Zack's Baptism

Elder Bowers was unable to be at Zack's baptism due to his transfer. He was able to talk to the missionaries and hear about it which he was grateful for. Here are a few pictures he sent of the baptism.

First week in Porirua

Dear Family and Friends,

This past Week has been amazing and overwhelming at the same time. I Really love this new area, its just crazy. The south Island I have found is a lot like europe, it is very victorian in some places and is heavily influenced by english and scottish culture. The North Island is like a whole new place, it is seriously like walking into the belly of a beast haha. I love it though. In Oamaru, I probably saw one or two moari people every now and then, but Porirua is full on, it is like everyone in the ward I am serving in is Moari. We do get fed heaps here apparently, but we bike all over and there is nothing but hills so I will work off the food hopefully. Surprisingly I have not gain any weight but I have lost weight on my mission. Knock on wood. 

So My new companion is from Keribus. It is a SMALL Island near Fiji. I dont think it was hit by the storm. He Pretty cool. He is fresh off training so we are both pretty new. This is much different than my last companion, because Elder Tekiera is Staunch. I am grateful for this because, being staunch helps you be a more effective missionary. You cant really teach when you are being disobedient. He speaks pretty decent english so I am grateful for that. We  do Language study which is new. The flat that I have moved into is very nice and Clean compared to the last one. Apart from the possibility of bed bugs here. By the way family, I might have bed bugs. Awesome. I just hope that we can get rid of them. This district is notorious for bugs being sent around during exchanges. I hope that we can change that Because there is nothing worse than having bites all over in the morning. Other than that I could not be happier with this transfer. I keep having to remind myself that I haven't been here for long and that I cant expect myself to have the area memorized. It is very big. 

This area is a great area. The work here is flourishing. It really is pretty good. We get some quality lessons with people and we hope to see some great success. It is tough to be lead sometimes by my companion because of his broken english but its Ok. He has improved a lot since he first came out. The district is really cool as well. I love it. It is an all elders district and they are all really experienced great elders. We have two sets of Samoan elders and they are hilarious.

This weekend we did a service at this thing called the creek festival as a district, it is like a county fair or something like that. We set up this stage for them. It was like a full on Stage that Was for concerts and such. It took us 7 hours. It was heaps of fun. We also had a tent at the creek fest where we got tons of new investigators and referrals. It was a lot of fun to talk to everyone and see the culture. Afterwards we took down the stage which took 2 and a half hours haha they said we smashed there previous record of 5 hours. We had a prayer afterwards and they were very grateful for our help.

On Sunday we got to go to the new ward and meet everyone. I really loved meeting everyone. I bore my testimony and talked about sharing the gospel with friends and getting out of your comfort zone. I think a lot of people just get caught up in life and dont bother sharing what makes them so happy with there closest friends. I am hoping to work with this ward to get them to share the gospel with everyone. I also had the opportunity to call the elders in Oamaru to see how Zacks baptism went. He said it went well and that Zack bore his testimony at the baptism. I was really grateful to hear that. I wish more than anything to have been able to see it. I was so worried that something would go wrong. But I love hearing that it went Well. My first Baptism. I love this work. I am overall doing really well. I am hoping to learn this new area really fast. I know that Obedience is the key to developing faith and strengthening your testimony. I love you all in bountiful. I pray that you are doing well and that everything is ok. I love you all.

First transfer to a new city!

You heard me right. After Tanner's request to stay the mission president had a better idea. After some clarification on a letter. Tanner explained that it is very common for his president to white wash areas. Now it makes sense why he and his last few companions have both been new to the area. Tonight he left for the Zone leaders flat and tomorrow he will fly out to Porirua where he will serve with Elder Tekiera. Elder Bowers will be the senior companion. He is disappointed to not be around to witness Zack being baptized, but is excited to try a new area. He we will miss all of the people he has got to know and love in Oamaru. I did a quick search and you can see he is headed much further north on the island across the Strait. I am excited to hear about his new adventures. From google I was able to find out that Porirua is one of the 4 metro areas in New Zealand. The population is primarily European with a part of Maori.

HIS ADDRESS IS:

39B Apple Tce
Porirua 5024

March 8

Dear Family and Friends,This week was a pretty rewarding week, It has also been one of the tougher weeks that I have had since i have been out. Homesickness is something that rarely effects me lately, I think of home, but I do not long for home, sure I would like to be back there but I really just want to get to work and forget everything else. I have really been working to keep us busy this week, we have continued to give service as much as we can find it. I love serving at the RDA and around others in the town. Working with the people here in Oamaru is great because it gives us heaps( Kiwi lingo) of opertunities to share our beliefs and our purpose. I really do love the people here.On thursday we had a zone training meeting in Gore. So we slept over at the zone leaders Flat so we wouldnt have to get up earlier for the three and a half hour drive. While we were in Dunedin with the ZL's we made sandwiches with them for the Zone meeting. I also had a wrestling match with Elder Danner, who is from Idaho. He wrestled and I was just itching to wrestle someone haha. It was long and Drawn out and we eventually just ended it due to the lateness of the night. I really miss wrestling, It was one of the most rewarding and character building experiences I have every had... until I complete my mission of course. The Zone meeting that we had was really informative, I really enjoyed it. Elders Oborn and Danner gave the presentation along with sister Simmons the STL. We talked about the goals that we can all set to help us reach our mission. Which is to "Burst through the frontier of faith and dwell in the realm of the miraculous". we learned all about Setting goals to help our investigators be strengthened and grow in the gospel. We were to do this by focussing our goals on the committments we make to those we teach. "Commitments make Converts." The main focus was to help us become master planners so we could grow the number of baptisms this year in our mission, which as it stands the goal is 400. That is one baptism per companionship per Quarter. I know the Lord can help us achieve this goal. Everything is possible through the lords help. We have also continued to teach Zack, this saturday we taught the fifth lesson. We have rescheduled his baptism to the 14th due to a small scheduling conflict. I am confident that he will be ready to be baptised on that day. I have asked President Hudson if I can stay in Oamaru for another transfer so I can see him baptised. He has yet to decide who he would like to baptise him so we told him we would cross that bridge when we get there. I am so happy for him. The lord trully does work miracles in peoples lives. I know that this is Jesus christs church restored again on the earth, I know that Thomas S. Monson is our leader here on the earth. I love you all and I Pray for you.Love always,Elder Bowers