Dear Family and Friends,
This week has been pretty great, I have adjusted well to this new area and I should hopefully have it down in a few weeks haha. It is a lot bigger and more complicated than Oamaru. What makes it harder is that the names of the streets are moari names rather than english names haha. I will have it down soon though. So My new companion is the man. We have been working hard and loving it. I really do believe that working hard and getting lost in the work just makes things go by much faster. I love it. The only thing that stresses me out is when we have planning and I dont feel as useful as I feel I should be. I still try to be as active a participant as I can given my newness to the area. I am just really grateful that I have a companion who is patient with me. We have been staying busy with contacting formers and less actives. I love meeting these people. One of the great blessings that we as missionaries have is the ability to have relationships with complete strangers. Its great, you can just walk up to a house and they will welcome you in just based on your calling, it is great.
So this week as a lot of you predicted it was indeed windy and rainy for a good part of the week because of the tropical storm. I guess it hit Vanuatu pretty hard and the church is helping with the relief effort there, way cool. The church is awesome. One of the side effects of the bad weather was I had a tough time adjusting to the idea of staying here... at least near the beginning of the week. During the middle of the week we werent having too much success but we were working hard so we still felt good about our work. We taught Roena and Himanshu twice this week where we taught the first two lessons. Roena is a less active member and her partner Himanshu is a not member. They are awesome. Himanshu asks great questions and understands the things we teach he is very receptive and is willing to be baptised. He just has a few hurdles to overcome. They have to either marry or separate before he is baptised and he needs to quit smoking. But we are confident that he will overcome these challenges. This stuff just excites me, I love seeing people come unto christ and come to find the happiness I have found.
We also had zone conference on friday. The AP's and President and sister Hudson were there. We talked about effective goal setting and planning. That seems to be a big emphasis. President Pearson of the area presidency gave us a promise last year that if we become master planners we can double our baptisms for the year. Our mission has a goal to have 350 convert baptisms this year. That is 4 baptisms per companionship this year. I hope to do everything I can to meet those goals. I love seeing the work move forward.
This sunday was great, I am beginning to feel more apart of the ward. They are great. Everything just seems to run smoothly. After church we went and contacted this less active lady who we talked to for a while she talked about how much she loves her children and how she appreciates the gospel in her life. She was having a hard time because her husband is a drug addict and isnt home most of the week. It was sad to see but I know that the Lord can help us if we are willing to do our part.
We also had a general priesthood meeting for the stake which was good because we talked about ward councils and how we can work better together to help retain new members, less actives and baptise more. I know that this is the only way that we can move this work forward is with the help of members. I have really enjoyed my time on the mission and seeing my testimony grow and develope. It has been amazing to see.
On a more personal note, the bed bugs have not been biting me lately so it should be fixed, I sprayed my bedding with this stuff and it hasnt bothered me since. so I hope that is over with. Thank you for your love and concern. I love you all and pray for your well being.
Love always,
Elder Tanner Bowers
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