The Countdown Begins!

She mentions doing a casa in her letter so I asked her what a "casa" means... This is her reponse...
Casa...shoot! I forget! Casa means you go a suon...uh...you ring the doorbell on the apartment wall and see if people will let you in. You climb to the top of the apartment building and work your way down, knocking doors and running into...interesting people.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 7:36 AM

What a wonderful thing it is to see family pictures from friends who just were married right before I left! Amber and Kevin, the pictures are beautiful! Thank you so so much!

This is an important time...everything is about the family. The holidays are spent a little, no okay, VERY differently here in Italy. Only midnight mass and a big lunch on Christmas day. Nothing else really. Nonetheless, thanks to Mom, I have a stocking hung and many other treats in store for Christmas morning. I guess Christmas day is just a day for fun and spending time with members...I am SO relieved! And yet, we are praying SO HARD to stay here another transfer...neither of us want to leave (Sorella Nilson and I). All the members in the ward are praying for us to stay...it's really touching to actually hear them plead with the Lord to leave us here, at least for Christmas. I know He's listening...what I DON'T know, is if it His plan for us.

The Lord really does guide us as missionaries. It is truly amazing. This past Saturday, my companion and I just had miracle after miracle. It was AMAZING! I get into these swings where I just want to talk to anyone and everyone. But yet, you still have to wait for the Lord to guide you. It started off with us talking with a woman and her daughter, just about Christmas. THey ended up not being interested, and descended from the bus. As they got off, a TON of people got on and I got squished into the empty seats along with an ecuadorian woman. She sat there with her head down...and I just turn to her and try to start casual conversation. "Wow, there sure are always a LOT of people on this bus! Always!" Smile...look at her...nothing. Try again. "So where are you coming from?" Shut down...but then I just stare at her with a smile on my face. She looks up, startled and says she thought I was talking to my companion! As we started talking, come to find out we were able to teach her a lesson about prayer and how the Lord has a plan for her and her children and how she can be together with them forever. As I asked if we could say a prayer (yes, right there on the bus) she said yes, and we prayed. As we finished, she just about started crying...kissed my face, gave us her number and said she would look forward to our call. We had to descend and so we left a Plan of Salvation pamphlet for her to read. MIRACLE!! A few hours later we had an appointment that went really well and as we left the palazzo, my companion took a look at the palazzo across the way and said "Teach me how to do casa, I want to learn" Oh, that was the LAST thing I wanted to do because we had already planned to go see another member...but nonetheless, I marched forward and began the adventure of casa. There wasn't any success, but the truth of the matter is...if we HADN'T done casa, we wouldn't have been where the Lord needed us to be...

As we finished the palazzo, we went down to the bus stop and saw that a 12 was coming in 1 minute and a 13 was coming in 3. 13 would be the bus to get us home, but for some reason I decided to take 12...which would only put us 2 stops down the road. As I get on the bus there is a BEAUTIFUL family, just sitting there. The mother keeps smiling at me, and I at her...but I never made the chance to converse. SO the bus gets to the capolinea and 13 comes right up...which we take..as well as the family. The mother sits down with her 7 year old daughter and I plant myself, casually of course, right in front of them. I take the plunge and start talking. The mother looks at me and in broken Italian says "I don't speak Italian" and I could tell from her accent that she spoke Spanish...I ask her "Habla espanol?" And she smiles and says yes...and oh my heavens...I started speaking spanish to her. It was VERY VERY broken, but I was given enough words to communicate with her and bear my testimony of our message being important. I didn't know what i was doing...for heaven's sake! But I felt this push to just keep my mouth open and the words would come. The important thing was that because I tried, she wanted me to meet her husband (who spoke Italian) and we have an appointment with them this weekend. It was such a humbling experience for me...just when I think I've been too lazy and I haven't been a faithful servant...the Lord shows me that He is still looking out for me. The Lord LOVES His children.

I know this letter isn't very long, but I've run out of time. I received a call this morning from the AP's asking me to come to Milano TOMORROW MORNING and teach the Zone Leaders of the mission about how we can better use the members in our missionary work. Aye yay yay...teaching the Zone Leaders...this will be an adventure! But yet I am honored because...it will be a priviledge to work with all the Zone Leaders and the President side by side. I'll include the letter I wrote to my dad very quickly...okay, no I won't...I've written here more than I thought! Comunque, things are wonderful here in Italy and I hit my 1/2 way mark next week...I'm officially old in the mission. I can't believe it.

Thank you for your prayers and support. It is really felt!! Oh, by the way...we had an AMAZING lesson in Institute yesterday. We sisters are able to go because it is for the young adults not married...we work with them. But the lesson was about the temple...DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW AMAZING THE TEMPLE IS?!? If you haven't gone this week or this month...PLEASE GO!! We don't understand HOW BLESSED we are to have a temple just down the road...we learn so much, and yet it is so easy to forget. We are working with a young woman who served a mission, so strong in the church...and went completely inactive because of being offended...she doesn't remember a thing about the temple. Breaks my heart! So much beauty and so many key things come from going to the temple! If only I could express it! Feast upon the scriptures...because your spirit is ALWAYS hungry...you just have to learn how to listen to it's pleading for spiritual food!! FEED IT!!!


buon natale,
sorella bowman