Monday, September 26, 2016

Mystery Meat...

Teaching them young!
Sept 20-26

Well it wasn't a boring week for me it was just kind of bland. No
special little flare or anything too crazy just a normal week. The
most exciting thing was showing up at a members house to find her
hacking a goat head to pieces. When we asked what she was doing, she
looked up at us like it was obvious and informed us she was making
goat head soup. We saw her again that night and she said it was
delicious so I'll take her word for it. It got me thinking though and
there are definitely times when I get meat that I can't identify where
on the animal it came from. Suspiciously, the pieces she had looked
similar to what I've eaten so I've probably eaten a bunch of goat head
soup. I'll just add that to my list of cat, dog, giant rat, goat,
chicken feet, and mystery meat that I don't even want to identify.
It's a wonder I'm still alive. Oh well. We also got Kingsford's wife,
Mary, baptized this Sunday. We wanted to baptize them together but she
wasn't ready yet and we didn't want to postpone Kingsford's baptism. 
But she got baptized! Kingsford baptized her too which was sweet. 
He was worried about doing it though. He was worried he would drop 
her because he is ridiculously small and she's about the same size as him. 
He was also worried because the baptismal clothes are short sleeve. 
Kingsford has tattoos covering his arms and he didn't want them to show.
It was funny that he was worried about it but the branch president told
him it was alright. Also, Rudolf, the less active with dreads we have been 
working with, came to church again this week. He even said he wants to 
shave off his dreads soon! He said that part of his life is over and he 
wants to go all in with his coming back to church. It was sweet to hear 
him talk about it. We're working with a bunch of other sweet people right
now too and a few of them should be baptized in two weeks. They would 
be next week but we have general conference so there won't be regular church.  
One of them is a big chief from Kumasi that lived in Germany for 20 years
and his wife. We also have still been working with Angela and a few others
 as well. We just dropped a few people so our pool isn't too great right now, 
we need to work on it. Anyways that's a little peek into my life right now. 
Everything is good.


The Church

Dinner

Monday, September 19, 2016

Met an Apostle...

Sept 13-19



He has something for selfies on a bike!

Wallin, Prescott and Goodrich

Rudolf and baby Legend


Ok let me think of where to start. Let's start with Wednesday. We were
visited by an Apostle. Elder Stevenson came to visit our mission and
the Accra mission together in a mission conference. It was super
sweet. He talked to us about proselyting in groups of 3. He said we
should proselyte with our companion and to always have the Holy Ghost
as a third companion. It was super cool and he taught us things I had
never thought about or considered. Afterwards, we all got to shake
hands with him. It was sweet.

So this week we had a ton of new people start to pop up and all of our
old people start to progress really well. We have 8 people with
baptismal dates and more coming all the time which is super cool. We
also had 11 investigators come to church this Sunday. So the work is
going pretty great I'd say.

Also I had a cool experience on Sunday. In the evening we went to see
a recent convert by the name of Gifty. She was baptized just before I
came to this area. When we went to visit her she told us that she was
feeling sick. She asked us if we would give her a blessing to help
with the sickness. I got to be the one to give the blessing and it was
super sweet. I don't know how everyone else felt about the blessing
but I felt pretty good about it a thoroughly enjoyed myself. She also
fed us some super sweet waakye. It was a good experience for me to
give the blessing. I haven't done it in so long though so I was super
nervous. I just pray that she enjoyed it and felt the spirit.

Today we went to play basketball at the temple site and we had a great
time. I'm starting to get really sad though because Elder Prescott is going
home in a few weeks. I'll miss him. And I miss Wallin too. All my
friends are leaving me so I guess it's time to make new ones. Ok
anyways, basketball was fun and I'm totally out of shape. I knew that
before today I played for 3-4 hours and it really showed. By the
end it was physically impossible to slide paper under my jump shot. It
was sad. Guess it's time to start working out again. Anyways that's

all I have.  

Baby Monitor Lizard (probably lunch)


Stealing a kiss
He said it was delicious?

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Getting wet....

Baptism of Kingsford and Wisdom
Sept 6-12

It's the last week of the transfer. We've been working hard to try and
get everything ready in case one of us leaves. We have lots of
baptisms lined up for this next transfer. We have baptismal dates for
Rhoda, Mary, Mary Lartey, David, Kwaku, and Angela. All for within the
month of September. So things are looking pretty good for the area and
the work and what not right now.

Transfer news came this Saturday. Both Elder Herrod and I are going to
be staying for 6 more weeks. That means we'll be able to baptize all
our people together instead of one of us missing out. That will be
pretty cool.

We had a really busy week this last week and did a lot of teaching. We
also got members more involved in the teaching and taught twice as
many member present lessons as usual so that was fun. We also had a
baptism this Sunday. Actually we had two. Wisdom and Kingsford were
baptized this week. It was super cool to get them baptized and even
cooler because I got to be the one doing the baptizing. It's only the
second time on my mission that I've gotten to do that so I was pretty
stoked about it. I was so excited I forgot extra clothes and a towel
so I was wet for half the day. It was fun though.

We played basketball for our ativity. We tried to go to camp to
play but they had things set up for the Muslim holiday today. There
were something like 300 Muslims on the court. The holiday is funny.
They slaughter cows for it so you see guys just tackle a cow over a
gutter and go at its neck with a machete. It's gnarly. Very bloody.
Anyways, we played ball and then found an American shop for lunch. I
ate Pringles and washed it down with a malt. Then I bought a big box
of twix. Best buy I've made ever. But yeah that's basically my week.
Not too exciting I know but it was good.


Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Babies, Basketball, Bugs and Baptismal Dates!!

Aug 30-Sept 5

Temple Trip

What a week. We did a bunch of different stuff. There was an exchange,
a trip to the temple, the blessing of a baby, teaching primary, and
singing Christmas songs for choir. Well first thing is first, the work
is going well. We are hoping to baptize 2 or 3 people this coming
Sunday but we'll see how the week goes and what it brings. Right now
it appears that Wisdom will be baptized along with Kingsford and
hopefully his wife, Mary. We aren't sure if Mary will be ready in time
for an interview though. We hope she is but if not then Kingsford
would be able to baptize her once she is ready. I personally think
that would be super cool! We also set up a bunch of baptismal dates
this week that should all work out. The people are prepared and ready
to join the church in the very near future.

Also I went on an exchange on Thursday. Well it started Wednesday
evening but it was for Thursday day. I went to Kasoa 1 (I'm in Kasoa
4) to be with Elder Jolley for the day. Jolley is part of my MTC group
but I haven't seen him more than twice in the last year. It was cool
to talk to him again and see what's been going on with him since I
last saw him 8 months ago.

Also we went to the temple on Friday! There was a couple and a man
from the ward we have been working with who were going through for the
first time. The couple was also being sealed. So we got to be a part
of that which was super cool. We also visited the area doctor
afterwards. Elder Herrod had a bug fly in his mouth the night before
and it was crawling up and down his throat. It even started to burrow
into the back of his throat which is nasty. We couldn't get it out no
matter what we tried so we went to see the doc. He couldn't get it out
either but it was dead by then so Herrod just had to wait until it
dislodged.

Church was fun. We taught the primary kids about missionary work. We
brought in our investigator, Kingsford, to help us teach by bearing
his testimony. Well turns out he used to be a school teacher so he
taught them for like half an hour and we did nothing. The guy hasn't
even been baptized and he's teaching primary! Like what the heck?! We
also had a baby blessing at church on Sunday which was cool. We had an
extra 20 people in our small branch so we almost didn't fit in the
building.

Also our choir has started singing Christmas songs. It's the beginning
of September so I don't understand but I guess it makes sense. In all
honesty both Herrod and I probably won't be here to sing them at
Christmas but that's ok! I guess we'll just roll with it.

We played ball today for pday. We went to the temple site to play.
It's not the same without Wallin though. Nothing is fun without him
anymore. That's what happens when you and your best friend get
separated right? But it was still alright. I think I broke my finger
but I don't know. It feels like a fat guy dropped a bowling ball on
it. If you're wondering why a fat guy it's because it just adds to the
pain. I hit a handful of 3's, made like 2 decent moves, and generally 
just turned the ball over all day.  But yeah that's life!
Kingsford


Mud Hut


Storms moving in! 
Lunch!

Angela and her baby Kiki