Good Bye May


Hey Everyone!

Wow I can't believe that June is already here, May came and went faster than I can believe.  It's been a really good week, pretty crazy, and pretty entertaining as well.

This week was the week of sickness in the zone of Calle Calle, the ironic thing about that is that we had our annual flu shots on Tuesday, so you would think we all should have been nice and healthy.  On Thursday as we were getting ready to eat lunch I got some pretty bad stomach pains.  I wasn't able to eat lunch and went home to lay down and wait the pain out a little.  Just as I started to feel better, we got a call from some missionaries in the zone letting us know that one of our missionaries was in the hospital and that they were going to keep him overnight for observation. We went out to relieve his poor companion who had been in the hospital all day long and I stayed with the sick misssionary through the night.  I got to sleep on a sweet armchair and everything! The next day they transferred him down to Osorno where they still have him in treatment.  We then had to run back to our house and get over to the interviews we had that day with President Obeso.

We've had some good success in finding people this week.  One of the young men in our ward took us to a friend who has been attending the mission preparation classes to play the part of investigator in the practices that they do. She is awesome and accepted the invitation to investigate the church with real missionaries, we'll be teaching her this week.  We were also able to teach the brother of one of the members of our ward who we have with a baptismal date for the 20th of June.

I was very gratefull for our interviews with President this transfer. Obviously this was my last interview with him until the end of my mission and I really appreciate the councel that he gave me.  One of the things that I really admire about President Obeso is his ability to discern through the spirit exactly what the people need to hear.  It is an ability that I want to develop myself.  Lately I have learned a lot of things in my mission and I have found myself thinking many times "why didn't I figure this out earlier in the mission?" but he helped me realize that that happens in really any position.  We are continually learning new things and overcoming past weaknesses and it does us no good looking on the past like that.  Rather, it does us a lot more good to look at the now and try to use what we have learned and do our best in our current circumstances.

Well that's about it for this week, hope you are all doing well and feeling happy in whatever you are doing.  Til next week.

Elder Cameron Dower

So just thought this was funny, so you can all see how much we are suffering down here in the end of the world, this is the weather forecast for this week. ;)

Weekly Update‏

Here we are again Monday morning at the beginning of another week. I say this just about every week and I'll say it again, I can't believe how fast time goes by out here.

This week was transfers which is basically the most hectic time of my life out here on the mission.  Monday was Elder Bustamante's last day in the sector, we said goodbye to all the members and investigators.  Tuesday we sent him off to Puerto Montt and I stayed with two other elders in the zone for the day.  Tuesday we were in the bus terminal early at 8 30 in the morning and were there coordinating trasfers with missionaries constantly coming and going until my companion finally got here at about 11 at night. It was a really long day haha but I've realized that I should be grateful for the opportunity to learn to coordinate things like that.

Friday was our mission leadership council.  I really enjoyed it this time and learned a lot about how to be a good zone leader (finally! after four transfers!) which I was really grateful for.  My favorite part was being able to see so many of the missionaries from my MTC group all together there.  President Obeso made a comment about it because we have nine zone leaders and four sister training leaders that are finishing the mission this transfer.  Basically we have the choice to be "trunky" and not work as hard as we could and pretty much kill the mission or we can use all of the potential that we have and leave the mission much better than we found it.  It made me think about the choices that we have in life.  We can either use our influence to bring others down or we can build others up and be true followers of Jesus Christ.  We all have that same choice and we can decide how we are going to live our lives.  I'm really excited for these last weeks of my mission and for the opportunities that I have to help life others up and  help them follow our savior Jesus Christ.

Til next week,
Elder Cameron Dower

One Transfer to Go!‏

Hello everyone!

So today marks the beginning of my last transfer in the mission. Today we got transfers and my companion, Elder Bustamante is leaving to another zone of the mission.  My new companion will be Elder Dennis.  I'm really excited to be with him, we lived together for four months while we were in Quellon together and I consider him one of my good friends in the mission.  I will miss my Colombian buddy though, my spanish has improved a ton this cambio and it'll be a little tough to keep it to the end of the mission.

We've had a pretty good week out here.  The best news is that our investigator who I was talking about a while back who had baptismal date is back on.  She'd had some issues with her son but things seem to be resolved and she's excited again for her baptism for the sixth of June.  It's been another testimony to me that God really is in control of His work and as long as we are obedient and do our part, things always work out in the end.  I'm so grateful to be a part of this gospel and to have the comfort of the knowledge that our Father in Heaven is in control and knows what He is doing.

Hope you all have a great week back in the warmth of wherever you are!

Elder Dower

¡Feliz Dia de la Mama!

Hola todos!

Hope you all had a great mother's day yesterday! Ours went pretty well, we had a good day in church, it was pretty interesting though. So in our ward for some reason, we have priesthood and relief society meetings first, then sunday school, then sacrament meeting.  So yesterday when we started, there were only four of us in priesthood, including my companion and I.   So after the priesthood lesson, my companion and I decided to go and get a newly reactivated member who hadn't showed up yet.  We managed to convince him and he came.  We then went and did a special service project for our mamita, the member who makes us lunch every day.  The highlight of the week of course was being able to talk to my awesome family on skype yesterday.  I can't believe that so much time has passed since I left home and a lot has changed.  That's caused me to think and reflexion a lot this week.  Here on the mission, I think we always think that when we go home everything will be the same as it was before, everything back to normal.  But lately I've realized that that's not the case, we believe in eternal progression and as we all go on growing and progressing things have to change constantly.

As I've been thinking about that, it's scared me a little to be honest now that my mission is coming to a close.  But I've found something that has helped me recently.  I really like a scripture in Doctrine and Covenans 51:16-17,

16 And I consecrate unto them this land for a little season,until I, the Lord, shall provide for them otherwise, andcommand them to go hence;
 17 And the hour and the day is not given unto them,wherefore let them act upon this land as for years, and thisshall turn unto them for their good.

The important part of this scripture for me is in verse 17 "act upon this land as for years" we are put in a particular situation for a certain amount of time that only God really knows how long we will be there.  The key is acting as if we are going to be there for years, maybe even forever.  For me, that means living in the moment.  Focusing on what I can do now in this very moment to contribute to the something, the Lord, someone else, my family, even myself.  Lately this has helped me a lot to be able to not be overwhelmed by all of the things that are going on now and in the future and thinking and worrying about the past as well.

Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement, I love you all!

Elder Cameron Dower

WEEKLY UPDATE

Hey Everyone!

We've had a pretty good week down here.  Things are going well in the sector as well as the zone. The families that I mentioned came to church again yesterday, which makes us feel really good.  The ward is finally getting excited to work and we're seeing the results.

I dunno if it got to the news back home
but this week there was a volcano eruption in  the mission.  Volcan Calbuco erupted on Wednesday and from what we hear, the ashes are getting everywhere in the mission, besides Valdivia.  What are the chances, finally when something exciting happens, we're in the only place that doesn't get interesting haha.

Things are going well with the mom of the recent convert I was talking about last week.  There have been a few difficulties between her and her son this week, but yesterday we had a great lesson with them.  Really, I haven't felt the spirit so strong many times in my mission, It was great, we were able to convince them to go to a conference with the temple president from Santiago.  It was awesome and her son even took her up to meet him after the conference.

Well I can't really think of much else to mention, sorry it's a bit of a lame email this week.  Thanks everyone for everything, talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Dower

Crazy Monday

Hey everyone! Wow it's been a crazy day today.  I'll just start off telling you the story.  So every Monday in the morning we have to send the mission office the report on our zone.  This morning we went to the church like usual to send it but it just so happened that today of all days the internet was out.  So we went to a ciber to send it, but the ciber doesn't have excel.  So we had to run back to the church, do the report in excel then run back to the ciber to try to send it.  Then we realized that my flash drive had a virus and we weren't able to open the file.  Then we ran to a member to see if he can fix the virus.  Luckily, it worked and we sent the report.  Until about 10 minutes ago the APs called and said that we sent last weeks report. So I know that sounds really lame, but I just wanted to explain why I'm so stressed at the moment, but o well, now that our p day is almost done we're finally all good.

We've had a really good week, starting last Monday.  We had divisions while I stayed with the ward mission leader in his house to have a family home evening with a family that is reactivating, my companion went with the elders quorum president to visit a part member family of a 17 year old recent convert of almost a year and his mom.  We've been visiting the mom for most of my time here and she's been really receptive up to the moment when you mention "baptism."  With Elder McDonald we decided to stop passing by very much and give her some time.  On Monday, she accepted a baptismal date for the 16 of May.  It's a really awesome miracle and the whole ward is super excited for her.

Yesterday was an awesome Sunday, we had four less active families in church that we've been working with and we're really excited to see the progress in the work.

That's weird that it's just barely starting to snow in April.  It looks like the weather is really wierd all over the place because here, it's just barely starting to get rainy here, but it should have started a couple of months ago, I'm hoping it will hold out like two more months, but I doubt it.  We are about to get all of the firewood bought which went well.  We're focusing more as a zone on helping the members be more spiritually strong and in activation so that the members can continue working in the same work even after we have left.  Have a great week., talk to you next week!

Thanks everyone for the support and prayers have a great week!

Elder Cameron Dower

Happy Monday!‏


Wow, this week already ended? Goodness, I feel like I was just writing everyone haha.  Hope you've all had a great week.  This week has been crazy for us, tons of stuff going on, but I feel good about how things are going in the sector and the zone and I'm really excited for this transfer.

So the thing about being here in Valdivia for transfers is that, unlike most other zones, they tend to last three days instead of one.  On tuesday we had to send the missionaries that went to Punta Arenas to Puerto Montt to catch their flight early the next morning.  Wednesday we got to wake up at 4 45 in the morning to send off the new trainers on a bus at 7 in the morning for Osorno.  We were in the bus terminal from like 6 30 til 5 in the afternoon when we finally got to go get some lunch at a restaurant we found that serves Colombian food, which made my companion happy. It was cool because Elder Warburton, who is from my group and one of my best friends in the mission, hung out with us for the day while we waited for his new companion, who got in at 10 30 in the night.  They stayed the night and we sent them up to their zone thursday morning.  They came back that same night to stay the night and be able to go to the mission leadership council in Osorno friday morning.  Friday morning we woke up at 5 in the morning to make it to the meeting, which was great, they showed us the numbers of baptisms and church attendance for the first three months of 2015 compared to the first three months of 2014, I'm happy to see that in our zone of Calle Calle has improved quite a bit in both key indicators this year.  It's good to see that little by little things are getting better.  After the conference we did some zl chores in Osorno passing by the mission home and the mission office and finally, when we got to the bus terminal, it was just at the gap of time when there are no buses from Osorno to Valdivia, so we had to wait until almost 8 at night to get on the bus to get home.  Needless to say, we were exhausted Saturday, but things are not over.  Saturday we had a baptismal interview in Paillaco, then we had to help two companionships in the zone move houses to a new house that we found (which is awesome, easily the biggest missionary house I've seen).  That night we helped our ward mission leader pour a cement path for his house.  Sunday, things finally calmed down and we had a great time in church.  We've been struggling trying to get the ward councils in the stake going well, especially our own in the ward, but this week was awesome.  Things went really well in the council and we were able to get a lot of things out of it.  Thus ended one of the craziest weeks of my mission.

I just want to share my testimony this week of the work of salvation.  The Lord really  is in charge of this work.  Even when we may not see the immediate results of our efforts, things really are progressing in the world.  He really is hastening His work.  I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a part of it.  Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Cameron Dower