Congrats to Maddie for Taking State

Dear Family and Friends,

That's an exciting week you had last week! That must been a lot of fun and quite the relief to be done with basketball. I've been praying for all of you!


Eternity (laying down), Maddie, Mercedes, Jamie, Dani, and Marcy

Not too much exciting happened this week. We went on exchanges on Tuesday and, and we had free lunches every day. There is a less active family whose daughter just turned 9 and hasn't been baptized yet. She has been coming to church and we have been visiting with them so hopefully we can help her get baptized. It would have been nice if she could have been baptized sooner as the Elders have been visiting this family for several months now.

We did find this recent convert and she is from the Philippines and knows all the Filipino people in town. Her cousin has been reading the Book of Mormon so hopefully we should teach him soon.

I really like my companion, Elder Anderson. We are working so hard!

So we have a lot of exciting prospects coming up. We spoke twice in church yesterday. In one ward they were talks on Counsel to Youth. In the other ward it was a last minute talk on how Temple Work is Missionary Work, which was interesting because we have been trying to involve the members here in Proclaiming the Gospel but they are all content with just doing temple work so I shared Moroni 10:31 and explained the three fold mission of the church.

Yesterday we went to dinner with a family called the Schows and they asked me if I know the Bradfords, and I told them yes, and they said as soon as we left they were gonna call them and ask. Then we met with the Bishop of the Leavitt Ward out in Leavitt, and he said he served in Montreal. His name is Bishop Leavitt! There are a lot of people with the same last names - Leavitt, Pitcher, Beavan, Cahoon, Beazer and Olson.

Well that's about all that's happened this week. I love you all. The church is true!

Elder Dowd

PS Mom I think you asked a while ago about one of my ties so I took a picture of my ugly tie collection for you.


Oh and there are people going down to Montana all the time and a family was nice enough to get me jalapeno chips so you don't need to send me anything. I am very satisfied!

Family Day was Yesterday

Dear Family and Friends,

Yea, the library was closed yesterday, not for President's Day, but for Family Day in Canada. Even though all the Provinces don't celebrate it, Alberta does. My companion and I were able to go through the temple yesterday here in Calgary. That was really nice. It was a session with two people going through for their first time. I was glad we got to go.

It was fun to hear that Maddie's team won their first game at the State tournament. Good luck Maddie in tomorrow's game. That picture was funny of you about to take a shot, don't you like how they seem to get a shot right when you blink?

Mom, the other Elders in my District met your missionary friend, Maureen Barfuss. You said her maiden name is Pitcher? You should find out who her parents are because there are a lot of Pitcher's in Cardston.

We had Zone Conference this past week and so on Thursday we got to go to Taber for it. Taber is the corn capitol of Canada! It was a really good conference. The theme was on faith.

Then we had an interesting week because all of our appointments were canceling, but it worked out ok, because we were guided by the Holy Ghost this week. We were out walking and we felt like we should go to the hospital and visit our Ward Mission leader's mom, and we did. Then we asked if there was anyone else who could use a visit and the nurse told us there was. We went and talked to this old man who is 95 and he was trying to share the gospel with his nurse who wasn't a member. He gave us a referral and we gave him a blessing. It was really cool. We also just met a lot of people that are really helpful and want to do missionary work which is really great.

We went to church Sunday from 8:30 to 4:30 and that was good. The then temple yesterday that was the highlight of our week!

Hope you are all still doing well. Keep up the faith!

Love, Elder Dowd

P.S. Thanks for sending my friend's letters. I really liked the picture of Elder Skousen with the alligator!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello Family and Friends,

Hope you all have a good Valentine's Day. Here's a valentine note for Carl because he loves cards, so Mom print it out and give it to him.

"Happy Valentines day Carl! I sure love you and hope you have a fantastic day!
Thanks for all the letters that you send me! Love Elder Dowd"

Tell Auntie Tye and the Browns thanks for the Valentine!

Everything is good here. We only had 1 new investigator this week, but things are going good with her. Her dad is a recent convert and she told us that she just wants to find the truth. We taught her on Tuesday. Then we went on exchanges on Friday and she was taught then as well.

Elder Anderson is doing great, he's pretty much training me which is nice because with my other missionaries who I was training I felt like I had to do all the work. He is great and participates fully in the missionary effort. We still have 3 weeks of the 12 week training program and it is going well. When I went to Lethbridge last week for leadership training, he went on a exchange with another Elder.

I have been really tired, and no Mom, I don't think I have mono or anything. Elder Anderson and talk at night. My glands aren't swollen and I am doing well.

You asked where eat for free. We eat for free at Subway, Dairy Queen, a bakery called the Lighthouse, a pizza place called Pizzas and Cream, and a bed and breakfast called Cobblestone. We get fed dinners every night as well. So we are getting well fed and we don't really need to buy groceries because everyone gives us food as well.

Mom, the Zone Leaders ran into your mission friend, Sister Barfuss yesterday and she told them to say hi to me.

There's hardly any snow. The weather has been really warm here. It was like 10 degrees Celsius yesterday and its been around 4 or 5 most of the time. Other then that not much news.


Elder Pikula came to the temple on Friday with the Plewrights so I got to have lunch with them. Elder Pikula is training a Canadian Elder who is waiting for his VISA and so he is on a 3 leg.


That was pretty much my week. And it went by pretty fast.

Sure love you all and hope things are going well!

Love, Elder Dowd

Cool Miracles

Yea, it is hard to believe I have been out for half of my mission. It's gone by pretty fast. I would say it hasn't felt like a very long time and the days are going by pretty quickly.

We saw a lot of cool miracles this week! We were visiting with a recent convert and his family and his 18 year old daughter, who is not a member, asked us a bunch of questions and her dad told her to take the discussions, so we are teaching her on Tuesday.

Then on Saturday we were meeting with a less active family whose daughter is turning 8. The bishop asked us to visit with them and teach her the lessons. They had a Filipino lady living with them and she sat in on the lesson and wants to meet with us next week.

Then last night when we were planing we had a family call and tell us that they are having their non-member friend over to be taught on Friday.

Then an older sister from Church called us and told us that her non-member care taker wants her daughter to come to church so she told her she would have some teachers from the church call. She gave us her number so if things go well we should have at least 4 new investigators this week!

I have been so tired though and haven't been feeling very well. We went to church in a little town called Mountain View yesterday and I guess the missionaries haven't been out to church there in awhile because when we went they had us sit up on the stand. I kept falling asleep.

My companion is great. He is such a good missionary. I asked him if he is related to Coach Anderson who passed away. He said he is not, but that he had him for his PE Class at UVU. My companion is really smart and sometimes he talks about things I have no idea what he is talking about, but it is kind of funny.

Have you heard of the Genealogy Fan? Cardston has a lot of genealogist enthusiasts. They are so good at doing genealogy. They keep telling us we have to get our fans printed out. So, I did. We need it for a training this week. Everyone here in Cardston does tons of genealogy and indexing. Our stake did over a million names for indexing last year and there was a man who did over 10,000 initiatories over the last year and a half.

Mom, your friend who lives out in Hill Spring isn't in our area. She lives in the Zone Leaders area. Other than that I don't have anything too cool to report. I guess here's a cool fact -- Fay Wray of King Kong fame is a native of Cardston, Alberta!



Love ya!
Elder Dowd

Cardston is Great!

Hello Family,

Cardston is great! There are maybe 5000 people in the whole town and we are covering 7 wards and the Waterton branch, that is closed until the summer.


The temple is a block away from where we live and I see it all the time -- it is so nice. The temple is usually closed on P-day, but on the 20th it will be open so we can go then and on transfers we have p-day on Tuesday so we can go then too.


Elder Anderson is great he has only been out for one transfer and he is from Springville, Utah. He is really good with cars and is a better missionary than I am. He was being trained by Elder Blackham, Aunt Fredi's neighbor.


Elder Anderson - with the Cardston Temple coming out of his mouth!

Cardston is a really funny place, there are a lot of old people that move here so they can die near the temple. We spoke in Church yesterday and I saw about 10 young families maybe and the rest are just older people. We live with an older member whose name is Brother Seabourne. He is the grandfather of Travis Seabourne who I met in Lethbridge. He is the one who is dating Morgan Bailey's friend. Small world. He is really nice. He feeds us breakfast every morning and is always willing to come to lessons with us. He looks a lot like the elderly man from the movie UP.

We get free lunch every day because a lot of the restaurants in town are owned by members and sometimes we get double dinners, but somehow I've lost a little bit of weight which is nice.

We cover two little towns called Leavitt and Mountain View just a little ways out of Cardston and there is this one man who we visit who is a taxidermist and reminds me a lot of your coworkers Mom. He is really nice and gave us some elk and moose meat to eat. He also gave us some spare elk skin that I am going to try and make a scripture case out of. Other than that I can't think of much else to say. We got a new car which is a 2011 Subaru Impreza which is really nice.

We had a baptism this Saturday, it was a young girl who is 9 years old. Elder Anderson baptized her and the Bishop confirmed her. So that was cool.

This older man named Brother Marshall came up to me and told me he has Dowd's in his family history.

The Plewrights, an Australian family that Elder Pikula and I got really close to came to the temple and had lunch with us on Saturday. It was nice to see them.


The Plewrights with me and Elder Crowe who was one of the Zone Leaders from my last area.

Well that's about it. Here are some pictures. I am glad Grandma and Grandpa Dowd got a new computer. I am looking forward to hearing from them.

Love you all,
Elder Dowd

P.S. Elder Whiting and Elder Welling went home too which is weird. Elder Crowther will go home in May. I am the second oldest missionary in the zone now. It's weird. Love you!


Elder Welling (just went home) who trained Elder Crowther who trained me!


Sister Macias who served in Lethbridge with me. She is home now.




Elder Dowd, Elder Grbin (MTC Companion) and Elder Mercado

Transfer to Cardston from Calgary -- Angel Moroni on Calgary Temple Now

Dear Family and Friends,

Sadly, my companion's health concerns ended up being too difficult to manage on his mission and he returned home yesterday. I have been working with the Zone Leaders for a few days. I found out this morning I am being transferred to Cardston to the West Zone there in the Fort Macleod Zone. My companion will be Elder Anderson. I will know more about him next week. Fredi's neighbor, Elder Blackham, was his companion and that is about all I know. Carston is a fun place to go because most of the restaurants there are owned by members of the Church and they invite the missionaries to eat there!

My health is good. The weather hasn't been too bad. I've been staying pretty warm. Elder Pikula gave me some good gloves that have kept my hands warm.

My testimony is good. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that
he gives his priesthood to his servants the prophets and that whenever
there is a prophet on the earth the Church of Jesus Christ is on the
earth. I know that there was an apostasy after the earthly ministry of
Jesus Christ and his apostles and the priesthood authority was lost
but has now been restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that the
Book of Mormon is evidence of that restoration and of the divinity of
Jesus Christ. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints is the true church on the earth and the only church with the
priesthood of God. This priesthood allows us to participate in all the
saving ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ which allows us access
to the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that Thomas Monson is the
prophet of God today and this I know by the power of the holy ghost.

On January 12th they hung Angel Moroni on the Calgary Temple. The pictures below are some pictures another Elder took who was near there when they raised the angel on the temple.





I lost my camera and haven't been able to find it. But I was fortunate enough to have been given a $100 dollar gift card to a Superstore so I went and bought a camera. I got a Fuji because I as able to get SD cards and a case. Other than that and being transferred to Cardston, which I am excited about, not much has been happening. So I love you all and hope that you are staying warm.

Love, Elder Dowd

Chinooks Gone! Freezing Weather Here!

After a warm spell that lasted weeks, Aletha Bennett faced a wind chill of –27 as she ran along the Bow River pathway on Sunday.
Photograph by: Gavin Young, Calgary Herald

Dear Family and Friends,

We have had a lot of chinook winds lately and so the weather has been really nice! However, this past weekend, they subsided and now it is -14 today and got down to -26 degrees Farenheit, so it is not so fun anymore!

This next Sunday we have Stake Conference in the Stake where we are serving, so that should be pretty nice. I always enjoy those meetings.

My companion is still struggling with his health - he will be seeing a specialist this week, so that will help know what course of action the Mission President will need to take to best help him. So, keep us in your prayers.

I am sorry this letter is short, I accidentally pushed something on a longer letter I was sending and it just erased and I am needing to go, but I appreciate all of your support. You asked who I got mail from -- I got a Christmas card from Arielle Harrison, Elder Travis Lindberg and Sister Boss this week. Sister Boss send me $20 which was really sweet, thank you Sister Boss. I think I told you who else I got cards from in an earlier letter. Oh yea, the Eschenbergs sent me a card, it's crazy how much those boys have grown!

I have lost my camera so I would love if you all could pray that I find it.

Good news, I found out that Elder Quinton L. Cook coming here in March so maybe we will have a Mission Tour, that would be great.

Glad to hear you are all doing well.

I have to go, but I love you all,

Love, Elder Dowd

Calgary weather update: Environment Canada is calling for periods of light snow on Monday and temperatures holding steady around -25 C. Expect an overnight low Monday around -29 C, or -36 C when the wind chill is factored in. A wind child warning remains in effect for the Fort McMurray/ Fort MacKay area, with temperatures there likely to plunge to -40 C or lower (-36 ºC = -32.8 ºF)