Yo my family!

So Britt is going to Alaska? Crazy. She will enjoy the cruise food. She better eat it up for me on the cruise, I hereby authorize Britt to eat enough food for me as if I was present, soon she will dance it off.

Man so today is one of those crazy days where we are trying to find out the transfer news. They will tell us who is going and who is coming etc. Elder Nwachukwu and I are going home on the same day so definitely one of us is being transferred on Wednesday. I think it will be him because they will be transferring everyone all over the place and that'll kinda freak out the ward. It is good to be at a place and then stay there so you can get to know your members and how to help fix problems.

The rumor is that Elder Boyd (my friend from Dansoman) will be coming here with me. However this rumor can highly be false. Sometimes the Ap's and office elders leak false information just to be funny. President changes transfers minuets before sometimes. So we will see what will happen. I want to stay so that'll make me in home sweet home McCarthy Hills Zone when I go.

So anywho this week was pretty okay. No baptisms so technically it was a bad week but we will have one next week. Nobody new came to church this week which was highly disappointing. We had over 16 people commit strongly to come and only 3 came. We even went and helped a woman wash for 2 hours so she would be free on Sunday and she didn't show up. It was sad. We went to go pick up another person for church as he said he would come if we walked with him. He blew us off once but he said this time he would come. So we sent a member, his next door neighbor, to pick him to church but he was running late and our member had to get to a church meeting so we said we would come get him. When we arrived he said he was bathing and about to come, just then our member guy came home and said he wasn't going to the meeting anymore but will stay and walk with him to church. Long story short, he still didn't come. The stories go on and on 12 more times like this.

Some people just will not come because they are used to their routines and don't like change. Some also have peer pressure or fears because of positions in their church etc. However we are losing a lot of investigators due to rumors. I thought only the uneducated would believe that we drink blood or 'chant' or that the Book of Mormon is full of evil spirits that will kill your family or that it is the book of mammon. HOWEVER this is believed by even those who have gone to school and are in universities. People are sometimes blinded by rumors and can't see through some of the lies that are trying to scare people away from what is true. There are many many lies and they all contradict however they don't have to align with each other. It's hard when the rumors and lies stop people from coming.

When a catholic asked me the other day if we 'chant' at church, it took me all my strength not to say, "no we don't chant, but technically you do" as the Catholics do their mass and different chants which derived from Gregorian chant. (Don't worry, I didn't say it.) They don't even know what 'chant' means, but are frightened when they hear this rumor/lie. MAN! I had to do a whole course on Catholic chants at school. Man, William Byrd chants etc. They like to use the Dorian mode, but not the dorian mode we know today because it has been changed. (Ok, I'm a GEEK !) Don't worry, I didn't do it or tell them. I'm just telling you so I won't explode.

We lost a lot of investigators this week because they heard rumors. There are people out there that kinda must follow us and tell people nonsense about the church to them after we leave. However "mine elect will hear my voice." This is very true. We have been counseled to give a baptismal commitment very early, usually the first visit and 2nd visit. This way we can see who is really willing follow if they came to know it was true. We ask for a commitment early and some who are not really willing will accept it and then a couple days later reveal their true colors. It is a way we can quickly separate the 'sheep from the goats.' It brings a lot of disappointment however it really helps us.

Besides having people not keep their commitments this week, we should baptise 3 as a district this Saturday. Elder Berry and Elder Wollenzien are going to baptize 2. They have not baptized anybody for over 3 months but are going to baptize a sweet woman named S. I went on splits with them to teach S. and see how they are doing as missionaries. S. lives with her family around the Odorkor tro tro

The gospel will continue to spread small small no matter what because His elect will continue to hear and recognize the Masters call. There is no stopping it.

Sister N. who was baptised last week got to visit the temple this week to do baptisms. She enjoyed it. She mentioned it was quiet. I told her to look for the little 'tree's of life' on the walls inside. You have to look closely to see them. She said she saw them. We read the tree of life with her in the Book of Mormon and she understands the story very well. I think she knows that what is going on there is very important.

Oh fun story about donuts I never did tell you. So the mampomsem district did very well so I went to Shoprite to get some treats for them. However it takes a long time to do something very simple here, such as shopping or transporting. So first we leave our apartment and there is this major road problem where we are so it is backed up for like 45 min so we just walked across the busy area and get to the main road. We wait and catch a tro tro. Then we head off, then the tire went flat so we all had to get out. They couldn't fix it so we were standing there waiting for a refund and the tro-tro drivers won't give it. Us being missionaries we just stood there patiently while everyone else threatened to stone him etc. Finally the tro tro guy gave them some small money and the angry mob left. He then apologized to us and gave us our money back. More than the others ;) So we had to take another tro-tro back to the original tro-tro station where we just were. Then waited and took another car to shoprite. There I met some Norwegian girls who were volunteering at an orphanage in Suedro. I talked to them, they were freaked out. They kept giggling because I am a 'loud' American and overly friendly and stuff. They liked how I can speak twi to people and accepted a pamphlet. I asked them what language they spoke in Norway and they said, "Norwegian." Man I felt stupid haha. I asked them if they had seen the church there and they said no, so I told them to look out for people like us there and they are always welcome to come to church. Anywho after freaking out the Norwegian people we made the way back. So we managed to get some donuts for the mampomsem district missionaries with real whipped cream and pudding inside them. Then we get to the original tro-tro station to get a car to mampomsem to deliver our treats, however the line was massive! MAN. We had to go proselyting and to the Internet cafe and so we just had to keep the donuts. We could not deliver them. Man it was a 5 hour quest to do something nice and we ended up having to eat the niceness ourselves. Man doing nice things here is sometimes really impossible.

Anywho speaking of nice things I sent Elder Berry and Elder Wollenzien to shoprite today and they bought some stuff, including a cake I requested. It is very cheap. So on Wednesday, whoever is here and doesn't get transferred (either me or Elder Nwachukwu) will make the tro tro trek up the mountain to give the cake to our bishops kid who had his birthday on last Friday. We want the new missionary who comes in to get to know the bishop well. Our bishop is such a great man. I'll tell you more about him later.

Anywho my time is about up.

Nice photos. Nice lifesize puppet twin Britt. Keep it far away from me.
Man I don't know about this tiny dog you have. I'm sure we will make friends though. I'm just afraid I'll do something innocent and accidentally step on it or hurt it.

Anywho. I gotta run guys. I love you all.

SWEET!

I ate your oreo pie and MAN IT ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!
I got one more pie left!

Well love you all.
you guys truly rock!