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Santo Domingo Missionaries woohoo

HAPPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!!!! I loooooove you tons and tons and tons. Have a great 17th birthday!! Sorry I forgot to tell you guys that my p-day was going to change. Well not my p-day just the day we write our family. So now our p-day ends at 5 on Monday and every martes we email together as a district so that people don’t do things they shouldn’t. And email time is shorter now sooo I’m going to need to learn how to type faster! 

This week went pretty well. Nancy’s husband Roger (the investigator that got married last Saturday) is getting baptized this Saturday. We are so excited for them and even more excited for them to go through the temple in a year. Satan is such a stinker though and is working really hard on this family. But they are holding strong. Roger lost his job at Taco Bell this week. Nancy is pregnant so really this was very hard for their family. But I know that God has a much better job for him. Plus Taco Bell is nasty here. 

One day this week we were looking for new investigators so I felt like we should go into this house that Hermana Cuevas and I used to teach but they weren’t progressing so we had to stop teaching them. Anyway we asked if we could use the bathroom, it’s the best way to get into the house, and we started talking and such and set a time to come back. After we were talking to some other people on that same street and a little girl came up and told us to come get some fresco in her house after. So we did and oh my goodness. Probably 15 little girls attacked me with questions about one direction. No worries I smoothly transitioned it into talking about the gospel. But yes I now regret not paying more attention to the movie. All kids here are obsessed. So send me a report on one direction. I really needed Germaine in that lesson!

This week we had a multi zone conference. Holy no words to describe. It was a huge testimony booster that’s for sure. I felt like President was talking right to me. Something I loooved that he said was "teaching is not speaking." I love that because speaking is hard ya know? But it’s sooo true. An elder did a practice in front of all of us where he invited President to go to church on Sunday. I don’t really know how to explain it but the spirit was soooo strong. It wasn’t because of the words he said or the tone of his voice it was the fact that he is truly a representative of Jesus Christ. After the conference I felt so nourished and definitely needed that for the rest of this week haha. No but everything is going really well. We are seeing sooo many miracles. I’m extremely grateful for all the lessons I am learning. I really love it here sooo much! I love Costa Rica! It really is the best mission in the world. I promise!!!! Thank you for all the prayers and emails they really make the bestest difference!!!

DAME ESTE MONTE

Hermana Fowler

My friend from the MTC

November 17, 2014

Hi peeps. I’m extremely jealous of the snow you guys are getting so please enjoy it a little extra for me! It’s actually pretty cold here. Nothing like Utah obviously but for here I get a little cold. Some days I’ll where a sweater and my raincoat and still be cold. But I’ve always been a baby with the cold so nothing’s changed :) Okay so first off Ben you are so cute for retyping mom’s essay. But you better be more careful with Deb. She’s used to being treated like a princess!

This week we had divisions! I learned soo much. It was my first time teaching with a gringa here. It was nice to be able to talk about the lesson after to fully understand. Hermana Tripp and I have like the same life. It’s seriously so freaky! But really it was good for me to have a full conversation in my native language with someone who knows exactly how I feel. It’s funny because when I’m really really tired at night I’ll just start talking in English and the Hermana’s will just be quiet for a minute and then start laughing. Bless my heart. 

selfie. i love my camera it's the best with the rain :) thank you dad!!

So this week was pretty good. Every companionship you have to learn how to adjust to so we are in the process of figuring that out. But it’s really good because she is teaching me to talk things out not just keep everything to myself. I get really antsy when we aren’t being exactly obedient because if I’m not exactly obedient I can’t have the spirit and if I don’t have the spirit I literally can’t talk. Plus being obedient is really fun!! 

Nancy´s wedding and baptism went really well. A member made her dress and a cake that turned out sooo beautiful!! I feel so honored to watch her make such great decisions that will bless her life forever. Her husband was soooo cute to her it melted my heart. She was just glowing on Sunday! I love this gospel so much! 

Baptism :)

This week we spent a lot of time planning for the wedding and baptism. It was pretty crazy. I wanted everything to be so perfect, the Hermanas just kept laughing at me because I spent like 5 minutes trying to put this balloon in the exact place. I’m the worst.

But really this week in my mission I learned A LOT. I’ll be honest lots of things went wrong but I don’t really care to talk about it because it’s not important anymore. The important thing is what I learned from it. I learned that when something bad happens we need to ask ourselves what’s the worst thing that could happen? If the worst thing possible is something we can live with or the Savior can help us with, we should move on without fear. We all are imperfect and it really is so great!! I realize that I was getting so caught up in every single rule as a missionary that I wasn’t taking the time to think about my companion. I didn’t know anything about her family or her decision to serve a mission. I still feel horrible for not taking the time to really get to know her. And now that I have, things are totally different.

One night this week I opened up my scriptures and read the scripture that says something along the lines of "condemn me not because of my imperfections but rather give thanks to our Heavenly Father that he has shown us our imperfections, that we may learn to be more wise than we have been." I’m very grateful to know my imperfections. But I also learned this week that I need to be nicer to myself. So yes lots of things to improve obviously haha. I love it here so so so much!! I’m running out of time so I better go but thank you for all your emails. I love you I love you I love you!!!!!!

Love always,

Hermana Fowler

P.S.  I can now do that thing Thomas always does with his hand. So yep I’m pretty much a tica now!!

Letter from Anna

Just to warn you this is the first week I didn’t write down a list of things I need to tell you guys so sorry in advance.

This week was great. Nothing bad comes to mind :) We have had divisions a lot because I’m teaching Hermana Vasquez her new area and Hermana Perez is teaching my companion our new area. It’s been sad to not be able to visit our old investigators but it’s okay. I’m trusting that it’s for the best. Our area was been struggling a little bit so Hermana Pacheco and I set a goal this week to talk to every family that we see.

One day we saw this family who was in their house with the door open pealing corn. We both felt really awkward approaching them for some reason so of course we approached them since Satan obviously didn’t want us to. After begging to let us help them they gave in. It seriously was so great. As we pealed corn (I don’t know if you call it pealing corn but that’s what I’m going to call it) we explained why we were in Costa Rica and taught them about the restoration. I love that family so much. Some random guy came to watch and was just saying things to me that to be honest I wasn’t really listening to because I could tell it wasn’t very uplifting. The dad of the family then asked if he was there to help or just to watch. And he responded by saying, “I’m here to watch the gringa (white girl).” Gave me the heebie geebies. But really it was so fun to serve that family. I found lots of bugs that I hope to never see again but I just smashed them with my shoe and moved on. Mom I hope you are proud :) 

This week one of our Investigators came to us and said that she was now ready to get married and that she wants her wedding to be this Saturday. Ahhh. So yep we will be really busy this week. She will be baptized that same day. I’m so happy for her. It has really taught me a lot about where my priorities should be. She doesn’t care about all the fancy wedding stuff. All she wants is it to be special for her soon to be husband and to finally be able to be baptized. I was worried she would care about her hair getting all ruined but it didn’t even cross her mind.

I’m really so grateful for the people in Costa Rica. They all are so humble and are always looking outside themselves. I’m hoping they rub off on me. But really everything is going great. I love this mission and am so grateful to be able to watch the spirit work through these people. Spanish is getting better and I’m so grateful for the help I am receiving.

I love you all so much! I know that this is the Lords work and he will always guide us to those who have been prepared if we will listen. Thank you for all the prayers and support!!! :)

Love always,

Hermana Fowler

P.S. We were walking down the street and this guy whistled at us and said… “Happy Birthday to you.” Probs the only English sentence he knew. hahaha Bless his heart. :)

Sorry it’s so short this week :/

My companion got a haircut from a member today!

Mom <3

I told my companion how me and you would sing in the car at the top of our lungs, “I don’t want to miss a thing.” Awe Mom I love you so so so much! I really am so grateful for you! You are my best friend in the entire world! Don’t you forget it. Ever!

            My companion and I had a laughing episode while singing the hymn before a lesson. Luckily it was with Hermana Ana and her family and they laughed with us. My companion started laughing at my singing and then it just got worse and worse. It made me miss our moments J. The future is bright because no matter what happens it’ll always be fun with you.

Mom I seriously love my quilt so much. It is the best gift I’ve ever been given. It’s so beautiful and it is a little part of home I get to see and sleep with every day. Thank you so much for putting all that time into it when you had so many things to do. I was thinking the other day what a huge blessing that was that your hours for coding got shortened. Seriously Mom! Heavenly Father is the most loving being. I’m so grateful for the time we got to have together before I left. You really are my best friend Mom! You have always been! You have always been the most loving and caring person in my life. Whenever I needed correction you always did it out of love. You’ve always been so patient with me. You are incredible Mom.

Thank you for raising me the way you have.  But most of all thank you for raising me in the gospel! Mom this is the Church of Jesus Christ! We have the authority on the earth today, to act in the name of Jesus Christ. As a representative of Jesus Christ it is my responsibility to invite others to come unto Christ. It’s my privilege to share with others what has blessed my life. Heavenly Father is our literal, loving father. He wants us to talk to him. He wants us to ask for blessings. He wants us to ask him questions about the Gospel so we can further our conversion, so that we can convert those who God has placed in our path. The Lord needs us to be His instruments and there is nothing greater we could do than share what we know!

I love Costa Rica so much Mom. I am grateful for this time to dedicate to the Lord.    

I love this work Mom! Thank you for letting me serve and for providing a way! I love you with all my heart!

            Your Anna

Letter from Anna

This week a lot of things happened. My new companion is such a sweetheart. It’s really taking some getting used to a new companion but there was been lots of blessings that have come from this change. And a lot of frustration haha. 

So at the beginning of this last week we were at lunch and Ivette told me that her daughter didn’t want to receive us anymore (that sounds weird in English I don’t know). Ahh people and their agency. Anyway, my companion said no I still want to go and meet her at least. Ivette just kinda looked at us weird and told us we probably shouldn’t. My companion was determined to anyway sooo we did haha. I felt really weird when we first got there and she was very standoffish. We started teaching the first lesson and it just didn’t feel right at all. I started talking and an experience came to mind that was totally off subject. I thought what in the why I would I talk about that, especially since I don’t like talking about it and I’ve only told a few people about it. But I just opened my mouth and told her. She started crying and the spirit was so strong. She then opened up about why she didn’t want us to visit with her anymore. We talked about it and we still are going to go visit her :) 

So on Thursday we had a zone meeting and I don’t know I just get really insecure about my Spanish in front of a bunch of people, so the days we have zone meetings I get a little quiet. And being in control of our area has been a little stressful so I just was thinking about stuff and not talking. We were on the bus and I saw someone in a costume and then realized it was Halloween. How sad I forgot it was Halloween :(. So my companion was trying to cheer me up and was asking what I usually do for Halloween so I told her and then she asked what my favorite food was so I said hamburgers obvi.

Anyway the day went on and we were at a member’s house and they were showing us all their costumes. Gosh I love Halloween. So we were walking home and my companion was walking slower than ever haha. We finally got to the house and turned on the lights and the other Hermanas had decorated the whole house in Halloween stuff. Haha it was soo cute. That’s why my companion was walking extremely slow so I felt bad after. Then after planning they made me a hamburger haha. It really was the cutest thing ever. My companion had planned the whole thing. She really is such a sweetheart. Best Halloween ever :)

Clearly my companion is better at acting scared than I am.

The house all decorated for Halloween :)

So we have an investigator named Rammon. He is the cutest and he reminds me of Grandpa Shaw. At the beginning he said I would love to listen to you guys but I can’t go to church because I have bad knees. So I told Hermana Pacheco that and she said, “Na we are going to get him to church”. So we went to visit with him and he invited a girl (Flor) who lives in another apartment above her house. With the help of Flor and the spirit he committed to come to church. So on Sunday we went to get him to walk to church with us and there he was in his white shirt and slacks. Sooooo cute. I love that man sooo much. He took a huge handful of bread during the sacrament, he’s adorable. During Sunday School he was sharing his thoughts on the holy ghost and started to cry. I have so much love for that man. 

Sooo yesterday was interesting. The President of our branch called and said we had a meeting in the chapel. So we were waiting for him and this hobo walked by and threw a card board box at us from across the street. Thanks homie. Then a few minutes later my companion says the crazy guy is coming back. So we hurried and crossed the street and then he started running toward us. Oh my goodness I’m horrible at handling situations like this. So we just casually started running too. He was on the other side of the street still but then he was about to cross the street and I told my companion to start running the other way so we did and he yelled something at us and just kept walking. So we hurried to hide in a store until president was in the chapel.

President started talking to us about how he had been praying about branch and felt the impression to do emergency changes. So he got permission from President Wilkinson to change our areas. Sooo now half of our old area is the other Hermanas and half of theirs is ours. I know it’s for the best but I’m just really sad about all our investigators in that area. We are opening an area on Tuesday pretty much. I’m nervous but I’m also really excited. President then asked us to show him our planners. Usually missionaries here (or everywhere I don’t know) laminate the front and back of their planners and put pictures they find in pamphlets and stuff to decorate it. But I hadn’t had time to do it yet so mine was just normal. President then explained that we should never cover the compass that is in the front of our planner.

We then read in Alma 37 where it’s talking about the Nephites using the Liahona as their guide. "If they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle and also many other miracles wrought by the power of god, DAY BY DAY." Let’s do this thing!!! Im excited for the challenges that are ahead mainly because we are going to really need to rely on the Lord. I know that we are closer than we think to our Heavenly Father. He is always there to help us and hope give us anything we can’t do.

I love this work with all my heart. And love these people more and more every day. I fear the day of transfers. But for now the people in Santo Domingo need us and we are going to work work work. I love my family soooooooo sooooo much. Thank you for all the support and for all of your prayers. I pray for all of you by name and hope everything is going just great!!!

Love always,

Hermana Fowler