Monday, December 30, 2013

Happy New Year

Well, as we welcome 2014 we say goodbye to 2013. Not gonna lie. This past year has been very strange and different for me. To start off at home and being with all of my friends to go to the heat of the battle and become a missionary, very different life to live. This will be the only full year that I will be a missionary. From January to December I am a missionary. Then come 2015, I have small time till I return to you. But that is in the far future. Cars will be flying by that time. For now, the time is 2014. We have to look ahead with faith. 

This Christmas was very nice. We got up and had a baptism. Then we went out and got to work in the mission field. No members fed us. Nothing like that, just straight going and seeing people and then we go home and call home. AWESOME!!!!!!! I loved it. I cannot wait until May to call home again. By that time I will have 10 months left in Ghana. Crazy!!!!!

Life is good here. Still In Amasaman. Part of Ofankor ward. There are ten missionaries in this ward. Four Sister Missionaries and six Elders . . in one ward. Crazy. Come March they should be splitting the ward. However this Sunday we did lose the first councilor to the Bishop. He moved to a different stake . So our Bishop only has one councilor now. Not sure if we will get one before March. I doubt it. Tantra Hills still hasn't replaced the councilor since he moved and it's been longer than a year. 

I would just like to thank all of you who sent me anything for Christmas. It was really nice of you to do that and it must of come at a great cost to you. I can't imagine the sacrifice that you must of had to do that for me. 

Well, this is going to be an interesting week. I will let you know how it goes next week. Sorry this email isn't the best. I have been multitasking a lot today and didn't get to put in as much as I could of. I need to write this on Sunday and then type it on Monday. I will try that next week. 
Love you all, 

Elder Bowden!!!!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Merry Christmas!

Well, we all know what happens this week. I get to call home. Sorry but just my mom, my dad and my little sister are invited. I am happy about getting to talk to them again. I get to hear from them every week, but to hear their voices is going to be the best thing ever. It has been 7 months since I last talked to them voice to voice. This will be my 2nd of 4 phone calls. I do not think I will ever skype because of the computers here, plus calling is much easier. 

Yesterday was an important day for me. I hit my 9 month mark! It was exciting. Sorry I don't really have much to talk about this week. I get so busy emailing other people that I forget sometimes to write this until end. Oh well, sorry, next week will be good. 

I DO LOVE YOU ALL THOUGH!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
LOVE

Elder Ty M. Bowden

Monday, December 16, 2013

Picture Day!!!!

So Today is going to be a picture day. Just sit back and enjoy the show. Sorry no Popcorn. 

So me and Elder Morrison Enjoyed some fun making Pumpkins on Halloween. 

 My First Son: Elder Reeves.

From Washington State. 

20 years old.

As of now 2 months on Mission

YAY!!! ONLY 22 more to go!!!!

 Walking Home in the Dark. (Going Left to right: Elder Reeves, Elder Indimudia, Elder Saleh)

 Sunset at the Ofankor Chapel. 



Oh Christmas Tree!!!!

Oh Christmas Tree!!!!

 I don't know, just smile and put it on a Blog...Why Not?

 Now this one, in the Suit Coats, is the 1000th picture I've taken on this camera. Special Moment...

 Zone Training!!!!

Baptism on Saturday!!!! Every Ward in the Area had one person being baptized. HAPPY DAY!!!!!

So one of the Sister Missionaries is going home tomorrow. Sister Etifia from Nigeria. So...
WE PARTIED!!!!



PIZZA!!! PIZZA!!! PIZZA!!! PIZZA!!! PIZZA!!!

 See Me Enjoying!!!! :)
So Yes...I Ejoyed A little Bit. :)

So now you have some pictures of me and the mission. This upcoming Saturday will be my 9th month in Ghana!!! So Lets PARTY!!!!!

Anyways:

I hope you enjoyed this weeks Blog. I know I did. I cannot wait to talk to you next week. So good luck, sleep tight, and I shall see you later!

Love, Elder Ty M. Bowden 


Monday, December 9, 2013

Greetings from a DRY Ghana!!

 Hello once again! Ghana is going well. It is December and we have 6 inches of dust. Apparently during December, January and February is what is called Harmatin (Ha Ma Ton). It is a very dry season in Ghana. It goes from raining like crazy to dust like crazy. We seriously cannot see 100 yards ahead of ourselves. There is so much dust in the air. If anyone wants to send a mask please do so. The dirt is terrible. It just started 3 days ago and one of the older Elders says that it will get way worse. However the humidity is gone almost. You feel like you are in St. George in the summer. 
     This being the season of Thanksgiving, I would like to thank all of those who have sacrificed so much that I could be out here on my mission. I know it isn't easy to do that. It's not easy to have someone you care about leave for 2 years to a foreign world. However the Lord has commanded, and we must obey. All I know is that if you are my friend and you are not a member, prepare to be seeing men in suits as soon as I get home because you are going to be a referral. 
     This next paragraph is for my sister mainly. I have some explaining to do for her. I emailed her last week telling her that two missionaries were going to write to her. Why? Well, I have a picture of her in my room, and well two of the missionaries noticed it and they have a desire to write to her. I find is super funny, Halie is my sister!  It's strange having someone telling me that my sister is beautiful. Of course it's true, but it's just so weird to think and hear it come out of someones mouth. So, I made a deal with them. If they were actually serious about this if they wrote a hand written letter to her, I would provide an envelope with the address on it. Well, this has been done. They will be sent over to America tomorrow. So Halie, prepare for two letters from missionaries.
     Well, Last Monday I bought a Christmas Tree. Well, it is awesome. It's as good as I am going to get here for a good price. Now I have an awesome tree for two years! I am not sure if I will keep it after 2014 Christmas and give it away OR bring it home and put it in my college apartment. Not sure yet. Details... Shout out to Aunt Wendy and the Horman Family!  First family to have a package under my Christmas Tree! Super Excited. I wasn't sure if I was to open it or not, so I did and once I realized that there were wrapped packages in it, I put them under the tree. However, the candy did not survive the temptations. Thank you for the sugar. Thank you for the package. 
     So this past week was a very good week. We had our best week with our numbers. Surprising to me, we had the best numbers in the whole District!  I have no idea how that happened. But it did. I am very grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to have such a week. I pray that we are able to maintain these kind of numbers and hopefully build off of them. Try to stay consistent in the good parts and try to bring up the bad parts. 
     FYI you are all invited to a baptism this Saturday. It will start at 4:00 at the Ofankor Chapel, Tesano Stake. A young man named Innocent will be getting baptized this day and we are all super excited for him. We've been working on him as long as I have been in Ofankor, if not longer. It is weird to think that I've been in Ofankor for 2 months now. 
     Funny Story - I might even have a new ward soon. Not because I will be transferred but because the ward will hopefully be splitting soon, and that would mean that I would be part of the Amasaman Ward. YAY!!!! The rented building is much closer to the apartment and is actually in the Amasaman District. So pray that that happens before I am transferred. We will be splitting hopefully before the start of February. 
     Well....that's about all for this time. I hope all is going well where ever you might be. And we will see you next week. 

LOVE YA!!!!!!
Elder Ty M. Bowden 

Monday, December 2, 2013

Greetings from Ghana!!!!

   Well, this week is another week gone. As time passes by here so do the days and so much for me paying attention because I completely forgot that Thanksgiving was this past Thursday. I thought it was two weeks ago. Shows how much I know. 
     Yesterday in Church we only sang one Christmas hymn and that was only because someone complained that there wasn't a Christmas hymn on the program, so they changed it. Speaking of yesterday, Church was interesting, very interesting. It was fast and testimony meeting and well...there were some very interesting testimonies given. It was so bad that our guest visitor, Elder Vinson of the Seventy, got up and finished the Sacrament meeting. AWKWARD. . . Other than that, Sunday was very nice. Elder Vinson took control of Priesthood and we talked about how the ward needs to be more supportive of the missionaries and how Bishop and the leaders need to go out more and call more ward missionaries. 
     I want to talk about today!!!! I BOUGHT A CHRISTMAS TREE!!!! YA ME!!!!! So tonight we are going to set it up and put all the decorations and what not on it. Hopefully we bought enough supplies. Where I bought it at had actual trees with the whole shabang but they were 185 ghana cedis. I spent no more than 130 on this tree and supplies. Thats right. So I will let you all know how it looks next week. 
     Sorry this is so short this week but I have only a small time today because of said tree. I love you and I am still alive. It's christmas time so remember the missionaries who are away from their families.
I love you all so so so very much.
Love 
Elder Ty M. Bowden 

Last Weeks BLOG. SORRY FOR THE DELAY!!!!!

  So on this week, a few things have happened that were fun. One is the fact that week 2 of training is over. Now it's onto week 3 and another week of teaching this "greenie" about the doctrines and principles of missionary life. Indeed I am quite impressed with Elder Reeves so far with food. He has mastered how to make the missionary breakfast. Bread and Egg. He is learning a lot of other things but little by little. And he won't learn it all at once. It will for sure take some time but he will get there soon enough.
     We are working now on improving our numbers. The only way we can do that is to find as many people as we can. We are trying to explore new ideas and find new areas to work on. But it will take time as we get rid of the old and start working with the new. We found last week a lot of new people to start teaching and now it is all just depending on us teaching them and the Holy Spirit testifying to them of what we are saying is true. Which it will do of course, it's just a matter of if they listen or not. 
     Funny story. Yesterday was Missionary Sunday in our Ward. We had this great Sunday planned. Well, funny part. 10 minutes before the meeting was to begin, whose car do I see pull up, President and Sister Hill's.... Award...Not really but it was shocking to say the least. Because none of us told them that we were having such a Sacrament meeting, and now they just show up...WHAT??? Well we had planned a Sister missionary and an Elder speak then one member of the bishopric. Well, Bishop changes it to the final two speakers and President and Sister Hills. It was a wonderful meeting and President Hill met with all of our investigators after church. Sister Hill went to primary and taught the kids a new primary song. With the help of Elder Morrison. It was a wonderful day and hopefully we have more like it. 
     I would just like to send a great shout out to my Mom and Dad. They sent me a wonderful package with candy and cds in it. I would like to take this time to thank them for that wonderful gift that they gave to me, I received it on Saturday at the Nsawam Open House. 
     Now the Nsawam open house. It was a great time as well to meet new contacts and try to have them come to the chapel in Nsawam. I hope and pray that we got some serious investigators out of it. 
     I thought I should let you know that I am currently downloading the April 1971 General Conference Talks onto one of my Sd Cards. Why might you ask? Because I downloaded all of 2012 and 2013 and was like, I wonder what the oldest Conference Talk is on the website that i can download. 1971 April was my answer. COOL!!!! Did you know that back then Conference was also on Tuesday! That is weird. I am glad the church did away with that Idea. 
     Well, I better sign off for now. It was great to sit and talk with all of you wonderful people once again. 

I LOVE ALL OF YOU SO SO SO VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


ELDER TY M. BOWDEN