August 11, 2014

Dear Family ,
Well I don’t even know where to begin. These past two weeks have been
some of the craziest of my life. I think you all know by now that I am
in the Ghana Accra West mission. I guess I will tell you how we got
here. Last week on Wednesday is when everything started. We got a call
from president Kirkham telling us to get all the Elders phones and
that we were not allowed to call anybody for what ever reason and that
he would be giving us further instruction in the morning. We had no
idea what was going on but me and Elder Tolar had a pretty good idea
that it was something to do with Ebola. We got another call on
Thursday morning telling us that we were on lock down until further
notice and that we had to cancel all baptisms for the upcoming
Saturday because they were anticipating on it being a couple of days.
That meant that we had to cancel Evanganline and Archies baptism which
sucked so bad. They had just gotten there marriage certificate and
everything was looking to work out. So we all sat around all day
Thursday which sucked. Then Friday morning we got the call that we
were all being evacuated and being reassigned to a new mission. Me and
Elder Tolar had thought that maybe something like this was going to
happen but I never really imagined that it would happen. It was so
crazy and it all happened so fast. The plan was to have us flown out
on Saturday. So we all got gathered together as a mission so that we
could go. The church had charted a plane to take us from Liberia to
Ghana strait, but when we got to the airport we got word that Ghana
wasn’t going to let us in so we hit another road block. So we all had
to go back to the apartments until we found out what was going on.
Finally we go everything figured out and we were able to fly out on
Monday. Some People go reassigned to the states but I was still going
to Ghana Accra west. To get to Ghana we flew from Liberia, to Belgium,
to London, and then to Accra. It was quite the detour. I was tired to
say the least. So we Arrived on Tuesday night here in Accra and my new
mission president and his wife picked us up strait. Ghana is a big
change from Liberia , it is a lot more modernized and a lot bigger as
well. On Wednesday, we just got to chill for a bit and get orrinented
into the mission. The mission president even allowed us to go the
temple that day and it was so awesome. We did a session and it was so
awesome, after all the stress the past week to just go in there and
feel the peace from the temple. It was much needed. Then Thursday we
got assigned and deployed to our new areas and our new companions. I
am in an Area called Nsawam and my companion is Elder Damane from
South Africa. Not going to lie, these past few days have been a little
rough. My area is not really up to par, I don’t know the reasons but I
am sure it is because of past missionary’s so that is a bit
frustrating. So I have been really trying to work hard these past few
days to get some things going in the area and then I was told by my
companion last night that we are working to hard. I am not even sure
what that means haha. So I guess I am going to have to find a way to
work hard but also get along with my companion so he doesn’t feel
overwhelmed. These past few weeks have really made me have to come and
humble myself, Especially in my new area and also In my mission. The
mission is a lot different from Liberia in a lot of ways but I guess I
just feel like not as much is as excected here as it was in my last
mission so I kind of feel like it is a bit lazy in a way. I don’t know
if that is just me being judgmental or if that is just how it is here.
I just kinds of feel like I am not being as effective as I can be and
it has really made me to think and ponder on a lot of things. I came
up with the conclusion that I just need to maybe be a little more
humble and  try and figure things out before I start to just jump in
head first into everything. The people here in Ghana are very nice
though, the area where I am , they speak a language that they call
Twi. It is spoken in most of Ghana and it is crazy. I don’t understand
a thing, and everyone here knows it and English is there second
language so I hope that I can get learning Twi here soon. One of the
talks in sacrament meeting even was teaching in Twi, blew my mind
haha. Well, I hope I will have some good success stories for you guys
next week, we for sure will be working here hard in Ghana trying to
get used to the mission and the environment and the people but I know
that everything that has happened is all in god’s hands. I know that
he will always lead me to where I need to be and that he knows why
everything has happened the way that it did. I sure do love all you
guys very much. O ya, I hit my one year mark this week, things have
been so crazy it just kind of snuck up on me. One year is no small
thing. I would just like to thank my sponsors for getting me here ,
Keen sandals for being on my feet everday carrying me to the people I
need to see, Nike for supplying me with all my gear haha jk but I do
want to thank all you guys for the support that I have received this
past year. It has really helped me along this journey that I am on and
I couldn’t have done it with out you all I Love you guys, have a great
week. Love
Elder Bowring