Dentists, Monkeys, and a Merry Muslim Christmas!

Snap Krackle Pop!
Rice Krispies. :)

This week was full of amazing things! :)

Monday was subsistence! 350 gh cedis! Which is like $85. But here that's quite a bit! We did the usual washing and cleaning of the apartment, my knuckles are raw.... :) Shopping was great, we stocked up on eggs, rice, and chicken. 10 kgs of chicken... That'll last us the whole transfer. :) I picked up a few things for family members. Emailing was terrible, it was so slow that we had to try a second place, which was a little better. So it took 3 hours to email instead of 2.

Waiting for the office elders!

Tuesday, instead of going to district meeting we went to the dentist! WooHoo!..... Not really. We waited for 2 hours to be seen. The light they use to see into your mouth was concerning.... covered in blood splatters and other stuff.... SKETCH!!!! Plus the dentist had Alzeymers hands... But he did a decent job. After that we went and got Fufu, since it requires zero chewing. :) I bought 2 boxes of Rice Krispies!!!! They were expiring and so they were only 7 cedis instead of 35! Killer! They are my happy snack at night. :) We made the rounds to our less-actives and recent converts. We taught 2 investigators. The power is out... Surprised?

The dentist's chair....

Wednesday we got 3 new investigators! Patience, Anita, and Regina! I'm so glad we are finally finding new people to teach. We taught Ezekiel, which wasn't so pleasant... He's only interested because he heard the church gives free health care, which we don't. Then Bro. Benjamin was much more pleasant.

The weather is weird here, it's roasting hot in the day and then a lot colder at night, but that means evenings finally feel nice. :) PEC was good, I love Bishop Kay so much, he's a carpenter and is always so happy. :)

Trash fires.... No biggy

I had Rice Krispies for dinner. :) Sala (Muslim Christmas) is this week. So we saw about 20 Muslims dragging 2 huge Texas long horns outside our kitchen window. Man those people are nuts. What do you do if the thing charges? You die. That's what you do. :)

Thursday we had weekly planning. We taught Anita, and shortly after an old man from her church (Methodist) chewed us out for teaching her and told us to never go back to that house again.... so we told him we only intended good and continued on our way... Some people... Eeesh!

Can you find Ebola?
(That's what we named
the monkey XD )

Elder Wasden stayed the night, he's my Zone Leader, because of exchanges. We had Rice Krispies and chatted about hunting and camping, which was nice. :)

Friday we got a new investigator! Suzannah! Her husband seems more interested, she's the one we contacted but he'll probably convert before her. Linda a less-active, is gradually becoming more active! Yay!

We also taught Benjamin and Araba with Christian. He helps us so much and is always so willing to give us his time to help us serve. It's too bad that he's too old to serve a singles mission. :/

Football at Holy Child. :)

We went to Mami Sopas store (the same one that makes us dinner each Sunday) and helped her move 40 crates of drinks! She was so glad we came right as she was closing. :)

Saturday was really chill. We went and played football at Holy Child (a Catholic school). But before leaving I had just finished making oatmeal and they said "we're leaving!" So I scarfed down a hot bowl of oatmeal in under a minute.... Eeesh! I felt ill afterward.  At Holy Child we saw 5 monkeys! Which was pretty cool to see. They just jumped through the trees like it was nothing.

My favorite. :)

After football we came back and prepped for the day and studied. We had Fufu for lunch. :) Our Zone Leaders had a baptism so we went and supported them. After which we went and taught Regina and Samuella. And then visited Auntie Kate. :) I love her!

Sunday was our last Sunday having 11:30 church.  We are now moving to 9. :) We had 3 investigators come to church! Plus, next week is conference! Finally! :) But now it'll be broadcasted for us here late at night, for 4-6 and 8-10... So it'll be recorded for us, so I don't know when I'll watch it.

Lovely Members. :)

No one was around to teach. Except Philip, the only thing he does is play, so we can always go find him to teach. :) We went to Mami Sopa's for dinner as usual. She made us rice with Palm Nut soup. :) Palm Nut soup is really nice. And it was the first time that I ate just the right amount. Not too much and not too little, but just enough. Overall it was a great day. Plus it was baking hot. :)

Appropriate for the
Church building. :)

So that was my week! I'm learning a lot in my studies because I'm using the manuals. It's amazing how much light they shed on subjects that you hadn't even thought of before. They are a wonderful tool and I would strongly recommend that everyone uses them. :)

~Elder Park

Banana Bread and Centipedes

My Grandfather and Father!

Monday was really long but really good. :) First off I got all my laundry washed and cleaned the kitchen by 9:00. After which we went to the mission home to get a hair cut from Elder Day and to get Elder Ofordeme a renewed Temple Recommend. But there was a mix-up in communication and so Elder Day wasn't at the Mission home!!! Ahhh! But it's alright because his apartment is just a 20-minute walk from the Mission home.

Sister Stevenson fed us homemade banana bread while we were at the home. It tasted just like my mom's. :) We got to Elder Day's apartment and he cut my hair a little too short.... I asked for 2 inches and he gave me 1.... But it's alright, it'll grow back. :) We had FHE with Sister Gloria starting at 3 which went til 7, and then the power was out and so we didn't get to email.

Elder Day the Barber

Tuesday we had another combined District meeting. We lost Sisters Baah, Asare, and Ndu. All sweet gals. All Africans have sass. And it seems that the smaller they are the more they have. Sister Asare is I think 4' 11",  just a tiny little thing and has more sass then you could possibly comprehend.

We made a big batch of Egoosy soup and then went out to teach Mavis, a new investigator. She seems really interested in learning but isn't interested in leaving the Methodist faith. :/

Matching Wallets like a boss!

We then went and taught Christian some more about the Sacrament and Temptations. He is such a sweet man and is really doing his best do stay on the path. After him we went and taught Linda an LA (Less Active) about the Book of Mormon.  She doesn't really focus, but at least she gives us her time. We then went and emailed since we didn't on Monday.

Wednesday was transfer day! My first transfer is over and my second has begun! It's a weird 4-week transfer which means the next one will be in 8 weeks. Lots of Elders went home, including my Grandfather Elder Barret. He trained Elder Ofordeme in the same ward I'm being trained in right now! That never happens! Where an Elder trains in the same ward that he was trained!

My tooth...

We spent most of the day with Elder Barret and seeing members, but before meeting him I had just finished making Indomie and Elder Ofordeme was like, "Man we gotta go! He's here!" And so I had to scarf down my plate of Noodles in like 2 minutes, which didn't sit well the rest of the day, but that's alright. :) We did find 2 more people to teach though! Emanuel a LA and Patience a new investigator! We then went to PEC and then to Christian. While we were teaching a 5-inch centipede came out from under the door and came straight at me! But it only lived for another foot because then it was smeared by Christian's shoe for like 4 feet. I'm not used to these bugs yet....

Thursday was weekly planning. And I got myself some Maple Syrup! It was only 28 cedis for 64 ounces! What a bargain! That is a Bargain for me, I think I will buy some. :)

The Dentist that didn't see me!

We took Christian with us to go teach Araba, she's a cripple and has to crawl everywhere and only speaks Fante, so we use Christian to translate. After we went and taught Benjamin the Word of Wisdom and then took Philip to Literacy class that's provided by the church, but no one was at the church! What the heck?! No one told us they had cancelled it. After that disappointment we went around visiting various LAs and some members. Our referrals are suffering, so we're working on getting more since our teaching pool is nearly empty.

So 1am Friday morning I had a pleasant surprise. I awoke with a tooth ache and felt something in my teeth, so I went and flossed and removed the paining object along with a huge chunk of my tooth! Gahhhhh!?!?!? I took some pain meds and then went to the dentist at 12. But then the dentist told me they couldn't see me til Tuesday.... So I'll just live with this hole in my mouth for a few days.

Adjoa. :)
She doesn't like to talk to us...

After that we had a very busy day teaching Abraham an LA and Sister KoKuah an RC (Recent Convert) LA and then saw Auntie Kate. She is my absolute favorite and she loves me to death! She is seriously my African Mother. :) We then ate Kokonte at a Chop Bar, which is essentially Fufu. We then finished the night by teaching Sally (a Muslim). That was fun... :)

I had oatmeal for breakfast as usual Saturday morning. It's my new staple food. Christian helped us with Araba again. Most of our appointments fell through.... And all had lame excuses, they claimed to be working but you knew they were just watching TV inside.

The tiniest 2 year old. :)

We taught a slightly interested Methodist today about the Book of Mormon.  His mother wasn't having it though and so we were ushered away pretty quickly... they don't know what they're missing. The mother told us our church didn't have enough music and dancing, man apostasy is so silly. :) Power is out too.. yay...

Auntie Kate! :)

Sunday morning the power came back! But then our pump blew, which means no water.... so power was pointless. We only had 2 investigators come to church... which is better than none though. Elder Ofordeme and I blessed the sacrament, which brought back lots of great memories of home. :) We only had to prep 3 trays though, that's a big difference from the 8-10 back home. After church we visited Abraham and Sister Gloria, we also talked to Auntie Kate on our way to Sister Sopas for dinner. Auntie Kate takes such good care of us and always dashes us little things. :) Sister Sopa made us Geloff rice. The best food you'll ever have in Ghana. It's just simply the best rice ever. I would be content if she rotated between Geloff rice and Fufu each week. :)

So that was my week! Busy busy busy! But it's definitely worth it!

~Elder Park

Another wonderful week has come and gone!

Pig #2!

Monday we went and played football with the Elmina Zone and their members, which is always lots of fun. While we were there we roasted another pig! This one had been roasted for a total of 4 hours, which meant all of it was actually done this time. I talked with my white brother Elder Bay practically the whole time. Man I would kill to be that kid's companion. We would tear it up. We work so well together and think very similarly. We had FHE with the Andoh-Keson Family again. They are so wonderful and love to tease. Just like my family. :) They have a wonderful spirit that is very drawing. :)

The standard crew. :)

Tuesday in Zone meeting they discussed the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy. How the whole day needs to be reverent and not just the 3 hour block. It was really nice to hear because a lot of the time we get caught up in business, phones, or other people, but we need to make sure all of our thoughts and actions are directed toward the Savior. :) We came back and made Okura soup (Oh-cr-ah) it's like egoosy but not as good. The Okura vegetable itself becomes this green phlegm-like substance that has no flavor.... Why they put so much of it in I have no idea but it's good to embrace the culture. :)

Kids love cameras

School has started here and it goes from 7:30 - 4. So it's now really difficult to teach our younger investigators, we have to try to catch them in the evenings... :/

A Roger Woolley.... :)

On Wednesday it actually rained. Like hard. Which cooled things down a bit, but made everything really muddy. Cleaning my shoes that evening was a beast. Traffic was a lot better though since nobody wanted to be out and about, and it kept people home so we could teach! :) We taught Christan and Benjamin in the evening and killed 2 cockroaches, one was 2 inches long and the other was about 3. Ayyy! Those things are big! Christian said those ones were about average.... We also got another fridge! Since 4 of us can't fit in one. :) But me and my companion had to carry it up 6 small flights of stairs.

(Photo & Caption from Collin's Mom)
For those who may not be familiar
with Roger Woolley,
this is Collin and Roger Woolley
at Collin's Mission Farewell.
We just LOVE these two!!!

Thursday was great. Breakfast is always my favorite meal. It's the one meal where I can make normal food like oatmeal, pancakes, and french toast. (All made this stuff that slightly resembles the stuff back home.) Which is always a great way to start the day. :) Teaching was good today. First we taught Sister Stellah, an investigator that's married to a member, and Sister Bridgette. Both struggle with English with makes teaching hard since we usually can't find a translator.

Some African game

Friday that fridge is still sitting there in our dinning room. But we haven't had time to re-organize our tiny kitchen. We taught a man today named brother Ezekiel. It's hard to get him to stop talking once he's started.... And we finally discovered his true motive on investigating the church, and it was because he heard that we give out free health care.... which isn't true. After we told him that we didn't, his whole demeanor changed and it became hard to teach... oh well. :/

The best food ever!

Linda a Less active is gradually becoming more active! :) and she's inviting her friends to listen in on the lessons too! It's nice to see her coming back to the fold. :) I did 200 pushups before bed along with a bunch of skull crushers... My arms were completely wrecked....

Auntie Nancy. :)

Saturday was good too. I've been reading the September Liahona which also has lots of good stuff on marriage and child rearing. :) We had a combined Ward activity with the Green Hill Branch which was alot of fun! We played various African board games like Droubt, and did relays and other competitions. :) At the end we ate Geloff rice and chicken. And had a good ole Pepsi! I haven't seen one of those in forever! The activity went nearly all day so we could only teach Emmanuella that evening.

Liquid amazingness

Sunday was great. The day began nicely with Church at 11. Still didn't understand a word but I learned a lot from my own Sunday school class. ;) Auntie Nancy asked us to come over to her place directly after church which was at 2:30. When we got there we helped her pound Fufu for about an hour after which she finished making the soups. I mention soups because she had to make me a special batch of light soup due to the fact that she had made a batch of groundnut soup (Peanut soup) and so that took a little longer but the Soup was fantastic!

Photo from
Mission President:
Creature of the Week

We then proceeded to walk across the street to another Dinner appointment which was sister Sopa. She made us Banku and gave us fire (African slang for giving you an ear full) because she had prepared lots of Banku and knew that we had already eaten Fufu, which is really filling. So she decided to give us the same amount anyway and told us if we didn't finish then she wouldn't feed us again... So we finished and felt really ill.... Man that woman can be terrifying.... Hehe :)

So that was my week! The power is out pretty often which means sometimes we can't email Monday, but we should be able to the following day. :)

~ Elder Park

Lots of Contrast

I want one. :)

This week was Festival! Which means it was crazy.

Tuesday's district meeting was wonderful as usual. Elder Nwatah does a wonderful job in leading the district and gives amazing instruction. This week we had a discussion on how to follow Christ, which is by developing His Christ like attributes. It was so good and helped me know what to work on.

Or two.... :)

After the meeting our district went to a Chop Bar (a roadside shack that sells food). We all got Banku which is essentially a drier Fufu, but it's still way tasty. When we got back we decided to switch the water filters because our water filter chart said it was time. When we opened it it was black..... they should never get that color... ever. We asked Elder Mapfumo the last time the apartment had changed it and he said they hadn't since he'd been there which means a MINIMUM of 4 months.... It's supposed to be changed every month! My companion has been slightly sick and has had a raging headache and cough, which has made proselyting rough for him... But hopefully he'll get better soon. It's probably from the water.... Our ward mission leader is a return missionary and isn't serious and does absolutely squat... which is slightly frustrating because he's the one that helps us coordinate with the ward.

What repentance can do... :)

Wednesday was slightly more rowdy than the last few. The biggest days of the Festival are Saturday and Sunday, and so they gradually build the energy up to those days. Plus we see more and more strange/riske/drunk people each day. And the drunkards are kind of humorous, since they stagger up to you and say stuff like, "Tell me a scripture and teach me how to praise Jesus, I want to join your church!" All of this while they can hardly stand and have a beer in their hand.... It's great. :)

The ugly chick! (The ugly duckling)

My shirts are a little big on me, and so I went and had 2 of my 12 shirts tailored to fit me. And might I say, they fit wonderfully now. ;) In the pictures you should be able to tell a difference. I'll be taking him the other 10 this upcoming week.  Christian has been helping us teach which is super nice. Being able to have a new strong convert bear testimony to a new investigator does wonders to help build that new investigators testimony.

America represent!

Thursday was my first day wearing my new fitted shirts. They make me look a lot nicer and are quite form fitting. The only down side is that the young ladies we talk to get slightly distracted when we talk to them... ;) But is that really a down side?

Philip and Emannuela, 2 of the 3

With Festival, no one is home to teach so we didn't have much to do. I did get to hold 2 super cute babies though! Man I wanted one so bad. :)

Friday was Orange Friday! Everyone was wearing Orange. But taking pictures didn't really happen due to the fact that if I took the camera out of the house it would probably get stolen.... So I didn't take it out.

Nap time in Church :)

Sister Gloria fed us again. She has gotten on this 'Feed the missionaries' kick, which isn't bad, but man she makes a lot of food.

Once again, the day's productivity was zero. Due to the whole city blasting music, dancing, and cooking in the streets. It's hard to travel with so many bodies.

Samuela, # 3 :)

Saturday was the biggest day of the Festival. People were partying from early early morning clear into early early Sunday morning. The streets were so packed but I still managed to get some pics. American flags were everywhere! Ghana loves the U.S.! All of the people on stilts were in red, white, and blue. We still managed to have a baptism though! There were 5: 1 for the 1st ward, 1 for the other companionship in the 2nd ward, and then we had 3! I was a little worried they wouldn't come due to the Festival but they all came!

Are they trying to
tell us where to sit?

That evening a member bought us some food from a road side grill, which ended up giving me an Allergy attack... Joy. But it was just a mild one so I didn't need my Epi-pen, but the Benedryl that I took totally shut down my evening. I'm not sure if it was peanuts or something else... I hope it was peanuts and not something else because it's harder to look out for something that you don't know exists.

The baptismal font before....

Sunday was fast Sunday! It was pretty long though, due to no dinner the night before, and no breakfast or lunch.... man I was starving! But even if you're really hungry, if you have a purpose, then it becomes a lot easier. It was also the last day of the Festival, but hardly anyone was out during the day because they were all still recovering from the previous night's hangover, so the walk to church was quite peaceful. :) But sure enough, that evening they were out again, going harder than the night before since it's the last night. Man these people are nuts! Eeeesh!

and after!

This week was full of lots of Black and White moments:
1. Me and my companion.
2. The 2 babies. :)
3. An investigator gave us a White and Black chair to sit in to teach....
4. The baptisimal font before and after.
5. The water filter.

This week was full and exciting! It will be nice to go back to calm, normal, productive weeks. :)

~Elder Park

Pigs and Fufu!

Cash Money!

This week was very busy!

Don't you just love these? :)

On Monday was a standard P-day. We did the usual like bargaining for food and washing clothes. We had to email a little earlier because that night we had Zone FHE. And the activity was roasting a pig and watching Ephraims Rescue. We have Elder Gasolo from Samoa in our Zone so we did this activity because of him. He skewered the whole pig and roasted it. It was pretty tasty too. :)

My MTC's!!
(Caption from Mission President:
"So, this is about 20 companionships,
Another 20 companionships are six
weeks ahead of them also training.
That means we have 40%
of the mission training!")

Tuesday was Zone Conference. It was 5 hours long.... but we received lots of good instruction about involving members. 79% of our baptisms result from members. And if we don't make a good relationship with the Bishop then we can't have a good relationship with the members. And also the importance of a ward mission plan. If the ward has a good mission plan, then the work is able to progress much much faster. :) So that day was spent mainly at the conference.

Cheap good food. :)

Wednesday's study session was very beneficial to me. I was studying about love and charity, and one of the thoughts I came across was that God corrects and chastises those He loves. He loves us enough to cut us down and prune us so we can grow stronger and taller.

Mosquitos in the water....

We were finally able to exchange my $200 into GHC's and here the US dollar is worth almost 4 cedis. So I got 780 Cedis! And might I remind you that everything here is about the same price as it is back home. Which means everything is 1/4 the price and I have 4 times the money. :)

My bestie! Sawah

The weather here is still considerably coolish. We will be entering their dry hot season. So I'm probably going to die during Christmas when it hits. The power is out again.... shocker right? ;)

My Bay!
(This is Elder Bay from the MTC.
He's my favorite!)

Thursday was just another confirmation that the culture here is different. They are a very pleasing culture. Which means they hate to disappoint and be an inconvenience to your face. So they'll tell you yes to something you ask of them, or tell you they'll be in the house at a certain time, but then when the time comes, they won't be.... So it's slightly frustrating but it's normal here so I'm still adjusting.

Pounding Fufu
with Sister Sopa! :)

I killed a cockroach in my room today, which was slightly exciting and disturbing. Man those things are quick on the ground... but I'm quicker! :)

Pounding Fufu with Sister Gloria

Friday was a follow-up training meeting where they gathered all of the Trainers and their new missionaries. It was a lot of fun because I got to see a lot of my TC's! It was nice to catch up and to visit with those that I had developed such close relationships with. :)

I've been reading my Patriarchal Blessing 3 times a week and it's been helping so much. It truly is a road map to your life and you find new meanings in it each time you read it. Frequently read your Blessing. :)

My Brown brother
from Louisiana. :)

Every Saturday we go play football with the members or the Hemina Zone. So this week was supposed to be with the members, but when we got to the field, it had buses on it, because the field is part of a Catholic youth school... Those darn Catholic buses... ;) So we walked the 3 miles there and back for nothing. The day was very productive though, nearly all of our appointments were available and we were able to teach them!

Review Training
for the new missionaries
and their trainers.

For dinner we went to a road side shop and got Fufu.  It was only 2 cedis! So like 50 cents! I had it with light soup which is actually quite hot but it's the lightest one they have.

Sunday we had 4 investigators come to church! I was so happy to see them walk into the chapel. We sat by one of them and were able to visit with the others afterward.

Review Training

Sister Sopa fed us Fufu for dinner which was tasty. We helped her pound it which was quite tiring, but worth it. She also taught me how to suck the meat out of a crab. You have to crunch the shell with your teeth, and then you suck out the meat.... while filtering out the shell of course. :)

Monday was really nice. We had our morning devotional and then got right to work on cleaning the apartment and washing. My hands get raw each time due to the soap and scrubbing, so hopefully they'll harden up so my knuckles don't keep bleeding.

Photo from Mission President:
Baptism in Nkroful

Festival started today and goes through Sunday. Certain days are bigger than others so today was pretty low key, just lots of people coasting around town.

I still haven't had a haircut because we're always so busy! So I definitely need one next week. The Africans like my hair, but it's just a tich too long for me. :)

We had FHE with Sister Gloria and she fed us Fufu as well. Which I helped her pound, but this time it gave me blisters on my hands. But this means I've had Fufu 3 days in a row! Fufu tastes great, but it's so heavy! And we usually have to eat it way late, so you end up going to bed with this rock of Fufu in your stomach... I hope I don't get a belly... But if I do then I guess that means I'm not starving. :)

~Elder Park