It was a good week!

Today I have more time mom so I will write more about my week....

So this week was nuts, but ended up good and fun! So my comp is really focused on baptizing. It's his main concern, and because of this we had a good discussion about our purpose as missionaries.  It twas really.... really... fun... but we talked about it a lot.  We came to the conclusion that he just wants to baptize every week and that I want to help everyone, especially the new converts, the best I can. So I am gonna have to work really hard to help the people we baptize be prepared for it, and to help them stay active. Retention is a very big problem they have here. Most of the recent converts are inactive but we are working on motivating the ward to retain them so we can focus more on finding new people to help and less on keeping those we have. 

So this week we found a bunch of good potentials that have a member friend and we will be working with them.  One family, in particular, is Ismael's family. He is very poor.  He is one of three kids that were adopted because their parents were drugies and his wife is too. But they are great people, full of love.  The kids are always hugging everyone, its awesome!  We are trying to help them so they can be clean of drugs and be baptized. 

Oh another story I want to share is our baptism we had planned for this week fell through, so my comp abandoned our appointments, and convinced the mother of a teenager that had been going to church for some time, to let her son be baptized. He wanted to be baptized this week and within 3 hours we had a baptism. I am still trying to figure out if it is necessary to teach most of the lessons before baptism, if they want to be baptized... but we will be teaching him this week, and everything will be ok.

We played some Ultimate Frisbee with the ZL´s today!  It was really awesome, I love sports!  It was a good week!  We will find and prepare more people to walk the path back to God. It's gonna be crazy :) 

Love you, 

Elder Bowden 

Oh and this is a family that gives us good food!!!!  ... but not as good as home... so don't remind me of the good food we have in the states! haha But keep feeding the missionaries there good food!!! 
Oh and tell Brit they sent me back the money I paid to get her package!

Fabio was baptized!

Haha, sorry Mom, I write the things that I can remember in my journal but by the time I get to email, it all goes away!  I guess you can just read my journal when I get home! :)

This week was awesome! We baptized Fabio and are teaching a lot of families.  We have too many families to write about each one, but one I will write about is a family that is less active. It is sad to me how some people can know the gospel is true but be too lazy to drive to church.  They like to make lots of excuses like, "I want to return with full honors and be super active, but..."  or they like to say that they will go when "the Lord Touches their hearts".... He is waiting for a miracle but doesn't want one to happen... It's very sad, but you know, I know the Lord doesn't want me to give up on them.  I know I can see the Lord do miracles, I just need to be patient and keep trying! 

Oh, I also had sting ray this week! It tastes like fish! haha! nothing special.  Hopefully we can help others be baptized this week. I will let the Lord do his miracles!

Sorry I had a problem with myldsmail so I don't have lots of time today... :(  My comp will send a letter to you guys soon!   

Have a great day!  Love ya!! 

Elder Bowden

 

Fabio was baptized!

I also had sting ray this week! It tastes like fish! haha! 

We played bball with the ZL´s today... was awesome! 

I got my new comp! He is crazy, but the good kind of crazy.

AHHH this week was nuts... really awesome and strange! Well first, I got my new comp! He is crazy, but the good kind of crazy.  His name is Elder Guilherme.  It's way awesome... he is my first comp that has fire to work and is really excited to teach and help everyone!  We are always teaching and now our problem is that many people are afraid that their religion is wrong and they don't want to ask God..... haha the struggles!  Erica was baptized last week and Fabio will be baptized this Sunday! Its crazy but awesome! We are always inviting people to church and trying to get as many of them there as we can so they can feel the truth for themselves! 

My comp also does random things that make me laugh.  We found this huge lizard faking dead and my comp grabbed him, checked for a heart beat, found out that he was faking dead, and kicked him like a football.  He then looked at me and said in broken English, "I hate Liars!" Well I will never fake dead with him! haha 

 

This week was awesome!  I will send tons of pictures this week!

Love ya lots!

Elder Bowden

My shrimp pizza from last week!  So Good!

A family that will be baptized soon! and some are members already.