BIG 70th BIRTHDAY SURPRISE!

Dear Friends and Family,

Last Sunday afternoon we called Hermana Socorro and asked if she would let us come visit.  She said sure, you can come right not. We quickly got ready and drove all the way over to the far side of the area.  Delighted to finally have an opportunity to meet her.  When we arrived 30 minutes later, there was a bag of hot tamales hanging in a bag on the doorknob with a little note saying "Sorry, I had to leave." We got ghosted! We were discouraged and a bit tired, but we decided that we would try to visit Moises and Bernice who lived nearby. We took the hot tamales and boldly went to the door with no appointment.  When we knocked, Moises answered with a big smile on his face."Hi, We brought you some hot tamales!" He and Bernice joined the church about a year ago, but have not attended church since then.  We soon learned why.  She had brain surgery a few years back and is blind, epileptic and can't walk without support.  She needs 24-7 care.  He is a devoted and loyal husband and cares for her with such tenderness.  He had an amazing testimony with an amazing connection to Christ. It was humbling to talk to him and learn of his courage and faith through an unfathomable trial.

We started going to the Senior Center for lunch a couple of times a week just to try to reach out into the community.  I am not too excited to go because the "army-issue" food is very questionable and the residents are so old that they are sometimes difficult to communicate with.  We were originally thinking we could volunteer there do a bit of service. The first time we went we sat by Judy who had no teeth and no memory, but what light she had in her eyes...a 39 year Marine veteran. The next time we meet Agnes and she told me the same 10 sentences on replay for the entire hour.  But the last few times we met lovely people and had real conversions.  Friday we went again and met Betty who had clearly had a stroke, but was bright and engaging.  After finding out she need some repairs done in her mobile home, we volunteered to drop by and help fix her awning. Last week they had live music and a dance.  What a hoot!

Elder Fowers at Senior Center

We have been very involved in the youth programs of the Vista Spanish Ward. We are finding that each mission is very different from the previous.  While we will still visit a good number of less active families and new converts, we feel this ward needs leadership support, especially in the Young Mens.  We see many couples who come to church and leave their teenage children home because there is nothing planned for them at church. We have been working hard to change that! We have found 6 or 7 young men ages 14 to 17 that are un-ordained to the Priesthood.  Our goal will be to help the leaders prepare and ordain these young men as we build unity through the Priesthood. We had a crazy activity of indoor soccer with the youth this week. Sister Fowers got kicked in the head with a ball that knocked her right down. She got up and kept playing. The first Youth Council meeting ever held in Vista Spanish Ward happened today. Our very traditional, Hispanic gentleman "Obisbo" has been having a hard time adapting to the changes, especially in regards, to his responsibilities to the youth. The meeting was amazing! The youth spoke up and directed the meeting.  We really only have one young man who is capable of leadership, but Jaden was there and prepared.  The young women are doing very well, and we will help the young men rise to their potential.  They even organized a Bishop's Fireside. That same evening a small miracle occurred. The young women’s leaders, know little about planning and executing girls camp, so I volunteered to mentor. They did not even have a camp location reserved at this late date. I agreed to help find an adequate site.  While I was on the computer checking out state parks, I felt inspired to call the LDS Camp Wildwood.  This camp is booked all throughout the summer with 10 stake camps and is nearly impossible to book at this late date.  To my surprise one ward had just canceled and there was an opening exactly when and what our little ward needed.  God is truly in the details and helped this little miracle happen.

Indoor soccer with Bishop playing Goalie and Elder Blocking

Hector in the foreground steeling the ball.

A new senior couple, Elder and Sister Prater arrived in our mission last week and they live in our complex, just across the way.  They are a lovely, salt-of-earth couple from South Carolina.  He spent his career as a plumber. We offered to teach them how to play Pickleball and they have become our Pickleball buddies.  They serve in the English wards in this area so we will never work together in our service.  It amazing how quickly we become close to other senior couples as we serve in the trenches to build the kingdom.  The kids even gave us new Pickleball shirts for my birthday.

Elder and Sister Prater

Ready for the Game!

I had the most amazing Birthday surprise during the past 24 hours.  Being in the mission, field I expected that my Birthday would be a rather quiet affair.  We were planning to take a quiet day to go buy a new phone for me and have a quiet dinner with Brad's and Sarah's families because they live close enough to drive to us.  I was quite content with that prospect, but the birthday celebration that I unfolded was wild, crazy and wonderful! Upon returning from shopping, I unlock the door to enter what I thought would be a quiet, dark apartment~ SURPRISE! What I found was my house filled with family...I nearly had a heart attack! After a moment of shock, I was able to embrace my family.  Beyond Sarah and Brad's families,  there  was Amy, Tim and Jesse, who had all flown in along with bundles of grandkids.  I was so surprised that I couldn't even process that they were all in the same room to celebrate my birthday.  The fun didn't end there... We continued through the evening with an amazing party complete with a fantastic cake, delicious food, bundles of cards and well wishes from back home and the unexpected attendance of old Bonita Ward friends. I relished the bubbling joy that filled the room.  It was a surprise that kept on giving.  Everyone stayed the night in our tiny two bedroom apartment and attended church with us the next morning.  They all sat through Spanish church as a show of support for our mission and met many of our friends.  At church, the Gonzales family surprised me a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  A sweet sister in our ward invited us to her magnificent home, overlooking the valley, and we feasted on fish tacos.  I had died and gone to heaven!  I tear up just thinking about how special these last 24 hours were to me and the love and honor my kids showered on me.  I am blessed beyond measure!

Hanging Out Sunday Afternoon 

Beyond Creative...Luci's Bday Cake

Cousin Times

Beautiful Vista Villa

Chocolate Flan

Our Sunday Lunch Host, Hermana Marin

Magnificent View

During this mission we are writing all of our grandchildren an old-fashion snail-mail letter and encouraging them to write us back.  I am certain that we love the letters as much as they do! Here is our collection of letters the grandkids proudly taped to our fridge.

Love Letters!

Con Mucho Amor,

Los Fowers

God is in the Details

Hello Dear Friends and Family,

The Strawberries are on in SoCal!   Fresh picked and so delicious.

My plan was to write our blog every other week, but we have had such an amazing week that we decided that we would write a quick blog so that we would not forget all the tender mercies of this week.  I think that in this mission, more that ever before, we are so much more reliant on the gentle nudgings and guidance of the spirit.  Recently, we have been specifically tasked with trying to build up the YM program which currently has 1-2 young men and no adult leadership.  So during this past week, while we have been out passing out invitations to the Dia de Amor Fiesta, we found 6 young men that had fallen through the cracks. None of which have ever received the Priesthood.  We explained the FSY program to them and their families, inviting them to enroll.  After much work and coordination 4 of them have enrolled in FSY and 3 attended church today.  Our seeking out these boys was not intentional on our part, rather, evidence that God put us in the right place at the right time so we could find them. We pray that the Rivera brothers, the Reyes brothers, the Ortega boy and the Gonzales boy will all be on the bus to FSY in July.  Even more, that they can be taught and ordained to function in their priesthood responsibilities.

We were blessed with the opportunity to attend the Newport Beach Temple on Thursday.  Without sharing the details, I felt as if the temple was renewed by the clarity of the changes to the ordinance.  It was a sacred experience to understand our covenant to Jesus Christ with fresh eyes and new understanding.  If you haven't gone recently, GO!

Newport Beach Temple

After we left the temple, we headed to Corona Del Mar Beach for Senior Sunset Cookout with nine other senior couples.  So sweet to rub shoulders with such remarkable people! 

For a couple of weeks now we have been struggling with the feeling that we are tripping over the six other young missionaries that are assigned to each of our wards where we serve. We have been praying for opportunities to push out into the community to do service. There is a big trailer park in our area called Vista Manor.  It has 160 mobile homes where  several members reside.  We could not find the Tapia family listed in our ward records when we went there to visit them.  We stopped at the entrance of the Park to consider our next move when the lady manager drove up in a golf cart and asked us to move out of the way.  We explained our dilemma and she offered to take us to her office and call the Tapia family for us.  Due to privacy issues, she could not give out residents information.  At her office I saw on the wall the mission statement and ownership.  To my surprise, this trailer park was a non-profit organization providing affordable housing to low income families.  She introduced herself as Mary.  She then explained that because of their non-profit status, the state/federal mandated certain requirements of the tenants.  They are required to keep each trailer tidy and well presented. Many of the people living are older and can not maintain their premises as required. Mary had been searching several community groups requesting volunteers to help, but to no avail. Luci quickly responded, that as missionaries we would like to offer our volunteer services.  We suggested that we could personally do interior repairs and simple fixes. (Glad I brought my tools.) Mary became very interested in our offer.  We suggested that  our zone of 20 missionaries could also provide a Helping Hands day of yard cleaning where needed.  She was to the point of tears, realizing that help was on the way for her trailer park.  We had been praying for opportunities to reach out into the community and here this one fell into our laps.  It will be a great opportunity to meet people, serve them as Christ would have and open an opportunity to invite them to know more about the true Gospel.  The Lord was in the details with us today.

Our new Latino friends know how to party!  All week our cadre of eight missionaries canvased the entire ward to invite every last member to the Fiesta de Dia de Amor (Valentine's Day Party).  It was a really slow start, but about 90 minutes after it was supposed to start it really heated up.  Lots of homemade food, sweets and of course loud music and dancing.  Fun was had by all.  The coolest blessing of the night was that the Gonzales family showed up.  They are a less active family that we have been working with for the last couple of weeks.  The dad isn't a member. We had the chance to just laugh and talk together in a relaxed setting and get to know them. 

Another wonderful week in paradise.

Mucho Amor and Oraciones,

Los Fowers

Everyday Quiet Miracles

Hello Dear Friends and Family,

Today was probably the first day that I felt like a true missionary.  We had 4 in-home visits with members.  All were very productive but I will only describe the last one which was truly inspirational. Antonio and Berta Baltierra are an older couple, long time members with 8 children. They were married here in the USA at the young age of 15. Berta was introduced to the church and wanted to join. Antonio was attending the Apostolic church and wanted to join that church. They were at an impasse. Antonio had a problem since his youth, he could not read or write.  At a young age his mother spent 7 years with him in Mexico at a primary school trying to teach him but to no avail.  He just couldn’t make sense of the characters.  Antonio felt very ashamed because of this disability. He did not want to go to any church fearing that he would be asked to read a scripture out of the Bible and he could not.  As Berta and Antonio wrestled with which church to join, there was a member who lived nearby.  He took an interest in Antonio and Berta by offering them rides to church.  One day he brought a CD movie to show them.  Antonio said he only likes action movies. The member affirmed that it was an action movie, which turned out to be “Joseph Smith First Vision”. Upon viewing this movie Antonio was  overcome with the Spirit.  He felt it in his whole body and desired to learn more.  The good member offered to help him learn how to read by reading the Book of Mormon.  Antonio said his mother tried for 7 years and failed so he doubted that he could ever learn to read.  However reluctantly accepted the offer.  This good member came over to his home and started every lesson with a prayer. Antonio said it was just like knowledge was filling his whole being.  Within 8 days he was reading.  He has read the Book of Mormon several times since.  In relating this story tears came to his eyes.  I could tell it was very special to him.  I could feel his spirit of true conversion that happened 45 years ago.

Antonio and Berta Baltierra

President and Sister Carter

We love Zone Conferences! President and Sister Carter are dynamic and well-beloved Leaders of the California, Newport Beach Mission (CNBM). Last Wednesday was our first opportunity to attend in this mission. Even though the instruction during the day-long meeting is geared toward the young missionaries, but we are always so energized and uplifted by their presentations. We just sat on the back row and absorbed the spirit of the amazing young missionaries.

Here are the two zone of missionaries we serve with!
Such amazing people.

The Vista ward is a small struggling unit where we plan on spending most of our time. So you can guess, our second week we were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting. We modified our departure talks given in our home ward to Spanish. Luci wrote out her complete talk in Spanish and practiced it word for word all week long. I was proud of her and her delivery was right on. She is much calmer this mission in Spanish and much bolder to jump into a conversation with broken Spanish and force herself to be understood. She has always been such a perfectionist so making mistakes is not her natural comfort zone. She then bore a sweet testimony in Spanish. With that said, we talk with people, especially the youth, in English much of the time.

We are always looking for opportunities to serve in the community. So on the JUST SERVE website we found an opportunity to participate in the annual homeless count that they do one day a year in San Diego County. There are some 2000+ homeless in this county and getting an accurate count help with federal and state funding for their programs. So we arose early 3:30 am and went to the interfaith center in Escondido. There were about 80 volunteers that were divided into groups of 5. Each group was given a map with a specific area. I was the driver, Luci the map lady, Jose, an ex-marine was our person to awaken them and Andy another volunteer was handing out hygiene kits and taking surveys. We found mostly the homeless in our area living in cars or RV's. Jose would knock and speak loudly but no one would answer. We still added them to the count. We found one guy sleeping under a street lamp by a retail shop. He mumbled then went back to sleep. All in all it was an interesting experience and we got to know some of the community services where we can volunteer.

Interfaith Community at 4:00 a.m. Homeless Count

As it says in the Book of Mormon, we can only write a hundredth part of the what we do during two weeks. At our age, just remembering what we did is a monumental task! So I think I will just share one more story. At this point we don't know all that many people in the wards. When we decide to go out to meet people we just have a long list of unknown members. The other day during our planning, I felt strongly that we should go visit Teresa. Not just a nudge but a clear prompting. So we tried for an appointment with no luck. So we just did a drop by visit, and had the most joyful interaction. She explained that she had never had children of her own, but raised the children of her non-member husband, who was against and religious teaching in their home. She stepped away from the church and that time with absolutely no contact with the church. Those kids are now grown and she has just recently become semi-retired, so when the sister missionaries found her while out tracking, she let them in and begin to remember those tender memories of when she was actively involved in the fellowship of the church. She went to church the very next Sunday. Her records had just been moved into our ward, and we followed this inspired visit and were warmly welcomed. She shared her story and her desire to bring her husband into the church. She wants us to meet him and try to help her introduce him to the gospel. Our connection was instant and we will definitely be returning soon to meet Feliciano. We try to remember everyday that God is in charge of this work and sends his angels to guide our steps.

Beautiful Oceanside Boulevard!

Con Mucho Amor,

Los Fowers