Pictures!!!

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words!

Cape Coast Castle - Model

Cape Coast Castle

Such Sadness Here!!

Christmas Day Zone Activity

Chicken Round-up

And Roast

Christmas Day Zone Activity

I think this is Elder Hack's balcony!

District Meeting

Hola Muchacho! I am doing just dandy other than this Hamaton weather! All that sand is sailing down from the Sahara and it is so hazy and EVERYTHING is covered in dust. Even inside the apartment things are dusty! There is no escaping it! I have been coughing all week, I feel like I am living in a smokers lounge or something. But it should pass by soon hopefully.  It was not this bad last year at all. The transfers went well; it was really easy this time! I went to a different tro tro station than I did last time but this one was simpler. Everyone made it out safe and sound. I got to see Elder Assibey also because he was getting transferred so it was fun to talk to him for a bit. Elder Cardon got transferred out of Cape Coast after just one transfer, so now he is in the Western Region. Probably won’t see him again until he goes home, possibly until we are both home! That is weird! Sadly no pizza was had this week, but we did go and get Hawaiian style chicken/fries. It was good, really greasy though. Woke up at like 4 in the morning feeling sick. Luckily I coasted it out hahaha. It was worth it though. This Sunday went a bit better, but yeah it still wasn't good by any means haha! So I guess we will see what happens...But you just gotta roll with the punches, it’s all for experience and gain! Man I give so much respect to all the bishops back home!  I like Austin’s idea about the post-mission MTC. It’s a great idea. Let me put my stamp on it then we will mail it to Church HQ. [A return missionary in our ward spoke and said he wanted to send an idea to Pres. Monson, he said that there is an MTC to get you ready to go on a mission and there should be an MTC to get you ready to go home!  He said they can teach you how to leave home ALONE and without shaking everyone’s hand and teach you how to talk to girls again haha!] I can’t wait to go home and shake hands with literally everyone. That is such a big piece of culture here, shaking hands with people and snapping fingers as you shake hands. It’s not weird to shake hands with people multiple times during a 2 minute conversation haha. Glad to hear I was well represented on the mission blog! Yeah the interviews were nice. Got to do an awkward role play with the assistants as part of their instruction, got to do jumping jacks in front of everyone during Sis.Stevenson’s instruction. So yeah, it was pretty weird hahaha! We  had good rice and chicken though, so no complaints! This week though we are having two baptisms, for Brother Filson, Bro. Ewudzies old friend, and an old Fante woman named Christine. They will both be baptized on Saturday so it will be a sweet day! They are both ready and have seen the blessings coming into their lives from the Gospel so it is awesome to see them finally ready for this day.

We have had a good day today, we had a zone activity where we all went and did a tour at the Cape Coast Castle. We even got in free because missionaries have done service there on a  couple of occasions. It was so interesting and sad to see. Those people were treated just horribly. We saw the dungeons where they kept thousands of people just laying on top of each other. They did an excavation in the 1980's where they discovered the "floor" in the dungeon wasn't the real floor. About a foot under was the real floor, what they thought was the floor was ultra-compacted human waste. So that just gives you an idea of what they went through. I also went and checked on the nativity sets, the guy is trying to rip me off, says that 1 set is 250 cedis. So yeah, I’m gonna just go in there next week with 100 cedis and get two. Just watch, when he sees the money he will go for it. I aint your regular tourist there big guy, I have been here for a little bit!

Well, that is life in Cape Coast, things are going pretty well! I am so thankful for the work the Lord has blessed us with here. The trials come, the blessings come. Everything worketh together for our good! How wonderful this Gospel is! It never ceases to amaze me the love that the Lord has for all of us! He is always mindful of us! He is always strengthening us! I am so thankful for all He so freely gives! I love you sooo much! You are the BEST in the world! I hope that it is a good week for you there! Keep up the good work! LOVE YOU!!!

Me paakyo, et te sein? Ye freme Elder Hackmeister, me asempakaafo o The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ( Please how are you? I am Elder Hackmeister, I am a missionary for the...) Yes, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!!!!!! Holy cow it is so weird it is 2015...Time is so weird! But I am doing good, all is well! Yes your Columbian-style package arrived! You should have seen how excited the other missionaries were to get their things! If I would have known I would have filmed it but sadly I was too slow...Suffice it to say there was a bit more enthusiasm than I had anticipated hahaha! THANK YOU in behalf of everyone in the Cape Coast 1 apartment! We all wore our ties on Sunday and looked so classy haha! Also, tell thanks to all those who signed the little snowflakes. [I had all the young women in our ward write a message to him on a doily that looked like a snowflake, to send him a snowstorm from home, a little avalanche of love :) ] I owe it to E. Seaman to me even reading them. I saw them and was like, "Why in the world did they send me little doilies?" But yes he was wiser and opened them up haha! I really enjoyed reading them! I especially loved that there were three that bore the same message: Come back with an accent and the ladies will love me. I taped the three of them to the wall above my desk haha! It was a revelatory moment in which I realized something I had never considered hahaha! Life is good though, we had a good New Years. NY eve was kind of difficult to teach people, but we did our best! Everyone here goes to church for "Watch Night" where they all go and pray for forgiveness. So yeah, the whole town was kind of empty haha! But we bought fireworks and juice and had a good new years night! I am impressed to hear that dad made it, I did not however haha! I took his place and slept. The other elders woke up at 12 and shot off the fireworks, I just laid in bed and slept hahaha...kind of lame but sleep is nice! But that night before I went to sleep I received what I can only describe as personal revelation. Pure knowledge was poured into my mind from above. That was the love I have for Africa and Ghana in particular. Holy cow as I pondered on the time I have spent here and the time I have left I was overcome with such a strong feeling of love for these people! They are soooo amazing and kind and pure! There is something special about Ghanaians in particular. They are especially kind and peaceful! But I was so filled with that love for them as I pondered about all the wonderful things I have experienced here and all the great people I have met! I will be so sad to leave these people, but surely I will be back one day!

New Years I went on splits with E. Seaman because of that dinner Sister Ezelle (that’s her name) prepared for us. It was ampesie, which is boiled cassava eaten with stew. It was really good! She gave us Sprite and cinnamon sugar muffins as well! She is an awesome lady; I will thank her for you! But yeah new years day was a total joke because everyone goes to the beach for the day. We taught I think 2 people all day....So that was fun haha. It was not completely unexpected though. Glad I anticipated it because I read my journal entry from last year when I didn’t know and it was a miserable day hahaha! So I felt pretty fine this time! But yeah this is indeed transfer week! I am staying and the apartment is staying as well which is sweet because we all are pretty good friends now! Saturday though we went to the assistants place for transfer news to be given to us. It was sweet because they prepared AMAZING jollof rice and fried chicken!!!! It was seriously one of the best meals I have EVER had! Then the news came and we typed up our logistical war plan for Wednesday. One of the AP's got released so we will have a new one. They get released every few months. It went well, got back to the apartment around 11 though haha. Then Sunday....oh man our ward is not doing well. Our bishop is infamous among missionaries for being very difficult and stubborn and it has always been a mild problem but it was a real problem yesterday. We had ward council. We have been asked by Pres Stevenson to set quarterly goals with the ward and trying to get him to do so with us was like trying to pull the tooth out of a rabid dog. He just got really angry and yelled at us. All we were doing was trying to do was set a goal and put forward a plan. We ended up leaving the meeting after he told us to go. Sooooo....yeah hahaha. We are all so upset after that meeting, went back to the apartment and just cooled down. The rest of the day was a blessing because we taught really good lessons to some sweet people and the Spirit was there! So I am very thankful about that. But oh man that was such a bad meeting hahaha....Oh well.

Yeah the dry season is here! It is always really hazy, reminds me of when there are fires back home. Around 6 pm you can always stare at the sun because it is so dim. [It’s due to trade winds that blow across the Sahara into Western Africa from December to March.  It brings with it the dust of the desert and some pretty fine sunsets] Yeah the humidity is way down! I can touch my forehead right now and it will be dry!!!!  Really weird it will be my b-day soon haha. Let’s see....well if you could send another cheesecake thing or its equivalent that would be BOKO (great)! That was sooo good! Glad all is going well back on the home front though. I love you all so much, you are the greatest.  Champions among the rest! Thank you for all you do! I love you so much! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here doing this amazing work, I would never trade this for anything. This is the only work that has such an eternal worth other than raising a family. I am so glad I get to be a part in this great eternal cause. It has blessed me more than I can ever describe. Thanks again, LOVE YOU!

December 29, 2014

Well...you’re on the border of Mexico so I hope you are still alive when I send this email haha! I am glad you had the hap hap happiest Christmas, I am gonna steal that shirt from Brady when I get back hahaa! But seriously, yeah it was so nice to get to talk to everyone on Christmas, glad that all is well and everyone is doing great! Yeah I got to talk to Cody and Amanda as well and it sounds like they are having fun and that everyone is doing well. That is great that you guys are seeking out the sunshine and traveling all over and that Adam is having a blast with Dakari. It is so crazy indeed that 2014 is over and that 2015 is on the way....so weird. I really don’t know what we will do on New Years, but the woman who made us pizza invited us over for dinner so we will get fed at least! She is a really nice lady. I was telling her about how you want to do that humanitarian trip in Eastern Region and she wanted to know more about it so if you could send me some details I will show it to her. She is really cool though, said if she is around at that time she would show us around! But yeah as for New Years it will most likely be a pretty normal day, I don’t even remember last year’s so it must have been normal. But yeah we had our baptism on Saturday for a woman named Mary  and it was awesome! It went really well and she really was so happy. It’s so cool to see how excited people are when they are baptized. She was confirmed and all is well! Today we had a really good day. Brother Ewudzie did a devotional for our zone where he told us about the Church here in Ghana and all the amazing experiences that he has had. It was so cool and powerful. He has seen a lot of amazing things and had a lot of spiritual experiences. It was awesome! I will be sure to send you pics from the chicken massacre though, haha! Really, not too much to report on since I just talked to you hahaha!

But I love you sooo much! 2014 is indeed gone, but 2015 truly will be an awesome year. How thankful I am to have this time to devote myself to the Lord and be a tool in His work. His gospel is the only way to happiness, that is a fact. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is my Best Friend. We are all part of His Family. I love you, have an AWESOME WEEK AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

[Just a note, in our Christmas Day call he told us that the package with the letters made it to him….on Christmas Eve!!!  They floated around lost, who knows where, and found their way to him at the perfect time!!  Tender Mercies!!!]

December 22, 2014

Merry Christmas to you!!! So first of all, I did get a package this week! It was the one with the bamboo socks and shirt and whatnot, it was AWESOME!!!! Thank you sooo much! Sadly that is not the one with the cards in it....Hopefully that guy will get here soon. Just remember that the post office is slammed here right now so it might take a bit. Lesson learned though I guess would be to send the cards WITH the tree next time hahaha! But seriously, I loved everything in the package! The “only candy bar with the cookie crunch” was a great surprise! Gotta love the Twix! The shirt is unbelievably soft as well! Holy cow! That is what I call a "nice shirt."

Glad you have seen some pics from the Christmas devotional! It was a good time for sure! We did it on Thursday with two other zones so it was great and we did enjoy! We were instructed by President and played some fun games, but sadly did not do the legless pushups haha! After the games we had a good devotional where the zones all did talents. Ours sang the songs "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly" and "The Little Drummer Boy." We were the best of the three zones, just saying. We also watched the Church's new video on the #sharethegift thing they are doing and well it is just awesome as I’m sure you have already seen. I love the Christmas season because of the joy the Savior brings to our lives. I do love Him so very much and He truly is the gift.  It was a good day filled with good experiences and good friends. So crazy still though that Christmas has come once again! The time really goes sooooooooooo fast! This week I forgot to keep my usual email list, so I’m sorry about that because I might forget to mention one or two things, but hey you getta talk to me on Thursday so I guess it’s not too big of a deal right?! The only thing that really happened this week was that I went on splits with the Green Hill elders. I went to their area with Elder Walston. He’s from Oklahoma but now his family lives in  Korea....wow! It was a pretty good day though. We walked like crazy which is not the most fun thing ever but still...We are having a stake carols night on Christmas eve and the Green Hill branch is doing a number so I got to go to Choir rehearsals with them hahhaha... After that I attended their PEC. But that was awesome because they are a really powerful branch! Their PEC was perfect! Like seriously, it was like it probably happens back home. It blows our wards PEC in Cape out of the water! So that was kinda cool. Something else the branch does is go for a branch jog every Saturday at 5 in the morning. Yep I slept over and was thus forced to go....We woke up at 4:30...the stars were still out...we jogged at a pace that paraplegics could keep up with haha...But it was actually fun and it felt good to "run" again. I have not worked out in forever sadly. I should probably get on that. But uh yeah, I had a good time on splits.

BTW I know where I can buy some nativity sets so I will get to it! I heard they are like 70 cedis or something so I will be sure to get them! IDK where I will keep them, but I will figure it out! Sorry to hear Adam has been so sick, that is not fun at all! Hopefully it will go and not come back. But I am happy he was able to go to the Piano Guys with you! That sounds so fun, they are awesome. The pictures look good. The nest is getting empty back at home base eh? Well I hope that the Christmas festivities at the West household go well and smoothly. Dad was telling me some of the plans and it should be good! Was it last year somebody wanted to do pizza for dinner? Haha hope that aint the plan for you, but it sure is for me! Yeah on Christmas we are gonna have a zone activity. We are buying 6 chickens and we are going to kill and roast them next to step #35 of the 54 steps. That should be fun and delicious! After that, around 2, the woman who made us Thanksgiving invited us over to her house and she is gonna make us pizza!!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow that woman is amazing! It will be a great day! Then after that we will come home and I will call! I would guess it will be around noon or so there in the States when I call. I'll probably sound like an idiot, my english is fading haha and no it's not being replaced by any language other than broken english. So yeah you'll all enjoy that. Well, IDK what else to say haha, you’ll get to talk to me in t-minus 3 days so if you have any questions I guess you can ask me then! BUT know that I love you sooooooooooo much! More than anything! You are the BEST! I miss you all but am so eternally grateful for the blessed opportunity to be here serving my Lord and King. This is His work. He lives. I’ll talk to you on Thursday :)!

Good morning good morning!!!!!

Happy Monday to you all! Glad to hear that everything is going well back home and that you have been busy with the real estate mom!  Man I really do miss a stateside Christmas. The Christmas spirit just aint the same in Ghana! But that’s ok, we will enjoy it for sure! We are having zone conference on Thursday and it will be our Christmas party as well. We are singing a song as a zone and IDK what else will happen! But it should be sweet! Sad news to report is that, no, I have not received the letters or any other packages. Hopefully they are sitting in the mission home with my name on it. It will come; just will take some time I guess. I enjoyed a nice apple pie the other day!!! Oh it was heavenly! I found the directions to the cheesecake as well...sorry haha! But yeah a lot of things have been devoured with favorable results. I need to try the stuffing still though, I am scared after my last attempt haha! I really want to make the biscuits too. Thank you again for all of it!!!! You’re the best!!!! So for Christmas I will probably call a little later than usual, because we may or may not be having a zone activity. I will let you know for sure next week. Expect a call around noon I would guess? This week we extended two baptismal dates to some of our investigators. One is an old woman named C. who cannot speak English. She is very smart and remembers everything we teach her and has come to church twice now. The other is a man named Bro. P. He is an older man as well and actually was good friends with Billy Johnson (guy who got the church here) and Bro. Ewudzie when the church first came but soon after left to live in Nigeria. He has been there 30 years but recently came back and decided to return to the faith he once had at his fingertips. So he is very interested and had a great confirmation to his prayers and knows what we are sharing is true! So they are both scheduled for the 17th of January! Wow 2015!!! What?!?! Sorry, back to business... Haha one stupid thing that happened was on Friday we came back to the apartment to find that there was a funeral literally right outside our bedroom windows. The great thing about funerals is they BLAST music ALLL NIGHT!!!!! OH man music was literally shaking the house from 9-6...Got like 2 hours of sleep....I don’t understand that at all. What is the point of blasting music all night??? Oh well....haha so that was fun. But also we did have a baptism for B.T.! It went well!!! All was good and he was sooo happy! I was able to baptize him and right after he came out of the water he just kept saying "thank you, thank you." He is an awesome guy! He will be a strong member of the church for sure!

Yes today was p-day! It was sub-pday so we had a zone activity. We went to the beach to play games, and when we got there the other zone also was doing the same thing. Kind of awkward because President just said that we shouldn’t do combined zone activities. But the assistants were there and said it was all good. We played capture the flag and E. Odongo split some of his toes open on a stone as he was running! His burn is finally healed and now he has gashes all over. He almost passed out because of the pain! An American guy was there and helped us treat his wounds. The guy is a pastor and is here with his family for a 4 year mission to Ghana!!!! Wow that is crazy! He was a cool guy though; it’s always refreshing to meet somebody from the states too. But yeah E. Odongo is ok now and all is well. We will now go and shop and take care of all other business haha! So far an interesting day though. Well, that is what’s going on here. Life is moving onward and everything is pretty good! I am healthy, and happy! Happiness I have truly learned does not depend on anyone else, but it is really up to you! If you want to be happy you will be happy. There is a lot of drama here in the mission haha, it’s like jr high I swear, but you just gotta not mind anyone else and do what you gotta do! Love you sooo much though! Have a good week!  

A Variety Pack of Pictures This Week :)

Morning Salt Lake City!!!! I am good, glad you enjoyed your little vacation to St. George with the Festivus alumni! Sounds like you had a good time. Yes some of the packages came this week, THANK YOU!!! You are awesome! I got the Thanksgiving one and one of the Christmas ones, the one with the tree and calendar along with grandma and grandpa's! Everything was awesome!!! Wow you guys are just awesome thank you soooo much! I really loved your 4-legged turkey on the card haha!!! It brought back memories of Telestrations. All animals look the same! It looked like a turtle-turkey hybrid. That gives me a good laugh each time I see it! The bacon is a welcome addition as well as everything! But again, thank you so very much! I am glad you got the pictures though; I was kind of scared that they would go into spam or something. But I am really happy they all went through. The rooms are here in old 54-step. The wooden barricade is how we lock the door at night haha. The snake was a green mamba; I was told it was one of the most poisonous in Ghana. That was in Akonfudi. We were at a member’s house and she opened a door and it came lunging out. So E. Assibey picked up a plank and smashed it. It was still very much alive in that picture until I smashed its head. The apartment is sweet though, it’s been really cool. It is a million times cleaner than it was hahaha. And my companion burned his foot right before he left his last area. He was burning trash using gas and it exploded. Luckily it only got his foot! He is doing much better though. Yeah we have a guy that comes and collects our trash so that is better. That is awesome that Emilee saw the former E. Cavaness. I miss that guy! And E. Cowan was in the zone until this transfer. Now he is in "Nketsiakrum." That literally means "peanut town." So yeah haha. I have been playing my guitar; I do find it very relaxing after we end the day to just sit on the balcony and play. The Christmas traditions here are on Christmas day, people dress up in crazy costumes and march around with trumpets and drums. They light fireworks too! I can buy Phantom Fireworks here hahahaha! Yeah I hung my tree and I took a pic so I will send it tomorrow if possible! But everything in there is just awesome!!!

But let’s see what has been going on this week. We had MLC on Wednesday and it was great as usual! Some changes are coming into the mission though. Starting next transfer we will begin having jr and sr companions, something that has not been in the past. Allegedly it was to limit "unrighteous dominion," but as President said, there are probably better ways to do that other than taking away someone to be responsible. So that is happening. We will be having a Christmas devotional on the 18th so that will be sweet, don’t really have any idea what will be happening but it will be sweet I’m sure. I got to see E. Quaisie at MLC as he is a newly called zone leader. He just got released as the branch president in Axim and so it was really fun to talk to him and hear about Axim. I miss that place! But it sounds like it is going well there. They have a new building and a member who I really liked is the branch president now. After that we had our Stake PEC meeting which was really good as well. They are good meetings. We are pretty much narcs on the wards though. We collect info from all the missionaries on how the meetings are in the wards and then go tell the stake president haha. But they are good. President Stevenson is always fun to listen to and he is at those meetings so it was good! And E. Cardon is here now so it is fun to see him as well. We also went on splits this week. I went with E. Seaman, the brand new elder in our apartment. It was pretty fun, reminded me of when I trained haha. You do a lot of talking! He is a good missionary though and it was a really good day, we saw Selina and Ben Tum. They are both doing great and will be baptized on Saturday!!! We also have another woman named Araba who will be baptized on the 27th and she is doing great as well. All of them came to church this week so I was really happy about that. The work is moving forward in the area. It was pretty slow last transfer, but this one it is really picking up and we are finding some good people. Oh and we sat down with Bro. Ewudzie one day for a bit and he showed us a ton of pics of when he came to Utah. He has a ton!!! He has met Elder Holland twice! He had pics with him. He will be going to Utah probably for general conference he said. I will probably still be in Cape around that time haha! It is so weird to me that it is already Christmas again though. The time flies. I am really thankful for this time of the year. It really is my favorite time. Not because of the gifts and so forth, but because it is the time where people really come together in a spirit of love one toward another. It is so wonderful to me! I really miss doing all the kind things we would do back home for others around this time, but helping others come to Christ is the greatest gift in the world. It is such a blessing for me to get to help in this work. I am so thankful for this! You are the best mom in the world, I am very thankful for that! You are awesome! I hope you have another great week! I LOVE YOU!!!