Happy Mother's Day

It was great to talk to you all yesterday. Sorry to hear you are sick Mom, hope you feel better soon. 

That's cool that Grandpa, Grandma, and Carl got to go to the Provo Temple Ground Breaking.  The Calgary Temple should be dedicated this fall hopefully.  I am hoping President Monson comes to dedicate it!

Also, thanks for sending me Grandpa Turley's letter.  I will keep a copy and it might help me with an investigator. 

This week was kinda slow, but we did pick up a new investigator and he told us as soon as he is married he wants to be baptized. We have LTMs this week so that will be fun to go to Lethbridge. Other than that not too much is happening.

The church is true, and I am grateful for a divine mother! I love you all.

Love, Elder Dowd

Phone Call Summary Below

• He likes the smaller towns rather than Calgary
• He really enjoys the area and the missionaries in his area
• He and the other 3 Elders sang a Tongan hymn for us and it was lovely
• His favorite thing about being a missionary is teaching
• He loves President Archibald and is sad he is leaving next month
• Asked why we didn't have Chris Thurman over and asked us to tell him hello
• Said someone is coming this week and we can send a package back with them
• He talked to each of his sisters, his Uncle Carl, Grandpa and Grandma Dowd, Uncle Brian, Aunt Julie and cousin Shandra, as well as his mom and dad!

It's Spring in Cardston

Hello Family and Friends!

I am super jealous of Rochelle and Nickie's trip to California.  I love Disneyland so much!

Sounds like Maddie and Carly had a good Youth Conference.  Here in Cardston they are getting ready for a thing called Moroni's Quest where they reenact The Book of Mormon and that's all anyone here talks about.

I'm glad that you are growing spiritually, I feel like I am doing the same.   We had our Mission Tour this last week and it was pretty good.  The theme was sacrifice.  Elder Melchin, our Area Authority came.  He spoke and President Archibald spoke about The Fourth Missionary.  It is a 30 page article by Lawrence E. Corbridge on how a missionary can devote himself to be truly changed in his own life while helping others change their lives.  It lists the characteristics and behaviors of four different levels of being a missionary and our goal is to be the 4th Missionary.  We sang a song.  We will sing it for you on Mother's Day, which I need to know when you can call for. Our number is _ _ _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ . If you need to call at 5 that will work because we will be out of church. Our Zone was asked to sing a song, so when just four of us stood up to sing, everyone was surprised.  It went well.  The conference was good.  We had a luncheon after the meeting.  Elder Pikula, my companion from North Calgary was there, we sat together.  He is serving in Brooks.  It was fun to see him.

Our investigator did not get baptized this Saturday. He didn't pass his baptismal interview, but he did come to church this Sunday so we will continue to teach him and help him get worthy.

There is an Indian Reserve right next to Cardston and we went and helped the community clean up all the garbage there. We lifted this one trash can into a dumpster and 30 or so mice came flying out and so we were all stepping on them kinda like Whack a Mole.

The weather is really nice here in Cardston right now.  It's spring finally.  My sinus, cold thing is gone and I am feeling well.

Other than that nothing too exciting, I sure love you all!

Love Elder Dowd

April 30th Letter

Yeah the branding was a lot of fun we are going to go do it again. And it did smell really bad but it's OK it was still fun. We would brand them and then burn off the horns and it was the horns that really smelled bad, the branding kinda smelled like steak I thought =). Tell Grandpa Turley and Julie that it's fun to have a shared experience with them! Grandpa, did you get any kind of scar from getting the branding iron on your arm? I never noticed anything.

Sounds like a lot of fun stuff is happening back home with Maddie going to Prom, Nickie moving home, and Nickie and Rochelle off to Disneyland. Members tell me all the time that they just went down to Utah and I always reply, "So it's still there?"

Not too much else happened this week. We met with our progressing investigator a few times and he is still set to be baptized on Saturday. We just need to sit down with him and arrange everything like set up a time for the service, let the auxiliaries know and the Zone Leaders will interview him.

They are still constructing the temple.  It will probably be done this fall. Here is a picture of me standing by it last March and a couple pictures of it last week.  They put maple leaves into this window design.

We are having our mission tour this week in Lethbridge so that will be fun to see a lot of missionaries. Elder Melchin is visiting.  He is the Area Authority from Calgary. The Zone Leaders, Elder Staley and I have been practicing a musical number for it. We are going to sing a Tongan hymn. We are going to try and videotape it and have a member put it up on YouTube so you can see it.

Something this week I've learned is to not be offended and that we can all receive mercy and the atonement is for everyone.

Oh yea, Sister Leavitt know Chantelle's fiances family.  She said they moved away awhile ago.  Other than that not too much happened. I will tell you a funny story though. We went to lunch and these old men came and asked us to sit with them. As we were talking to them Elder Langi slipped his shoe off and Elder Staley grabbed it with his feet and then another Elder kicked it across the room! It was pretty funny.

I sure love you all! Have a good week!

Ofa Atu!
Elder Dowd

Cow Branding

Hello!

That's cool that Chantelle got engaged. I will have to see if I can find her fiancé's family here in Cardston. Things are going great here in Cardston! We have been working with a lot of less active people. We set a baptismal date for our investigator for Cinco de Mayo. Things are going really well with him. We taught him twice this week and we had a really spiritual lesson on Friday where we were totally guided by the spirit through the whole lesson. Elder Staley is awesome to work with as he is very spiritual and we teach so great together.

Elder Staley and I volunteered at a handicap center on Thursday and that was fun. We also did service helping brand cows on Saturday and that was a lot of fun. We would work in pairs. One of us would grab a calf's hind leg and pull it out of a group and then the other one would wrap their arms under one of its front legs and pick it up and throw it on the ground and then put their knees into its neck. Then people would brand the cow, give it a vaccination and burn its horns off. We went with the zone leaders and we wrestled the cows. The zone leaders are in the Barfuss' ward and they asked us if we could go help them brand too so we might get to go help them too.

Here is a picture of us in Cardston BRANDING COWS last week!

Transfers were this last week and we got a new Elder in the other Stake in Cardston, his name is Elder Langi and he is from Tonga.


Here is a picture of all the Elders in Cardston. Me, Elder Kuettell, Elder Staley and Elder Langi


Elder Kuettell, Elder Ellgen (he just got transferred), me, and Elder Staley

How is the weather there? It is really nice here right now.

These are pretty much the highlights of our week it was really good.

I sure love you all and I am praying for you every night! Love Elder Dowd

I Met Your Mission Friend Mom

NOTE from Richie's Mom: On Friday I received this note from my friend who I served a mission with in the Canada Montreal Mission

Maureen Barfuss 3:55pm Apr 13

Guess what I just met your boy! He is a good looking fine missionary and I recognized him as your boy as soon as he smiled. He totally has your smile. I guess he was on splits with the missionaries in our stake. I walked around the corner and I called him by his name before he could introduce himself to me.

We had a nice visit and I enjoyed talking to him and learning about your family. We gave us a good message and of course challenged us to have someone in our home for them to teach. Then he took a picture of the family that was here at the time and I must warn you that it will be scary. The youngest girl Maddie is sick with the flu. Darcy just had come in for dinner from the farm and I had no make up on the Mikayla had just fallen out of a quad trailer and had a road rash up her back. So she had her shirt tucked up and I was doctoring her back and she quickly ran into the other room to pull it out. So really no big deal just a normal day at the Barfuss house! Just warning you probably not the best picture, but it was with your boy.

He looks great and he looks happy. He says that he is hoping to last another transfer here so I guess we will see on Wednesday. I talked to Carolyn at a basketball game and she said that she met you and enjoyed her visit with you too. She takes good care of the missionaries it sounds like. She's a good woman. I hope all is well with you. I guess that you are getting a girl ready to graduate from high school aren't you? Family keeps you busy ay? Anyways just a note to tell you that he is doing great! Thanks for sharing your son with us.



Hey Mom,

Yeah we went on exchanges so I thought I would go and say hi to Sister Barfuss for you. They are a great family and they are misionary minded which is nice.

Sounds like everyone else is doing really well back home. Things are going great here in Cardston. I'm really enjoying it and we are teaching a few more people now. We started teaching this young man. He's been coming to church for awhile and his sister just got baptized recently so that's pretty promising.

Elder Staley and I are staying for another transfer as well. So that will be good. Other than that nothing too exciting has happened! I sure love you!

Love, Elder Dowd

PS For Easter Elder Staley and I made Easter eggs. Elder Staley did the one
with the fish and mine's the other one.



Also, on exchanges we saw a house with a lot of election signs on their lawn!

All is Well

The library was closed on Monday for Easter and it and the businesses up here were closed last Friday for Good Friday. Next week is transfers, so I won't write until Tuesday again.

I am doing really well. Elder Staley and I are working really hard and things are starting are starting to happen. We have been struggling to get the family of the little girl that we have been teaching to come to church. So she's not progressing too much right now. Last week we got a referral from someone who told us that his friend wants to meet with us but he is in Calgary until the 16th. We are teaching a new investigator tonight so hopefully that should go well.

It looks like everyone is doing pretty well. Thanks for all the pictures. What are those shirts that everyone is wearing? Maddie looks like she is medicated in that wisdom teeth removal pic!

Thanks for the Easter basket. Tell Grandma and Grandpa Dowd and Carl thanks so much for the CD. We had fun with the messages in the eggs. Thanks to Aunty Tye for her note. Did you all have a good Easter? Elder Staley and I went to this family's house and we painted Easter eggs, we are going to go finish them tonight! Then I can send you pictures.

I guesss to answer your question on how I am feeling, just last night I started getting a really bad sore throat and my sinuses are way bad. I've been dong a lot of stuff to try and feel better. I took some Vitamin C, drank some hot medicine, drank lemon juice, had lozenges but it's still hurting. Other then that things are going great, we have been working with a lot of less active people and the dad of this one family came to church which was really good.

I sure love you all and hope you had a good Easter weekend!

Love, Elder Dowd

Here are a couple pictures from our golf game last P-day! Have a great week!

Some Miracles

Hello Family and Friends,

P-day was on Tuesday this week because we had interviews with the Mission President yesterday. Next week we will write on Tuesday too because Monday the library is closed for Easter. Then the week after that will be transfers, so that will be on Tuesday also.

We just got to the library after going to the temple, it was really sweet. We went to the early morning session so it was just in one room, but it was nice. We got to go see the baptistry and we got to look through some of the rooms.

Sounds like everyone is having fun. I'm glad you could meet Sister Leavitt, she is sweet. Thanks for sending up a package with the Nelsons, they are a good family. That is great you were able to meet up, or Rochelle was, with them. I really enjoyed conference. I thought it was wonderful. Other than conference not too much news I guess.

That is good news about Amber, that is really cool. It's really nice today, like 17 degrees (62 Farenheit) so we are going to go golfing. We had a Family Home Evening lesson last night with a lot of empty nesters and the lady in charge brought a non member. We taught her - it was pretty cool. Then when we were sitting there visiting afterwards, one of the members asked me if we knew a former investigator in our area book. I told him I do not know him. He said that he wants to be taught again and wants to be baptized! So that was a miracle and hopefully we should start teaching him this week.

On Thursday we were out walking in front of the temple and we saw our Mission President's car in front of the temple so we left a little note on their car, but they didn't call us or say anything about it. The next day I had to call and ask President Archibald for permission to do a baptismal interview. I thought he just didn't see it or something but he said, "Thanks for the note." It was pretty funny.

I did a baptismal interview on Friday and that was cool. And Elder Staley and I got taken out to Waterton on Thursday and that was pretty cool as well. To answer your questions, Waterton is a Canadian National Park. We went and just saw the town. Next week I will send pictures. I haven't got the Easter basket you sent yet, but I did get the nobake cookies you sent. They were good and I shared them!

Other than that nothing more to report that I can think of.

I sure love you all and hope you have a good week! Wish me luck on the golf course!

Love Elder Dowd