Word!

So big news. I got transferred again. It was kinda bitter sweet because I liked Elder Chamberlain. He taught me a lot of stuff with the missionary number/forms/area book stuff. He was a correct district leader and a great companion. I will miss him. He had good cheesy jokes, the kind grandpa bob would love.

Ex. There was this blonde girl (thats right, the South Africans make fun of blondes too) that was driving her car and she runs over a hare (bunny). The girl runs out and was running around all yelling and stops a passing by car with a brunette inside. The woman she stops gets out of the car and the blonde tells her "help! I just ran over this hare, what should I do?" The brunette says "oh no worries, I'll be right back." So she goes to the car and gets some hairspray from her purse and sprays the hare. The hare gets up and starts bouncing along then turns back, smiles at them and waves. The blonde was all, "hey how did you do that? What spray is that?" The brunette says "oh its just my hair spray." So the blonde takes the hair spray can and reads the back and it says "brings your hair new life and a natural wave."

So here is Bernice (left) and sister Alice (right) Bernice worked out with her mom a way she will be able to leave boarding school and go to church on Sundays. Ka-pow! That's right!

Anywho I have been transferred back right where I came from. Thats right, I am about a 15 min tro-tro ride from Mataheko Accra (about 2 miles up the street). My area is called McCarthy Hills (puts snooty pinky up) in the same zone I was formerly in, the "McCarthy Hills Zone". My companion is Elder Yahaya (pronounced yeah-yeah) from Nigeria. He is the dude. Elder Yahaya is the district leader and is a very good guy. Easy to get along with and is willing to work. I was teasing him because he has a missionary farmer tan as well.

So when they said McCarthy HILLS they really meant hills. The place is kinda like a snooty "I live on the mountain where we name our streets instead of number them like those common folk down there" type of place. There are actually gates and doors to knock on. BOO. I'm not used to that type of missionary work. The whole knocking and having to give an introduction line in order to get inside. Usually we used other means of getting to teach people instead of knocking on doors. I'm trying to get to know the members around here so we wont have to do that whole non effective knocking thing. "There is a better way!" - President Hinckley.

Something that is pretty cool around here is that most everyone can read. That should help out plenty. One hard thing is that our chapel is forever away. We should do well however, we are going to baptize George on Saturday. He is the friend of some members and just finished going to school to be an electrician. We taught George the law of chastity and Sabbath day. It was nice to be able to be able to use the Book of Mormon to teach and have him actually read it and he understood what it was saying. It is nice. The problem is that we are getting more rejections and some mean snooty looks. Weird how that kinda works. I kinda know what the whole rich man through the eye of a needle thing means now. No worries, there are people all over that have been prepared. The trick is I gotta find em. I just gotta find them in ALL THOSE HILLS in the back. I feel like a mountain goat (head butts monitor).

So since we were are so close to Mataheko, we went to their ward activity today (p-day). Elder Holt and his companion were there along with my friends, the Kaneshi elders. Man, Mataheko is doing well. I was only gone 6 weeks but I was so happy to see people. Peter is having his Melchizedeck Priesthood interview tomorrow! Also Dorah was there with her new church friends (she is the one holding the girls head with the red football), Paul was there having fun and Elder Holt told me that he is baptizing 5 people this transfer. One of those people is someone Elder Riding and I contacted 6 months ago. He called Elder Holt and said he read everything and prayed and knows it is true. Also I saw the Mataheko ward members and they ran up and hugged me. I am so happy I cant describe the feeling. Last week I also ran into Jamima who I baptized with Elder Riding. Her Mr. Bioligical lives in Lebanon next to my old apartment and she ran up and I gave her the good ol' missionary hug, a nice firm hand shake with a finger snap at the end. Everyone is doing so well. They even made Mataheko a district and called 2 more missionaries there. Nice!

Yesterday we ran over to Mama Lee's house (the lady who knew bro Jordan from our ward at home) and had some rice. The other missionaries in the zone met up there and we had a fun meal. Elder Holt moved to another new Mataheko apartment just leaving Elder Boyd and my MTC buddy Elder Berry by themselves in our nice landscaped abode. Elder Holt and I got mad about something however, Elder Boyd said that President and Sis Smith came by our old apartment and did inspections and said "this is the nicest missionary apartment we have ever seen." They even took pictures to show as a good example of how the apartments should be. Man! So they will probably win the clean apartment award because of our nice scrubbed walls (yes we scrubbed the walls), renovated yard etc. BOO! If they win, Elder Holt and I will sneak some of their cookies. (yes I know, we still get rewarded with cookies but these are the coveted clean apartment cookies! It is like receiving a gold star...a yummy good tasting gold star).
Oh by the way, I took a picture of Sis Deho's little baby who always made me laugh. His name is Wilford or Nana. He reminds me of Hayden Anderson or Keaten Anderson haha.

Well anywho, our apartment is brand new but has been scummed up by the former missionaries. So after the Mataheko ward activity, we ran over to the Kaneshi market and I bargained and got some legit "A-jax," a scrub brush and a dust pan. I am going to go to town on our shower walls and force the other Elders to clean up the kitchen that they have defiled. Our apartment is pretty clean for the most part. It is nice because it is slighty cool because it is higher up. I woke up and was freakin' out because I actually felt kinda chilly. It was weird.

Here are some cool stories. We were out teaching on Saturday an investigator and he brought his other friend along. They both have a drinking problem. We started teaching them about the Word of Wisdom (which I never do at the beginning; I usually go into the gospel of Jesus Christ then hit the commandments later after they have been softened a little, but for some reason we taught the Word of Wisdom first this time) and the friend started crying and said, "I know why you are here" and said that he was fired from his Navy Officer job because of his drinking addiction. He knew we were sent there to help him. We told him we would call him every night to see how his drinking problem was going etc. It was cool.

Then the very next lesson we were teaching this woman who was abused as a child. I don't know how the heck they tell us all this information but somehow they do. She is kinda hmm disturbed and traumatized and has HIV. We talked about prayer and she was not willing to pray. We taught her about how Heavenly Father loves us and I drew out of her some blessings that God has given her such as her children, the tree we were sitting under etc. We then taught about how the "evil Spirit teaches a man NOT to pray" and then about how Jesus Christ suffered for us and he knows fully how to "succor his people." She then started to cry and she closed the lesson with a prayer and committed to start praying again.

We got to watch general conference yesterday...sorta. The power went out during the middle of the 2nd session. They send out DVD's with conference on it to the Bishop. We then meet during church time on Sunday and watch 2 sessions. What blows is that we don't get to watch the other 2 sessions or Priesthood session. They do have Priesthood session though, we just aren't invited to it. Luckily we justified it by having our baptismal candidate meet us at the chapel so he could watch Priesthood session and we could teach him after. Sneaky eh? So we got to watch the last 2 or 3 talks of Priesthood. Maybe you could ship the Ensign conference edition to me when they come out? I get them faster when you ship them to me.

Well anywho I am feeling really blessed right now. Heavenly Father seems to be watching over you guys very much. I am somewhat really happy to be back here. This zone feels like home for some reason, it feels right.

Oh I'll call you guys on Mothers day Sunday around hmm say 8 o clock pm for me? Is that around 2 pm for you guys? If you guys don't answer or something I'll call later. No worries. They give us phone chips with credit so we can call whenever. Deal?

Well the church is true. The Book of Mormon is a true record. If you read it everyday then you will not fall away and you will stay on that pathway towards heaven. You will feel the Holy Ghost and not fear death or the 2nd coming haha, because you have an assuring feeling that you will be alright. I know that my family would be all right as well ;)

Well I gotta go.

Tell Brit - BAAH! (head butt her too like a goat)

I love you family.