Elder Carson Bowen Kiribati Islands in Marshall Majuro Mission

WEEK 101   July 8,2019   Mauri Well I never thought this time would come. I complete 2 years of serving the Lord on Thursday. Words cannot describe the things that I've learned on my mission in this beautiful country, Kiribati. I have grown so much and will miss these wonderful wonderful people of Kiribati. I will miss the language, the culture, the people, the fish, seeing the ocean 24/7, and most of all the Lords work here in Kiribati. Kiribati is so close to having a temple. ti teutana riki(just a little more). I can't lie, I'm excited as heck to come home to see family and friends, but will truly miss my brown families here. They have changed me into a better person. I would like to say that I've been humbled. The new mission president came arana President Foster. He's AMERICAN! I'm sure he will do a great job like President and Sister Larkin. Anyways, that's just a little update for now. I'll tell ya the rest to ur fac...

WEEK 100   July 1, 2019 Today we are going to play soccer and volleyball at Moroni high school. 2nd to last p day.. not quite sure if I will email next week or not. Saying good bye to my people.   Elder Bowen

WEEK 99 June 24, 2019 Changes going on here.  Our mission president, President Larkin and Sister Larkin, finished their mission and left last week.  We have a new mission president, The Fosters coming soon.  We said good bye to the Larkins by singing to them, Til We Meet Again, at the airport and then did the Haka. They said they would really miss this culture! Congrats to Bryson driving a car.  Happy Birthday to Katelyn and Trevor!  Cant believe I have two more Sundays, still working hard!  Took a boat to check on the north Elders then had to walk home in the water, took 3 hours!  It was in the dark and we had to go waist deep some points watching eels swim by our feet with the moon light shining bright.  Gotta love this place.  The brown son, Elder Carson Bowen

WEEK 98 June 17, 2019 Elder Bowen is doing great and comes home in 3 weeks. 

WEEK 97  Not much news.....asking if we wanted him to bring us anything home! I responded....just YOU!!!!!! We are so excited for his return!!!!!!

June 3, 2019 Hello mother of mine! I'm doing way good! Still trying to work hard. We put together a big fireside that happened like last week that went good. Now after transfers we are so busy driving elders to the airport. This morning we woke at 4:30am to take some elders, but it's good. My companion is two intakes behind me.  He's cool. He is my last companion on my mission. I'm going to finish as zone leader. My whole intake is so exctied to finish and we are all back on Tarawa. One of us is going home in 3 weeks because his bros marriage, then 3 weeks after us! Last p day we went fishing on low tide, then when the waves got big we went to this small lake. President Larkin and wife gave their final testimonies last zone conference.  Man they really love us. I understand that his rules were only out of love he is awesome!   These last few p days if I don't email too much it's because I'm going to be visiting ...

May 27, 2019 WEEK 95 No news this week from Elder Bowen...Stay Tuned!

Mauri mauri! So, this week I had the best lesson I've ever had in my life. I wrote it in detail in my journal, but unfortunately don't have time to type it. I've never seen people get hit so hard by the spirit and change. My companion very briefly wrote a summary of what happened in his email. It was as in 3rd Nephi when the people couldn't deny the words that he spoke. We spoke with so much power and boldness and the spirit did the rest. Anyways here is my companions email to his family: (since I have run out of time)   "Mauri all you guys! We're doing very good out here. Me and my companion are doing great. I'm working with Elder Bowen! We got a car and we drive around and do a lot of stuff. It's super fun! Our area has come up from nothin to somethin if you know what I'm saying. ahaha We had a super cool lesson with this one guy who is like a missionary for the Muslim church. They were really cool and he wants u...

Mother's Day Skype!!! 5-12-19 After almost an hour of trying to connect, we saw Elder Carson Bowen! Our connection was not good, often no sound or unable to make clear verbiage of what was being said but loved every minute of it!!! Review: -Elder Bowen is currently on the big island serving in the lower area with his companion Elder Wright who is from Utah and cool! -Because Elder Bowen learned to drive stick shift before leaving on his mission, he has is the main Elder to drive everyone everywhere on the island.  Road are different there then in America so driving on the opposite side of the road is the way. -"I miss fruit" , no fruit here except mini bananas, papaya, coconuts, and vomit fruit (it heals people!ha!) There are two-three stores on the island and they have apples shipped in. (As Carson is speaking, his siblings go and grab his favorites such as Oatmeal pies, sour strips, bananas, cinnamon rolls, cheese-its, almond milk and openly show off their e...

This was a great week. The work in our area is really coming along. We planned out a blitz on Wednesday which went really well! We got some people from it. One of our investigators that Elder Wright and I got came to church. He's an un ni mwanne(old man) and he is so ready and prepared for us. We got him an awesome fellowship and his daughter (30yrs old) came to support. At church this old man was huffing and puffing because of the love and support he felt from kain te aro(members) and his fellowshipper. It was a beautiful experience to watch and be apart of. Elder Wright and I are getting along great and working well with each other. My family is really excited for me to come home. I am so excited to see them again. Still going to finish strong. Being zone leader is way fun and I am so busy driving a stick shift bus on this small island(Tarawa). Sometimes we get so busy that I forget to eat food. Literally we are so busy. Things are going great a...

Hi Everyone! I became zone leader now and working in Temaiku.  It's way fun and I gotta cool companion.  There are 3 companionships that drive.  West, East (me) and the Aps.  I am now driving a bus that is stick shift on Tarawa. I get up way early sometimes to take elders who are transferring to the airport and have meetings all the time. I'm loving it. Also our ward is so awesome and has a bunch of sick YSA returned missionaries who always want to do activities. Today we dropped someone off to go outer island and then we basically just driving everyone around and we will hopefully get time to play some sports at Moroni High School. I'm a zone leader now working in Temaiku.... it's way fun and I got a cool companion. We have been so busy..... it's a different kind of busy because we just drive around everywhere. There are 3 companionships that drive. west zone leaders, east zone leaders (me), and...

WEEK 89 Elder Bowen simply gave one sentence this week. I am being transferred this next week for sure.  No clue where. Stay tuned.....!

Mauri Mauri! This week was pretty fun. My companion(big Vanuatu guy)  and I are working hard. I fasted for these 2 families that I tracted. They both agreed with most lessons and believed everything but never really accepted to be baptized and become a member of the TRUE church. Fortunately after our last lesson yesterday(during my time of fasting) they just finally accepted a real baptismal invitation and 3 of them will be baptized on April 20 th, and 2 more later. So happy for them! So for anyone that needs some extra love/ some extra blessings from the Big Boss, I suggest fasting! For my B-Day, it was just a regular day of hard work. Then at the end, a member and a recent  convert that I baptized in my last area made shirts with a picture of the first time my recent convert came to church on the front, and bought a cake at this white person store!! They just called me and told me to go to the store and totally surpri...

  Mauri! I'm good. Another good week went by. Super ready for p day!!   Elder Bowen

Another week gone by fast!   We have been working so hard here.  4 more months!! Trying to finish strong! Some days are really really slow and some are fast.. little more!!   Elder Bowen  

WEEK 85 No news this week

  This week a couple pretty cool this happened. 1) We have been having so many investigators come to church. The work has been booming! 2) One of the families that we are working with is really struggling with money. Sometimes when they don't catch fish they just eat rice. So me and my companion buy cans of ham every now and then. Also for money they have been rolling cigarettes and selling them, and that's the only way they pay for rice.  I told them if they ask for help from the ward, they will get it, and that many blessings come from the church. They were super shy and didn't want to. Somehow they managed to tell the stake president.  So, just yesterday we go to their shack/house and he was super happy because he talked to someone and might be able to get a job at Moroni High School as a security guard! Blessings!  It's been really hard for him because he only has 1 functional arm. 3) Our investigator sat next to some other i...

This week was a great hard working week! We got 2 new investigators and our people have been progressing like crazy. We have so many people to work with now because the Big Boss upstairs has provided so many for us and has given us his spirit, to guide us to those people who are ready for the message. We have been pounding in lessons, even after our dinner. 2 stories: 1) My companion and I were going to one of our lessons and I saw someone I knew from my last area. He was just standing by the road looking off and thinking really hard about something. Eventually he saw me and was really excited. I asked him "what were you thinking about?" and he explained and said, "ahhh just the thing that just happened at that store up there.  He told me that the people in the store were just chillin when a super short looking man that was very very fast appeared out of no where. He was very dark and his body wasn't very defined. Everyone in the store was freak...

     Kam na bane ni flippin Maui! Man what a great week! Elder Moore and I worked so hard to find more people to teach, and after fasting and praying for it, we found so many people! It's like this church is true or something. So many things happened this week therefore, story time: 1) We have been working with an endowed couple who the husband was the first councilor,  who have  unfortunately fallen away and no longer wear garments, drink, smoke, and don't attend church. Fortunately, when we were talking to/secretly tracting  a drunk guy on the street with tabacco in his mouth (who is now one of our most progressing investigators) we found that he lives with these endowed members. We visited them a few times and no progression. No progression until we shared Alma 34:32-35 Which basically says the purpose of this life and to not procrastinate your day of repentance. That scripture basically slapped them into shape and really put ...