Merry Christmas! I'm a District Leader!

Well family first off I have to say that I had an awesome Christmas. The best Christmas present I got was to be able to talk to you guys. It was so awesome to hear all of your voices and get to just sit and talk. Everyone is just the same and you guys are just all awesome and I love you guys. Well I already told you that on Christmas we freakin ate a ton of rice. I literally still am not hungary because of how much we ate haha but it was good. I love the members here, they take good care of us. Well I honestly don’t remember anything that happened before Christmas, this week has just been a blur and I have already told you most things over the phone like how I was with Elder Enwukwari and stuff like that. Well this week we went and saw Brother Blamo. He is the one who we had set to be baptized and then he said he had to go to training. Well we had an awesome lesson with him and we are set to baptize him this week. I am so excited, this guy is sweet. This week he brought two of his buddies to church and now they are super interested and want to know more. Only thing that sucks is that they aren’t in our area. They would be for sure baptisms. Well for the crazy news now. On Thursday I made up those banana cream pies that you sent (they tasted amazing) but right when we started eating them we got our transfer news. Well I am staying and I received Elder Cottrell. He is from Utah and he is Elder Zaugg and Elder Guymons MTC. But that isn’t the craziest thing. I am district leader to (you jinxed me dad). When I first heard that I was district leader I started to question if the church was true or not, haha jk that was to far but I was shocked for sure. I still feel like I barely even know what is going on out here half the time and now I am district leader. Its crazy. The zones leaders told me that I am the Youngest district leader in the mission right now so I am not sure what President Kirkham was on when he made transfers haha jk. It will be a good experience and Elder Cottrell just got finished being a district leader so if I need any help with anything, he will be able to hook me up. Well another exciting this that happened this week was our trash guy came and our trash can was full of maggots so I cleaned that all up. Also our stupid facet on our kitchen sink busted to so we are having to use our nice little hand pump and pump our water through our filter. On Saturday we had a year end party with our Branch and the Brewersville branch and it was fun. Its probably more appropriate to call it a dance party than a branch party because they had the church set up with big ole speakers and the place was bumpin and they basically just danced the whole time. Needless to say I busted out my moves to.  J It was really fun though. I am loving it here in banjor, everybody here is just awesome, my recent converts are doing awesome and things are just going great. They just barely brought Elder Cottrell like an hour ago, but I know we are going to get along great, its going to be sweet and im excited for this next transfer. I hope you all have a wonderful New year. Love you all

Elder Bowring

Merry Christmas!!!

At Christmas Zone Conference.  Elder Bowring is under the green R in Merry with his Santa Hat with the Santa ears on it!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Dear Family,

Well MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! I had an awesome week this week. It started with our 2 day zone conference that we had on Tuesday and Wednesday.Tuesday was our fun day I guess you could say and it was actually pretty fun. We played a few games and then we got to watch “The restoration, the Joseph Smith story” It was sweet, I loved it and it was nice to just be able to kick back and relax to. After that they fed us a nice lunch, Ham and cheese sandwiches (that’s rare around here) And then we had a talent show. Our zone just sang called to serve with some  added verses we made up so it was ok. It was cool though,one of the couple missionary’s knows how to play the bagpipes so he played them for the talent show it was sweet. It was nice to just have a day to not worry about things. On Wednesday was our normal zone conference and it was good to. We got instruction on a bunch of things but one that I liked was given by Elder and Sister Berrett. Elder Berrett talked about how his grandson is getting quarterback coached  one on one with some guy and one of the things that his coach always tells him is “Eyes up, do the work” He related that to we need to keep our eyes up to Our heavenly father and rely on him while we are doing his work.  It was really good. The last day I got 5 packages to.  2 of them were the ones that you sent me full of things to make stockings for everyone in  my complex. Then one was my pre- Christmas package and the others were from Bryan’s Family and From gpa and gma bowring so thank you guys so much J I got those things to fill up the stocking for the other elders and I couldn’t wait until Christmas to give it to them so I put them together that night and went and delivered them to them. It was so fun and it was sweet to see how excited everyone was to get them. They all loved their ties and the Africans especially appreciated it so thank you mom for sending those things. They all wanted me to tell you thank you also. Well Thursday we had another service project. What we did was clear out a field for our 1st counselor. It was full of brush and just vegetation. Some of it was taller than I was and we had to clear it out with machetes so that was a new experience. It was hard work and took us about 3 hours to do but it was worth it. I love doing service projects. My hands didn’t enjoy it as much as I did though, my hands got tore up but it was all worth it. Well Thursday was the day that our district leader Elder Inyang and my son Brother Freeman went home. It was so crazy to see someone finish their mission. So since they both left my prediction came  true and me and Elder Enwukwari are companions and are covering both of our areas just for one week until the transfer ends. He is from Nigeria and is a lot different than any companion I have had. He can talk, like he seriously talks my ear off haha he is a funny guy though. He gets so set on things though,   he is one of the most set guys I know, but anyways it will be good. We are still trying to decide what we are going to do for Christmas. I don’t think we are going to do to much, probably just go and  spend most of it with our members and make some good treats and things to eat. It’s a lot different celebrating Christmas with an African because they don’t really celebrate it or put as much emphasize on Christmas as we do. Anyways this week we had 2 baptisms, Brother Mendella and Brother William. It was so sweet. Brother Freeman came back down and baptized one of them and I baptized brother William.  The spirit at the baptism was so strong, you could just feel that what we were doing was right. I was just so happy to see these guys be baptized. Got 5 baptisms now so I am starting to rack them up haha. Well yesterday we had a Christmas devotional at our District Presidents house. It was so awesome and it was honestly like the first time I have really felt like its Christmas time. I was asked to talk on the true meaning of Christmas and I talked a lot about how at Christmas, the best way we can feel the spirit of Christmas is by giving of ourselves and our time and always remembering Jesus Christ. I told the story about the times we would do the 12 days of Christmas to people who were in need. Man I miss those times, those memories are the best, the ones where we would make up a Christmas box and take them to a needy family on Christmas eve and just always having people giving and giving at Christmas. Anyways the whole devotional was just sweet and I FINALLY felt the Christmas spirit. Well that was about it for this week. I want to wish you ALL a MERRY CHRISTMAS. I hope you all enjoy the time you have with each other and the special spirit that Christmas brings. I miss you all and I hope this Christmas is one of your best yet. 

Love you all

Elder Bowring

Dear Mom And dad

Well I found the USB key in the curry box so thank you very much. Well the only thing I have to talk about is that I will be calling home around  6 or 7 o clock PM. So that means it will be around 11-12 ish. What phone should I call you guys on? You have no idea how excited I am to talk to you guys. It will be the best Christmas present I could ever think of. I love you guys very much and I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas. 
Love your son 

Christmas Zone Conference

Elder Bowring, Elder Freeman, Elder Inyang & Elder Enwukweri
At Christmas Zone Conference 2013

Elder Freeman & Elder Bowring lookin'  Sharp!!!
Good Lookin' ties!!

 President and Sister Kirkham gave each Elder a new pair of socks.  They all got a phone card to use to call home on Christmas. Yay!!!  Can't wait!!  

 The first day of Conference was a 'fun' day.  They played games and enjoyed the talents of the missionaries.  For lunch they had great sandwiches from Stop and Shop, real corn chips, and bottles of soda.  

Sister Hezseltine and Sister Berrett made homemade treats for dessert.

The second day was a more spiritual day.  Elder and Sister Berrett did a presentation on "Eyes up - Do the Work'.  They had African food for lunch.
Sister Berrett said, " I loved being able to look around the room and know the names of everyone of the missionaries.  Made me a little teary eyed to realize how far away from home we all are but how happy everyone is to be in Liberia serving their Heavenly Father and sharing the gospel with the good people here.  We love these missionaries and are grateful to be serving with them.  We know they will have an amazing Christmas!"

Thank you Elder & Sister Kirkham  & Elder & Sister Berrett for watching over our boys!!  We love you and wish you the Merriest of Christmas' with your mission family!!

December 16, 2013

Well this week was a good/frustrating week. I guess I could label all the weeks like that but for sure this week fits that description perfectly. Well this week started off with our zone meeting which was good. I really went away from there thinking of things I could do better as a missionary, so this week we have been trying to plan a little bit better for our investigators and it has really been helping. Well on Tuesday we went and seen Winston. He is the one who has been having a hard time giving up alcohol so we made him his 6 week plan. Well on Tuesday he told us that he just wanted to give it all up from that point on because he wanted to be baptized by the end of the year so he could start the new year off right. Well so far I think he is doing good on the no drinking part but he didn’t show up to church so we will have to push his Baptism to January 4^th. That was a little frustrating but I guess nothing you can do. Well on Wednesday we had a sweet experience in the middle of a lesson. We were teaching this guy that we had contacted the week before and we were having a good lesson with him. He was asking a lot of questions about the church and things were good. Well towards the end of the lesson, out of no where the member who was with us yelled out “snake”. In a split second our investigator took off and got his shovel and started chasing the snake. I was right behind him but I didn’t have anything to club the snake with but we eventually got it. I guess the snake was what they call a yellow snake. It was about 4 feet long and I guess they are pretty poisonous so that was freakin awesome.  I didn’t have my camera with me so I don’t have a picture of it which sucks but it was sweet. After that we finished our lesson and everything was good. Well this week is week 6 of the transfer so its technically the last week of the transfer but since the end of the transfer falls on dec. 22 they decided to extend it one more week so that it didn’t interfere with Christmas. So this transfer will be 7 weeks and next transfer will be 5 weeks. BUT, we have an Elder in my apartment Elder Inyang who is going home on the 19^th so that will leave his companion Elder Enwukarwi companionless for a week so I am guessing that they take Brother Freeman on the 19^th as well and me and Elder Enwukarwi will be companions for one week. It will be interesting to see but we will still get transfer news this week anyways so we will know whats up.  So I am not even sure what we will be doing on Christmas but I hope we can do something fun. Well on Friday I got bombarded with packages, I got 4. I got one from Gpa &Gma Lovell, one from Mom and Dad, One from the Shumways, and One from Ashly so Friday was a fantastic day. Thank you all for the packages and letters in the packages (Thank you Palmers). They were so sweet, I felt like it was already Christmas. I was almost overwhelmed with everything I got haha. The Shumways sent some Tinsle in there package so me and Brother Freeman decorated our room and strung it up everywhere so we are all festive now and Gpa &Gma Lovell sent two chirstmas hats so we have been wearing those every night to. Well on Saturday I was expecting to just have a fantastic day because we had a baptism planned for that morning. Well we told him to be there at 9 and when we showed up he wasn’t there but I wasn’t to worried because most Liberians run on there own time anyways and are always late. Well the Baptism started at 10 and by 9:30 he still wasn’t there so I was starting to get a little stressed out so I started trying to call him but of course his phone was off and I couldn’t get a hold of him. Finally I got a hold of member and he went and checked his house and he was just chillin at his house. He said he had no money for transportation so he wasn’t going to make it. I was so mad. Liberians seriously don’t have much cooth when it comes to informing people about things and its so frustrating. I guess it isn’t uncommon here to have the investigator not have any transport but he didn’t even let us know and he wasn’t going to let us know either. Well we are hoping that we will be able to get him baptized this week. We also have another man, Brother William who we are planning to baptize so if things go right we will have 2 baptisms this week. Also on Saturday we had a Christmas Devotional that president Kirkham put on for us. We really went deep into the birth of Christ and the importance and meaning of it. It was so awesome and I loved it. I honestly learn so much more from somebody teaching me than I do from reading things by my self, sometime I have a hard understanding the scriptures and what not but I really did learn a lot. It really made me think and appreciate the birth of Christ and really just how important Christ is to all of us. Jesus Christ, the god who created the world and numerous worlds, loved us so much that he was willing to be born into a mortal world, totally defenseless as a baby and go through mortality. That means so much to me, he is literally a god and he was willing to come down and serve us all by ultimately dying for us all so that we can repent and live him again one day. Its so sweet so I hope that all of you don’t forget the true meaning of Christmas and that you enjoy it all with your family’s and to just be greatful for everything that we do have. For me I thought I would just list of few of the things I am greatful for. I am so beyond greatful for all of my Family and my friends who have supported me my whole life in everything I do, I am so greatful for this gospel and the peace and comfort it brings into our lives by knowing why we are here on earth and by knowing the things we need to do to get back to our heavenly father, I am greatful for temples and the everlasting effect they have on all of us and I am so greatful to be serving a mission and helping these people here in Liberia. These are just a few of the things I am greatful for so I just  thought I would let you all know that. I love you all and I hope you have a Fantastic week.

Love Elder Bowring

O ya i almost forgot, I finally got my First mice kill this week. Im pretty stoked about it!!

Dear Grandpa and Grandma Lovell,

Thank you so much for all the prayers and everything. I really wish i could just take a video camera around with me so you could all see what i do everyday. That is probably one of the hardest things is not being able to really show you guys everything i do. Any ways awnser to your questions. They do celebrate christmas here but its not really a big holiday, it doesnt even feel like christmas. It is still just hot over here so that is also wierd because its decemeber. I dont think that logan town has found a church building yet. For us our church is only like a 5 minute walk away from our compound so its really nice. The mission home is a different story though. It is way in town and we are pretty far out of town so we dont go there often. i did get you chirstmas package so thank you so much i loved it :) Well love you guys and i hope your having a great chirstmas season.
 Love Elder Bowring

December 9, 2013

Well hello once again. I don’t ever know how to begin my emails its just akward so I am just going to start now ok haha. Last week for P-day we went to the beach again and chilled. Me and Elder cooper had a baseball and 2 mits that we got from an Elder who went home 3 months ago. He left them at the apartment so we just snagged them up. It felt so good just to play catch out on the beach. I just really wish we could go swimming or something. Anyways this week was good. Nothing to exciting happened on Tuesday. On Wednesday we taught out to the beach and on our way home we went and bought some fresh fish strait off the beach. The place we teach is like a little community right on the beach and most people fish for a living. They have like big huge canoes that they make out of huge tree trunks that they take out and then they use big nets to catch the fish. I have even had a guy offer to take me out on one. I was so tempted to just hop in and go but I figured that wouldn’t be the best thing haha, any way we got some fresh fish from those guys and we even bought a shark to take home and cook. It wasn’t a huge shark but it was a good size. It tasted so freaking good, we just like deep fried it and put it in some soup and it was good. I am going to be buying some more shark to cook. Well this week we have had no power at all. I guess one of the main wires going to our apartment fried and it took them all week to rig up something to get some power to us. So since we didn’t have power, we bought some candles and just did everything by candle light. I felt all old school, it was cool. Finally they got our power back on yesterday so that was nice. Well we had some frustrating things happen this week, we went into the week preparing 3 people to be baptized this upcoming week and now we only have 1 that we are baptizing. One of the guys names that we were preparing to baptize but didn’t end up being ready was Blamo. He is the guy that we said a prayer right in the middle of the lesson to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. He actually is ready to be baptized but the thing is is that he enlisted into the army here in Liberia and he has to go to base this week for 3 months, so we aren’t able to baptize him. We do have plans to baptize him when he gets back though so I am praying that I am still here in Banjor for when he gets back because he is so sweet. The other person we were getting ready to baptize is Sister Cynthia. Her husband is a member but come to find out they haven’t been legally married yet, so they have to be legally married before we can baptize her. I was pretty frustrated over that one because we are pretty close with the whole family but they never bothered to tell us they weren’t legally married until we were getting her baptism record ready. Luckily we do have one baptism this week. His name is Mendalla and we have been teaching this guy ever since I got here. I honestly don’t feel like I have don’t anything though. Everything we taught him he already knew and was living it. Its crazy how well the lord has prepared him. He is going to be a solid member to the branch so I am pumped for that this week. This week we also met with an investigator that was being taught by Elder Zaugg when he was in Banjor like 6 months ago. He knows everything and he knows that the church is true but he just a problem with drinking. So we made a big game plan for him to stop. We wrote it down in one of the pamphlets and I really hope he sticks to it. He is the sweetest guy. After the lesson we got talking a lot about like how bad the world is right now. Basically just how it is going to crap with the whole legalizing gay marriage thing to just everything else and it really made me greatful that I am on a mission right now and that us as latter day saints don’t have to worry about all that crap. For us we know where we are going and we know what we are doing so we don’t have to worry about all the chaos going on around the world. It doesn’t mean that we cant try and help but it does give us a peace of mind. Well anyways church this week was good. We finally got a Branch mission leader called so I hope that will really speed up the work. Sadly we didn’t see brother Deconte to church this week but the only reason was because his kid is really sick. I swear that poor old guy cant catch a break. I feel so bad for him. We are working with him trying to get his wife to start coming but I guess she is set on being a muslim but we haven’t really sat down with her so we will see what she thinks after we get finished with her haha. Well the mouse catching wasn’t to exciting this week. My stupid trap broke but I did almost kill mice by just smacking them with my shoe. Hopefully I will get one here soon. Atleast I can kill some cockroaches to keep me satisfied. We have so many in the apartment its crazy (you would die mom) Big ole suckers to. Well anyways that is basically it. I cant belive that I have already been out for 4 months. Me and Elder Cooper are going to celebrate tonight and make some rice crispi treats haha. Well I love you all and I hope your having a great holiday season. Love

Elder Bowring

Dear mom and dad,

Well love you guy, I am sorry if I t seems like I am always just asking for crap but I was wondering if in your next package you could send like a lot of protein bars or something like that and some like healthy things I can snack on. I need to start eating better hahah. But that is basically it and o ya I ran out of those probiotic pills so just FYI. Ha well I love you guys. I love all the pictures you send and I am glad the family is doing good. I cant belive how much Jaycelyn has grown. She is so cute now. Well love you guys have a great week. Love

Elder Bowring

December 2, 2013

Well this week was a good one for sure. Last Monday we ran into some other missionary’s and they were going to go eat at Evergreen(a really nice restaurant )  so we just hopped along and me and Brother Freeman split a Hamburger. It was really good. Well on Tuesday I received your guys pre-Christmas package and I loved it. The tree that you guys made me was so sweet, I hung it up the second I got it and all the other elders were pretty jealous haha. I have just been jamming out to Christmas music all week to. I love the Christmas music so thank you for sending that. Well also on Tuesday I got into my first motorbike crash !!!! haha jk it was really nothing, we were heading out to the beach and we hit some soft sand and the motorbike man couldn’t handle it so we just went down. I got tossed from the back into a bush and then I had to come and get the bike off of the bike man and my companion. It was pretty funny, we were laughing about it. Well this week we got our mouse traps for the apartment. We have been keeping track of how many mice we kill each because we all got a trap. Well so far Elder Enwukray has caught 6 mice, Elder Inyang has caught 2, Brother Freeman has caught 1, and I have caught 0. Needless to say I am a little more than disappointed with my performance on the mouse hunting this week but I am going to step my game up this week. Well Thursday was thanksgiving and it was the day that we got our monthly substistence, me and my companion both had 20 dollars left so we got some nice food. We decided with Elder Montgomery and Elder Cooper to make Hamburgers and fries for thanksgiving. There is a really nice supermarket close to where we pick up our subsistence and we bought a pound of ground beef for 3.80 USD and then some cheese and some French fries. So we had a nice thanksgiving dinner of hamburgers and fries. It was so good and It was nice to actually do something for thanksgiving. This week we also had to go to the hospital for my companion to do another urine test for his mission papers. Well the hospitals here aint like the ones back home that’s for sure but they got the job done. It was pretty funny, we had to go and do the test pretty early in the morning and when we showed up to the hospital they told us to go sit in the waiting room. Well we sat down and it was packed, well come to find out they were having a church service. There was a pastor guy up at the front yelling and clapping his hands and then he started screaming HOLY GHOST and then the rest of the congregation would scream back FIRE haha. They did this for a while, but when they started doing it I figured that me and my companion could just wait out side for them to finish so that’s what we did. It was pretty funny though. Well, it was my companions birthday (same as Brittians) And it was also a big holiday for Liberia. Basically all they do for the holiday was go to the beach and party though haha.  Well on that day we went and saw one of our members and when we went to go see him he was in the process of gutting out a fried up dog. The dog still had its head on it and it looked like it was growling at me haha. I wish we could of stuck around to try some bud we had an appointment to go to.  This week end we had district conference and it was so freaking good. We had the second councilor in the area presidency come and talk to us. His name is Elder Edward Dupe. He is from zimboway Africa and he was so sweet, my new favorite 70 now haha. The conference was so powerful and we even had like 6 of our investigators come. 2 of them are like whole familys, and they talked a lot about familys in the conference it. It was so good. In the general session we had about 1,031 people there from our whole district. It was so cool because a bunch of the members from Logan Town were there and I got to go and see them all. Also all three of the people I baptized were there so that was so sweet to see. Well we have some really awesome investigators we are teaching right now. We are also teaching a family called the Tarplah family. The husband is a member and a few of the kids are baptized but the wife isn’t and some of there other kids aren’t. The husband really wants to take his family to the temple and be sealed so we have been teaching them. Well we have been teaching them for like 2 weeks now and the wife is about ready to be baptized. We went over the family proclamation and I know that this family is going to the temple one day. They have started to do family prayer and scripture study in the morning and its so sweet to see them coming together. I already told you about Deconte. This guy is just a boss man. He came to both days of District Conference and its like a probably an hour or two walk to the place from his house because he doesn’t have money for transport, but he shows up with a big smile on his face. We now just need to work on getting him legally married before he gets baptized. There are so many people here who are living together but aren’t legally married. We have an investigator who has been living with her boyfriend for 11 years and has 3 kids with him but isn’t legally married. That is a big problem over here that we are trying to get past, but we are doing our best. 
 Thank you soooo much for the tree, I loved looking on it and looking at all the memorys we have with our family. Our family is so awesome and I really took them all for granted. I love that we always did those things like family prayer, family scripture study and home evening. I can see how much it blessed our family and I always use examples in lessons about how I know by doing these things blesses familys because I have seen them first hand so thank you so much for just everything J.
Well this week was great and I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. I hope your enjoying the cold while I am over here getting toasted by the sun haha. Love you guys have a great week.

November 25, 2013

Well I am freaking out right now, I just got done looking at all the pictures you sent this week and to see the snow just got me so excited and I literally just smiling. Elder Erickson wanted me to tell you thank you also for the pictures. Looks like you are getting plenty of it, I hope it keeps on coming. Well this week was a good week, not really anything to special happened, just kind of a normal week in the field. This week I finally got your Halloween cards so thank you so much for those (now that is thanksgiving haha) No I really did appreciate them though, I love getting mail, it really just boosts me up during the week. Well last week on P-day me and Brother Freeman made some banana bread and I was pretty satisfied with our result. We got the recipe from an Elder who got it from the couples. We are defintily going to be making it a lot. On Tuesday this week, I just got done with my exercise and I went back into our room and there was a freakin mouse on my desk eating some food I left there. Right as I came in it took off and we have been seeing it around all week. I think we have more than just one in the apartment so today we are going to pick up some mouse traps and we are going to be slaying some mice this week, I am pretty pumped I still get to hunt haha.  This week it was our companionships turn to on and off the Generator, so that wasn’t really a big deal, we just had to turn it on at 7 and turn it off at 10:30 and then just make sure it didn’t run out of gas. We had to refill it like every other day so it wasn’t to bad. In one of you letters I got this week mom you asked about hair cuts, I am actually going to get one today. There are just a bunch of people who cut hair on the streets so that’s where we go, it only cost like 80LD which is like 1$. Well this week I have been studying the scriptures a ton. Because before if any body had a question about anything, Elder Zaugg or Elder Guymon would just take care of it but now that I am the trainer, I have to awsner most the time. I know most the awnsers but most people want scriptural back up, so I have been hitting the scriptures hard this week. We seriously have so many people to teach here it is crazy. Some people we only have to see once a week, which sucks but there is just so many people we are teaching. The church in Liberia is growing so much, I cant wait to see where it is by the time I leave. The only thing that they really need to work on is just the family. I know I’ve said this before but even in the church the family’s here just are not very strong. This week in sacrament meeting a member from the district presidency and he came and laid it on the branch how the Melkezdic  priesthood holders need to step it up and they need to start taking charge of there familys better. He said they need to be doing the little things like family home evening, family prayer and scripture study and those things. I really hope that all the members were listening because that is exactly what they needed. Well we had 4 investigators to church this week. One of our investigators names is brother Deconte. He is an older man and he has been coming to church for like 5 weeks now but this week was the first week that the missionarys sat down with him. He is seriously so ready for the gospel and the lord has prepared him so much. I don’t even feel like we are doing anything, we just go there and lay it on him and he accepts it all with a full heart. He is the sweetest old guy. I feel so bad for him. He doesn’t have a job and every day he walks into town. Its seriously probably like 10 miles one way and he does that everyday looking for a job and just to make ends meet to feed his family. Its so sad to see and I wish I could just give the man all my  money but I do know that the lord is going to bless him. He is always in such a happy mood to which just comes to show you that money isn’t what brings happiness. I hope that we can start teaching his whole family here pretty soon to, that would be sweet. Well this week for some reason I thought that Thursday was thanksgiving because I thought that everything third Thursday was thanksgiving, so I busted out some jerkey to celebrate but turns out I was a week to early haha. We honestly probably wont do anything for thanksgiving, my apartment is kind of lame when it comes to that stuff but maybe will just do a little something by my self. This week I decided I needed to cut back on the rice, I am so paranoid about getting fat and that is the last thing I want to do. Well anyways that was my week, I know not really anything to exciting so I am sorry. Hopefully next week will be a little more action packed. Love you guys hope you have a great thanksgiving and are thankful for everything you have. We are all so blessed J Love

Elder Bowring

Well Happy thanks giving MA and PA haha. I just want to say that I love all your emails and letters and everything so thank you. I got a dear elder from you this week and it seriously came at the perfect time and it helped me out so much so just thanks for all of the love and support. I love the emails from my friends that you send me to, its nice to hear how they are doing.  J Love you guys and I hope you have an awesome thanksgiving, tell the whole family hello for me.  Love you guys

November 18, 2013

Alright well this week was a good one. I am getting to know my area a lot better and starting to get the hang of things. Since I am in an apartment with all Africans we have ate rice and different stews everynight and my body is not used to that much rice. Needless to say I have been spending a lot of time in our bathroom, morning and night haha. I forgot to tell you about a cool experience we had last Monday Morning. It was 4 in the morning and all of a sudden the other Elders in our apartment were in our room and they said we needed to go out side to give somebody a blessing. I am really confused at what was going on because I was just waking up. Well turns out our second councilor was outside our compound and he needed a priesthood blessing. When we got out there, our second councilor was on the ground in pain just crying. I guess his stomach was doing something weird but he was in so much pain. So we gave him a blessing and right away you could tell that a peace came over him. After they took him to the hospital and he was at church yesterday. IT was a really cool experience. The priesthood is honestly so important and it can do some amazing things. Well this week on Tuesday we had a meeting for the people who are training new missionarys. It was all the way in town and my area banjor is like the farthest away from town so we had to leave like 2 hours early to make sure we would make it through traffic. It was such a good meeting and they told us how important it is to make sure we train our missionarys right because what we teach them now and show them now they will do it the rest of there mission. Really puts the pressure on haha but President Kirkham said something that I really liked. He said that in order for improvement to happen we need change. I really liked that. After that me and Elder Erickson (since we were temporary companions for the day) tried to get a taxi back to his apartment where I was going to pick up Brother Freeman. Well we couldn’t ever pickup a taxi so we ended up walking all the way back in. It literally took us like 2 hours to walk back in. I don’t know how many miles it was, but it was far and it was hot. Well the rest of the week we had a good week. I am really getting to know my area and really well and we have straight up have the beach in our area. We even got to teach a lesson right on the beach. It was the coolest thing. There is a sweet member who lives out there who works with us every time we have been out there so its really sweet. I hope I stay in Banjor for a long time because I am loving it here. It is a lot less busy and just a little more laid back it feels like. In Logan town you always had people around and the houses were super close together but here in Banjor the houses are a lot farther apart and there is like zero traffic and its just really nice. Well I a sweet experience this week. IN our train for trainers meter president Kirkham told us that if an investigator ever had a doubt that we should just pray about it right then. Well we were teaching a group of guys about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and this one guy was having some doubts on the first vision. Well we got down and had he pray about it right there and the spirit was there so strong testifying what we were saying was true. It was so sweet and the guy even showed up for church yesterday. I am straight pumped. We had 4 Investigators to church yesterday and all of them said that they loved it and that they were coming back. We had the primary program yesterday to and it just brought me back to my good old primary days haha. It was really good though. Training is going well. Since Brother Freeman is just a branch missionary there are still some things that he doesn’t understand all the way but he is doing really well and he is a sweet guy. He is even teaching me how to cook some Liberian food, so if we have the supplies back home, I am going to be whipping up some nice stew for our rice back home J.

It can be frustrating getting to know a new area and the people we need to teach especially when there are so many people around that you can teach. Honestly our problem here is finding the right people to teach, because anyone here will sit down an listen to you, you just have to find those people who will actually keep commitments and be serious. So at the first of the week I was a little bit stressed about finding the right people but now I feel like we are doing a good job at that and I am not as stressed. Banjor is a lot bigger area than Logan town is to, so we have to plan to go to certain areas on certain days which is different than it was in Logan town to. We have to take Transport some days to because our area is so big but its sweet. So funny story. We were teaching this old lady this week about the plan of salvation. She is a really strong Christian and the lesson was going really good until we got to us dying and going to the spirit world. When we said she was going to die she like started freaking out telling us not to talk about death. Well turns out this lady thinks she is never going to die, like EVER going to die. She thinks that she is going to live forever because she has lived a good life and all she has to do is ask God to make her live forever and she will live forever. Crazy. We sat and argued for a little bit but was getting no where so we left, but she still said she wanted to come to church and all that so we will go back. So we will see how it goes. We taught the Plan of Salvation a lot this week and it really got me thinking about how special and important it is for us. Our time here on the earth is really short, and it means so much to me that we have somewhere we can go after we die and that we can be with our familys there forever. Teaching it really puts a perspective on things though. Makes me really want to do those things that matter why we are here in this life. Anyways just one quick last thing. One of the members we have been going out with always says this when we ask him how the gospel blesses his life. He always says that with the gospel in his the life “The happiness just never stops”. Its true, with the gospel, happiness is always there and it is such a blessing to have in our lifes. Well I hope that you all have a great week. Love you all

Elder Bowring

November 11, 2013 Transfers

Well this week was out of control to say the least. We got transfer news on Thursday night and I am now in a new area with a new companion. The new area where I am going is called Banjor and it is actually the same area that Elder Zaugg served his first 6 months of his mission in so that is really cool. He had a lot of good things to say about it. I am really going to miss all of those Elders in the other apartment, especially Elder Zaugg and Elder Guymon. I got to know them both really well and they are awesome men/missionarys. Luckily I will still be seeing them around. Me and Elder Guymon were both kind of shocked when we heard the news because we thought for sure that we would be staying together. Well he is staying and he is the new district leader which is sweet but I was excited/sad when I heard I was being transferred.   Well the area is white washed which means they took both missionarys out of the area and put 2 new ones in, so this will be very interesting. We get to go out and find all of the people that they were teaching before and get to know the area basically by our selfs. Luckily there are some good members that I met at church yesterday that I think will help us out a lot. My new companion is Brother Freeman, he is a branch missionary and I will be training him this transfer. He got his mission papers turned in so now he is doing this to get ready for a mission. Its so crazy, I am actually training and  I am in charge of somebody else besides myself but it will be a good learning experience.  So we got the transfer news on Thursday night and I got transferred on Saturday morning at 6 in the morning. It was way fast, and I honestly feel like I am new on my mission again because I am in a new compound with new missionarys and a new area with new responsibility’s. Its crazy but I am excited for the opportunity.  Being out here has really helped me deal with change a lot better, it still isn’t easy for me but I am getting better at it. I used to hate change back home and I honestly don’t like it still but it is helping me grow and I can feel that. It was so weird to leave the apartment and to leave Logan Town. Even though I wasn’t there for very long I still got to know some people really well and it was weird to leave it all behind. When we got to Banjor though it was really sweet. The area is a lot more spread out and a lot less busy than Logan Town. Even though im not used to it I like it a lot better. It’s a little more like home even though its still pretty far off haha. Instead of being in an apartment  we are in a compound and I LOVE it. We actually get to go out side and get some fresh air at night and get to actually see the stars. In the compound there are three houses with missionary’s and there are 4 in each one. In mine I have 2 Nigerians and then my companion so I am going to be the only American in my house. Its going to be great, I hear you learn a lot from the African Elders so I am excited. Its pretty sweet to, one of my MTC brothers is in one of the other houses, we flew from New York together and he is from Georgia and he is sweet, so we have been talking a lot the last couple of days. His name is Elder Cooper. In the compound we don’t have running electricity so we get our power from a generator and we only run it from 7 at night to 10 30 and then the rest of the time we don’t have any power, its pretty cool. Well that is basically my week, a lot of change but its exciting. I am excited to get to know the area and to start working and training my new comp. I hope you all have a great week and that everything in B-Town is still crack-a –lakin hahaha (sorry for the ugliness) still haven’t lost it. I love you all very much.

Love Elder Bowring

I'm thinking this is when he was teaching the seminary class.

Elder Bowring and Elder Guymon with Branch President and his 3 children that they baptized,
Mary, George, and Hannah

November 4, 2013

Hello once again from Africa. This week was a roller coaster week. It had its ups and its downs for sure.

To start off the week I wasn’t feeling very good. I had a headache and my stomach was doing some weird things so that wasn’t the best. Still went out and worked and everything but my energy level definitely wasn’t there like it usually is. I had my companion give me a blessing on wednesday morning though and throughout that whole day I could feel my strength and energy coming back. It was awesome. I am so thankful for priesthood blessings and I really took them for granted back home to say the least. I should have taken way more advantage of fathers blessings when I could of so im sorry dad for not taking full advantage of that. 

Well on Thursday we had a service project. What it was is that we were digging and getting some sand for a lady who had just built a new house and needed some sand to plaster the outsides. So we had to dig and fill up a wheel barrow and haul to dirt over to the place they needed it. So we dug for a bit and got what we thought we needed but then the lady told us that we needed to get some white sand which is a lot deeper than we were. So we dug the whole a lot deeper and got to the white sand. Well we dug so deep that we had water spewing in and so it was basically like we were digging a well haha. It was pretty fun and Me and Elder Zaugg defintantly went hard. I love service projects but they can be frustrating because some people like to just sit and watch you do all the work but I guess that’s just how it is. So we did that and then we ended going to somebody elses house and removing grass for them which is not easy. So me and Elder Zaugg went hard at that one to while some other missionarys just kind of watched us and some others do it. After wards I was so drained, my energy was just not there but It really felt good to give some service. Another cool experience that happened this week was that the generator wasn’t working at the chapel we do baptisms again so we had to get the water from the well and fill up the baptism font again. This time I ran the wheel barrow and I helped get out water from the well. It was a straight up arm work out doing that. The well was just ground level so we had to get on our hands and knees and get the water in buckets and bring it out. It got to a point that basically our whole upper body was hanging in the hole. It was so fun though, I love doing stuff like that like how many people can say that they had to draw water from a well to fill up there baptism font. Not very many. O the joys of Africa haha.

Another cool experience that happened this week happened the same day as the baptisms. It was our second to last lesson and when the lesson got over there was a truck that had gotten stuck in a little stream by us. Well he was really stuck, It was really muddy so Me and Elder Guymon and two branch missionarys we were with helped him out. We got a bunch of rocks and stuck them under the tires and tried pushing. Everytime we did this we got a little bit closer but we could never get it unstuck. Well finally we got the stupid Forerunner out and when it finally budged it whipped mud everywhere and just blasted all of us. My white shirt had more brown than white on it I was COVERED hahaha it was really funny though. We just got our stuff after and headed to our next lesson and then went home and showered.  It was really cool though because the guy we helped was so thankful. He told us plenty of times while we were there but then he called us again that night and said that he couldn’t stop thinking about why we would stop and help him get his truck unstuck. That was really cool to see some body be so thankful for something like that. We got is number and are going to give it to the missionaryies in the area he stays (of course he isn’t in our area) but i hope that was a little bit of a testimony builder for him.

Well this week was really frustrating for investigators. We had 1 show up for church and it was a kid. I am getting so sick of people not coming to church. The most frustrating part is that they all tell you that they are coming no matter what and then they just don’t show up.  I am to the point that when they tell me something I know the opposite thing is going to happen so I hope my trust isn’t just totally shot when I get home. We didn’t get a chance to sit down with Sensie this week which also was frustrating so I hope we will be able to sit down with him this week. We did get to sit down with Ajavon and Thomas though and I had a really cool experience with Thomas’s lesson. We invited him to keep the word of wisdom last time we visited so we followed up with him on it. He said he hadn’t been drinking any more so I asked him if he has noticed any blessings from keeping it. He said yes, that he has been able to run twice as long now while he is training for soccer and I thought that was awesome. The lord really does bless us when we do the things he asks us to do. It was cool to see that. 

We finally got to watch General conference this week at church. We had no idea until we showed up to the church building and they were setting up for it. It was so amazing, I really took conference for granted back home. It was awesome to see the camera shots of Utah though to ;) It felt so good to hear the prophets voice though, we are really blessed to have a living prophet today. So because we had conference we are doing our special fast for our new building next week (Thanks for all the support on this back home).

This week in my personal study I was reading a lot about forever families and holy crap am I greatful for forever families. The fact that we can live with our families forever is such a blessing to me and it means so much to me. I am greatful that we have to temples to make it possible to be sealed for all time and eternity. In the book I was reading it talked about how this is one of the great things the church has to offer to people because every one loves there families but not everyone is sealed with them for all time and eternity so I am just very VERY greatful for the Gospel and the ablitlty it has to give us forever families.

Well this week is the last week of the transfer so we are getting transfer news this week. It should be exciting so we will see what the lord has in store for me next. I hope you all have an awesome week and that you all are just going hard back home J Love you all.

Elder Bowring

Elder Guymon's (Bobby's companion) Letter

Hello from Africa.  Wow are you really reading that how crazy is that!!! Sometimes I forget that I am here. I am in Africa preaching the gospel WHAT!!!!! There are soooo many amazing things here, so many willing people and I could not ask anything better!! My companion for the last transfer has been Elder Bowring I am sure I have already said that but he is a freaking Master Missionary he has come pre trained (Again)  but this time in a good way!! We just from the first day were teaching soooooo well together and from that day we have just gotten better. I love how we teach. In my past companionships we would each take a principle and talk about it and sometimes, well on occasion, well alway,s my companion would end up talking about one principle for 20 minutes as I just sit there and listen but now we are not each just teaching a principle we are switching off every like 1 to 2 minutes and the lesson could honesty be an hour and a half but it feels like a 20 minute lesson and I love it.  It is just a sooooo much more effective way to teach and we are both loving this companionship!!! But it is sad we are 5 weeks into the transfer one more to go and we are both way sad because we are doing soooooo well together and I know for me I am the happiest I have been on mission. We were able to have our first baptism in Logan Town and his first Baptism of his mission and well it was sweet he was really enjoying it and he has a very amazing spirit to him he does not see it but he is such a powerful person and he looks for the good in EVERYTHING even if a lesson goes bad he just says MAN BUT WHAT ABOUT THAT PART!!! Haha he is great!! Africa is getting to be my home I am starting to learn sooooo much I am not sure how it will be when I get home!! For one it is going to be weird to see a bunch of white people!! Honestly though I forget I am white until I go into a circle for confirmation and see my white hands with all the black ones then I say, “WHAT THE???? OH YEAH!!!” Even when me and elder Bowring teach the God head I say, “It’s like me and my companion we our different but we work together he is white and I am black different but ONE companionship!!” oh I love teaching I don’t want to stop it. When I get home I want to go with the missionaries just to see how different it is.  I am honestly now LOVING the food I smell it and I almost fall in love just saying I want some!!! There is this one food called GB what it is is Yam and water pounded in a tree stump until it becomes REALLY think then you eat it with a stew and Swallow it you DO NOT CHEW IT!! So I was able to make some it was in the picture I sent home!!  My new branch is sooooo funny we meet in this OLD school house that gets no Current so when its rains like this Sunday and its dark you can’t see anything and you get leaked on oh it’s a party in Liberia!!

"Defenders of the Faith"

Don't they look official?  

Here are a few of the Elders from the Logan Town Zone in the Bushrod Island District.    

 (L to R - Elders Humpherys, Zaugg, Price, Bowring, and Guymon.)

As these Elders were getting ready to leave after Saturday's baptism, we noticed they all had on their  sunglasses...well, we needed a picture of that!  Saturday was the nicest baptism we've been to here in Liberia.  The missionaries had made some changes to make it an even nicer meeting than usual. 

October 28, 2013 BAPTISM!!!!!!

Well this week was an awesome week, we had a lot more lessons. I think we ended up having 27 this week so it was good and they were all awesome. Well last week on P-day we went to another nice place to eat. It was so nice, it had AC and I got me a steak sandwhich. It cost 8 U.S dollars (which is a ton here) but it was so worth it. I literally almost died and went to heaven when I tasted the steak haha. So on tuesaday I went on an exchange with my District Leader Elder Osayi. It was so awesome. I am really starting to get to enjoy all of the African Elders here. At first I didn’t really know how to connect with them or how to really have a conversation with them but now its great. Elder Osayi is my grandpa(He trained elder zaugg) and he is in our same apartment with me and Elder Guymon so we are really good friends now. We went into his area so I didn’t know any of the investigators but it was still just a good day, I learned a lot from him. Honestly all these Africans know there bible so well, they are so smart with it so that Is what I am trying to learn the most right now from them. This week on wednesday and Thursday Me and Elder Guymon got the opportunity to teach seminary because the teacher was out of town and we didn’t really have anyone else in our branch who could teach it. It was pretty fun, we had only like 4 students each time but it was nice to be able to teach in more depth than we usually do. Because honestly here, when we are teaching people and investigators it is honestly like teaching primary to most of them. Some of them are really smart and intelligent but some we have to teach things so simple and talk so simple. Like I said before though we taught a lot of lessons this week but what was so awesome about them is that we had such a strong spirit with us while we were teaching this week. This week we only got to sit down with Sensie once and we are still at a stand still with him because he still hasn’t talked to his wife. I think we got a plan to go and see her this week though so I am crossing my fingers that it will happen because he is ready to be baptized, me and Elder Guymon just both feel like we need to wait for his wife first though. This week we found out to that Wolobah is staying at a different friends house in another area so we weren’t able to see him and we are hoping that he comes back to logan town. I will be straight up devastated if he doesn’t come back and we cant see again. O ya and this week our investigator Ajavon got locked up. Ok im not going to lie I kind of laughed a little bit when I heard he got locked up (probably not the best thing). I guess he got into a fight and the police went and took him to jail. Some times the police are weird here, so we didn’t get to see ajavon or Thomas this week at all so we are going to see them this week to. We still have some solid investigators we are teaching though. We honestly are teaching so many people its hard to keep track of them. Right now we are just kind of trying to weed out the serious ones who will keep commitments and everything.

So this week I FINALLY had my first baptisms J We baptized three people. There names are Mary Borwah, George Bowrah, and Hannah Harris. They are all kids, (Mary is 19, goerge 8, Hannah 9)and they are our branch presidents children (kinda shows you how much they value family here, we had to come and teach them instead of the family just teaching them). It was so awesome though, the little girl Hannah is going to be so strong in the church when she grows up and so is the Boy George. The baptism was sweet. I didn’t legitamatly baptize any of them because President Borwah Baptized Mary and Goerge and then Elder Guymon Baptized Hannah. Yesterday we got to confirm them in church and I got to confirm Mary and it was just awesome. I was seriously so happy, I just kept catching my self smiling for no reason. I love it, I am finally starting to feel the joy that comes with teaching people the gospel and seeing them come into the church. It is honestly a joy that I cant describe but I just felt like everything we are doing is so right and I just get geeked over it haha. This week at church was good. Next week we are having a special fast to try and find a new building for our branch because our building is absolute crap(doesn’t even have electricity). So that will be interesting to see how much faith our little branch actually has. I am excited though.

Quick funny story for this week. On wednesday we get this random text that says I love you. We had no idea who it is was from so I text them and asked who it was and then asked them if they knew who they were talking to. They text back and said her name was regina and that she was talking to the elders so I was a little creeped out so I just ignored it. Well later in the day she calls us, and I answer the phone and she says that she just wanted to call me to express her feelings to me hahaha, so I just hung up and then the next morning she calls again so elder Guymon answered the phone and she told him that she had a dream about him the night before that they got married hahahaha. So we took the phone to the zone leaders and got it all worked out. That women was crazy haha so you got some competition ashly haha jk. I got a package from grandpa and grandma Bowring this week so thank you for that. I already ate a whole bag of the dried apples you sent they were so good. All is going good over here in Africa. I hope you all have an awesome week. 

Elder Bowring

October 21, 2013

Well This week was kind of a tough one im not going to lie. All week we had a ton of bounces on appointments and it was really hard to see people this week. Its so frustrating. We only had 1 investigator come to church so that sucked to.  Anyways, last week on P-day we went to the beach again and it was just as good as the first time. We played a little soccer on the beach and then just chilled. We decided that the only thing that Utah is missing is a beach ha.  Well on Tuesday we had district meeting and I was chosen to give the instruction for it. I chose to talk about the Book of Mormon on conversion and I thought it went well. For district meeting I  gave the spiritual thought, conducted the hymns, and gave the instruction. Anyways that was good. On Wednesday we had interviews with President Kirkham and I was a little nervous because I wasn’t sure what to expect but the interview went really good. He just asked me how things were going and gave me some good advice and everything. I didn’t get chastised at all which I thought was sweet because I heard a couple missionarys got it kind of rough haha. While we were there I bought some books to read to. They are Jesus the Christ (which I hear has a lot of deep doctrine stuff in it and its huge), Our heritage, which talks about the history of the church, true to the faith, which has just a lot of basic doctrine stuff, and then our pursuit of happiness or something like that. Right now I am reading our heritage and I love it. It is so crazy to hear everything the pioneer went through. It really took a lot of faith and a lot of courage to do the things they did, and its because of them that we have such comfortable lives in the gospel now. I liked a quote that one of the presidents of the church said that was in there it says “The kingdom of God or nothing” Thought that was good. I got my actual birthday package this week and that was sweet. I loved all the pictures you sent so thank you J The skip-bo game will be put to good use to. So thanks for the package, I didn’t get any letters though but o wells maybe that just means I will get more next week. This week in church I had to give a talk, so I talked on Priesthood duty which I thought went well and I think it was much needed because our branch doesn’t have to many committed priesthood holders. Our branch is seriously a mess. We had PEC this week and there is so much crap we need to do. We don’t even have an active clerk so all of our records from like the past 4 months haven’t even been put in and we don’t have all of our auxillary positions filled. Our branch needs some serious help, but its getting better and better every week so I hope that it continues to keep getting better. This next week we have 2 people scheduled to be baptized so I am hoping that we get to baptize them. There names are Mary and Hannah. One is 19 and the other is 9.  They are both the Branch Presidents daughters so we just had to teach them and then he is going to baptize them but it still count for us. I still just cant wait until we have a baptism that we actually went out and found and converted though I feel like it will mean a lot more but I am still excited for them to be baptized.

So like I said this week was a little rough lessons wise. We had so many bounces and we had a hard time getting in contact with those people we had been teaching, but this week we found a sweet less active member. He was a referral from church head quarters so we called him and set up a time for him to meet us at a place we know since we didn’t know where he lived and there are no addresses out here. So we met him and him name is Wolobah. He has lived in the U.S for 13 years of his life in Minnesota and was baptized into the church in 2004. We sat down and got talking to him and he is seriously so awesome. Right when we met him I had such a good feeling come over me like “Ya were totally going to baptize him” so when I learned he was already baptized I was a little bummed, but then he told us about him self. He says that right now in his life he really just feels alone and that he cant open up to any one but us. So he opened up to us and he is having a really hard time right now. So we just sat and talked with him and encouraged him and things like that and I could tell that it meant a lot to him. Ya we don’t get to baptize him but I know that we were sent there to help him out. We invited him to come to church because he hasn’t been going ever since he got here but I cant wait to just help him feel happy because I know once he starts coming to church again and doing those things that his life will just turn around. Sensie is still doing good, we honestly could baptize him right now but me and Elder Guymon both feel like it isn’t the right time. We have been trying really hard to get his wife involved and stuff and we feel like we need to baptize them together, even though we still haven’t met his wife (who is muslim by the way) So that is where we are with him. We have a couple of other guys Ajavon, Thomas, and Albert who we are still working on. They didn’t come to church this week though so that was frustrating.

Well I hope you all have a great week this week and good luck with all the hunting J Love

Elder Bowring

So I just want to tell you guys thanks for all the picture and quotes they are awesome, I love them so much.  This week I shared your experience mom about the tender mercies of the lord because I thought it went great with our miracles that we have been doing and everyone loved it and I did to so thanks. So In my package with the pillow cases, I found my leatherman in pillow cases but I didn’t find the USB so I am not sure where that one is because I haven’t gotten it yet. Thanks for the birthday package it was awesome. Everything you guys send is great so just keep doing what you doing. Love you guys and I am trying to get some pictures uploaded today but its hard because we are having to try a lot of different internet cafes so don’t think I am forgetting about you Love you guy

Well i had a really good week this week. Last Monday after emails we went into town to do some things. We ate at a place there called Monro Chicken that was freaking delicious. They have hamburgers and alot of other things so i got a double hamburger and a chicken cord on bleu. It cost me an arm and a leg though but it was worth it haha. When we went into town we went by some market places and they had a lot a cool things there. I seen some hats there that were only 10 U.S dollars and it made me miss all my other hats haha.

This week things have been really good with my new companion. We are getting along really well and we are teaching well together. It just took me some time to adjust from elder zaugg to Elder Guymon but things are going great. We are still teaching Sensie and things are good, he just didnt come to church this week which was frustrating. I know we are going to baptize him but its just a matter of when. We have another kids who is 13 who is very smart who we are going to baptize here soon. His name is Ishaih and he has an older brother who is a member who had taught him alot. We were planning on getting him interviewed this week at church but he never came so that didnt happen. This week though we had 3 other guys show up to church who we have been working with for a while. It was honestly a miracle that they came. There is 2 guys named Ajavon and Thomas who i have been teaching ever since i got here and we can never get them to come to church. Well this week we didnt have time to go see them but they just randomly showed up to church which was awesome. The other man his name is Albert and we have been teaching him for a while. Everytime we have asked him to come to church he tells us he will come but he never does. He always has a lame excuse why he doesnt come. But he came this week and i was so excited. I am pumped to go and see them this week becuase honestly after people come to church, the holy ghost is so much stronger with them and it helps them realize and understand more the things that we are teaching them. We had Zone meeting this week and it was really good. We are starting to integrate miracle nights. What it is is that everynight before we got to bed we sit down with our apartment and discuss a miracle that happened to you that day. I really enjoy it because it is helping me realize just how much god is invovled with our everyday lifes wheather its big or small.He seriously is with us at all times of the day becuase he is always watching over us.

Well i hit my 2 month mark this week and its weird to think i have been out 2 months already. I am excited to be done with training though thats for sure. I got to eat some pig foot this week which was interesting. It doesnt taste bad but there is like zero meat on it. This week i stepped into a puddle that i thought was small puddle and ended up going clear up to my knees haha. IT was pretty funny and luckily we were just heading back to the apartment but i was so muddy and i am mad because i forgot to take a picture of it but oh well. I am become a pro at eating chicken feet now though, i am even eating the bones and everything and bone marrow is actually pretty good not going to lie. I am eating it on regular chicken now to. I had a good birthday, i was a little home sick all day but that night Elder Humphrys and Elder Zaugg gave me a big birthday present. They had saved all my letters and a package and some candy that Elder Zauggs family sent and gave them all to me that night so it was pretty awesome to have that. I love getting letters though so keep them coming :) 

I hope you all have a great week.

Love Elder Bowring

Ok so i toatlly almost forgot to share something cool. This week at baptisms (we have them everyweek here) The water pump was broke so we had to haul all of the water in from a well to fill up the baptism font. It was really cool and a sweet experience. One of the couple missinoarys here put it on there blog with some pics and stuff so here is the website so you can check it out :)

http://berrettsinliberia.blogspot.com/

Almost every week there are baptisms at the Duala Chapel.  This week when the missionaries arrived the generator was not working to supply power to the water pump which is used to fill the baptismal font.  Do you think they thought "Better postpone the baptisms?"  NO WAY!!  Instead they got to work and filled the font by hand.

Elder Zolo, Elder Pearmain and a branch mission leader  filled buckets from the well,  then poured the water into this 50 gallon barrel.

More pictures of their bucket bridge.

These are some of "OUR" missionaries on Bushrod Island.

L to R -   Elders Zolo, Osato, Jensen, Godi, Guymon, branch mission leader, Estigoy, Pearmain, Bowring, Manqana, and Elder Price, who arrived last week and had a baptism this week

More filling! 

The missionaries' hard work paid off and the baptism went on as planned and 11 new members of the church were baptized that day.

Here's Elder Humphries and Elder Zaugg (Zone leaders in Logan Town) and Elder Erickson.

The newest members of the church in the Monrovia, Liberia Mission.

Here's Elder Bowring moving the barrel into the church.  Notice the flat tire on the wheelbarrow.

Watching him are Elders Osato, a branch mission leader, Zolo, Godi, Price, and Estigoy taking a picture.