This isn't in the email, but I just remembered, we peed on a tree. anyways.....

 Well

We had Interviews with President and that was crazy epic. I was able to get a Priesthood blessing blessing from President Smith and that was very special. 

We had a referral visit Tuesday night. We went to their house and a little girl answered so we're like "is Ayah here? She asked us to come pray with her"

So Ayah comes down looking really concerned and worried and then she sees our badges and freaks out a little

So we're like "Ayah, it's great to meet you, thank you so much for asking us to come by"

"I didn't ask you to come by…I don't know ow why you're here…"

So I pull up the referral and she's confused and then it clicked when she saw "her" phone number.

"That's one of my friends numbers, he pranked us. . .sorry"

"OK then-well just leave then"

NOOO, that's not what we said lol

"Well, since we're here, we'd still love to say q prayer with you!"

Now her dad just came up to the door and he says we can say a prayer.

So we do.

Her dad starts bashing us literally out of nowhere. Bashers are so funny because you can tell they have no clue what they're they're about when start trying to tell us our church is wrong because it doesn't believe in 'this' and….actually…we do–

so he was mega humbled.

We ended up agreeing on several things. Read a scripture with him, and gave him a book of Mormon…

Interesting. Silly bashers (why hath Satan got such great hold upon your heart?)

On Wednesday we ate Walmart cheese ake for lunch

On Thursday we met a woman who told us about her dogs that she's had through the years and how one of them just kept on barking during thunderstorms….so she put it down. Me and Elder Scott just about lost it. We were trying so hard to not laugh. I mean it'd not funny….but it kinda is. 

We had workshops for infield training all day on Friday and we made our name 'Elders Scoot y Ownes' and it was hilarious having the teachers be like "Elder ow-nz..? Scoot?"

Very fun.

Saturday was an exchange with my wonderful district leader, Elder Davis. And we laughed a day. It was a wonderful exchange. We found a family I've been Trying to find for a week annnndd

On Sunday they came to church

Yo what??

Ya. We finally got somebody to church and they absa-fruit-ly loved it. Monica and Randy Hamimton. Absolute legends. They made friends, said they'd come back, they want to have us over for dinner! It's pure miracle and best case and just beautifully epic.

Also…we used the church magnetic key thing on a big gate in a gated community and….it worked….the gate opened and we got in there. Probably some kind of illegal or something. That's faith and Miracles and stuff right there. We'll head back there sometime and hopefully we don't get arrested or something lol. 

On Monday we got a call from huseyin, one of our guys, the told us he has decided to join our community and promises he will be a good member so ya- Miracles. 

So. Have faith that God will provide and that people you need will come into your life. 

Miracles do happen but! Miracles do not convert people! Prayer, scripture study, reviewing personal revelation, spiritual experiences, learning for yourself- that's what converts people. Not Miracles. Laman and lemme saw an angel, the Israelites saw Miracles every day- None of them were truly converted. When Alma the younger and the 4 sons of mosiah saw an angel that started their conversion but it was because they had given themselves to much study and prayer amd fasting that they were men on God. NOT Cuz and angel told them to get their act together.

And ofc, if you are able to go on a mission do it. A mission will bless your future more than anything else will. A mission blesses your family, your parents and siblings, while also your future spouse and children. There is a reason why the prophets have asked every worthy priesthood holder to serve a mission and had such an incredible focus on getting missionaries out there. Pray about it. Council with your bishop and stake president and especially your loved ones. Ask for a Priesthood blessing.

I love you guys and I miss ya

Watch conference and then text me on messenger or Google chats what your favorite quote is plz (plz)

And I don't feel like throwing in a link to photos, so check any of the previous weeks for a link to the shared album that has ALL MY MISSIONARY PHOTOS

Or text my mom or something 

And fr, be my friend on Facebook. Tell your friends. My posts are absolute fire.

And plz read the bom dailyyyy

Two guys with backpacks wanna teach you about the mother goat.

 Wow. 

What a week.

Transfers happened. I sat in a car for 3 hours absolutely wasting my time napping and scrolling Facebook Finally a van arrives with future companions. A tall blonde guy gets off-that's Elder Scott. My new comp. 

He goes for a handshake and I just hugged him.

So a pretty epic start.

We were walking around on Wednesday and met a older nurse and she offered to ask the lady she takes care of of we could come and teach her. We walked to the door with her and heard her say 

"Hey! There's 2 young men with backpacks who wanna teach you about Jesus Christ!"

She said no.

But that was funny.

We are just guys with backpacks who wanna teach people about Jesus.

Then on Thursday night we were walking home from the gym and ran into the cashier at a restaurant we go to. I shared Alma 7:11-12 on my phone cuz we didn't have scriptures with us. We got into explaining the word succor and something about how a mother goat feeds her babies. He interrupted us and explained "I don't believe in the mother goat"

What..?

Ok. So we, ofc, don't believe in the mother goat either. We re-explained Jesus Christ's atonement. Now he knows for sure that we don't worship goats. So that's good.

Now me and Elder Scott sometimes just say ' I don't believe in the mother goat' and just start laughing a bunch.

Anyways.

I got to go on exchange with Elder Dangerfield and my goodness what an absolute legend. I kept asking him stuff like "what if I did this?" And he's like "do it" and I'm like "what? Wait- can I actually…just…do it?" And he's like "ya"

So that's how I knocked on doors 3 different times, chased people who were far away, yelled through doors and windows "We're the missionaries! We would love to share a scripture about Jesus Christ with you!" Ofc, only during the day, I invited somebody to be baptized (using mosiah 18:8-11, especially verse 11), I simply would not take no for an answer(they say no to reading a scripture? Ask to pray with them, they say no to that? Can we give you a bom, no to that? Can we give you a pamphlet? Can we give you a Jesus card? When is a better time we can talk more? Can we help you with any service? Do you know anybody in the area who needs help? 

Basically I learned that it is easy to be bold when you're doing it because you love Jesus and it's ok and even good to do whatever it takes to give somebody the chance to accept the gospel. 

Then- we had stake conference. And Elder Mortinson of the 70 talked about how the book of Mormon is the iron rod and it was beautiful. He said over and over the book of Mormon IS the tool in conversion. People will never fall away from the church if they read the book of Mormon every day. I just wanted to remind everybody of the power of the book of Mormon. Nothing will protect us from the evils and crap of the world we live in more than reading, studying, and truly feasting on the book of Mormon. Please, please read the Book of Mormon every day. 

Also! During stake conference I see a boy, probably 12 years old, playing on his mom's phone. He was messing around with filters on snapchat and just took videos if himself the whole time. I got pretty angry because he was missing out on all these amazing things being said and he was distracting his mom and other kids around him. He has no clue what he was missing because he wasn't even looking. Then I had to catch myself

"Dude. You're not even paying attention….you're LETTING him have your attention and now YOU'RE also missing out."

That was painfully humbling. 

It got me thinking….how often do we miss out on life changing spiritual experiences? How often are our eyes looking away from beautiful things? Do we actually know where we should place our attention? And if we do….why are we not focused on it??

How often have I missed the chance to feel the spirit? How often have I missed out on the chance to receive revelation? Why do I let stuff distract me that doesn't doesn't matter??

Please do everything you can to not miss out like that 12 year old and I did. Especially with General Conference coming up. Prepare now, if you're not already, to NOT miss out on the life changing words and stories and doctrine we'll hear. Do not be distracted. Don't miss out.

Once again, do all you can to go on a mission and if you have gone on a mission tell your loved one's about what you learned during your mission, help the missionaries that serve locally, sign up to feed them. If you didn't serve a mission, be a light to those you interact with and find ways to share the gospel (churchofjesuschrist.org/share or something)

If you are able to go on a mission still, then do it. 

If you have Facebook and you're not my friend then why do you even have facebook??? Search Caleb Owens and it's some guy by the temple.

Here's the photooosss:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DYM8hzqfMfgxUFWZ7

Families

 So I keep having the plan to have my journal open next to me whole I make the email. But we're out bowling right now and we're gonna be at a church house till 6(pday ends at 6) 

So we're going from Areabook and memory again lol.

So. We had our last zone and district council(transfers are tomorrow) and that was kinda tough because I love all these guys so much. Elder prestwich gave a life changing training on forgiveness. He really focused on the idea of forgiving ourselves and that hit me really hard because I finally was able to let go of things I was holding and take those barbs outta my heart. I felt so much peace and it's the strongest I've felt the spirit in a while. 

So- you need to forgive others, but you also really need to forgive yourself(all men[d&c section 64 something something{verse 10 I think}] includes yourself, you are part of "all men"). The atonement works for everybody including you. It's ok to feel bad about stuff you've done or haven't done, but you should not be punishing yourself. Notice the mistake, and fix something in your life and then you don't have to beat yourself up about it anymore. Jesus and Heavenly Father will always love you.

Other super cool thing- we were walking around and we saw a good looking guy, probably like 23.

He came up to us, grinning- turns out him and his wife JUST moved into the ward the previous day. They are from Boise! Ada county!(Thas where I'm from)

Later after some proselyting around the hood, we went to their house and they invited us in and 

BOOOM.

Wham!

It was like smacked in the face with the spirit. Their house felt like the temple. Thid young couple, probably going through plenty of trials of just moving to California, and being newly married, and whatever else- have strikingly let God prevail in their lives. Their covenant keeping ness made their home feel like a temple. (Thus the Facebook post this morning)[yo, if you've got Facebook and you're not my friend what are you even doing?]

Anyways, read about Temples in the Bible dictionary, it's pretty good.

Also, I had the incredible privilege to go on exchanges with one of our wonderful zone leaders. Elder Call. He's going home next week. We had a service project and Elder Call taught me alot about keeping "what would the savior do" in my attitude. It got to the point where we were pretty much ready to go home but Elder Call was just like "what do you think Jesus would be doing elder?" (We were helping two disabled people, a mom and son who were both in wheelchairs, move their stuff to a storage facility) so ofc first I'm like "well, He would prolly heal them so they could walk"

And Elder Call was just like "he would continue to help them."

They are not members, they're actually quite catholic. But we stayed until the project was done. They were very very grateful for it.

We also got hard-core bashed multiple times. First real life actual hard core bashes I had. It hurt alot more than I thought it would. 

We stayed calm the entire time and nothing we said or did deserved the contention and brutality we received. Elder Call started bearing testimony of Jesus and the book of Mormon and this guy interested him and said "Elder Call- you don't actually know that. There is no way you can know anything you're saying. You have no clue what you're even talking about." It hurt so much. He also gave us these cool book marks, it's a 1,000,000 dollar bill that basically says that we are sinners and heretics and we will go to "an awful place called hell."

His wife, (this hurt the most) his wife actually wanted to learn from us. She wanted a book of mormon. She wanted to meet with us again.

The guy turned turned to her and said something in another language that really really hurt her feelings. She spoke up again later and he said "honey, you don't even understand what's going on" 

That was one of the most ugliest, awful, and just plain stupid things I've ever seen in my entire life.

I know we maintained the spirit with us because I was able to feel it through the whole thing. I know I was strengthened through this ridiculous encounter. I know that Jesus still loves those guys and I should really try to change my perception of him. 

Anyways. I was able to bear testimony of families and I know that it at least affected the wife. 

Also

Transfers dang it.

My trainer is leaving me. Elder Prestwich is gonna go be Zone leader is Saratoga. I'm staying here. So please pray for my new companion to have patience with me cuz I got no clue what I'm doing.

Anyways. Sacrifice and Obedience bring blessings. God loves you no matter what you've done. The atonement is literally infinite. The Book of Mormon is true and will bless your life IF you read it. 

Go on a mission if you can. Do not let anything rob you of the blessings that come from missionary service.

Love and miss you all.

Get on the shared albuuummmmm

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DYM8hzqfMfgxUFWZ7

Pray for Shanu and Sam&Giovanna

Alright everybody.

I don't really feel like writing am email today but I know it's my responsibility to do that.

On Monday I bought a bunch of sick ties at savers.

On Tuesday we had an absolute miracle lesson. We had one of our ward mission leaders with us and all of our appts fell through so it was like 

But then…we saw a woman sitting at a bench amd I'm like 'come on guys let's go talk to her'

And ot was like a dream come true (if you dream about being a missionary)

She asked every question perfectly and we answered all of it. When we gave her a Book of Mormon….oh my…when we gave her a book of mormon you could see how much of a treasure she knew it was. SHE BORE TESTIMONY TO US. It was legendary, she has to go ask her husband if she can come to church with us and meet with us. So, if you would like to, we would really appreciate it if you included Shanu in your prayers.

I think she cares more about the book of Mormon more than alot of members do. Guys the Book of Mormon is TRUE and will bring you closer to God and help you have a relationship with Jesus more than anything else. If we all really understood how important that was we would be reading it every day. Reading the Book of mormwould take priority over eating and sleeping, work and school,  hanging out with family and friends. Think about that. And maybe pray for a spiritual experience with the book of Mormon. 

Wednesday was a double fetching miracle too. We met with my new best friends Sam and Giovanna. 

We met him a few weeks back he was in q colorful mood…and was yelling at us from a porch telling us how much his neighbor sucked and needed Jesus. 

So, a few weeks later we knocked on Sam's door, he didn't recognize us but Giovanna told him what happened and he invited us in his house!!!! We sat and talked. They are an incredibly cute couple. Sam served in the army and has a hard time believing in God cuz of what he's seen and experienced. But we BORE TESTIMONY and read scripture with him !!!! The spirit was straight up TANGIBLE. It was incredible. 

Also- his achilles tendon was torn so he was in a cast and…well…i was able to give him a Priesthood blessing. It was definitely harder to find the words cuz the dogs were making noise and I don't know how much faith him and Giovanna had. But he sent us a screenshot of our contact in his phone and he said "I saved you guys in my phone!" So I feel really really good about them, pray for them to have a spiritual experience and for our next teaching to go crazy good cuz these guys need it. 

That's the highlights of da week.

If you're thinking about going on a mission, do it. Don't let anything stand in the way of your mission. If you're not thinking about it then go listen to the last general conference.

My mission has blessed me so much. The blessings that come from a mission are so incredible it would be silly to not even consider going on one. Think about it. 

I love all of ya

I miss you guys 

-ELDER Caleb Owens

Get on the driiivveee for pics

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DYM8hzqfMfgxUFWZ7