He's Home

Just so everyone is aware - Travis is home and settling back into things. He will be speaking in church on Sunday 12-12-2010 at 9 am at the Taylor Stake Center. . . If you have any questions call my parents house.

11-1-2010

Hey guess what . . . It's NOVEMBER! Yeah I sat in bed this morning for a while just convincing myself that it was here. Almost makes me want to break out Christmas music since we are so close . . . almost. So this week I have some more about Eric and Doris. Eric basically told us that he wants to go to heaven and wants to do what he can to get there. I know everyone I teach should say things like that but if they feel like that they usually don't verbalize it. Doris is having people basically persecuting her for coming to church and having us come and teach her. Basically they say bad things about the church and just don't really treat her as nicely. Which is funny because now in spite she cooks us food. Then has us eat it so that everyone sees it. I don't really understand but she can cook pretty good so we don't really mind.

This week we met a really ugly man. We were walking in an area that basically I have never been because the people treated the missionaries a little rough. Anyway as we were walking this guy totally comes running at us and starts yelling at us trying to just give it to us for well to be honest I couldn't understand him because he was going in and out of twi.I don't really know what his problem is but I hope he gets it worked out. So I gained a new testimony about why we should only teach literate people. We met a guy named Lawrence who is way churchy. He goes about 3 times a week and all those kinds of stuff. He doesn't know how to read, but speaks amazingly good English which usually people who read can't. The reason why I say I learned a lot better why we don't teach people who read is that he has to be told what to believe. His pastor has basically fed him a lot of strange ideas but because his pastor is his friend, who steals his phone and other stuff by the way, he takes it and believes it to be the truth. Yeah it is all kind of messed up.

I was counted during the cenus they are doing in Ghana. Yeah I don't really know why but oh well. The guy who came around doing it is named Mustapha and he is a Muslim. Part of the questionnaire is about religion. There was a question about whether I accepted the Koran as inspired from God. He saw that I had checked no and ended up having a 45min discussion about it and trying to give him a Book of Mormon. It was interesting and I learned a lot but I'm glad I'm not Muslim. Haha even Mohammad was an illiterate which is funny with my other experience this week.

My trainer called me this week. Found out he actually lives in my zone and so he invited me to come to his house and eat dinner. Oh and I'll get to meet his wife. I'm pretty excited but at the same time just oh well. So today we went and played soccer with some of the other missionaries. Ended up pretty good though we had to keep telling people to calm down because they were going kamikaze. When we came back around the light was off so we went out and now that the light is back I came and emailed. So something else that was really exciting this week is that I got my flight plans! We will be flying into Sky Harbor late on Wednesday Nov. 30. Like 11:30pm You are all invited if you want to come and see us.

10-25-2010

Hey guess what I've been in Ghana for 23 months now. Can hardly believe that I only have 1 to go. This week definitely had its excitement. For starters last week we were in 4 car accidents. No worries though they were pretty much all fender benders. My favorite was one that we had a big flatbed truck pull out in front of us and basically massacred the windshield, right on the passenger side where I was sitting. Mostly because everyone else in the trotro freaked and I just sat there because we weren't going fast enough to worry about it. Best part is that this morning already we had a car we were riding in break down. So who knows what this week will bring.

We met some cool people this week. One of them is named Doris. She's my friend. Her son has been coming to church for a long time but he is only like 8 so we didn't really mind him. He got his mom to come and so now we are teaching their family. As we were teaching her she was amazed that we were actually concerned with salvation. To her church has become a society. Some place to pay dues and socialize that teaches about prosperity and things like that. Basically we are hoping that we will be able to work with them and what not.

Another one was a guy named Eric Nartey. I don't know if I've mentioned him before. His dream is basically to become a seaman and go to Singapore. He had a lot of problems come up this week. First his old church came looking for him and asking why he hasnt' been coming around but we were able to work around that. He had his friends telling him stories about the Book of Mormon and the Church in general. Finally even the water for his baptism we had to carry from a faucet bucket by bucket because there wasn't a hose. Finally he got baptized though and it is amazing to see how happy he is. Since he had a lot of problems to get there.

Another one was a less active member. His name is Brother Welbeck. We contacted him and my companion and I just had a feeling that he was a member. Ended up that he has had some doubt put into his mind about the church and everything so we are kind of starting to re teach him. Though we are hoping it will help us since his sister is living with him and she isn't a member. Keeping our fingers crossed. So yesterday all day I had to go around doing interviews. It was cool but at the same time it was a really long day. Today is a missionary's birthday in our zone so we are going to roast some chickens and play some games. I hope you guys are having a good week. OH and a cool new thing is that our mission people use to have to come to church 4 times before being baptized. Now it is only 3. Means maybe a few more of the people that I find I can see baptized! Anyway love ya guys!

10-18-2010

Hey I know my email is coming to you late today but we were really busy. That is why you all don't get your own little email along with it. We had to kind of change our schedule for going to Accra and some appointments. To be honest this week was pretty disappointing for us. We had two people we were wanting to baptize tell us that they feel like they need to take more time. That wouldn't be a bad thing except for now we basically are going to trip all over our goal. We'll see what happens we probably can figure something out. Mostly because our ward has like two kids over 9 who haven't ever been baptized. Which must be happening a lot in our mission because Pres. Smith has told us that we are baptizing A LOT of minors and we need to make sure that they are living with a family member that can bring them to church every Sunday.

We have had a little bit of a chicken pox scare. A missionary was really contagious at one of our meetings and now we get to see if it spread to anybody. Oh goody. Transfers came and went pretty quietly though. Not really too much happening on that side of things. We did go to Accra today and I checked out some stuff to buy for coming home. Kind of hit me about coming home. Pretty much that I only have 4 of 5 p days left as a missionary. Yeah that kind of blew my mind.

Oh by the way for transfers my companion and I stayed together. So we went to another apartment to just check stuff out and it stank. It smelled like something had died in one of their rooms. Searching for the source of the smell we found under one of the mattresses a mouse that had been smashed by the sleeping missionary we guess. I thought it was gross. But hey we had some rain and that chased the butterflies out so we got to run through bushes of them and scare them up into flight. Yeah that is about it for me. Talk to you next week!
Love Elder Gibson

10-11-2010

So this one is going to be pretty quick because the computer I'm using hates me. So this week started out really good. Mostly because I had made mashed potatoes for our District. We were lucky another guy had gravy his parents had sent him from home. It was my companion's first time ever eating them so it was good. We had a lady we are planning on baptism the end of the month tell us that her husband didn't actually say no, but hasn't really given her the green light. The worst part is that he stays in a completely different part of the country and we only can see him like every blue moon. Sometimes I wonder why people are married when they live like that, a lot of people live like that here by the way.

The beginning of the end happened for my shoes this week. I had a shoe lace break. Also had a zone conference that I got to have my zone sing happy birthday to me. It was funny because nobody can really carry a tune too much. We were teaching a lesson outside of a family's home under a streetlight because they don't have electricity in their house and this drunk lady came up and kept talking. Yeah I got voted to be the one to go and basically get her to leave. She talked like she was British so I played it off that I was British and talked about some weird little towns up there with her and got her to go to her house. I completely lied but hey she left us alone for the rest of the lesson.

We had our branch president go out and proselyte with us. It was great because our investigators totally respected us a little more because we aren't just small boys but instead we had our branch president who being older they gave him more respect. We had a family invite us over to feed us. Made some really good fufu with palm nut soup that I haven't had in like 3 or 4 months which tasted great! The best part was that they have a little son who kept talking about how he drinks soap. I totally thought he was joking but then he actually took some of the soap and drank it like it was chocolate milk. Yeah I was a little grossed out and was glad that we didn't have too much food left to finish.

Yesterday was really busy for us. We went to our own branch and then traveled to three different wards to do interviews. I was glad when I was seeing that I only have 7 more Sundays! A week of weeks! Haha. Um last night it was pretty cool. About 9 pm it started to rain like there was no tomorrow. The lights would flicker and everything cooled down A LOT. That is my week in a nutshell. This week will be transfers. I don't see myself leaving but who knows my companion might. Hope you all have a great week!

Snapshot of Accra Ghana

If you are interested in getting a glimpse of what things are like where Travis is out, check out Episode 2 of the Amazing Race here.

10-4-10

So this week was pretty lame. We only spent like 2 days proselyting. First off my companion got sick, we think malaria pretty bad so for two days we basically didn't leave our apartment. Yeah our apartment is a one room thing with a small living room. I about blew it apart just wanting to get out of there. Cabin fever was definitely taking over on day two. Luckily I had some good time to read and all of those kinds of things. I have almost gotten 3/4 of the way through Jesus The Christ so I'll probably get to finish this week.

We met the same Sitsofe, yeah I figured out how to spell his name. It is pronounced like Sichofe by the way. It was cool. Basically he has just heard everything about the church, good and bad. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he told us that some of his friends in other churches basically told him it was satanic. One of them even said that he had a copy at one time and he tried reading it his room filled with smoke and lightning and a lot of crazy stuffed just kept happening. Pretty much either the forces of hell were in his room or he is just filled with hot air. Sitsofe made a cool comment about how when he was in school he had friends who were Rastafarians and he was pretty close with them. Then when he wasn't with them but with other people they would make up stories about his rasta friends so he makes it a rule to always check things out so that he can get the complete truth. I wish more people would do that.

After my companion got feeling better it felt so good to get back out and start working again. Pretty much because it definitely took away that cabin fever I had before. So yeah unfortunately that is about it for my week. Oh and if you are wondering my foot is pretty much completely healed up. Good luck with this week! Love ya!


Love ya!
Love Elder Gibson

9-27-10 PS

So my companion wanted to come back to the cafe after we did our appointments so that he can do some stuff with applying to BYU or something. Anyway I'm going to take the time and send you some pictures. Hope you like them.

This one was taken at one our appointments tonight. I was just trying to relax a little bit. It was actually a FHE with 3 recent converts and a lady we are hoping to get to come to church. Personally I am in love with the hat. I just wish I had a drawstring for it.



This one is this strange plant thingy that we found growing on a tree proselyting. Mom what is it?



So I just wanted to send a few pictures and what not since I have a little time but these things are taking forever to load because the connection is a little weak right about now. This upcoming week will be really busy for us. Tomorrow we have a meeting with our zone where we have to instruct about the new teaching module about giving dates early, and just all kinds of new stuff. Then on Friday my companion and I will have a meeting with just the zone leaders and Pres. Smith where we have to give a different instruction about the Holy Ghost.

Oh something funny that happened when we went to the Area Office to see the doctor, who is from Idaho, total Boise State fan and talked a lot about football. Anyway we took the elevator because well the missionary I went with had a problem with his foot too. We rode with a woman who told me that I had practiced my Ghanaian accent well. I told her I had been here for about 22 months and she just laughed and said that was why. What was really going through my head was, "I don't have an accent, what are you talking about?" So I'm asking, did I have an accent when I talked to you at Mother's Day? Just wondering. Anyway I love you guys and hope that you guys have a great week ahead of you!

Love Elder Travis Gibson

p.s. Okay really long p.s. totally forgot something else that happened. Our branch organized a temple trip and all the people I have baptized here got to go and it was really sweet. Mostly because they all came back wide eyed and bushy tailed from getting to go into the temple. I was thinking how amazing it must be to get to walk into a building even just built that magnificently from living in block houses. Seriously night and day. Especially for a family. They had one girl who is leaving to boarding school today and they really really enjoyed getting to go. Anyway that is my little bit of a p.s.

9-27-2010

So glad to hear that the funeral went so well. So drank a few cokes to remember Grandma by. Something really good happened for me this week. It seemed like we had the chance to teach the Plan of Salvation an unusual amount. Just made me happy to get to talk and ponder a lot more about it. We found out a lady that we are teaching is one Muslim, like child or record Muslim. When we first started teaching her we kind of thought she might just be a little slow. Now it is because she isn't Christian at all. It caused us some small problems because when working with Muslims you have to get special permission and a lot of extra things. Also found out she will steal the drunk people's change when they buy more booze, yeah she works in a bar. Her name is Mary. She is way cool so it kind of all works out. Just have to work some things out.

Again on Saturday morning I woke up about 5 to it raining and I was worried it would be like last week where it just rained all day. Luckily about 9:30 it stopped. Just made for some small flooding and lots of muddy roads. The worst part is that we came to a part that we couldnt' find a way across so we took off our shoes and waded across. Yeah I slipped on one of the rocks and cut my foot. It wasn't too bad and I crossed and just put my shoe back on. Though I had to go see the Mission Doctor this morning. He basically gave me some stuff to put on it and then warned me not to walk in the mud here becaues there is some kind of bacteria that can climb through your feet into your bladder and give you some problems. It was worth crossing the water though because we went and taught a guy who was referred to us by our stake patriarch. The man we taught is named Stiofe and he is pretty much ready to be baptized. That is all he wants. He has been attending instiute in a different ward for some time now and well knows that the church is true. Due to school and some other things he just wanted to wait. So now we get to baptize him. We just have to work and get his wife who is an Elder in her church or something like that.

Well that is about it. I hope you guys have a good week. Love ya!

Love ya guys too much!

Love Elder G

9-20-2010

So yeah hearing about Granmda Lila was pretty rough but hey that's how the river flows. Not going to lie I was way thankful for the plan of salvation and how I know life goes on. So this week was pretty sweet. The Tongan pig roast was way good. Mostly because it was pig. Um though as we were waiting for the pig to get finished we were playing football and I kind of hurt myself. I ran to try and get a ball and well couldn't really stop before a 4 ft block wall so I tried to jump it. I almost hurdled it, almost. My shin totally made connection with the top brick so me and the brick tumbled over the wall. Getting old, just can't do what I use to.

I just got some small cuts though but yeah I felt like I was definitely being watched over. So teaching one of our investigators this week with one of her friends I have heard the funniest excuse not to come to our church. The lady looked at us straight faced and said, "Your church is too clean." Who says that? We barely were able to keep our composure to end the lesson and laughed about it the rest of the night. I went on splits this week with an elder from South Africa. It was interesting. My favorite part was that we contacted a lady named Dorothy Brown and sat down to teach her. I told her that I had a good friend named Charlie Brown who had a great dog named Snoopy. Yeah it went right over her head but it made me smile on the inside. :D

So yeah another day we were teaching this woman named Beatrice Anaab. She sells like fried yam and fish and people kept coming to buy from her so my companion continued teaching and I started selling her stuff. They call it koliko in ewe and yeah when an obruni sells koliko people buy it. In about 30 mins time I had sold all of the yam and stuff that she had bought to sell the whole day. Saturday morning I woke up to rain at 3 am. It kept raining till 3 again. Luckily I was able to convince my companion to go out once we got our umbrellas out. First time I've actually used mine my entire mission I think. There was a soccer field that had completely flooded over that we were wading across. It reminded me so much of taking some of the irrigation turns when Dad was gone. Kind of made me miss home a little bit. The worst part was right in the middle of that was when Pres. Smith called me and told me about Grandma.

Sunday we were going to have a baptism at our meeting house till we came and found that someone had completely ripped out the tile floor and all that was there was dirt. So luckily our branch is sweet and called another ward in a different building and then drove our candidates there and we were able to get everything taken care of. Even though the candidates had to sit down in the water and just lay down to be immersed since the water was so low. Sunday we also started to proselyte in the military camp, Michel or Michal camp. Other missionaries have tried but always get thrown out. I think part of it was because of the freeze the government put on the church a few years ago. We kind of walked in and owned the place. Talked to the right people and all of those things and basically are welcome anytime. It is amazing what a smile will do for you. Anyway that is my week for you. I love you guys and hope that everything goes well this week and everybody can travel to and from Idaho safely.

Love Elder G

9-13-2010

Another week has come and gone! I was lucky to make it through this one. I got sunburnt really bad because it seemed like a lot of our appointments failed and we just spent time walking around and trying to drum up some new people a lot. That is in due part because we just dropped a lot of people because they kind of lazy about it. We stayed up a little too late on Tuesday night hold it . . . CLEANING . . . yes Mom you can act surprised. We got a little hint that our apartment was going to be inspected so we cleaned like crazy. Our apartment was clean enough I might have even considered eating off the floor. When the office couple who was inspecting came they said it was even clean enough for them to live in. We'll see what happens.

That same day we went on splits. I went with an elder from Tonga. He is smaller than me but I guess he is pretty much amazing at rugby. He was playing for Tonga's national team. He showed me their jersey and it was sweet! He was pretty cool even though he doesn't really speak english so that is kind of a problem he has in teaching. Made me thankful for my companion who is a really good teacher and all that kind of stuff. I went and stayed in their apartment and we kind of played a prank. Our District Leader hadn't taken his bike so we took it and hung it on some rebar that was sticking out of the roof. Yeah it was awesome, especially since the elder whose bike it is is like 6'3 and weighs like 230 or something and couldn't quite climb up to get his bike. We all had a good laugh about it. We got it down without problems and nobody got hurt. That is what is important.

So this week about Wednesday I was feeling really good with our area and everything. By Saturday pretty much it had unravled. A guy whose wife is a member who seemed really solid is now pretty much seperated from his wife. Another guy got a job, yes a job, playing the drums in some church and he feeds his family with it. Another guy is friends with his pastor and is worried about leaving the church and hurting his friendship. Just a lot of stuff like that. We're praying a lot right now. Some better things is the family we baptized last week one of the girls turned 18 this week. She was completely surprised when we showed up and sang happy birthday to her. It was great because well we couldn't keep a tune.

So Saturday the muslims stopped their month long fasting and to make sure their celebrations wouldn't disturb they just shut the power off in our area and other areas that have a high muslim concentration. Yeah I thought it was pretty messed up but I guess crowd control. As we were walking back to our apartment they turned the power back on and everyone cheered. It was funny. I also got a call from a guy that I had baptized in one of my old areas. He has his visa and pretty much everything ready to go on his mission. Just has to wait to turn a year old. Made me really happy because he is already like 24 so I didn't know if they'd let him go or not. This week it seemed like every missionary I met just wanted to talk about how "old" on mission I am. I hate it. I'm excited to come home but I mean seriously sometimes I got the feeling they felt like we were sentenced to this instead of volunteers. Whatever. I can do my part and just be the best I can I guess.

Sunday at church waiting for it to start I saw a member watching football on his phone and it was crazy! His phone I mean. It is literally a computer in his hand. Guess a lot of stuff has happened since I left home. I thought phones were for just making calls. Also at church I was told that I just need to turn black because I already am a ghanaian. A member, his name is Francis, that we are baptizing his friend this saturday, his name is Evans, was amazed at what I have eaten, seen, and kind of how I talk. Francis said that there are the local foods that I have eaten that he never has. He is pretty cool and will be coming to BYU in January. I told him when I go home I want to eat fufu like once a month and he told me I'd have to show him where to get it. Then I had to explain about how far away from BYU we live. It was fun.

He and his buddy, Nii, totally are going to get us a cat to eat. The only things I haven't really eaten that they eat here is cat and dog. Plus snakes but that is only up in the north north. So yeah I've got some stuff to get down before coming home. Today even we are going to have a tongan pig roast because like 4 missionaries in our zone turned 1 year. I'm excited. So gotta run and stuff my face! Love you guys!

Love ya!

Love Elder Gibson

9-6-2010

This week was so busy it almost didn't give us time to think! First we had the transfer call to anticipate and well guess how it was going to change our zone. Completely was wrong on our guesses. Only one person moved out of our zone and that is only because his companion is training. Everyone else stayed put. A lot of missionaries were disappointed. They kept calling asking about it and asking if we were playing a joke on them. Guess they really wanted to leave. The worst was as we were calling to check up on everyone there was one companionship who completely refused to work with one another. Ended up we went on a split with them. Ended up only being a sleep over as the morning after we started my companion called me and said that we had a sister who was just crying her eyes out and needed our help. Kind of patched things up with the first companionship and then rushed to the sister's chapel and talked her into wanting to still be a missionary. Yeah by the time it was all said and done I hadn't actually proselyted in our area for about 3 days. Which was okay because we had a baptism on Saturday!

Elder Botwe then got into a somehow serious bike wreck afterward though. We were riding down a street when a few kids ran out into the street and right in front of his bike. He slammed on his brakes, laid his bike down, and then jumped off his bike. Luckily the kid got a little piece of skin rubbed off of his ankle and not much else. It was a close call, could have been really nasty. We had an investigator named Charles Antwi tell us a cool dream he had. He said he met us on the street and we showed him a copy of The Book of Mormon and that I told him it would prepare him for the 2nd coming of Christ which was going to happen soon. So we extended a baptismal date and he accepted and said he'd start coming to church. Then as we were getting ready to leave he told us it would be hard for him to come since he has a role to play in his church and doesn't know if he can leave. We weren't too put off.

Randomly we have been teaching his girlfriend and she'll be getting baptized the second weekend in October so we are hoping she can influence him a bit for us. Saturday afternoon we had an appointment fail on a part member family who live pretty far from where we just normally proselyte so I wanted to explore on the way back. Found a sweet preserve area in the middle of our area that neither of us had ever known about it. Has a lily pad covered river and everything! It reminded me of getting to be up in the more "bush" areas. Too bad most people just use it as a place to dump their garbage. I had to teach the Gospel Doctrine class on Sunday. I realized that I can teach investigators a lot better than classes. Yeah A LOT better when it is smaller personal setting.

There is a bishop of another ward who is staying in our area right now who use to hang out with Elder Botwe's dad, they all come from Takarodi and after church he invited us to come over and eat. The best part was he told us to go and pick up the missionaries in his ward. As we picked them up I was playing around with one kid who always talks about how he played football in High School and tackled him onto a bed, too bad it broke two of the bed slates. :S Yeah oops. The food was really good. Too bad I had to finish just about everybody's food because they wouldn't do it. I was stuffed to it being uncomfortable! Oh well. I'm still alive. I love you guys and hope it is all going well!

Love you guys!
Elder G

8-30-2010

Okay so I know it probably isn't the greatest moments of my mission
but it might have been. Tuesday morning after we had District Meeting
a missionary from Star Valley, Wy, Elder Turner,brought out some mac
and cheese! I may not have been that big of a fan back home but oh my
goodness I about broke two spoons getting them out of my way for
another bite. Elder Turner is funny too. We talked about the water
pump at the cemetery in Afton and I guess there is one just like it in
Bedford. Just to keep talking about food I also got my birthday
package from Bishop and Sis. Whipple and had some Huck's Jerky in it.
What? I couldn't wait. Yeah it was a good week.

Even Pres. Smith told me he loved me because I shared a piece with him.
That jerky is special. So this week we had a mission tour with Elder
Ounleu of the Seventy and it went well . . . okay. He kind of just
chastised our mission the whole time about how our mission needs to
repent and be obedient. Basically urging us to talk to Pres. Smith to
help us out with it. Maybe I'm not humble enough but my companion talked
about it and we are kind of just don't really have anything that we need
to speak with Pres. Smith about. More just minor things.

My personal interview with Elder Ounleu was pretty good. He more just
asked me to bear my testimony about the Restoration and The Book of Mormon.
We spent the most time talking about my family. Mom and Dad pretty much
he told me tell you that you have done a wonderful job and that he
wishes all the families in the church would be raised as strong in the
church as you have done. So on the bad side of news I found out the
first lady I baptized has died. She was only like 26. Yeah it kind of
was a downer when the missionary serving in my first area told me.

So we met one guy named Daniel who seems really cool. My companion and I
were riding our bikes and we go over a covert and my companion gets a
flat tire so we end up pushing our bikes. As we were walking the guy
Daniel is walking too and makes a comment about the flat tire. Not
being serious I joke about it was because my companion is gaining too
much weight. Ends up we start talking and he follows us to our next
lesson. After we share a little bit with him and the other guy we had
planned on teaching, luckily they knew each other, the other man named
Emmanuel went to eat dinner but Daniel asked if we could keep teaching
him because he just liked it. Taught him until I was like we need to
stop because the mosquitoes were eating me to pieces. We are hoping he
can gain a testimony but it was sweet to meet him like that.

So I also was told by like 3 people that I don't have a white person nose. I
guess I am turning into an African! I think that is about it.
Hopefully you'll recognize me when I come home. Which,yeah I know I
shouldn't be but I am counting deal, is in 3 months. I'm pretty
excited. So I hope you all have a great week!

I guess I would be surprised with what cell
phones can do these days. Ours is black and white and has a tendency
to turn itself off when it is in your pocket. Thanks for your email. I
love you guys and pray you have a good week!
Love Elder Travis

8-23-10

Another interesting week in the books. This week just seemed like we didn't have too much time for anything but somehow a lot happened. Last Monday my week started out great by getting a nasty burn on my left wrist. I got tired of people asking about it so I just told them Elder Botwe and I got in a fight and he knifed me. It was great to see them get mad at him till we explained it. I went on splits this week with an American Elder from Utah. It is funny how many little things are different when you are with someone from a similar culture. Elder Botwe is cool but for some things he just can't relate but it as all good. Found a place in their area that sells actual BLTs. Yeah they were delicious though a little pricey for a sandwich. I was just amazed it had real bacon.

We had a lot of rain this week which makes things kind of miserable with all the mud and people being discouraged to listen to us. The funny thing is the rainy season is suppose to be over but I guess now has decided to begin in the area where I'm at. Crazy weather. We had interviews with our mission president this week and it was pretty good. For probably the first time on my mission I felt like he was just talking to me and not asking a set of questions that he uses for everyone. It was good though. So we were walking to an appointment and were called over by a group of people to preach to them. Sat down and taught some small small things and then just out of the blue this one lady tells me she wants to meet my mom. Pulled out the family picture I carry in my scriptures and am like here and start talking about the family. She meant it as a joke saying she wanted to come home to America with me but eventually it softened her up to have her open to us about some of the things that is going wrong in her life and lead perfectly into the atonement. It was great for us because when we sat down we had no idea what we were going to share with them since we didn't know anything about them.

So we were able to have our baptism this week. It happened on one of the days that was in the rain and we were scared no one would show up for it. Though basically everyone was late they all showed up and everything went okay. I baptized them and standing in font was freezing! Though everyone did make fun of my farmer's tan at the baptism since I was just wearing the like a robe that you could see the differences where I've gotten the sun. We had a lot of investigators this week kept asking where is the proof of The Book of Mormon and The Restoration and it just came down to us bearing our testimonies about well you aren't going to get any because we walk by faith and not by sight. The best one was the member of a member. He kept asking what was different about us and how we worship then any other church so we introduced the BOM. After just getting him to give it a chance he would barely let us have a pray so we could leave because he wanted to read it. I was pretty excited about it.

So this week I decided if nothing else works out for me I'm going to become a butterfly hunter. I was walking and saw this one flying and jumped up and caught it in mid flight. Yeah I felt a little special. Even better when I let it go that it could still fly. This week we will be having a Mission Tour by an Area Seventy from the Ivory Coast, Elder Onelu. My companion and I will have an interview with him on Wednesday morning so it will be interesting. I think that is about all for us this week though. I hope it is going well for you guys over there! Love ya!

Playing with soap powder and the toilet

Good well Monday! This week went pretty good for us. Had a lot of memorable quotes this week. One of them was when we went on splits with some missionaries in Tema. The lady said that she had been told by one of her friends that the church use to be called the Mormons and they would go around murdering black people. Luckily even after that she kept an open mind about it. She was actually really sweet. She had read through a pamphlet and asked about what it meant to be baptized by the proper authority. I love it when people say things that just open doors like that. I was also thankful that I have been able to listen to investigators even to notice it because the two missionaries I was on splits with completely didn't pay attention to what she said and just kept going on.

Another lesson came from a family we had sat down to teach for the first time. The woman sells fried fish and a car pulled up outside of their house and she went to give them some fish. We continued the lesson on the front porch with her husband Joseph and she came back. Later my companion he said that the person in the car had spoken to the woman and asked if she was learning with us and warned her that the white man will take her to his church. He told me that as we were walking to our next appointment. It made me think of something that we were taught about The Book of Mormon. That even though The Book of Mormon can help people come to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet its main purpose is to testify of the Savior and that is really what this white man wants to do.

This week I was able to get some weights from an apartment. My companion and I are pretty excited. I also have been taking some antibiotics from what Sis. Smith thinks are spider bites. I had one on each arm and they kept swelling and getting all red. Lucky for me we had a leadership meeting and I was able to show them to Sis. Smith and get the antibiotics pretty quickly. Now I just need to have everything stop biting me. This up coming week will be busy for us. We have some more splits to go on, we'll have zone interviews, and also we will be having a baptism on Saturday. I'm pretty excited for it all though. It should be good. I hope you guys have a good week!

Showing off the swelling and the bites

The pills - big enough for a horse

Love Elder Travis Gibson

8-9-10

Whoa this week went by quick. A lot of stuff just sort of happened. First was that Wednesday and Thursday we spent most of our time in meetings. The one on Thursday was all about the new mode of teaching. Basically all of the how, why, and what we are teaching goes into more basics than anything else. It was interesting. My favorite part is that they had us break off and try and use the main point, in the first or second lesson trying to commit someone to being baptized, but not many people could do it. It made my companion and me laugh. It was cute to see Pres. Smith open the door for Sis. Smith though. We joked around with him and he was like find somebody you can love even after 44 years.

So I found some skittles at this shop, yeah you bet I was excited. It was a good thing since I had my bike kind of decide it didn't like me anymore and the stopped working. So those two missionaries who were involved in the rape case were found guilty on Friday. It was a hard blow for sure. Kind of actually pushed the reunion going on out of my head. One was sentenced to 10 years and the other to 7. The worst part is that Pres. Smith and even the Area Presidency fasted and prayed about it and felt they were innocent. They will try and appeal it though so who knows. Just put my companion and I into a little bit of a sour mood since we both knew them fairly well.

It Rained on Sunday morning about 30 mins before church started. That is always bad news because then people don't come to church. Lucky for us about half way through sacrament meeting more members and more importantly for us investigators filed in. We had to leave church early to go and do some interviews. We went to the building where my old area attends. It was sweet because I ran into a few other people I baptized. One was visiting from school only this week and another one was a kid I baptized him and his family. His family had traveled to visit family but they seem to all be coming still. It was a bonus for the week for sure. This morning I was cleaning out some of our cupboards in the kitchen and found a bag of refried beans from like LDS canning. They tasted great! It was weird because I know they shouldn't but seriously will probably go and make another bowl when I get done here!

So here are some pictures for you. The first one is by a reservoir, parts of my area are in the background.




The next one is my companion jump roping followed by me jump roping.







The next one is more for Mom. A member gave us this soy milk and I loved it! Made me laugh at all the times I made fun of you for drinking it. Love ya Mom! :D




My companion had a suit made so we did a little fashion show in the apartment.


Last and not least but Sweet Africa.



Love ya guys! Have a great one!

Love Elder Gibson

This has definitely been an interesting week. Tuesday we needed to go on splits with the missionaries in my old area of Ashaiman. It is about 30mins away from where I am right now, give or take. The best part was that I went there and proselyted for 24hrs. It was crazy to walk the same streets and all of those kinds of things. It was even better to talk to the missionary I was with and asking him about how a lot of people I baptized there are still coming to church. Even Sunday we had to run down there again and do some interviews and I ran into a lot of people who I had known before and that was sweet. Something way cool was after walking out of a room from doing an interview I got half hugged half tackled by a guy I baptized. He is probably a little bigger than Dad and well yeah he about knocked me off my feet. It was pretty fun.

We had a big scare this week. As our AP's were going through the baptism records that we turned in a "ghost" baptism came up. A ghost baptism is basically a record that they make that there isn't a person behind. They will make out the record and just turn it in. We had to scramble and make sure we got it all figured out. Ended up it was something from a child or record that was never baptized or something like that. Though I know in Ghana and Nigeria at least missionaries have turned in ghost baptisms just for the number of it. Seriously.

This week I got eaten up by mosquitoes or Sis. Smith is thinking something else. I have bites all over my back and especially my butt. The worst part is sitting on little wooden benches is just like a kick in the pants, literally. :D I had a few run ins with beggars this week. It broke my heart to see them. The worst was stepping out of our apartment and walking into the street a guy caught a hold of me and wanted some money. Looking into his eyes well it is something I'll never forget. Friday night we had to go and prepare the font for a baptism. It was pretty lucky for us as we finished our last appointment we went back to the chapel to let it finish filling and our P.E.C was there breaking a fast they had for the less actives in the branch. They broke it together and busted out a lot of fruit. Coconuts, bananas, apples, and pineapple which we they shared with us.

What was even better was on Sunday they were rewarded as several less actives came to church and even brought some referrals for us. Saturday the baptism went pretty good though we found out the font has a massive leak in it. This is the first baptism that they have had the font completed. Now it may get demolished or just super renovated. That is about all from us this week. Hope you guys are having a good one!

Love Elder G

Wow this week has gone by really really quickly. My last day up in Konongo was pretty rough on me. I kind of had gotten attached and figured I'd get to finish out my mission there. Plus things were just going sweet for us. Though we did teach some really weird lessons. One was to a guy and his two brothers and his father, I think. First the guy wouldn't tell us his age because he has secret things going on and well if we knew his age it could mess things up. During the lesson his father who doesn't speak a word of English would be throwing out amens and hallelujahs every few minutes. The best part is right after that we met a guy who is a fish breeder/framer/journalist/author/ about ten other things too. He is way sweet and actually came out that he is married to a lady we had been trying to sit down with for like 2 weeks because she told us she has a copy of the Book of Mormon. I guess it was a good three months for me. It was a pretty drive back down through the forest/jungle. The road is kind of built above the normal level of the ground so you kind of look down on when you drive so it is sweet.

Being at the mission home with all the transfer missionaries around made me realize how many people I don't know in our mission but at the same time how many friends I hadn't seen in a long time. My new area is pretty different from a lot of places I have served before. Part of it is a military zone. Don't really know what that means but I'm going to try and take a picture next to the sign. There is some military camp but I think it is mostly living quarters. To generally describe my area it is more of a well to do suburb. A lot of people driving cars and gated houses. It has some undeveloped areas of just grass and small shrubs which is nice to break up houses. There is a street in my area that is completely covered in chunks of obsidian. I am going to take a piece and make some kind of design or something. Probably will end up just having a chunk of obsidian of our apartment which is tiny!

We have a front room that goes into a hallway that at one end has a bathroom the other a kitchen and then a small bedroom. It is super nice though. First time I have tiled floors instead of cement in my apartment. We live in like barrack style. There is two rows of apartments just like ours in a fenced compound. Most everybody we live with has money. They drive cars and work for the banks or some other big company. So my companion is a Ghanaian named Elder Botwe. He is a third generation member which is pretty uber rare in Ghana. He is from Takoradi which is kind of the party town in the Cape Coast mission side. Uh, anything else you want to know about him?

So remember last week when I said part of one of my old areas was apart of my new area. Well Saturday as we were walking around our area I ran into a woman I baptized! Her name is Margaret Cenu and I baptized her and her 3 children. They are still going to church and well she gave me a free ice cream cone, that is what she does sells ice cream. It was pretty sweet for sure. My area is like a maze though so I haven't quite gotten it figured out so I don't know what is up with that. Usually after 2 or 3 days I have a pretty good handle on it but not really this time. Well that is the week so I guess anything else you want to know you can ask me cause I'll be here next week! I love you guys!

Well I think my biggest news for the week is that my stay in the bush dreamland is over. I'm getting pulled off the frontier and sent back to the city. Wednesday is transfers and Pres. Smith called me this morning to ask me if I would be a zone leader in a branch called Bethlehem. I almost wanted to tell him no because this has been one of my favorite areas of my mission so far but oh well I guess we'll see what going back to the city is like. My new area will have parts of my third area in it so I might get to see some familiar faces even. The most surprising thing was that I am going home pretty soon. Also we had Zone Conference this week and we were told that the mission thing is kind of changing. We will no longer report numbers on a 6 week cycle. Instead goals and everything will be every month. We won't have zone interviews and zone conferences as often and there will be more leadership training. We'll just have to sort of see how it goes. I look at it and kind of think I'll probably get use to it right when it is time for me to come home.

So this week I saw some pretty cool things. One of them was this dually F-350 with a spoiler. Another was a corvette that was just cruising through town. I also got a package from one of the couple missionaries in the office of banana bread muffins. Yeah they were amazing. Haha one of the branch presidents told me that when I get married I need to send the announcement about 3 months in advance so that he can come to my wedding. He has always wanted to come to others but the missionaries never tell him in time. I'm still deciding if I will or not. We had two pretty good experiences this week. One of them is with a man named Ebenezer. We have been teaching the rest of his family but he has kind of kept aloof. His wife told us he had been reading the copy of the Book of Mormon we left for her so we pounced on that. We showed up uninvited after calling his wife to see if he was home and talked to him about reading the Book of Mormon. He said he liked doing it so much because he just felt good when he would read it. The only problem is that he has some calling in his church and feels loyalty to it. So we are working on it. The other one also involves the Book of Mormon.

After finishing a lesson and leaving a compound house I looked across the street and saw a guy in a pretty blue shirt and wanted to talk to him. Ends up he has lived in Holland and heard of the church there and also received a copy of the Book of Mormon. We asked if he had ever read it and he said yes all the time. He said it just made him feel exciting. His name is Kenneth and he use to be a Rastafarian. Basically a weed smoking reggae hippite with long dreads. You couldn't tell now since he has cut his hair and well changed but yeah he is pretty cool too. Definitely could have good things come from both of them.

Two things I learned from watching children at church sort of came out of no where. The first is that I need to pick a good wife who will help raise our children to be at least civil. This after I saw kids ages 8-15 not be able to sit through Sacrament meeting and had to either get their phones out or just would walk around, in and out of the chapel. That taught me the second thing is not to be a parent who doesn't care and thinks someone else will teach my child. That is a lot of the attitude I see here, the "It isn't my responsibility" mentality. So that is kind of my week. We went out and proselyted this afternoon to prepare some investigators so they can be interviewed for a baptism this Saturday. Now I'm hungry and need to pack so I'll catch you next week! Love you lots!


Love Elder G

So we had a really good week. Probably should of guessed that when you first stop proselyting people are cracking Mexican jokes. I just liked the fact that most of the people here are worse off than those in Mexico so yeah it made me chuckle. Totally found the coolest casket. The guy must not of been able to afford a real caddy so he is getting buried in one. This carpentry shop has a specilty in caskets. They had bibles, bananas, screws, cars, just about everything. I want one, though hopefully I don't need to be worry about a coffin too soon.

the caddy casket.

Splits was cool. Abomosu wasn't as cool as I thought. It just sort of looked like every where else kind of. Just a bit smaller. I saw the Abu's house and even slept in the one they let the church use for missionaries but didn't actually meet them. Oh well it was some where new at least.

the bridge was out so you bet we jumped it. Had to get to the other side to teach a lesson.

So this week we tried doing something I have tried in the past. The part in Preach My Gospel where it says go about doing good and then basically massacre contacting everyone that could have possibly seen you doing it. We helped a lady mow her lawn, with a machete of course. I carried some guys five gallon can of petrol up a mountain. Picked up a street hawker's stuff. Just random things. The worst part was all the people we tried contacting into and then setting appointments with failed us. What was cool was the ripple effect. That is something that has been on my mind a lot. Mostly because it seems like a lot of times my companion and I put our efforts into one place like we feel we should and get nothing from it. Than out of no where something opens up or happens that we were completely no expecting. After I somewhat failed service finding it just seemed like people rolled in, literally in a week.

We had one lady who met with missionaries 4 or 5 years ago and got scared off because some story she heard. Her husband is a member in Accra and has worked on her. We literally ran into another lady whose mother is a member who wondered why the missionaries left right when she asked her mother to introduce her to her and her family. Just some things like that, that I feel are a direct result to what we did that seemed unfruitful. Hope you are making some ripples! Another sweet thing from this week was one day we got a member who recently was sort of laid off to go out with us. Walking past some salon he said he wanted to just say hi to his friend who owns it. Ends up sitting and teaching her, thankfully she spoke English. What was sweet was afterward she asked if the way that we sit down and learn is the same way we do at the church. Bottom line she is pretty interested so far so we'll see what happens.

So this week we had plenty of rain and even had to walk in it for a little bit. I enjoyed it at least. Though my feet got really cold. I learned this week there are white snails.

wading through the water

In Ghana they use to be reserved only for queen mothers of the tribes. Also learned from finding that white snail that a member breeds snails. Didn't know people did that. Kind of thought they just went and collected them. We're planning on going to his house this week and seeing just what it involves. We had a baptism this past Saturday. I was the baptist and was a little gullible. There was a big bug in the font an they told me it was poisonous. So yeah I am like give me a broom and stamp it to death. Yeah it wasn't poisonous they were just playing. Oops. The worst part of the baptism is that we included a child of record and then on Sunday at the confirmation I tried to get the father to confirm him. Too bad he wasn't an Elder. The sad part was the other men who were doing it said it so distastefully. Like he had a disease or something. Yeah just kind of bothered me.

Also there are a lot of missionaries getting sent home in my mission. Some of them fornicated and then others are basically considered dead weight because they are that lazy. Plus the two missionaries who are still in prison. The charges look like they will probably be dropped because the "victim" keeps changing her story and things like that. Who knows. I can say at least my companion and I are still doing well! I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

a family and some neighborhood kids. We baptized the lady holding the baby and two of the daughters. I'm wearing my Ghana crown.

This is our investigators child, Benedict. We get along. He hits me and I hit him back. Plus he loves to put on these plastic thingys and then just wave his hands really fast till they fly off.

Love
Elder G

So Happy Independence Day to everyone! Yeah I know it is late but get used to it. :D So probably the biggest news this week for me is that our apartment flooded twice. Yeah we live on the second floor by the way if you hadn't picked that up in some of my earlier emails. There were two really bad storms this past week. Broke some of the windows and rain just poured in so we came home to find standing water all over the place. The only thing that really was damaged was some papers I had in one of my suitcases. Which don't really take water at all which I was surprised to learn withstand water fairly well.

This week I was given a big hug by a drunk guy. He kept telling us he played the drums in our church and that we should go ask our overseer. Yeah it was great. At least his friend was interested in how patient we were so we contacted him. Hopefully will get to see him later this week. Uh yeah Ghana lost. I was sad. I mean after the US went out I was behind them. Plus lets just say they should of won, the most confident, or cocky, player choked. Another thing that really didn't go too well this week was I was really sick. Sis. Smith thought it was food poisioning but I didn't believe her. I just had really bad diarrehea, a headache, and an upset stomach. Thankfully I am all better now! Which is really good because since I am so far away if I hadn't started to feel better I would have been going to Accra so that Sister Smith could watch over me closer.

The missionaries invloved in the rape allegation have had their charges mostly dropped but are still in prison. Hopefully this week they will get out. Tomorrow night I'll be going on a split. Except it will be for like two days because of how far it is. It is in a place called Abomosu. It is pretty much where the church got its start in Ghana. Steven Abu and his wife live there. They are literally in the top 5 of being the first members in Ghana. So I'm excited to go there. So that is about all from here. I love you guys! Have a great one!

p.s. So I just was thinking about how two years ago I had my call and went to Grandma's house to open it and just wanted to thank everyone for making time to be there. Whether physically or through the phone! Love ya!

Hey I hope you had a GGGGGGRRRRRREEEEEAAAATTTTT weekend. I love you guys!

o here the big thing is that the US was beat by Ghana. I'm just tired of everyone trying to slap me on the back or something. Everybody has their story about it. My favorite was the people in the branch we went to yesterday. One of them prayed about how he was thankful for Heavenly Father letting the black stars beat obama's boys. The other guy took about 10 mins of his talk on it. I don't really care. When I see kids ditching school to play soccer in the streets then maybe I'll feel a little twinge of come on guys. Plus the fact since Ghana is the only African country still in EVERYONE is rooting for them. Other then that a fairly good week.

The whole rape story was announced on the radio up here. A lot of members and investigators started calling our phone wondering if it was us since the radio basically just said two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are in prison with a description of missionaries having white shirts, ties,and black tags. The trip to the temple was good. I was sick so my timing couldn't of have been better since I didn't have to really work too much for two days. We went to the Accra Mall and well coming home will be a culture shock. I think more than even coming here. Everything there just made me feel out of place. Kind of like it just belongs to a different world. By the way the Accra Mall is like a mall back home. Even has a nike store.

At the mission home my tag got broken. I was a little sad. We've had some good times together. A missionary I hadn't seen for a long time gave me a really big hug and well it broke. What was even better was Saturday morning Sis. Smith made us pancakes! Like real from scratch pancakes! She even had strawberry jam and real butter. It was great. Except the whole being sick thing so I didn't feel like eating too much. Dang it! The temple was great. Though I didn't really like how rushed we were. After our interview with Pres. Smith we has about 20 mins to get to the temple and then after getting out of the temple we only had about 10 mins before we left. I like to take a little bit more time and just kind of slow down. It was good as always. Meet some girls from Utah State that had come for something. I wasn't really paying attention.

Sunday something really good happened. A member woman who is pregnant who we are on pretty good terms came up and asked for a blessing. Her husband has gone out with us a little bit but his job had made him to travel. She doesn't speak English too well and didn't tell me at least why she wanted a blessing. Elder Boateng anointed and I sealed. As I started the blessing I was a little lost of words but stuff just kept coming out of my mouth. Whatever that woman heard I know that it gave her some comfort because it didn't come from me. OH and Sunday church attendance was super low because everyone was out partying because Ghana won.


Something I have thought about kind of with examples is that the first impression really does matter. As a missionary especially. If we aren't going to give a good first then all the other times we will have to work to showing that what we are and do is good instead of being able to have the people we are meeting with gain more of a belief in what we teach. . Well I hope you guys are having a great week!
Love Elder Gibson

It is my mission birthday! 19 months have come and gone! Crazy. This one is going to be a little quick. We are having some technical difficulties with the net. First off I want to tell you that two missoinaries in my mission were arrested for a child rape/molestation thing. It happened in an old area of mine and just want you to know it isn't me in case you hear something. So this week pretty normal. Still getting killed by the world cup and people spreading rumors about the church. It is amazing to see that even the short time we have been here the activity of people working against the church has spiked up. It is a little frustrating because I just look that what we do isn't hurting anyone. They just want to cause problems because they don't understand,and most don't want to listen.

We got the conference ensign and yeah I must of had some kind of miracle happen on my mission because I love reading the messages. Couldn't stand them back home. Seriously wish I could have listened to Pres. Monson on Easter Morning. Reading it was great. This week we get to go to the temple! Yeah I'm stoked. The worst part is that it will be a two day extravaganza. Pretty much Friday and Saturday will be wiped as in proselyting time, but I'll get to stay in the mission home Friday night in Accra. Revisiting my first apartment! I want to try and sleep in the same bed. So yeah I think that is about it from me this week. Oh new game I started playing. The pigeons here are pretty tame a little slow. You betcha, punting pigeons! I got one to go higher then my head but I'm sure I can top that. Anyway I love you guys and hope you know that. Good luck with everything you have going on! Love you!

Love Elder Gibson

Well all I have to say is BOOOOOO to the World Cup. Though hey U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A.! Yeah so the World Cup is a bummer here. Mostly because all we do is walk around and usually only run into people who either don't speak English or don't like football. If they don't speak English we aren't allowed to teach them. We haven't met anyone that doesn't like Football yet. Besides a Jehovah's Witness who basically looked like she wanted to curse us for bothering her while washing. Sunday was pretty rough with Ghana having a game. Especially since about 2 mins. after Ghana won they told us to go to our apartments. I hope it isn't like that for every game. It'll be a long month if it is. Besides that this week went fairly well.

Guess how many bananas I had in my mouth.

This week we had couple missionaries come and do some abortion interviews for us. They are the Terry's from Las Vegas. Sister Terry gave me a chocolate chip cookie. It was heavenly. One of our investigators dashed us some bananas and avocados. That was awesome, until I realized I had eaten nearly half of them by myself. Saturday our baptism went really good. It was a new experience since it was kind of drizzling rain and the baptismal font is outside. I was glad that I didn't have to get in the water though. A member did the baptisms. Sunday we went to the farthest branch because they had branch conference. They told us it started at 10. We show up maybe 10-15 mins. early and they have been going for nearly a hour. They changed it so that they would be finished in time for the game. I didn't actually go to any of the classes. I was with the clerks teaching them how to use the new computer they got. It was fun mostly because when I'd do simple things, like adding a table in microsoft word, I'd get oooo's and awwww's.

Our baptism on Saturday. There are two different families. The women and the children. Then the man is just an older guy who we are still working on his family.

So about two weeks ago I noticed a lizard had jumped into our garbage can. I didn't really want to try and rumble around in the rubbage for him so I left him. Last night found out we still have our pet lizard. The garbage is high enough that he could get out but just doesn't. I think he likes the free meals he gets from our trash. I am thinking I'm going to name him if he sticks around much along. Well there is my week in a nutshell. Have a great one!


Love Trav

This is the wall of a member's house. To my back is a little ravine that falls pretty much straight down to wear they fetch their water in a little creek pretty much.

Just messing around waiting for our investigator is get to his house. He said 5 mins which turned into 25. I was going to get a coconut but they weren't ready.

This is a mountain in Nkawkaw. There is a waterfall, prayer camp, and a paragliding launch on it. They keep telling us they will invite us over on Monday to go up but yeah nothing.

This is where they paraglide from

Well another week has finished for us. Lots of rain this week. Especially last night. I went to sleep with a window open to get a little breeze so that I wouldn't be too damp in the morning. Then about 1 o'clock last night I woke up to my feet being completely wet. I guess a hurricane sort of storm, that is how it was described this morning on the radio we could hear downstairs, came through. Best part was I think the lightning was literally striking on top of our roof because our entire room was getting bathed in light every time there was a strike. Which would make sense since we are pretty much the tallest building around besides some of the churches and we have a cell tower pretty close too. So in one of the branches we have just basically been thumping our heads against some walls but we kind of decided that we just had to keep working regardless.

This week sort of was a bit of a turn around. We were walking up a street when a guy in a shop called us over. His name is Dickson and he was prepared by missionaries to be baptized but his work made him travel and he missed it and basically the missionaries left and so he quit coming. He was super cool and just sort of needed that little bit of a boost. We'll see how it goes. That same day we went and taught a guy that wanted to know more about the church from his girlfriend who is a member. From him we were able to meet like 3 or 4 of his buddies who all are kind of interesting. It was just cool to see how things sort of blossomed a little bit after just feeling like what we were doing was pointless. Um this week had another investigator come out that he has had suicidal tendencies. Even has tried unsuccessfully twice to end his life. I don't what it is about me but I keep meeting a lot of people who have contemplated or attempted killing themselves. It makes me very thankful nothing in my life has ever made me want to go down that road.

Multi tasking. Driving fufu and having a coordination meeting on the phone. I'm the white one. The dark one is my companion.

Saturday we went to zone conference. On the way there and way back saw a lady, we think she is crazy, completely naked just causing trouble for people driving. Yeah it was interesting. Zone Conference was good. Pres. Smith bore his testimony about the Savior and it was powerful. Way good. Had some fufu that day that even my companion was having a hard time with. Fufu is usually about the consistency of bread dough. This stuff was like dried up playdough. UGH. Yeah plus they gave us some part of the animal that neither of us recognized and tasted pretty rough. We made it through it though. The guy I sat next to at church yesterday was wearing snakeskin pants. I want a pair. Only because they were awesome. No idea where he found that many snakes because I'm sure he did them himself.

Sunday I had a pretty rough day. To start off I had some trouble with a flu junk kind of stuff. Along with that I had to tell a guy who has been coming to church for about 10years he still can't be baptized. He is having a little drinking problem. At least we got invited to watch a part of conference at a member's house. So that was a little bit of a bonus. Other then that everything is pretty normal. Hope you are all having a good week!

Here is a house where a family we are teaching lives. Yeah, she is super nice. Her husband is a farmer. They have it pretty rough.

This is walking down the street to that house.

This is the back view of that same street

Love Elder Gibson

Summer

A Member

Okay so here is the story about the pants. The first pair is really lame. I sat down on a pew in church. Afterward I got up and realized there was a screw that at the very back was sticking up and ripped my pants a pretty distance. It was all good because I was able to just act naturally till after the meeting so I could just change. The other ones are just more due to my own stupidity I guess. For Mom, Dad, Shelly, Austin, and Stacie . . . remember when we went hiking by Payson? Well . . . imagine a repeat but this time I wasn't racing Austin I was racing a stupid dog. Caught my pants on the way down and well those ones are finished. For those of you who weren't there ask them and they'll let you know. So here they don't really have running water. Serious. So we have a big polytank like the one Dad is putting in, except smaller. We ran out of water and then called our friendly fire service guy who comes and fills it. Except his truck was out of water and the bore hole they used was messed up somehow. So ended up not having water for a few days. Eventually when we got the water it is really dirty. We use our filter for everything.

A Large Worm (next to the cell phone for comparison)

I decided riding in cars makes me tired for some reason. I get out and it just feels like I was beat up. Makes for some interesting times when we have to go back and forth. It rained a little bit this week which is a major downer because it definitely slowed our week down. Some of the days just seemed as if they were never going to end. Friday we went out with a member who wants to prepare to go on mission. His name is George and he is a pretty cool guy. Wants to come to America. Told me I should find him a wife in Arizona or preferably Utah. He was a little disappointed when I told him all my sisters were married. That same day we met two white people! It was crazy! A man and a woman who are doctors from Scotland in some clinic around. The lady had some of the prettiest blue eyes. Things you miss. I also had my first confirmed bush meat. Talking straight up wild animals. They called it bush cat. Though they described it as being more like a wild dog. So pondering it over I guess I ate coyote. It was pretty tasty. Might try it when I get home. It was crazy to be able to taste the difference between it being wild though. It was really good though but pretty tough. Luckily for me I got a leg. Had a baptism on Friday. The font is outside in a .courtyard of the church house. From that on Sunday I got to do my first confirmation since coming on my mission.

In Accra the wards have enough elders so they let them get the experience. Here they don't have as many so we were invited. It was a good experience for me. Though I was a little nervous about messing it up. I mean its just salvation right? Something I have noticed being here and kind of hindsight of being back home. People totally look at coming to church, whether ours or another, as socializing prime time. Kind of frustrated me. I wanted to just tell them church isn't a party. That is pretty much the extent of my week. I love you guys hope everything is going fine.

Well we had a tragic week this time around. I might be saying this because not one but BOTH of my favorite trousers got ripped a couple new ones. Okay mostly because I loved those trousers. We looked good together but we actually had a pretty good week. One night walking through I guess what we would call kind of wetland/swampyness I saw a bunch of lightning bugs. Arizona definitely should import a lot more of those. They are freaking awesome. Yes to those curious enough to wonder I did chase some. Thank you. Also another day just walking down a street passed this kid probably 5 or 6 and smiled and waved to him. Like 2 mins later he comes running back to us and spit out a sick freestyle rap and then ran back to his dad/whoever that guy with him was. It made me smile because that kid definitely had his heart into it, though it was in Twi so I didn't really get what he was saying.

Wednesday morning I am shaving and my companion is showering and we just hear someone banging on our door like there is no tomorrow. So rushing to get the keys, half throw a shirt on, and stumble down the stairs we are met by some little old lady who has a watermelon for us. She gave it to us and then said bye. Wasn't until Sunday we found out it was a member who had sent the lady to give it to us. It was pretty tasty though. Especially since my companion doesn't really eat watermelon. While teaching a lesson we got straight out rained out. It lasted forever and made us miss like 2 appointments. Sunday we forgot some stuff at our apartment and had to run back between going to one of the branches headed to the next.

We live on the second story and so I'm full on running around the corner and booking it up our stairs when out of no where a chicken pops up out of no where headed for my face. Little guy and squeezed under our door and just got nervous about me coming so fast. So those are the adventures for the week. Here is something I really liked that happened this week. We were teaching a few different lessons in English and people who didn't understand English were somehow around. As we were talking they slowly just wanted to be around because they said it made them feel good even if they could only understand bits and pieces. Which led to another thing of how much people notice about us. Even if it is just a smile. We had a few people call us from different shops and houses and just want to know why we were just going around and seemed happy about it. It was sweet to see that really we aren't doing this by ourselves we definitely get some help. I love everybody!


Love Travis