Mamponse...

Jan 17-30

Well it's been a crazy two weeks. I've been transferred and now in an area called Mamponse. It's in the Lartebiokoshie Zone. It's a cool place. Completely different than where I've been my entire mission. It's definitely a city area. All the roads are paved and everyone is packed in ridiculously tight and what not. Also my area is affectionately called the dump of our mission. Basically it's a garbage can. It's known for having filthy gutters and awful beaches. The beaches could be gorgeous but they use them to dump garbage and use them and a restroom. It's disgusting. I really like the people here though. They're really cool. I've already gotten really close to a few of the families and I'm really looking forward to spending a while here with them. I think I'll be here for a while too. I was talking to Elder Martineau who is one of the APs and he said this is probably my last area. So I'll be here for a while! My new companion is Elder Gurr from Gilbert, Arizona. I already asked if he knew Ryan and Katie Bowles and the answer is no. He's a cool guy. You'll notice in pictures that he's pretty short. He's fun though. We'll have a good time together. The apartment I'm in is pretty good too. Not as nice as my last but not the worst I've been in. So far the work in the area has been good. Since I've come we have stopped visiting a lot of people. They either didn't care or asked us to stop coming because they're uninterested. That mean our teaching pool is small but we are working on that right now. Also we have this super cool lady in our area named Blessing. She has been an investigator for 5 years now. She can't be baptized because of her circumstances but she asked us to baptize her daughter. Her daughter has been coming to church with her for years and Blessing wanted her to be baptized. My first day here we started teaching her and she got baptized on Saturday. It was so sweet to see the joy it brought Blessing to see Sandra get baptized. She even bore her testimony about it afterwards. It was super sweet. Also big changes to our lives as missionaries. Usually we have what we call "key indicators". 9 numbers that track what we do as missionaries. They are baptized/confirmed, investigators with a baptismal date, investigators who attend sacrament meeting, member present lessons, other lessons, progressing investigators, referrals received/contacted, new investigators, recent convert/less-active lessons. 9 numbers we report. Well that's changed. Every missionary in the whole world now only reports 4 numbers. Baptisms, investigators with a baptismal date, investigators with a baptismal date, and new investigators. Just 4 numbers now. I'm excited about it. It's no longer about teaching a certain number of lessons but about teaching people and helping people. It should be good. Also the schedule changed for us but it's just minor. Now we plan in the morning instead of evening and get an extra half hour for exercise. Not much of a change. Yeah I think that should bring us back up to date. Sorry for the lack of an email last week. Hope y'all have a great week. Love you all.

Threesome....

Elder Goodrich and friend

Elder Goodrich, Jackson and their investigator Christian

Jan 10-16

Well what a week we've had. It's been a wild ride. Jackson and I have been in a threesome with Elder Hunt since Tuesday. His companion went home so he bounced around for a few days before ending up with us. However with him being here, I'm leaving on transfers tomorrow. I'm going to be in Mamponse. It's an area in the Laterbiakoshie zone. I didn't really want to be transferred at all, especially with Elder Hunt here now, but at least it's in the direction I wanted to go if I did have to leave. Elder Hunt is a sweet guy. Just in the last few days we have had a party together. I'll be sad to leave him tomorrow. He's from California. This last week has been all about showing him the area because we thought that both Jackson and I would be leaving. Thank heavens we aren't. But it's been a wild week. Lots of biking, we saw everyone in the ward so I could say goodbye which was really nice. We saw parts of the area that I've never even been too before. We all wanted to explore and see who we could find that we'd never seen before. The three of us together combined with the exploration of the area combined for some great adventures. This Sunday was sweet. I was able to see Eunice get confirmed and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I figured that was a good way to end my time here in Kasoa. I feel satisfied as I leave this area, like I completed the things I was sent here for. It's a nice feeling. Hopefully I'll feel the same way about Mamponse when I finish up there. That will probably be my last area. Anyways that's my week and my transfer news and what not. I love you all, have a great week.

Cattle Crossing!  Traffic problems!

Eunice's Baptism....

Jan 3-9

Well it's been another wonderful week here in Kasoa. Eunice finally got baptized. I've been working with her since the very beginning of August. I wasn't the first though. Missionaries have been meeting with her off and on now for well over a year. She has been ready for her baptism for a long time, she just didn't know she was ready. Finally we've helped her to see it. Her husband, Isaac, was absolutely ecstatic. He was able to perform the baptism for her and will also have the chance to do the confirmation. I'm so excited for their family. The two of them have one child, a baby boy. He's just a few months old now. I just keep thinking about how he'll grow up in a wonderful home with wonderful parents who are faithful members of the church. Not only that but he will have the opportunity to be sealed to his mother and father for time and all eternity. Then to top it off, he will serve a mission in 18 years and touch the lives of countless other people. Sometimes I forget the impact I can have as a missionary. By touching the life of one person, thousands and thousands can be impacted. In other news, we are getting some great new people to teach. One man named Christian is progressing quite rapidly. We had set a baptismal date with him for next Sunday but we may have to push it back one week. He's a sweet guy and says he's been looking for this his whole life. We also started teaching Sandra this week. She's the daughter of a less active member that we haven't been able to get ahold of. We found out that her mother, Comfort, isn't coming because her husband won't let her anymore. Sandra wants to come and be baptized though. She accepted a baptismal date for the last Sunday of the month. Rudolf has also referred us to another friend and is helping us teach him. Rudolf is awesome, always wanting to help, always willing to share what he believes, and always wanting to learn more about the gospel. There are great things in store for him. Oh also something funny from the week. On Friday night we had coordination with the branch mission leader. While there he asked us about a less active, Comfort. I believe the way he phrased it was "Elders, have you been going to visit my aunt? It's been a long time since I've seen her at church". It's like well I haven't heard from my aunt in a long time so I better ask the missionaries because it's not like I can call or even drive to her house or anything. That's just the Ghana mentality. Everyone sees us as these authoritative figures too but in reality we have no authority over anything in the ward or branch. Sometimes it gets ridiculous but we deal with it. Anyways, it was a good week and I'm looking forward to another one though it will likely be my last in Kasoa. Hope you all have a nice week.

Year of my Deliverance...

Treats!

Animal Crackers!

Dec 27-Jan 2

Well in the spirit of Ghana and their all night cross over celebrations and all the pastors proclaiming the year to be something grand like year of my prosperity or year of my increase or things like that, I'm going to steal one I saw on a poster months and months ago. THE YEAR OF MY DELIVERANCE. 2017 is the year I go home and it's quite surreal. The time is just cruising. It's like watching sand fall through your fingers. You beg it to stop knowing it won't.

On a less deep and existential note, we had a great week. Some new people started popping up and we even had a new investigator come to church on Sunday. Also Eunice is finally ready to be baptized this Sunday! We are so excited for her! She's been ready for so long she just didn't know it until now. Not a whole lot else to report though, just more of the same. Jackson and I are having a great time together and working hard as we can. Anyways, sorry this is like two lines long. Love you all.

ANTS!! We don't mess with them!