Me & Elder Beall!

Brother Ansah: a member missionary assigned to work with the Elders

Tuesday: Pretty crazy day today. I was by myself for a solid hour today. Elder Heredia and Elder Bwambale were riding with me to President Snow's house to pick up our new sons. I had to wait at the bus stop for Heredia and I was there alone for a long time. He came and we picked up Bwambale and went to the mission home. We had trainers counsel before we were to meet our new sons. At the end they all came in and sat with us. There were only 7, all American. We spent 2 hours with them eating and talking before we were told who our companion was to be. My new son is Elder Beall from Montana. He's a cool guy and we are going to get along well. We came home and got him all settled in and introduced him to Kochevar and his new companion, Elder Liera. Liera is from California but all his family is from Baja California. We went out and saw a few people in the area just to get Beall familiar with the people and Ghana in general. Unfortunately he took a nice header into a gutter while we were biking. It was a crappy bridge and he went off the edge. I must say it was a beautiful wreck. Not as good as my last one but still nice. On our way home we were stopped by Matilda's so that she could feed us. Beall's first day in Ghana and he was fed banku and pepe. That's a rough first meal.  We made it home and just hung out with the other guys until bed. 

Brother Ansah: Kaden's companion for a week before transfers

Wednesday: I got to do some actual training today! It was definitely a rough 2 hours of companionship study but I believe it'll get better. I really hope I do a good job with this kid. We don't have hardly any investigators so today we did some good contacting. We contacted almost all day long and taught more than I thought. Much to Beall's surprise, we taught the very first guy that we contacted. It's really funny to have him around. He doesn't understand anything that anyone says and so I have to translate English into English for him. He's learning fast though and I'm proud of him. He's doing better than I did my second day. I just want to get him some good people to teach and provide him with a good experience. If I can get him to have fun while working hard then my job is complete. I will be praying hard for help in this new adventure that I'm embarking on. 

Thursday: Had a pretty great day today. Kochevar and Liera stayed the night at President Snow's house because of a 2 day MLC they are having so we were alone in the apartment. We got up and got ready and settled into our study as usual. The companionship study lasted a bit longer than I thought it would. We just started talking and getting to know each other more and by the time we finished the day was almost gone. We took advantage of the last half of the day and I showed Beall around the area a bit and introduced him to a few people. We discovered ways to get from one place to the other that will be really helpful. It was funny to see Beall's reaction when we came up to a path that leads through some thick trees. He kept asking me how long it'll take before he knows the area enough to get from one place to the other. I hope it doesn't take too long. The quicker I can get him to lead us the faster he will learn. Kochevar said Elder Beall will probably train right after he finishes his training so I need to do a really good job. I have high hopes for him. 

Friday: So when we went to trainers council on Tuesday, President Snow told us we are not to participate in Book of Mormon devotionals if we are training. He said its great but studying the Book of Mormon with a group of other missionaries isn't important for these new missionaries. I personally don't agree with that but he is the mission president so I have to follow his wishes. I guess you could say we almost had one of those "miracle" days that missionaries always talk about. We didn't have very many people to see so we were just wandering and contacting most of the day. It wasn't until evening that we had anything much to do. We had planned for most of our evening appointments to fall through, as usual, but everyone was ready for us! It left us with more people to teach than we had time! We taught everyone we could and rescheduled with others for next week. It was fun having a lot of appointments for once. At our last one we were fed banku with okra stew. The stew had some little fish and crab in it. The crab was the best part. You just ate them whole. It was funny to watch Elder Beall eat it. He didn't know what was going on or what to do. When we finished we just went home. 

Banku and Okra stew with Crab

Saturday: Again we didn't have much to do today. It was a normal day where nothing great really happened. We went out and taught a few people in the morning before trying to pay our electricity bill. Unfortunately the office where we pay was closed when we showed up. While we were standing there we saw a very pretty, young white lady. I'm pretty sure I went into shock for a moment but I came out eventually. We left before I could go into shock again and got some lunch. Then we continued about the rest of our day until dark came and we returned home. We had a cool experience with a 92 year old man today. While we were teaching he told us that he believes in all of it and knows it to be true. He can't get to the church though because of his age and health. It's sad to see someone who believes and knows but can't act upon it because of health conditions. He will get a chance though whether in this life if after and I know things will work out for him. 

Sunday: Sacrament meeting was funny today. The bishop had Elder Liera and Elder Beall share their testimonies today. Liera went first and spoke Twi almost the entire time. Everyone understood and laughed and enjoyed it. Then Beall got up. He spoke using big words and generally just speaking like an American. I looked around the chapel and saw a lot of puzzled expressions and blank looks. No one understood a word he said. No one understood me when I first got here either but I didn't find it funny then. Now that I'm watching him go through it I think it's the funniest thing on earth. I went Sunday proselyting for the first time in a very long while. It was alright. No one wants to listen though because they've already been to church for the day. We came home around dark and Wilkinson and Condie were at our apartment visiting. We all hung out and they eventually left. After that just the 4 of us sat around talking or listening to Liera talk. We definitely stayed up too late though. 

Monday: We got up so early today. I needed to clean the kitchen before we went to hang out with Paddon and Lambson. We were going with them to a big market in their area. They had some pretty awesome stuff. I ended up buying a fanny pack today and a sweet Hawaiian shirt for like $2. After the market we went to the mall for some lunch and just to hang out. Then it was back to our place to hit the cafe and that's where we are now.