Man I laughed out loud with my companions here at the internet cafe when we saw grandpa dad looking like a traditional Ghanian old man. He's even got the stern frowny face and all. The staff fits grandpa too. Little rabbits at the bottom, music notes on the top. Thanks tons, it made my day. I might print it out and hang it up on the wall.
Speaking of walls, Elder Holt and I scrubbed our apartments walls. They must-a ust-a store the bikes inside and they skidded up all the walls with those black marks. Plus the cockroaches used to be plenty so there were loads of shoe prints on the walls. I was wondering why there would be so many shoe prints on the walls, and pretty high up too. I came to 2 conclusions.
1. The apartment used to have tons of cockroaches and a missionary probably snapped and went on a vengeful cockroach wall stomping spree. Whether he was stomping many cockroaches or just one super strength cockroach is still to be determined.
2. Missionaries had nothing much to do on a p-day and decided to do some shoe tossin' against the wall kinda like bart simpson did with cupcakes (britt, find the episode on youtube and show mom what i'm talking about). There isn't a lot to do sometimes on p-days unless you plan stuff well.
Anywho we are going to baptize 3 people this Saturday, possibly 4 (if we can somehow miraculously coordinate his school & work schedule with President Smiths schedule and get him interviewed) We will baptize this family Peter & Amma. Peter saved up for months and paid the bride price and desires to be baptized. They got this little 2 year old boy named Abieku. This kid is a little stinker, he "cries like a banshee" (dave smith reference) every lesson and makes it nearly impossible to teach. It is a miracle they even understand anything we teach them with 'Satans little helper' (just kidding) yelping all lesson, but somehow they passed their interviews and are ready to be baptized. I don't know how it happens but it works. While I'm sitting there teaching, trying to ignore the little Siren, they somehow feel the Holy Ghost and desire to do what is right. There are only so many things we are in control of, after that we just gotta try our best.
President Smith came to our sacrament meeting yesterday. He interviewed some people and then came to our classes with us. Abeiku was running around all over during investigators class and his parents couldn't learn some important stuff, so I grabbed my little picture book dealie and lured him over and sat him down next to me. I opened to a page with a buncha stars and outer space and stuff and grabbed his finger and had him start touching each of the bright stars. He then got the idea and started doing it by himself, then he lost interest so I gave him my pen (after I jammed the lid on tight so he couldn't draw all over the universe, pun intended) then had him point to each star with his pen instead of his finger. Oh man this was way funner than just pointing with your finger! He got so excited that he was laughing and drooling all over and of course sneezed all over my face. So after he lost interest with that I started flipping through the pages and let him do his own thing. He then went on rapid fire and flipped through the pages as fast as possible, of course crinkling them, while speaking baby speak. All in all the parents were able to learn something important, they now know why Adam had to take the apple and stuff (2 Nephi 2:25).
I somehow almost confused everybody during investigators class because they were talking deep about the need for "opposition in all things." Man I don't even teach that stuff because it'll blow everybodys mind and I think they need to learn that stuff AFTER they learn the primary stuff (like God is our Father and what Prophets are etc), so I haven't practiced teaching that whole Adam and Eve thing much. The teacher asked me for an example and I said something about it being like physics and for every action there is a reaction, if not, nothing would happen and everything would cease to be! Nobody understood it and I think I just confused people haha. We ain't perfect. Oh well life goes on.
We will baptize Neizer (dude playing draft, the checkers game that takes away your agency). He has been reading and showing that he is ready. He has a big family that he stays with, hopefully we will get to teach them soon. Teaching the other members of the family is somehow tricky here. The women have a certain role that you can't change. They
1. Go to the market
2. They cook for A LONG TIME and forget about teaching them while they are cooking or helping them cook. Men don't cook or help with the cooking and I can't change that (boo!)
3. Don't approach them while they are eating (in the Steve Erwin Crock Hunter voice) or else the consequences could be drastic. Crikey!
4. When they ain't cooking, or at the market, they are getting doll'd up to go to a funeral, wedding, church, birthday, baby naming etc. getting their hair extensions put on, getting the nails done etc.
It is tricky to try and teach a mother who is traditional and is doing all that stuff. Somehow we will sneak our way into their hearts but it is hard. Also another reason it is hard to get the women to church is because a lot of the times the women is working and the man is not. The men wont bring their wives to church because the women is somehow hmm the head of the house and the man is scared to do it. Man they gotta be side by side vs. 1 in front of the other. So at church they have been focusing a lot on teaching the men to go to work, even if the women is making way more money than the man, the man still needs to go out and get to work doing something. No staying at home all day for the man, Kapeesh? They need to help their wives recognize the gospel is true and share it with them and persuade them to come to church. We have been having a hard time trying to bring the part member family spouses into the church because of this. They all need to go read "the proclamation to the world on the family." The trick is that the people who understand what it is saying are usually the ones already working hard. I pray that the Lord will help.
Hey Elder McGrath, my first AP is going home tomorrow. He now is my Zone Leader and he is a good guy. He speaks a lot of twi and is a good friend and example. He is the dude. We went to a free meal yesterday and we talked a bit. He was the one who picked us up from the MTC and drove us to the mission home. I made fun of an Obama billboard because I thought it was weird that Obama was depicted with a bright aura around him on the billboard. He then told us in the instruction that "I don't know who said that but you can't make fun of Obama here. No matter how you feel about his policies just pretend like he is cool and then stay far away from it." Man I have been doing good on that stuff. He is going to go to BYU in the summer and stuff. I might see him when I get back. He gave us some great instruction last Zone Conference. He is the dude. COOL.
Well dudes, the work is continuing. Keep praying for this ward. They need help that only the Lord can provide.
Oh something really stinkin' cool. Most of Brother Jonnie's family (Jonnie, his wife Evelynn and his daughter Jemima) went to the temple and did some baptisms for the dead. They dug it and bishop talked about how it was good to see his members there. Also bro Jonnie gave a talk on faith and fasting. He did a good job. His wife and family were very proud. He used both the Book of Mormon and the Bible in his talk. Also during Priesthood prospective elders class they asked for someone to exercise their priesthood and be the baptist for our candidates on Saturday. Jonnie bravely raised his hand. So my recent convert family is doing great and is making me proud, especially brother Jonnie. He is a great man who provides for his family, both physically and spiritually. He is a good dad.
Transfers are Wednesday. My district leader Elder Yao knows where we are all going/staying and stuff but he isn't telling us because it is the Zone Leaders authority. Boo! haha its cool. They should call us tomorrow.
Hey last story, I used a guitar to get some new investigators. We went over to our ward missionaries house (some big apartment complex thingies like 3 or 4 stories tall. It is weird to see it here in Ghana). She was hesitant at showing us some houses so we just talked her into introducing us to her neighbor. The woman let us sit down and stuff then I spotted a guitar in the corner and asked her about it. She has a son that likes to play, 19 years old, and stuff. I picked it up and asked her if I could play her a hymn they sing in church. I played a short version of come thou fount. She really liked it so to close, Elder Holt and I sang some song about Joseph Smith or prophets or something. I can't really remember what but she told her neighbors about it and is planning to come to church this Sunday. We are going over there right now to have a family home evening with them. More info soon to come.
Thanks family. I love you all, thanks for your letters and for being yourself.
Tell uncle Davey, Pasodoble!
Thanks again for the picture.
Gotta run, my time is almost up!
Talk to yall next week!
Elder Bills
We took this picture of Grandpa on his birthday as the honorary chief to send to Brady. Brady had emailed earlier that if he were here on Grandpa's birthday he would dress him up in Kente cloth so he would look important on his birthday, so we did it.
