Getting to know the people of Ashaiman, opposition in all things

Hello my people,

Ulgh this keyboard has a sticky shift key. Ah man! And all the other keys. There ain't nothing like a sticky keyboard. I think it is a new form of slow torture actually. "Are you ready to talk? Don't make me get the sticky keyboard!" They could follow up with a mouse with a ball that is all gone to crap and you can't navigate around the webpage. AH THE PAIN!!!

I just found out that my buddy, Elder Moses got sent home because of a medical condition. Man it really blows. Every transfer someone seems to go home due to a health issue. I'm glad they caught it here though before it turned into a big problem. I'll miss him.

So this week we baptized 2 people, Sis Alice and a 14 year old girl named Gloria. I was going to send you a picture but this computers anti-virus thing keeps going off and I'm afraid that my card will get a virus and I'll loose all the pictures. People who create virus files should be punished; I know probably by the sticky keyboard and crappy mouse torture. Anywho Alice was baptized and she was so happy. She is now helping her family learn about the church. Her husband travels all the time for work and is always asking about all sorts of African traditional churchy stuff. After we answer his questions and help him feel the Spirit we invite him to church but he always gives us a reason why he can't come because he is traveling. Alice is concerned because she wants to get married and sealed in the temple and her husband is kinda hmm dragging behind. She invites her son, who stays in another town, to come to church but he he hasn't come yet. We are still teaching him. I like the guy because for college he is writing a paper on waste management. I never appreciated waste management so much until I came here. Remember all gutters lead to the sea... Alice is very happy right now and has plenty of friends at church. Our ward is pretty correct. They help out well.

Gloria is a 14 year old girl who just had her mother die 1 year ago. She has been living with her auntie lately because she has never known her real father. Her auntie is a member of the church so we taught her plenty. Man there be a lot of scum bag dudes around so we crammed the commandment of chastity into her brain. She even had that little young womens book with that whole color chart values and all that doilie girl stuff in it, so I read through it real fast and made her memorize that the chastity color was gold and explained about the whole gold purifying process and how it is pure and stuff. She understands and will do well.

We have been working hard. Elder Chamberlain is a good by the book type of dude. For instance I would wake up at 6:30 and lay there in the bed until 7 and then take a shower (out of a bucket, our water pump has been busted these past 2 weeks. Ah nothing like a shower out of a bucket. You can't really wash the soap out of your hair too good with the bucket shower so we gave myself the "SIR YES SIR" hair cut. Oh how I loathe it.) So we are supposed to get up and move around at 6:30 and exercise etc. I tried getting up at 6:30 and run around and 'hup to' instantly but I have inherited mom's genes and I instantly puke. So now we are setting my alarm for 6:15 (ulgh) and then I sit there on the bed until 6:30 until I know where I am, then I get up.

We are finding plenty of 'new investigators' and we will hopefully baptize 3 more this transfer. I have been writing down some of Elder Chamberlains South African sayings/pronunciations.

Here are a couple.

pip - pit, like the pit inside a peach or cherry
cold drink - soda pop. "cold drink" don’t mean the temperature.
Sawr - saw
bourght - bought
pull - paul
pull - pool

He is a good dude. He knows the doctrine and cares about the people. We have to make sure that investigators are understanding so I bring my picture book around here plenty. I'm not going to leave home without it. When we teach, I like to also keep them entertained by throwing them a picture or question every min to keep their brain stimulated, also I try to teach very simply. Not too many details for someone who ain't ready, dig? Really all I am teaching is the stuff we sang in the primary songs as a kid; however every once in a while we get the learned dude who needs some more but ya know.

Cool so Elder Prince (Arizona) and Elder Geeplay (Liberia) are also in our apartment. Elder Prince was an office elder and is cool. He has some cool stories from the office. Elder Akomo-mordi (nigeria) and Elder Gale (Salt Lake) are our Zone Leaders. Elder Akomo-mordi was our AP last transfer but is going home soon.

One thing that is frustrating me is that they are speaking a lot of twi during church, which is cool because that is what a lot of people speak, but I don't understand a bit of what is going down in church or investigators class. A lot of people don't speak twi but rather a-way ( I don't know how spell it) so there is that confusion going on. Also they were speaking french during elders quorum along with some other stuff. It was like a curry dish of language, the only problem is that nobody really learned anything. We can't teach people who don't speak english or who can't read so much because the reading is an essential thing to gain a testimony, especially when coming from another church or a long line of false traditions. It is a touchy subject to bring up so I'll just tell someone above me with more missionary authority and let them deal with it. Dig?

So it gets discouraging when there is opposition working hard against us. We were planning on giving this family a baptismal date this week but they called us early in the morning on Sunday saying that they couldn't make it because their 'head pastor' called them and wanted to talk to them about something. We visited them later that day and they said that they received a calling in their church to be prayer leaders or something like that. It is a sunday, tuesday, thurday, saturday committment. MAN! All is not lost though, we are going to visit him and see what his answer was to reading and praying about the book of mormon. If he reads and sincerely prays about what to do then we know he will make the right decision.

Also this other family, a mom and son, just had a problem. The father, divorced due to child abuse, stopped paying support so the private school (private school does a good job at teaching the children how to read and write English) booted the kid from the school. Then they went to talk to him about it and the dad chased them out of the house with a machete. So then they went to give him a letter that summoned him to court where he will probably be arrested etc. We are staying far away from it, don't worry. It is just interesting how all of this stuff happens right as we are trying to baptize these good people.

Also Celeine Dion is playing outside the cafe. Man Satan is working hard.

Oh also I had to boldy declare some stuff to a sister the other day. I hate doing it but she was wasn't progressing because she was refusing to read the book of mormon or pray about it. I guess that a lot of missionaries have visited her before and she isn't moving forward. I told her something along the lines of “I'm sorry if the missionaries have not taught you the importance of this book. I hope that I can explain the importance of it to you because I came 8 thousand miles away from home to come right here to have to read this book. If you don't read this book then I have failed." I then also explained that she could either remain confused about churches and where we go after we die or she could read 10 min from the book of mormon and learn more in that 10 min than a whole lifetime of searching for answers in other places. We then looked her deep in the eyes and committed her to read the book. She accepted. Man we are following up tomorrow to see if she did. If she didn't then I will be freakin' destroyed.

There was this rasta guy that walked up to us while we were contacting. This dude was crazy and was talking about how this church stuff in Africa is different because of the roots. He said something like 'man you gotta know where you come from' and all this whole buncha weirdo rasta weed smoking hippy crap. I then whipped out my family history chart and talked to him about how we definitely know where we come from, I then asked him where he came from and he was just confused. Most people in west Africa can only trace back to their parents and occasionally their grandparents and if they can, they don't know their grandparents names or anything about them. He was kinda interested about the 'roots' etc but then quickly went off on some rasta weed smoking hippy crap again so we snuck outta there. Man drugs just destroy peoples mind. If you want a quick way to become an non comprehending moron who don't respect, just take some weed or some alcohol.

Thanks for the kits mom. I'll find a way to use them. You rock. YOU DA MOM!

Glad to hear Dave went out to lunch with Grandpa!
Hey those byu devotional deelies are cool. Man that Astronaut dude would have been awesome to see. I remember even visiting the nerd devotionals about cosmic foam and space or something with a whole lotta physics and math going down, most of it was over my head but I still learned something.

Hey glad grandma and grandpas anniversary party went well. I woulda liked to be there but I need to be here. I bet they had a good time. I like watching old family movies of everyone. I like to see what similar traits you still have. You can always tell who is who because of the way they act and move etc. I also like to see where all the stuff we do comes from.

Cool we gotta get ready to head out but it was cool talking to you. Can't wait for your letters and other props etc.

Oh hey, Elder Chamberlain is a pretty good guitar player as well!

What's this I heard about you learning to make eggrolls? Man when I come home you will have to teach me how to make some. I will be the 'egg roll king.' WE could learn how to do it while talking like we are on iron chef. Well I gotta roll. Love you all. The church is true. Keep reading! Teach your class about how confused people are throughout the world because they don't know how to read or choose not to read the scriptures. Teach them to read the scriptures every day. It'll help them. Cool.

I love you all and miss you lots. Talk to you next week.