Hello from Assin Foso!!!

The move went well! Yep I am deep in the jungle hahaha! It’s sweet though! No more sea breezes, but lots more rain. We headed out on Tuesday to Takoradi and spent the night, then Wednesday was the big travel day. It went well though! I am waiting for my guitar and a few other things to show up. My bags got really dusty, but they survived hahaha. I got to see Elder Cardon in Cape Coast at the tro station so that was awesome getting to talk to him for a while! He is doing good! OH! And I met an elder named Elder Baird on Wednesday. He is from good old Preston Idaho! He worked for Doug at West Motors!!! So be sure to tell grandma and grandpa! He is awesome though. He goes home in 5 weeks. I guess he is close with their family up in Preston though.

But from there we traveled to Foso where I met up with Elder Quaisie. He is sweet! We are having a good time! He is from Kumasi, so just north. Yeah Akonfudi is bush hahaha, not too much English there. That’s good to have E. Quaisie though since he can speak Twi. He has been here for a while now, so I don’t know how long he will stay. I don’t know how long I will be here either, because he is the only one who has stayed more than 2 transfers in Akonfudi, so we will see! But the apartment is "cozy." It would literally fit on the basketball court in the backyard. Not as nice as Axim apartment haha, but it’s all good! The apartment is 4 rooms, the entry is also the kitchen, then our room is from there and the bathroom and a washroom branch off. It’s all made of cement and a tin roof, the walls are green. There is cement for floor. The shower is actually lukewarm though! The one in Axim was FREEZING!!! The stove is much more "ghetto" than the last one. It’s only a twin burner. The fridge here is bigger, which is strange since this is a two man apartment haha. Oh well. And I am strictly eating Ghanaian! I have peanut butter still, but that’s all...  It is funny how much it can feel like a scout camp at times. Missionaries even write their names on everything just like scouts do in the cabins, so yeah haha.

Oh by the way, I think I will be emailing on Tuesdays from now on. We came into Foso today for a combined activity as a zone. On Tuesdays we have district meeting in Foso so we will be in town on Tuesdays. But yeah, I think that explains how far I have to go hahaha. Yeah it will be an adventure for sure!

The church building is literally 12 feet away from the house, so that’s sweet. It’s a ward too! But there is a Group (smaller than a branch) in one of the villages about 20 mins north called Bereku. So we went there on Sunday! There were like 10 people there, we met in a barn that serves as a school. So yeah, that’s sweet! I got to teach the youth class too which was kind of fun. I don’t know how much some of them understood because of the language barrier though. But yeah, it’s been cool! There is a lot of cocoa here for sure, all the people here are farmers so that’s mostly what they farm I think. This week I have been kind of lost as to what exactly is going on in Akonfudi as far as investigators and stuff, but I think I am figuring it out. Just takes some time to adjust to a new area. But it’s sweet here for sure! Sadly it’s harder to buy food here and bread is more expensive than in Axim, so I am going back to eating noodles and stew haha!!!! We are gonna be having a baptism this Saturday, so that’s great! It’s for a young woman named Grace. She lives in Bereku. Should be a great Saturday!! Teaching for me is difficult because most everyone speaks Twi, so E. Quaisie talks for most, but thankfully he includes me a lot. It’s just kinda an awkward situation, so I will try to do the best I can to contribute and learn Twi I guess. I was finally to the point where I could understand Nzema well enough to know what people were saying when they talked just plain Nzema. But I have been enjoying our personal study more now for some reason, it’s something to look forward to each day!

Those pics looked good! Tell dad congrats that is awesome he got agent of the year!!!! Those paintings looked really really good too! I was surprised you and dad did them haha!!!  I am glad that the ward is staying intact for the most part! That is good! That is awesome about Bear getting his mission call, I will have to email him! Everyone is awesome in the ward!

It’s crazy how quick time goes by! I have been out for 7 1/2 months, but it feels like I just got here! Man it is strange! I love this place and am so thankful to the Lord for calling me here! I know this is His work! I am so thankful for everything He has given me! He helps me each and every day, that I am sure of! He is definitely mindful of His servants. I will use this time I have been given to serve Him! I love you and thank you sooo much for everything! You are the best mom in the world!!!!  And dad, you are the best dad and you have taught me sooo much about how to be a hard worker and good person! You are the best! Thanks for the good example you set for me! The Church is true!!

Hi!!

I am somewhere safe and sound today, we are in Takoradi. Didn't email yesterday because of the fact we were coming here for Zone meeting. It’s been a good week! Elder Vinson came and it was AWESOME! Wow that guy is great and he did a great job. He came and spoke about being a good missionary and it just really motivated me to go out and work hard and do a good job! Not to hold anything back! He spoke with love and the Spirit. He told us that he was a convert when he was older so he never got to serve a mission, but he really wishes he had that opportunity, especially in West Africa. He got emotional when he told us that. It made me think how lucky I am to get to be here and that I need to always do my best to be the type of missionary the Lord needs. But yeah so for that us and the neighboring zones all met in Sekondi at the nice chapel there and had lunch and stuff. I gave Pres my IDL, so it’s in his hands now haha! In Elder Vinson’s talk he told us the story of Joshua and Caleb in the Old Testament and how Joshua could have had a great fertile valley, but asked for the mountains. So he told us how if we ask for mountains in our lives we will be blessed. Well, I did that and the Lord gave me one haha. I got sick Thursday and Friday hahaha. It wasn’t bad in the morning Thursday, but by time for lunch, my stomach and head hurt really bad. So I just went to sleep all day and then Friday I slept til like 11, felt like a bum for not doing anything, got up and we went out and taught. But yeah, the Lord will give you mountains if you ask for them! They are a blessing and help you become better! Then Saturday we got transfer news and I am leaving Axim! I am going to Assin Fosu on the other side of the mission to a village called Akonfudi, which I hear is awesome!!! I will be with Elder Quasie from Ghana, so that should be sweet as well! Should learn a new language pretty quick with a Ghanaian companion haha! He came at the same time as Elder Cardon and E. Cardon always told me how awesome Elder Quasie was so I am excited to be with him there! Should be sweet! We are in Takoradi today for Zone meeting and then tomorrow I will leave! So we are sleeping here tonight. But yeah, it will be a fun day driving in a tro tomorrow haha! I am interested to see how Akonfudi is, hopefully it will be sweet! This week will be interesting for sure though, but I am excited to see what is ahead of me! It will be awesome!!! I know the Lord has called me there for a reason, can’t wait to see what it is! On Sunday it was sad saying goodbye to everyone in the branch! But I got some nice pics that I will send today! Packing isn’t too fun either, but oh well. Luckily I got most everything to fit!

I am glad you were able to have fun in St. George and that all went well! Tell Adam good job!!! The pics look awesome!!! No, it hasn’t been raining much here at all, but I think next month the rain will start! On rainy days usually we just tough it out and go, the rain usually isn’t too hard, but if it is raining hard it only lasts for a few minutes so it’s not too big of a deal! That is too bad the ward will be splitting, but we all knew this day would come eh? That will be interesting to see what happens! Good luck! Hopefully all the cool people stay in our ward haha! Those quotes are awesome though! So true! Thank you for sending them! I will send a bunch of pics today, IDK how the internet is gonna be in Fosu, so this might be the last time for a while hahaha! I love you though, you are the BEST mom and dad in the world! Thank you for all that you do for me each day!!!!!LOVE YOU!

Some of the Branch members after church on Sunday! They all wanted pics with us so that was nice! 

Elder Cavaness is leaving too.  

Me and Ezekiel. We gave him the Holy Ghost on Sunday 

so it was a special day!

The woman grabbing my hand is Felecia, the woman 

who would feed us fufu each sunday!

Some of the young women in the branch

Angelina, she was baptized about a year ago and has been less active, but we have been trying to bring her back. Her uncle is the old man we are taking the sacrament to.

Me, Tony and Paul. Odd, the first week I was here was 

Tony's baptism! Man time goes really fast!!!

This woman and her family are awesome! They are dedicated unlike some of the other members! Every baptism they are there, Every week they are there. They love the gospel. She has a speech problem and talks like she is deaf, but she is awesome. Her name is Hannah. (Look at those cute little feet sticking out)

The rest of Hannah's family. Her husband is named Andrew. He is the clerk who I have been helping on the computer. He is awesome. Their kids are awesome too! Great family!

Me and Elder Cavaness with Pres. Nokoe. He is getting better! I hope it will continue!

Yeah Elder Cavaness is leaving Axim too. He is going back to being a Zone Leader in Takoradi. But this is us with Bro Armoo. He has been a big help in finding people to teach and helping us translate. 

This is our zone this morning! Great guys right there who I will miss, but will see again! Its been fun!

The chapel in Sekondi! Pretty fancy!

Here is me and Elder Larsen this morning! 

I NEED TO PUT SOME WEIGHT ON hahaha!!

 Sweet guys!

Axim! BYE BYE

This was on a tree we passed one day

This girl's name is Janet. She is the Branch mission leaders daughter.  But yeah she is playing in a "sandbox" that's really on the front porch.

Our zone leader, Elder Longjohn from Nigeria, had this 

on his desk  hahaa!

Yesterday this bird flew into the room where our clothes dry. Elder Larsen and Moleme were trying to catch it and it was the funniest thing ever. E. Larsen was using an extra mattress to try and protect himself and the bird flew behind it with him and kept running into him and he was freaking out. Me and Elder Cavaness were watching through the screen window just dying laughing. Elder Moleme used an old shirt to catch it though then we set it free off the balcony. It was pretty awesome hahaha.

Hahahahaha!!

Our zone all crammed in a van coming back from the meeting with Elder Vinson

Some more March Day

Hola!!!

Happy Monday! I am glad everything is going well back home, things are movin on along out here as well! This week has been ok, just a normal week, a little stressful but not too bad! Pres Nokoe was in church, so that was good! He told his counselors last week that he would miss, so they just didn’t tell anyone so it was no problem. He is changing, always happy so that is sweet and he is doing good things in the branch! We had a nice baptism on Sunday for Ezekiel and the other elders had one too, so it was great. Saturday we spent all day cleaning the font, church, and our apartment. We started filling the font around noon, by 2 it was not all that full so we left it on while we went and cleaned the apartment and we went back at 5 to turn the font off and it hadn’t filled past the 2nd step! So we had to do the baptisms sitting... It was still sweet though!!! Ezekiel had a problem in his interview on Thursday, so Friday me and Elder Moleme had to have a long lesson with him, but he was good to baptize! He is sweet and will be a great member of the branch! Hopefully a great leader!!! I got to baptize him, which was an honor. I feel so blessed to get to baptize these people because they are sooo awesome!!! Axim is sweet, sometimes the people can be a bit interesting, but I love them!!

So on the 6th was Independence Day for Ghana so we went to the festivities! Basically there was a parade, I’m sure you saw the pics I sent, but yeah it was at a soccer field and each school in Axim marched around. It was actually pretty cool and was the most professional thing I have seen in Ghana I think! So yeah that was sweet! After this member family, the Ackahs, fed us. It rained so HARD!!! It has the past few days actually. But yeah so we were in a room in their house and we saw a mouse. We tracked where it was going and so we waited for it to come out and I stomped the life out of it haha.

We had an ok week, I have been pretty stressed at myself because I feel like we could be doing more here, but I don’t know, sometimes I feel that I push too hard. Something in my patriarchal blessing that I have noticed is that it says I will find an energy in service, and that is very true. I feel like a sheep dog or something, if I’m not doing something I feel like crap. That must be how dad feels and why he is always doing yard work. Gotta be on your feet. I don’t like wasting any time!!!! I am not sure if that is good or bad. It was stressing me to the point that I was getting angry at my companion, and that’s not right. So yeah, just gotta relax my head a bit haha. But the transfer will be next week. The news will come on Saturday. I am kinda hoping to go. I am expecting to go, but you never know I suppose. This week is gonna go quick though. Today we are in Takoradi for our Sub p-day and then tomorrow we are coming back because Wednesday is the meeting with Elder Vinson so we are staying the night so we are not late.

I got the IDL this week, yesterday actually!!! Thank you!!! Luckily no Ghanaians are out joy ridin as the "Hack Master" as they call me!  Thanks for everything in the package, the pictures looked fun! The popcorn was good, and I love the oatmeal!! I feel lazy making food in the mornings so oatmeal is awesome hahaha. The Julanders got me some Nutella for my b-day, so that was sweet! I will enjoy that for sure! Thanks for sending the guitar tabs, but can you mail them to me? That would be best! Sorry I don’t think I can do the  drop box, we are only supposed to go onto mylds mail!!! Sorry!!! 

You asked about a cool experience: That picture with the old man that we take sacrament to. We do it each week and each time he bears such sweet testimony. Yesterday we did it and Sister Julander came with us while Elder Julander was doing an audit at the church and she was in tears as he talked about how special the sacrament is. You would have been too I’m sure! It was sweet!!

Thank you for all you do for me though!!! You really are the best! I am happy to have such a great family!!! You are all amazing! Have an AWESOME DAY!

Pictures!!!

This is where the guy who doesn't speak english lives. We teach him using a translator, which is actually something we have to do quite often. He is sweet, but hasn't come to church the past two weeks...

 This is our chapel! Little different than back home eh?

These 3 are all from the branch and have just finished their mission papers! Priscilla, James, and Juliet!

We had Ezekiels baptism! He chose me to baptize! It was sweet!

After the baptism!

This old man is powerful!  He is a member but can't come to church because he is OLD and weak. He looks like a Holocaust victim honestly. But each time we take the sacrament to him he bears powerful testimony. Its incredible! Papa Kanga is his name. 

This cute girl is 4 years old and speaks english!!! That is a feat for some grown Ghanaians! 

Same girl, she was holding my scriptures on her head

Just like that!

There was a dance party by the BIG tree, so 

I took a pic of it haha!!

We saw this on the roadside. I laughed. Post no bill means don't hang any flyers on the wall.

Same building, different wall, different consequences!

Vote for Jesus. We saw this on the way out of Axim this morning haha.

 I thought this was a great sign. After I took it the shop people told me I had to pay them for the picture. Yeah, that didn't happen haha.

This is for Brady, it was hanging in a barber shop window!

 They get judged and whichever school is the best wins. This school won. Can you guess why? Everyone loved the heck out of that little kid.

March 6th was Ghana's independence day, called March day. So all the school kids march. Here they are marching.

Drinking a water sachet while waiting for an investigator to come home. That man is Bro Armoo, the 1st counselor. He was helping us translate.

Eating sugar cane at a members house haha! Good stuff! Difficult to eat though cuz you have to tear away the outside with your teeth!

Like so

This is a nice picture!

We got fed this fried plantain and fish by that one lady. It was really good!

This is the fufu we ate yesterday! It was really good!

HAPPY 19 TO ME!!

Hi!

We are in Essiama at the little internet café right now! Nope no pictures today. This cafe is way too slow for that sadly...Things have been pretty good here! But the president didn’t come to church this week and we didn't see him at all this week, so that’s just great... But yeah yesterday nobody really came to church either. We only had 1 investigator come to church so we didn't do investigators class, we just joined with Sunday School, bummer!

Axim is going pretty good here, we will have a baptism this Sunday hopefully! His name is Ezekiel and we have been teaching him since October! He kept going to Accra or Takoradi for months at a time so it was hard to teach him, but he is here now! He is about 20 and is sweet! He was the only one to come to church, our friend E. who I wrote about last week didn't come for some reason, so that was a bummer. He was telling us the other day how back in Ivory Coast he was a fisherman, but he also used his boat to smuggle cocaine haha. One day some Jehovah's Witness' gave him a Bible and he read it, felt like he had to change, and came to Ghana. So yeah, the Lord works in mysterious ways. Nothing too exciting is happening here, just working hard! It’s been pretty rainy here too! Two days in a row it rained HARD for like an hour and a half. It started about the time we were supposed to go out, but we couldn't because it was raining so hard. Even today it is overcast, which is nice! Hopefully that means the heat is done!

We pulled a big bunch of bananas off of a fallen banana tree the other day, there has to be like 100 bananas on it. But when it fell they were not ripe yet so they won’t ever ripen. So we decided to take them onto the balcony with my cutlass and played real life fruit ninja. It was pretty dang fun. We did it while it was raining haha.

When are you guys going to St. George? You'll have to let me know. Next week Elder Vinson of the Seventy is coming to the mission to speak to us. So I think that will be on the 12th. But that should be sweet! He gave us a TON of things to read beforehand, so we got homework haha. Glad to know Gramps got the iPhone finally, I’m sure he will like that much better!

I love you guys! Thanks for all you do for me! Talk to you later!!!!