December 22, 2014

Dear family,
This week has been quite the crazy week and a lot of stuff going on,
so I guess I will just start from the start of the week. Tuesday was
the last day in my area in Nsawam so we went around and we had some
lessons with everyone and just basically went around and said good bye
to everyone.  It is always weird to do that, I really hate goodbyes ha
but its just all a part of being a missionary. I am really going to
miss all of those people in Nsawam. For Christmas I gave Joshua one of
my Niners shirts so they will be well repped over here in Africa. Well
Wednesday was transfer days. I was lucky and I had the Berretts come
and get me and take me to Transfers. We went to Tesano to get our new
companions and there wasn’t that many missionarys there. Usually there
is just a ton of missionary but it was a really small transfer. I met
my new companion there Elder Langi. He is from Tonga and has been out
for about 7 months now. He didn’t know any English when he first came
but now he speaks really well.  I am pumped to because I actually have
2 other Elders in the apartment with me . Elder Forrest (we came
together to Africa and were in the MTC at the same time so its cool )
and Elder Crandall from Utah. Anyways, we went strait to our new area
and apartment and my new apartment is a lot nicer than my last one but
it was trashed when I get there so we have been cleaning up a bunch
today. Anyways, things here in Dansoman are a lot different that is
for sure.  One big thing is that it is hotter here than it was in
Nsawam. Nsawam was a really green area with a lot of rain and
vegetation but here is just dusty and hot. Its killing my white shirts
haha. Its more of a city area here to , Nsawam was like a little more
Rural but here there is a lot of people crammed into our area and is a
lot more city. Anyways, as soon as we got here me and Elder Langi sat
down and started talking about the area and what not. Well he told me
a bunch of stories of the Elder that I came to replace and from the
stories that I have heard he is the most unserious missionary I have
heard of. I wont go into detail but I will just say that his mind
isn’t really focused on missionary work and that just frustrates me.
It just pisses me off to see missionarys not take there missions
serious, and because he was so unserious our area is crap. Honestly I
feel like  am just starting a new area.  Not many people at first to
teach and see so this week me and Elder Langi have been working our
butts off. I love Elder Langi, he is just ready to work hard and do
work especially after his last companion. I feel bad because he really
tried with the last guy but the last guy just didn’t listen and wanted
to do his own thing. We have really been working hard on just finding
new people but also trying to get to know the members more and use
them more. Dansoman is actually a ward here, its my first ward that I
have served in so its weird calling our bishop , bishop. I am used to
branch president haha. The members seem like they are more than
willing to help us though, we just need to put our effort forth. There
is a lot of potential in this area and I think me and Elder Langi are
going to turn things around here. Its amazing to see the small little
miracles that god blesses us with though when we do our part and try
our hardest. I have seen so many this past week in him helping us find
people to teach. For instance yesterday we had a lot of bounces so we
were walking to go and try to follow up with somebody and we ran into
another member from another ward going to visit his Uncle and so he
told us he wanted us to teach his uncle so we went there and contacted
the uncle and his wife and his kids. It was a miracle that we just
randomly ran into that guy. I have seen a lot of little things like
that happen this week. So we defiantly have our work cut out for us
here but we are up for the challenge for sure.  One thing that sucks
about the area though is that there is so many fetching Muslims in our
area. I swear more than half of the people we contact just tell us
they are muslim which means leave I don’t care for your message haha.
Anyways things here are going to be good. We have a some good work our
equipment here in the apartment to so I have been loving using that. I
cant believe that it is Christmas this week already. Doesn’t feel like
it at all. They just don’t get pumped for Christmas here like we do
back home. We honestly don’t have anything planned for Christmas this
year so I don’t how it will be.  A member invited us to come chop
(eat) fufu with them so we will be doing that. I hope that all of you
have a great week though and that you all enjoy your Christmas . I
love you all so much.
Elder Bowring