That's great news about Tanner Brown!

Hello everyone.

That is great news about Tanner's mission call to Chile Orsono.  That's funny what Aunty Tye said too!  Are Tanner and Jake in the same mission?

I don't have a lot to say today.  We taught a teenage girl named Jamie.  She accepted the challenge to be baptized on June 11, so hoping all goes well with her parents and all and that she will be able to be baptized.  We are teaching her again soon and hoping her parents join us in the discussion.  I will let you know.

It has been rainy here, but today it is sunny.  It is strange because when I wake up the sun is rising and it is just setting when I go to bed at night.  It rained all last week.  It's really nice today.  The river and the creek behind our house are really high and there a lot of floods up here.

Is Jordan already in the MTC?  Thanks for sending me his addresses.  When you go to Rick's farewell tell him hi for me.  Tell all my friends you see hello for me.

That's great that Carly gets to go on the Burn Camp River Run in June.  It's great Nickie is graduating this week.  Tell her congratulations on her graduation and her scholarships.

I hope you all had a good week.  Happy Memorial Day!

Elder Dowd and Elder Crowther being patriotic?

A fellow elder in Richie's UVU shirt.

Richie's trainer Elder Crowther during exercise time.

 Calgary Temple being constructed

Calgary temple construction from a few blocks away.

Note the pray and vote sign!

Sign showing road to University of Calgary

and the Olympic Oval

Richie with Elder Grbin, his MTC companion

Pday was Victoria Day!

Hello everyone,

Yesterday was a Canadian Holiday, so the library where we do our emails was closed. But, we were allowed to write today, even though it is not P-day.

I got totally bombarded with email today! I love it, but I am attempting to send pictures, so I am just doing one mass email.

Life in Cochrane is good, it has been raining almost everyday since last week. We are getting some referrals.

Elder Hawkins is nice. He is from Ogden Utah. His dad owns a restaurant in Ogden called Hug-hess so he can cook a little bit. He is really obedient which is good.

That sounds like you had a good, busy week. I bought the 100 Year Anniversary of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir cd last Wednesday, as well as a 1 piece garment. So I have been thinking about choirs a lot lately too.

I was sad to hear about Mike's car accident and I will keep him in my prayers.

Everyone is getting so old! I cant believe Nickie's done with high school pretty much and that my friends are all leaving on missions. I'm glad you got to go to Jordan's farewell and that you enjoyed yourselves. Thanks for telling me you cried Mom because you missed me. I almost started crying reading the email, but since I am in the library, I refrained. The Stewarts are a good family. I have been thinking a lot about all my friends going into the MTC and getting ready for their missions, it's crazy.

We are teaching a girl out in Morley and we tried to get ahold of her yesterday but she was MIA. Her Uncle called us last night drunk and I talked to him for about 10 minutes and it was kinda funny because they were supposed to come to church on Sunday but they never showed up. Her Uncle's friend who lives on the southeast side of Calgary did show up. That's about the highlight of my week! Oh, but I did sing at the baptism of the family the Banff elders taught. I sang in a quartet. We sang, "Nearer My God to Thee". It went well. I thought about recording it, but didn't know if I should, so I did not.

A lot of the members are going to start introducing us to their friends and let us teach them so that should be exciting!

The weather is rainy. I got Nickie's high school graduation invitation -- you need to video tape her dancing in front of the T!

How much money is in my account there? I need to get a memory card and a camera case as well as a few other things.

Can you send me President Skousens address and the Stewarts address? Also, have Carly get on my facebook account and write down all the mission addresses of my friends.

I love you all!

Love, Elder Dowd

PS tell Jordan and all of my other friends hello!

My Trainer is Getting Transferred

Today is P-day and I got a note of transfer. I am staying in Cochrane, but Elder Crowther is leaving. He is going to the North Zone to be a district leader. I don't know the exact area, just North of Calgary. My new companion is Elder Hawkins, I think, and that's all I know about him. Tomorrow morning at 8:30 is when I have to be at the transfer station, but I don't know where Elder Hawkins is serving right now. If he is serving in the south he might not get here until the evening.

I'm sad to hear about Denny Dixon passing away, but I know that the Plan of Salvation is real. So, he really is in a better place.

That's exciting to hear about all the good news going on. That's exciting that the product is launching at Dad's work and that Nickie's schooling will all be paid for! The Lord is watching over you as I am away.

That's great about Jake's mission call! He will be a great missionary. And, it's crazy that Tanner will be getting his call this week or next. Have him and Auntie Tye write me. Do you ever get on my facebook account? If you do, or can, I just want to know if any more of my friends have gotten mission calls and I wouldn't mind addresses to my friends' missions.

Some good news out here in Cochrane, we set a date last night with a native named Kalesha. She accepted a date for baptism on June 11th, so there will probably be at least one baptism this next transfer.

We should be able to keep teaching Lorene. She is in British Columbia right now at her daughter's wedding. We had some members from our Ward call her and talk to her, so we should be able to keep teaching her. Last week we were at the Nzojibwamis and their son Mark said that he googled himself and said there was a picture of me, so he clicked on it and it took him to my blog I guess.

Also, here is a cool story - on Sunday the Elders serving in Banff went to go visit a less active family, who had brought their friends to church. So, they went and taught them Lesson 1 and invited them to be baptized. These people were so excited that they wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. So, the Elders taught them again yesterday, and called President Archibald and told him about the situation, and they are being baptized tonight at 8:30. They are a family from Washington, and so we will be busy today helping set up that program, and I might be confirming one of them! It's a miracle, that's for sure and last night and this morning we have been very excited.

So, that's basically all that I have going on. I am almost done with the Book of Mormon again. I will probably finish it early next week. You are all in my prayers still.

I love you all.

Love, Elder Dowd

Happy Mother's Day

Hello Mother!

I hope you had a good Mother's Day, I sure did! That was really nice of Sister Thurman to give you those things. Tell her that I have been writing in the gratitude journal they gave me.

I got your package on Saturday. It was wonderful. I am enjoying the music and the pictures especially. Last night I wore that sweatshirt until bed and I really love the new camera - it works! (It is a lot fancier than the old camera.) You don't need to send me any cereal, I just usually buy what is on sale, or sometimes we do service at the food bank and we sometimes get cereal from there because they always tell us to take something.

It was so good to hear from Grandma and Grandpa and Carl. When you first called, I thought you were Aunt Pam and I was so confused! It was crazy because that call seemed about five minutes long, but I am glad you told me when the 40 minutes were up, because I want to be obedient. It was so good to hear from my friends, I had no idea they would be there, so thank you. It was really nice to hear about some of my friend's mission calls.

I know that you are not unhappy with my mission, and I know that the Lord isn't unhappy, because I am happy. I know that I am supposed to be here and there are people here for me to teach and meet and to learn from. So, numbers are good because they indicate progress, but there are always things that you can't put numbers on. Anyway, it was so nice to hear from you all and to hear from my friends too, and I am so excited for them all to get out in the mission field and to serve, there is nothing to worry about because the Lord is on our side, and there is nowhere else that I could be right now that would be better for me than here in Alberta.

Tell Chris that I am writing him back today, and tell Tanner that I can't wait to hear where he is to go to go.

Oh, and last night after we talked, Elder Crowther and I went to the Nzojibwamis and they had invited their friends Didier and Daniella over. We had made Sister Nzojibwami some cookies and a Mother's Day card. I love the Nzojibwamis. They asked us to eat with them, so we did and then we gave Lesson 1 to their friends. It was so spiritual and we FIRMED (invited Didier and Daniella to be baptized) and they said that they couldn't on the date they had set because they would be in Africa. But, they said they would read the Book of Mormon and they wanted to meet with us again! So, that was exciting!

We ended up having two dinners yesterday, because a really nice family named the Letehebes had signed up to feed us. We had spaghetti at their home. And we had ribs and chicken and some shredded carrot things at Nzojibwamis and it was all so good.

Most of the food we are fed isn't much different than American, but it is good. My favorite food I have eaten is the food the Nzojibwamis have made for us. Also, I like what are called Donairs, they are kind of like a Greek burrito, pita stuffed with some Greek meat and stuff. I really like them.

This morning I made omelets for Elder Crowther and me. I had ham and olives in mine, and I just put ham in his. They were all right. We have a microwave omelet cooker!

I hope you and Dad start to feel better. I am really glad that you don't have a brain tumor. I hope they find out what is wrong soon though.

Tell everyone I say hi!

I love you!

Love, Elder Dowd

Hello,

On Sunday, we get out of church at 1:00 and then we will probably be busy from then until 1:30ish, so Elder Crowther said that you should call around 2:00 and then his family can call around 3:00. We are only allowed 40 minutes.

This last couple of weeks has been crazy up here too. We had a meeting on Wednesday which took up half the day. On Friday I went on exchanges with the Royal Oak elders, but they just changed exchanges from day exchanges to 24 hours, so I spent Thursday night in Calgary.

We haven’t been able to teach Loreene. Her father passed away last week, and her ex husband is dying, so things have been tough for her. Thanks for fasting for her, we did as well. Though we weren’t able to teach her this week, we were able to give her a blessing of comfort. She has told us she has a desire to be baptized. Hopefully we can teach her again this week.

We played basketball this last P-day with some members in our ward. We probably played for 4 hours and Elder Crowther and I were so tired by the time we were done.

I am doing really well here on my mission. I appreciate your forwarding me the letters from Caleb, Eric and Andrew. I have not felt homesick yet, but things aren’t as physically tough here for me.

Our Zone Leaders called us last night and told us that Osama Bin Laden has finally been caught and killed. That is crazy. How was the Royal Wedding? Was it a big deal in the states?

Did Rochelle and Nickie have fun at Disneyland? Did they take any pictures? Tell them to send them to me.

Who is the other boy who asked Maddie to Prom? She looks great in those pictures you sent me. Looks like she had fun.

Mom, that is scary about your head and having to have an MRI to check for a tumor. I hope it all turns out all right. I am praying for you. There is no need to worry, though, for the Lord’s will is best.

I am anxious to get the Easter package you sent. I hope it comes this week. That is great news about Ryan Skousen’s call. That is also great that Matt Maddox is in the MTC going to the Ft. Lauderdale Spanish Speaking Mission too! Can you tell Ryan I am so happy for him and to send me his address as I would like to write to him.

I love hearing from you all and tell Carly that I got her letter! I don’t really have much else to say. We have zone conference this week so that will be fun.

I love you all and you are all in my prayers.

Love, Elder Dowd