0! She is from Ecuador, and she is like half of my size.

Love you guys,

Hermana Bowman

10:15 AM Posted by Sequoia 0

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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Mollie #82 - Padres Las Casas, Chile - Last Letter on Mission

Mollie #81 - Padres Las Casas, Chile - Happiness, Happy Birthday, Mother!!!

Mollie #80 - Padres Las Casas, Chile - Finding new people, From 'estar' to 'ser'

Mollie #79 - Padres Las Casas - Rain, Rain

Monday, May 26, 2014

Mollie #78 - Padres Las Casas, Chile - The doing changes the being

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Mollie #77 - Padres Las Casas, Chile - Hard Week = Sick companion, Burned house

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Mollie #76 - Padres Las Casas, Chile - A Love Story, My Birthday!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Mollie #75 - Padres las Casas, Chile - Eight missionaries, Creating a new ward

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Mollie #74 - Van Obispo, Chile - Conference, Understanding Sacrifice, Heading South

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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Monday, May 26, 2014

Saturday, May 10, 2014

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