Growing in Ghana: Week 14: Warning- Gross Content! Busy Week, Another Baptism, More Baptismal Dates and Sunburn!!!

"I have 5 fans blowing on me because I am a princess, Homie" - Me

A Recent Convert

This week was super hot! Probably the hottest it has been. I know I keep saying that but I thought I would be used to the heat. But it feels like it is getting worse! Also, this week has been a very hard week because we are now trying to learn a new area! We have met some very cool people! We have been also focusing a lot on trying to develop a better relationship with members so that they feel more comfortable giving us referrals, and maybe we will get lucky enough for them to go out with us sometimes because President wants us to get as many member present lessons as we can!

It POURED rain!

Tuesday
At 6:30 am Hunt and Perry left the apartment. We are definitely going to miss them. We have built a strong relationship with them and it is definitely something I am going to miss, especially being with each other for the past 2 months. Man, we are going to have the apartment to ourselves which means plenty more responsibility and harder to keep clean but I think we can do it! Now I can have 3 fans blowing in the room and 2 oscillating in there as well. I’m definitely going to sleep well now. Perry left me a ton of drinking packets and Hunt left me with a bunch of soap. I guess I am good for a while. This means I am a small boy compared to the other elders I am with. Ferrin and Barnes are 20 and Randall is 22 and I’m sitting at a lousy 18 haha. Today we really studied the map of their area and tried to kinda get a sense where everything is because we had appointments to see some of their people. Oh and almost forgot we saw off the other elders too. They are going to Winneba tied for the most bushiest place in the mission. Yes we rate areas....ha!

Wednesday
Well this morning we woke us at 6 because there was commotion outside our apartment. I looked out the window and saw the landlord yelling at some of our neighbors. I was like here we go again... So being nosy white people we decided we wanted to go out there and see what was up. Our landlord was enraged because somebody else’s poly tank was leaking and making the ground grow mold and stuff. By the way, we live in a compound with 3 other houses so keep that in mind. It wasn’t our fault but he started going off on how the neighbors need to clean it up because it will leak near our poly tank and make us sick and stuff. He had a point but he was too angry about a simple thing. Asking nicely would have been great but this is Ghana. At DCM we did this activity in Preach My Gospel where we were judging ourselves based on the Christlike attributes. I really need to work on love and charity. At first I was joking with the other guys about it. But honestly it is a serious thing. So that's a fun fact. Literally we are best friends with our neighbor (outside the compound). She is like 80 years old and is always doing something. I swear she works harder than we do. Way to go, grandma!!! Haha I think I’ll probably be crippled by the age 50. I got a couple of my shirts slimmed today. It’s probably a little more than an inch on both sides and a little off the arms. Slimmed shirts look a ton better let me tell you. Man it started raining hard and we totally got soaked even though we were trying our hardest to get to cover. The nearest place was a members’ house. We sprinted to get there and still got soaked. The struggle is real. We kinda had a problem. Somebody lost the water bill. so I am glad we got another bill for last month today because we would have been in trouble. Water is expensive here though. 120 cedis for 1 bill. I guess we use too much water...

Thursday
Happy 3 months to me! It’s a big day but we celebrated it by working hard because we are busy now. Ghana isn't the hardest mission in the world but it is definitely not easy sometimes! I am glad the Lord knows what I can or can’t overcome on my mission. I know that God wouldn't put me here in Ghana if he knew I couldn't do it. This is what I tell myself every time I feel like giving up. Learning a new area is hard but I have to deal with it. So we have another baptism next week. It is for this guy named Samuel. He has been attending church for 8 years and hasn't gotten baptized. So we will plan on scheduling a baptismal interview to see that he is ready. But our focus for him is to clear up any troubles he has. I saw the blind recent convert of Hunt and Perry named Godfrey. He is a very cool and humble guy that loves TheBook of Mormon. We pretty much just read it to him, but he understands it well. So runny tummy hit of course while I was in the middle of nowhere. Luckily this guy named Isaac shows up out of nowhere and I explained to him that I needed to use the restroom pretty bad. So he is running around speaking Twi really fast to this old woman and I’m thinking to myself I’m going to use somebody’s random toilet. So she tells me to come with her and all of a sudden pulls a bucket and a roll of toilet paper. I said to myself I am not going to go in a bucket..... But she brings me to this self flush toilet with the seat ripped off so literally squatted over it because it was gross and I didn't trust it but it’s better than going in bush. I also drank 5 liters of water today fun fact and killed a couple of mice in the other guys’ apartment. I called everyone from my district in the MTC to wish them a happy 3 months. At first I was trying to trick them into saying that I was going home because I broke my ankle. It was funny.

Friday (Content Warning)
I reviewed baptismal questions with Samuel, then ate at this chop bar. This lady loves missionaries and loaded us up. (same lady from the story from yesterday). We went to go see this less active named Yao. He lived in England before coming to Ghana. I don't know why he would come from England but I forgot to ask. So we saw him after we chopped some food, and he fed us a ton of rice like I was about to explode....So now we get to the highlight of the day. I don't know if I should tell this but here I go.... We went to go visit a member to schedule a time to go and see an investigator. When we get there I see her preparing something. So I ask her what it was. She said that her kids were sick and she was making medicine for them. Literally it looked like green sludge. I was wondering what she was going to use it for.... Next thing you know she wanted us to go fetch her kids. So I was kinda sketched out because she pulled out this syringe looking thing made out of this rubber ball and a pen cut in half....I was like Ferrin we have to go. This isn't going to be good. He said it’s okay we were doing service. Next thing you know she asked us to hold her kids down and next thing you know she is putting this sludge into the butts of her children...... She stands her children up shakes them and has them jump up and down 10 times then they run to the bathroom I will never forget this.

Saturday
Today I went on exchange with Elder Barnes because of baptismal interviews. We have 2- Samuel and Edward 2 very serious people. I am so excited. I had something that is called soakings and literally it’s the best thing ever. I reminds me of cereal back home. I will be eating a lot more of that.

Sunday
We had the branch conference, at least I think we did. The people in the branch with callings stood and stuff. But it was mostly in Twi so I couldn't really understand what was going on. We had a good discussion about The Restoration with the Branch President. It rained for like 5 minutes. It was kinda disappointing.