Well it was one from the books this past week. Sounds like everyone in Arizona seems to having one too with all the weather going on. This week definitely taught me the importance of back up plans. It seemed as if a lot of our initial plans took a beating. It was all good and were able to get some work done. Did a little bit of extra walking around our area though and it was sweet because we were able to notice some sweet new things. I have now found at least 3 monkeys that are being kept as pets in my area. Also a house that has a bunch of parrots. Something else that was refreshing was finding some new roads and kind of compound houses that we hadn't known before.
We had our mission tour with Elder Dickson who is in the Area Presidency. He is a way cool guy. It was kind of a spiritual overload it seemed at times. Kind of like so much that was coming at you that you couldn't soak it all in. Two of the things that he really talked about is how when we are teaching our investigators there are two things we need to do. One of them is to get them committed to paying their tithing. If we can do that if we ever come back to Ghana we will have much better chance at finding them in the church still. Another thing about it was to get them to love the gospel. Have them to the point where they want to know more about the church and its teachings. All in all he gave lots of good advice. Probably the first time there was I guess "official" talk about finding your eternal companion. The whole you shouldn't wait after your mission to get married kind of thing. I was just likle WHOA. Hey now I'm still a Toys 'R' Kid and I'm never gonna grow up. Okay not really but marriage is kind of a huge step and one that seems just way too alien to even be a part of my thought process. At least there was plenty of good stuff about the whole being a missionary thing. I'm glad I was able to write a good section of notes to go over and get some more things out of what was said. I got two flat tires this week on my bike. Reminded me of the time back home when it seemed like I couldn't drive a week without getting a flat. Luckily we met some cool guys who happen to fix bikes when we were contacting. One of them thinks I'm German and won't speak English to me though. D'UR!!!
Saturday we had another baptism. This time it was two men and two daughters. The one man had about, no joke, about 12-15 other children come. He is Aryee and is 55 with about 20 children. His oldest is my age. It seemed like we were having a primary program. Sunday was an interesting day too. Right the African Cup of Nations is going on and Ghana had a game. Up to now it has kind of been pretty low key but this game was the quarter finals. Ghana won the game and basically everyone went CRAZY. People out in the streets and everything like that. I'm sure a couple bottle tops were popped that night for sure. I can only imagine what will happen if they win the whole thing. This morning we went to the main market in pretty much all of Ghana. It is called Mokola Market look it up on Google and it might surprise you. I needed a belt and the ones around our area were really worthless in quality so we went there so I wouldn't feel like I was being robbed. We ran in to the assistants to President Smith who were buying ties. I was hoping for a ride back to the apartment but no such luck. Tonight we are invited to go to a member of the stake presidency for dinner and to basically have family home evening. Everytime we go to one with members and investigators always reminds me of when I was little and my favorite part of FHE was getting to eat dessert afterward. Sure know where my priority was for sure. :D I love you guys and hope you have a wonderful week!
Yeah the weather sounds off the hook over there! It even rained a little here but literally a drizzle. It is kind of the ending of the dry season haha in the next 3 or 4 months but sometimes showers happen here and there. I can't wait for the rainy season, even though the chances of getting malaria shoot through the roof. Adults sometimes let themselves go below what they would want their children. I see it all the time even in the streets here. I mean we all have to have our standards and the best we can do is stick to them in my mind.
love elder gibson
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Hello back
Hey Obroni obroni! Okay I just wanted you guys to get a start to a conversation like most of mine. This week was pretty good. We went on splits this week with our Zone Leaders. That was a very refreshing change. It kind of made me realize for about the last 6 months I have been training new missionaries. Then a second thought was that yep, that is why I feel so tired. It was nice to just have someone who really knows what he is doing to assist in the teaching. Helped me to see what kind of an advantage experience is. We taught a sweet lady named Beatrice. We had contacted her but she didn't have time. She told us just one of about a bozillion churches that people attend. As we taught her it came out that she has been searching for a church and has actually only been attending this one for about 2 weeks. Basically it was moving to see how God really puts people into our path we just have to be willing to put forth the effort to encourage them in.
That same day a guy saw us walking and dashed us these fruit smoothies. Basically one of the most amazing things I've tasted since I've been in Ghana. That same night we needed to fill our baptismal font for the next morning. As we were riding our bikes towards the chapel the rain started to come down in buckets. We were less then a mile away from the church but by the time we got there the parking lot was flooded and even the intersection by the church was too. It caused a little bit of trouble for the traffic. It made me glad that we were able to sit inside the church and just let the font fill. Saturday we had our baptism. We had talked to some of the people and decided we would go and pick them in the morning before. It made for a long day with such an early start.
A guy named Steven Yeboah had promised to come to church on Sunday but didn't show up. We went to check up on him and found washing his clothes from work, he sells car parts, his boss had called him and he had just come. He asked us to wait and afterward told us about how he had read Alma 7 and how he just feels that the church is true and wants to be baptized. It was pretty sweet, but hopefully isn't driven by the fact that we were disappointed he didn't come to church. Sunday evening we went and helped a member make fufu. Cooking and pounding enough for 6 missionaries takes a long time. The soup was so hot that my fingers are still a little tender. This morning we played some soccer with other missionaries. It ended up into playing rugby. It is a pretty sweet game. Kind of makes me wish I could have played at home. It was funny because most of us didn't know how to play so it was a little bit like a circus. This week we will have a mission tour from one of the general authorities. Probably one of the area presidencies. It will be cool to see a lot of the missionaries around though and hear whatever they have to say. I hope everyone has a great week!
If it is windy you should go fly a kite. Kids here make them out of like plastic bags and sticks and fly them so high.
love Elder Gibson
That same day a guy saw us walking and dashed us these fruit smoothies. Basically one of the most amazing things I've tasted since I've been in Ghana. That same night we needed to fill our baptismal font for the next morning. As we were riding our bikes towards the chapel the rain started to come down in buckets. We were less then a mile away from the church but by the time we got there the parking lot was flooded and even the intersection by the church was too. It caused a little bit of trouble for the traffic. It made me glad that we were able to sit inside the church and just let the font fill. Saturday we had our baptism. We had talked to some of the people and decided we would go and pick them in the morning before. It made for a long day with such an early start.
A guy named Steven Yeboah had promised to come to church on Sunday but didn't show up. We went to check up on him and found washing his clothes from work, he sells car parts, his boss had called him and he had just come. He asked us to wait and afterward told us about how he had read Alma 7 and how he just feels that the church is true and wants to be baptized. It was pretty sweet, but hopefully isn't driven by the fact that we were disappointed he didn't come to church. Sunday evening we went and helped a member make fufu. Cooking and pounding enough for 6 missionaries takes a long time. The soup was so hot that my fingers are still a little tender. This morning we played some soccer with other missionaries. It ended up into playing rugby. It is a pretty sweet game. Kind of makes me wish I could have played at home. It was funny because most of us didn't know how to play so it was a little bit like a circus. This week we will have a mission tour from one of the general authorities. Probably one of the area presidencies. It will be cool to see a lot of the missionaries around though and hear whatever they have to say. I hope everyone has a great week!
If it is windy you should go fly a kite. Kids here make them out of like plastic bags and sticks and fly them so high.
love Elder Gibson
Monday, January 11, 2010
Well what a week. At least it went pretty good. I am kind of having a hard time people asking about money. I know that life is tough and everything but still church shouldn't be looked at as just a no interest bank. We went on splits this week with the people in my District. I spent a long day walking around finding in another area. It wasn't too bad but I was glad to get to go back to my area. We had a really long power out this week. Went over 48 hrs. It was a lot easier to get to sleep with a fan for sure. Keeps more of the bugs and what not away from you too. We are teaching a guy who lives next to his grandma. She saw us and kind of disappeared which we were kind of use to because she hasn't seemed to like to us too much. As we were getting up the old woman came out and told us she had something for us. Sitting back down she brought out a big bowl of banku. UGH. Luckily we were able to just down it really really quick.
We had Interviews with President Smith this week. It was a little rough. He had everyone bring their area books. Luckily mine passed because we work on it but pretty much every other one was a failure. Made for a little chastisement. It was pretty deserved though. We went to our Ward Mission Leader's house and his land lady basically started yelling at us because we wanted to see him. She is just kind of like that. Our Ward Mission Leader called us back because she was still letting him have it. We had to go back and apologize for not asking her if we could knock on his door. It was pretty interesting and I had a hard time keeping a straight face.
I met some people I had taught in my first area. It was cool because they remembered me and everything too bad I didn't remember them. Maybe if they would have been baptized. So there was a funeral right outside our apartment so we haven't really got to sleep since Friday night. Saturday was wake keeping till about 4 am. Then last night was the party. Had a stack of speakers about the size of a shed playing Ghanaian hip hop. They definitely know how to send someone out in style. That is kind of the highlights of the week. Hope everyone is having a good week!
One thing here is that they take such meaningless things and make them so important in their lives. I guess thankfully the gospel keeps you rooted in what is right. Helps us to know what we need to do and where to go.
love 'uncle travis'
We had Interviews with President Smith this week. It was a little rough. He had everyone bring their area books. Luckily mine passed because we work on it but pretty much every other one was a failure. Made for a little chastisement. It was pretty deserved though. We went to our Ward Mission Leader's house and his land lady basically started yelling at us because we wanted to see him. She is just kind of like that. Our Ward Mission Leader called us back because she was still letting him have it. We had to go back and apologize for not asking her if we could knock on his door. It was pretty interesting and I had a hard time keeping a straight face.
I met some people I had taught in my first area. It was cool because they remembered me and everything too bad I didn't remember them. Maybe if they would have been baptized. So there was a funeral right outside our apartment so we haven't really got to sleep since Friday night. Saturday was wake keeping till about 4 am. Then last night was the party. Had a stack of speakers about the size of a shed playing Ghanaian hip hop. They definitely know how to send someone out in style. That is kind of the highlights of the week. Hope everyone is having a good week!
One thing here is that they take such meaningless things and make them so important in their lives. I guess thankfully the gospel keeps you rooted in what is right. Helps us to know what we need to do and where to go.
love 'uncle travis'
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