News from Ghana

Well this week was pretty low key. I spent three days just
walking around since my companion went through seven
bikes, his pedal broke and has to be welded back on, and
none of them were good enough so I told him why don't
we just walk. It was great, mostly since he didn't think I
would be able to handle it because he thinks I'm soft. I told
him forget it when he tried to quit half way on Wednesday.
I really enjoy walking more. I get to notice a lot more things
and it is easier to talk to people. For two and a half days this
week we had an Elder Kivaya from Kenya with us. His
companion is from Burley, ID and he has been really sick.
They couldn't diagnose him here so he got sent back home
and Kivaya was with us till the other two elders from his area
could come to Accra, he serves in a bush area called Oda which
is about 3 hrs away. He was a way hard worker, but he always
was complaining about how hot the sun was or something. It
got old REAL fast. Everything else was pretty routine.

My hairy beast of a leg and my sweet battle
wound from the last bike wreck.

I got to help with a baptism by the other elders in our district.
In total there was 5 baptized. In the next six week cycle we
should have at least 5 or 6 getting baptized which will be
pretty exciting. This could be my last week here at the mission
home though since transfers are on march 5th. Either I'm
leaving to somewhere new or staying here for another 3 months.
Since my companion leaves after this next transfer they have to
bring someone in this transfer to know the area or I would get to
show them everything. I am kind of hoping I stay since the office
couples, Elder and Sister Hale, invite the missionaries at the
mission home for Sunday dinner. It is American food and we get
to eat as much as we want because she cooks plenty. Plus we get
to watch the mission approved movies. Like yesterday we
watched The Incredible's as we were waiting. Sis. Hale loves
me because I always help her in the kitchen since it reminds
me of being back home and plus she cooks lots of food.


There is another elder at the mission home this week. He
is an Elder Pearson from Utah. He had Meningitis and has
to get a shot every morning in his IV tube that is still in his
hand. He is pretty funny and what not. He came in the group
before me, the one that was record breaking in the church
news.

Who says that money is green? yeah they don't know.

This morning I made an indomie burrito. Indomie is like top
ramen. I make the noodles and then I drain them and mix
them with two eggs and fry the eggs like an omelet so that
the noodles are in the middle. I have to admit I was worried
it wouldn't taste very good but I love it. I wanted to add
peppers and stuff but our fridge has been on the blitz
the last few days so all my vegetables and fruits got ruined.
I had bought a white pineapple too which was a great loss.
It is probably my favorite fruit here.

This is the main stadium in Accra. It is where they play
their national team soccer games. The last mission
President let the missionaries go to games,
but the new one hasn't decided if he would.

Today as I was walking across the courtyard at the mission
home from my apartment to the office this military helicopter
that was flying very very low went overhead. It was cool to see
one of those since whenever you hear or see an airplane the older
missionaries have a joke that they ask, "how far away is that
airplane elder?" First time I ever answered I said I don't know
five maybe six miles. They always just say nope, it is only 3 or
6 or however many months they have left. Then they ask you
again. Yeah it gets a little annoying since they do it over and over
and over. It is all good though they usually stop when I tell them
I just have more time to be a better missionary then them.
Yeah I know it isn't the smartest thing to say but it quiets them
down. I hope everything went good for everyone this week! Love ya.

Just another sweet picture of the temple here.
I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday.

I hope everything is going great with you guys! I love you and
wish you the best and keep you in my prayers!

Fun in Ghana

This week didn't really have too much more interesting stuff.
Last week was a lot more involved and everything with actually
adventure happening. The highlights for this week is that yes
the people of Ghana love valentines day, umm it rained for about
2 hrs one night, and I wrecked my bike again. Yeah working
on Saturday pretty much felt pointless since everyone we talked
to was either busy, too distracted to listen, or mostly if they
were female they wanted to know what our plans were. I guess
they wanted to hang out with the obruni or something. They
have all kinds of parties and everything. Along with a ton of
people getting married and having like bethrothal ceremony
or feasts? Yeah I don't really know but it was great. Strangely
enough more houses were decorated then what was at Christmas
time. I was told that my first Ghanaian Christmas was a little
lack luster because of the tense atmosphere caused by the elections.
So I guess I'll have to wait till next year to really see a Ghanaian
Christmas. I really enjoyed the rain. It helped dampen some of
the smells associated with the trash and gutters here. It still has
that rain smell but here it is a little bit different. I guess I can just
say it was Africa. Yeah luckily we were barely getting to an
appointment when it started so we didn't get caught out in it.
Plus it is a recent convert of Elder Adams so we got fed too. My
bike is a pretty sad story. I can now proudly say that I have left
my blood and sweat on Ghana for my mission. Plus I got a sweet
battle scar to carry on my shin for the rest of my life. Strangely
enough my bike survived intact. I'm working to fix that I think.
We were riding in the street when a little girl ran out between my
companion and me from behind a car and well I chose trying to
pull a James Bond move or something instead of running her over,
basically it all ended with my bike and me being a tangled mess on
the pavement. It all worked out for the best though. I have started
to understand when people in the street are insulting me, I'm
surprised at how uncreative most of them are. I hope everyone
had a great week! No malaria yet but I am on the "watch" for
another week and a half because of all my bites I guess. Sometimes
it takes a full three weeks to be bitten and then have any kind of
symptoms of the disease actually show. YAY!
I love you guys!
Good luck with everything!

Greetings from Travis!

This week has been pretty cool. I ended up going on splits like
crazy this week. First it was with the zone leaders since my
companion is the district leader. So I got to go spend the day
in Lartebioshkie with an Elder Boam from Syracuse, Ut. Their
area is definitely different then ours which encourages me so
much since I really don't like my area too much. The sad part
was that I got eaten up by some mosquitos. Look at my pictures
on the blog to really get an idea, they are great.

WHEN MOSQUITOS ATTACK!!!!!

Then we had zone interviews this week, it wasn't too bad. My
favorite part was that it was time for us to go to the temple. It
is so amazing getting to be in the temple again. I will say that I
understand a lot more and pick up on more after not going for
roughly two months. Such a great place. I love it. Umm I then
went on splits again from Thursday night till saturday evening.
I got to spend two days with Americans. Definitely was sweet.
Being with Americans is a lot easier to have conversations
about things. Mostly because we can talk about stuff back home
and our interests are a lot of the same.

a sweet view of the independence arch, or at least I think
that is what they call it. It is really pretty though, good enough for me.

Yeah Elder Stout is from Price, Ut. and then Elder Iverson is
from Hurricane. They are both pretty cool guys. Elder Stout
reminds me of Darrell Tenney a little bit though. It was crazy
being all responsible for setting up appointments and everything
since it was my area though. Definitely a lot more responsibility
to suddenly have dropped on you. Especially since my companion
decided it wasn't worth his time to make any appointments before
like he told me he had. It was all good though.

Me at the beach. My eyes are closed because the sun was
so bright coming off of the buildings that I couldn't keep them open!!!

This week will be President Golden's (Area Presidency) Mission
Tour. Since I live at the mission home our apartment got SUPER
cleaned since he will most likely be checking up on us. Yeah but it
means that they will buy us food from this fast food place called
Papaye. It is really really good. Usually they get us chicken and
rice. That is about all I have this week. Hopefully everything is
going good for everyone! Hope everything is going great.

New Pictures from Elder Gibson

Sometimes they say it so plainly. Just remember how bad hell
sounds. I liked the AIDS sticker too. I need a hair cut though.

This is a window that is in the celestial room. it is really
cool stained class. I love going at night and sitting on some
benches that face the temple and looking at it.

That is right, CHOCOLATE cake. Made by yours truly.
The other elders were going crazy at the fact that I made it.
Some weeks you just need a little pick me up
and hey who doesn't like chocolate?

me after the hair cut. I was just messing with my camera,
it is a random picture of a wall in our apartment
and the end of my bed.

This is a lady named Joyce Amekor. she is the first person
I have been here for the entire process of her getting
baptized. I was lucky enough to be the one who got to
baptize her. It is a wonderful feeling to get to have the
privilege of helping someone become a member of the
church. She is a little camera shy though. Go figure.
She is funny though. I enjoyed teaching her because
she'd always make my companion and me laugh.

got buy in bulk . . . especially when it is cookies!
The rock climbing thing behind me is where I do my
pull ups in the morning.

News from Travis

Man it sounds like I missed a great super bowl game. Was there a
lot of good commercials? This week I learned some things. Like the
fact Ghanaian hospitals aren't that bad . . . but aren't really that
impressive either. Especially at night. My companion is scaring
me. He started to refer to himself in the third person. Yeah I don't
know if it is because he is about ready to go home or if he is just
nuts. It is all good though since this week I will get to go to the
temple and be on splits a lot since he is our district leader.

Umm . . . this week has definitely been a rough one. Three pairs
of my pants were put out of service. My blue ones suddenly
decided it didn't like having a zipper so it came off. Both of
my black pairs got torn. One by my bike and the other by a
corner on a brick wall as we tried to find an investigator's
house in a maze of the slums. Yeah so at least I still have one
pair left so I can have something to wear. Yeah definitely
wasn't going my way and then another missionary used my
bike while I was at the hospital and when I got it back it doesn't
work quite right either. Took me a little bit to calm down since
I had barely worked on my bike and fixed it so that I wouldn't
have any more problems but it is all good.

Now that you have had some time to calm down about the hospital
part mom let me explain. There is an elder kamara who has
malaria or something really bad. His companion was complaining
about having to stay in the hospital with him so they asked me to
go babysit him. I am perfectly fine and everything so no worries.
I just got to spend about 2 days in the hospital for nothing. They
don't provide food or water at the hospital. The office managers
would bring us breakfast and we'd have to last till dinner. It was
pretty rough but I managed. I almost read the entire book of
mormon while I was there though.

There was this one teaching appointment we had this week
where we were in a courtyard area and as I was teaching one
lady my companion was teaching another who didn't speak english.
As I was teaching and barely opening my scriptures a bird flew
overhead and pooped so that it landed in my scripture case.
Luckily it missed me and my actual scriptures though. We cleaned
it up and started again and then right at the end another bird
decided that I hadn't had enough and did it again except this time
it was on the other side. Yeah I guess they saw my blonde hair
and decided that was a sweet place to drop their loads. I finally
baptized someone. Her name is Joyce Amekor and she is the
first investigator we've had that I was there from the initial
contact all the way to the baptism. Definitely is a very spiritual
thing to take someone into the water and bring them back up.
It was really different that our mission president and his wife
came since they were at the chapel before and just stuck around.
That is about it for me. Good luck with everything!!!!