Emergency Transfer: Amasaman area

Amasaman

After we emailed on Monday we just went home and were relaxing. Around 9:00 we got a phone call from President Hill saying that there was an emergency and a new missionary, who had been out for a week, was going home so I was going to replace him. Both McConkie and I were both shocked and very depressed so we just sat around for two hours not knowing what to do with ourselves. 

Our District

Tuesday:  I spent all day packing up my few belongings to prepare for the transfer. Elder McConkie helped me to pack all of my stuff up and get me ready to leave. The APs came to pick me up around 4:00 and took me to my new area and my new companion. My new companion is a black guy from Alabama named Bennie Taylor. He's really loud but pretty cool. The new area is Amasaman 2 and it's almost bush. They dropped me off and Taylor and I went out to teach some few people. We even ended up being fed by some members right near the apartment. After that we came back and I started to unpack all of my stuff and settle in. 

Wednesday:  We started the day with District Council Meeting. Since our entire district lives in the same apartment we just have it outside on the front porch. Elder Baguley is our District Leader so he led the meeting for us. After DCM we went out and taught a few people before we had to head to the church for PEC. We met with the bishop and a few of the ward missionaries and such in the ward. After meeting with them we just went home and prepared for bed that night.

Thursday:  Instead of studying Elder Taylor wanted to take a nap so that is what we did for our study time. After the nap, he took me out to the farthest place in our area. We saw a couple people out there and then started to make our way back to the church for a fireside they were having that evening. On our way back it started to rain really heavily on us and we were forced to duck into the house of a less active member. It ended up being really good that we were able to see them so we took it as a blessing that the rain came when it did. Eventually it stopped and we made it to the church. Elder Perry and I bought fruit while we waited for the program to start. It was an awesome program and the speaker did a fantastic job. Once back ElderTaylor cooked us some real Southern Chicken. It made for a good night.

Friday:  Elder Taylor and Elder Uzoho went to go out with some of the other missionaries in our zone and left Perry and I together for the day. Both of us have been out for only a two months and our lack of experience showed very early on in the day. All of our appointments fell through and we were forced to contact most of the morning. After lunch we ran into a member on the street and he said he wanted to take us to see a few people. We ended up teaching four lessons with him and had an awesome evening run. We came home to a big congratulations and a much needed rest after a long day of hard but rewarding work.

Saturday:   We had a baptism early in the morning for one of our investigators and one of Elder Baguley's investigators. It went really well and both of the people being baptized seemed to really enjoy the service. After the baptism we went out and taught a few people. We had some great lessons with our better investigators and it seems like they are really getting closer to baptism. After our lessons we had to walk to a bike shop to fix my bike. It broke down on the way to our lessons. After we fixed it we went to the church for a Preach My Gospel class that the bishop asked us missionaries to teach to the ward members. When we got there we found it was all primary children and we were quite upset. After the class, Elder Taylor wanted to go home to rest because he didn't feel very good. 

Sunday:  Around 3:00 in the morning I woke up sick to my stomach. I ran into the bathroom and threw up for some 45 minutes. Elder Perry woke up and helped me through all of it. He has been such a great help to me since coming to this new apartment. After getting everything figured out, we both went back to bed and prepared for the day. When morning came I was feeling just as bad or worse but I forced myself to go to church. Church was miserable because of how bad I was feeling. After church Taylor and I just went home and I ended up sleeping for six hours. I woke up later in the evening feeling a little better and was able to hang out with the other elders for a short time. Eventually I just turned in and went back to bed. 

Monday. It was a sort of uneventful Monday for our apartment. Everyone was just lounging about this morning and relaxing. Some of the elders started having an argument about some doctrinal things and Perry and I didn't want anything to do with it. We ended up shutting ourselves in my room and watching The Testaments while the other guys had their debate. Basically when something happens that you don't want to be a part of you just find someone who shares your same view on the subject and you watch a church sponsored movie. It seems to work pretty well for me. After they finished their debate we all packed up and went to play basketball and soccer with some other elders. Elder McConkie was there and it was great to see him again even though it's been only a week. After that we biked around looking for an internet cafe and finally found one so we are here emailing. Just another normal week in Ghana.