Things are Great!

Hello!

Things have been going alright since I wrote last Wednesday.  Nothing too exciting really.  Every Thursday we spend all morning planning out our next week, so that's what we did. Then on Friday we go to the mission office and pick up the zone's mail and that's always fun.  On Saturday we went on exchanges and I went to the 2nd and Panorama Wards which both Elder Grbin and I have previously served in. That was fun.  We went to a baptism and it was really good. Then we had dinner with the Assistants after. Then on Sunday it was good in our family ward, no investigators came, so I blessed the Sacrament and then in the YSA Ward our investigator came on her own which was great.  There was only one speaker who showed up so the Bishopric called on this couple that helps the Ward and the wife bore a really powerful testimony which was really great.  That was pretty much the highlights of the week.

We live with a really nice family named O'Brien.  Today we are going to play ping pong and get some shopping done.  The other Elders in our District live with a family who have a ping pong table, so we will go over there.

Oh! Last night there was a hailstorm for a little while, that was a change.

Well, yep I sure love you!
 Love,  Elder Dowd

Everything Is Great!

Hey!

 

Everything is going really great. Elder Grbin and I are having a blast and working really hard. This week was really busy - we had a lot of stuff to do.

 

On Monday we skipped p-day so we could go to the temple this week.  Then on Tuesday we had a Zone Training meeting where we train the zone and set goals for them and stuff. Then on Wednesday we had a bunch of a appointments. Thursday we went to the temple which makes the 9th time I've been to the temple on my mission. And then on Thursday night we had dinner in Airdrie which is a small commuter town just north of Calgary with a member of our YSA Bishopric.  After dinner we were running late to a lesson and Elder Grbin was backing me up and he left the park brake on the truck so I put it into reverse and and it wasn't moving and I let the park brake go and our truck moved really fast and I pinned Elder Grbin between our truck and the car behind us, so we had to cancel our appointment and go to the doctor in South Calgary but it was just a bruise and everyone is ok and we were laughing the whole time. Then on Friday we had interviews with President Nicholas. Also we did another training and then we had to go to the mission office to pick up our Zone's mail. And then on Sunday we had dinner with a really fun family.and then yeah things have been going really great. Thats pretty much what has been going on this week.

 

To answer your questions Mom, we have a YSA ward and a family ward in our area.  In areas where there is a YSA ward, the Zone Leaders are always put with them.  We have a few investigators, but we are having trouble getting set appointments.  We do have a lesson tomorrow with one of them.  On Thursday we are having dinner with a member family.  They gave their friends a Book of Mormon and they are coming to dinner to meet us.  So, things are looking up!

 

I sure love you all and the church is still true!

 

Love,  Elder Dowd 

A Busy Week!

Hello Family,

Things have been great with Elder Grbin.  We are having a lot of fun, but it's been hectic. We have been super busy. We transferred on Wednesday which pretty much takes the whole day.  Then on Thursday we had to move out of our house and in with new members, so we packed all of our stuff and then they weren't home when we got there, so we had to unpack all of out stuff and teach some lessons. Then we had to grab all of our stuff again and go back to our old house one more time!

Then on Friday we had Zone Leader Council at the mission home where all the Zone Leaders in the mission get together and we council about what the mission needs to accomplish and other concerns. That went until about 4:30 and then we had to after that go to the mission office and get our Zone's mail.  Then we had to go and move into our new house.  Then we taught an investigator, but he dropped us.

On Saturday we went to a Calgary Stampede breakfast and I saw a bunch of members that I know from when I was near this area a little while ago. Then on Sunday we had a good day.  We went to church. Then today we are sacrificing our p-day so that we can go to the Cardston temple on Thursday which I am excited for.  We are going down with some members in our area and two Elders in our Zone who haven't been yet. 

And yeah that's pretty much it. I'm glad that you all had a lot of fun at the Madsen Family Reunion, I didn't even realize it was happening so soon.

The box of letters of mine you found on the porch were brought by the Leavitts.  I left them with them when I transferred from Cardston a month or so ago so I didn't have to lug them around the mission with me.  They come to Utah a lot and they are down there right now.

That's too bad that Stephen R. Covey died.  I went to a party at his house in Provo once.

I am not sure Mom if I want to go to BYU or UVU, so if you want to apply at both for me, go ahead.  I just don't know yet, what I want to do.  That's great that Rochelle got that job.  So she moves out at the end of the summer?  That will be weird to just have Carly at home.  When does Maddie go to Idaho?

So Brenna Lewis got married last weekend, and Garret Coleman too?  Ha ha ha about Olivia, tell her I highly doubt I will be married before her!

This home we moved into had other missionaries there before us.  They left two Nerf guns with lots of Nerf ammunition.  Each night before sleeping Elder Grbin and I have Nerf fights and it's been a lot of fun.

Well, that's about it for this week.  I sure love you all. The church is true!


Elder Dowd

Hello Family,

 

Yes, it is transfers and I am getting an old companion. Elder Grbin! I am being transferred out of my area, and back to North Calgary. So Elder Orozco will stay here with another companion! I will be sad to leave him.   He is really great and I love him. But I am excited to serve with Elder Grbin again!

 

Other than that not a lot of news. I really enjoyed this area and I am kinda shocked that I am leaving, but I am really excited to work with Elder Grbin again.

 

This last week was really good. We had the Meet the President Meeting. I really enjoyed it. A lot of missionaries kinda talked a lot and made themselves look like idiots. But overall, it was good. And then on Saturday we went to the temple and it was really great.  I got to see Elder Staley again and it was really good.

 

The Calgary Stampede started this week and so Calgary has been really busy and stuff, so the work has kinda slowed down. But it will be over next week.

 

That's about all I know, but I sure love you and I will talk to you all next week and hopefully at the next library I can email pictures!

 

Love, Elder Dowd

 

Richie was online when I was at work, so I asked him if he was still a District Leader, and he said no he and Elder Grbin are Zone Leaders.  He said Elder Grbin, who was his MTC companion and is from Australia, was made Zone Leader last month, so they will be serving together.  I asked him what his responsibilities will be and he said "We collect the numbers for the Zone and then once a month all the Zone Leaders meet and have a council with the Mission President and talk about the mission. Also we report the numbers each week to the Assistants." 

 

I asked him if he goes on splits with the other missionaries.  "We go on splits with the District Leader and his companion, then the District Leader goes on splits with his District Elders."

 

I asked if the new temple in Calgary, which has it's Open House at the end of  September, is near his new area - his new Zone is North Calgary.  "We are pretty close to the new temple, but it is in the West Zone which is the Zone I was in when I was in Cochrane.  So, yea, we are close, but it's in a different Zone."

 

Then I asked him about the Mission Office and the Mission President's home if they are near him. "The Mission President's Home and the Mission Office are in the South Zone.  But, we go to the Mission Office once a week to pick up mail, etc."

Happy Canada Day!

Canada Day Celebration

Hello Family!

Yes, it was Canada Day on Sunday. It was funny in church.  We sang "O Canada" and it was hard for me not to laugh because it's not my national anthem.  As people bore their testimonies on how great Canada is and I was telling Elder Orozco that we should go bear testimony of how great America and Mexico are too, but of course, we didn't!

President Archibald left this week and President and Sister Nicholas arrived.  We haven't met them yet, but we will meet them tomorrow. It's transfers next week so I will probably get a new companion which is kind of sad.  I really like Elder Orozco.

Yesterday on p-day the stake had a big Canada celebration at the Stake Center which we went to.  Then we played soccer with a bunch of the YSA members and it was a lot of fun.

Other than that not much has happened, we have been trying to build our  teaching pool because all of the investigators we were teaching got baptized or dropped. We have been getting some referrals. There is a Fillipino lady that has come to church twice who we are meeting with this week and she is asking her fellowshipper how soon she can baptized. So she will probably be baptized. And that's pretty much all that is going on this week. We will be going to Cardston on Saturday to go to the temple so that will be fun.

I have been losing some of the weight I gained while living in Cardston with all the eating out for lunch for every day!  I have lost ten pounds in this past month!

Picture of Elder Dowd with his Primary Class in 2002!  All are serving missions.  From left to right: Elder MacDonald (Mexico), Elder Baldwin (Brazil Belem), Elder Dowd (Canada Calgary), Elder Exstrom (Indiana Indianopolis Spanish), Elder Jones (Buenos Aires South), Elder Bluth (Phillipines Cagayan).

Thanks for sending me the picture Sister Jones sent you of my old Sunday School Class!  That's really cool that we are all on missions, we must have had good leaders (and parents!).

That's pretty much it, I sure love you!

Elder Dowd

Hello Family!

 

That's cool that you met Elder Madsen. (One of Rochelle's friends told her that a guy moved into his Ward south of BYU campus and he had gone to Canada Calgary on his mission and just got home.  He said that this guy had all good things to say about Elder Dowd, including the fact that he was the funniest Elder in their mission!  Well, we had him to dinner on Sunday night and really enjoyed visiting about the mission.)

 

This last week was great we had another baptism.  Our investigator Josh got baptized.  It was really great.  The spirit was really strong. The Bishop of this ward baptized him. Tthen on Sunday Elder Orozco confirmed him.  

 

We had some other great miracles this week. We got some really solid referrals and we had a Filipino lady come to church on Sunday.  We will be teaching her this week.

 

It rained most of the week. President Archibald leaves this Sunday so I have been kinda sad about that.  I will really miss him.

 

Other than that not too much happened this week. The Book of Mormon is true. God lives and His son is Jesus Christ. We can all be together forever as a family. I love you all!

 

Love, Elder Dowd

 

PS: We are always joking with other missionaries about turtles and an Elder in my district showed me a scripture so I think you should read it.  It proves that turtles are doctrine, Songs of Solomon 2:12 - 12 The ^aflowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the ^bturtle is heard in our land;

Last Two Weeks with Mission President

This is a picture of Elder Staley, me, Sister Archibald, President Archibald, Elder Kuetell and Elder Langi in Cardston just before I got transferred to Calgary.  I still can't get the library computer to upload pictures, I asked the staff to upload this one because I had to send it to the Assistants.

It sounds like you all had a fun week! 

The first half of our week was pretty uneventful, but the second half of the week was really cool. We had a wedding for our investigator Josh who is getting baptized this Saturday. His wife is already a member.  Bishop Laycock performed the ceremony.  I was able to be one of the witnesses at the wedding.  Josh is a native living on a reserve.  Part of our area includes the Tsuu T'ina reserve.  At his wedding I realized that the Bishop and I were the only Caucasians!  I teased the Elder Orozco about being surrounded by Lamanites!

We went on exchanges on Saturday night. We helped out with a community parade and blocked traffic and that was a lot of fun. While on exchanges we talked to some Jehovah's witnesses. We volunteer at a place similar to the Boys and Girls Clubs in the U.S.

Other than that nothing too exciting happened.  We are going to the Cardston temple this week which I am looking forward to. We are going with the Zone Leaders and with a member from their Ward.  To answer your question, we serve in two Wards - The Woodbine and the Evergreen Wards.  I love Elder Orozco.  He is hard working and fun.  He knows all the areas where Grandpa Turley has lived in Mexico City.  We ate at a Mexican restaurant the other day.  The lady came and asked us if we could help serve at a dinner!    And we have a baptism this Saturday which will be very good.

We had s'mores yesterday.  It was the first time Elder Orozco has had them.  He thinks they are too sweet!  Mostly people feed us different food.  Lately we have had taquitos and burritos and it has been so yummy.  There isn't much in the way of Mexican food up here

Yea, the Calgary Temple Open House will be at the end of September and into October.  The Sister Missionaries will be serving there.

It is kind of drizzling today, but not storming.

So exciting things are happening, but the days are all just a blur.

Well, President Archibald is leaving on the 29th.  He has been a great Mission President and has been a great influence on me.  I am sad to see him leave. 

Love you all.  Bye!

Elder Dowd