8/18/14 - Photo from Oxford, MA

We made thank you cards for the members! Here is one of the photos. lol. Sister Boldt and I are having a joyous time on our missons!

Have a good day all! :)

Love Sister Bower

8/17/14 - Photo texted from a ward member

A Sister Burt from Oxford ward in MA just text this picture to me and said "I had your daughter over for dinner tonight and wanted to let you know she is doing great"

8/11/14 - Letter from Oxford, MA

Our week with our mini missionary was STELLAR. She is the best and I absolutely adore her. She is 16 years old and has long blonde Rapunzel hair. We told her that she sleeps like Sleeping Beauty, because every time we went to wake her up in the morning she would have her hair all majestically around her and her hands would be resting on top of her. SO CUTE. I remember one morning during studies, we were all on our knees to try and figure out what it was that Heavenly Father wanted us to share with this family. So while I was on my knees, Heavenly Father told me that our mini missionary would know. And in my head I just kept arguing with Heavenly Father saying that she wouldn't know because she had never met the family, and she was brand new and I didn't want to put her on the spot. But nothing else came to mind. So when we were all done praying, I looked up and immediately asked her what she thought we should share with this family. She sat there and pondered for a moment and then told us about a scripture that came to mind, and her experience with it. It turns out that that was the exact scripture that they needed to hear. It was AMAZING. She is a killer missionary.

I have an AMAZING experience to tell you about! So, this past Wednesday, we were able to go over to a family's home for dinner. After dinner, we shared a message with them about trials. The father is a tall, bald, has a go-t, has tattoo's all up and down his arms, and he is just really intimidating looking. WELL, he is the nicest man on the whole planet. He adores children, especially his and his wife's. They are the cutest family ever. He was baptized and received the priesthood not long after they were married. Well, he is now completely inactive. He says that he thinks he can be a better Catholic than a Mormon. He says that the Mormon church is just too overwhelming for him. His older son enjoys going to the LDS church, and has expressed interest to Sister Boldt and I about serving a mission when he turns 18. He is fifteen I believe, and he wants to serve a mission and receive the priesthood. He is just a good kid. And then his little son, who is 13, follows what his Dad does. The dad just received full custody over his boys not too long ago.  I don't want to go into detail about their story, but just know that they come from a very very hard life. ANYWAYS, back to when we were there teaching the lesson. Like I said, we were sharing a message on trials with them. Before we got there, Sister Boldt told me that she felt prompted to tell the family about her story. She didn't want to though. She didn't fully trust the father, and she thought that he would us it against her. We think that he views the two of us as two Molly Mormon's who are out serving a mission. He especially thinks that about Sister Boldt, since she is from Utah. So, Sister Boldt told me that she was absolutely not going to tell them about her story. During the message, I felt a prompting to tell Sister Boldt she needed to share her story with them. So I tapped her chair under the table so no one would see, and I knew she ignored me because she didn't want to say anything about it. But then the father told us that we should all share some of trials. And so he started with his boys, then told us his, then his wife told about one of her trials, and then I told mine, and then he looked at Sister Boldt with a grin on his face and asked to hear her trial. He was being rather joking about it, as if to say, "what can a Molly Mormon like you have anything to say abut trials?" Let me just say that Sister Boldt has never in her life cried when she has shared her story with anyone. She just doesn't cry. She has built this wall to block her emotions while she tells her life story. But it has been slowly breaking since we have met this family. So, Sister Boldt shared her story, and she was looking at his boys the whole time because I know that she finds comfort in talking to children. Children are her comfort spot. I, however, was looking at the father the whole time. I thought he would glance over at me because I was staring at him so much, but he was so completely glued to what Sister Boldt was saying, that nothing else mattered to him at that moment. I could physically see his wall come down, as tears poured down his face for this young girl who has had such a hard life, and was putting God first. Afterwards, we left them with a commitment to send up a prayer for help whenever they were to think of a trial or were going through one. The father has never agreed to any of our commitments, and he wasn't going to. He kept giving us excuse after excuse. So after Sister Boldt shared her story, we extended the commitment again. And he told us that he would do it. The spirit was so strong in that home. On the car ride home, we were asking our mini missionary what her impressions were, and what she thought everyone was thinking and feeling. Eventually, I turned around to look at her as she answered and saw her with tears rolling down her face that she couldn't stop from coming. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "I just love them so much, and I have never even met them before. I would do anything in the world for them! And I hardly know them." A smile spread across Sister Boldt's and my own face. We knew how she was feeling, because that was how we felt the first time we met them too. I can honestly say, that I would jump in front of a bullet for this family, because I love them so much. And as scary as that is, it is truly amazing to be able to feel that way. Because not only do you feel your own love for this family, but you can feel just a fraction of the love that Heavenly Father and Jesus have for this family. I can't even imagine how much love our Heavenly Father has for them. I wish I knew, and I wish I could wrap my head around it. Moving forward to yesterday, Sunday the 10th. We were putting our things down in our seats, when we turned around and saw the wife from the family we had this experience there, with a big grin on her face. She doesn't come to church much, because the father didn't go. So we were glad to see her there. But then, the youngest son came up to us and was so excited to see us! Sister Boldt and I were amazed, because we never thought in our whole mission that we would see that little boy at church. So we told him that we would sit with him and the mom and his brother. When we all sat down together in the chapel, She looked at us and said, "that is not enough seats, we need one more." Sister Boldt and I looked at each other with confusion because both of her own children where either in Sweden with their grandparents, or at their dad's house for the weekend. And as we both looked up, there walked in the father with the biggest smile I have ever seen in my life. I immediately had tears in my eyes, and so did Sister Boldt. He came over and shook our hands, he was so happy that he almost gave me a hug, and then he remember that he couldn't. I wish I could have given him a hug though! But anyways, he shook our hands and told us that if Sister Boldt could come to church after all that she has been through, then so could he. And he told us that he was back. That day was the best day of my whole mission. Sister Boldt and I literally went home that day and jumped on our beds and were so happy that we were LITERALLY, bouncing with joy! We thanked Heavenly Father many times that day. It was truly amazing. I wish you could experience the love that we have for this family. I truly wish that you could understand the excitement and joy and love that I feel for these people. It is my favorite part about being a missionary. I just adore and love it so much.

Well, that is all I have time for this week. I love and miss you all terribly!

Love Always,

Sister Bower

8/4/2014 - letter and photo from Oxford, MA

My week has been super busy, as usual. On Monday we finally just relaxed. We haven't had a relaxing P-day in a long time. In fact, today is going to be rather stressful but it will be good stress. And do ya' wanna know why?! Because Sister Boldt and I are getting a mini missionary today! We are picking her up at 1 o'clock today in Stafford. She is from somewhere in Connecticut, and is coming to join us Monday through Friday! It is SO exciting. We already have some good pranks lined up for her. It should be loads of fun. I am so EXCITED that Kaitlyn is going on a mini mission! And I am more excited that they do those in Washington! They are HUGE here in New England, everybody does them. So I am super excited for Kaitlyn. Too bad she couldn't do it for a little longer. Being a missionary is the best thing EVER! AH! I AM SSOOOOOO EXCITED FOR HER!! It is so much fun!!! She is going to love it :D

We were going to teach young women's yesterday but we got some bad news instead. So yesterday, we got to church and they announced that there had been a death. The story is this: The past week was girls camp. All the girls had had a very spiritual and fun time at camp, and were all on a spiritual high. One of the Camp Leaders was expressing how stressed she was about going back home because they were going to have to pack up their whole house because they were moving. Instead of packing, she and her daughter had come to girls camp. On the way home from camp, both the Young women's leader and her 16 year old daughter were killed in a car accident. It was a five car crash, and they both died instantly. The whole testimony meeting at church that day was very sad, and very touching. All of the young women were in tears through out the day, as you can imagine. After sacrament, we carried on and went to Gospel Principles, which Sister Boldt and I have been teaching consistently because our Ward Mission Leader has been out of town. After that, we proceeded to go teach Young Women's. After all of the announcements, the Bishop and his counselors came in and talked to the young women about what had happened. I thought that it was so amazing of Bishop. He let the girls share their feelings, and then taught a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. It was amazing to see how he comforted the Young Women. You could literally see all of their shoulders relax a little as they talked about their friend, Rachel, and her mother. So no, we did not get to teach Young Women's, but it was an amazing experience to see how these girls handled the passing of a friend. We will be teaching young women's next week and have a lesson prepared on "Why Families are Important" and "How We Can Strengthen Our Families". It will be a stellar lesson :)

Some more good and bad news. One of our investigators has been coming to church every Sunday. He is awesome! However the adversary has been working very hard on him. This last lesson we had with him was awesome (every lesson we have with him is awesome, actually). We addressed the topic of his smoking and his drinking coffee. He wants to quit. In fact, his ex girlfriend that he is living with, has a disease called Lupus.  Well, unfortunately, it has been getting worse. The doctor told her that the only way it is going to start going away and the medication is going to help, is if she stopped smoking. So, our investigator, and his brother (who is always over at their house, I don't know why, but he was able to sit in on the lesson with us which was superb!) are going to stop smoking to show support and help her not smoke. We were able to teach him and his brother about the first part of the plan of salvation and talked about the atonement and how the Savior has gone through what they are going through. So, Sister Boldt and I made an addiction chart and are going to drop it off at his house later tonight. We are also sending them morning texts to not drink coffee and have a cigarette when they wake up. It has been helping a lot.

(Note from the editor: Sister Bower's mom received a call to be a ward missionary...)

You will be an amazing ward missionary! It is the best calling ever! You get to see so many investigators grow and change their lives for the better. And you grow to love them like your Heavenly Father would. Just remember to always look at them or try to find qualities in them that Heavenly Father has given them. Always look at the good and think of ways that you can help improve their lives. Bear your testimony often, it will not only bless them but it will bless you. There are only two major things that Heavenly Father needs missionaries to do:

1.) Invite others to come unto Christ

2.) Bear testimony

Those are the most powerful things that you can do :) AGH!!! I wish I could see you go out with the missionaries! I wish you could come out with Sister Boldt and I! That would just be so much fun.

Sister Boldt has taught me a lot these past couple weeks. I love her to death. She has taught me more about myself and has helped me see me how I really am, than I ever could in my whole life. Although it is very hard and I don't enjoy change, I love Sister Boldt for pushing me and helping me through it. She is the best companion I could ever imagine. Actually, I probably couldn't imagine her, because that is how great she is. I wish you could meet her.

Keep me posted on the life of all you Washington people :) I love and miss you!

Love Sister Bower :)

Sorry, I would send you more pictures but we have to go pick up our mini missionary! So I decided to send you at least one so that you know that I am still alive :)

P.s. Do you like my shirt? Sister Boldt and I bought a couple of matching things. Like this shirt. ALso a cardigan, a bracelet, and a pair of earings. So some days we are all matchy and it is super fun :)