Dear Mom and Dad,

Hey, thank you for the package and everything. Transfers aren't until May 18th, so I should get it in plenty of time. It sounds like everything has been crazy back home, eh?

Nothing too exciting has happened here. We have been doing a lot of walking and street contacting this week because the weather has been getting nicer. It got up to 16 degrees yesterday, it was beautiful. The only exciting thing that I can think of this week was we taught Loreene again and she has told us she wants to get baptized! But, she wants to learn more about the church, so we are planning for our next lesson to really focus on the Book of Mormon.

It was Elder Crowther’s birthday on Saturday. He is now 21, and a member here, Sister Leigh, was really nice and fed us lunch and dinner. She also got Elder Crowther a birthday cake and a present. She’s a really nice lady. Then we had an appointment cancel so we walked about 5 miles up and down the main street in Cochrane just talking to people, it was all right.

Easter was awesome, no one had signed up for dinner yesterday and we thought that there was going to be no one at church, but we had this British family invite us to dinner and then the Nzojibwamis had us over for dinner as well. It was a good day.

We had interviews with President Archibald on Wednesday and it was nice. He told everyone basically that the work in the mission is going to be improving and that we are going to be dependent on revelation from the Lord in all that we do.

That’s about all that has happened this week. Today we are going into Calgary to play basketball with the Zone. We invited Dallin Bachynski and Marc Nzojibwami to come play with us so I am excited. They are both really cool guys, and Dallin is 7 feet tall. =) Then I am going to go the mall before and probably buy a nice old fashioned pocket watch with that money you gave me.

I love you Mom and Dad.

Keep on Keeping on!

Love, Elder Dowd

Visit from Elder Scott

Hello!

Sorry we couldn't email until Tuesday again, Elder Scott did come speak to the mission yesterday it was awesome. I saw Elder Grbin again and he says "Hello Momma Dowd" and also saw Elder Mercado, a friend I made in the district that got transferred, he is from the Phillipines.

Elder Scott spoke to us for about 3 hours. He brought Elder Brimhall of the Seventy with him. It was so cool! He shared a lot of neat stuff. Elder Scott told us all that our 1st priority after we get home should be to find a spouse, so I'm glad that I have two more years before I am getting released. He then bore his testimony of the gospel and of Jesus Christ and told us that you can't be called to the Apostleship unless you have a knowledge of the Savior. It was really spiritual and an awesome experience, Elder Crowther was surprised at how small he was, it was funny.

Did Ryan Skousen get his call? I got a letter from Chris, Jordan, Tanner, Christian and Trent this last week. Trent sent me our brotherhood tie and a picture and of one of his companions who is one of Elder Crowther's good friends from Colorado, so it's crazy how small this world is.

I'm so glad that Dad got paid, you have all been in my prayers and I will continue praying for you. I am doing all right though with these missionary mall shirts though, so I think I am fine on shirts for awhile.

I'm so excited that Brian and Julie are getting married and I am bummed that I will be missing out on it though! I want to see a lot of pictures from the wedding. I hope that you all are doing all right down there.

The work is starting to get more and more exciting! Elder Crowther and I get along really well and I am so grateful for him. Our district has changed this transfer and I've seen a lot of companionships that don't get along and I'm grateful that I have gotten along with my companions so far. Other then that every thing has been about the same, although none of our investigators came to church this week and a lot of the members are leaving town for Easter Vacation so we will have a hard time getting appointments, but we will stay busy this week. That's one thing that I like about Elder Crowther is that he makes sure that we are always busy. It is Elder Crowther's birthday on Saturday.

I think that I am out of time for email but I love you and glad for all your support and prayers, keep on keeping on.

Love, Elder Dowd

April 11, 2011 Letter

That's so nice of the Bybees to help with the mission, tell them thank
you so much, and that I will send them a postcard. I am getting
excited for the wedding. This last week we helped these members that
we used to live with, the Comstocks get the church set up and
decorated for their daughter's wedding, the whole time we were helping
I felt like I was helping set up for Brian and Julie's wedding! We
were invited to the wedding and we went for dinner this last Saturday
but it was awkward because the groom is a recent convert and his
family and friends were nonmembers, and we had to sit at this table
with all these girls that are around our age or a little bit older and
the were dressed immodestly and Elder Crowther and I were too
embarrassed to look or talk to them so we just sat quietly and ate and
looked straight forward. It was awkward, but luckily an older member
from the Ward came and sat by us and talked with us, but when we left
the wedding all those girls that were at our table were outside in the
church parking lot smoking and they saw us and tried to hide it. Then
on Sunday morning the parking lot was littered with cigarettes.

Finally, the weather is improving. It is around 8 to 10 degrees outside so we can go out walking with without overcoats. It's beginning to feel like spring is here but there are sometimes when it still gets pretty cold out here.

I hope that you will be ok you guys are all in my prayers, that will
be nice that Dad will be so close and that you guys can see each other
more often. That's too bad that someone keeps egging the car, whenever
Elder Crowther and I are out walking people always drive by and stare
at us and kids will yell at us. Thank you for fasting yesterday, we
fasted too, Sunday was great and we had 3 investigators come to
church, Loreen came and all the members were great and all the talks
were great but she only stayed for 2 hours but said she would see us
on Wednesday, this last Wednesday we taught her the Plan of Salvation
and I invited her to be baptized on April 23rd but she said she wanted
to learn more and keep reading the Book of Mormon before she decided
but she told us she knows baptism is something she needs to do. But
she is awesome she read all of 1 Nephi from our first lesson with her
and our second lesson. The missionary work is going well and it is
exciting to be seeing miracles happening and I know this church is
true and through faith in the Lord anything is possible. I love you
all and you are all in my prayers, I love Monday and getting to email
you guys.

Love, Elder Dowd

P.S.

I forgot to tell you that Elder Richard G Scott is coming to speak to
the mission this next Monday. And also if you haven't sent that music
up yet but you have bought it you can just email it to me and I can
put it on a CD or something if that would be easier.

I love you!

Love, Elder Dowd

Sorry I couldn't write until Tuesday, this is transfer week (only 16 more!) so our P-day was moved to Tuesday because people get transferred on Wednesday. But conference was Great! We had to watch at the chapel and no one was there but like 4 other people. It was really good, it was kinda weird to see Temple Square and the Conference Center and to realize that I am not there or going, but I stayed awake through the whole thing and it was really uplifting. I'm glad you guys could watch with Aunt Willi and with Brian and Julie.

Tell Brian that I got his letter last week and that the mail is slow, but I will send him a letter back. I also bought a postcard for Grandma and Grandpa Turley and I will send it today. I love hearing from you all and I am always excited when email time rolls around!

We have been teaching that lady Loreen the one we met on the street and she took pretty well and asked us about baptism but is convinced that the Sabbath is on Saturday. We gave her a Book of Mormon and hopefully she will read it and pray about it and when she knows that it is true she will receive an answer from the Holy Ghost because that's the only way she will ever know if the what we are teaching is true.

Yeah, Elder Crowther and I get along really well. Yeah we are both staying in Cochrane which I am glad as I am just getting used to everything here. Yeah Caleb's letter is something else huh? A lot different experience than I am having, but he is teaching a lot more than we so he is being blessed. I am doing well, Elder Crowther has been sick so there were some days this past week when we had to stay in, so I watched a lot of Church movies, but it has been good. I wake up every morning and do push ups and jump on a excersice trampoline and today we are going to play basketball with the Banff Elders. Elder Conder says Hi.

If you do send that Easter package I would like Twizzlers, red vines, maple syrup (they don't have any here :).) Also jalapeno chips and pictures of family and friends.

I love you and sorry to worry you!

Love Elder Dowd

March 28, 2011

Hello Mom and Dad,

I had a very interesting week. We met with that lady we met on the sidewalk again and will be teaching her on Wednesday. My rash went away. Sister Kerr, who gave me the Benadryl, also gave me Zyrtec, but I did not take it.

That is exciting that Nickie is getting scholarships and that you all are staying afloat and all that stuff. I am praying for everyone you every night. On Tuesdays, Elder Crowther has to email the Zone Leaders comment sheets from each companionship in our District because he is the District Leader. So, on Tuesdays, I browse the Church website and I was looking up Grandpa Turley. I guess there is an article about him in the Friend. It said President Kimball came to your house for Family Home Evening. It also said there is a picture of him with his children and grandchildren, but it wasn't on the website.

Anywho, my week was interesting because we had a training last Thursday on something called the Seven Day Challenge. What this is we issue a challenge to the members to invite someone to be taught by us in the next seven days. and some of the members get really excited about it and really try, but it seems like a lot of members try to either justify reasons for not doing it, or get offended. Anyway, we had a training on it, then we had dinner at a member's home that evening. After dinner we taught them and gave them the challenge. The mom kind of freaked out. I promised her if she asked in faith, that Heavenly Father would put someone in her path and she continued to freak out saying she does pray in faith and that miracles happen, but that God wouldn't provide a miracle for her and it was kinda awkward and sad. Then on Saturday, Elder Crowther was sick and so we had to stay home and it was so awful. I watched 10 hours of Church movies and I was so bored. But, yesterday we were able to go to Church and teach a few lessons. Elder Crowther still isn't feeling that well, but his mom sent him antibiotics, so if he keeps taking those hopefully he will be fine.

Oh, and another thing last Monday after emails, we went into Calgary to play basketball with some other Elders. One of them had forgotten his shoes, so we went to the mall to get him some new ones and the shoes were pretty cheap and my old shoes had gotten holes in them, so I bought a new pair of shoes for $65 and they normally would have been $110, so I felt good about it. They are Reebox Zigslash shoes and they are really cool and comfortable, so that was exciting. About an Easter package, you need to send it to the Mission Home as well as any kind of mail.

So, yeah, I love you. Happy Birthday and tell Uncle Brian Happy Birthday. Have fun watching General Conference and don't forget that we are hearing from appointed prophets of God and that Christ can speak through them if we are listening. I love all of you and wish you the best.

Love, Elder Dowd

Hey,

Thats so exciting about Jordan's call!! Tell him that I am excited and glad that he is going to stay in the United States, where it is warm and beautiful. Sounds like life is pretty crazy out there, but it's pretty crazy out here.  It's been a crazy week. We went to Banff last Monday after emails and I will send you some pictures. Then I went on splits twice this week so i worked like two days in Calgary this week.  Then I went back to the mission home to do retraining and I got to see Elder Grbin again. Then we drove by the temple that is under construction and it has been fun, but yeah I am so glad that I have chosen to be out here. It is really great. I have really enjoyed getting to teach and bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon, and to be guided by the spirit.

On saturday we had about an hour in between lessons and so we went and knocked on a less active member's door and he didn't answer so we felt like we should just walk down the street. We walked down a street that we had never seen before and we saw this lady shoveling her driveway. We offered to help her and then it led into a discussuion about the church. She told us that she has been searching for a religion and that she had read about our church and was very intersted. She gave us her phone number and we are going to meet with her later this week. It is really neat to be able to have experinces like that. And yes the Nzijbwamiis, their son Marc just won Provincials in basketball which is the same as state.

You don't need to send my jacket because the Elders in Banff got me one for free because they do alot of service at a thrift store, but I would still love that music.  Tell Brian and Julie that I am so excited for them, and I am bummed that I will miss their wedding.

Today for p-day we are going into Calgary to play basketball and stuff, and we are going to go shopping at Walmart! I think I am going to buy some Benadryl becuase Saturday night I broke out in hives really bad, and I went to bed thinking that it would be better, but it only got worse and I was crazy itchy all day, but I didn't scratch because I knew that would make it worse and then we had dinner with a really nice family and their mom gave me some childrens Benadryl and I drank like half of it last night and it has kept it down, but I'm still really itchy. I think that I might be allergic to garlic beause we ate at our members home on Saturday night and there was garlic in just about everything, but I am doing alright and it is not hindering my work.

Did i tell you that we moved? We moved into this older ladies basement and it is funny because she is always watching tv.  Like last Monday she watching the Bachelor finale and we could hear it from downstairs it was driving me crazy. But she is really nice. And yeah that's pretty much all that is going on out here in Cochrane Alberta Canada, I am almost two months old! I love you all and have been praying for you!

Love, 

Elder Dowd

snow man

Elder Crowther and Elder Dowd at Banff

Banff

Banff

Banff

Elder Dowd with his district at Banff

The beginning of the Calgary temple!

Hello,

I don't mean this in a bad way, but I don't miss you guys that much. This past week has been crazy. On Tuesday I went on splits and I went up to Canmore which is right next to Banff and it was just like Park City. Then on Wednesday we went on splits with the Zone Leaders. Thursday, we moved from our members home, the Comstocks, to a older single sister's home just outside of town. Then on Friday the Banff elders came down and did splits with us because we had to leave early to go see Elder Christofferson on Saturday. I told Elder Christofferson that Rick was my uncle, but he was shaking hands with everyone in the mission so all he said was, "He's a good one." And then he talked to us about a lot of stuff I can't even remember because I was so tired. Then yesterday we had like 5 lessons with members and we ate dinner with the Nzidjbwamiis. They are from Burundi and they are such nice people and the food she cooks is always good. She used to have a cooking show in Burundi, we shared a message with them about love and service, we showed them the Mormon Message called Lessons I learned as a lad, where Gordon B Hinckley tells a story about his grandpa where they were going to pull a prank on someone but then decided to serve them instead, you should watch it. Then I shared John 1 ch 4 versus 5-8 I think but it was crazy because I've never even seen those scriptures before but the spirit was so strong it was really cool!

But yeah, I'm doing well and I am grateful to be out here in Cochrane serving. Elder Crowther and I get along really well.  In our mission when you are new they call you a greenie and you have to have a trainer and your trainer is your dad and on Saturday when the whole mission was together we took a posterity picture and I met my grandpa and my great grandpa, so that is pretty unusual to have 4 generations in a mission so I am in good hands and have been blessed with a good family (again). But yeah, I love you and this gospel is true!!! I will talk with you again next week.

Oh and tell Talmage and his mom that I am so excited! when does he leave??

I love you and happy Birthday, Mom =)

Love,

Elder Dowd