July 28, 20114

Dear Family,
This week was busy as it always is and it flew by but we really had a
good week.  This week is probably the hardest I have worked my entire
mission. Definitely feeling it today haha but it’s a good feeling.
This week me and Elder Tolar just really worked as hard as we could to
see those people and get the baptism ready for this week. WE had over
40 lessons this week and we saw it really help us this week. We had 20
people come to church yesterday, we were freakin pumped, so to say the
least things are really looking good in our area. This week we were
able to have our baptism for Grace. Archie and Evangeline we not able
to be baptism this week, we were really praying hard and working with
them very hard to get the things done that we needed to but they went
to go pick up there baptism certificate on Thursday and I guess that
they had paid there money to late so they aren’t able to get there
certificate until this Wednesday. Everything is looking great for
there baptism this week though, they were interviewed and have the
wedding all planned out with the branch president and so we are really
excited for that this week. They are both more than ready to be
baptized all ready. Our baptism was really good this week though, it
was on Saturday. She was the only one baptized so it was just a really
small simple service but it was a really good one. You could just feel
the spirit there and it was just a great little service. Grace was
very happy and excited, she even hired a photographer to come and take
pictures before the baptism , it was pretty funny.  I am very happy
for her. Saturday was also Liberia’s independence day and everybody
was busy on that day just partying. It was so hard to get a lesson on
that day but we were able to scrap out a few. On that day, everybody
just dresses up there children all nice and does there hair and then
they just go walk around and show them selfs off, its kind of funny.
This week we also had an exchange with the A.P’s. When they come down,
we just split our area and one goes with me and the other with my
companion. It was really hard to do that but we ended up having a
really good exchange with the A.P’s.  I went with Elder Burr. He is
from Utah and actually played football at Timpview so we got along
just fine. We were able to go out and actually have 9 lessons that day
and it was really good. This week we were actually able to find
another family in our area so we are excited about that. There names
are the Duncan family. We contacted them when there 12 year old son
called out to us, so we went and contacted them. It was just the
mother who was home. When we first sat down with her, she told us that
she was in another church and she was head of the women department and
that her husband was a deacon at the church so I was just thinking
“crap, they are never going to even want to listen to us” but we just
went on as usual and shared with them the message of the restoration
and she was very humble and loved the message. We came back later in
the week on my exchange with the A.P. and when we got there, the
husband was also there. We went over the restoration again with them
and the husband also loved our message. Even he has had a history with
the church in the past. One of his co workers was a member so she gave
him a Book Of Mormon and another book from the church. It was so
awesome to see, so we are really having some high hopes for the
family. The mother came to church this Sunday with her son. The
husbands little brother just died so he had a family meeting and
wasn’t able to come. It was really awesome. Other than that, this week
has just been pretty normal. The Randall family is really doing well
and still progressing towards the marriage. We are hoping to get them
soaked in the water here pretty soon. Just want to tell you guys how
much I love all you guys and how much I appreciate all you do. It
really means a lot to me.  The work is moving along great here and I
am still just enjoying my time. Love you all and hope you have a good
week. Love
Elder Bowring