This week was really weird with mixed emotions of it being my last week to be a missionary...

This week was really good. We almost reached our potential as a zone... almost every dupla baptized!!! We unfortunately didn't baptize this week. Roberta our pesquisador (investigator) was prepared and passed the interview, but her daughter got sick and she went to the hospital. But she has a date for this Sunday!! She is way excited! We also had 2 confirmations this week. Fran was one and she had a desire to help one of her friends. It was awesome! She took us to meet her friend Camila and she was way receptive and has a date for 27...... :( haha I will miss it but I'll still receive a Picture! :D 

Oh I had a sweet experience this week as I was conversing with some investigators in another ward. They have already received an answer from God but just had a little bit of worries. It was sweet as the Spirit guided and helped them have the courage to follow God and Remember Who He Is and What He can do! They were baptized this week and have a goal on the temple! Families can be forever!!!!

This week was really weird with mixed emotions of it being my last week to be a missionary... last testimony for fast Sunday...... I have one week to remember and put in practice all that I have learned! Haha!  I had a thought that missions are the best looking back!  It is so cool seeing where God can mold you and test you and make you stronger. I Know now why God wants everyone to serve missions... because He wants to teach us how we can have a easier life and help us grow. I know that Christ is My Savior and how He loves me, but now I know how I can show my love for Him! I have been praying a lot lately that I can put in practice what I have learned here because it really has made a difference in my life.

Te amo muito,

 Elder Bowden


A bunch of photos of Fran and one of the district (groups of missionaries) that we take care of:

I love the scriptures they are awesome!

This week was pretty awesome! We had a batismo and more cake!!! :)  It was awesome that Fran was baptized this week. She has been investigating for some time and this week it work out for her... it was really cool! She really wants to learn more about family history! This week she was trying to explain to some colleagues about the church and they just went to the Internet to find lots of things that are antimormon. Her colleagues are studying about our church for school and she wants to make sure that they dont say things that are wrong. It's really strange to me now how people trust more in the Internet these days than the scriptures or God. For example, yesterday we were teaching a family about the church of Christ and the Restoration and about asking God for an answer, and tons of people just say "I want to stay in my church even if God responds." 

I was studying a lot about humility this week and realized that it is really hard to have pure humility. I was reading one of favorite scriptures in Ether 12;27... God gives us weaknesses so we can trust/rely more in his help and his grace. God gives us "lack of wisdom" so we can learn to ask him for answers. But if we think that we already know what is right before asking, (a weakness), we just lose the blessing of God's guidance and his perfect answer in our lives. I feel really sad when I see that others dont have the humility to ask, but I just hope that one day they will. God knows I am not perfect with this, but he is helping me become better. 

Oh so this week my comp and I are loving reading the scriptures. We try and get to our prep for the day faster then normal so we can have more time to study!! It's really awesome! This week I learned a little bit more about charity. I love the scriptures they are awesome! I Know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. If we have the humility to read it sincerly, and ask God sincerely, it is not possible to not recieve an answer. I know that through the sciptures we can recieve the answers we need. It has been really sweet this week to see God giving me answers! 

This week I have a couple people who are preparing to be baptized!! :D Sorry I cant send photos this week. I dont trust the computer I am using so I'll try and send lots next week :) Hey and my talk is for how much time?!!???  Estou feliz, estou com muito fome e estou muito animado. Amo voces muito!!! (I'm happy, I'm very hungry and I'm very excited. I love you very much!)

Elder Bowden

My very first baptism went to the temple already!!!!

This week was a little crazy... we had lots of stuff happen... We had mission council on Thursday where the assistants gave the mission a training on goals (it was the same training we gave to the assistants when they visited one of our district meetings.) It was funny to get trained about the stuff we trained them!) At the conference I met an Elder that was in the area where I started my mission (Metropolitana) and he told me that my 1st baptism went to the temple already!!!! That was really cool and also Elder Chagas baptized the family that we were preparing to baptize before I got transferred!!

They made me a cake and we had pizza for meu birthday! It was pretty good... so good that we made 2 more cakes last week! :D  We also tried a fast food that they dont have in the states. It was pretty good. I have 3 weeks to try everything and reach my goals, so I am gonna go crazy today and am gonna go shopping for stuff in the center of Fortaleza. Its gonna be nuts! Oh I am gonna try and sacar (I don't remember how to say this word in English....)(take) money from the bank!!! 

We are working to reach our goals as a zone. We are working hard and planning hard so it should all work out. :)   Haha, my comps are more trunky than I am. They are always reminding me and messing with me, but I am trying hard to focus ish. Tell Meagan that I remember Elder Udy. I saw him when he was preparing his passport to leave Brazil....small world! :)

LOve ya tons!
Elder Bowden

Italo foi batizado 

It was really cool to see him change his mind when the Spirit testified of what was said.

This week has been a little crazy...

My new comp likes to "speed walk" but it is almost at a run and lets just say this week I was a little bit cansado (tired). I talked with him and now we just talk with more people and walk less :) He had a baptism marked for this week but she got sick. It is marked for this coming week. We also taught a teenager that has been investigating for several weeks and he marked his own baptism for this week. It was really cool to see him change his mind when the Spirit testified of what was said.

I didnt take lots of pics this week but I have some pictures that are pretty cool! Sorry I didnt get a lot of time to email this week (30 mins) because the zone isnt doing too good, but this next week will be better!

Love ya lots! I'll try and take lots of pics and say more about my area, but for now we will all learn fast and become better!

Elder Bowden

I got transferred!!!!!

I got transferred!!!!! :( We have some great families that are gonna get baptized this transfer and I am gonna miss it... but I'll have them send me pictures... My comp left the area as well, but my son, Elder Chagas, will come and baptize them and send me the pictures. haha It's really crazy to think that I'll have a new area for my last transfer, but I am gonna have a comp that is really cool. It will be great because I'll probably see him when he finishes his mission because he lives in Utah!! Its gonna be a long day trying to say goodbye to everyone! But it's life... and in life everything is "crazy".

We had a good week. We found another family that are related to the family we are teaching. It was really cool. They are searching for an answer and are excited for church! I am gonna go to a zone near where I started and I think Pres will let me visit some of my RC before I leave. I am gonna try and send letters to everyone, its just hard to find time to write them... 

This week I had a chance to interview another woman that was having some doubts. I think its really cool when you can help people recognize for themselves the answers that God has been giving them. She started with a little bit of doubts and fear but she left the church almost jumping and said that I had to be there for her baptism! I didn't get the chance to watch, but she had the Elder send me pictures.

It was a good week, not very much craziness happened. I'll let you know how this next week goes!!! It is my b-day in 2 weeks-ish :O craziness I am getting very old!

Love ya lots
Elder Bowden

It is awesome to see the fruits

10-10-16

This week was good but a little crazy.  We did lots of exchanges.  I only saw my companion like 3 days last week but we got what we needed done and we had some good experiences.  Ryssa received answers to her prayers (about receiving an answer to her prayers) about which church Jesus Christ built (Mathew 16:18).  She had been searching for a long time for the right church and she recognized the answer God has been giving her. She knows and feels everything is true and she gave herself a goal to be baptized this week. Her brother went to church this week, which was awesome! She is helping him to receive the blessing of obeying God commandments. We also had Mary and her whole family receive answers and it is changing their lives. It is awesome to see the fruits. They always thank God for the chance they received to talk with us. Mary said that she had heard lots of terrible things about the church and when we asked if we could share a message with her she said yes only because she didn't want to be rude. I think its really funny how so many people say terrible things about the church without even visiting. I like to compare the church to a cake. Everyone can say that its good or bad, but until we muster up the courage to try it we will never really know. Its crazy how the church that Christ created in the past is exactly the same today and people still say the same things today that they said about the church in the time of Peter the apostle. When people really read the scriptures with a desire to learn the truth, its really easy to find the truth and receive the confirmation with God. 

But anyways, Mary and Valdimir need to get married before they can get baptized... but they are trying to get the papers they need! It's gonna take a while and I hope I'll still be here to see them get baptized!! Also this week I had the chance to interview a mother and help her recognize the answer God was giving her. I have seen that many times we blind ourselves to answers from God, looking for the answer that we want but not the answer God knows we need. I have seen that I need to pray to recognize the answers and guidance that God is giving me. 

This week our leaders, the Assistants, will try visit our area to see how we are working and help us become better!

It was a good week... I didn't die... I'll try and eat some good food this week=açai :)

Love ya tons!

Elder Bowden

We worked hard and got some sweet blessings!

This week was nuts for us... we were so busy working in the area of the other missionaries that we lost almost 16 hours of work in our area.. but we worked hard and got some sweet blessings!  We have 3 people with baptismal dates for this week(Caua, Ryssa e Brito) and a familia that went to church that loved it! We will follow up with them today and mark baptismal dates. It is way cool to see the Lord blessing us with better results when we use lots of our time to help the other missionaries. We have 3 more exchanges planned for this week! It should be good! We are gonna work with some of our Liders de Distrito and train them how to better manage their districts. 

We had lots of problems with the connection to conference so I didn't get to listen to many of the talks. I'll try and find some time to watch. I'll try and put them on the pen drive you gave me. I just need to find a speaker for it because the missionary that had one left the zone... :(  I really liked Quinton L Cook's talk about looking beyond the mark. I could see how I have done it in the past and how lots of investigators do it as well. Ronald A Rasband was awesome. I need to listen to them more.  It was way good! I will try and find some way to listen to them. 

Oh we have some people who are helping me a lot with the work here and they all like peanut butter! So if you could send 3 peanut butters to me that would be awesome!
So I got Brit's message but still haven't received an answer, but I'll let you know when it comes.  For now I just have the passagem that he bought a couple weeks ago. 

Love ya tons! Have a great week!
Elder Bowden

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