July 7, 2014

Dear Family,
It was a pretty crazy week to say the least.  The freakin rain we got
this week was enough to fill up the Atlantic ocean and more. I
literally have never seen so much rain In my entire life. It rained
all day Tuesday (and I mean all day) And then it rained for like 48
hours strait Friday and Saturday.  It even rained this morning and
it looks like its going to continue to rain.

Anyways, to start off the week, Tuesday we did not end up having an exchange 
because of an emergency transfer that had to take place because of some 
disobedient missionary’s.  So we just had a regular day on Tuesday. Like I 
said before it literally rained all day so right as we left the apartment,
Me and Tolar were soaked. It was so cold the whole day working out in
the rain, walking through practically rivers and lakes haha. Luckily
it didn’t rain to much on wensday and not too much on Thursday, but
come Friday the freakin heavens opened up and didn’t shut for 2 days.
Like I said before, I have never seen so much rain in my life. It
wasn’t just a light rain, but it literally rained hard for 48 hours.
It felt like you were standing under a water fall, and we were strait
proselyting in it. Roads and streets that we usually use were
literally rivers and it was up to our knees ( I know I exaggerate a
lot but none of this is exaggeration ) A few places on the main road
where all the cabs and stuff drive , the water was past there bumper.
It was so crazy. I have never seen so much water in my life. IT rained
enough to probably fill up recapture 10 times over haha. I never
realized how cold the rain can be though until I proselyted in it for
3 days. Friday was the 4th of July and luckily we had a service
project on that day. It was really good, we went to a members house
and we helped him move a ton of sand and fill up a bunch of sand bags
to block all the water that was coming. There literally was a rapid
that formed around there house , so we were working hard in the down
pour of the rain. I had a blast, it was fun, hopefully I can send a
few pictures off today of it. I thought it was a perfect day to have a
service project, it being the 4th, really just helped me get my mind
off home and it just put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.
The rest of the day Friday was spent just proselyting in the heavy
rain again. At the end of the day, we went to one of our familys homes
and the whole community looked like a swimming pool. WE had to
basically get out our paddles and push through the water haha, it was
really a fun experience though.  To celebrate the 4th though, we
splurged and we made some hamburgers and hot dogs with some French
fries so we really enjoyed on the 4th of July here.  Saturday we went
through the same exact thing. We did see a lot of just small miracles
 though. We were really blessed for our diligence in going
out in the rain and just pushing through it all to see our
investigators. We are finding just more sweet people every day. Our
families are progressing well to. The Randall family is so sweet, the
husband especially. Brother Randall just loves us and the church and
we are now just working to get his married legalized and we will be
putting them in the water in no time hopefully. Our other family,
Evangeline and Archie are also doing good, we have kind of hit a road
block though. The marriage and everything are still planned and going
smoothly but we are just having a hard time getting the husband to
come to church for some reason. We sit down with him and he loves us
and the church and wants to be baptized but for some reason he just
doesn’t like coming to church. It is really frustrating. As for
Evangeline, I don’t think we could keep her away from the church.  So
we are hoping that we can figure something out for them. Again I just
want to say this again for Emphasize, IT RAINED THIS WEEK hahahaha.
Everything is going great though, we are just working hard and finding
success because of it. This week is the last week of the transfer so
by next week some new things could pop up.  I just hope me and Tolar
stay together. I literally could stay here in Paynesville with Elder
Tolar the rest of my mission and I would have no problem with it haha.
He is a great missionary and one of my best friends now haha we are
idiots to say the least, but we are enjoying.  It’s weird because
there are some Elders going home next week, like Elder Finau and Elder
Humphrey’s . Its so weird because for those two elders, they have
really helped and influenced me a lot on my  mission and to see them
go is just really weird. Time is flying by that is for sure, before I
know it , it will be my turn to go home. Anyways, I hope you all had a
wonderful 4th of july and that things went great, I am sure they did.
Love you all and miss you all very much, Love
Elder Bowring