August 25, 2014

Dear Family,
Well this week has been another good week in Ghana. It went by really
fast and we are working really hard. The work is defintily a lot
different here though. Back in Liberia we had so many people who were
serious and progressing to baptism but here since we had to basically
start over in the area we are still looking and finding those people
who the lord has prepared for us. It is defintly something that I am
still getting used to but it is going good. In Liberia we really
didn’t have to like contact and find people because we had so many
people who brought people to us, but here its not like that. I think I
have contacted more people these last few weeks then I have  my entire
mission put together. We have even faced some pretty strait forward
rejection which was new to me haha but it was kind of funny and we
just laughed them all off.  I really do feel like the lord is leading
us to the people who are ready to hear to gospel though. This week on
Thursday we got bounced so much, it just seemed like all of our
appointments fell through. It was getting a little frustrating but
because of those bounces we were able find some really good people who
I feel like the lord is preparing for us. One of them is a young
family. The husband Bro prince, and the Wife sister sylvia, and they
have like a 1 year old son. We have sat with them twice so far this
week but they werent able to come to church. That is also one thing,
it is so much more difficult to get people to come to chruch here, its
crazy. I am really hoping this family works out though because I just
love teaching familys. We really do have a pretty good teaching pool
though and I am hoping for some good things to come from it. Well this
week I had a really interesting experience. It was on Saturdayy
morning, we had a plan to go and see one of our investigators who is
ALWAYS available but for some reason he just didn’t have time for us,
so we just headed to our back up who is two sisters named Alberta and
Dora. When we got there we passed Dora who said she was on her way to
collect some money so we just started with Alberta, about half way
through the lesson sister Dora came back holding this little boy who
was about ten and then just started beating the crap out of him asking
him where the money was. At first I was a little surprised but it just
continued on. I tried to ingnore it at first but I just thought to my
self that I am a representative of jesus christ and would he just sit
back and do nothing like I was. Personally I hate it when people beat
there kids here (its very common though) so I didn’t want to like
intrude but finally something just told me I needed to get up and go
over and intervine. Story was that this kid stole 10 Cedes (about 4 US
Dollars) from Dora and it wasn’t even hers and he couldn’t tell her
where it was for a while so we just tried sorting things out and
counseling with him. He was just bawling his eyes out and everyone
around him was just screaming and I just really felt bad for this kid
even though he was clearly in the wrong. I finally decided that maybe
I could help this kid out so I took him away from everyone and I
talked with him a bit. I told him that the way he was going wasn’t
going to end good in the future, that if he kept on stealing that it
would bring so much unhappiness. Then I decided that I would help him
out and give him 10 cedes as long as he promised me that he would
never steal again. For me, that was the very last of all my  money for
the entire sub so I didn’t really eat to muc Saturday night and Sunday, 
 but it was really worth it. I don’t know how serious the kid
took me to be and if he will even remember what happened that day, but
after we got done I really just felt a peace of heart knowing that I
did the right thing and what lots of people would say “do what jesus
would do”  Really built my testimony about just always showing
Generosity in any situation, no matter if it is the common thing to do
, but to just always do the right thing.  Anyways, we had 2 people
come to church this week, one was our sister Dora who always comes,
and then we were surprised by an old man who came whose name is
Emmanuel Clottey. He really enjoyed church and said he would come back
next week, so we are improving every single week. Well family, the
work here is good, I am excited to see what we can make of this place
here in Nsawam and in Ghana. I sure do love you all and I hope that
you all have a wonderful week. Love,
Elder Bowring