Hello from Ghana

I just felt like being a little different with the whole starting out thing. This week went by fast! It was a normal week. Riding my bike around. Walking. Going different places. I got to see the Black Stars (The National Soccer Team of Ghana). We were riding by a hotel here and their bus was parked out front and all of a sudden you see them file out and yeah got on the bus. I was surprised they weren't bigger. You always hear the whole that hmmm . . . I thought they'd be bigger cause yeah they weren't really all that big. Maybe I'm just getting fat and see other people as smaller or something? Anyway it was pretty crazy cause as soon as people saw them coming out they rushed over to get a look at them and we had to fight to get out of the crowd. Another exciting thing for the week has to do with soccer too. Togo and Benin played at the Stadium in our area. Except no one told us and yeah we don't check the news or read the paper or anything and we had scheduled an appointment by the stadium at about the time the game gets over. That crowd was even worse. Plus they were either excited celebrating Togo fans or disgruntled Benin fans. Wasn't a very good mix. The scariest part was when I was riding through it all and a guy grabbed my arm and then his buddies tried to grab on too. Luckily I was able to just break his grip and keep riding and let them continue celebrating. Hopefully they understand I couldn't just join them. Yeah it was pretty intense for a little while but it was all good.


Yesterday, Sunday, was the day of meeting crazy people. My favorite were these two. The first was this lady who was a little handicapped. She was acting like a guard to the compound and let us in then about 10 ft later told us we had to leave. Luckily someone stopped her and let us contact and then we taught them lesson 1. As we were getting ready to leave she came over and said something in Ga ( one of the local languages ) and then started pulling my head down and puckered her lips. Yeah snapped my head back and was like whoa. Everyone else laughed and said she had said she was going to try and kiss the white man. The other one was a man named Thomas. He stopped us on a street called Lover's Street and started explaining that he was on his mission called of God since 1963. He started to go on about how we as missionaries on the bikes aren't really of God, after which he turned around and talked to himself. I guess He was speaking with God and he then started to instruct us about our evils. We just sort of left after that and yeah it was just a little weird. This week I learned
a lot more phrases of the Twi and Ga. The local people laugh
at me and really like it when I surprise them with something
in their language. It just hard to tell which tribe they belong
to, to know what to say to them.

Yeah I'd say it is definitely disappointing how people will start
off being so interested and then they fade out after the first
visit. I had one this week where we gave a man a Book of
Mormon and then we tried going back and never met with
him. Finally he came out one time and said that he wouldn't
even touch and book because it wasn't the bible. Broke my
heart. My companion and I bore our testimonies and just
told him what we felt about the book. He just shook his
head and yeah. I just went on splits with the zone leaders.

I am still living at the mission home. I do my own laundry,
cook my own meals, and everything. The mission home has
a washing machine but everywhere else it is bucket and
hands.

Love you guys!
Elder Gibson

Goings On in Ghana

Baptism!

This last week was a really good week. Last Monday I went to
a super activity for one of the zones. We played soccer and I
pretty much balled it up and made a couple of the african elders
angry at me for some reason. Went to a family named the
Hammonds for FHE. We had an Elder Ross with us. He really
wanted a mango so I ended up climbing the mango tree and
trying to shake him one down. I was fruitless in my attempt
though and was told to get out of the tree. Elder Ross documented
my descending climb.

Elder Ross, waiting for a Mango

Climbing the Mango Tree

Tuesday was our zone interviews. President Smith said I needed
to cut my hair and that was about it. I also ended up going on splits
with the zone leaders again and went back to the apartment in
Lartebiokoshie where the mosquitos attacked me way bad. This
time I was lucky and made it without any bites thankfully. Being
in a normal apartment is so much nicer then the mission home.
I can't wait until I get transferred away from mission home and
have a little bit more of a relaxed atmosphere. The temperature
was 40*C with about 85-90% humidity. Was pretty brutal so I
am lucky to be near the ocean and get the sea breeze. We taught
a lady named Charolette this week who kept watching tv that
was on in the room behind us. I would move my head to block
her view so we kept going back and forth trying to stop the other.
It was pretty funny and is sad to know that she is so unserious.

Results of the Hair Cut

On Thursday one of the couples went home and they dashed us
some food. So Thursday night I had popcorn from a bag! So good.
Plus they gave us REAL jam. With actual fruit and taste in it.
Super super good. Saturday we had a baptism which is always
a good way to start out the day. I ran into a tourist on Sunday
who is from the states and her family has a cabin somewhere
around blue ridge. It was kind of nice to just talk to someone who
knew where I was actually from. On sunday we also met these
two guys on the beach as we were taking pictures of the ocean and
they were carrying a dog . . . to chop ( local lingo for eat ). Took
some pictures and turned down the invitation to go eat with them.

Chop Dog

I helped wash these clothes in a bucket

There are lots of cars. Mostly the middle class and wealthy. Mostly
the wealthy though. The roads vary. Some parts it is straight hard
packed dirt. Other parts are kind of like a cobblestone areas where
it is mostly just throwing whatever chunks of stuff they have.

Elder Gibson

News from Ghana

These are signs they put on a
dysfunctional bathroom at the stake center. I love
how they don't understand how to exactly speak
english. Oh and yes I know it is very junior high
humor, forgive.

Definitely a different feel this week with a new companion.
As I said last week Elder Molobi is his name-o. He is a botswana
( how they say it ) and is completely different from Elder Adams.
He has only had white companions which I thought was pretty
funny. He works pretty hard which is nice. We get lots done but
it seemed like this week no one was very serious about much of
anything. Since he came at the end of august and I came at the
end of november we are back to back mtc groups and also make
the youngest companionship in the mission since even with our
time put together we don't make a year. He is allergic to eggs,
dairy products, and a whole lot of other stuff. Found that out the
hard way when on Wednesday I made a sweet breakfast with
blueberry pancakes, eggs, and sausage oh and lots of toast with
jam. I had planned it with Elder Jorgensen ( one of the office
elders ) because it is some random holiday he knows and we just
don't really ever eat super good and I missed it. Anyway I offered
some to Elder Molobi and he started to eat and yeah got pretty
sick. Wasn't too bad, plus it left more food for Elder Jorgensen
and me.

Elder Jorgensen had gotten a package with JIF peanut butter in
it and WOW was that stuff amazing. Took me right back to
America with the flavor and quality, serious business. Teaching
Elder Molobi the area is pretty nice too. I get to go to all the places
I thought looked cool that Elder Adams didn't want to bother with or
whatever reason we didn't go around there. It is a slow process
which gets frustrating but usually it works out for the best in the
end. I got to bless the sacrament in church yesterday. It is
really interesting how different people can do the same thing
and it still have the same meaning and importance. Last night I
busted out the UNO cards I had and we played for about 2 hours.
I think I will have to watch out for my companion, he was really
really getting into the game and I think if he isn't
careful he might become addicted or something crazy like that.

I talked to an american lawyer at church and he was talking so
fast I could barely understand him. I guess I'm getting used to the
language around here. I love you guys
Elder Gibson

This picture is of Guiness Malta or in other words non alcholic
beer. Yeah it makes me want to vomit everytime I drink it
but the people here love it because it fills you up. Any of the
weight I have gained has been from this but it is going to my
face and my body is getting smaller so I don't know what is up.
I'll have to work on that or something. I'll challenge anyone
to a chug fest of it when we get home, pretty sure I'll win.
Anyway there you go.

What the streets look like around Ghana

Yay for a sort of somewhat uneventful week. Just pretty
much work like normal, I think. Anyway this week will be
a really short letter because umm my companion has changed.
There was an emergency transfer today. I am not actually
allowed to talk too much about it but I bet that will be changed
next week. I didn't do anything wrong, my companion broke a
mission rule and now is going to finish the last month of his
mission in a different area, it is called Kaneshie. My new
companion is from Botswana. His name is Elder Molobi and
he was in the record setting MTC group that came the very
end of August, or the group before me. I went on splits with
him about half way through January and he seems really
really nice. I guess after this week has come and gone we'll
have to see how it all goes down. It rained last night like crazy.

The storm clouds that pretty much blotted out the sun in the evening time.

I'm sending a picture of the clouds around 5:20pm when it is
still light outside, as we were rushing to get back to the apartment.
About 10mins after getting into our apartment the rain clouds opened
up and started pouring. It rained off and on until we went to sleep.
I ate this new kind of fufu this week though. They add cocoa to it
so that it is brown and tastes with a hint of chocolate kind of. It
was crazy to drink the soup they serve it with since it is made
out of their version of peanuts. Tasted like a gritty dirty reese's
taste! I hope everything has been going good for everyone!

Enjoying a Pepsi (First one since Christmas. Man was it good to the last drop!)

Bored missionaries at the chapel when investigators don't come to appointments

Love ya!

Travis sent an Ode to Kona, one of the family dogs my parents had
before he left. Unfortunately Kona was hit and killed by a car.

Ghana

So this week was definitely an interesting one. I'd say the real
excitement started about Wednesday and it just took off from
there. About the whole bike thing . . . I'm pretty sure either I'm
cursed or my bike is. We were coming back from a suburb called
Jamestown which is like a 35 min bike ride or so and just maybe
I might have got in a little head on collision incident with a
motorcycle. I was in the middle of two lanes of traffic waiting for
a gap to cross when this guy came up and pretty much we hit each
other. Yeah it was pretty tense for sure. Pretty much he ended up
on the ground and I ended up falling into a red van and denting
one panel with my back. Everyone was alright except for my bike.
The front tire is way bent along with the handlebars. The front
forks got a little tweaked too but not too bad. The worst part of
it all since I was white I got blamed with it being my fault and
had to pay the guy 10 cedis (pretty much the same as a dollar)
but it was all good. I got to walk back to the mission home carrying
my bike. So I am using a bike of an elder that went home waiting
to see if they can fix mine. I don't think they will be able to so yeah
oh well. I'm just lucky it wasn't any worse then it was.

These are two kids from the Agyemany Manu Family.
Their dad who isn't a member is way big into the
government, of the losing party who got replaced in
this last election. We go to their house every other
Monday for FHE since they feed us really good. The
youngest one thinks that one of the elders in the office is
my robot, his name is junior and he is 9 I think.

My next adventure was that the next day I had zone conference
and as Sister Smith, mission mom, was asking me all these
questions to make sure I was okay and didn't have any open
cuts or scrapes since staph infection is very very big around
here I thought of the cut on my leg that hadn't closed very
much. She had me go see Dr. Stubbs who is the Africa West
Area doctor. He looked at it and told me I had a small staph
infection and that I needed to stop using the triple antibiotic
I brought from home and to use the good stuff he prescribed
for me. It is pretty much all the way closed now so
it is all good.

I thought the clouds looked like angel wings plus
they just look really cool!

I got to do a service project for a family in my ward this week.
Okay basically we just worked so they'd feed us but that
was good enough for me. Their house is really really really nice.
Like marble floors, ornate everything, just way nice. The house
isn't anything like what I'd want though, it is all prissy and no
comfort. They do have a cool staircase, reminds me of something
that Ryan would make and what not.

Pretty much the only other thing is that we got the transfer call
and I'm staying in Christiansborg Area. I'm pretty excited means
I get to send my companion home and I still have a washer and
dryer to use. Oh! We got a new fridge and it is really nice cause it
actually works! I bought a Ghana flag this week, just a small one.
I like it. I hope you guys are enjoying the life back home!

This is the President's house. Every time I see it I think the
star wars theme should be playing in the background!