Sorry everybody!

it has officially been 3 weeks since i wrote anything. Sorry! These past weeks have been pretty crazy. we`ve been needing to go to Temuco, the big city up north every Pday for pretty much this whole cambio because i`ve been having problems with my back. But right now i`m doing a lot better! We`ve been continuing to work hard and see miracles here in Gorbea. but I have some sad news.... I`m getting transfered tomorrow! My new area is called Tolhuaca in the zone Victoria! I`m going to be with another Argentinian, which is hilarious because Argentina and the US are going to play against each other in soccer on Wednesday. She`s called Hermana Lobos. Sister Wolf. Epic. She has even less time in the mission than I do, so we`ll see how it all works out! I`m suuuuper sad to leave Gorbea, especially because they are closing our sector and putting in 4 Elders! All of us are leaving! It`s absolutly crazy! I kind of feel like I`m starting my mission all over again. Like being here in Gorbea, that was just a practice, or a dream.

Hermana Curtis, who I`ve been living with for the whole 6 months of my mission, and I are finally going our seperate ways. she`s heading more north to the coast a little south of Concepcion, and my companion is going to open a sector in Yumbel in Los Angeles Norte. I`m going to miss them all a ton, especially Hermana Pintus. Meredith, if you`re reading this, my companion is your argentinian twin! Her and I have gotten along awesomly and I`m going to miss her more than words can say. shes helped me a bunch to enjoy the mission more and learn how i can be better.

We`ve seen so much success here and it`s hard to leave all of the amazing families that we`ve found. We`ve got about 4 families that are incredible. the husbands all could be presidente of the district eventually. But like Hermana Pintus told me, the more transfers we have, the more we realize that this work really isn`t ours at all. They`re not "my investigators", they`re the Lords and i`m just helping out a little. Things are absolutly nuts in Chile right now and I love it. Every day is an adventure. Love you guys so much! Thanks for all your support and emails!


Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

No letter this week

NO letter from Ashlee for the 2nd week in a row but we did find this picture on Sister Kleinman's blog from June 6. It would seem there was a conference and she got this shot with Ash in it. 

"So we had another gran intercambio haha sorry I don’t know how to say that in English. But I was with Hermana Pintus from Argentina and it was soooooooo fun. She was the only Hermana with me when we got to the mission so it was cool to catch up and to see miracles together. This is all of the Hermanas in our house and in Gorbea. We had a little conference together!!"

No Title

Alright! So have I got the story to tell. I don´t know what I did right but we have been so blessed this week with just pure miracles. The following I wrote in my journal the other day:

We had been planning to visit the main teacher for English in the high school here for quite some time, but the appointments kept falling through, and honestly, I wasn´t that excited to teach her. She seemed not very interested and I wasnt dreading per say the lesson, but I was not excited about what I imagined would be an awkward encounter. What happened was that we went to the high school yesterday to teach the adult class, but they had cancelled. She, Valeria, couldn´t call us to tell us before because she didn´t have our number. We worked out all the logistics, but right before we left, my incredible companion asked when we could visit her. Valeria promptly answered that tomorrow would be good for her. So today, we went to Katy´s house (a member, super capa) so that she could come with us, and we walked the few blocks over to Valeria´s house. When we knocked, first a little boy answered, which suprised me. Then a man answered which suprised me even more. We asked for Valeria, and she did indeed live there, but had left some time ago and he didn´t know when she would come back. I was feeling pretty down about the whole situation, because like I mentioned before I didn´t really think she would be interetsed in listening. We were ready to go when the guy pointed and said ''hey, here she comes now!'' We looked up the sidewalk to see Valeria walking hand in hand with a little girl. My spirits picked up a bit and we were told to come in. Their house is beautiful!! I took note immediatly that the boyfriend, Manuel, was an awesome dad. Both the kids were his and he was very, haha American in his way of taking care of them. Valeria came to sit down and we chatted for a bit, and then everybody, all four of them, came to sit down and pulled up chairs and everything to listen. Sophia, the five year old sat in the lap of Valeria and Vincente on the floor by his dad. We talked for a bit and then Manuel said ''when Valeria told me you guys were coming, I honestly thought 'good. I want to raise my children on the principals of God'. The truth is that I want to have religion as a bigger part of my life.'' That pretty much set the tone for the whole lesson. After the opening prayer we asked if they had any questions and Manuel said without hesitation, ''yeah, basically, waht do you believe, how did your church start, do you believe in Christ? Things like that''. 

It was hard for me and my companion to not stare mouth agape. That NEVER happens. People NEVER are intersted like that from the git go. It was amazing. They´re honestly the most American/Utah family I´ve run into here in Chile. The kids are well behaved and you can just feel the unity they have. They need to get married obviously, which may prove to be a challenge, but they are so incredible. I one hundred percent burst into tears after the lesson. 

We saw a ton of miracles and the protection of the spirit incredibly strong this week. We found another family too, and they went to church and want to get baptized! I´m out of time to say everything right now but just that you all know, i´m doing awesome. Love you all! Have a good week!

Chile Concepcion South Mission

Castellon 1063, Oficina Sur

Concepcion

Bio-Bio

Chile

-- 

Sister Ashlee Bowling

♥ from Chile!

Two weeks in one

Sorry I didn`t write last week! We went to the bigger city up north for a medical appointment and so I only had about 30 minutes to write.

Suprise! I had a baptism this Saturday! His name is Manuel Sepulveda! He`s a little abolito and is just a great guy. So that was a good time. Not much to say about it, except that it was a really cool experience. His sister who is super catholic came to his baptism and said she really liked our way of baptizing. She came to church the next day too! So we`re going to start teaching her and hope that she`ll follow Manuel`s example!

So, I have some kind of weird sad news. Our golden investigator, Pablo from a few months back, I found out last week that he passed away in Santiago from cancer. It was kind of a horrifying shock. It made me realize how cynical I can be; the whole time we were calling and he wasn`t answering or would answer but wouldn`t come to his appointments with us, I was thinking he was purposly avoiding us and making up excuses when he said he was sick. It really made reflect on the lack of compasion I have, and that I don`t know the situation of these people. I have to hope for the best of them and think the best too. I really think the progress he made and the things Hermana Kleinman and me taught him will help him out.

We`ve been offering a lot more service lately! The other day we dug up the front yard of an office so that they could replant the grass. WOO!! Jeans and hats! It`s so fun to get the whole zone together *cough* ten people *cough* and help out the town like that. We`ve also started volunteering to teach english in the high school, and have been doing that for about two weeks. Good stuff. The kids are honestly little butt heads but it`s fun making fun of them.

I am not lying or exagurating when I say I loooooove the mission. I love my companion and my little town Gorbea and the people we`re teaching and the other missionaries and the ward members and everything. BUT. I have a problem that I have had my whole life; the grass is always greener problem. I had been enjoying the mission but not as much as I cuold have been, mostly because my mind was always thinking about the future. The next cambio, the next companion, when I get home, that`s when my life will REALLY start. ANd I expressed this sentimiento to my companion, who told me I should read The 4th Missionary. It talks about how a good missionary, a great missionary, can go home unchanged and dissapointed with their mission if they only are obidient to the rules with their might and strength but hold back their heart and mind. The simple trick is to stop thinking about home. I have not once been home sick on the mission. I really do love Chile and I can pretty easily adjust to new situations, but my thoughts of the future kept me from focusing on the now. I have a bad habit of counting time (for example, I have 146 days in the mission today). And this is another thing that`s really holding me back from forgetting myself and going to work. But this week, my attitude really changed. I started to be happier in the street. I started to look forward to knocking on doors late at night, becuase I`m here on the lords errand. I`m here doing the most important, sacred, concencrated work on the planet, and I flipping love it!

I love all of you guys and wish you the best! Have a great week!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

I LOVE YOU ! I DONT HAVE ANY TIME BUT Yeah I`m loving the mission and you guys and Taylor and Holland and UGH! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Cambios! Otra Vez!

Soooooooooooo! I am still in Gorbea! I`ll have close to 5 months here by the end of this cambio, and if I end up staying for another on it`ll be close to 7 months. Not gonna lie, I don`t really want that to happen! Hahaha I love Gorbea but I want to see other parts of Chile too! One of the girls in our mission only has 3 areas. She spent 6 months in every single one. Noooo! But really, I know every cambio is super inspired. There`s obviously more that I can do here. There`s always something I can do. So this is an awesome opportunity to work here more and help out crazy Australian man. Really though he`s a great investigator. We also have a pretty secure baptism lined up for the 21st for a guy named Manuel. He can`t read, and so his progress is a little slow, but he really does have a good testimony of everything we`re teaching. I just want to make sure he`s ready, so it`s possible we`ll move back his date to the Saturday after.

My companion, Hermana Flores, is leaving for Lebu! Pacific Avenue! So she`s pretty excited for that. I really want to go to Lebu too. I hear it`s georgeous. My new companion will be Hermana Pintus from Argentina! I said one time to Hermana Kleinman how I wanted to be companions with her and here we are! Heavenly Father and I are pretty tight I guess.

So something crazy that happened. The other Hermanas had a baptism last Saturday for....................................................... a 96 year old woman! Hahahah! It was so cool! And there was a ton of opposition! The baptism was at 5, and we went to the church at 4 to start getting everything set up, when we looked in the font.... and nobody had come and started the water. It takes about 5 hours for the font to be full enough, and so we were absolutly freaking out. But we started the water anyways and started calling members that it wasn`t going to be at 5 and we were just chickens without heads. To add to that, the water was coming out brown with bugs and dirt and leaves and all kinds of stuff. So the other Hermanas jumped into the font to clean it out a little. But the miracle of the day was that the font filled up in about 2 hours, the water wasn`t suuper dirty, Maria (the 96 year old cutie) still wanted to get baptized, and everything worked out okay. Maria can`t bend her spine back, and so there were two men in the font to lower her down without bending her backward. And it all worked out great! She is seriously so cute. Hermana Curtis told me that when they taught her about Temples she started to cry and wish that she had known about the Gospel earlier. It really was a miracle.

Hermana Lockling finished her mission yesterday! It was hard to see her go but I learned a lot and know she`s going to have an awesome time. She also gave me a bunch of her clothes! So that was pretty sweet!

Love you all! Chao!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Australian Man??? part 2

So where was I. Basically this australian man started talking to me and it was an awesome time! It was good to talk in English! So we wrote down his phone number and everything and then right as I finished writing his number the bus came. It was so perfect, the timing of everything. We were meant to find him for sure. Especially with an extra week in and seeing how great he is. But yeah, we caught the bus to Quitratue and went to our cita. Raquel! She is so prepared and amazing! We had an awesome lesson with her! She´s 20 which is the crazy part to me. Its hard to imagine young people wanting to listen to us or thinking about religion at all, so it always takes me by plesant suprise to find youngins interested. But yeah, she says she´s been looking for a church to belong to and feels like this one is true! WHAAT? She´s so cool! And shes reading the book of mormon and the pamphlets! I´m freaking out because it´s so rare to talk to people who actually keep their promises and read what they said they would, but she´s doing it and you can really see her testamony growing! So that was super cool! And then something else cool happened but I don´t remember. I think we bought cupcakes or something. But yeah, it was an awesome day and such a testimony helper to me to see for myself that Heavenly Father is so aware of us. With every difficulty we´re going to get even more miracles. }

But yeah, this week was really cool because Gorbea opened up the plaza it had been constructing this week and there was a huge celebration! It´s cool how much history and tradition Chile has. Also we found a cat that looks just like Bucky! And I asked a stranger to take a picture of me on a bus! Awkward!

I love all of you and I wish you the best! Next week we find out cambios! I might leave Gorbea so I´ll let you all know next Monday!

Oh yeah, Benny is great because he´s very interested in Religions! He´s also coming to activities that we have in the church which is suppper cool. He has a lot of doubts but it´s fun to help him learn. He´s here for 5 months teaching English to middle schoolers, and so we don´t have very much time to talk before he goes back. Here´s hoping something happens!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Australian Man???

Soooo! Cool week! It`s so true that when we have a hard day, Heavenly Father makes up for it somehow. This wednesday we went to the house of Julia to really crack down and help her mom get a testimony. We had this cool lesson planned and brought the president of young women and everything, and it was the worst lesson I`ve had thus far. Nilda wouldn`t let any of us talk, she kept interupting us and saying over and over that Julia is too young, she doesn`t know anything, she hasn`t even read the BIBLE for crying out loud. It was awful. She just, honestly, has a super hard heart. I left the lesson crying. But then the next day, I had one of the best days of my mission. We went to Temuco in the morning for medical stuff for my companion (haha that wasn`t super awesome lol) but I bought one of those ugly fanny packs that all the missionaries use, and so my back doesn`t hurt anymore! Sweet! Awesome thing number one. So we get back home and eat lunch in the house (our lunch appointment was visiting family), and as we`re walking, we decided to call Miguel (super epic awesome grandpa) and invite him to come with us to Quitratue. The buses to Quitratue are every 15 minutes or so, and while we`re waiting for miguel at the bus stop one comes and goes. Less than 40 seconds later Miguel shows up haha. So we`re waiting more and more and a bus just isn`t coming. We`ve been waiting now for about half an hour which is super weird. We`re calling our appointments to tell them sorry, and what not, and I`m standing doing nothing when a group of middle school aged girls and this big white guy start talking in front of me. They`re all laughing and giggling and looking at me, but at this point in the mission Ive just accepted that people think I`m weird. After a bit, the guy starts talking to me, and I immediatly realize that he is not from Chile. This guy is from Australia! And he knows English! We start talking, and this guy is super duper cool. I literally have 30 seconds to finish. To be continued next week! Bye everybody!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Soy Floja jaja

Hey! So, not a whole lot to say about this week. Our investigators are having a kind of hard time and we´re just going to have to wait and see if they´ll progress or not.

The mom of Julia was baptized when she was 19, but she doesn´t have a testimony of the church at all. We´re trying really hard to get her to accept the date we have set for this saturday. In one conference we were told that every companionship should be having one baptism every month. I know that was a goal given to us from Heavenly Father and I´m absolutly determined for Julia to get baptized this month, if not this Saturday then the next. I know we can do it!

We have a super awesome couple that we{re working with right now, Leonardo and Mirian. They had been meeting with Missionaries almost a year ago but Leo didn´t want to get married. I guess they stopped progressing or something, but back with Hermana Kleinmen we decided to try and meet with her again. And she´s super cool! She has a really strong testimony of the church and wants to get baptzied really bad. The problem though, like I said is that Leo doesn´t want to. Chile honestly sucks a little bit. There´s all kind of financial pentalties for people who are married, and Chile practically gives away houses to unmarried men and women. Leo is waiting to be able to have a bigger house, I don´t know why he has to wait 100%, but he says in about 5 years, after he gets his house, they´ll get married. We fetl really inspired yesterday to go and visit them, because earlier this week, we extended a date for baptism/marriage on the last Saturday in May. We wanted to talk to them, and we had been talking about how Mirian is the best way for Leo to accept this date. It was so perfect, right as we started talking, someone knocked on the door and Leo went outside to talk to whoever it was. We immediatly started to talk to Mirian about what she wanted, and she said that yes, I am going to ask Leo this week and talk to him about it. The lords timing was perfect that we could have that time alone with Miran.

It´s starting to get pretty rainy down here! I´ve become a fire expert with the fireplace in our house.

Have a great week everybody! Exito! Chao!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Getting Colder

Hello everybody! This week in the life of Ashlee down south, we´ll watch as she struggles to fight the absolutly freezing temperatures that are starting to plague her, teach with the spirit when she still has no idea whats going on, and all around just have an honestly awesome time.

This week for me was definatly a week of diligence. At first I thought my problem was a lack of more patience. I hate being told what to do. Haha mom and dad, you guys know this very well. Most of the time I have great intentions. I want to be exactly obedient. But sometimes I get a little chueca (disobidient). One day I quit excersizing 10 minutes early, and was sitting in our room eatting cereal with yogurt (delicious!) when my companion came in and told me that I should be excersizing the full 30 minutes. Not gonna lie, this rubbed me the wrong way. Hermana Flores is very unafraid to say exactly what she´s thinking. My problem is that when someone tells me what I should be doing, even if I know its good and I should be doing it, I immediatly get rebelious. You can´t tell me what to do! Haha it´s a problem for sure. Things like this were happening the whole week and I was getting pretty annoyed, when finally I heard my companion talking with our district leader. He asked, what christlike characteristic would discribe this week? She answered, diligence. And as I thought about it, yeah, that´s really what my problem is. It´s not that I need more patience to do deal with my companion. I need more obedience! Why get annoyed, when all she´s trying to do is help me. Really, she is so awesome and teaches with such a powerful spirit. I want to be able to teach like that, and the secret is living worthily of having the spirit constantly. Her and I really do get along really good, and even better now that I´ve figured out this problem. Haha, a great week!

We didn´t find Pablo, which was disapointing, but we saw a ton of other miracles too. Everything, every little contact and moment in our missions is a part of God´s plan, and I know that even if Pablo doesn´t progress or get baptized while I´m here, I played my part in God´s plan for Pablo, and I did what the Lord wanted me to do.

We have an awesome investigator named Julia. She is the sweetest! She´s 12, but she has an awesome testimony and is coming to church and activities and reading and praying on her own! The only problem was her mom. When her mom was 19, she already had two kids, but was taught by elders and made the decision to be baptized. However, she has no testimony or understanding of the church, and was super apprehensive to accept a date for baptism for Julia. Finally, this past week, we had a super intense lesson with her, explaining that Julia needs her mom´s example to really be able to make this actual change in her life. We pleaded with her to go to church, learn more about the gospel, and accept a baptismal date for Julia. And she did!! Julia is getting baptized the 23rd of April!!!! Can´t wait to see whats going to happen!

We also are teaching a super cool family. They´re some of the most well of people I´ve seen in Gorbea. Their house is huge, and Gorge has a ps3 that he´s playing Minecraft on. It was the best day of my life to walk in and see minecraft again. I´m feeling deja vu. Did I already tell you guys about them? Maybe, but they´re so cool it´s worth writing about twice. We´re working with them to get them to attend church. They have a car and so it makes it waaaaay easier.

Have a great week everybody!!! I love you all and your letters! Even if you´ve got nothing to say, just write something! It lifts my spirits so much to see your emails every week =) Love you!!


Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Note from Karen: I'm not correcting her spelling because I think it's fun to see how spelling devolves as her spanish gets stronger.

Milagros!

Soooo!!! Hello everybody! I have just been reprimanded by my sister to write more detailed letters, so here we go haha.

This week was my first with my new trainer! Hermana Flores! She is super awesome, in a lot more ways than one. First off, she doesn´t know English!! haha my Spanish is going to have to improve now! It´s cool becuase only hearing Spanish all day has really switched my brain over. In just a few days I started being able to understand so much more. It helps a lot becuase even if I can´t speak perfectly, I can at least understand what they´re problem is and offer the words that I can. I have absolutly no fear to speak or make mistakes in my speech, and so I´m learning at the speed of lightning now. It´s good becuase we´re all thinking that, if not the next cambio, then the one after that, I will be training a new missionary. We´re getting over 30 in 5 weeks and there´s barely enough sisters to train them all. So pray for me! Hermana Flores is also really cool becuase she doesn´t have any fear to speak her mind either. She knows exactly what this person needs to do to progress more and if they´re not doing it shes not afraid to tell them they could do better! She´s like the sister missionary version of Elder Holland. I´m learning a ton about how to teach better, how to work better with the members, how to manage time, and it´s exactly what I need. Hermana Kleinmen and I were super awesome friends. She´s the most giving, happy, christlike person I have ever met, and she helped me get aclamated to Chile and helped me learn to love it. Now it´s time for me to really get down to business haha. Also, sorry for all the spelling errors. I don´t have a spell check and spanish has ruined the tiny amount of ability I had to speak properly. My mother will be so dissapointed.

We found Pablo!! Almost 3 weeks ago we extended the invitation to him to obey the word of wisdom, which he accepted. But since that lesson we hadn´t been able to find him again. We knocked and called and knocked and searched, but there´s a fine line of worrying about a person you care about and accepting their agency/not wanting to over do it and be an annoyance. Pablos brother is always super rude to us when we stop by and I was thinking that maybe he was telling Pablo to stop meeting with us. BUT! I called Pablo last night in one final attempt to contact him and he answered the phone!! We have an appointment with him on Wednesday and I´m praying with all my heart that we can see him again and talk. We called right before it was time to pray for bed and I couldn´t talk, I was crying so hard with joy that we had finally reached him. He really is an amazing person and I know Heavenly Father wants him to be a part of this church, a church he knows is true and has a testimony of. WOO!!! Milagros!!!!

Also, conference was flipping awesome. Elder Hollands talk was exactly what I needed. What a great opportunity we all have to be able to listen to a prophets voice, to hear the words of God and to know exactly what it is that our heavenly family want us to do. I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week! Chao!!


Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile

Transfers!

Hey all! 

So it turns out I am not leaving Gorbea! Whew! But, Hermana Kleinman is leaving the sector to go to Temuco. It´s good, it´s only an hour south and so I´ll still get to see her for all the big meetings we have in Temuco. My new trainer, or Dad, is Hermana Flores! She´s from Peru, and I haven´t met her yet but It´s going to be awesome! We knew something crazy was going to happen this cambio but we weren´t sure exactly. Turns out just about every training companionship in the mission is getting changed. I guess the new president felt super inspired to change stuff. Who knows. But I have to lead the sector for a bit while Hermana Flores gets to know all our investigators and everybody. Scary! But I 100 percent trust that this is happening for a reason. Hermana Flores doesn´t know any English, and so hopefully by the end of this transfer i´ll be fluent! 

Love you guys! Keep the prayers coming! ALSO! General Conference!!!! Go and listen to it! It´s going to be awesome! 

Sister Ashlee Bowling

♥ from Chile!

The sunsets here are gorgeous!!

Really cool family who are moving to Padre De Las Casas this week.

¿Mol Negro?

Sooo. The celing in our house has always had this weird shadow thing, especially in my room. For a long time I thought it was just a bad paint job, or a shadow or something. But we had a cleaning inspection a few weeks ago from the Millers who are pretty much our mom down here in the south and they revealed to us the truth! I have been sleeping under a blanket of black mold for 6 weeks! EWW! We finally strapped down and cleaned it all and oh my gosh was it nasty. Who knew our ceiling could be white?

I also got my first package! Thank you mom and dad! Love you all!

Also PS, I offered the closing prayer at the end of a meeting with the Branch president, and after my companion and Hra Locking de Chile told me that I spoke perfect spanish during my prayer! The gift of tounges is real! I´m starting to like Spanish! Chao!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Black Mold

Ashlee is actually scrubbing mold!

Hermana Kleinman

Good as new

Milagros! Miércoles!

We are teaching two of the coolest people on the planet! One of them, Pablo, was a contact of my trainer a few months ago. He mentioned our book of Mormon and they gave him one, but never went back, or he was never there, something like that. A few weeks ago we went just to try it and lo and behold, Pablo was there! He had been reading on his own and was in Second Nephi! WHAT?! When we asked what he thought he said that he believes its true! Guys, that never happens! Milagros! He´s been to church twice and has a fecha for the 26th of March! Yesterday, an apostle spoke to the whole country of Chile! It was so cool! And Pablo went to that! He said he really liked it, it was really beautiful. The apostle was Russel M Nelson, and he spoke Spanish without a translater! I had no idea Elder Nelson could speak Spanish, but he´s super gringo so I understood everything haha. I´m getting to the point where I understand the majority of the spanish people speak! It´s hard though because Chilean Spanish really is really different. They´re kind of like the hicks of the spanish speaking people, especially in a small town like Gorbea. Love you guys! Chao!

Los Siento!

No time! Love you guys! My first baptism!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Gaby

For a better account of this event click here.  Thanks Hermana Kleinman!

I jdfka don{t know

Apparently I talk in my sleep in Spanish... progress?

What a spirit filled week! On Wednesday we took a bus to Temuco to listen to a conference by Elder Bednar for all of the South America South Missions. Elder Bednar really knows how to slap a person in the face with his words. He talked about a lot of things, and everyone felt very directed at me. At one point he begins talking about faith. Faith without works is dead, which is something we tell our investigators all the time. You have to act on the things you´re feeling are true. And then he said something really close to "how many of you have heard this during a prayer in sacrament meeting or church: ´please help the people who aren´t here this week to be here next week´. It´s a great sentament. And it´s utterly faithless!" I was down in my seat about as low as I could get at this point. He went on to say how our prayers should sound: "after this meeting is over, we´re going to drive to the houses of those people who didn´t come to church today, we´re gonna knock on their door, and we´re gonna ask them, ´why weren´t you at church today?´ We´re gonna help them and serve them, and we´re not going to sit around and wait for you to do it for us". You know how you know something, you´ve heard it said your whole life, but it doesn´t become a part of your knowledge until you have a moment of clarity about it? That happend for me. We are the instruments of the lord. In other words, we don´t ask the lord to magically make things happen for us. Don´t ask to magically somehow have this desire to choose the right and go to church and to have faith. You have to do your part! You have to act in faith before you recieve your knowledge! Open your mouth, start talking, and then after you display your faith will the promise be fullfilled and you will know what to say. Only after you step into the water will it be parted. It was really cool. Lots of miracles this week, lots of people to teach with no time. We found another absolutly miraculous person this week. He tried to go to church at 8 at night on Sunday because he had no idea when it was, but he wanted to go! WHAT? And the best part: He came to church yesterday! He has a fetcha and everything, and we´re hoping he´ll get baptized before the end of March!

Love you guys! Chao!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Hola a todas!

Hello everybody! My second week in Chile!

· There are dogs everywhere. They all have fleas/might not be friendly and so we kind of have to shoo them away and avoid them and I can´t pet any of them. It´s hard. Especially when they´re cute, but I have a feeling that by the end of my mission I´m not going to like dogs anymore.

·It is super temerate and nice here! The weather is very similar to warm weather in Utah I think. It´s not ultra humid ever, and being in skirts helps too. But it is starting to get more rainy.

· WE HAD A FEW INCRDIBLE THINGS HAPPEN. Just typical missionary stuff. It´s always, always thrilling to schedule a lesson and then have the person actually be there when we go because people are kind of big fat liars here. But when that person is actually home and wants to talk with us; oh my word that is absolutuly the best feeling ever. There was a lady whos house we knocked that told us, "why haven´t you come before?" She helped the very first missionaries in Gorbea find an apartment and knows all about our church. She has a lot of really good questions and needs becuase her husband died not long ago and she has questions about that.

· we ran into the most crazy person ever. It´s kind of a long story. My very first day here, a man approached us asked why we haven´t talked to him yet. My companion had contacted him a few months ago but had never gone back. We went to visit and he told us that in 2005 he had a dream about two blonde girls who would help him find the true church. He would see my companion walk with Hermana Moran from El Salvador and think, I recognize the blonde girl, but her companion is different, and so he never came up to them. But when he saw me, he immediatly felt the spirit tell him that he had to talk us. We´ve taught him a few short lessons but today we´re going to teach him for real! Hope it goes well!

· really though, when a person has good questions its the best thing ever. A lot of people here believe us, and when we teach they agree, but they never seem interested in going to church or keeping the commitments. They´re just lazy and hard to get a hold of. hahaha I´m complaining a lot, but I really do love these people. They easily accept our message and are open to the spirits teachings, but they´re just difficult to help progress. But one guy, who my companion has been trying to get a hold of for over 3 months, finally was at his house when we went. he had incredible questions like, how did people get to the americas? the book of mormon is about america right? He´s read to 2nd Nefi right now! This was our first lesson with him! And he´s never had a lesson with other missionaries! At the end of the lesson we asked him to pray and he did it perfectly! A lot of people here don´t pray to heavenly father and don´t end their prayers in the name of jesus christ, even after we teach them how. But he did it without us even explaining! This guy is incredible!

· I also feel like I will never be truely, actually clean again while i´m here haha. It´s all good though. It´s just part of the life ^^

· Lastly, the videos, I can´t find hastag on this keyboard, but it´s (hastag)becausehelives. These videos are amazing. I think they´re also called The Life of Jesus Christ Bible Videos. These are amazing, please watch them.

Love you guys! Appreciate the gift it is to be born in the gospel and have the testimony of generations behind you. Nobody here has that. It´s a blessing I am very grateful for. No matter what has happened, I have never actually lost my belief and knowledge of this church.

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Gorbea es Bae ♥

Thank you so much everybody for being so patient with me! More bad news though, my email time has been cut short once again. While I still have an hour to email, I have to email my mission president cada semana first! But! Please dont stop writing me! I love to read them and if I don{t have time i print them out and read them later. I dont think im going to hardly have any time ever to reply to all of you cada semana and so los siento ahora that Im never going to reply haha! I will still read them though! The best way to get a response from me is to write me letters! Itll take around 3 weeks for me to get the letters and then another bunch of weeks to get my letter back haha. Its the way it goes though. SO! My address, first of all.

Castellon 1063, Oficina Sur
Casilla 3580
Concepcion
Bio-Bio
Chile

Send everything to this address!

SO! My first area iss......... GORBEA! I am as far south into the mission as sisters can go! Theres another zone below us but only Elders are allowed to go there. We are in one of the more poor areas in our mission I believe, but that just means the spirit is here even stronger. We have one recent convert here who lives in a one room little house with his bed and fridge and table all right there. His name is Miguel and he loves being our member for each lesson we teach to investagators. He is the cutest guy I have ever encountered. My first day, he handed us two wrapped packages, one with hair ties and bows and another with a mug with disney princesses. He is incerio the nicest person I have ever met. I cant understand hardly anything he says though. Besides the Spanish, he has a pretty heavy lisp. But honestly all of the people here are incredible. My first Sunday here was one of the best I{ve ever had. There were 42 people at church including the 6 missionaries. Two elders had to visit from another area because our branch president and his councelor are both going to be gone working for a few weeks. I never thought wards could exist that were so small. Everything that everyone has ever said about missions is suddenly becoming so true. But I love all of them so much! A few of them seem to be kind of holding on to old beliefs that they had, and so Im feeling a huge amount of responsibility to teach these people correct doctrines and make them strong in the church. My companion, trainer, and mom told me that it is our responsibility to grow this ward. We need to reactivate inactives, baptize more members, and teach everybody correct principles. It{s so important that I am as worthy as possible to let the spirit teach through me, and that I can be the absolute best possible example for these people to follow. I never, ever thought I could feel this way about other people. Every single thing that I do, I{m wondering and questioning if it{s, either now or in the long run helping the people of Gorbea. I already love it here and never want to leave. Its incredible to already be feeling the changes the mission makes in people. Like, I cant put into words at all how amazing this is. Obviously this is the best decision I ever could have made in my life.

MY TRAINER IS THE BEST PERSON EVER! Her name is Hermana Kleinman, and she is from Mesa Arizona! She is also the youngest in her family of 4 brothers and sisters, and were both very white and very blonde. We legit are turning heads everywhere. I{ve been asked probably 3 or 4 times if my hair is natural, which yes, it is. We get whistled at constantly. Two white blonde young girls, speaking (soon to be!) fluent spanish must look quite the sight in small town Gorbea. A lot of people wonder why were here. It{s making for some cool opportunites to talk to people. She is the most serving, Christlike person I{ve ever encountered and its making me want to serve her better. It{s cool! It{s a cycle! Serving others makes them want to serve which inspires even more people. UGHDSAL! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! I LOVE IT! I{ve had a ton of incredible experiences, every single day, incerio, that build my testimony and make me love being a missionary. I can see how this is the most exhausting work that could exist. Constantly carring about other people, constatnly worrying about them and hoping they keep their compromismos and praying for them; feeling crushed when they dont read and didnt pray, the absolute joy, through the roof feeling when they say they read and prayed and felt the spirit. Theres nothing else like this in the world guys. The people here are very humble. So is our casa. It{s nothing like the homes in America. But it is on of the nicest that they have in the mission and Im so grateful for it and for the church. My old MTC roomate, hermana Curtis is in the same house as me! Shes training wtih Hermana Lockling, who is from Santiago Chile and is going home in 3 months! My district here is way cool and our district leader every night during our phone call yells and screams and is so enthusiastic. It is hilarious. Evedently, I am a ´machine´. cool beans.

The picture with the three of us is my mom, Hermana Kleinman, and my abuela, Hermana Rich! We look like actual sisters! Chao chao! Muchas grasias por su oracions y amor!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

New sisters in mission

CCM district

Ashlee, Hermana Kleinman (mom), Hermana Rich (grandma)

Ash & her trainer Hermana Kleinman