Week one: Akwetaman Area

Well the first week has been very interesting. I'll start with my first day and go from there. On Tuesday we got up early to leave the Mtc. We left around 7:30 and drove to the mission offices with the office elders. Once at the mission offices we had an orientation thing that was really nice and helpful. The office couple told us about the day to day workings of the mission what we should and shouldn't do. After that we were able to have a devotional of sorts with the mission president and his wife. President Hill is not at all what I expected him to be. He is a really loud character and actually kind of fun to be around. After we talked with him and Sister Hill we played a Book of Mormon pictionary game with the office elders, Elders Van de Graf, McCoullough, and Snyder. The AP's joined us too, Elders Jones and Santho. We ended up hanging out with them for a few hours that night while president did interviews. They told us what really goes on in the mission and basically contridicted everything that any of the people at the mtc said. After that they disappeared for about an hour and showed up again with pizza and donuts. We stayed the night at presidents house on these mats on the floor.

Wednesday we left presidents at about 12:00 to go to transfers. We beat everyone there by about half an hour so we had a mini devotional while we waited for our trainers to show up. Not even the trainers knew which companions they were going to get so we all just sat there when they showed up and guessed who was going with who. I felt for sure that I was going to end up with one specific elder that was there. His name is Elder McConkie and I was right, he is my trainer. He took me back to the apartment which also houses Elders Kabwika from the DR Congo and Bwambale from Uganda. Before even unpacking we went out and worked that night. We taught 2 lessons and made multiple contacts in 3 or 4 hours. You can ask anyone here if you can just sit down and talk and everyone will say yes. That night I unpacked and got ready for the next day. 

Thursday was a blur and I honestly can't remember much of what we did. We started with a book of mormon devotional which wasn't supposed to be very long but ended up lasting multiple hours. After that we did a lot of contacting and then taught Kofi Asare and Josephine. Kofi is an investigator committed to baptism in two weeks. Josephine is a recent convert. After that we contacted some more and then we got some dinner of bread and egg which is delicious. We got back to the apartment late and went straight to bed.

Friday was a fun day. We were preparing for a baptism for saturday so we were going to fill the font that morning. When we got there the font was half full of water from the baptism two weeks before. Elder McConkie and I had to drain the font, clean it, and then let it dry and air out so that the horrible smell went away. We decided to leave it empty and fill it on saturday morning. After that we did a little contacting on our way to visit a recent convert, Mamion. She speaks french so we were going to take her to see a couple french investigators that we have but none of them were available at the time so we just taught her a small lesson. After that we did some more contacting and met a man named Micheal who seemed really interested in what we had to say. We taught him right then for about an hour and a half and committed him to reading the Book of Mormon. After that it was dark and we had no one else lined up so we are required to be back at our apartments. 

Saturday we again had to go check on the font and found that some of the Accra Mission elders were having a baptism that morning and that they would just leave the water. At that point we had to go on exchanges so that McConkie, who is district leader, could do a baptisimal interview and I could still teach one of our investigators. I took Kabwika with me because he speaks french and so does the investigator. We ended up teaching her and her neighbor for almost 2 hours. It was a great lesson and Kabwika and I both felt good about it. We then met the other elders and had lunch. After that we went to the church for the Book of Mormon class we teach and for the baptism. On the way there my bike tire exploded and we had to walk half of the way to the church which is by no means close. We made it just in time for the baptism which was great. Two guys were baptized and the spirit was so strong in that meeting. We went home that night and ended up going straight to bed because it was such a long day. 

Sunday is a very busy day. I found out I was giving a talk in sacrament meeting when bishop announced it over the pulpit and I totally butchered it. After church McConkie and Kabwika followed home a contact to see where she lived while Bwambale and I met with one of the newly baptized members and also had a meeting with the bishop. Church is at 9:00 and we didn't leave the building until 2:30. We then tried to contact some referrals we had and only got in contact with one. We went to teach him and found out that he doesn't live in our area and that he was also very drunk. After that we just went home and hung out for a couple hours and ate mango and pineapple. We went to bed early because of how tired we were. 

Monday is the greatest day known to man. We got an awesome breakfast sandwich on our way to play basketball at a church by the stake center. We played with 16 different elders today, most of them were american and Elders Barr and Jolley from my MTC group were there! We had a blast and then got to go to the mall. We at a chicken restaurant that had some awesome sandwiches. Then we got to come to the internet cafe and email. Time is absolutely flying by right now and all the days are bluring together. I can't imagine what it must be like for these guys with only 5 weeks left. Well that is my week. Hope you all enjoy reading about it even though it isn't too exciting so far. 

Love Elder Goodrich