Watch for floating Cars May 21, 2018

Well this week was a good week but not very successful. It wasn't very productive because it rained everyday all day this week. When it rains Ghanaians don't want to do anything so everyone we went to just kept saying "oh come tomorrow", but when we'd come the next day, the same thing, "oh come tomorrow" haha. Because of all the rain it's been flooding really bad. I think we've got more rain this week then an entire year back in Idaho. With all the water cars even start just floating down the road.  I was going to get a picture but we decided we better run for our lives.  Hopefully this next week will be more productive. We haven't had a toilet this entire week either. So we have to walk to the chapel which takes about 20 minutes. They needed to replace it and they took 3 days to do that but it didn't work so there still trying to get it working, so 6 days with no toilet.  Other then that things have been pretty normal. I'm doing great and Elder Aluse and I are getting along great and Ghana....is Ghana.

(Update... it took just over 3 weeks to get the toilet fixed... it was fine though.  That’s just how it is here in Ghana!!!)

Happy Mother's Day! May 13, 2018

We've been looking forward to this day for a long time!  It was so great!  Best mother's day since I became a mother!  We loved seeing his smile.. there wasn't hardly a time that he wasn't just full on smiling.  It was wonderful!!! He's very happy! He would talk with his accent and then we would all laugh and then he would laugh because he realized we're laughing at his accent! The longer we talked the more the accent disappeared.  Some of our favorite things he told us were:

-All the kids said they loved the story he told which is maybe an old wives tale that when a white person would come to Africa they would put gum on his chair so that he would get stuck and have to stay.  The way they say it is... "CHIGNON FOAM OTO" 

And that just means hey white boy you have gum on your bum! Ha ha! They yell that to him all the time! 

Also the word for karma is ... OKYEALL (the KY is pronounced like "chi")

-He said once in a while he will see a white man and think to himself "what is he doing here?"  and then the thinks "oh ya I'm white too!"  He says he has turned black!

-A funny thing he said was that if he talks to a baby it always cries.  He says they always tell him its because his eyes are green but he just tells them "It's ok, I know it's because I'm white and it scares them."  They are mesmerized by his green eyes.  They say "oh my gosh, your eyes are a color!"

-He told us was about how different church is and how they can't have announcements until after the closing prayer in sacrament meeting because they all start to chatter about the announcements and will holler their comments and want to ask questions to the Bishopric so they do it after so they can do that appropriately.  He also said it is not rude to just answer your phone right in the middle of a church meeting.  The people just talk a little quieter on the phone or sometimes they don't. ha ha

-Another thing we loved  that he shared was that he said for anyone who is preparing to serve a mission that it would be well worth their time to study and really get to know the Book of Mormon because it really is what you need to know to be able to teach people.  It is really the difference between our church and other churches.  They are already very Christian and a religious people so you need to know the Book of Mormon so you can help them see what more we have in our Gospel. 

One thing Ashlyn loved was that she asked him if he has finished the Book of Mormon again since he got there and he said he's already read it 3 times, the New Testament  once and is working on the Old Testament.  She was pretty impressed! 

-He said he loves all the food there,  it's just all the food that he loves that is not there that he misses. :)

We loved every minute and look forward to Christmas when we can see that cute smile again!

It's my Birthday! May 7, 2018

First of all, Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes.  It was awesome to get a whole bunch of emails.  It's been a good day! It also marks my 8 months exactly.  I have grown a lot, it's hard to describe how but I've grown and I know the mission is really helping me.  I know the scriptures so much more and I have really learned a lot about being self reliant.  How do I keep going day to day?  I don't know I just get up and go do it.  I really do enjoy proselyting. 

Not a lot of different things happened this week, just the usual. I really like Elder Aluse, my new comp. He is really a cool guy.  The area is picking up again.  We have 7 new investigators. I hope everyone is doing good back home.  

I just got a hair cut and it is really short.

New Comp- Elder Aluse April 30, 2018

Hey! this was a good week. I got my new companion Elder Aluse from Kenya. He's a super cool guy and turns out he is one of the best rugby players in Kenya. He played for Kenya's national team. He's been out about 17 months.  He speaks great English but his native language is the Lion king language, hakuna matata language ha ha, it's called Swahili. He is a convert of 2013. 
We got Collins confirmed this week so he's officially a member and is super exited. We also had our branch conference this week and President Hillam, our mission president, gave a good talk on applying ministering in our branches. Other then that it's been a normal week of walking a lot in the heat.

Little Collins and a little golf April 23, 2018

 I can't believe it but its been another transfer. Piutau has  been transfered which is what we were hoping wouldn't happen but it's the Lord that chooses. So I'm excited to get a new comp and Piutau’s exited to go to a new area. This morning me, Jeppson, and Brown all went golfing and it was alot of fun. Never did I ever think I'd be golfing in Africa surrounded by jungle on my mission haha.

 We also had a baptism yesterday. He's a young boy named Collins. Collins is 10 and we’ve taught him since the 1st day I was here in Tarkwa and we never took him serious because he's small and no one in his family are members so no support but he came to church 17 weeks in a row so we decided to baptize him. He's funny and likes black panther. 

He's super excited and loves the church. He was happy he finally got baptized. Other then that its been a good week and I'm doing great. 

A little under the weather! April 14, 2018

Well, this week started out with me feeling sick from some unsanitary food. So Tuesday we didn't get tons done. Wednesday was better but still not feeling great. Thursday we had a combined 3 zone zone conference in Takoradi. I ate for the 1st time since Sunday there and that night I had the worse runny tummy of my life. I felt a little better on friday but still didn't eat. On saturday we had the adult and priesthood sessions of our Tarkwa District conference. After Me, Piutau, Brown, and Tupola went to a the golf clubhouse restaurant again and ate some really good food. I luckily was feeling better. On Sunday we went right back down to Takoradi for the general session of our District conference. So it was a lot of traveling. I'm feeling better now though. Not to scare you Mom, but it's crazy to be a missionary and not get worms.  Everything out here is prepared unsanitary!

strike a pose

 me and Elder Massaquoi

 Elder Piutua, that is a popsicle stick not a cigar ha

Elder massaquoi napping on the couch

Conference April 3, 2018

Well I can't believe it but I've already had my second  General Conference on my mission. We watched the Saturday morning session Saturday night just the missionaries at the internet cafe. When they did the solemn assembly all of us stood up in the cafe and raised our hands it was kinda funny. Then on Sunday we watched the Saturday afternoon Priesthood session, and Sunday morning back to back, so it was along 6 hours. It was cool to see things changed up but it was weird not to see Pres Monson. Easter here has been crazy. In Ghana they celebrate Easter for 4 days straight. And it celebrated by going to church in the morning for like 7 hours then getting drunk all night. All night we can here all the churches dancing and speaking in tongues haha. So it was a pretty good week. 

This is Elder Brown .. his mom sent my mom part of his email this week and my mom wanted to save it for me..... 

I wanted to share part of  Matthew’s (Elder Brown’s) letter this week with you. He couldn’t say enough about how much he and Elder Harris get along. He sees them being life long friends. 😊

 What an awesome week we had here in Tarkwa!!! The week started off on Wednesday when E. Harris and I were on exchange. Since E. Tupola is the DL he likes to go on exchanges everyweek. Let me tell you a little about E. Harris. So E. Harris and I came to Ghana together from the states. We didnt really know each other all that much when we were in the MTC. It wasn't until we were taking the bus from Accra to Cape Coast that we became really good friends. E. Harris is a farm boy from Idaho and is such a nice guy! He loves to hunt and  spend time out doors. On Wednesday he came to my area and I still didn't know it all that well and didn't really know were any of the investigators lived yet. So we spent the day just mostly walking in the rain and just laughing and having a good time. We did teach a lesson though to one of our investigators. His name was Timothy and we taught him about Prophets. He refused to pray about Russel M. Nelson being a prophet. He just wanted us to tell him who a false prophet was and who wasn't. I was a little worried about E. Harris and I teaching because I was unsure how it would go. It turned out that E. Harris and I can teach really well together. We knew exactly when to switch off and when the other one was ending. We were able to have the spirit there (the spirit was so strong) and we were able to resolve Timothy's concerns. That was easily the best lesson that I sat in since being here in Ghana because the Spirit that was felt there was so intense. I hope Timothy will pray and find out the truth. And I hope me and E. Harris will be companions at some point.

This is a make shift bridge to walk over a swampy area

Here’s our chapel when we were getting ready to watch conference.