MERRY CHRISTMASS

It was awesome to be able to skype with you guys. I love you all. Have a happy new year!! We`ll be in the mission presidents house for new years eve so I`ll be sure to take a lot of pictures. And here are some of the anticipated photos I haven`t sent in FOREVER. Actually just kidding I think there`s something wrong with my camera. Uhh... We`ll see what happens.

This week we sang a ton of Christmas carols, I rolled my ankle but it was literally miraculously healed the next day, and I ate so much that I never want to eat again. I gave away some of the berts bees stuff to the hermanas in the house and have already almost eaten the whole package of cadburry eggs.

I love you all so much! Especially you guys mom and dad!

Sister Ashlee Bowling

♥ from Chile!

Punch satan in the face

We´ve had quite a number of mini miracles happen to us. One being that we have found una familia de ORO!! They´re from Peru and they have been reading the pamphlets we´ve left with them and understanding to the point where the husband, looking straight at us without the pamphlet for a reference told us the steps of prayer. We, after sharing the restorationwhich is the first lesson we generally share with people we´re beinging to teach, invited him to pray and know if what we had taught is true. AND HE DID IT!! I love the Chilenos, don´t get me wrong, but every single time we invite them to pray they put up a fight and say "nooo, mejor que no. Ustedes lo hacen mejor." -_- But this guy was so humble and he just kneeled down and opened up his heart to the lord and asked for the well being of his family who aren´t so well off right now (trying to get on your feet in a new country seems like an arduous process), and it was just an awesome prayer. At the end he looked at us and said, "That was my first kneeling prayer. And my first without reciting (that one prayer that catolics always say)." We asked how he felt and he said the spirit was so strong and so special and different. We´ve got it tentativly planned for them to be baptzied in January. They really are so amazing, and so we´ve started putting all our effort into studying and helping them understand why what we share is important.


Last week while knocking on doors we ran into a little old lady who was sitting outside. We started chatting and asked if we could sing a christmas carol with her, so she let us in and had us sit down on her couch. After a few songs we starting getting to know her, and it turns out this woman is loca. She starts telling us about all of the crazy experiences she´s had with seeing devils and weird lights and just all kinds of crap. So we get out of that house looking at each other like "What the heck." We went again and tried to teach her a little big of the restoration, and the same thing happened where she talked so much about random horrible experiences she´s had. Finally at the end, we were both like, theres got to be something we can do here. We´re not going to give up so easily. So we asked her, Ema, do you want to feel peace in your life and in your home? Do you want these things to stop happening to you? She answered yes, and we promised her that if she prayed correctly, and came to chruch on sunday that these experiences would stop. And guess what. SHE CAME TO CHRUCH! She was sick but she still came because she knew what we taught was true. And she had an awesome experience. Afterwords she told my companion that the things she learned in chruch were better than in any other, that they were things you can actually apply toyour life and live and not just think "oh. that´s nice." We´re going to go visit her this week and see how she feels and if she can tell a difference in her life. We´re also planning on her being baptized in January.
 So we´re going good in the work of the lord. I love you all so much!! I´ve never had such a trial of faith in my life as I have had in the mission, and now through all the trials, and even more, because of them, I am able to say that I KNOW God exists. I KNOW he loves me. He loves you. He had restored his gospel to lead and guide us, and that there is a promise that those who abide by the precepts and laws of the gospel will know for themselves is true and that I speak not for myself. I love the opportunity to teach this wonderful truth to the world.

Also I´ve learned a couple of spanish saying. For example Tengo Ángel (I have angel) {I´m charming}. Peinar la muñeca (brush the doll) {they´re going crazy}.

Que tengan una buena semana llena de milagros y tiernas misericordias. Les amooo!!!


Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

I found these photos on Sister Kleinman's blog and thought I'd share. They were taken at a sister's conference.

 

Cambios!!!

HHEYY! So we had cambios!! And guess what!! FOR THE FIRST TIME I`M NOT GETTING A NEW COMPANION HAHAH!! That`s so crazy. Every single six weeks from the time I first got into the mission I have had a different companion. For the very first time I am staying where I`m at and my companion too! Actually, we`re all staying together! The four of us in the house, Hermana Silva, Hermnana Norton, Hermana Asis and me, and the two elders who are also in the ward with us, Elder King from Utah and Elder Zuñiga from Chile. IM SO HAPPY TO STILL BE IN SAN PEDRO. It`s funny how at the beginning of the mission, at least for me, I was very much wanting to get transfered to a new area, a new companion every single cambio. But the more time I had in the mission, the more and more I started to love the people and want to stay where I`m at, to keep loving them and helping them and building the deep relationships we have together. The two cambios in a row that I had where I got transfered twice in a row were really hard for me because I realized that, yes, while the cambios are always inspired and revelation from the lord, I also realized that it is HARD to leave a sector! You start to love the people so much, and I have really started to put in active practice the idea of just loving with all your heart the chilenos. They are NOT perfect, but I would say that I am even less perfect and have learned so many important life lessons from the memebers, the investigators, the contacts and the missionarys from this beautiful country that I`m serving. I love San Pedro and although it`s not an "easy" sector, it is definatly not "fome". It is amazing and I love the people here, and everytime I meet someone new it`s another incredible opportunity to have a lifelong friend. Every contact has the potential to become a baptism and a temple sealing and another one for the reino celestial.

On Wednesday I was in an intercambio with Hermana Hopkins!! I lived with her in Mexico while I was in the MTC!!! She`s still so awesome and is a great hard working missionary. The mission keeps getting better and I`m glad to keep moving forward. I got the picture mom and dad sent me. Everybody laughed their heads off when they saw our demon cat.

I hope you all have a great week and are able to keep lighting the world with the small christ-like things you do. Something I studied this week was the love of God, and I loved elder Christoffersons talk from October, about how Gods love IS ALWAYS waiting for us. But we need to be the people worthy to recieve that love. Lets see if I can explain it wel....

God loves the person that everyone of us is capable of becoming, and every time we make a correct choice, and do something good, no matter how small it might be, God is SO happy for us, and is cheering us on at every step. Sin is such a bad thing because it literally keeps us from recieving blessings and heavenly help. The only person who can discualify you for a blessing from God is yourself. Go read elder christoffersons talk, and do all the cross referencing that real study needs. Go look up the scriptures he uses and study. Reflect on how you can better qualify yourself for the love that God has for you already. How could we ever pay him back for the love he has for us. I don`t think it`s possible. Love you and have a great life. Peace out.


Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Here is the picture referenced in the letter. Her mission pres. asked for the family to print this sign and send a picture holding it for an activity the mission was preparing. This picture with Ashlee's cat Bucky was hilarious so we had to send it!