Hello from Cape Coast Mission!

So on Wednesday we left the MTC at 6 am and drove in these vans until 9:30 when we got to the mission home. The Shultz' made us a nice lunch of chicken and rice and gave us an orientation. Then they announced where everyone would be serving. I am living in a town called Nkroful(en-crow-ful) and we teach in two towns. One is Bokazo and is about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. The other is called Axim and is a 30 minute taxi ride away. It sits right on the beach and its beautiful! It is so humbling here! Our apartment is probably the size of the basement and is HUGE compared to everything else. People literally live in shacks! Our shed is luxurious. But yeah we have water and power, but the whole time I have been here the water has been out. So we have been collecting from a big tank behind the house and showering with a cup! Kinda crazy. We don't drink that water though, we drink out of little bags called sachets. They are pretty sweet.

So remember how my call said english speaking? That was a lie haha. There are four languages here counting english. Fante, twi, and enzima. They are pretty sweet though and i am learning dichi dichi(small small). The people here are all pretty darn happy. The weirdest thing is teaching though. Its like teaching primary kids, you talk slow and enunciate and you dont go very deep or else they get lost. Its been hard to adjust in that way. Oh, my companion is Elder Cardon from Seattle and he is pretty sweet. He has only been here 4 months, so we are learning together haha. We have had a couple of times where we were teaching and just looked at each other and shrugged. The first day we walked around Bokazo and he introduced me to some members and investigators. It was a pretty crazy experience. Then we went to a sketchy little chop bar. Chop means to eat so a chop bar is like a tiny restaurant. We had fufu and it was pretty good! You just swallow it whole which is weird, but it was surprisingly good! I have had it three times so far and so yeah, not bad. Luckily I have not gotten sick! I pray it will stay that way haha, but probably not.

So on Saturday we had a baptism! It was an 18 year old kid named Tony, and it was pretty sweet. The fonts are outside and when we went to fill it up, it was just trickling! There was only an hour til the baptism,  and the water was probably 4 inches high. So me and Elder Cardon tied a wire to a bucket and fetched water out of a big water tank. E. Cardon stood on top and fished it out and i would pour it into another bucket and run it down the hill and throw it into the font! It was awesome and by the time we baptized, the water was almost a foot. So E. Cardon had to do the baptism sitting. I took some pictures and will try to send them. But that baptism was in Axim and this week we have another in Bokazo. Its a 18 year old boy named Clever, and he is smart as his name would suggest. He just gets it when we teach.  We taught one lady the Plan of Salvation  3 days in a row and she didnt remember a thing. But yeah we have recently met a few people who are promising so we will pursue. In 5 weeks we will be moving to Axim so we will just teach there.

I am having a blast and am feeling really good! I have learned sooo much and am very excited to just keep going! Tell all the people back home I miss them, like in the ward.

I think one reason I was sent here was to learn gratitude. Mom, I am so sorry for all the times I didnt help you or took you for granted. You are an amazing woman and I love you so much. I will always do the dishes when i get home haha! Yeah so I have been cooking my meals and its not quite the same haha. I had spaghetti noodles with baked beans the other night, and it was actually not bad! I love you guys soooo much. I should get to email each monday, but if i dont it probably means the power is off, so dont think Im dead because I more than likely am not! Love you all! Have fun living in houses and stuff!

-Elder Hackmeister