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