Transferred to the New Mission

Ghana Accra West here I come! 

Ok so I am not supposed to know until tomorrow, but the church put everything the missionary website.    
I know I am going to the new mission and Elder Tribe's first trainee is my companion, son with son.  I am being transferred to Tantra Hills 2.  No idea where that is, but I will find out on Wednesday.  So new mission president and everything.  Tantra Hills is getting a new apartment, too.

This last week was sweet.  Elder Tribe and I had a lot of good times.  Today ME, Elder Tribe, Elder Russell, and Elder Bradley went to the Art Market in Accra.  I bought some sweet stuff for the family.  What is super sweet is that I am getting used to bartering.  Getting really good at it.  I got everything for a great price and Elder Russell who is leaving in August was really impressed with how I did.  

I will send pictures from the new area as soon as I find the cafe there.  So if you don't hear from me next week you will know why.  What is sad about leaving is I am leaving a ton of friends.  I am going to miss a lot of people, especially the recent converts.  If Heavenly Father wants me in the new mission, it is for a good reason.  On the bright side, the temple is in the new mission. 

But thats my letter for this week. My addresses will all change this upcoming week. So do not send letters until i get the updates. Ok. Thanks. You can however email me. 

Ok Gotta go. BYE!

Love,

Elder Ty M. Bowden. 

Finally, Some Pictures!

Greetings from Ghana!!

Another week GONE!  Has it really been a week?  It's just flying by.  I love it out here!  The work is really hard, but it's fun.  Yesterday we got to see the fruits of our labors.  We as a District had 3 baptized.  One from our area and two from Kpone 2.  The one guy, who I celebrated my birthday with, the one who gave us drinks, was baptized yesterday!  After 6+ months of waiting, he was baptized into the church!  And the best part?  I got to baptize all of them!  It was the best thing ever!  

That's all folks! Have a super awesome week.

Love,

Elder Bowden

104 More Emails

Another week has gone by.  It's crazy when you think about it as a missionary I will only send 104 more emails as a missionary.  SO, I thank all of you who read all 104 emails.  That's a lot of reading!  I will try to keep this one funny.

It rains a lot here.  Me and Elder Pietsch had to go to a certain place yesterday for a special interview for one of his investigators.  Well all is good, but as we are walking back to the chapel, it starts to rain and we run back to the chapel in the pouring rain!  For those of you who have seen Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers, I felt like Aragorn as he walks into the one room.  Everyone just looks at him.  Same feeling yesterday entering the church building.  Soaking wet!  Everyone laughed at me.  Elder Pietsch then entered like a minute behind me.

Now an interesting story.  After church last week, the choir was practicing.  Well, I was quietly playing the piano just for fun.  They started singing and well it wasn't very good, way off key.  I start playing the song that they are singing (just for fun to mess with them) and well they were in shock that they were so off key.  SO shocked that they asked me to practice with them.  I guess that is what I get.  Tuesday and Friday night I practice with the choir so they can sound good.  They are getting there.

How is the work?  Finding stinks!  Not because it is hard or awkward, because we can find people, but after that they want nothing to do with us.  The only real way we can get new investigators is to have members refer them to us.  So we have to go on a quest to find where members live, and because there are no street addresses here in Kpone, it is super hard to find them unless they actually take us.  The only way we can have them take us is on Sunday.  That is hard sometimes.

But the work is sweet.  The one family that shared drinks with me the one night, his baptism is on Sunday and hers will be on the 30th. YAY!  So excited!  The missionaries here in Kpone have been working with them for over 9 months.  So everyone is super excited.  All they have to do is pass the interviews on Tuesday and we are good!  Pray that they pass.

Last week I said I was sick.  I have no idea why I was sick, but I am eating more fruit so I should be good.  That's all for this week.  Love you, thank you for your prayers.  Kpone needs them right now.  I will have pictures next week.  Sorry, I forgot my sd card.

Love,

Elder Bowden

I Am Still Alive

Well, first off sorry about last week. The cafe in Kpone is not the best.  So this week we are in Tema and it is a way nicer cafe.  I don't know if we will continue to come to Tema or if we will stay in Kpone with the bad cafe.

With that, I have to update you about 2 whole weeks now. Well, last week nothing much happened until Sunday. Sunday we had our second baptism. Yay! It was so exciting.  That's the only cool thing that happened last week. 

Now to this week. This is the story of how a young missionary named Elder Bowden almost died. Wednesday night I was on a mini split with Elder Bradley in Kpone. Well my shoulder started to ache but no big deal. Then my head started to hurt by this time we were back in the apartment. So I go to bed thinking all will be fine in the morning. WRONG! I wake up in the morning with a temperature of 102! FEVER! GAH! I was in bed all day. Elder Russell watched over me while Elder Tribe and Elder Bradley went out to teach. It was horrible. My whole body ached and my head was on fire. What was worse was the power was off so I didn't have a fan to help cool down my body at all. (Plus it was raining) So I am alive now thankfully. 

But the work is going great here. You know its just hard because the branch is so small and members don't really know what to do to help us. The branch president yesterday finished the meeting by telling them that the missionaries need FMs (free meals) So hopefully soon we can get members to help us more (and feed us too). We have a goal for 3 baptisms this month, so pray that that happens. Also people when you pray for rain, pray for rain in your respective areas, because its all in Kpone right now!

Well...sorry but thats all for now.  Just moving along. Had a lot of people at church yesterday which was really nice. 

Hope all is well in St. George or wherever you may be. 

Love,

Elder Bowden