A flying roach attacked my comp!

So my package showed up without the shoes........ but the candy, cheese and shorts arrived! It was awesome... we are all eating them! I think I'll make some mac and cheese today!!! It's gonna rock!!! Oh last p-day we played some sports.... and lets just say its been a long while since I have played! I felt like I was really old and needed a walker because I was so sore....

Oh we have a family that is preparing for their baptism this week!!! Erica (mãe) Diego, Diogo (sons/twins) and maybe some of the neighbors that are going with them to church!!! We are having more success with the leaders in our zone. The normal missionaries are having some problems so we will probably have to give a special training to just the leaders as well the normal missionaries next week. Our sacrament had Arab bread, and there was a missionary who took it and just stared at it for like 10 seconds, like something was wrong with it, and  my comp and I had to try not to laugh. We were teaching a RC (recent convert) this week when a flying roach attacked my comp and he freaked out doing a dance because it was climbing up his leg. Then, because I was laughing at him, it attacked me for a bit then took off out the door! It was a very crazy lesson!

We are working with lots of people and we have a bunch that are going to church and are progressing. It's awesome!  Elder Santos and I are gonna have lots of success! He's a little crazy, like me, and he creates friends easily. This week has been crazy...we have a few families that are needing food, and the only thing we had in the house was cookies and chips... missionaries don't eat very healthy here! :P

I got to pass by the road of the temple this week! They started building last month and it is planned to finish in 2018!  I'll try and get some pictures!! Oh I found a Sams and thought of Mom. Another missionary received a package from the US as well, so we have lots of candy :D  Thanks for the package, it was awesome, full of great stuff!!! Oh and I was joking!!! I got the new shoes!!! My bishop was so happy when he saw that I had new shoes that he gave me a hug! He is a good bishop just a little crazy :) I am realizing that I am forgetting how to tie knots :( Every time I have a chance I try to remember how it works.

 

Love ya lots!!

Elder Bowden

 

 

He saw my shoes and felt sorry and tried to buy shoes for me!

This week was awesome! My new comp is from São Paulo. He is really cool and really nice. We are gonna have a great transfer! haha Everyone who lives with me loves CocaCola. It's crazy.... they drink it almost everyday! My zone is huge, so I am gonna have to use lots of buses this transfer. I have 20 missionaries to take care of in the center of the city! Its really crazy.We have lots of good missionaries in the zone so we should have a lot of success! My mission, I think, has 95% missionaries who have less time than me left, so we are trying to train them a lot but many are getting the hang of it and having success! Oh and we have the secretários in our zone, so all will know when my shoes arrive! haha I had a member talk to me because he saw my shoes and felt sorry and tried to buy shoes for me! I'll send some pics!

We had a baptism this week. It was awesome because she was taught everything but didn't want to be baptized, so we did a district fast and the next day she said that she wanted to be baptized! Liliana is her name. She is a friend of a member. It was a really cool week! We are teaching a family and they love the church, the only problem is that it is a bit distant from their house... but it will work out!!! Was an awesome week... I am way excited for this next one!! Tell dad happy late Fathers day! :)

Love ya lots!!!

Elder Bowden

We had a conference with Elder Christensen!

This week was awesome we had a conference with Elder Christensen and his wife they talked a lot about the importance of "writing our spiritual plates". It was way cool to hear speakers in English. I got the chance to hear his talk 2 weeks. I took a lot of notes, but its transfers and I forgot my notes in the house.... but I got to see my comp from the MTC! I took photos with him. He is crazy, but really awesome! I didn't see the son of Dad's companion, they didn't give us time to mingle.... but it was awesome! haha I talked with a sister from the MTC who is going home tomorrow. She will go to BYU and I think she and Meag would be good friends!

 Josuel baptized his wife this week!! It was really awesome... he is the man!! It is gonna be sad to leave them and go to the other side of the mission.... but it will work out. I should have a hard working Brazilian comp! I am going to have a big zone but its gonna be fun... haha  The baptism was legit but what was crazy was we didn't have water in the chapel, so we had to spend like 5 hours hauling buckets of water to fill the font.... we had to pull water from like a well in a small bucket to fill a bigger bucket to take to the font.... but it worked out, so I am happy!!

Oh we also had lots of lunches cancel so I had to go buy stuff to make a lunch for everyone because no one had money... it was crazy... This week was good, I read lots of conference talks and read again the epistles of Alma to his son. They are some of my favorite chapters!! It was an awesome week and I'll have a crazy new week in my new area and hopefully I'll get my package there!!

Thanks a lot! Love you lots and have a good week!!!!
Elder Bowden

Pic of my MTC comp

I got pretty sick this week

This week was definitely one that I wont forget soon...  I got pretty sick this week and had to stay in the house one day.  I wanted to work the second day but had to go back a little early..  The bad news is that no one was baptized. Fransililda's (wife of Josuel) baby got sick so they had to go to the hospital and didn't get to go to church, but said this Sunday will be her baptism.  Josuel received the priesthood so he will baptize her, it will be awesome! I am way excited and we are trying to help the relative of David get baptized too!! 

Not too much happened this week because I got sick but I found my new favorite part until now of the Livro de Mormon: Alma 36-38 is full of awesome stuff! I have been studying that for a couple days and also the conference talks finally arrived to the mission so we can read them! So I'll be reading a lot… it will be awesome!! 

Elder Christiansen will come but they wont let the zones mix for photos or anything but if I can I'll try and say hi! Oh and Bre... Hermana Soto writes me every week :D 

On the bright side, no one who lives with me has money so we will all be hungry and lose weight together :D  But I am happy working hard trying to help more people… it will work out!!

Love you 

Elder Bowden

(This photo is missing a sword)

It was a rough day! I am still a little sore, but it could have been worse...

The last to weeks have been pretty crazy! Well two weeks ago we had stake conference and half of my zone are in the outskirts of the mission, Paracuru and Itapipoca, which are like 2 hours away from us. President said that they could go to stake conference but they had to work during church.... and because of this, they didn't get to confirm a baptism they would have..... and so moral of the story, we got punished because President didn't let the sisters go to church..... but no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes....

So this week we had interviews with President. As we were arriving at the train station, one of the missionaries realized that he forgot his plaque, so I ran with him all the way back to the apartment then back to the train. We made it just in time to realize that it wasn't working for the holiday...... Then we took a bus but couldn't find our companions when we got there. After 30 minutes they arrived and said they had lots of problems with the assistants who told them they had to get off the bus, that they had already paid for, and go back to the house to pick up the area books (because the assistants forgot to tell us to bring them and they were scared to tell President that they forgot to tell us so they just caused more problems).... but anyway, we got there and the interview was strange. I asked why the sisters couldn't go to church and he said he didn't feel it was necessary that they went to the stake conference.... but I found a way to try and motivate the zone! ...with a zone P-day! But after the interviews, we realized that no one had money except for me, and I didn't have enough for everyone for the normal bus.... so we had to go looking for the smaller, cheaper buses. It ended up not working, because no one really knew where we could find one, everyone just guessed and acted like they knew what they were saying, so we ended up walking around looking for it for 2 hours.... We gave up and looked for a bank and everyone started guessing where the bank was and we got lost again, until we found two guys, who had member friends, and they guided us to the bank. When we got to where the normal buses were, I saw one that I thought passed through our area. I asked a missionary to check on it before we got on but he just said "I have fé (faith)" and we got on. It took us to our zone, but way far from our area, so we started walking again for another hour until we got to where we could pick up another bus to our area... When we saw one approaching, a member pulled up in front of us and the bus passed us.......  but luckily the member offered us a ride. The only down side was the van was already full and we had to cram like sardines.. but we finally got to our area and ate lunch at like 4:00! It was a rough day! I am still a little sore, but it could have been worse...

This Sunday was really good! Josuel brought his wife and she liked the church a lot and wants to be baptized next week! Hopefully Josuel will get a chance to baptize her, that would be awesome!!! Another RC(recent convert), David, brought his sister in law to church and she wants to be baptized!!! So hopefully we will have a great week!!! We are gonna work real hard!

Oh let me know the name of the elder who is serving in Fortaleza East and I'll take a photo with him next week!!!! Oh and I should come home the last part of November. It's crazy, the sisters who started their missions with me are going home in 2 weeks!!!! haha but I have a lot of time to work, so I am not worried :)

Thanks!!! love ya lots!!
Elder Bowden

 

Photo of Josuel, Andrea, Maria, Irismar 

Elder Correa, Elder Fiejoo and me