Elder Kyle Hackmeister's African Adventure

Hello!!!

Thank you soo much for the birthday wishes! So you’re gonna dine in my honor eh? Well can’t you find some fufu haha?! If that isn’t a possibility then go to the Timbermine. That sounds good, yeah I think I'll have that. I will be sure to take a picture with the ding dongs and candles you sent though! We are in Takoradi today because we had combined district meeting and Pres. Shulz came to do interviews so we decided to email today instead of yesterday! It’s been a sweet day today though. I bought a guitar here for 160 cedis, so that’s sweet haha! It’s made in the US apparently. Elder Julander helped me pick it out, he owned a music shop back home. It’s an acoustic. Happy b-day right?! It was great having interviews too. President Shulz is an amazing man and he helped me feel better about the situation in the branch. Oh on to the branch, President Nokoe is staying, so we will just roll with it I guess... Hopefully he will be better. President Shulz talked to him for a while so we will see! I have a feeling nothing will change, but you gotta sustain your leaders. The stress I get from the branch is not too fun haha. I have to say, all week I am so happy then Sundays roll around and I just feel exhausted, that’s not how Sundays should be! Oh well though. We are working on it.

But nothing special happens here for birthdays, so that’s too bad haha! But Elder and Sister Julander got me a gift, I have not gotten it yet so we will see what it is! And I got grandmas package today too so double bonus! Elder Cavaness is sweet though, we get along really well. He had double hernia surgery that’s why he had to go. He has a sweet story about some miracles that happened while he was home and stuff, I will have to type it out sometime, but today we only bought 1 hour of email :) He is a really good missionary though. Wow I didn’t know Courtney Scott was going to serve a mission! That’s sweet!!! Tell her congrats and good luck, the 9th will be here before she knows it!

There are lots of bats here! In Axim they all come out when the sun is setting and they fly from an island onto the mainland. I forgot to tell you about that! I meant to! Yeah there are TONS at night it’s really cool to see them all flying in the sky. There are GIANT bats in Cape Coast and Accra apparently.

The past few weeks have been stretching me, which hurts at the time, but in the end you grow so much and are so thankful for the trials that God has given you. I know He is constantly teaching us, we just have to be meek and willing to learn, which can be difficult at times. But I am thankful for the difficulties that have come! I will have to look up that scripture tonight, my favorite is Philippians 4:13, I’m sure I have shared that with you before but still! We had a baptism on Saturday for a man named Daniel. He is married to Elizabeth who was baptized a few weeks ago! So that is awesome, we will be encouraging them to go to the temple. There is a new family history booklet and stuff we are going to be introducing to recent converts to help them do family history so we will have to share that with them! I got to baptize him though! Only like 5 members of the branch came to see his baptism, so that was frustrating. If ever a convert gets baptized in the ward, be sure to go because it can make all the difference for them! The work here in Axim is going pretty well though. We are finding new people who I am excited about. The other day we were contacting people in some spare time and I had the prompting to go down this alleyway and so we went and walked for a bit until we ran into this man sitting on his steps that we started talking to. He is named Samuel and is a Jehovah's Witness, and is so humble and willing to learn. We were just talking to him but we ended up teaching him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and he is excited. Always follow the Spirit and you will be ok!

It will please you to know that we get fed just about every night! This lady named Cecelia who is the aunt of our recent convert Paul always calls around 6 and tells us she has food ready. So we go and she loads it into a picnic basket and sends us on our way! Sweet lady! Sadly she won’t leave her church, we taught her for some time but she won’t let go! She loves to feed us though! Every Sunday the Primary president prepares us fufu or rice balls with soup, so we are fed well here in Axim! Axim is so sweet!

I love you sooooo much! President Shulz said in my interview that I must come from a good family, and I had to agree, you are the BEST mom EVER! And you are the best dad in the world! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in my case haha!!! LOVE YOU! Thank you for everything you do and thanks for always helping me!!! LOVE YOU!!!