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