Transferred to the jungle, Asamankesse, in the Ghana Eastern Region.

Hello my family!

Man grandma Patsy combined with mom = missionary finder squadron special ops airborne satellite intelligence rogue team.

I can't believe that you found me and my town so fast. Yeah the Cranney's came and inspected our apartment and they said that they know Sis West and have been emailing each other. They really like grandma.

Well I'll tell you some things about my area you don't know. President first called me and said that he was going to transfer me this transfer but "you haven't done anything like this in your mission yet."

So he transferred me to Asamankesse, in the eastern region, as district leader. This place is hmm "a freaking jungle" as stated in my journal.

There are loads of trees, no city at all. Not like Accra. This place is more quiet, less noise, less cars. The forest is interesting because it is all farmland that is owned by someone. It is not like 'farmland' at home with the fences and plow and stuff. It is big bushy jungle with neat rows of plantain, orange trees etc. It is hard to explain. Here is the tricky and 'haven't done anything like this' yet part. My companion and I are in charge of 3 branches, Asamankese 1, Asmankesse 2 and Kade (pronounced cuh-day) branch.

I have never been in a branch before, ever, in my life. It is kinda the same but only around 40-60 people come to sacrament meeting. Also Kade is an hour tro tro ride away so we go proselyte in Asamankese 3 days a week and Kade for 2 and switch off on Saturdays for baptism and church on Sundays. The whole thing is a logistical nightmare haha.

Luckily I have a great companion Elder Afu. He is a Polynesian from South Sandy. Coolest guy in the world. He looks like 'the rock' from the WWF wrestling. He even can do the eyebrow. He just finished up being trained by Elder Nielson, the Elder Nielson from our Dansoman/Mataheko days,and is a great help to me. He cleans up after himself, keeps the rules willingly and hmm I am being pulled by him.

The only thing we had to work on was updating the area book haha. I am so excited to work with him! He is an answer to my prayers.

He played football for Alta High as a running back and just finished his first year at Stanford on an academic scholarship, not playing football anymore. He is really easy to get along with and they were doing a great job. He is leading me around and I'm getting to know the places and new names and faces.

Just to show you how good we are getting along, we gave a bunch of baptismal dates this week. Currently we have 13 with a date for December and 13 came to church last Sunday. IT IS GOING TO BE CRAZY!!!

I also am keeping an eye on the Oda missionaries who stay about 1-2 hours away. It is tricky because we live so far away and keeping tabs on people is going to be complicated.

Just to show you how complicated things are, to find out which investigators come to church we first sat through 2 church services for Asamankesse 1 and 2 then we had to call the branch mission leader in Kade and get the stats from him on who came to the branch there and then add up the people and stuff.

Luckily we have some great great great recent converts in Kade who come teaching with us. We planned this week to "recruit for the Kade branch army" so we can keep tabs on our investigators over there while we are here in Asamankese. We have 2 recent converts who are going to read with our investigators out there and help them answer the questions in the pamphlets. This way our little Kade army will be teaching our people the basics while we are away. Then when we are there we can get specific and help them with their commandment problems and get personal with them etc.

We are trying to find some army people for Asamankese but only really have 1 who is going on a mission next month. The Asamankese branch is mostly old people with some youth sprinkled in there. So let the recruiting begin!

Here is some stuff from my journal

26th Nov 2010
I got transferred 2 days ago. I was reading the Book of Mormon and moments before President Smith called I read a verse in Alma 22 that caught my eye. "... Behold, the Spirit of the Lord has called him another way; he has gone to the land of Ishmael, to teach the people of Lamoni."

President Smith then called and told me that he was transferring me.

27th Nov 2010
Today quite a lot actually happened. The day started off with a great baptism. Sis Rahmat and Sis Irene were baptized. Sis Rahmat is the daughter of a long time member, however the mom doesn't speak English. It was back then. Irene is the niece of the 2nd branch president. This was a tricky baptism to pull off, not because of the teaching but because of the logistics of the font! MAN! More font problems!!!

We went to fill the font yesterday around 3ish. They just installed a new spiket in the font so it would fill nicely. It would take around 2 and half hours to fill. we came back a couple hours later and

President Iyeh turned off the water because it was pumping out mud instead of water. The font looked terrible. It was full of brown caca looking water. We drained the water and swept up the dirt inside. This was the 2nd time that we were sweeping out the font that day. We cleaned it prior to the first filling because it was gross and I couldn't bring myself to baptize someone in the yucky font. So we cleaned it.

We then filled it with the normal garden hose routine. We started filling it at 9pm and fell asleep at church on top of some make shift beds of folding up chairs. WORST SLEEP EVER! We stayed there until 12:30 until the font finished filling. Luckily we live 2 min away from the church so no problem getting home. WHY GHANA FONTS, WHY!!!

Anywho they were baptized. YAHOO! The Lord provides away, even if the way involves staying at the church on top of a bed of chairs until the font filled for the baptism the next morning. Luckily we found the problem in time or else there would have been some big problems 8 am at the baptism, I could only imagine how sucky that would have been.

Thank goodness we filled it the night before!

Well after the baptism, bro Giddyglow (best member ever, he is ewe - pronouced A-way) was getting his marriage done civilly at the church. OF COURSE WE WENT! Anything for a Ghanaian performing a legally binding, temple worthy, as binding as the laws of the land can make it wedding. It was a great great thing. It was like a normal marriage ceremony however the crowd got pretty rowdy during the "I do" part and the kiss the bride part. It was a great thing to see though. He is a great man, his wife is a great woman. She got herself all dolled up for the occasion and had a nice dress with matching bag etc. They were so happy.

We went over to Kade today. We met with a man named Kofi. We met his family and we gave them all a date. Kofi is a great dude, he can read good enough. He disproved the Mammon vs. Mormon myth (they pronounce both of them the same here) because he noticed they were spelled differently and meant different things. Sweet!

He took us to his house and he really loves the gospel. They should be baptized on the 18th of December.

I am somehow petrified with all the responsibility I have here. I'm in charge of a large land mass and a lot of dates. AAAH! I feel small but the Lord will strengthen me and make me strong enough to face the challenge.

I'm tired. Good night!

Nov 26 continued.
So I turned 21 on the 7th. Mom sent me an 'offical Carrie Underwood fanclub' t-shirt and membership card. She also sent me an apron for cooking that said "guac on." My favorite part was we went over to the Dadzies and she made me banku with mackerel and tomato stew. WE ate the rice krispy treat cake mom sent and vacuume sealed closed. It was still pretty soft. She cares for me a lot, I love her. SO I spent my 21st birthday in Ghana. While a lot of the world spends their 21st birthday buying alcohol legally for the 1st time, inappropriate movies, being crazy and just being appropriate; I spent my 21st birthday preaching the gospel, knocking on doors, teaching in small small English to my African brothers and sisters. I couldn't have spent it a better way.

End of journal entries.

Everyone likes to speak twi at church. It is going to be an uphill battle with the language problem. The church is only to speak English here because for many reasons. For one reason is that some tribes don't speak the other tribes language; for example most of the ewe people can't speak twi. Also it is very rare to find someone who can read twi or ewe or any tribal language. The gospel requires literacy.

There are also plenty of other immigrants coming to church, for example there is a Nigerian member wife here who only speaks English.

In spite of all of this, they still are putting up a fight to speak twi. I'm going to make friends with the branch leadership and then try to bring this up later. My twi is really improving though haha.

Again I am really excited to be here. I am afraid that a t-rex or some raptors are going to pop out of the jungle and swallow our tro tro when going to Kade. Besides that the area is safer than Accra. Not as many psychos.

Sorry no pictures today. This cafe don't got a usb slot. I'll figure out how to get you pictures soon.

I have to say this about companions and preparing for a mission.

Playing sports before mission = Good. It takes the ninny out of ya.

I am feeling the Spirit a whole lot more being out here because we are getting along really well and are doing what is right. It is just really great.

On the way up here the Terry couple, from Las Vegas, drove us up. This is their 3rd mission to Africa. They love it here. They said that we are doing Silent Night for our Christmas conference and that Elder Terry said, "No! there will be no piano playing! We want guitar!"

Last night Elder Afu and I stayed up and arranged a 3 part harmony cowboy style version how to do it. Elder Afu played the piano in his Tongan ward so he has good ears. It was fun.

As far as the other transfers went, Elder Zadi is in Ashaiman with Elder Yahaya as his district leader again. Elder Cobbinah is companions with Elder Nielson (we just traded places), Elder Collings stayed there and is now companions with Elder Jones from Utah.

McCarthy Hills was supposed to baptise Nathaniel but didn't for some reason. I will nag them until they do! Also Edwina's sister Gertrude turns 9 on Dec 2nd so they need to baptize her. I'll let you know how it goes.

Well Elder Farnbach is now my zone leader up here. He is in charge of 5 branches and is in a new area every day. STRESSFUL. I think President took all the missionaries out of the bush and put them in Accra. The area presidency told him to put some small amount back. I think that is why we are running around all over the place. It is crazy but fun as crap.

So it is fun being up here. The couple missionaries are kinda watching over us rather than presdient smith so much. Elder and Sister Terry do most of our baptismal interviews because they have a car and the zl's can't travel all the time because of their crazy 5 branch schedule. Oh Elder Holt is just a couple towns over, about 1-2 hours away. He likes it up here, I think I will too.

Once I get this place down I'll be able to tell you more.

This place is not as hot. BONUS! Everyone keeps feeding us here so I'll gain back some weight.

Well how the poop did byu botch a field goal? I'm not mad i'm just frustamragated. Oh well. Your thanksgiving party sounded like loads of fun. I should get your package for thanksgiving very soon. Elder Afu
(pronounced ah-foo) and I will enjoy. See enjoyment!

Speaking of tasty package goodies, when they called and transferred me to the bush I quickly called the other missionaries, Elder Zadi and Elder Collings, and had them pick me up 10 mt. Dews. Last dew time for a long while!

I'm very proud of your mimi's thanksgiving dinner. I laughed at your guys football faces. Sorry-o.

Well I am off. Love you guys so much. I'll send ya some pictures soon.

Picture really green and lots of trees and neat forest. Not a lot of animals because it is farm land. Farm land meets jungle minus the lots of animals part. They still got those mega big termite mounds I'll snap a picture for ya.

Gotta run!

p.s. Wow look at all of that snow. I'm now transformed into the hot and wet weathered person. Looking at the snow kinda freaks me out a bit.