Howdy my shorties!

So guess where I am? Yup back in McCarthy Hills Zone. President Smith called me up on Tuesday morning and said that I he wanted to send me back to the hills to be a zone leader. So I left the north zone and am now in the Odorkor ward as a zone leader with Elder Dakouri (Ivory Coast), it connects to the McCarthy Hill ward area. We worship in the same chapel as the McCarthy Hill ward. So I left my people in Asamankese traveled back to the hot, sticky and dirty Accra.

ALSO!!! Get ready for it! Elder Oaks is coming tomorrow to meet with us. Holy cow! He is meeting with all the missionaries except the North Zone because it is too far for them to travel. Man I feel bad for them. I will take good notes for Elder Farnbach and give it to him. Man I get to meet 2 awesome Apostles on my mission, first Elder Holland and now Elder Oaks. Man I love Elder Oaks. He is very wise. I remember I saw his "good better or best" talk live at the conference center in Salt Lake City and it was so awesome. He just gave a talk during the Africa conference and said some awesome stuff, mostly about stopping all those traditions that make me slap my face in disappointment and annoyance and bang my head against the wall such as people not getting civilly married, families living in separate houses etc. It is going to be awesome! I'll letcha know how it goes!

I took out some cash today as ALL of my trousers (look at me with my African English with the British influence. Can't say "pants" because that means underwear. Me trousers have gone all higgledy piggledy in my bicycle, i'll buy some new ones after some digestives and crumpits during tea time as I gossip about the queen) got all torn in my bicycle. I better buy some nicer ones, especially when I'm going to shake hands with an Apostle.
The day before the transfer call came, the AP's called up and said that I needed to get the Oda elders baptismal interviews on Tuesday instead of our planned Wednesday. So I went to Oda on Tuesday and spent the night over there on splits with Elder Kim (from Hawaii). Elder Kim started eating these hard boiled eggs that the women sell on their head. He said he was scared but he tried it awhile ago and they are delicious. Of course I had to have one and now I am converted to the eggs on the womens head. They break off the shell for you then slice it open and shove tomato and onion salsa like stuff inside, oh and of course the lava hot peppers as well. Man it is the best treat to eat on a tro-tro. Upon arrival I interviewed a great 20-year-old who really knew his stuff and will be a great member. It was a good interview.

After the interview and proselyting we got to the Oda apartment. By then I knew I was being transferred and I had a goal to take a hot bubble bath in the Oda bath tub. They had apartment inspections that same week so the bathtub was freshly scrubbed for me! I boiled 6 pots full of water and mixed it with the tap water and took a lukewarm bubble bath. Wasn't hot or anything but it was nice. Goal accomplished! First time being submerged in a long time.

They called 2 more elders to Asamankese and called Elder Brandis to be the new district leader there. So the area is growing. I got a text from Elder Farnbach saying that Emmanuel N. (a 10 year old boy, should have been baptized at 8) and Victor O. (a great father) got baptized. I guess that Sandra A. (a 9 year old girl should have been baptized at 8) didn't get baptized yet, I can see the parents traveling or going to a funeral or something like that. She will get baptized soon.

Well we got to Odorkor and met with our Bishop, Bishop D. Right after our coordination meeting with him I went on splits with the Dansoman elders. Man going back to the Dansoman apartment was crazy! They still have my flowers there that Elder Holt and I planted. We got inside and a whole buncha nostalgia hit me. The tables were still in the same place. I saw Elder Riding teaching me how to drink my first Malta drink and eating lots of plantain late at night. I then saw the toilet where I had about 3 months of runny tummy problems and the backyard where Elder Stout and Elder Nelson taught me how to wash and then Elder Riding helped me and washed my clothes with me because my fingers were bleeding. It was a lot of great memories. Well I went on splits with Elder Kiiza from Uganda. He played on the Uganda national under 20 football team. He is a cool guy. Anywho they had 5 progressing investigators, so we went there and gave them all baptismal dates. They accepted! Yahoo! I had to lay the smack down on Dansomans area book and planners and white boards, as they were shabby. I did it in a nice way (cuz I've been there). They will do a good job.

Elder Taylor got transferred back there. He will do a good job at all that type of stuff. Also Elder Nelson is the district leader in McCarthy Hills and is now my district leader. It is cool. All my buddies are around me.

Well we had a baptism on Saturday for 2 people Elder Dakouri was teaching. They got baptized however of course there is always a logistical problem. This time it was with the clothes. The assignment was made during our coordination meeting that one of the ward leaders was going to get the clothes ready as in this zone they don't allow missionaries to get keys to the buildings and stuff. Upon arrival there was nobody there with the correct keys and the clothes were nowhere to be found. Ah yes. We rummaged up 2 baptismal dresses however we needed 3, 2 for the candidates and 1 for the baptist. Nobody with the keys were around and so they told us to buy some at the Kaneshi market, a process that would take 3 hours. I talked the presiding leaders into having the baptist and the girl being baptized wear the baptismal clothes, then after the girl was baptized we would give her baptismal clothes the to dude getting baptized. The candidates were around 23 and were cool with it, they didn't care. Finally the ones presiding agreed. THEN they realized they had no towels...So I was going to run home and grab my personal towel once again, a process that would take 1 hour. I prayed to know what to do. When I was pedaling on my bike, a guy selling clothlike blanket thingies on his head passed by. I bought 2 and brought them back. They were like fleece blankets, I wanted to rub them on my face. Then those presiding said they appreciated the efforts however those were not 'real' towels. I then explained that baptizing these people was very important and that this would be good enough. They were still not wanting to do it because the towels were not 'real' rather they were freaking ethereal heavenly blankets that would make a crying baby fall instantly asleep. It would be like drying off on a cloud. They still didn't want to do it claiming they weren't good enough and that it might offend someone because it was not 'proper'. I then explained that I saw 4 people defecating in the street and this doesn't bother anyone about being not 'proper' and that we buy meat from the Kaneshi market that has been laying in the sun for 4 days next to a tire and use it to make our soup, and that he was worried about the towels not being proper?

Something must have clicked because they then called in the candidates and had the baptism. Anywho just as the baptism was starting and I was pacing around like a nervous crazed looney bin patient as I always do during baptisms, I saw Bishop E. He yelled, "Hey is that my friend?!" Then he ran up and hugged me, I love that bishop. He then opened up the storage room for us and gave us some extra baptismal clothes, so right after our first girl was baptized, I ran and gave a fresh set of clothes to our other candidate. It wall worked out. MAN!

Also on Sunday I saw a lot of the McCarthy Hill people and they all freaked out. I found out that I was doing 2 interviews for people that I was formerly teaching that were now going to get baptized. One was Collings, his father who stays somewhere in the central region didn't allow him to get baptized but now his father had a change of heart after reading some pamphlets. I interviewed him for his baptism and it was a great experience. Also Joyce C's daughter was getting baptized, her name is Vanessa. I taught Vanessa for awhile but she moved away for awhile. She returned and accepted everything, her interview was done at sis Joyce house. Bervilyn and Jeffery ran up and said, "ELDER BILLS ELDER BILLS" and ran up and hugged me like they did that once. So did Sis Joyce C. Everyone was so happy. Man some tears were shed. Vanessa's interview was so great, I explained to her what she was feeling in the interview was the Holy Ghost and she started crying small. It was a great day. I'll never forget it. I was so happy and it felt so great. It taught me how heaven will be like when we all meet again, there might be some going "ELDER BILLS ELDER BILLS" and i'll be so happy to see them. Man the church is true!

I saw Edward A., who we baptized last year, and he is very very active and attends institute every week. MAN AWESOME!

Well anywho Elder Dakouri and I are going to work hard and baptize as many as we can here in Odorkor. I'll learn to love it here too I think. I scrubbed down the big apartment, it is a new one.

Well family I love all of you. It is so good to be back where I started. It feels like home here.
Tell Jordan I have no money to live on campus when I get home. Maybe we will get a gym pass or something together. Man I'm skinny and weak! Anywho no time for home, gotta get out there and baptize! YAAAAAAA!!!

Man doing all this number stuff makes my head want to explode. Also my companion has a thick French accent so I'm learning how to hear him haha. I'll pray for the gift of tongues, or gift of hearing accents haha.

Well I'll head out and rock it! I'm in the final stretch, time to get out there and get as freaking tired as possible! TIME TO ROCK IT!

Well I liked your little egg and chick thingie you made. I've been eating lots of eggs lately, yum yum yum. I've been cooking indomie (ramen equivalent), eggs, tomatoes and then toasting bread and making a sandwich out of it. I also use this mayonaise/salad creme thingie made by Heinz that I can dip it in. It'll keep me alive. So it is a tribute to all the eggs i'm eating lately.

Thanks for the table you are making for my room. Man it looks great. Dad is the tile master. You guys rock.

Tell Britt to keep it up and I bet Dave's grandma is happy doing those high kicks standing in a line in heaven so no need to worry.
Love you all

Elder Bills

ppss. a package of CHEESECAKE mix!? I love you guys so much!