Yo my shorties

First off, I loved your quote about teaching missionaries to be self reliant. I will cherish it forever. You da mom!

So I got my new companion from the MTC! He is from Cape Coast Ghana. The church in cape coast actually started in his house. The first meetings were held literally in his front room. He has 5 sisters. He speaks Twi and Fanti small. They only speak English in his house and the town he is from is full of English speakers. He is kinda like an American. He was shocked when he saw somebody just urinating in the gutters and throwing garbage wherever. Remember the unofficial slogan for Accra, "All of Accra is your trashcan/toilet." He didn't know how to do laundry using his hands and stuff. So he is Ghanaian but from the other side of the country. I haven't really met anyone from Cape Coast besides my new companion.

So for breakfast I usually just scrounge around and eat whatever, but he likes cornflakes. Man I gotta record him saying "cornflakes" he sounds just like Denzel Washington, ya know the football coach on 'Remember the Titans, the one who chews gum a lot? Well he says "conflakes" and it makes me happy. I can also talk in full speed with him! Yes no more half speed English!

So some stories about training. He used to work with computers at home and graduated from a prestigious hoiter toiter high school so hmm he likes numbers and stuff. Also he has the stamina of a hmmm brick...something not having any stamina...umm can't think of a good analogy. Well I'm running him up and down the hills with my mountain goat physique then as soon as he gets used to walking I make him ride the bike etc. He was saying, "Elder Bills! Stop. I'm sick. I'm feeling pains." So we stopped and I had him describe the pains. He said that he had sharp burning pains in his thighs (pronounced ties), feet and back. I explained to him that what he was feeling is the result of NORMAL exercise and hard work. I explained to him that people that get those feelings make the world go round.

For the first couple of days he was kinda homesick. I was kinda wondering what to do, because missionaries walk and ride ALL DAY. I prayed to know what to do and the answer was to keep working him so he gets in shape. On Sunday after church I made him get on the bike and ride around, I was hungry so we rode to Bishops house. Bishops lives up this big hill muahaha! When we were getting towards the hill I told him that he was going to ride up that whole thing without stopping. I rode next to him yelling coach like things at him like "DO NOT STOP PEDALLING THAT BICYCLE ELDER!" and "you can do it, push it!" and "come on!" He made it all the way up the hill without stopping! I was so proud. Man he rocked it. My little mountain goat! He gained some confidence and realized that I won't let him die here and that he will be okay.

Hard work really is the key for homesickness. Really it is the key for everything. (headbutts the screen like a goat)

Well I'm having him read the Book of Mormon all the way through, just like my trainer Elder Riding did, to make sure that all the little false doctrines/traditions are cleared up. For instance some think that the gold plates are in SLC in a museum rather than Moroni taking them back etc. He says he never read it all the way yet so we are doing it together. Everyday we go through what he read. He is doing good.

Well we had 11 people promise us to come to church this week. I assigned a ward member to each one of the 11 investigators to make sure that they came to church. Well 3 of them came which isn't bad. We would have had more but this week was full of funerals and people visiting from America parties so some of them couldn't make it. Anywho it was okay. We should have a baptism soon.

Celine wasn't baptized because she is having her school finals this week and they are all staying at the school this week. Ulgh! We should baptize her soon. Say a prayer for her, make sure that she doesn't slip away.

Well sad story, our neighbors house burned down last night. We were out teaching a lessons and I got a phone call from Elder Zadi saying that there was a fire in our neighbors house and there was chaos going on. I decided to stay with my companion out proselyting, so we went to a members house and ate some food instead of returning right away to a fire and people panicking. Well they disconnected the power to our house and compound and did an inspection and the problem was some wiring in his house. It burned the whole thing down. Luckily he got his family out safe but all his stuff burned. The neighborhood is helping him out a lot. They are already cleaning it all up. Since we live upstairs, we have no running water for a little, plus the area is out of water for the next 3 days, so I made my companion and I go buy some pure water bags (they are heavy!) and tote them up the hill muahaha. I gave one to our neighbors and kept the rest for us to drink with.

Luckily we installed some smoke detectors in our house about a week ago so they started beeping once the smoke got to our house and warned everyone. God bless the smoke detectors.
So no worries our house is safe with smoke detectors, pure water, we even planned 2 ways out of the house in case of a fire. We are all safe.

Well my companion is a picky eater but we should fix that soon, he can only eat rice for so long. He has actually made me acquire a taste for rice. I can now taste the difference between different types of white rice. Must be kinda like the fine wine drinkers, except more boring and tasteless.

Well I gotta run, I'm taking my companion to Shoprite. Shoprite brings hope.

Well gotta run.

Love you all.
Talk to you next week!