September 15, 2014

Dear family,
Well we had another good week here in Ghana, It was so hot this week,
not sure how I feel about dry season coming up. I might come back
black.  Anyways, we had a really successful week this week. Elder
Taylor is really coming along in his training and I am really enjoying
being able to train him. Its nice to have a companion who wants to
work hard and is just here to work.  Nothing real special popped up
this week but it was just a really good week of hard work. This week
we had a lot of member help which was very nice, it is always so nice
when the members are willing to come out and proselyte with us. I
finally feel like we are getting some good solid people who we can go
and see twice a week and are really ready for the gospel. It sure took
a lot of work and disappointment but I finally am seeing a little bit
of success in the work this week. A lot of problems we have been
having in the past since I have been here in Ghana is that people just
look at us somebody bringing a good message but not really somebody
who is there to change there lives so what we did this week is we just
went around to some of our investigators who were kind of on the fence
and we were just bold with them and told them that we are basically
here to baptize them haha. Some took it well and some not so much haha
but its all just a part of the work. It especially worked with one guy
named Joshua. He told us that he has wanted to be baptized for a while
but he just hasn’t in his church yet so we told him that he had to
come to church if he wanted to be baptized and for some reason he was
a little bit skeptical. Anyways,  on Sunday, we were about half way
finished with sacrament meeting and we had no body at church and I was
just wondering where the crap everybody was. Well then I get a call
and its from Joshua and he told me that he was outside the church so I
went out there and he also had a friend with him as well.  I was so
excited and happy and I just hope that he comes this next week. For
some reason we just cant get somebody to come to church back to back
weeks so I hope he will break that streak from us. Anyways what I
learned from all that is that we should never be scared to share what
we know and share our beliefs. Also just do what you know is right and
be bold , some people might not take it well but the ones who are
supposed to will and you will be able to help them.  Out here in Ghana
I have just had some really interesting experiences I guess you could
say. Just last week I saw an old women just walking down the street
shirtless ( not the most pleasant thing ive ever seen, still trying to
block that one out of my head) anyways, we met this really interesting
guy this week named Malik. Missionaries have met with him before and
he wanted us to come buy.  The second I walked into his apartment I
could just smell the weed haha so I wasn’t sure what I was getting
into. Anyways he really seems interested in changing his life and
improving his life. This week while we were teaching a lesson we had a
weird/cool experience with him. We were teaching the book of Mormon
and out of no where he just started to grab his ribs in pain.  I asked
if he was ok and he said to me that he thought it was a spiritual
attack and he wanted me to pray for him. Well I didn’t know what the
crap to do so I just prayed really hard for him and instantly after
the prayer he started feeling better.  I don’t know if it was because
of the Weed or what but it was kind of a cool experience and even we
talked with him about smoking weed and he said that he is going to
stop.  Didn’t come to church this week but he is reading the BOM and
stuff so I hope that things will turn out good. This week, Thursday we
had a Zone Conference at the temple sight which was pretty good. I got
to see Tolar again so that was really good. It is still just so weird
to me how different things are done here but it was good to go the
temple sight and stuff. I think that we have a temple trip scheduled
for November coming up so I am excited about that. Well that is really
all I can think about for this last week. We are really hoping for
some baptisms in October so we are praying towards that. I hope that
you all have a wonderful week and that things back homea re great.
Love ya all ,
Elder Bowring