Hey everyone, sorry you didn't hear from me this last week. We had some Carbon Monoxide problems, but no worries, I am alive and well and I am able to email this week!!
So transfers happened again and this time I am not safe from the chopping block as I will be checking out of Cluj :/ It's been great here and I loved serving here but the Lord needs me in other places. And that place just so happens to be Pitesti once again! It's been a year since I served there so it'll be good to be back!! I'll be with a missionary named Elder Rawhouser so it should be a good time! We are going to get stuff done!!
This was a pretty good week for us in Cluj. It was honestly a good ol' hardworking week that felt super long and hard until we saw the fruits of our labors at the end of the week. We had a couple really good lessons with people and tried to reset our expectations with our friends. We had a lesson with a guy named Calin for the first time and it went really well. He's a 7th Day Adventist, but he had a really sincere desire to understand the truth about the Sabbath Day, about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He's from Baia Mare and goes up there usually on the weekends, so hopefully we can get him to come to church in Cluj when he can and to sacrament in Baia Mare when he's up there. He's a sincere guy and I'm hoping to see him truly seek for the truth through keeping his commitments. We also had a good lesson with Robert to try and get him to come to church because that is keeping him from progressing. He has a big concern, however, about how his family will feel because he doesn't go to their church and he's afraid about what might happen to their relationship. We shared Matthew 19:29 with him and testified strongly of how the Lord will bless us because of our obedience, but he still has that fear and concern that he needs help with. It'll be hard with him but I have faith that he will come to church and see how it will bless his life.
In other news, we were able to bring a lot of people to church this week which was super great!! First off, we invited our landlord, Dia, to come because she has been struggling with smoking and has expressed a desire to quit so we invited her to church and introduced the stop smoking program and she's all for it. She loved church and hopefully she continues to come and sees how it can bless her and help her stop smoking. Second off, we had this awesome miracle when a guy named Chris, who is actually from Iowa, called us asking where our church was, when the service was, and if it was in English. We had met him a couple weeks ago while playing basketball and he's a good friend, but when he asked these questions, it was surprising and came out of no where. But we invited him to come, he came (I translated), and afterwards he told us he really liked it and that he will come back every week until he leaves Cluj in August. That was super cool and made our Sunday and hopefully this sparks something big in his heart to learn more.
We had a good amount of success with members this week, especially since a returning member named Fratele Nistor came for the first time in obviously a long time because the entire branch was thrilled to see him come back. And in about every one of the testimonies, the members expressed their gratitude to see the members that haven't come in a long time, which was super cool to see. Unfortunately, he left pretty quickly after church so we didn't get a big chance to talk to him, but we hope to have some lessons with him to get him to keep coming to church. We'll probably focus on Come, Follow Me because it's been such a help for Emil and he's been coming to church more often (he even said he couldn't come to church this week but he came anyways!), so it should be a major help for Fratele Nistor as well.
Hope all goes great wherever you are. Never forget how much God loves you and will help you as you go to him in sincere prayer with real intent and faith. If you do so, good things will happen as you will see God's hand in your lives. I love you all and hope and pray for the best!
Va iubesc,
Elder Bowen
So transfers happened again and this time I am not safe from the chopping block as I will be checking out of Cluj :/ It's been great here and I loved serving here but the Lord needs me in other places. And that place just so happens to be Pitesti once again! It's been a year since I served there so it'll be good to be back!! I'll be with a missionary named Elder Rawhouser so it should be a good time! We are going to get stuff done!!
This was a pretty good week for us in Cluj. It was honestly a good ol' hardworking week that felt super long and hard until we saw the fruits of our labors at the end of the week. We had a couple really good lessons with people and tried to reset our expectations with our friends. We had a lesson with a guy named Calin for the first time and it went really well. He's a 7th Day Adventist, but he had a really sincere desire to understand the truth about the Sabbath Day, about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He's from Baia Mare and goes up there usually on the weekends, so hopefully we can get him to come to church in Cluj when he can and to sacrament in Baia Mare when he's up there. He's a sincere guy and I'm hoping to see him truly seek for the truth through keeping his commitments. We also had a good lesson with Robert to try and get him to come to church because that is keeping him from progressing. He has a big concern, however, about how his family will feel because he doesn't go to their church and he's afraid about what might happen to their relationship. We shared Matthew 19:29 with him and testified strongly of how the Lord will bless us because of our obedience, but he still has that fear and concern that he needs help with. It'll be hard with him but I have faith that he will come to church and see how it will bless his life.
In other news, we were able to bring a lot of people to church this week which was super great!! First off, we invited our landlord, Dia, to come because she has been struggling with smoking and has expressed a desire to quit so we invited her to church and introduced the stop smoking program and she's all for it. She loved church and hopefully she continues to come and sees how it can bless her and help her stop smoking. Second off, we had this awesome miracle when a guy named Chris, who is actually from Iowa, called us asking where our church was, when the service was, and if it was in English. We had met him a couple weeks ago while playing basketball and he's a good friend, but when he asked these questions, it was surprising and came out of no where. But we invited him to come, he came (I translated), and afterwards he told us he really liked it and that he will come back every week until he leaves Cluj in August. That was super cool and made our Sunday and hopefully this sparks something big in his heart to learn more.
We had a good amount of success with members this week, especially since a returning member named Fratele Nistor came for the first time in obviously a long time because the entire branch was thrilled to see him come back. And in about every one of the testimonies, the members expressed their gratitude to see the members that haven't come in a long time, which was super cool to see. Unfortunately, he left pretty quickly after church so we didn't get a big chance to talk to him, but we hope to have some lessons with him to get him to keep coming to church. We'll probably focus on Come, Follow Me because it's been such a help for Emil and he's been coming to church more often (he even said he couldn't come to church this week but he came anyways!), so it should be a major help for Fratele Nistor as well.
Hope all goes great wherever you are. Never forget how much God loves you and will help you as you go to him in sincere prayer with real intent and faith. If you do so, good things will happen as you will see God's hand in your lives. I love you all and hope and pray for the best!
Va iubesc,
Elder Bowen
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