Hello!
Sorry about not sending the email on Monday. The power went out on Monday and on Tuesday we were running around like crazy trying to figure out all this marriage problem stuff with one of our baptismal candidates. Marriage is tough here, makes me have one of those headaches behind my eyeball. President Smith taught us about Ghana and marriage, I wrote a lot about it later on. So here is my late letter. Sorry we don't got a lot of pictures, we were loading tons but alas the power went off. Instead of sending pictures, I'll give you a cool urinal cake drunkard story. Deal?
So we were in sacrament meeting and there was this drunk member. He was being kinda loud and stuff but we just let him be. When I wake up from closing my eyes from the opening prayer, he was standing right in front of me a couple inches away from my face. He yelled, "Hey the kids were playing with this so I took it from them. Here!" Then he forcefully grabbed my hand and slopped a nice urinal cake (you know those air freshner thingies they put in urinals so they smell good) right into my hand. I just kinda looked at it and let my brain compute. I then calmly walked to the bathroom, threw back the urinal cake into the urinal and washed my hands. I then came back and he was on the stand bearing his testimony while walking up and down the stage. The missionary AP's were at our ward that day so one of them went with me after he was done and we were escorting him out and getting him a cab. He then grabbed our hands in the hallway and began to pray all southern church like with the amens and such. He then walked himself outside and we thought that was the end of yeasty smelling friend. He later came in some other doors and started disturbing so the AP's escorted him out.
"I hope they call me on a mission, where I can hold a urinal cake or two!" It's cool. Alcohol makes great people turn into instant idiots. Down with booze!
We are uploading mounds and mounds of pictures for you. Man I filled up my 4 GB SD card. You sent me with 2 I think but alas I can't find it. I think that a small army of cockroaches teamed up and ran off with it to give it to the queen. (Are there even queen cockroaches? I dunno if they are organized enough to serve a united cause like a queen, they just exist to cause frustration and carry germs. Darn cockroaches!) Could ya'll send me another card and I'll mail this one home inside like a dollar tiki mask or something so someone won't steal it. If you send me one, be sure to send it in a package or something. Don't send it in an envelope. The post office workers kinda feel through the envelopes and stuff and if it feels like something cool then they open it up and run off with it, especially things like SD cards. It has been a problem so send it in a package or something. Cool?
So here are some pictures from last weeks baptism of Dorah, Enock and Paul. Enock and Paul are making like dead zombie faces (a lot of people don't smile in pictures unless we force them to or tell them a joke or something). They don't usually look so hmm undead haha. Here is Dorah and her Grandma. The Grandma doesn't speak English, can't read or write and is a devout whatever reformed religion she goes to (something like crystal fire Methodist life church of Ghana). Her time might be in the spirit world or something but she will remember us and eventually join. President Smith talked about why we can't baptize people here who can't read or don't speak english here. They have to read the gospel from the source and have it testify to them. Salvation is a personal responsibility really, you are in charge of your own salvation. People will help you but you gotta gain your own testimony and do what is right. The only way to gain a testimony is to search, ponder and pray. If they can't read then they can't search. For a complete reading of my unorganized brain ramblings about the gospel and the ability to read, see below.
Here is some of my brain ramblings of what I learned about knowing how to read and how it relates to the gospel.
He had us read D&C 58: 9-11. It says "Yeah, a supper of the house of the Lord, well prepared, unto which all nations shall be invited. First, the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble; And after that cometh the day of my power; then shall the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb, and partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come." I think that Dora's grandma falls into this category of "after that cometh the day of my power" day, at or after the 2nd coming of the Lord. Her time just isn't right now. It'll come. Also that the Lord has prepared people here who can sustain the church here so we won't have to import missionaries to Africa anymore but soon be able to export them to places like China etc.
Oh you'll dig this one, in Moses 6:4-6. "And then began these men to call upon the name of the Lord, and the Lord blessed them; And a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the language of Adam, for it was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration; And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and undefiled."
Okay so since the time of Adam and Eve, people knew how to read. In order to be a responsible father and "rear you children in righteousness" and teach them the gospel, you have to read the scriptures to them and teach them to read the scriptures. Man, you just gotta know how to read! Man I remember that mom taught me how to read by reading with me those little kid books like "if you give a mouse a cookie" or the terrifying "the spooky old tree" books. OH and that ninja turtles game "turtles in time" inspired me to read. I couldn't understand what in the heck the bad guys were saying to me or what I was supposed to do in the game so I learned to read so I could beat and understand the stinkin' game. Anyways end of my ramblings. SCHOOL IS COOL!
Um this week we worked with this dude named Neizer. He has a bad leg so he couldn't come to church last week so we called our 1st counselor to the elders quorum president to come over while we taught. He came over and then offered to give him a ride to church. Neizer was deeply touched by this gesture and really loves the church. He worked hard on memorizing the 5 principles of the gospel and why we are here on earth (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure to the end). He even went through the questions in the pamphlets and answered them the best he could. We will baptize him on the 20th of March. He has a big family that we would like to teach someday. His sisters name is Gettaa (pronounced gee-tah, kinda like a hick saying guitar). It is a sign from above haha. His mom is one of these people who works at the market from 5 AM and doesn't get home until 8:30 or 9 going, so it is hard to meet with her. Don't worry, we will find a way to meet with her ;)
Man I have some cool stories. I have been praying ever since I got the Mataheko ward (6 months ago-ish) for the Lord to help our leadership out. We only had a bishop, relief society pres, elders pres and a ward mission leader. There were only 4 leaders in the ward and they were all stinkin' busy and running around all over. They were trying their best but it still was too thin to nurture a ward of 150+ people with 4 leaders. In the last couple of weeks our ward got kinda merged with the Kaneshi ward. We now obtained some of their ward leaders and now we got a full set of leaders with counselors. Last coordination meeting our elders quorum president had a list of all the recent converts and was asking how to help them etc and tomorrow they are assigning home teachers to them and are going to discuss and give callings to them. YES!!! The Lord does His work in His own due time but He will answer your prayers, we just gotta recognize that our ways ain't His ways or our timing isn't His timing. Just work as hard as you can and do your part and it'll always work out.
This week Annah, Elder Riding and I baptized her, asked us to come and visit her. We came and visited her and talked about whatever and then she said that one of the relief society leaders told her to ask us for a priesthood blessing. Annah has a foot/leg injury that made her leg kinda turn black and swollen. She is getting better, when we first met her she couldn't even walk but since she started accepting the gospel she became a busy bee and turned everything around. She said her leg was acting up and we gave her a blessing. Elder Holt anointed her and I sealed the anointing. The blessing stated that Heavenly Father allowed her to have this trial or this burden to try her faith and to lead her towards the straight and narrow path and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After the blessing, I was thinking about this and I remembered some conference talks from the last conference and some scriptures in Mosiah somewheres. Sometimes a trial is put in your way that seems like nuisance and unbearable burden, however it is a blessing...just in a very good and thick disguise. Our burdens can turn out to be blessings. Kinda like we had to learn how to make a big Christmas party/return to Jerusalem festival with complete menorah, temple altar, and well with water in it, and we can do it in minutes now, but at first try we were like "WHY!!!" But now our family is really good at doing meticulous and time staking work with ease. Dig? The Priesthood is real.
Oh so President Smith is my hero. We had our Zone conference and in my letters we write him I asked about the marriage stuff going on around here, because I come from a land with no traditions except blowin up stuff on the day we broke away from those darn Brit's (shoots pistols in the air), and I don't understand all this 'tradition' stuff. During his instruction he talked about marriage and Ghanian culture, so he addressed the stuff in the letter I wrote him that he hadn't received yet. The man is stinkin' in tune and has super mission president foresight haha. So he said that there are 2 parts to the traditional marriage
2) the bride price. When the man goes to the parents and asks if he can marry the girl. The parents then make a physical list of stuff he has to give the parents. Once he pays them off, he has their blessing (moseltoff!)
The government recognizes the traditional marriage as a legal marriage, even though there is no existing paper work or proof of marriage. This makes it hard for us to know who is really married or not. President Smith told us to ask the wives if they are married or not. He said that the man might lie because he already has what he wants and doesn't want to pay a bunch of stuff to the parents. He said the only way we can know is if we get close enough to the family and then ask the wife. Dig? The reason President Smith is my hero is because of this statement, "The bride price is evil." (yee haw, shoots pistols into ceiling while blaring some Skynyrd) The whole idea just makes me feel like a cat whose been rubbed backwards, against the grain so their hair gets all outa wack and they feel terrible so they instantly gotta fix it and straighten themselves out. He then said that it is pushing people away from marriage and towards adultery. He said it takes great faith to leave behind false traditions and towards the gospel.
Tell Grandpa dad, Happy Birthday! (email him the Beatles happy birthday cover thingie I did for fun, you know the one with the queen-esque Brian May guitar tone.) If he were here we would buy him some kente cloth, sit him down in a fancy chair and take his picture while he is frowning (tradition!). Get him some good carrot cake, sugar free of course ;)
Hey tell Thurl Bailey, "HELLLOOO! (using a big megaphone cone so he can here me all the way up that 7 feet of his)" He is a nice dude. I like him, he cares about people genuinely.
Cool beans about Jarrett Burns and Justin Williams and their cd's. Glad dad adopted Jarrett as his 'temporary new performing son' while I am away. Jarrett is the man, and needs to busta move! You guys can support him towards his move bustin' and get him to brink the funk. (inserts wah pedal wahkachikawachika's)
So I listened to Britt's CD of Jonah and the Whale. She did a great job. Is that black chick singin' with her? I forgot her name but I recognize her voice. I like how Britt does the blonde girl voice while talking about prophets. She does that well. Almost a little too well... I liked Daves scared pirate voice and how he runs away. He kinda makes the Sprockets Mike Myers German guy voice when he runs away. Nice high note britt on I think track 3. Good job!!! I wish I gotta see it. I'm sure there is a video floatin' around right?
Thanks again dad for your letters. They are nice and they help me out on my mission. I'll letcha know where I get transferred to, if I get transferred. Cool?
I love you all. Thanks for being a correct family who loves each other and who watches out for one another. Tell Grandpa dad, bob and Grandma Carol and patsi that I love them. I love you mom, dad, britt, tall dave, uncle dave.
ya-bay-shyah!
Oh do something for me. Go to Britt with the Snoopy pilot hat and scarf on and do the snoopy dance where he looks up the air with his snoopy snout and moves his head from side to side. This of course has to be done with dad wearing some long cargo shorts and a big shirt and have him do the charlie brown dance. You know the one.
Excellent. Love you.
Surprise!!!
March 5, 2010 BYU Daily Universe Photo on page 6 for Synthesis Jazz Band Concert Publicity
(photo must have been taken last year, because Brady is in Ghana this year!)
