Brothers and Sisters, Talofa! (Hello in Samoan) Good morning everyone, how has y'all’s week been? This has probably been one of the most ballin weeks ever for me! So, this week I went on exchanges with our Zone Leader (ZL), Elder Leadbetter, and it was awesome! What a great guy, and I really enjoyed being with him for the day! During our day together we contact what we call Potential Investigators (PI's) and they are people who someone has told us to come by or someone we met that asked us to come by and start teaching them and what not. In this area we have a pretty long list. So, Elder Leadbetter and I contacted all of them that we could, and this is like a dozen people! It was crazy!!! Because for us as missionaries, no one is hardly ever at home, especially in the afternoon. Even if they are, they usually don't open the door. (I wonder why! lol) That was a wonderful miracle for us! Sad thing is that now we need more referrals to contact. haha! We had a lot of success though, and we also set up 4 return appointments out of a dozen to go back to. So not too bad. It was a great highlight of my week!
ALSO! Very important! We had multiple baptisms this past Saturday! 5 people total!! So first was our baptism in the Samoan ward we cover in West Valley! (Granger 11th Ward FYI) A mother and her son we have been teaching recently were the one's that got baptized, and our senior couple baptized the mom and the bishop baptized the son! It was beautiful! And of course, we had a huge lunch/feast thing afterwards which was homemade for half the ward! Haha! So that was great as well! It was a great experience for them and for us! It was also great to see their confirmation Sunday as well and for them to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost! Then I had a baptism back in my old area in Granger/Hunter South! It was Jose Cababa who I set on date a week or two before transfers and he was baptized! Then afterwards he was confirmed and given the Aaronic Priesthood, so he could baptize two of his sons, Isaiah and Daniel, which was a great miracle to see that as well! He has been meeting with missionaries now for over 4 years, and it was great for him to finally make that step! So It was awesome to be able to attend these baptisms!
Of course, one of the coolest things this week is that we had a decent rainstorm come through which doesn't happen very much here in Utah! Haha! The streets got somewhat flooded even though it didn't rain that much. So it was pretty cool to watch!
I'm very grateful to be here in this mission and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I love every day and every second of my mission! It's hard to believe we are already half way through August! I know that what I am doing is probably one of the best things I could be doing right now. I love the work. I'm having a blast in the Samoan area, and I am doing well with Elder Bingham! He is a great missionary and is helping me out a lot! I hope and pray that all of ya’ll are doing fantastic as well! I love all of y'all! Thanks again for the love and support! I appreciate everything that y'all have done for me! Thanks for the impact y'all have given me!
Elder Bowie
Samoan Wards
Salt Lake City West Mission
