Transfers

I hardly have anytime this week and this key board is such a stinker so I apologize in advance. On Thursday we found out that my companion had transfers. They called around 6 so the goodbyes were really hard for Hermana Mazariego. It broke my heart. I still would prefer to just not say goodbye, sorry if that’s bad.

So on Friday we had to wake up at 3 to go to and drop off her luggage before our meeting. The meeting was amazing and was for the whole mission!!! I got to see Rachel and it really was something I needed. It was so fun to see all my friends from the MTC. I feel like they are family.

The Presidency of the area talked and did an amazing job. A part that I liked a loooot was when he said that we aren’t perfect but we are worthy. And the difference between perfect and worthy isn’t a huge gap. I’ve realized that sometimes I justify myself for that saying "no one is perfect." But we can always be perfect in little things. He then talked about the importance of developing traditions and that there are only two types of traditions, eternal traditions and false traditions. It opened my eyes a lot about the importance of being completely obedient to all the commandments. And that when we justify a commandment we are creating false traditions. 

My new companion is Hermana Martinez. Still only Latina companions yaaaay. She is from Guatemala. On Friday we took a picture with the whole mission and my companion was the shortest and I was one of the tallest. She’s gotta be like 4 9´ or something. She’s a cutie. She only has two more transfers sad huh? So I’m determined to make these last two transfers the best I can for her.

It was extremely hard for Hermana Mazariego to leave because we literally worked soooo incredibly hard with Amalia and Roger and she got transferred the day before their wedding. She still had a really good attitude about it. What a champ. The wedding was sooo great. Amalia is such a cutie. This was the first time I had seen her in a dress and make up and the first thing she said to me is I have never been so uncomfortable. But I could tell she was so happy. The baptism was right after which was such a spiritual experience for everyone in the room. The chapel was completely full it was great. While I was washing the dishes this woman came to help me and we had a great conversation. We have a family night with her tonight and hope that she will be the next to get married and then baptized!!! Amalia and Roger bore their testimonies on Sunday. Amalia talked about how much she regrets waiting so long to take this step. They really are such amazing investigators. And it was perfect for all the investigators in sacrament meeting

This Thursday is Daniel’s baptism! Please pray for him and that everything will work out. We have faced a lot of challenges with the mom but this morning we woke up at 4:30 to get her signature. I learned more about the power of prayer and fasting this morning. We dedicated a fast for Daniel and that his mom’s heart would be softened. After the wedding we were able to visit his mom. I shared an experience about Ben and how good of a kid he is. 

Maria’s baptism got changed to this Saturday because all the priesthood had a meeting for the stake in the morning. Later on Sunday we had a lesson with her and she told us how everyday she studies her scriptures for an hour and is learning a lot from the Book of Mormon. It seriously is such a privilege to watch these people progress and strengthen my testimony. I love that there are so many people prepared for our message and I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed me with being about to know these people. I know that I am weak and that I have a lot to learn. I know that the Lord is my strength and I am so grateful for His patience with me!! I love you all and am praying that you all can have spiritual experiences every day and enjoy the happiness of the gospel!!

Love always,

Hermana Fowler

Cuidad Colon

Hello hello hello :) This week went by waaay too fast. Not okay. I have been loving this transfer with Hermana Mazariego. She is such a blessing. We work really well together and are praying really really hard that we won’t get split up. Monday was supposed to be transfers but no one had any. So I’m pretty sure that we will hear about transfers tomorrow and then if we have them then we will take all our luggage to a meeting that we have with the whole mission on Friday! It’s going to be amazing. The area presidency will be coming and teaching us so I’m very excited to learn :)

This week we spent a lot of time getting the wedding all ready. Amalia went to the hospital because she had a really bad headache because of stress. She is so nervous because this is her first wedding! They have been together for 25 years. Haha she’s a funny one. I really feel like her and Roger are my mission parents. They always tell me that whenever I need anything they will drop everything to help us. They both are amazing converts and will be incredible future leaders :)

Jairo and Brandon are the cutest. Yesterday we called Brandon’s mom and she said that he just left with all his scriptures and notes to go to Jairo’s house so they could study. We are still working with Jessy (Jairos mom) but we have had a really hard time finding her since we taught the law of chastity. Her date for baptism was this last Saturday so it fell through but we still will continue to work with her.

Yesterday we went to her house and she said through the window I cant receive you guys right now. Then Jairo’s dad came out and introduced himself and thanked us for helping Jairo and that he has really seen a big change in him. We invited him to church and he said of course why not. Gotta love those responses. 

Maricel is doing great. We had a family night with her last night that went really well. I love being able to teach her in English. But pretty much it’s Spanglish. I talked to her husband the other day and he seems very nice! He is a northern American and doesn’t know much Spanish. Their kids are absolutely adorable. Gosh I wish I could send photos. 

Maria is going soo great. We have had amazing spiritual experiences with her. It’s been such a blessing to see her receive her answers from Heavenly Father. She had her interview this week and it went really well. She will be baptized this Sunday! Her grandson is serving a mission in Mexico and is soo happy that she has finally decided to make this step :)

Ciudad Colon is an amazing area. It has sooo much potential. We mainly just work in the central of the city because we don’t have a lot of time so I am hoping that they will send another set of missionaries to this ward. I love the people here in Costa Rica. We have had our fair share of rejection but it doesn’t even phase me now haha. It’s taken some time but I just feel such an urgency to at least bare my testimony to them. I love this gospel and I know this is the only true church on the face of the earth!! I love you all and pray for you constantly :) Be safe :)

Love always

Hermana Fowler

:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THOMAS!!!! I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOOOOOVE YOU!!!! Have the best day ever and go eat Chipotle.

What a great week!! We had a multi-zone conference that was absolutely incredible. I wish you all could have been there to feel how strong the Spirit was! Elder Alonso, a member of the seventy, came which was so so so great. He taught by answering questions we had. One of the questions was, “What are the goals the area presidency has for our mission.” And he answered by saying that every missionary to have a full conversion. I thought he would say some big number of baptisms or church attendance but his response made me realize that without our own conversion we can’t convert other. President Wilkinson said that that morning while he was eating breakfast he had inspiration to change everything that he had planned to teach. I can honestly say he taught completely by the Spirit and that they were not his words. He shared some incredible experience that made me look at missionary work in a different perspective. 

Ahh I truly feel soo blessed at how many miracles I am able to see. This week we literally found an angel that fell from heaven. He is a 13 year old who is always in the library. The librarian is a member so lots of times we’d be teaching lessons there and one day I saw this boy and I felt like I should invite him to mutual. So he said he would come and we continued talking. He told us how much he looooves reading and I told him that we have a book that will be the best book you’ll ever read. And that because of this book you will see a different outlook on life. He has extremely excited and the next day we called Jenny (the librarian) and she said that he wasn’t in the library. So then we called another member who happened to know where he lives. We went and he wasn’t home :( but we talked with his mom and she is such a sweetheart too.

As we were talking his little brother ran like 8 blocks to get Daniel (the angel that fell from heaven). And then 10 minutes later they showed up panting. He had the biggest smile on his face when he saw the Book of Mormon in our hands. On Sunday at church he told us everything that he had understood so far. He is smarter than I’ll ever be so I’m excited to learn from him :)

When we placed a date for his baptism he was so excited. He will be baptized on March 26th. I’ve decided that baptisms don’t always need to be on Saturday and that one day we will have a baptism every day of the week. After we asked him if he knew anyone that could benefit from our message and he said yes yes yes come follow me. Gosh he is such an angel. So he took us to this house and out came a family of 6. And all of them are older than 8! My companion and I were speechless walking away from this house! What a blessing :)

We also have another investigator whose name is Marcela. She is the one that knows English. She is also an angel. Her husband is from Boston and doesn’t know Spanish. So we are working with him a little bit too. Marcela reminds me a lot of my mom. I tell her that all the time. She has a 14 year old daughter who was supposed to come to New Beginnings this week but couldn’t but Marcela came anyway. She has soo impressed with the young women and wants her daughter to be a part of the Young Women’s program. One of them talked about not drinking tea and so she asked if tea was bad so we explained and she said okay from now on I won’t drink tea. Sadly she wasn’t able to come to church this week but we are praying hard that she will start coming every week. 

Our last baptism, Jairo, is progressing sooo much. He now is going to seminary every morning at 5 am. Woohoo. He always wears his CTR ring and even kept the little bag he got in it because it says it’s from Utah. Haha. Every time I’m with him he says, Aahh why do I have to wait for 5 years to go on a mission.” I know he will be an incredible missionary. His mom Jessy is having some challenges but we are working really hard with her. She hardly has any money and her boyfriend is paying for everything. And the boyfriend doesn’t want her so go to church anymore. And yesterday Jairo said that his mom doesn’t want him to go to church either. Satan is working hard but we will work harder and plus God always wins :) I love Ciudad Colon and I know that there are thousands of people ready to receive Christ’s gospel. I feel your prayers and am so thankful for all of you and your emails. They really make the biggest difference. I love my family more than I can explain. I’d love to hear from you when you can :)

Love always,

Hermana Fowler

P.S. I got to see Rachel!!!!!!!!! She is one incredible missionary I’m so glad I can learn from her example.

Hi

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MY PACKAGE MOM!!! AND THANK YOU THURYLE FOR YOUR PACKAGE!!!! :) I have been spoiled way too much. I’m good with packages for the rest of my mission so no more spending money on me!!

This week was great :) every week is great! Ahh so many miracles this week. So first off I don’t know if I told this miracle last week. If so sorry. So we were talking to people in the park one night because our appointments fell through and we were both soo hungry but we had to go to San Jose the next day so we didn’t have money to buy something. For some reason I left impressed to go over to this bakery. Which just was more torture. But we went and started talking to the worker. We found out that her son is a member and will be putting his papers in soon. So we talked to her and she told us that lots of missionaries have visited her but she doesn’t want to act on our message. So we tried to get to know her more and we now have a really good relationship with her. Then as we were leaving she said I have something for you guys and then took out two pieces of bread. The Lord always provides for his missionaries. :) 

So on my Birthday I had to go to San Jose for my id card. So we had to wake up at 4:50. :( But I got up and found the whole house decorated for my birthday, with bunch of happy birthday signs and cute notes. My comp is the cutest. And she bought me a cute Costa Rica shirt that I loooooove and earrings. So we went to San Jose and met up with some other Hermana’s so that the people that were going to get their ids could go together and the others could stay in San Jose and find people. Anyway so Hermana Markle came with breakfast from McDonalds haha. But I didn’t tell anyone it was my birthday so I didn’t think anyone knew besides my comp. So then when I got to the office I went to the package room and found my package :) and another one that was from Hermana Markle so she was so cute and just kept saying how could I have forgotten your birthday?? Everyone was so nice.

So we have these investigators that seriously are one of a kind. They have like 100 percent attendance and they pay their tithing and they give out pamphlets of the church and they go to every activity. Anyway all they are missing is a wedding. But she is very scared to take this step, so we have been working really hard with them and also the last 10 missionaries. But on Tuesday after a lesson they said that they are ready to be married ahhhh!!!!!!!!! So we will be having a wedding and a baptism on the 21st of March!!!! 

So another one of our investigators ( the one that speaks English) is sooooo great!!! She is so much like my mom. On Sunday we had planned a family home evening in a member’s house with her. But I guess it was all planned for my birthday. So we ate cake and then watched The Restoration. Marisel said that she told her husband about me and how we just really get along and that she wants to be a part of this church!! It was such a spiritual experience to teach in English. It was hard but it was a lesson that I’ll never forget. I was starting to feel like I was getting converted more and more in Spanish. But so I have been praying a lot to not lose my testimony in English. But during that lesson I got my answer to my prayers. To forget about myself and my concerns and the Lord will make up for the rest. 

This week we were walking in the park again because our appointments fell through and we found a member so we started to talk to him. My companion had said that he was excommunicated but I didn’t know anything more than that. We began talking and he shared with us his whole story. It’s pretty personal but my testimony changed completely from talking to that man. I can’t express how important it is to not judge people and to see them through Christ’s eyes. He told us how he really wanted to have someone visit him the other day and he was praying a lot so that someone would think of him and come visit him. That day his home teachers came. It’s so incredible how perfect this church is. We are all so imperfect but the Lord is the head of this church and knows what is best for us.

Lots of love,

Hermana Fowler