Many happy returns (it is a saying here)‏

Well writing an email just doesn't have quite the appeal that talking does. Oh well you just sometimes have to take what you get, right? Anyway this week went pretty well for me. I mean I felt sort of that holiday rush for sure. I think the 24th 25th and 26th were just so hard to get myself motivated to go out and work. At least on Christmas we were had a member that fed us so we didn't have to work too much because of the distance to his house. The food was okay but kind of how it always is just wasn't as good as I remembered from last time. It was still something to eat though. Plus they gave us ice cream which was sweet.

For Christmas I gave the other guys in the apartment one of my ties. My companion has worn his everyday since then. What can I say I can pick ties for people. Oh and sorry Mom he didn't even want to wear the one that you sent for him yet. I told him he needs to at least once before we aren't companions anymore. Sunday went fairly well, we had Joseph Kyei interviewed. He passed with flying colors. The guy is sweet. He has been asking how he could get a copy of our study bible and a triple combination so I bought them for him as a Christmas gift. He is way sweet though. He has asked us and our bishop about going on a mission. I just hope that he can make the age cut off. Anyway I just want to thank everyone for helping to make my Christmas a merry. I'm glad that I was able to get to talk to all of you. Anyway I hope everything goes well for you this week. Love ya guys!

It was really good to talk and everything.
love elder gibson

p.s. Yeah they listen to music, drink, and dance. I think that is kind of the basic outline for any holiday over here. :D

Merry Christmas!

Hey guess what . . . today is my mission birthday! Okay it is more that I have no idea where the last month went. I really thought I was just having my year mark but now I'm past it! For this past week I've been on a threesome and it has been hell, but in a good way. Elder Richards finished his mission but was sent home before transfers so that he could be home for Christmas so his companion is with us until this Wednesday when he gets a new companion. It has been crazy to try and cover the two areas. Just makes me feel like we haven't given the people the attention they deserve. Especially with the whole Spirit of Christmas just filling up the air. I'm glad that this year since there isn't an election that there was a way better feeling about the whole Christmas season. It seemed to have exploded this past week. Though still haven't seen too many decorations on homes. I guess they don't really do that at all here.

Anyway this week was pretty fun. We stayed busy the whole time. I about lost my hearing contacting a guy. He works as a mechanic and he was hammering a door panel by himself so I went and held it. Somehow I ended up with the hammer pinging away. He was way cool but doesn't live anywhere near us. Wednesday was our mission Christmas Conference. That was sweet to get to see our whole mission together. Made me feel pretty good since I didn't know even half of the people. Mostly since they are so new and I don't get transferred too often. The Mission Conference is always good. President Cardon and his wife spoke to us. Sister Cardon read the story about the boy who gets up early to milk the cows for his dad on Christmas. I really enjoyed President Cardon's though. He talked about in the world today most people think that they know Jesus Christ but really they don't. Kind of about the godhead, divine son-ship, and things like that. He explained it about how the Jews didn't recognize their Messiah and it is still happening today. It was really really good. Something that was way sweet is I heard about 2 of my recent converts. One of the missionaries from my old areas came and asked if I had baptized a guy named Frank. I guess Frank has become hyper active. He is at church every Sunday. If there is any kind of Stake Meeting he is there. Basically is just a sweet guy all the way around. Another one of them I actually meet on the road going to our apartment one night. It is a guy I baptized about 6 months ago in the area that the ward borders the one I'm in now. He told me that he had moved but if I ever wanted to visit he and the entire family always are at church. It was just one of the greatest feelings I could have had, especially as part of what we talked about at the Mission Conference. Part of it was about what did Jesus give to us, of course Eternal life. Then comes the question of well what do we give him? President Smith talked about how when we baptize someone it is one gift we can give to the Savior. Along with good deeds and other things but the whole baptism thing fits with the mission. Kind of warmed my heart to know that at least some of my gifts were more lasting, especially since the last two transfers have been kind of rough. Anyway there is a little thought for you to chew on I guess.

Something else that was really sweet was we had two guys ask us when they could be baptized. One of them is Isaac Agyaman, he sells chocolate. Another is a kid named Kobby Daafo. His older sister is baptized and he kind of dodged around us but we must of done something to stand out because he can't keep away from the church. One of the investigators in the other area came to church last week with his trumpet thinking that we were like his church. When we went to teach him I asked if he would play some for us. I told him I use to play and he put it in my hands and told me to play then. Luckily I could still get a good sound out and even managed to squeak out twinkle twinkle little star. Saturday we had another day that was pretty fun. There is a Dr. Emmanuel Abu Kissi who is one of the pioneers of the church in Ghana who owns the hospital we did service at. My service was pretty chill though. They have a generator that is basically the lifeline when the power goes out and they needed someone to change the oil. I was really wanting to go and sing carols to the patients but no one else knew how to change the oil or I guess was very machine oriented so I volunteered. It was cool though. I got to talk to his son, Aaron, who grew up in the U.S. We talked about stuff back home like trucks, mud bogging, and those kinds of things while waiting for the oil to drain. It was pretty sweet. They have about a bozillion dogs though which would keep getting into little fights though. We also went to a wedding at the church for one of the recent converts from right before I came. It was nice. Sunday we had a drunk guy come into the church and just make a lot of noise and what not. Before he left he did have the mind to at least remember to ask for more money. It was pretty comical I guess. That is about all from me this week. Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope that it is a wonderful day for you!


love elder gibson

and a happy new year!

Well another week has come and gone in Ghana. We are still just kind of working through everything. One cool thing that happened this week was I did a baptismal interview for a guy who basically has gone a full 180 since knowing the church. He use to booze and even had a big drug problem that lead him to stealing and getting sent to prison. He has been able to clean up his life in the last little bit and it is amazing to see his determination to stay away from his old life. Reminds me about how in Romans it talks about burying our old man. I think he put his about 12 feet deep just to make sure that it is finished. This week we have been having to leave early a few days to catch one guy we are teaching, Joseph Kyei. It is pretty sweet I guess but it makes for a long day when you start it off a little bit early. I guess it made me see how much the routine is set in.

So I had a moment that I felt like I was in the Jungle Book. We passed a guy's shop and he ran out to the street and stopped us with kind of chanting in out of breath fashion that he wanted to be just like me. Elder Saidu had ridden a little further up and so this guy, Ben Attah, just kind of reminded me of the Ape King on the Jungle Book when he sings to Mogley. It made me smile inside though Ben thought we were paid so his interest wasn't really in being a missionary. Something else new that happened this week was another interview. The man is a mechanic and we went to his workplace and since the room we were planning on using was busy we went and had in an empty Mercedes Trotro. It was pretty comfy. Had leather seats and what not. He is a cool guy. Basically has been coming to the church off and on for about 8 months. He has had some family problems in the mountains which either means someone died or there is a tribal feud so he is kind of off and on again of being where the church is. Has read the Book of Mormon and basically is a solid guy. We are teaching a lady with a translator, that same one that I still don't know her Christian name. Anyway we have been taking a member and using him. One day he got a call and stepped aside and then her family tried to take over and it was like a circus. About 3 or 4 people who told us that they didn't want to listen are trying to chip in their two cents. Had to settle them down and cleaned us out of pamphlets. It was pretty funny to see them though. Made me smile at least. At church in the Gospel Doctrine class we have been teaching about temples and it was sweet because afterwards for the 2 sets of missionaries we had people come up and basically ask us, "when can I be baptized and go to the temple" Definitely is a sweet tool that since it is so near that we can help people see that they don't even have to sacrifice to enjoy the full coverage the temple offers. It was nice to have people so interested though. Oh Saturday we had a baptism and it was low key. The bishop, missionaries, 3 candidates, and then 3 ward members. I liked it since it was calm, quiet, and touching. Just the way I like it. This morning we went to the bank and I met a guy from New York who married a Ghanaian when he met her as a merchant sailor here 4 years ago. He thought we were college students and then when he found out I was from the U.S., he thought I was from U.K. since I don't have an American accent anymore, he pounded his chest and was like represent. Cracked me up so much. His name is Gary and he is black so he fits in. That is about it from me. This week we are having our Christmas Conference which is always a nice surprise since I'll get to see some guys that I haven't for a while. I love you guys. Bye bye.

Christmas has come out of no where. Though I do like the sneakiness of it. I always use to think that Christmas was the season of love. Though I still love Eva's how it says Jesus is the reason for the Season. It is just classic. Our Christmas won't be too spectacular here. Probably the normal go out proselyte though we do get a sweet meal from an area seventy who lives in Accra. It is pretty tasty. I love you guys. Catch ya next week.
love Elder Gibson

Another week come and gone. Started hearing the Christmas music this week. Getting pretty excited for the whole holiday season. There is a place right by our apartment that sells movies and things and he always has a giant speaker out in the mornings playing it but then by the time we come home he is playing Ghanaian hip life or cools music. Our apartment was inspected this week by President and Sister Smith. They had a problem with people just staying up all night the before inspections cleaning so they now only give a 10-15 min warning. Lets just say it is amazing how clean you can make a place in even 10-15mins. Maybe with luck we'll get the cleanest apartment in our zone and earn some banana bread from Sister Smith. We'll have to see.

My companion decided that riding his bike made him tired and dirty so we decided to walk this week. It was pretty sweet. I like walking more because you can contact people a lot easier. I was a little disappointed when he was tired of walking and wanted to go back to bikes but either way at least we are moving. A random bit of service that somehow didn't have the payoff that I was hoping came on Saturday morning. As we were walking up a hill I noticed a lady trying to stack cinderblocks. So stepped in and finished up for her while Elder Saidu contacted her and was able to sit down to start teaching her. It was a pretty sweet lesson and then go figure her brother or cousin or maybe husband is a pastor at the church at the bottom of the hill and the cinderblocks is because they did a crusade for Christmas and are upgrading. Awesome. Who knows we do have a return appointment so we'll see what happens.

On Sunday we had Elder Dickson of the seventy to come and worship with us. It was awesome because he then came to our investigators class which is a first for when a seventy comes and visits for me. It was cool to met and talk to him. He only has one arm, his left one. That no doubt causes him some serious problems since in Ghana that left is considered dirty. You can't shake, hand, or even wave with it. Hopefully people are pretty understanding about it all. Sunday brought a nice surprise. Saturday we had spent a lot of time kind of giving basic run downs about the church and handing out pamphlets inviting people to come and visit us. Only one person showed up but what was special is that this lady is probably pushing 90 and doesn't speak a lick of English. We had contacted her daughter and kind of passed over her since the language barrier but surprise surprise. Now we just have to have approval to teach her and find a translator. Probably need to figure out what her Christian name is too since I can't actually pronounce her Ga name. It is kind of reminds me of hispanic names that are about long enough to make me want to take a nap. Another guy, Christian Baiden, that we had taught showed up to church and was really impressed. Enough he said that he wants to bring his whole family next time. Now our only problem is he works for Coca-Cola driving a truck from Tema(the main harbor) to Kumasi. It isn't too far but because of the road and police barriers it takes a long time. So hopefully he doesn't get a call on Thursday or Friday.

One other cool thing that happened at church was a man name Joseph Kyei who we've been teaching told us afterward that he needs the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and even the church printed Bible since it has the footnotes and the dictionary. Now we just have to see where it all goes for sure. This morning I went and tried to buy some carvings but the guy must have gone to church since he was a Rasta. I don't know if anyone really knows much about Rastamen but when they go to church they basically go and smoke the weed of wisdom. The guy was about as high as a kite and he didn't show any signs of coming down anytime soon.That is about all from me. Love ya guys!

Funerals do have a benefit of family coming together. Makes me appreciate the plan of salvation so much more knowing that people aren't just gone when we bury them. They have a continued purpose and because of that so do I. Something that I've thought about this week is how unique prayer is. Basically my whole mission I've been praying silently but this week I've been trying to be more vocal and to me it is amazing the kind of difference it makes. Even just in focusing about what I'm praying about seems to improve.
love Elder Gibson

And a Merry Christmas to ALL

Well this was a pretty discouraging week. Guess it was a good thing everyone wrote pretty upbeat letters about enjoying Thanksgiving. I did get to go on splits with Elder Pearson who is one of our Zone Leaders. It was nice to be able to have someone I didn't feel quite like I was having to lead by the hand. Too bad that same night about 1:30 the lights went out. Unfortunately we didn't get them back on till Thursday. Then we had our water run out which is never a fun experience. Going along with that we had some of our investigators basically drop like flies. A member made us cake though. She was going to make pineapple upside down cake but couldn't find cherries and didn't want to buy a pineapple so it was a cake in the shape of a fish. It was pretty fun though. We had to go and get gas this week in our cylinder and since it is so far we get a taxi. The taxi driver agreed on a certain amount and when we got back to our apartment he demanded double. He said he was going to just take the gas as collateral but I gave him the money picked up the gas and just walked in. I guess he tried to follow me but everyone who lives in our compound basically put him to shame for going back on his word.

We had interviews with President Smith this week. Kind of the highlight for sure. It was kind of that end of the week pick me up that I needed. Too bad Saturday basically beat it all down again. We had planned a baptism for 5 people. Yep, none of them showed up. Definitely was heartbreaking. Especially when we tried to call and visit and it seems like most of them have dodged us. Didn't really help that Saturday is the Islam version of Easter according to the Muslim lady we live by. I didn't quite understand why they celebrate Easter since that is Christian but I wasn't about to argue. The bad part is that even though it is a Muslim holy day everyone goes and parties. At least Christmas is close. Our zone is planning on a service project of going to a hospital. Don't know when that will be but it probably will be lots of fun. Thats is about all from me this week. I love you guys! Thanks for the sweet emails about Thanksgiving.

I have to also agree that Mom and Dad are way good teachers. Something I've always noticed is the time that they put into preparing. Both put in a lot of effort. I love you guys. Thanks for the email!
love Elder Gibson

Happy Turkey Day to You

Wow a whole year of being in Ghana. Definitely has been an experience. This past week went pretty good for us so that was nice. Something that was pretty interesting was that last Monday as we were out proselyting this guy's car must of run out of gas and the cars had backed up behind him and were just honking him to death but no one offered to help him push his car to the petrol station. We crossed the road and without letting the guy really see us helped him push his car to the station. He was really surprised when I came from the passenger side and I was white. His name is Kelvin and he is a pastor. Bad luck for us. Though he was really impressed and called us about three times that night to let us know how much he appreciated it. Maybe we planted a good seed. Went to one of our investigators one year old son's birthday party. That rocked till the guests started drinking so we left. I learned how to make a turban this week too. Good thing they serve a purpose because it wasn't comfortable at ALL.

We had Leadership Training this week which is always a pretty sweet experience. They talked mostly about how we can be more efficient . We found dominoes in our apartment and basically have become addicted to playing. Well mostly Elder Richards and me. We met a lot of really interesting people this week. One of them is named Joseph Kyei. He went to his sister's house and took her pamphlet, ended up reading it and wants us to teach him. Met another lady named Dora Quartey. Left a pamphlet after teaching about how Jesus had a church and when we came back she had read it and actually had taken the time to write her questions down. She was unable to commit to coming to church this week but this next week she said she will already make plans to be there so we'll see what happens. Saturday of course was a nice day. Pretty low key. Just went out and worked. The night was different though. Of course I went out to eat and I had invited missionaries who lived right across the road from the restaurant. Ended up that they invited some other people and when it was all said and done there was 16 elders there. Would have loved to taken pictures but since some of them had completely left their zones they wouldn't let us. I was really really angry at them for being stupid. It was good. Picture enclosed about what I ate. Sunday we had Stake Conference. Man there were a ton of people there! The stake was made a full strength unit from a basic unit which is cool. Especially since in the last two years our stake has doubled and if the trend continues they will be able to split it before I come home even. Elder Golden and Elder Ahadje both of the Seventy were there. President Smith was there as well. It was a really good feeling when he was talking he had us stand up and said that he had reviewed over each of the missionaries in the room and with no exceptions he puts his full faith in us. True it might of been just to ease the member's mind but it is nice to think about. :D This morning we went to the biggest market in Accra and I think even Ghana. It is Mokola Mall/Cantomentals. Basically anything you want is out on the street. The rumors go that if you even want it you can buy ANYTHING there. Just have to ask the right people. I was thinking maybe a kidney if mine fails or something. It is basically really crowded and I just entertain myself by surprising people that I can greet them in their language. They fall for it every time. That is about all of the excitement from my side of the pond. Love you guys!

I had a fun time celebrating. It was kind of a normal day though. Since being on my mission I've had big and little experiences. The little ones I think are the more powerful since they are the more frequent. It has been the little things that have strengthened my testimony in the gospel far more then anything large. I love you guys and wish you the best during Thanksgiving!
love elder gibson

Well what a week. Last Monday we went to the house of a member of the stake presidency for a Family Home Evening since Elder Frimpong and Ezinwa were both leaving our ward. Too bad I almost got left by the trotro we were riding in. It works like a bus and lets people off along the way. So I had to move to let someone get out and the trotro took off without letting me get back in. I had to chase it down the road banging on the side of it so they would listen to the missionaries left inside. Then that same trotro decided he was going to be king of the road and not let someone merge in from the main traffic. So then we had a drag race. Thankfully some lady with a baby freaked out at our driver and told him to be serious and then insulted him. It was great. I was so glad that we could get off of that ride.

Wednesday was transfers and I was pretty nervous picking up my new companion. Ends up that out of a group of 15 elders I got the one that was from Sierra Leone. His name is Elder Saidu. He is way chill but being with him just kind of makes me wonder if when I first started if I was kind of so out of place. Don't remember it quite like this but who knows. It is a pretty good time though. He is a funny guy though he is kind of quiet. I got to help breast feed a few rabbits this week. Oh and yes a picture is attached. I had a guy tell me after reading the pamphlet that Joseph Smith was looking for a True Lady. I thought that was great. Mostly because I think the guy was drunk when he called us but hey he at least read it! Elder Saidu has a little bit of a language barrier with the Ghanaians. Mostly of them think he is Muslims because of his name and don't get his English and want him to speak Hausa, the language Muslims speak. It is really funny to most people we meet that I have to step in and act like a translator. It is pretty fun though. I decided that puppies have to be one of God's greatest creations. One member named Abigail has two and I love playing with them when we go to teach her daughter Leticia, who we are hoping to have baptized. Something that I'm really disappointed about this week was on Saturday I started to bash with a guy about churches. Thankfully I have been able to stay away from it but I don't know why Saturday just came out. It was amazing to contrast how everything is different. The whole feel of the lesson changes for sure. I guess it goes to show that truly the spirit of contention is of the devil. Even after we left that appointment and went to others I still just had a sick feeling in my stomach and it seemed like it took a long time to go away. It is pointless to continue on in that kind of discussion and at least Elder Saidu was able to realize it early. That is about all that really happened with us this week.

This upcoming week we are planning on having a baptism. We have to have some interviews done though. One for abortion and another for someone being in a polygamist relationship. It kind of wears on you when you have to keep doing interview after interview for your candidates. It is crazy to see how lightly most people treat those kind of things though for sure. Today has been pretty sweet. A missionary whose parents came to pick him up ate lunch with us. His name is Elder Boam. He is from Utah and now well he'll be home in less then 24 hours. The best part was his parents bought us pizza! Wow did it taste amazing! I love you guys!

Sometimes everything seems like such so small coincidences that we miss out on how big the little miracles actually are. I love you guys!
love elder gibson

This week went pretty good for us. We had Zone Conference which was pretty sweet. We had it in our meeting house which was nice not to have to fight through the traffic in the morning. We opened the doors and as President Smith came in he called me to the side and told me that this upcoming transfer I will be training a straight out of the MTC Elder. We'll have to see how that goes. That same day I went on splits to do some baptismal interviews. One of the best parts was right at the end. On the tro tro ride back to our apartment a guy sat next to me and kept sneaking looks at me and so I contacted and kind of shared the message of the restoration. He doesn't live in any area that is really that close but we hooked him up with the number of the missionaries where he stays so hopefully it all works out. I saw a guy wearing a shirt that I have back home. The one that says Save a Cow Eat a Vegetarian. Made me laugh. I wanted to stop him and ask for a picture but we were late to an appointment. We have an investigator now named Edward Zanoo. He is going to school and his boss is a member. He is way sweet but man he loves to go off on the craziest tangents. Last time it went to Scientology and ghosts. Always is a good time. We'll have to see how it plays out with him. There is another investigator that has a cool story. Her name is Helan she just finished the equivalent of High School. We taught her and she came to church when we watched conference. When we went to see her this week her sister Ophelia joined us. What was sweet is that Helen had taught her sister exactly taught her. After the lesson we talked to her parents who both said that next time they were going to make time to join us after hearing a little bit of what Helen and Ophelia said. Something else that went pretty good this week is we gave a baptismal date to two investigators. Kobby Essel and Mary Joshua. Luckily they live with a member so it has been kind of easy going with them. It will be sweet if it works out to have them baptized on the 21st since it will be my year mark. We'll see if it happens. So Saturday we got the transfer call. Elder Frimpong will be going to a place called Oda. It is more like being in the jungle so I was pretty jealous. Our apartment will lose two. Elder Richards will stay and finish his mission with an Elder from the Ivory Coast. I'll probably have an American or Nigerian companion but I don't find out till I pick him up on Wednesday. Last night we didn't have any water so we had to fetch it. Didn't think people would stop watching soccer to see four guys carrying water on their heads. I got tired of using small buckets so I said we should just go get our big bucket and carry it. Yeah bonus points to me because we finished it in one trip. Though I had to command someone to help me carry it. It was a pretty fun adventure, at least we were able to bathe. That is basically the highlights of the week. Hope everyone is doing great!

That is a super sweet story about the Madrid Temple. The Accra Temple has a similar story I guess. It is built on basically the main road of Accra which is the capital. I mean around the temple there are embassies for Canada, Holland, America, and some other countries. Along with even the President Mansion. Like the White House but times at least 10. Ghana's government then didn't want the temple anywhere near where it is. The Church owned the land but weren't allowed to begin building. By and by things just opened up so that nothing could stop the progression of it. Guess you can just see God's hand in everything for sure. Love ya guys!
travis

Glad this week was Halloween. A lot of strange things that aren't really explainable any other way went down. One of them was that our iron completely stopped working when I was using it. I was ironing my shirt trying to get ready to sell myself for the day and it just quit having any heat. Something must have gotten messed up with the current I guess. Strangely enough our office elders passed by and had fresh out the box iron for us to take. Just some funny things like that. I even found this place that sells American candy too. A lady or her sister something travels to America and she brought a bunch of like sam's club big bags of things. It is this little salon thing on kind of an out of the way road. No one buys it besides me so I keep trying to have them lower the price of the pieces. I went on a split this week and it was amazing how relaxed it was. I didn't really have to worry as much about the entire day. It was a nice break for sure. Elder Richards the English guy is getting ready to go home for sure. There was one day that he had his companion put on his socks and shoes and then his tie too. Luckily he was just messing around and being funny.

The first one is of a girl in the ward. We ate fufu at her house.

A recent convert that was baptized before I came named Justice told us a sweet story about how he was reading his Book of Mormon and as he described it his room filled with light. It was a cool story to hear from him. This week was also a week of white people. It seems like they descended on Kaneshie in their numbers. First was these 4 German girls who are teaching here and were buying food on the street. Then there were these 2 Canadians who I met in kind of a grocery store though to you it would seem more like a gas station. It was pretty cool to talk to them. I got a taste of what missionaries in those respective countries go through as we tried to contact. It was met with much more limited success. Saturday brought a whole different kind of problem. There was a marathon that had part of its course go through our area. Man definitely was not the place for a white guy on a bike to be. The spectators were not serious. It was all good nothing bad really happened.

The Halloween ties we bought, Tried doing creepy/scary faces
and just got the stalker stare.

With it being Halloween I decided to introduce a sweet tradition of carving the whole jack o lantern. Too bad we couldn't find any pumpkins. So kind of looking at our options I was like watermelons would work. Yeah you need to check out the pictures because yeah it was great. It was sweet as we put them on a bench on the side of our apartment all glowy and such. Even better was when late late late Saturday night our landlord's son who lives in the hostel in front of our apartment comes knocking on the door asking if they were ours. I guess some of the people in the hostel had come back from partying/whatever and had gotten scared. I guess a few of our neighbors got superstitious thinking that we were casting spells and performing juju and what not. Probably was bad planning on my part. Should of guessed that someone would look at a watermelon and their thoughts go to dark sinister arts. The best thing is that no one besides landlord junior knows that they were ours.

These are the watermelons that we started with

Elder Richards first reaction was to do

Some reason I was the only one capable of scooping
them out without destroying them.

May I introduce you to Kwame the pumpkin and his pet agyinamoa.

So Sunday we got to watch two sessions of conference. We were able to see Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. It was really good. Though it was very long for a few of our investigators. It was way good about some of the talks that were given. I really enjoyed President Monson's from Sunday morning. A lot of the things that he shared about service I guess helped me to see I can do a better job. It was really sweet though because when they showed the Tabernacle Choir I saw Mr. Hansen and Elder Richards saw some guy that is English that had talked at one of his stake conferences or something. With it being fast Sunday we also went to Momma Lee's. We didn't get to stay too long because another family invited us to eat grass cutter (muskrat). It might of been good though because a few missionaries was looking at Momma Lee's pictures and some of them went missing so we weren't there for all that drama.

Though its face is definitely a little crooked. Hope everyone enjoys them.

This is how banku and kind of kenkey get their beginnings.

It smells like silage when you are rolling the powder in water
and packing it tight to let the flavor kind of mix and add '
some fermentation.

This week was a pretty good one for all of us here. Our district meeting this week was pretty chill. Until out of no where our neighbors started having a fight. It sounded like dishes and maybe even the kitchen sink getting tossed around. This week I definitely re-realized that Ghanaian food isn't eaten because it tastes good they just want to put as much as they can cram into their stomachs. I ate lots of cookies and fanice just to try and get something that tasted good. We went to this neighborhood called race course. It is built in a circle and yeah maybe we treated it as a race course until Elder Frimpong almost fell over. I did get to sit in a leather chair this week. Too bad it was disgusting as a little kid, probably 6 or 7 just kept swearing like a sailor as he watched soccer on tv. I'm guessing he picked it up from his dad. The lesson wasn't too interesting for me since it was mostly in Twi. The lady named Mary speaks one one English so thankfully Elder Frimpong is Ghanaian.

We had a sweet experience this week of using a member to help us fellowship an investigator. We are teaching a lady and her son. We felt like talking to a Liberian named Tony to come with us to the appointment for the son and ended up that the mother happened to be in and that she use to be a nurse and that Tony had come to her to be treated for Malaria when his family first moved to Ghana. It was sweet to see all the quirky coincidences. A lady in the ward named Sis. Otoo invited all the missionaries in the ward over to her house and fed us a huge plate of rice and even threw in a mineral to boot. It was pretty sick especially since all our appointments had kind of disappointed us that day. Another member gave us fufu too and the soup totally made me think of blood. Picture definitely included. I crashed my bike again this week. I was riding at night through kind of a junkyard/mechanic shop area. Part of the place has kind of a small hill and didn't realize that a water pipe or barrel had broken and leaked across the road. I was clipping along and my front tire just dropped into the mud and I went over the handlebars. It was sweet cause I did a front handspring and was able to land on my feet right in front of frame from a tro tro. Glad I didn't get tangled up with that.

Next is a typical ghanaian table setting for a fufu dinner. This was the soup that reminded me of blood. It was pretty sweet I guess. When I first put it in my mouth I wondered if I hadn't bitten my tongue because it kind of tasted like blood. It is just oil and tomato paste, I think. Have a great week! Love ya!


Teaching this week we had a new investigator named Xena. Took me back to the Xena Warrior Princess show from when I was a small boy. So found out that Elder Anderson, as in the apostle, came to Ghana on Thursday. He met with the single adults and I guess the missionaries didn't fit into his schedule unfortunately. Maybe another time. Friday we had a really interesting lesson. A member girl said one of her schoolmates wants to come to church so we were shown the house and taught her. On our way back we were stopped by a group of Muslim guys wanting us to teach them. It was probably our sweetest lesson of the day. We talked about the similarities between the two religions and kind of left it at that. It was sweet to see a few of them coming to church, though they said they were just wanting to see how it was not that they were really interested in knowing more. Uh Saturday there was a baptism. One of the other wards was there with us and they had a woman so fat that she couldn't fit into any of the clothes we had so they had to rush and find something large enough. I think they took an old curtain and used it when I looked at her. Something that was really funny that I noticed today was how everyone kept asking us how the weekend was and I just wanted to tell them it hadn't started yet that our weekend was Monday and that was about it. Anyway that was most of our adventure for the week. Hope everyone is doing well.

For Halloween I think I'll just bust out this sweet orange and black tie that I bought a few weeks back and call that good. They don't actually celebrate Halloween here so yeah a small bummer.

love travis

Walking down the street with no one around. Kind of like
siesta besides not being nationally recognized.

Another week of living in Kaneshie. This last week I went on splits with one of our zone leaders. His name is Elder Southwick and he is from sugarcity, Idaho. It was way chill day since Kaneshie was his last area so after teaching some of our people he showed me where a lot of the member's homes were. This week it seemed like we had a real struggle with people choosing the world over God. Tetteh Oaklet and his family own and run a furniture store. They recieved a massive order and because of it were unable to keep their appointments and come to church. Lots of things like that have seemed to pop up lately. Have to do our best to surpress it. Riding around on our bikes we kind of found a new area that it doesn't really seem missionaries have visited much. If they have it has been a long time since anyone has proselyted there. I saw a fight this week, super rare. People in Ghana when they get really really angry just kind of yell at each other as a crowd gathers and usually nothing physical happens. This time though it must have been way serious. They started getting into. One of the guys had a friend hand him a piece of something and he was whipping the other guy with it. Worst part of all it was that no one did anything to stop them. Just let them continue as they watched. We had some sweet question and answer sessions this week with people we've contacted. One time we were in the market and a guy just came up and flat out told us that he didn't like our church. Unfortunately Elder Frimpong decided he was going to try and convince him otherwise. After hearing it for a little bit I got bored of hearing them share opinions about things so I stepped in and cut Elder Frimpong and told him just to bear his testimony because our time isn't worth spending if someone wants to argue with us when we can find plenty of people who will be interested. Must of cut the guy pretty deep because he actually asked for a pamphlet before we left.

A view of the temple. Still trying to get Elder Frimpong to
understand where to line the camera up at.

A view of the temple. Still trying to get Elder Frimpong to
understand where to line the camera up at.

This is Elder Richards. He thinks he is a lady's chap. I'll admit
though very pretty girls send him pictures so yeah.

We had a temple trip this week. Definitely was a nice experience. We ended up getting to the temple a hour early and had a chance to just sit and wait for our session to start. Friday the U-20 World Cup Championship was played. It was Ghana vs. Brazil. All of our appointments basically fell through because everyone was watching the game. We ended up catching the last bit. They played into extra time and it went to pentalty kicks and Ghana won. It was crazy to see how people went out into the streets and just kind of partied like it was the real world cup or something. The worst part was the next day people were kind of failing appointments. Some were too tired from the activities of the night before, some of them were out still celebrating, etc etc etc. Plus since I'm white and they think everything is about race they rubbed it into my face that they beat my people. Probably the only chance I have in life to pass off as a brazillian and it happened in Africa.

This was the celebration in front of our apartment after Ghana won.

This was the celebration in front of our apartment after Ghana won.

Saturday something really funny happened too. Some apostalic church was celebrating its 40th anniversary of being a church and they organized a walk, basically to get donations. So on one side of the street you have about 400 or 500 apostalic church members all dressed up and on the other side two missionaries just kind of like wow, wonder if we should contact them. I wanted to take a picture but figured it might cause some problems so didn't. Sunday was interesting. Our gospel principles class didn't have a teacher show up so they picked me to teach about the Kingdoms of Glory. Yeah teaching about all of them for over a hour isn't that easy on the spot. Hopefully they got something from it because it was rough. We did have an investigator come and tell us that he and his mother want to be baptized. He is Frank Abbey and his mother is 85 which is pretty old for here. They just have three funerals in a row which means about a month or two months of weekends down the drain. They take their funerals serious here. He came because we've been coming by the house with no result and wanted us to know he is serious and everything just needs to take care of the family. Guess you kind of have to take them like they come.

Early this morning I woke up and decided to organize our materials.
It's okay to be jealous that you don't have as many pamphlets as us.

This little girl just kept coming up to me at church. No idea if she
even belongs to anyone in our ward or whatnot. She is adorable
though. Kept wanting to take her shoes off though.

Okay baptism with the crew

I knew a mission would be work but what's this?

This last week definitely had its interesting points. My first District Meeting was certainly exciting. The assistants came as their first trip around all the districts to kind of check up on everybody. It went over okay though. One of them was trained in this ward and the other served in the other ward that meets in the same building so it was cool as we talked about the ward they could relate to the people we have been working with. As most everyone here is converts you have to do a lot of I guess member training for how things are done in the ward. This ward seems to be pretty set though. The bishop is really really good. His brother was living in the mission home too when I first came on my mission. Tuesday was also the first baptismal interview that I did. It is for a man named Joe Appiah, and he is a doctor. He mixes the tribal traditional and modern medicine for bones. He use to do a lot more but now he just works out of his house and does smaller things. Like setting broken arms and the such. He is a way cool guy though. He was referred by the family of an ex-seventy Elder Adjei. It was nice to see the support he received from them.

I was tired of studying one morning so yeah!

Liberty Jail mugshot

This week we started teaching a lady, Sis. Mausi, who just happens to be really really good friends with Elder Frimpong's mother. He is from Kumasi, Cape Coast side, and she recently moved to Accra and well just kind of works out. Always is a good sign when you go for the first appointment and after finishing teaching they won't let you leave because they prepared some food for you. Ooookay . . . and the fact that she came to church on time and with her Book of Mormon was good too. So this week it made me really glad that missionaries aren't suppose to give personal council about things because we were asked about it a lot and thankfully when it got past just little trivial things we could just pass it off and say sorry can't help you out, but you do have a bishop to talk to. One of the members, Bro. Menson, and I got into I guess an argument of some kind this week. We had finished teaching his daughter and it was our last appointment and began to talk about soccer and everything. It came out that Christiano Ronaldo, reigning World's Best Player, got hurt or something. He went off on how some lady had come forward claiming that she had contacted a fetish priest to curse him so that he would get hurt and never be able to play again. Being the typical over superstitious Ghanaian he was totally buying it and we went back and forth about it. It was pretty lighthearted but he told me that I'm too American to understand. Saturday we had a baptism for his daughter though. It went good and kind of normal. The candidate arrived 30mins late, then the bishop 30mins after that so that by the time the baptism should of been over it started. We did have to talk to our ward mission leader and explain that he doesn't hold the keys to preside over a baptism unless the bishop gives him permission.

A couple stories up with the city lights behind me

This is Sabina Menson, probably the most mature out of
anyone in that family. She is way beyond her own years.

Gotta love teaching opportunities. We did get to go to a wedding that night though. A member had gotten it cleared to use the cultural hall for his cousin's wedding or something. Part of the deal was that the missionaries were invited to come and drop as many pamphlets as we wanted and talk to people, and of course they fed us. It was really good. People were giving us really funny looks but eventually we kind of broke the ice and just went table to table sitting down talking about the church handing out pamphlets. Unfortunately most of the people don't' live anywhere near our chapel. I guess planting seeds counts for something at least. Plus they fed us fried rice, jollof rice, omo tuo (rice balls), and then these yam balls that taste just like fried mashed potatoes! Yeah it was pretty fun they even put some in a rubber bag for us to take home with us. Sunday our ward did a Primary program. It is amazing to see the difference in the one here then the one I went to in Ashaiman. Kind of night and day for sure. These kids seemed to know the songs and they actually seemed to enjoy themselves. After church you saw kids having crackers and drinks though so I think they bribed them. Taking a page from the Ghanaian government on getting people to do what you want for sure.

This is Aunty Aggie. This lady sold me basically everything
I ate in Ashaiman. Plus was my "den-mother" I guess. Not
a member and doesn't want to hear about it. Too many
missionaries have tried.

This dog is from Ashaiman. I hate it, it hates me, so we were able to
coexist somewhat peacefully because we didn't want to try each other out.

When the office couple came and inspected our apartment they saw my bike and decided tape and things weren't very safety conscious so they brought me a new one. So now my bike is sitting at a bike shop since the new one they brought me is broken too. All in all it was a pretty good week. Hopefully this week will go forward just as nice. I miss seeing lawns myself. Most people here just have dirt.

love elder gibson

Welcome to Kaneshie. This week definitely has gone by quickly with all the changes. It was really sad for me to leave Ashaiman. It has been a good place and I learned a lot but I guess always moving forward. <---- Okay that is actually a very Ghanaian saying. The now President used it as his slogan for the elections about a year ago. Wednesday was the transfer day. Missionaries being transferred all go to the mission home so it was pretty much a party for a hour or two as you are waiting for everything to get sorted out. The first impression of my companion was a little different but go figure, that is usually how it goes. His name is Elder Frimpong and he is from Ghana, but from the Cape Coast Mission side. He is 25 and was a teacher before coming on his mission. He has been on his mission not quite two months yet so it makes for lots of teaching opportunities.


That first night we met a family who is very nice named the Mensons. The father has been in the church for going on 20 years and loves missionaries and tells stories about all the ones that have served in his wards. The daughter is going to catering school and is making cakes as assignments and then trying to sell them. Gave into a guilty pleasure and bought one. Yeah, Ghanaians don't truly understand what cake is suppose to be. They try though so it is all good, that cake disappeared quick enough.

Saturday we had a leadership training meeting. Kind of shocked me into everything that a district leader has to do. All of it kind of makes him the center of all the downward delegation. It is sweet though because the people in our district are pretty good and what not. My companion is the only one I haven't lived with before and that is because he is so new. Something different about my new area is the heat. I wasn't in the city and had fields around and everything but now I'm back to the straight up concrete jungle and less vegetation so the heat is a whole new experience from what I've been used lately. It is also much more commercial style with houses scattered round about. It is good though because there is a definite separation of I guess what you'd call "classes" of people. Find the poor and you've got the humble for the most part. Church was very refreshing. My last ward was somehow filled with apathy from most of the leaders but this new one treats their job more seriously. Hopefully it isn't just an act at church though, this week should let me know. I learned that we have a zone dinner every fast Sunday which is going to be awesome.

A lady in a ward that meets in our building named Momma Lee makes fried rice and chicken every fast Sunday for the missionaries in our zone. Some of them can't come though because it is so far, we are lucky that it is less then a 20min bike ride. I learned a new saying that I guess is really big in the city right now. It is HOT CAKE. I thought it meant that it was selling like hot cakes but they put a new spin on it. Their meaning is that it is off the sheldango. The best of the best around. It was funny when one guy I contacted asked me if the church was the hot cake. So I have a question, who is Westlife? It is some boy band but the people here are eating it up. They love to watch music videos here because they believe everything they see on telly is real and they can't stop watching westlife. Today we went to one of what you'd call an underground market. Parts of it are kind of dug out and what not. My companion wanted to see if he could find yeah something I didn't really get what he was saying. I was having a pretty good time just browsing around and I guess window shopping and talking to some of the shop keepers in Twi. Then you know you always are going to get that group who want to heckle. A group of guys heard and called me over because they don't think you can learn their language if you aren't born here. One guy thought he would be funny and try to outsmart me and speak a different language, Ga, and got a sick look on his face when I answered back. Then his buddies laughed at him and one of them tried to confuse me using Hausa. Obroni 2 and the black guys 0. Did get me some sweet contacts, too bad they don't live in our area. After that we went to some appointments, one was with the Mensons's oldest daughter who will be baptized on Saturday. It was good. Her father wanted us to teach from some manual about the Healing Power of Forgiveness, it was a little unexpected but she has already had all the lessons so there wasn't much else for us to do. That is about the adventure that we had this week. Talk to you next time.


elder gibson

This is on a wall by our apartment
A really funny girl. This is Lois, we baptized her because her mom isn't a member.

This is rice with kontombra stew (oil, leaves, fish, and add some more oil)

This is a little girl whose mom is a member but didn't want to be seen I guess.

This past week we had our zone conference. That is always pretty good. This time it was focusing on going to where the investigators are. Not being senseless robots who go lesson 1 2 3 . . . etc. Also they instructed us a about the importance of the Book of Mormon. Especially President Smith. He stressed how much we should be reading, studying, and teaching from it. He has challenged us to take a softcover version, the ones we hand out, and mark it with four colors. Red for anytime they say Jesus Christ, one of his names, or a pronoun meaning him. Orange is for anything that Christ says directly or through the prophets e.g. Thus saith the Lord;. Green is for the Christlike Attributes from Preach My Gospel. Faith, Charity, Obedience and the rest. Then blue is the color for any doctrine or principle of the gospel. He challenged us to complete it by Dec 16th, our Mission Christmas Conference but I am going to try and have it done before my year mark comes up so that I can go back through and re-read what I marked. Something really funny that happened that day was a lady yelled at kids begging us for money. She was in a multi-story apartment and just yelled, "what kind of life is that? It was great to look at the faces of the kids as it dawned on them what she was saying. We had a member, Frank Agyepong (baptized him like 2 months ago) invite us over for lunch this week. That has been a rareity since Elder White doesn't eat much Ghanaian cusine because it constipates him way bad. We explained that he had a little issue so instead of some fufu, banku, or even rice they gave us a sandwich. A bread and butter sandwich. Probably one of the hardest things I've had to choke down in front of someone acting grateful. It seemed like it was over an inch thick. At least they tried to give us some hot chocolate to go with it. It was really watered down and WAY too hot. I ended up having to down Elder White's because he wouldn't drink it when Frank left the room. At least he was willing to work out and we ate. Friday we got stuck in an investigator's, Sarah Adamu, house because the rain. She lives in a little wooden shed with a tin roof. We first thought little kids were throwing rocks on the roof because it was hitting so hard. Since about mid week it seems as if a lot of people loved to ask me questions about "my people".Guess I'm king of the whites now. Pesants. It was so aggrevating. Definitely is a struggle when we have people wasting our time because they just want to talk to the white guy. It might sound bad but it seems lately that the spiritual atmosphere at our baptisms has been brought down by the members. A lot of them just don't understand the word reverence or how to control their children. It went alright though and everyone ended up getting wet. Saturday also saw us getting a sweet referral. A member who owns kind of an office supply thing here. He prints, copies, etc. Had a Book of Mormon at his shop and a younger guy came in asking about it. He'd heard of it and wanted to buy one. We called him and arranged to meet him. The lesson went a long great with Levi and of course ended with us giving him a copy but what makes it stand out was his closing prayer. We like to have those being taught give the closing prayer to help them know how and be used to praying verbally. He was a little hesitant but even there he asked God to show him the truth in the book and the missionaries words. Just the way he said it you could feel his desire and knew he felt like he was talking to someone besides just us. It was just sweet. This week is transfers and Saturday I was called to leave Ashaiman and go to a place called Kaneshie to be a District Leader. Kaneshie is right by the area that I served before, Lartebiokorshie. That made Sunday a pretty busy day with everyone wanting to say their goodbyes and everything. The best thing was having a man named Wisdom Attivro, baptized sept 12th, and have him tell us that he was so glad we met when we did. Who he worked for had gotten some kind of building contract and he was basically now so busy he would have never had time or even the patience to try everything out. It was sweet to hear that we had hit his window of time perfectly. It has been fun here but I'm excited to get to leave and see new faces and places for sure.

Up on the roof

Well another pretty chill week here in Ghana has gone by. It seemed like we spent a lot of time walking back and forth this week. One day it was because kept having pretty much everything we had planned to do fail and so we were left to grasping around trying to get a footing and the other day because we were just so busy with everything. It was sweet to notice the difference between the two days. I am so thankful for when all the kind of time and effort we put into our planning was worthwhile. Something else that was special about this week is we had one of our recent contacts, Celestina Gavie, invite her family to listen to the gospel. It is so much sweeter because Celestina is the lady who doesn't understand probably 45% of everything said at church but she wanted to be baptized because she could work on the language but hadn't ever felt like she did when she is at the church. It is nice to see that not only we as missionaries like to share but so do people in our ward, though it isn't the majority. There is a part of my area that is somehow more remote and definitely rural then the rest called Jericho. We decided to go up there since Elder White hasn't ever been. We don't spend a lot of time there since it is more elderly people with limited English and it is a farther distance from the chapel. The time we spent up there didn't really give us any results but it was nice to kind of get away from the clustered dirt and grime of the rest of my area. Guess it probably just kind of is more similar to being at home. Friday we received an interesting call. From the group of missionaries at the MTC one decided he wanted to run away. Since we are within a hour of walking distance of the MTC they called us. We didn't get many details besides that he didn't take his things and is Nigerian. It blew me away that someone would just run away. I mean it isn't like someone is going to force you to stay. You literally can ask to be sent home. There hasn't been any word about him, at least that has been passed onto the missionaries. Hopefully he'll be alright though. Saturday we had a baptism that was very frustrating. First off people we had checked with for helping us didn't show up. Then the member of the bishopric didn't show up either. After blowing up some people's phones we were able to arrange everything and hold the baptism. Later that day the Elder's quorum held a ghanaian cookout I guess. They had huge things of lyte soup(spicy runny tomato soup) and way too much fufu for anyone's good. They called it berimankwa which kind of translates to men in the kitchen. It was in preparation for the holy day today, sellah. It was a fun party. We had been asked to come and help them prepare in the early afternoon. It was funny since I was white a lot of them didn't trust me to pound fufu but had no problem with elder white doing it. It is made better by the fact elder white doesn't know how to pound it because he doesn't eat it. I got the job of helping prepare the soup. They had a big pot with two skinned and gutted goats in it and they couldn't figure out how to lift it using the typical Ghanaian methods and so I just stepped in and picked it up and carried it with my arms. It was all good until I set it down and as I squated my favorite pair of pants ripped HUGE. Guess I should take it easy on the rice and fufu or something. It was cool to see our ward actually interacting with each other though. Sunday was a busy day at church trying to get people to their classes and have everything work out. We had a man whose wife is Korean come with their two sons who look very Korean. It was sad to see how people in church would stare, point, and basically gossip about them. Made me really sad mostly because I get that everyday but for the two boys they believe they are Ghanaians since that is where they were born and have lived their entire lives. Everyone faces challenges though and each and everyone's are different. I did learn on Sunday that people here call smiling laughing. I had shown them a photocopy of my passport I keep for identification reasons and everyone commented that if it had been taken in Ghana I wouldn't of been allowed to laugh so much. That is pretty much everything that went down this week. Hope everyone else is doing wonderful!

Holy Ramadan! The Muslims are celebrating that right now and it makes our area pretty nuts at certain times of the day. I am getting really frustrated when we will be teaching a lesson and this giant loud speaker starts broadcasting their prayers and everything. Oh well I guess you have to work with you are given for sure. I can't believe that September is practically half way done, definitely don't know where it has gone. We met a really cool guy this week. His name is Gabriel. When I first met him I thought he was probably 20-22 but ends up he is 27 and is raising 3 kids. He is a foster parent to three boys ages 11-17. He was super chill. Plus it is always great when during the middle of your lesson he tells you that he feels some feeling he doesn't really recognize. Hopefully our explanation was good enough to help him understand what it was. I can't remember if we mentioned the Korean lady that we found and have been teaching. Anyway her name is Jennifer and her husband ends up use to be a pastor of some sorts. It was awkward when we went to teach him and he started busting out this memorized scripture sermons. Luckily we stood our ground and he ran out of breath and gave us a chance to plug in the restoration. Another cool thing about Felicia is since she is going to school she basically translated the pamphlets completely into braille. It is really too bad that she will be leaving and that where she is going to school doesn't have church presence. All in time. The guy that came from the United Kingdom is basically on a mission to get his friends into the church before he leaves. He ends up having a kid in his ward back in Wales who is from Arizona. He went to Sunrise Mountain and wrestled. I kind of know him because he and someone else almost got in a fistfight at the Moon Valley Tournament. We had a really tense moment this week. My companion's knee or leg started to hurt so he got a stick and used it as a walking stick. All of that was fine and dandy until some drunk guy decided he wanted the stick . . . and that he was a kung fu master. As we were walking along he comes out of no where and goes into a stance pretty much copied from any of the old school movies. We kind of laughed it off until he monkey fisted my companion and yeah. Thankfully it didn't elevate too much past that and we calmed him down and got him walking his own way again. Saturday we held a baptism. This week it went just fine. Even the girl from the previous week was baptized and no problems this time. It is a lot better when things go smoothly for sure. It was nice to have everything just wind down this week. Yesterday was a pretty lame day though. I just didn't feel good at all and felt all tired and worn out. Glad it was just in passing though. I hope that everything is going good for everyone back home.

Everything has been going pretty great for us this week. We had Zone Interviews on Tuesday which kind of always throws a little randomness into life. Makes you feel like you are playing catch up sometimes. I don't know if I have mentioned her but we are teaching this girl named Felicia who is blind. More or less we look at it as planting a good seed since she is 1. blind 2. and going to school outside of our mission in about 3 weeks. It is really cool to teach her, I've noticed how much we actually use sight in our lessons. It is a lot more then I would have ever thought. She has a braille frame that she can listen and take notes with. Since we don't have any braille literature we are hoping to leave her with small things using that. It is sweet to watch her basically punch it out and write certain things out. Another one of our investigators Kojo read something about the Articles of Faith somewhere and was really curious about it. Luckily Elder White had one of the pass along style cards with them on it from home. He told us that he has been praying and really wants to get baptized. Beautiful music to any missionaries ears. This week I went on splits with our new district leader Elder Osondu from Nigeria. It was a pretty routine day but go figure. He is a pretty cool guy. He actually asked me about going to ASU. He doesn't want to school in Nigeria and is I guess branching out. Though he said most likely he will stay somewhere in Africa. We are finishing preparing a girl named Lois Okorno, the 9 year daugther of a member, to be baptized. Friday we couldn't have a serious discussion regardless how hard we tried. We went in the morning and none of us could stop laughing. Then we said we would just have to come back and still she couldn't stop. It was all good though. Her father said he would talk to her and that is basically all we need since she is 9 and has already been going through primary. Another invesigator Gladys Wiafe, whose husband is a member, told us that she likes the church but doesn't feel comfortable since she doesn't have friends and her English is very very limited. I don't really know why or how I'm going to do it but I asked her if she would mind us trying and help her learn English. Hopefully we can make it work, I am thinking of using a member's help who is really into educating Ghana. You could say it is somehow his personal mission or something. So of course Saturday was my birthday, awesome, especially since it started out with a baptism. The guy who was suppose to baptize them didn't show up so I got to do it. It went along pretty fine till the last one a little girl. She is from the other missionaries and definitely wasn't ready. She was almost in tears as she got into the water. The witnesses and I calmed her down a little bit and thought everything was okay, boy were we wrong. After saying the prayer I brought her hand up to her nose and she plugged it but she let go as she was going into the water and had a big freak out. She reached up and grabbed my shoulder and flaied around a little bit. I almost thought of just submerging myself to get her all the way under but better judgement prevailed. As we came up she was just in tears and yeah bad situation. She went and met her mom, the missionaries, and me coming in the rear in the hallway. We couldn't calm her down and so she'll have to wait to be baptized. Anyway it was a pretty good baptism save for that little bump. The rest of the day was pretty normal, though it was unexpectionally hot. Must mean Christmas is getting closer since that is the hottest time of the year. I did find a sweet birthday surprse for myself. Walking down a street I spied what looked like a box of chewy granola bars. They weren't quite that amazing, instead they were some kind of French knock off. I will say it probably wouldn't compare to a real one but dang chocolate covered chocolate chip still tastes good, at least to my current expectations of taste. Something pretty creepy I learned on Saturday was exactly how Ghanaians believe in witches. I knew that hey were very superstious but it became so much clearer as we went to have a lesson with a recent convert and ended up watching a bit of a documentary about witches in Ghana. They basically think that if anything goes wrong or bad in life it is a witch that cursed you or blah blah blah. If you are accused of being a witch and aren't beaten to death they have literal witch communities that your relatives can take you to and drop you off. It is a lot more predominat in the North but it is still crazy to think about how it is very deeply rooted in their society. Though no big surprise, even in the church we have to deal a lot of stuff with them basically reverting back to the traditions of their fathers but guess there is a little bit of that everywhere in the world. On Sunday a man came from the United Kingdom of one of my recent converts in Ashaiman. It was sweet to talk to him and meet the man who basically did our missionary work for us. He was the one who introduced his family to the church and through phone calls, emails, etc. worked on his Dad accepting missionaries and being baptized. Plus he brought one of his sons, Clinton, from Britain and wants him baptized in Ghana. It will be sweet because I think as of now he is the only one of the family that is above 8 that isn't baptized. That is pretty much the excitement for the week here. Love you guys!

Whoa! Getting old, my last week as being a teenager! Last Tuesday it rained cats and dogs. It got to the point that we just stopped walking around getting disappointed and visited a member. He talked about his time in Italy it was sweet. On Wednesday President Cardon, Area President, and his wife did a mission tour. He came and talked about how small the earth and we are in respect to the rest of the universe. It was cool but I didn't really feel like I learned anything. At the beginning he shakes your hand and asks where you are from. So I said Taylor, Arizona, hometown proud, which he knows. I guess his family has some ranch outside of Airpine. It was as good meeting. My favorite part was when Pres. Cardon had President and Sister Smith bear their testimonies. It was really touching to hear them talk about their believes and they both related to how much they love us. Later as we were out working a little girl got a shock seeing me and could just stand and stare and say a white man in ghana. Yep. Thursday we contacted a house but everyone there only spoke twi but as we were leaving a boy came out and asked if he could talk to us for a few minutes. He is 15 and a Jehovah's Witness. He asked about if we could see God and about giving blood. It was amazing to see how much into the bible he was. Especially when I compare to how much time I was spending memorizing scriptures. This kid definitely has put in a lot of time. We went back and his parents said he is too young to talk to us but they said they'd think about it if he wants to. We'll see. The very next day we ended up being in the same compound house as Jehovah's Witnesses missionaries and this kid's dad was one. The people we were teaching wanted a "joint discussion" so we said cool. We talked about Joseph Smith and his vision and unsettled the J.W. They wanted to just bible bash with us and we basically put our foot down and wouldn't. Afterward the Dad said not to come back. Guess you win some and lose some. We prepared a few baptismal records this week and it is still surprising how parents don't even know the full name and birth date of their children. Even when their kids are there they themselves don't remember. Guess it is just a difference in our cultures. Saturday we were called to come and help with a baptism since their wasn't enough priesthood holders for witnesses etc. I was asked to give a talk about Baptism and the Holy Ghost. I realized that I wasn't prepared at all when the candidates came in. Two were under 10 and the other 11. Had to do some quick thinking to make it more relavant for them. With the Primary Anniversary there was a program. It was really funny because as the kids would sing they gave one girl a microphone and it kid of drowned out everyone else. They did good though. We are teaching an ex-muslism now christian lady named Sarah. This was her first Sunday of coming to church and even though it was late enough to miss sacrament meeting it was a blessing. She had been having some marital difficulites with her husband and it had delayed her. We had combined Relief Society and Priesthood and it was all about living happy righteously and providently with your spouse. I think, it was kind of in Twi. Either way she said it really helped her out. Definitely can tell the church is true when it has something for everyone. My email is a lot later this week since we went to Tema and played games at the MTC. They have 60 something kids there and when they all are outside it almost makes their yard feel too cramped. It was good though. The missionaries in the MTC loved when we were playing soccer that I would call for the ball and everything in Twi. Too bad I don't know more of it. Hope everyone has a great week.