Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Holidays


Caroling at the mall!

Tuesday. Sunday night someone came into the compound and stole Kochevar's bike so we had to walk today. Walking doesn't work in our area. Things are just a little bit too spread out. We ended up only being able to see 3 or 4 people today because of the distance we had to cover. Still we had a good time while we walked. We ate dinner at a members house tonight. It'll probably make us super fat but that's whatever. 

Wednesday. I was looking forward to what we had planned but things changed and I ended up having to go on exchanges with Asumani and Brother Ansah. It honestly wasn't too exciting but it's necessary since I'm taking over that area in just a few weeks. We saw a few people but I still know nothing about the area at all. Hopefully I can figure everything out. Tonight was coordination, we saw the ward mission leader for the first time in over 6 weeks and he acted like he's been there during all of that time. It's tough to deal with the ward leaders lately but we're going to get it figured out. 

Thursday.  Uzoho and Martineau went out and picked up the two chickens that an investigator dashed to us. They brought them home and we killed them right before going to carol at the mall.   We went and sang at the mall with the rest of our zone and had a fun time. When we finished we went and bought the best Christmas Eve dinner we could. Then we headed home and got ready for Christmas.  
Nathan...the chicken

Friday. CHRISTMAS!!! Today was awesome. We got woken up this morning by President Hill coming in to our apartment yelling Merry Christmas at the top of his lungs. He shared a scripture with us and then left. We then opened all of the packages we had received. Once all the presents were out in the open we decided to cook some breakfast. We spent a ton of money on cheese and sausages on Thursday so we cooked French toast, scrambled eggs with cheese, and some massive sausages. We also had some great sparkling beverages to go with it. After breakfast, or lunch, we got ready to go down and FaceTime. We only had the chance to FaceTime for an hour before we lost Internet connection. After waiting around for 2 hours we changed cafes so that we could do our FaceTime stuff. I was able to face time with my family again later that day.  Then we all went home and were homesick together. 

Saturday. I'll be honest,  we were all emotionally and physically drained from the day before.  The office elders came to visit us. They came bearing gifts, new bikes and food from the mall. They ended up staying with us for a few hours as well. Our landlord made us fufu too so it was a pretty good day. 

Sunday. Still recovering from our Christmas hangover we hurried off to church.  Everything was just normal with the ward and we got to see the primary program for Christmas. We ended up staying at the chapel for 2 hours after church ended and I don't know why.  We went home and I took the chance to do some reading and catch up on things.  We cooked ourselves dinner and then headed to bed. 

Monday. We were woken up by our landlord yelling at us for not cleaning the apartment. We kindly told him that Monday is our cleaning day and then got to work. We deep cleaned most of the apartment for a few hours. Once we were done we showered and went to the cafe to email. We only got in a small amount before the network crashed. While we waited for it to come back we went to the mall for one of the sister missionaries birthday party. After a while though we skipped out and made our way back to our area and to another Internet cafe. That brings us to now and me writing this email. 

Monday, December 14, 2015

In the village with Kochevar


Elder Goodrich, Taylor, Kochevar & Stradling
TRANSFER DAY!

 Transfer day is finally here and I can't tell you how excited I am to be getting a new companion. My last few months with my companion haven't been the easiest for me even though I did enjoy my time with him. My new companion that I'm getting though is one of my favorite people in this mission and most likely the next AP when Elder Gabriel goes home. Transfers was full of excitement as everyone showed up and met and took pictures and basically just acted like a bunch of teenage white girls meeting at a Starbucks. Once back at the apartment I helped Kochevar unload all of his stuff and get settled in before we went out for the evening. We just went out to see recent converts and members so that he could learn the area better and meet a few people. I am excited about the work and the possibilities for our area.  The people here have some of the most humble and pure testimonies that I have ever heard in my life.  The church is the same but the people and place are kind of peculiar.  The Ghanian people are so sweet and accepting.  It has been an awesome and enlightening first few months here in ghana.  

 Much to our surprise this week, President Hill showed up to our Book of Mormon devotional. We had an awesome time with him and it was really cool to hear some of his insights and listen to him teach. We spent a lot longer than usual doing the devotional which was alright by me since it was such an awesome one. After we finished he requested to talk with Kochevar and Uzoho alone so they went to talk with him while Martineau and I grabbed a quick snack. When they finished with him they came in and spent some time telling us what it was that he had said to them and instructed them on. Once they finished telling us everything we all went on out to teach. For Kochevar and I we spent the entire morning just contacting. We contacted for 3 straight hours before we took a break for lunch. After lunch we went back out to teach some people and visit a few more members. We spent a good chunk of the evening with a member of the bishopric, Ben. He also happens to work for the mission and served in our mission just a few years ago. He's from Cape Coast. We had an awesome talk with him about the mission and about being a missionary. When his wife, Pearl, got home she fed us a quick snack before we took off to go see a few more people.


 Today was totally chill! We slept in, cleaned the kitchen, showered, and then went to the mall to see all the other guys and buy some nice American food and donuts. After an awesome lunch of a double BBQ cheese beef burger with fries and a coke, we went to get ice cream as a treat, and then we went home. We dropped all of our stuff at the apartment and then came to the cafe to do some emailing. It's been an awesome, super chill day spent with Kochevar and Martineau. Not a bad start to the Christmas season!

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Changes!!

DINNER!
boiled yam and plantains, which is called ampese and they prepare it with contombre stew which is my new favorite stew in Ghana.


Elder Martineau, Uzoho and Goodrich
Kaden is getting a new companion this week named Elder Kochever from Las Vegas.  He is staying in his current area and excited for this upcoming change!  He also has been informed that President Hill will return home the end of December.  Steven E. Snow, of the first quorum of the seventy, will take over as the mission president until a new president is called and brought in July of next year.