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