December 3, 2012 - Summer is officially starting

my zone had an activity today,
 we went and played soccer at a huge house in the country!
 here we all are!

We are into December now, summer is officially starting but the weather threw us a curve ball. It has rained 2 nights, ALL night, this week. We had to pull out our rain boots yesterday, and carry our rain coats for a couple days. What is going on. SO unusual. It is nice because it keeps us cooler, but so unpredictable.

And we have started preparing for Christmas, my stellar singing companion and I have started offering to sing Christmas hymns to people to help them feel the Spirit of Christmas, but so far no one has taken us up on our offer...their loss...my companion really has a beautiful voice.

In other news! We talked to 2 American girls this week! My companion was super excited to be able to speak english:) Weird, right? One is an LDS 17 yr old from Utah who is here on a student exchange. She lives near some members in the ward and that is how we found her. Then we stopped someone to talk to them in the street. She was blonde, blue-eyes...so right there I suspected she was American, and then when I started talking to her in Spanish and she gave me that confused ''i don't understand what you are saying'' look. I switched to English...hardest thing in my life!!! I stumbled over my words for sure, I'm not used to preaching the Gospel in English  She is also in a student exchange, she said she would look up the church when she got home to Oregon:)

In church on Sunday, the Bishop bore his testimony and said somethings that I really needed to hear. He told us that even with the difficulties that we face in this life, we can't forget the vision of why we are really here. Why we were sent to this earth and where we are going. We are here to overcome challenges. God will always give us second chances, and if we live the Gospel, we will find solutions. At this point in my mission I feel like God is refining me in His refining fire more than ever, and the heat is almost unbearable. But I am learning to trust Him, and always show my faith by being obedient. I know if we are obedient to God's commandment that we will be free from sin and guilt and that all things will work together for our good. We just have to do our part and be obedient!

With all my love, Hermana Bowns
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