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 

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 

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 

Hi Everyone!!

Well brothers and sisters, this week has been A week.  Thank goodness it is over.  Not that last week was a bad week, just that it could of gone way better.  Training a new missionary is different than I thought it would be.  I love it so far!  But just like any new experience, it's not always quite like what we all expect it to be.  I love my new missionary to death.  He is super super funny and wacky! His name is Elder Reeves.  He is 20 years old (yes he is older than me) and is from Seattle.  It is more like an hour away, but that is what he says when meeting people or they think he is from Washington DC.  He is super excited to be here.  He wants to go out and work super hard.

This transfer they also put 2 more missionaries in the District.  So now our ward has 2 districts in it. The Sisters are part of my old area, Tantra Hills District.  Elder Anderson finally got his wish and he was transferred to the bush.  He is in the hardest area of the bush, though, so be careful what you wish for. :)  Our apartment now includes:
          Zone Leader and his companion
                District Leader and his companion
                     Trainer and his son  <---------- THAT'S ME!!!

This week begins our first full week as father and son.  We are going to do a lot of contacting and teaching people.  He needs to just get out and see what it is really like to be working in Africa.  He is doing great though.  I wish the area was in a little better shape than what it is currently in.  I know with some heart-felt prayers, my working harder, and contacting more people Heavenly Father will provide a way.

It is time to go.  I will have much more to talk about once we get properly on our feet.   Patience is going to be key for us these next few days.

God is King!
The Book is Blue!
Cougars are the Best!
Elder Bowden is the very mostly Blessed (I know, bad grammar)

Love,
Bowden Elder          (I think that is backwards)

Greetings from Ghana!!!!

     So it has been another week!  I should let you all know that I am now a TRAINER!!!  Yes, little old me has been called to train a new missionary. I consider myself extremely blessed because most missionaries do not get the opportunity to train.  It is exciting and nerve rattling.  I want to do a good job so today my companion and I went and did a little preparation for the transfer this Wednesday.  More details next week.

     The great news for this week is that we had two baptisms!  YAY!!!  A mother and a daughter.  It was a great experience for them AND my companion was the one to perform the baptism.  So exciting!!  His first time ever doing it.  If this computer didn't have so many viruses on it, I would send pictures, but I do not want to corrupt my card.

     Because I am training, I got to go to a 3 hour long meeting about how to become a great trainer.  It was a good meeting.  President and Sister Hill both spoke and both the APs spoke.  I enjoyed it a lot and learned a ton from it.  While I was at that, I was on an exchange with another missionary that was also training.  The great news is while we were in that meeting, my companion and Elder Valdez (from SLC) were in our area and taught 6 lessons and gave out 2 baptismal dates.  Awesome!!!!

     Because I am going to be a trainer, my companion and I are trying to decide where he is going to be transferred.  We are trying to figure out the best scenario as if we actually decided or not where he goes.  LOL!!
  
  Also this week we got to go to the temple.  It was amazing!  So that was my week.  It was a wonderful week and I am grateful for the experiences Heavenly Father has given me each and every week.  I know that I am not perfect and that patience is needed each and every day.  I love all of you and look forward to hearing from you next week.

Love,

Elder Ty M. Bowden

November Is Here

So, it is November. Probably my favorite month of the year, Football, basketball, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, AND.......Missionary work... 

     So you all want to know how to pronounce my companions name and the town I am in. Well my companion's name is Elder Kiwanuka (Chee Wan Nuke AH) and the town we are in is call Amasaman (Awe Ma Saw Man)

     So I would just like to let all of you know that tomorrow, Elder Bowden is GOING TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!!! 

     Now one thing that is interesting about Ghana is almost every other week there is a holiday of one kind or another. Like coming up is the Ghana vs Egypt (game two) of the FiFa tournament. That day will be a holiday. Schools will be closed and life as we know it will be over. For example during that 90 minutes of game 1 we taught no one. Everyone was home, but no one was interested because of the game. Same thing probably this time. But we will try never the less.  

     Breaking news, the Tesano Zone, Split... So now I am in the Tantra Zone and Elder Smith is the Zone Leader and my District Leader is now the other Zone Leader. Thrilling.  Also my district split so now its just the 6 Elders in the District and the Sisters are now part of the Tantra District with Elder Anderson (2nd Companion) as the new District Leader there. So currently the District Leader turned Zone Leader is still the District Leader until transfers. Then they will either call one of the missionaries in the apartment to be District Leader or bring in another missionary. Details hopefully sooner rather than later. 

     Well I would like to talk about Saturday and Sunday for a minute. These two days mark my 2nd out of 4 Stake Conferences here in Ghana. We had a special guest. Elder Dube of the First Quorum of the Seventy. COOL!!!!!! Saturdays Adult Session was all about missionary work. He did a presentation on missionaries and the ward council and asked actual members who participate in Ward Council to come up and help. Our ward Mission Leader was chosen for the ward mission leader position. And....Elder Dube asked him to pick two Elders to come and join the council....and you will never guess who my ward mission leader picked....YUP....me and my Companion, in front of the entire adult session of the Tesano Stake. Ya it was awesome! Made a joke, whole audience laughed, even Elder Dube, and then helped for 8 minutes. 

     The Sunday Session was just as good. I would like to explain the Tesano Stake Center. Originally it was built as a regular chapel for the Tesano ward. Well, when the Adenta Stake split there was no Stake Center for the new Tesano Stake, so they threw the new stake presidency into a broom closet. Literally!  One office for the stake president and his entire staff. So with that image, imagine a regular size stake back home, picture them all gathering at a regular chapel, tiny overflow, no gym... They put seats in the parking lot, every classroom, and even in the institute building next door!

     President and Sister Hill both spoke.  It was amazing!  Sister Hill I remember spoke about joy, and President Hill of course spoke about missionary work. Then Sister Dube spoke about a certain topic that I cannot recall off the top of my mind. Then Elder Dube finished talking to everyone about tithing. He spoke about more things but that was the focus point for sure. 

     So that was a very interesting week for me. That is about it for me. I would love and talk about more but I simply do not have enough room in my mind to remember it all. So until next week!!!!!

Love Greatly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Elder Ty M. Bowden. 

Ps. Packages with leftover Halloween candy are welcomed. :)