Oh say can you see!

All I can say from your photos is "CARRIE UNDERWOOD!" If I had some spurs, I'd put them on right now and hmm give something the 'boot.' I betcha that concert was sweet. I remember when I saw Toby Keith at 'Stadium of Fire.' I wasn't even a Toby Keith fan, but it was stinkin' entertaining. Carrie Underwood wails too, by the way. Her band is on fire as well. She knows how it should go. She wears the cut off jeans, car show appropriate type of shirt, big ol' American Flags on stage, on fire band, she is sincere about it (she ain't fakin' it) and she sings pretty darn good.
She rocks. And I curse you for not buying me a shirt from her concert. Shame! Oh well, she will come back some day.

So dudes, thanks for the pictures. The 4th of July bash looked fun. Glad ya'll celebrated how awesome the U.S.A is. It really, really is. It really is the greatest country on earth, no joke. The place wreaks of freedom and justice and learning. Those 3 need to run together.

I loved the pictures. Way to ride in a jeep ya'll. My patriotic family. Ah, it makes me feel good. I said the pledge of allegiance in my room yesterday just because it had been awhile and because of the holiday and hmm it felt nice and comforting, especially the liberty and justice for all part. Ah, liberty and justice. Like milk and cookies. Laverne and Shirley. Pumpkin and pie. Whipped cream and ...pretty much anything.

Anywho, I can't wait for your 4th of July package of potatoes. I called Elder Boyd and said that I got some 'taters coming for him. He was really happy.

So as far as the work goes, we baptized Philip this week. Yahoo! When filling out his record for him, I grabbed his mom and started asking her about her birthday and stuff explaining that it is used for family history. She got all excited and Philip got interested as well in the whole family history thing. I gave him one of the conference ensigns that you sent me, there was a sweet talk about the new familysearch website and family history that Elder Nelson gave. It had photos of his daughter, granddaughter, and great granddaughter all having their bright blue eyes.
I'm trying to give a conference ensign magazine to each investigator before I baptize them. One of the baptismal questions is "Do you believe that Thomas Spencer Monson is God's living prophet today on the earth?" Most of the time the investigators go, "huh? Who? Umm yes...maybe..who is that?" I give all of my investigators a magazine so they can read a talk by him and recognize that he truly is the prophet. I gave one to Comfort and she recognized that Thomas Monson preaches about stuff that will help you gain salvation, vs. the fortune telling and nonsense 'babblings' (as the apostle paul calls it).
The only problem is that hmm this is a 3rd world country and there ain't enough resources anywhere. To do something simple is freaking difficult. For instance, for each member to have the standard works and a gospel essentials/principles book is hmm impossible. The distribution center is out of them. So even to get the essential materials is somehow out of the question, or is a big pain in the patooty.

So Philip is baptized. Probably the most stressful baptism of my life. We were baptising 4 people in our district. As missionaries, we don't really organize the baptisms. We meet with our ward mission leader (WML) and he organizes it with the ward members. So we met with our WML and he got it all ready and scheduled, talks, someone to open the door and fill the font, towels etc. We scheduled it for 3:00 pm. Then he said that there was a priesthood meeting at 8 am so we should do it at 10:00 am so we could have some of the priesthood brothers participate right after their meeting, also we could combine it with Odorkor so it would be big and nice. So we scheduled it for 10:00 am and combined it with the Odokor missionaries, our Zone Leaders, so we would baptize 8 people total. Sounds great and like a party right? So we show up to the church 1 hour early and the doors are locked. The meeting was at a different chapel. I called the WML and asked why the doors were shut and if someone filled the font. He said that nobody did but he said that after the meeting that he and the bishopric members were coming to the chapel for the baptism. I told him to hurry over to the church and open the church and let us fill the font, because it takes 1 hour to fill. Well they showed up a half hour AFTER the baptism was supposed to start. All the investigators and missionaries were waiting outside, all the white missionaries pacing around like crazy people mumbling under our breath and making frantic phone calls to our WML's etc.

Well after we finally got into the church, Elder Hortin ran outside in the back of the church to give me a hose, shove it through the window, so I could fill the font with the hose + the font pipe.DOUBLE BAPTISMAL FONT FILLING POWER! (50 points for awesomeness. Makes the mario coin sound). So I open the doors to the font and it was full... of last weeks water... it looked old. There was no time to empty it, scrub he dirt out, then fill it. So I asked the Zone Leaders what to do. We just moved the dirt around and it wasn't so bad. Our candidates were all for being baptized so we just did it (nike). The bishopric member was like, "we can't baptize them in that old water." I then told him that he would have to go apologize to each candidate and explain to them why the font had old water in it and why they were late and why they would have to wait for 2 hours to be baptized. He then okayed it.
It was one of those, "moved upon by the Holy Ghost" moments and I spoke boldy so the work could go forward.
The water wasn't that bad, it just wasn't super clean. None of this would ever happen if they would let the missionaries have keys to the chapel. In McCarthy Hills Stake, they don't give us the keys. The reason is that some ward member had the keys and took all the chairs out to use for a funeral or something. He didn't bring the chairs back for Sunday use...So now the missionaries don't get keys. I don't get it because it was a ward member, not the missionaries who did this.

Anywho, we got everyone baptized so we achieved our district goal. WOHOO! So I went to shoprite to buy pie for everyone. But then the gas to our stove ran out 2 days ago...So we went to go fill it. Remember this is a 3rd world country. So after carrying the gas tank a billion miles away, we shoved it in some tro-tros (small buses) with us to get it filled. We visited 5 gas stations today! All of them are out of gas. So no cooking and no celebration pie.
Of course I couldn't let this happen so I called Elder Hale, our helper missionary dad guy. He said that all of Accra is out of gas. Alas I felt defeated, but then after talking to some ward members there was this place by the Odokor missionaries apartment that is supposedly receiving a shipment of gas by 3:00. So we went to the place and there was this line of people who seemed to know the secret. So we dropped off the tank at the Odokor apartment and Elder Zadi and Elder Nkem are going to stop by the secret spot and fill it up on their way home at night from the fast internet cafe at circle. So hopefully we will have celebration pie today! If not, i'll buy some coke and drown my sorrows away.

Anywho, since we have no gas, we have been working our fm (free meal) skills. We ate 2 fm's yesterday. Man I really like fufu. It is nice! Still I hate goat. Goat blows. Boo goat. Luckily we had fish and fufu and Momma Lee fed the zone again for her annual fast sunday feast. It was my 10th time there. She was like, "man what are you still doing here." I have a cool story about her in a min.

Sorry the bank account has a big dent in it. This is because of the gas situation. We paid 9 cedis saturday trying to find gas, driving from place to place. Then today we spent a lot trying to find gas again. Elder Hale said that he will pay me back for the traveling at Zone conference, in 2 weeks. THEN our iron broke. The office Elders are freaking busy, they had a scandle I'll tell you about later. So long story short, Elder Hale told us to buy the iron ourselves and he will pay us back. Also my companion blew his sustinance money this transfer on food so I have to sustain him this week.
Sorry-o. I'm having to bail everyone out of stuff. Oh well. Hope that is okay...

Well the scandal with the office elders is that Elder Boyds companion from South Africa got sent home. He was stealing stuff like church funds, missionaries pen drives, sd cards etc. So they had to send him home. So there has been a lot of hard stuff going on for Elder Boyd. I think your tato's will help him a lot.

Man, poor President Smith having to deal with all this stuff. I wonder if other missions are like this one and have people going home all the time because of sickness, breaking the rules, stealing, etc. Man just say a prayer for Elder Boyd's companion who chose the wrong. It will be hard for him I think. Hopefully he will be okay.

Anywho Mama Lee wanted me to come give her a blessing. Elder Farnworth, my buddy at the mtc, was now her missionary so I grabbed him and introduced her to him and let her know that he was there if she ever needed him. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she was suffering from her carpel tunnel injury again. Also she said that she was dating again! She said that she is nervous and hopes everything goes well. She works at the temple and she met this other temple worker guy and now they are dating. It's nice that two older Ghanaians, after years of trial, finally meet each other and can share some time, and have their new true faith in common. She told me to keep it quiet though so, shhh. I anointed her and Elder Farnworth sealed it. It was a good blessing. She was kinda giddy. It was nice.

So as far as church goes, we had 1 person there. Our jazz daddy family proved to be a true jazzer. He isn't married to his wife. They have been living together for 11 years and have a kid etc. He claims to have paid the bride price (this bride price always thwarts the work) but the woman says that she was pregnant at the time and that he only paid the penalty pregnant price. The whole thing makes me feel terrible. I asked them about their parents and they have all deceased. This makes the marriage easier usually, however the woman is very traditional and so is her extended family. They would have a proxy stand in for her parents to receive the bride price. Drats! I love how they are all organized when it comes to traditional things like the bride price. I taught them about civil marriage and said that "God recognizes civil marriages and in order to go to the temple you have to be married civilly." Civil marriage here only costs 50$ and they could do it at the church fast fast. Jazzer daddy liked this but the woman was hesitant. Anywho the next day, they didn't come to church. I called the dad and he made up some excuse on the spot and said that he couldn't make it...neither could his wife..or children. I think the whole marriage thing scared him and he ran away from the commitment. True jazzer. Drats. We still will try with them if they improve.

Anywho all is well. I got elder Bobareh a family group record sheet, from our ward family history specialist, and one for elder Nkemokalam as well. After they fill them, Sister Smith will put the info in for them on the computer and print them out a copy and get it on familysearch so they could start on those ordinances. Once they get all the information, I'll send it to you so you can make it all nice. Thanks mom.

So in celebration of Independence day, I'll type you up my notes that I entitled "Government - from the Book of Mormon"
Use these with the scriptures by your side maybe for a family home evening. It'll be fun. Just do it!

"The People"
• Mosiah 29:26 - Majority should do what is right. It is common that the voice of the people will do what is right (as far as most things are concerned) Therefore make your laws by "the voice of the people."
• Mosiah 29:26, 29 - "by the people, for the people, of the people...or something like that haha"
• Mosiah 29: 28-29 - Checks and Balances, especially in the judicial system, which are elected 'by the people.'
• Mosiah 29:34 - The people need to do their part.Get out there and ROCK THE VOTE! Also be a good citizen; if something is broke, FIX IT!
• Mosiah 29:27 - If the majority, voice of the people chose sin and iniquity then the country will be destroyed.
• Alma 1:27 - The people gave to the poor and needy, they were a neat and comely people. THEY BATHE!
• Alma 1:28-31 - They were patient during their afflictions. Gave service to members of all faiths.
• Alma 27: 24 _ The people were protected on a condition, "that they gave a portion of their substance to assist us that we may maintain our armies." Pay your taxes!
"The Laws"
• Alma 1:27 - No persecution to any church goers, or no goers. Separation of church and state.
• Alma 1:32-33 – If the law is broken, they suffered according to that which THEY had done. The law was carried out. Justice is served; And Justice for all.
• Alma 8:17 - Liberty for all. Liberty is a God given right and it is contrary to Gods statutes, judgements and commandments to destroy that liberty, which He has given them.
• Alma 27:7-14 - No slavery.
• Alma 30:7 - All men, and women, are created equal. We walk side by side, not one in front of the other.
• Alma 30: 9 -10 - Punished according to your own crimes. Adultery was considered a crime. Good idea!
• 3 Nephi 6:4 - Great order +Laws formed on equity and justice = prospering and waxing great. GREAT WAX!
• 3 Nephi 6: 7-9 - Cities were repaired, good roads were made. "Many highways cast up, and many roads made, which led from city to city." The people had continual peace. Good roads = continual peace. Direct correlation between good roads and peace.
• Mosiah 11:3-6 - TEA PARTY! Evil King Noah taxed 1/5 of all they possessed. He taxed their gold, silver, ziff, copper, brass, iron, fattlings, stamps, tea. (okay I added the stamps and tea part) He used it to support his laziness and whoredoms. BOO! "No taxation without representation."

"The Leaders, Kings, Presidents, Rulers etc."
• Mosiah 29:40 - Good ruler establishes peace in the land, doesn't delight in bloodshed, doesn't seek for money, isn't a tyrant.
• Mosiah 29:43 - The ruler, himself/herself should keep the laws of the land. No hypocrites.
• Alma 2: 3,6 - Ruler is elected by the voice of the people. The people assembled themselves together and discussed the matter. Elections,debates, campaign etc. I laughed when I thought about this, picturing the Nephite version of wearing political buttons haha.
• Alma 10:27 - The foundation to destruction is laid by unrighteous lawyers, judges etc. Don't let this happen! Communism then, tyranny then, revolution then, anarchy then, new gov.
• Alma 50:39 -Rulers take an oath to judge righteously, and to keep the peace and freedom of the people, to grant unto them their sacred privileges to worship the Lord their God, to support and maintain the cause of God all his/her days, and to bring the wicked to justice according to THEIR crimes.
• Alma 16:5 -Went and asked the prophet what do do in times of trouble.
• Mosiah 11:15 - Crappy leader = "wine bibber."
"And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hand of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood." - Jesus Christ


Well enjoy your week. I woulda sent pictures but this cafe ain't happy with the card readers. I'll try to send some next week.

Thanks for the email Britt. I like to hear from you. NEW FRIDGE! I'm glad that you knighted your fridge. It is a must! Hopefully Prince Albert the fridge will serve you with honor and with keep your royal hinus full of refrigerated goodness.

Thanks for taking our Bobbo out to eat. Yeah he doesn't like greek. Try normal spaghetti at Old Spaghetti factory with a special side of broccoli and mazithra and a funny waiter. Or village inn normal meat and potatoes with rhubarb pie that is 'on special' so he can say, "give me the special." Also he likes to beat the system so always take something home in a container. Make him bring something home for grandma, talk him into not eating his desert (save him from a heart attack) and have him bring it home for grandma.

Glad you are having fun Brit with big D. He is a good guy. I like him. I give you permission to marry him. Oh...shoot. Good choice then. I approve.

Well dad, keep it up. Thanks for your letters. Keep working hard.
Keep dollin' it up mom making those dolls. Be careful. You will probably start a civil war with how cool your humanitarian stuff is.

Anywho I gotta run.
Thanks for letting me vent my 'land of the free' ness to you. I'm the only non-african in the apartment so I gotta keep it all to myself.
Hey the dudes cleaned the apartment good today. I'm proud of them.
Don't worry about the washing. In order to get through the washing, we have dubbed washing time the slightly apostate music time. You just can't finish washing to the tabernacle choir. You really can't even get started. You just want to die. So you can wash to music with a little bass drum. I'll one day have the faith to wash with only tabernacle choir music but until then haha.

Cool guys. Talk to you all later.

p.s. Man I see those heart throb vampire movies you talked about for sale all over the place here. Pirated, but still for sale. I don't understand it, whatever though. I just like to see how the crowd reacts. Larry Green and I call it "chittering." The whole theater is full of little girls going 'tehehehehe' every time that vampire edward guy gets on the screen. Non-stop chittering.

The church is true. Love you all.