So I’m having a blast here in my little flux compacitor shaped area. We have been running around like crazy, which I like to do. Feels like home, running all over the place frantically, my usual pace. We were able to get the branch presidents and district president into our ‘camp’ and we were able to schedule a fixed time each week to have our coordination meetings. We got each branch to call us branch missionaries that can help us out while we are in different areas. It is our little royal army. It is paying off too. We got 17 people to church this week. We got 15 with a baptismal date for December. AAAAAAAHHHHHH responsibility! I am having to really slack my English down and speak in terms that make no sense. Forget the ‘th’ sounds and the ‘er’ sounds. Words like ‘thirty’ become ‘tare-dee’ etc. It really is awkward haha.
This Saturday, a baptism for 2 girls, Ellen and Felecia. Ellen is 18 years old and is in her 2nd year in high school. She was a referral from a member who lives nearby and has come 3 times now. She has been coming with her friend, who is also named Ellen, who is 14. Ellen the 2nd wants to join but we need to contact her father who lives far away and obtain permission, then I need to have our branch president call President Smith and ask for permission. It’ll be great to get more people in the church here that are able to read English and comprehend what they are reading. These youthful literate people will take a big role in having the church succeed here.
The second girl is named Felecia. She is living in the same house as one of the relief society presidents house. She has been coming to church for months now. We wanted to teach her mom & dad but the dad lives far away, they don’t talk to him much, and the mom can’t speak English or read. We obtained permission to baptize Felecia from President Smith by having our branch president meet Felecia and calling to vouch for her. Teaching Felecia is tricky, she is SHY SHY SHY. She like puts her head into her lap and tries to burrow away haha. We were teaching her and she wasn’t really responding. We had her neighbor teach her the commandments and we were reviewing them with her to see if she understood them and was willing to keep them etc, but she was just super shy. I felt like we should stop teaching and play a game with her. We stopped teaching and just said, hey lets take a break and play a game. I talked her into having her teach Elder Afu how to play 2-4-6-1-1 a little clapping game thingie that the girls play. She had fun but was still shy small. We then did a little game with her neighbor on who could write down the commandments and 4 points about each of them, and who could do it the fastest. I had as the prize, some headphones I confiscated from Elder Cobbinah haha. She had fun and was able to pass her interview with Elder Terry, our mission couple up here in the bush.
President Smith also called this week and was wanting us to get our baptismal records in for our district. This is tricky because we live forever away. He told me to take a picture of the records and email them to him. Great idea…except the internet is as slow as molasses. I took the pictures of the records and tried to upload them and failed miserably. I then called the office couple and they said I could tell them the information through the phone. This would cause me great frustration because the names are all spelled crazy and stuff and would require me to spell out each thing verbally on the phone and there would still be errors. Why didn’t I finish my ham radio merit badge, that way I could have spoke in alpha bravo Charlie x-ray talk haha. So I just typed up all the information and emailed her a bunch of text with all the info on it.
So I think I gotta type in all the baptismal records on the computer and email them to the office couple. I just gotta make sure that they are all having the correct signatures and stuff. Crazy!!!
Today we are at the church family history center and using their sticky free keyboards. Ahh it is glorious. The internet still sucks but the keyboard is fresh. It is like hmm an indescribable crisp feeling. Kinda like a nice new french fry (however I like squishy wendys French fries too…)
We are working with the wife of one of the branch presidents, Georgette. She isn’t a member yet. She is kinda hmm kinda reserved. She likes the hymns though! So we go over and sing hymns to her. Elder Afu and I can sing parts, yahoo. We started teaching her at her house and shop. Upon arrival we met her daughter Niece. Niece is around 14 years old and is a member. She was feeling sick so she didn’t go to school but decided to help her mom at the store. You can tell she likes being with her mom. We taught her about the book of mormon and the promise that come with it. We then asked her if she had any experiences with the Holy Ghost and she shared her testimony. Just then I noticed Niece helping her mom cut up some sticks for her moms store, to be used for I don’t exactly know. She looked innocent and loving. A thought came into my mind that this family could be a great and loving eternal family and that I could help. I then extended a baptismal invitation and she accepted.
She has faith that if it is true that the Holy Ghost will tell her.
She should be baptized on the 18th with some work. We got her whole family together to sing hymns with her and she liked that. She is kinda stuck in her church but we are working on her. She came on Sunday and liked it. We are trying to find a way to get a woman fellowshipper over to her house. I think we will get her baptized and in with her family. She already knows that the church is true, she just is having a hard time.
Pray for her could ya?
We are teaching a man named Koffa and his family. Koffa can read but has a hard time understanding all the big words like sacrament etc. His wife can’t speak English or read but came to church. She likes it. Koffa and his children were having a really hard time at reading and comprehending, understanding our English and focusing. We even had them write down things about the Holy Ghost so they could just memorize stuff but they kept numbering things wrong and kept spelling stuff wrong like ‘heart’ was ‘h a backwards r t’ and kept correcting each others papers and getting nothing done haha. It was really frustrating. We have really simplified our teaching but it still is hard for people to comprehend a lot of it. I have been praying to have God strengthen my Ghana English speak so I can teach better, been praying for investigators English and reading skills, been praying to help them and me through this baptismal and enduring to the end process. I was comforted reading the Book of Mormon in Alma 31:26-35 and Alma 32:16.
Alma prayed to have success in the work and to help change his people from the Rameumptom ways, to have their afflictions be swallowed up in the joy of Christ. It was granted unto him because he prayed with faith.
Also in Alma 32:16 it states “therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe.”
This scripture is about these people here in Asamankese and Kade. Koffa and his family have been coming, they don’t understand a whole lot yet but they know that this is good and right. Koffa used to go to different churches then got fed up and stopped for over 10 years. He knows that this is right, even though he doesn’t comprehend a whole lot. He will be very blessed as Alma 32 says. He is learning the doctrine small small, bit by bit. He is doing well. His family of 5 and his wife will be baptized on the 18th.
This is somehow hard for my patience haha. The Lord wants me to improve this attribute and humble me by having me speak the small small English and continue to find synonyms for words like ‘whisper’ etc.
Well I was able to go to Kade this week for church. It was my first time there. The building we attend church in is just a rented house. It used to be the missionaries apartment. It was definitely a new experience having half the congregation bear their testimony during sacrament meeting and not run out of time. The congregation is very small around 40 people on a good day. 11 of those 40 were our investigators.
The branch is simple and is ready to grow. I pray we find more leaders we could baptize, more families as well. The strength of the church has got to be in the family.
I felt prompted to bear my testimony during testimony meeting about the Book of Mormon. I read Mosiah 3 about Jesus Christ. I then held up the book of Mormon and said that it is scripture and it testifies about Jesus Christ. I then explained the promise that goes along with the book, read it, ponder it, pray about it and the Holy Ghost will tell you that it is true. I then bore testimony about how the Book of Mormon is very true because I did read, ponder, pray and I do know that it is true by the power of the Holy Ghost. It was very simple.
One very sweet 16 year old girl bore her testimony. She is the only member in her family, her mom is a self proclaimed ‘prophetess’ and her father is blind as has had a hard life. She has a good testimony about the church and about God answering prayers. After some of the testimonies a man came from the congregation and stood at the pulpit. He said he was Dr._____ (can’t remember his name) and he was a Nigerian. He came to Ghana to start a church and be a pastor. He kept seeing the church signboard and he said that it upset him because he heard lots of rumors and bad things about the church. He decided to investigate it himself. He said that after viewing the sacrament service and testimonies that this church truly was all about ‘Jesus Christ’ and that he would defend the name of the church anywhere he went in the world. He was highly pleased with it. After the service I gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it and pray about it. He is going back to Nigeria this week. It was great to see that someone not of our faith come and see and then stand up for what he felt was right.
Having church in that small house reminds me of those videos of the church first starting the in 1800’s. Mostly I think it is because of the benches they got in there. They got those benches Tom Sawyer’s and Huck Finn’s churches had. You know the benches they sit on and some little kid sneaks a little frog into church in his pilgrim clothes pocket. They are those no cushion, unpolished kinda of awkward benches. The church building is awkward. With weird room sizes, improvise as you go type of architecture. Dr. Seuss and the Mad Hatter could have made the blue prints, especially for the doorways and crooked walls haha.
The church is definitely true no matter where you go. It is the same teachings no matter where you go. We are working on getting the literacy work going on strong here but it is all cool.
We are planning to do the Christmas program for the Kade branch here.
I’ll letcha know how it goes soon.
Elder Farnbach is cool. He is a good zone leader, fun to be around and is good with all that number stuff. He does a great job. He is my buddy. We joke on the phone and stuff when he calls. He understands me, I understand him. He is a zoobie and really smart and punny. I enjoy his cheesy puns.
Glad ya’ll are doing good. Nice fun trip to gunnies eh? The store looks fun. I bethca all that denim stuff is expensive though. I want the bull horsey rocking thing!
Keith Urban has a new album eh? Is it cool?
Sorry dad about your foot. I have a philosophy for the ingrown toenails. Grow em long and straight! Don’t cut them to the shape of your toe. We let them grow slightly longer here and just cut them straight across, that way they don’t burrow into your foot. Longer is okay, unless you have to shove them into a ski boot haha.
Looks like sister is doing good. Yeah don’t worry about me here. I am eating more akple (like banku but for ewes). It is like banku just less fermented. I am eating more fufu here and stuff so I shouldn’t be so freaking skinny here. I think that I’ll stay skinny though because they don’t have many candies out here. All the sweet stuff from Accra is more costly so we don’t snack as much here. All the imports kinda get soggy…like the biscuits and stuff, so we are eating all fresh stuff right from the tree so I’ll probably stay really skinny. We are eating like true Africans.
I’m trying to talk Elder Afu into pounding fufu, he is scared to do it haha. I’m pounding plenty out here. They do the best thing out here!!!
They mix the ground nut soup and the light soup! It is amazing! I also learned how to make some good gari tomato onion thingie I can snack on. YUM! Just needs guacamole!
Well sounds like you guys are doing great. Sorry about dads fetchamugummit toe.
Thanks for the cash. I am having Beatrice Aboagye from McCarthy Hill get grandma patsy and carol some Ghana dresses with the fake kente cloth. The dresses have an elastic thread in them. Kinda like 1 size fits all. They might require an extra t-shirt underneath them for them to be appropriate haha but they should like them.
The ATM is only in Oda so we are going there today to get our subsistence money.
Well I love you guys.
Sorry my email is sporadic, internet problems and such. Also there ain’t any time to write anybody really. I got so many names and faces floating around in my head it is hard to compose a well written thinger.
Love you guys tons!
Talk to you next week. Hey Christmas is coming!!! I should get your thanksgiving package soon, probably on Thursday muahaha!
forward those pictures to Elder Afu’s mom if ya could.
monkey island clouds in the background.
in nice neat little rows. All the animals have run away into the north
because of the human development. Elephants used to live in these
places and stuff but no longer.
