June 30, 2014

Dear Family,
This week was actually a long week and had its ups and downs. First of
the week was actually pretty good but towards the end of the week got
a little bit frustrating and stressful. Anyways, on Tuesday we had to
do a zone leader exchange with one of our District Leaders. Elder
Tolar went with the district leader into his area and then I was able
to have an exchange with his companion and bring him to my area. His
name is Elder Miviqi. If you try to pronounce his name you will never
get it haha its another crazy name that has a click inside it.
Anyways, he is a new missionary, he has just be out 9 weeks now and is
from South Africa. We had a really good exchange, it was a little
different teaching with a new missionary again but it was fun. He is a
funny guy. We had a good day together and then he was able to stay the
night. It was really good and I felt like I was really able to help
him a lot with some things so that was really good. Wensday was one of
our stressful days. We literally got so many bounces on that day.
Right now is graduation season in Liberia and everybody throws a party
when you graduate. You can be graduating high school or just
graduating kindergarten, and you will have a party thrown for you. No
matter where we walk you can just hear music blaring and just a bunch
of people. Because of all these graduations we are getting bounced a
lot so it is making things a little bit harder for us. But because we
got bounced a lot on Wednesday, it led to my miracle for that day. We
literally had tried to see everyone we could think of, so we finally
decided to go to a new area and see one of our RC. We were able to see
him and after that I wanted to go and schedule an appointment with a
new family that I had contacted on my exchange. Well the family ended
up being there and we were able to even sit down with them and have a
sweet lesson with them. They are really awesome AND they are already
legally married so that is wonderful.  We have high hopes for them.
There names are Sister Yassah and Brother Hakeem. Anyways, the worst
day this week was on Saturday. We had a sweet baptism in the morning
and was able to baptize Stephen. After that though, the day went down
hill. We had 3 lessons scheduled at the church and literally all three
people bounced us. We then tried to get in touch with some people in
our teaching pool and either everyone’s phones were off or they were
at stupid graduations. We were finally able to see a LA kid and then
we went out to see our family, Sister Evangeline who lives on the Edge
of our area. ON our way out there it just started pouring on us and
when we got there she also wasn’t there. So we had to go and find her
in the pouring rain. By the time it was 2 o clock, we had 2 lessons
and had about 1000 bounces and we were drenched. It was just really
frustrating. But we made the best out of the rest of the day. We went
on a quick exchange with some Elders in our zone so that Elder Tolar
could show them there area (because Tolar served there before) so I
got to take out another new missionary on an exchange, so I am getting
plenty of new missionary action. Sunday was stressful to because we
weren’t able to get Stephen confirmed. He showed up like 5 minutes
late during the sacrament so he wasn’t able to be confirmed. We were
pretty frustrated about that because we still had time in sacrament
meeting to do it but the Presiding authority didn’t let us so needless
to say Me and Elder Tolar got into an argument with him after
sacrament about the situation. It was great haha. But the day actually
ended up good, we were able to see Hakeem and Yassah again so that was
good. We have some sweet people coming to church to. The Randall
family was able to come, Husband , Wife, and Daughter so that was very
exciting for us. We have 2 families that are really close to getting
there marriage certificate so we are hoping to baptize 2 families this
month. We would really appreciate some prayers for those families to
be able to get there marriage certificates though.  I did have a
realization last night though, this past week I have been really
praying that I could work on my Patience and Humility and I look back
at the crap we went through this week and they were really there to
test me and my Patience and my humility. I just really hope that I was
able to learn from them this time so I don’t have to get tested again
haha. Things are good here though, this week is also looking like a
very busy week. I have an exchange with another New missionary
tomorrow so that will be good. We are definitely staying busy here
though. Even through all the trials and things we face in this life,
we can always be comforted about the gospel we have. I love the
scripture Alma 34:41. You will have to look it up. Anyways, I hope you
all have a wonderful holiday this Friday. You will have to party extra
hard to make up for my absence haha. Love you all, have a great week.
Love Elder Bowring

Mom,
I love the rain too, but i am gettting a bit tired of it haha. I hope you
guys have an awesome week with the family and everything for the 4th.
I will for sure be missing it but its all good, ive got plenty of time
for that. I love you so much to, i hope you ahve an awesome week. Love
you mom, Your african son,
Elder Bowring