Faith and Hard Work Precedes the Miracle!

YOUNG MEN~UNITY AND STRENGTH:  "Poco a Poco", little by little we see our quorum YM grow in unity and strength, sometimes its been by microscope degrees, but this morning NINE Young Men  boarded the buses to attend FSY.  It is hard to express how monumental that is.  It is truly a miracle! Much of the time our work with them has felt like pushing a boulder uphill.  But with the help of the Lord and tenacious, consistent effort, we see them bonding with each others, stepping up in their priesthood duties and showing up more often to church.  In many cases they have little parental support, so their determination to return to church is a courageous effort. We learned about FSY in February and began to use it to get into their doors, inviting them to participate in this amazing opportunity.  Lots of hard work followed to get them registered, and even preparing them spiritually for the opportunity.  One 14 year old young man had only attended  few times since he was baptized at as 8.  He had NO knowledge of the gospel or the restoration.  We taught him all of the missionary lessons to make sure he would understand and could connect to the FSY experience. He has been so open and willing to learn, absorbing everything we have taught him. He has attended church the last two weeks!  We pray that the FSY experience will make a difference for each of them. 

FSY Launch

Getting on the bus: Fine Young Men (6 of 9)

We continue to provide really meaningful activities for the boys.  Last week we had the local fire Chief Dye with some of his firemen come to teach the young men CPR. He also taught them how to operate the heart defibrillators. The boys practiced on the dummies. This is a skill set that was well received.   

Local Heros

Captain Dye, CPR Demonstration

Elder Fowers supervising CPR practice!

Baking in the Sun at the Gold Cup 

Building Unity and Brotherhood

The Spanish ward bishopric wanted to have a super activity for the Young Men for the summer. So they decided to take them to the semi-final game of the Gold Cup Soccer tournament in San Diego.  The US played Panama.  We stepped back, stayed home, and let the ward leaders drive this activity.  They tailgated in the parking lot with hot dogs and enjoyed the game. The boys are beginning to feel unity in the Priesthood.

VICTORIA'S MIRACLE!  We introduced you to Victoria last week.  Each time we interact with Victoria or go to her house to help with the clean up, we never fail to invite her back to church, with no success.  However last week we were inspired to take Bro. and Sis. Morales with us, he was her former Bishop knew her well.  Luci's Journal~As we approached her door she was surprised and delighted to see these old friends.  After friendly chatter with her and her nephew Roberto, who is also a member and happened to be visiting, there was a deep, inspired conversation among the Spanish speakers and I just listened.  Victoria's inactivity is based on offenses that took place years ago with members.  Bro. Morales taught about Jesus on the cross...reminding her of Jesus' words: "Father forgive them for they know not what to do."  He looked at her right in the eye and said, "It's time to forgive and return to your covenants with Jesus Christ."  The spirit was profound and spoke to all of us. Her and Robert attended church the next Sunday! (There is just no feeling that compares to moment when an inactive member, that you have been been working with for weeks, walks through those chapel doors. You want to stand up and do a happy dance right in the middle of  church!)

EFREN'S TEMPLE EXPERIENCE:  Efren is a recent convert of three months and received the priesthood three weeks ago. He is 43 years old divorced with 4 children, sharing custody with his x-wife.  We met with him to prepare him for his first temple experience.  He had never learned about the concept of vicarious baptism. We explained that Christ made a vicarious sacrifice for us, his Atonement for our sins. Something we could not do for ourselves. Would it not be reasonable that we could  perform the vicarious act of baptism for those who never had the opportunity.  We then went into Family Search and found six deceased ancestors, printed the ordinance cards and prepared the next day to go to the San Diego Temple.

New Convert Night with Efren and Hermanas

Elder Fowers with Efren-first temple experience.

The next day, dressed in white Efren stepped into the baptismal fount in the temple with Sister Navarro representing his deceased grandmother.  For the first time Efren used his recently obtained priesthood to perform the ordinance.  One could see the emotion in his countenance. He then baptized her twice more for two great aunts.  Then Elder Low got into the font and baptized Efren for his father, grandfather and great grandfather.  He was very attached to his deceased father.  After changing we gathered in the confirmation room and I was the voice for all the confirmations.  No one can predict the future, however I know that Efren will never forget this evening in the San Diego Temple where he directly assisted in the gathering of Israel.

ZONE CONFERENCE:  We love to attend Zone Conferences! We are quite certain that we learn more than our young missionaries do.  Our southern zone conferences include about half of our young missionaries..nearly 100. There is something so powerful about rubbing shoulders with this righteous "Army of Helaman." We are blessed by their faith and determination to gather His children and we get a ring-side seat to watch the action.

Rubbing shoulders with God's Army

Been working on the Young Woman's Camp Book...we get involved in all kinds of projects as we do all we can to support the leaders of this ward.

Princess B.O.O.T. Camp, Cover
drawn by Angelica Lara, talented YSA.

4th of JULY BABYSITTING:  Brad and Becky left one day early for their 20th anniversary trip because they were flying standby and that was the day that flights were available.  So we drove to Tustin to help the girls celebrate with without their parents.  Had a fun day, even if Penny vomited on the way to the parade.  Thankfully it was after she got out of our car!

Hanging out at the Parade with Friends

Celebrating USA...

Feeling a little punk.

Victoria and Roberto at Ward July 4th Celebration

Have a wonderful week and remember to rejoice in the blessings that the gospel brings into you life!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder y Hermana Fowers

Working until the shadows are long!

Striving and Thriving!

 Querido Familia y Amigos Nuestros,

FIDELA:  Luci Journal Entry, June 14 ~ Dear Fidela is such a sweet women.  She is exactly my age and she is struggling with a lot of pain in her knees and yet she always greets us with an a big smile. We dropped by today to explain where she can attend church in Ensenada, Mexico. She is going back home for a month to get medical care. When she opened the door she was genuinely happy to see us. "I knew you would come today!"  We expected to stay just a minute and ended up teaching an entire lesson of the Word of Wisdom, which means that we have nearly completed teaching her all the lessons.  Working with her is the highlight of our mission at the moment. Every time we leave her home we are floating on a spiritual high.  June 28 ~ The BIG news of the day was a phone call from the Hermanas (sister missionaries in the Tijuana mission) in Ensenada that have taken over the teaching Fidela.  They were able to commit her to date to be baptized! Fidela is on date! Now we have to figure out if we can go to Mexico if she decides to be baptized there.  We are so "over the moon" happy!

Hermana Fidela

ELDER MARIN:  Luci's Journal Entry, June 15 ~ Clarke came home from last night's YM activity ready to throw in the towel.  I had to talk him off the cliff because he had worked so hard on a cool event with a  LDS Marine and only three boys showed up.  Elder Marin is a General Authority Seventy and he lives in our ward boundaries and we had the opportunity to chat with him. He is always so kind, complimentary and encouraging.  We talked about what the branch needs and how we could do more to help build the leadership without over-stepping our bounds.  By the time we finished chatting with him our hearts were calmed and comforted.  We will regroup and refocus and press forward in the work.

One week later:

Elder Marin (in hat) giving a devotional to the YM.

Elder Fowers riding shotgun.

Big boys toys.

Clarke's Journal Entry, June 21~ Today we took our 10 young men in the ward to Brother Marin current equipment yard in Bonsall where he offered to let us drive some of the big loaders and bobcats.  It was a novel experience for the young men, many of which had never even driven a car.  The yard is 40 acres that Bro Marin leases from the Bonsall water district.  The boys had ample room to run the loaders in big doughnut circles around the sandy fields.  At the end we gathered all the boys and Bro Marin gave them all a devotional message about holding onto Christ.  He also told them that they could accomplish anything with hard work and obedience to God's laws.  This activity will be remembered for a long time.

DIANA:  Luci's Journal Entry, June 19 ~ Today we went to teach Diana about Patriarchal Blessings (PB) at her request because she wanted to receive her PB.  We explained in detail about the 12 tribes of Israel and the role of the Patriarch, along with the requirements of getting a recommend.  We gently tried to explain that in order to get a recommend she would have to be worthy, which included attending church.  She has been less active since we arrived.  She was earnest and sincere, but her challenge is the fact that her autistic 4 year-old is very disruptive.  As she offered the closing prayer, she broke down into tears. "Please Heavenly Father, help me to go back to church." She could hardly finish her prayer and the spirit was so sweet. Yesterday she came to Sacrament meeting. The Relief Society president sat by her and helped with the child.  All went well.

BRO. AGUIRRE:  Luci's Journal Entry, June 20 ~ You really never know a person until you take time to listen to their story.  We have known Bro. Aguirre who is the 1st Counselor in our Bishopric,  since we arrived 6 months ago, but today we found out that we didn't really know him at all.  He volunteered to go with us to visit our friend Janeth.  We were delighted that he would join us.  As we chatted with Janeth who is struggling with an alcoholic, abusive husband, Bro. Aguirre  shared his personal story of addition recovery.  He began drinking at 8 years old, by the time he 20 years-old he was deep into the culture of addition. He shared his story of going to an AA meeting determined to change and never go back.  He has been clean and sober for 20+ years but he says that not a day goes by that he doesn't think about it.  He said he has to choose everyday to fight against the pull. He offered to help her husband. His invitation to Janeth to return to the family of the church was powerful and compelling. What a remarkable man!

VICTORIA:  We have been visiting Victoria, for a couple of weeks.  The first day we arrived at her house unannounced, she was hesitant and confused, not too excited to see us.  She is a beautiful, poised Hispanic woman who lives all alone in a huge home, in the far reaches of the ward.  Her husband died six years ago and her mother just recently.  Over the period of several visits we have slowly been developing trust.  She isn't really that old (only 65) but she is really frail and showing early signs of dementia. We have been encouraging her to sell her home and move into an assisted living center.  We have been arranging tours and taking her to visit several of the local facilities.  The funny thing about this arrangement is that the directors giving the tours think we are the ones needing a place ( Clarke is 8 years older than her). We have been trying to bring resources to her such as Estate Sales Companies, Real Estate Agents and Financial Consults and we have begun the process of digging out 30 years of accumulated parts and boxes and boxes of documents as old as 2001.

Hermana Victoria

Sunday Afternoon Lesson

Clarke's Journal Entry, June 24 ~ Today we returned to Victoria’s home and began to help her sort papers and clean out junk.  About two weeks ago she cleaned out her garage and placed everything on the front driveway including her chest freezer.  She plugged it into an outside electrical outlet that at the time was dead.  Today I opened the freezer and got a whiff of rotting meat, chicken and assorted frozen foods in various stages of mold and bacteria.  The only option was to empty everything into trash bags inside of her garbage cans.  So, reluctantly I put on some heavy rubber gloves, held my breath and started shoveling the rotting morsels into the garbage bag held by Luci.  I don’t think this is what I signed up for, but there was no other choice.  We filled two large black bags inside her garbage bins, then I cleaned the freezer with water, 409 and chlorine bleach. It was difficult work and after it was finished, my appetite was completely gone. Oh, the joy of missionary service!

MISC. : We have been busy with a lot of other random things during this last transfer.  We help our young Elders and Sister celebrate their Birthdays!  We do missionary apartment inspections and give lessons on how to really clean a tub.  We have been helping more than a dozen members do Family History work and have become quite expert on the 1930 Mexican census.  And, of course, we squeeze in a bit of Pickleball whenever we can!

Celebrating Birthdays

Pickleball Buddies

Hermana Cordada with Family Search

LOVIN' GRANDKID: Luci's Journal Entry, June 17~ We have focused a lot of time his week on supporting and loving our grands.  Our mission president supports the time we take to be with them.  We have driven to Orange County twice this week to watch performances. On Thursday evening we attended Leah and Penny's annual dance recital.  We especially enjoyed Leah's numbers, she is becoming so professional!  Two days later, on Saturday, we headed north again to watch Mallory, Penny and Becky perform in "Peter Pan".  We so enjoyed the show and there is no doubt that Penny stole the show as Tinkerbell, but Mallory's performance of Peter Pan was stellar. Becky's role of Pirate kept us all in stitches. We do love watching the kids perform, so it is such a blessing to be this close.

Becky, Mallory and Penny

FATHER'S DAY:  Sarah and family joined us for dinner on Father's Day.  Amy and Brad gifted him this tie with all the names of the grandchildren imprinted on it.  A quiet day passed with just counting the blessing of having such a wonderful family.

Proud Grandpa

STEAM TRACTORS: Clarke's Journal Entry, June 17 ~ We met the Praters this morning at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum which is located just a mile from our apartment. Today was their annual exhibit day whereby the volunteers fire up steam tractors and other functioning agriculture equipment that dates back into the 1800s.  The site is 50 acres where much of this antiquated farm and construction machinery find its final resting place.  There are hundreds of pieces yet to be restored sitting in the open being invaded with rust.  We watched a cable operated dragline dig, scoop, and dump dirt.  Several stationary steam and gas motors were on display and operating.  We saw a belt driven saw mill cutting roof shingles .  There was a 29 Ford pickup like mine along with several other big trucks.  It was fun and I wish we could have stayed longer.

1910 Steam Tractor

Fowers and Praters

Elder Fowers in farm-boy heaven.

Con Mucho Amor,  Los Fowers

Sunset into the Pacific Ocean from the overlook at our apartments.

DIVERSITY IN THE WORK

Querido Familias and Amigos,

No two days are ever the same.  One day we are teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in words and then next moment we are teaching by deeds.  We can go from a sacred lesson when we feel the spirit profoundly and the next minute we are helping a sister sort through 30 years of "stuff" so that she can sell her house. We love it all.

SPECIAL TRAINING:  Every now and then you listen to a lesson or attend a training that totally changes your perspective--a paradigm shift that changes your lens forever.  We had such an experience last week at the San Marco Stake Missionary Correlation meeting.  A brother Lindsey talked about the idea that each one of us has a passion, hobby or talent that brings us great joy.  We look forward to finding time to engage in it and when we do, we loose all track of time.  He then explained that many of us have a negative, guilt reaction to missionary work, or family history work and even ministering work.  But in reality, it is all "God's work and his glory", so it is just His WORK.  What he suggested we do is that we take the "JOY" thing that we are passionate about the and try to figure out how we can use it to bring others closer to Christ.  

Let me give a simple example.  You all know how much I love woodworking. The other day I noticed that a sister we were visiting needed her butcher block countertop refinished.  I offered to help her.  I was so excited to spend a morning just sanding that beautiful wood and in the meantime I built a relationship as we talked and laughed working side by side.  I loved every minute of it and we were being a good missionaries.  President Nelson said, "anytime we do anything for anyone on either side of the veil..."  I used my passion to do  a simple service and it was joyful for me and a blessing for her.  Her non-member husband was so happy that we would spend time to help his family, that he decided to attend the ward party so he could thank us.

FINDING BENNY and ANNIE: In our ward list was the name of Benny Serrano and his sister Annie.  No address was listed but we found a phone number in the area book.  We called and Benny invited us to visit him.  The address he gave us was in the adjacent stake and another ward boundary.  With that information we called the missionaries in that area and arranged to meet them at Serrano's door.  Upon arrival we met Benny, a 19 year old who had joined the church with his sister Annie just before Covid.  Church was closed and the stake was divided and these two new converts became "lost coins".  Benny greeted the missionaries and committed to go to church next Sunday at his new ward and take his sister.  He wondered what happened to the church who left him behind.  This was truly finding the lost sheep.  We did the hand off.  The next Sunday we learned Benny was sick so priesthood holders from the new ward went over and gave him a blessing.  A sheep had been brought back to the fold. It totally made our day to find them. 

WHITE SHIRTS:  I have been collecting white shirts and ties from the mission office and in missionaries apartments.  These items are left behind as missionaries depart for home.  So I brought several shirts and ties home to clean them up and pass them out to some of our Spanish Young Men who need them.  Tonight we took a size 18 white shirt and a tie to the home of Jason who is 15 and has been less active.  He is really shy but when he put on the shirt he cracked a big smile and I could see he was happy.  We hope this will encourage him to come to church on Sunday.

TEACHING FIDELA: Today we were finally able to give Fidela another lesson.  She has been in Ensenada where she lives and has been recuperating from knee problems.  Today we started out reviewing the Gospel of Jesus Christ which we had taught her on our whiteboard,  she could recite some of the steps.  She has been studying the Joseph Smith story and is slowly gaining and understanding which is leading her toward baptism.  We then taught the commandments, sabbath day observance, and prayer.  When we came to the commandment to follow the prophet, I opened my Ipad to a recording of President Nelson bearing his testimony of Christ in the holy land on the Mount of Olives.  It was powerful.  Fidela listened closely, her eyes welled with tears as she felt the spirit.  It was amazing.  It was why we do what we do.  Both Luci and I could see and feel the Holy Ghost telling her the truth in her heart.  Even though she can not read very well, she is growing as she listens.  She committed to pray, to continue to read, and study the Gospel. She will be gone for about another month in Mexico.  When she returns she will set a date to be baptized.  It will be truly a thrill to see her become a member of the church.

HELPING SARAH WITH MUSEUM DISPLAY:  Last month we planned for a day of service for Brad to help him jackhammer his patio, so this month we offered to help Sarah for a day to install a display at her local historical museum.  She is a member of the Board the the Lemon Grove Historical Society and spent hundreds of hours developing an informational display that filled a whole room, about the local woman's  organization called the "Forward Club" which was started in 1922.  We volunteered to spend a day to bring her vision to reality with the tedious work of placing each graphic on the walls.  What a fun day and the finished product was amazing.  If you are ever in Lemon Grove you will have drop by and see it!

Sarah and Luci, finishing up a service day installing display.

MALLORY'S BIRTHDAY: Last Monday we were able to sneak away for a quiet lunch for Mallory's birthday!  It's hard to believe that she is 15 years old.  It has been a blessing for us to be close enough to see her theatre performances.  Next week we have tickets see "Peter Pan"...Becky, Penny and Mallory are in that show AND Leah and Penny's annual dance recital. They are incredibly talented! It is  certainly the most special part of our mission...taking time to connect as grandchildren.

Brad, Becky and Family

Mallory, Sweet 15!

DIA DE PADRE FIESTA:  Brother and Sister Flor offered to host a party at their home for Father's Day.  Throughout the week the missionaries canvased the ward making certain that all were invited.  We had four non-member friends that joined in the festivities and some members that we had never met before. How our latino friends love to eat and dance! Fun was had by all.

Los Flores dancing with their bird, Lucy

Elder Fowers and Julio (the mechanic), teaching
non-member friends at fiesta.

Vista Ward Misionerios: 
Elders Hales/Call, Hermanas Palmer/Beam

NEW CONVERT NIGHT: We were recently called to serve as New Convert Night Coordinators for the four southern stakes of our mission.  So once a month we promote and organize a time with the San Diego temple where newly baptized members can have their first temple experience by being baptized for the dead.  It is a sweet experience to be with them as they feel the sacred feeling of holiness in the temple for the first time.  

Angel Moroni against the night sky.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder and Hermana Fowers