August 16th, 2011

Oi família! Como vocês vão? What an amazing week it has been! It's been a roller coaster ride and it's been an amazing experience! Well guess what?.... Gina is getting baptized!!! She has been so reseptive and we have asked her before, but she wanted to finish the Book of Mormon first, but the Spirit was just so strong!! I'm going to send a tape home this week so I'll go into more detail in that. It's crazy how the little time I have to email flys by! No one has gotten their visa this week, we are thinking that we'll all be here the whole time now, but its whatever the Lord wants. So there's 6 Elders and 1 Sister and the Sister (Hayes) and Elder Purdue are the only ones from out of state and from the west coast so we think if anyone leaves it will be them. So in sacrament meeting they never tell who the two speakers are until right before they give the talks. Yupp, it was me this week. Straight up Portuguese. It was a real eye opener for me. I struggle to pronounce some of the words, especially in the scriptures, but I always have a comforting Spirit telling me that it's what the Lord wants and I must stand tall in what I believe. Its interesting, Adam an Eve took from the fruit that they may know the good from the evil. That they may experiene the joy from the sorrow. That they may become stronger from the weaknesses of mortality. But the choice isn't usually between good and evil. Rather than faith and fear. But as the scriptures state, God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but of sound mind and love and His power. We should never be ashamed of the gospel or the testimony of our Savior. We can do all things through Christ, who is our Salvador. I hope to tell you more about my experiences in my tape. Eu amo todo você! Deus esta com você Elder Bowman OMHIWDMB