Adjusting to Odorkor (Accra)

Okay hello everyone. i am here in the city now. With over 1 trillion people all packed together. My area is called Odorkor (you dont pronounce the r's) My companion is named Elder Heaton and he is from texas. He is a sweet man and will be going home in June. SO my area is a lot bigger than the last one. We have to ride bikes everywhere we go and i absolutely hate it because we have to ride on the big highway and im still getting used to the bike and there are no driving rules here... now i live in fear everytime i go out.

The people here are sweet tho. We are planning on having four baptisms on the 7th. And six investigators came to church last sunday! we are planning on having a lot of success together.

So my apartment has 8 missionaries in it. We have a lot of fun together. 3 americans, 2 nigerians, ugandan,phillipino, tongan.  I bought (the game) risk because everyone wanted to play it. We just enjoy together. It is a lot better than my last apartment.

So there is this girl that has been investigating the church for two years now and all the missionaries in the past just gave up on her like the second visit. But i am going to be the one to get through to her and baptize her. Her name is Lollia Harry i think.

One day last week i washed all of my investigators clothes during the lesson. Its small and simple things that can really make a difference. Everyone around us were freaking out and stuff because obronis were washing. When i have kids im going to punish them by making them wash their clothes by hand. Mom and dad, you should start using that for kyle and adri. Theyll learn fast to behave.

I just work and work and work and sweat all day long teaching 50 lessons a day.

More pics from Kwabeng

The missionary trail

On the trail between villages

Chapel in the background

Being Transferred to the City, Odorkor

Yo whats up! So nothing special really happened this week. But I do have some transfer news for you. I will be serving in Odorkor(its in Accra). My new companion will be Elder Heaton. I'll leave kwabeng early wednesday morning and go to my new proselyting area. Apparently i am going to enjoy it there. It has a freaking mall in my area. The bush has been really rough on me. But i enjoyed it out here. It will be a completely new experience in the  city where i don't have to speak all funny so people can understand me.

Mom i got one of your packages. Thank you! i loved all of it. You saved me haha. Can you send me some regular US stamps? so i can send letters home. I just need US stamps.

So tuesday was zone training meeting and i love going to those. I always learn a lot and it is so fun to get together as a zone and see all my friends. Before that we played football against a bunch of school teachers. And that was pretty interesting. Mostly whites against all Ghanaians. They take the game so seriously here because it's literally all they have to do for fun.

On wednesday, We taught Evelyn again. I do not want to leave here. She is so fun to teach and is by far the smartest person i have taught so far. we are already on the third lesson and she keeps all her commitments and reads and prays. Another guy that is awesome is Asante. For some reason he loves me. He calls me like five times a day asking where i am and how i am doing. but he was a referral from a member and he wants to change his life and get on the right path. I hope that both of them will be baptized. We were supposed to have midweek but the light turned off and the backup light wasn't charged so we had no midweek.

Thursday we taught 9 lessons. We went to Akrofufu and did some contacting and met new people. Then we taught a sweet family that won't come to church:( 

Busy Times

Hey family. This week was a pretty cool week. We had lots of stuff that went on this week. I had to take the lead in all planning and teaching and everything this week. I thought it would be rough but it actually wasn't bad at all. We had the best numbers than we had all month. I Will find out if i get transferred on saturday or not. I do know that i will get a new companion because thats just how it works in this mission.

Tuesday we taught a 24 year old named millicent. She is a recent convert and lately she has been letting out major gas during the lessons. Its pretty funny haha. But she is doing well and we have been reading the book of mormon with her. We are now on chapter five of first nephi.

I have been jump roping for 20 mins every morning and i haven't been able to walk correctly for the past week because of that. I just don't want banku gut. (Its like a beer belly)  

So we committed this guy named Asante to be baptized in one month. It was the first time we met him too. The spirit is so strong and i know he has a desire to change his life. We also received a member referral and her name is Evelyn. she is 18 and very sweet and smart. We had great lessons with her and taught her three times last week. She came to church and will be working towards baptism for march 8th. We also extended to another girl named Esther. She accepted but we still have to work on getting her to church. Very sweet people and the spirit is so strong with all of them.

I found me a new washing lady. (the old one moved :()  But now my clothes will actually get clean and my knuckles wont get ruined anymore. Ghana lost the final match of the Africa Cup against Ivory Coast. I was hoping they would win so i could buy a jersey with five stars on it instead of four.

I have started the war chapters in alma. Ive never read the BOM all the way through before (on my own). I never thought of how much it can affect my life. I will hopefully finish soon so i can read it again haha.

Samuel yaboah got baptized last sunday. He was so happy that day and it was an amazing experience. My companion baptized him thankfully. I definitely would not be able to do it because he is a big man. He will be solid in the church and do many great things.

it took us about 2 months to get less active names from the branch. But we finally got three! Something cool about that is a couple days before, we contacted this man who is older and we thought he was going to be a normal investigator because our first meeting we had with him seemed like he knew nothing about the church. But then we found out he's on the list! so we saw him again and he told us he used to be in the church. He loves the church but he was kinda forced to leave because of him and his wife divorcing. But he wants to come back and we are going to work with him.

Mom i wish you were in my branch here. The family history consultant is kind of less active so its hard to get recent converts to have a temple experience. You'd help out so much.

Mom i hope that you know that i pray about you and your work every day and night. (I actually fasted for you last week about that...) I know that if you read Alma chapter something verse something, you will be comforted. Sorry i forgot which one it was. I'll send it to you next time.

So i only have time to send one email at the moment. I'm not in kwabeng. Kwabeng has no power at the moment. So hopefully i'll find time soon.

I love you all and i'll talk to you later. Just be happy and trust in The Lord. He will deliver us out of our afflictions. Thats what i have to remember every second while living in Ghana! LOl. 

Doing Well

So this week went by fast and i am having a hard time remembering what happened. Samuel will be baptized this sunday. I am looking forward to that. He will be solid. I got all of my clothes tailored for like one us dollar per item. We had an open venue about family history on tuesday. I contacted like ten people during that hour. Ghana will probably win the Africa cup. If they do, everything will be crazy and tons of parties. I killed a caught a lizard with my bare hands. I taught many lessons. I don't know what else to say...

I am doing good. There are lots of missionaries that are struggling that are the same mtc group as me. They are really homesick and are just having a rough time. But me? not homesick at all. I love my mission. I cant imagine how hard it would be to be homesick. I promise i'm still working hard and happy. I love you all.