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!