Week 68: First Week in Alajo- Boiiii

I'm going to miss the streets of Dansoman

So an little interesting start to the week. We enjoyed cleaning my apartment for the second time cuz we made a mess packing all of our stuff. But that's beside the point. I made it to my new area safely. It is about 30 minute drive from Dansoman. So pretty much I'm around haha.  Well I can just say that this week has probably been one of the longest weeks in a long time.  I got to my area, unpacked, and got settled in and we talked about some people and stuff and then went out. Let me explain something to you hahaha. Our area has a big gutter running through it. If you fall in, good luck getting out. Also my new area is like a maze and I honestly have no idea what is going on to be completely honest. Yeah and this area really doesn't get a lot of baptisms. We talked to the Bishop on Sunday and he said that this is a really hard area for missionaries and stuff. So I got a credible source. Well my companion is pretty cool. He is just preparing to leave to South Africa but I'm going to enjoy the rest of the time together. He is a good guy. And BTW like everyone is impressed about my Twi. It is kinda rusty. But I'll get it back haha.

Gutter

Wednesday was interesting haha. We have a ten man district with sisters. So I guess you can say we will all suffer haha JK. But my homies Elder Fryar and Elder Hon are up in here. So you know we are going to have a good time.  Wednesday I would say we had a good day. We extended a couple of baptismal dates which we will be diligent in following up on them. But we are expecting to have a baptism on the 18 of this month just before my companion leaves- his first in the field. I can tell this is going to be a hard area to work in. But we are doing all we can. I'm just taking president's advice and I'm just trying to figure out how to strengthen these investigators' faith.  It is awesome to see the Spirit of the Lord work in us. We were totally able to fix some of the problems of why people are not progressing. I have found that their faith that the restoration has happened is small. So Wednesday we tried to get that to happen. We got 2 baptismal dates.  We also have this lady named Hawa. She is from Nigeria and this woman has some great faith. She is just a wonderful person--like I would give this woman a hug if it wasn't against my rules haha. But she literally read the first 8 chapters of the Book of Mormon and explained  all of what happened exactly right.  I have never seen that before on mission. She told us that the Book of Mormon is developing something inside her and that it gives her courage and strength. I was there just like dang God is good. She even was fasting that day for understanding. This woman is just great. We will baptize her for sure.  I'm thankful for the success we are beginning to have. This area hasn't seen a baptism in months. I'm just so grateful that the Lord has shown us how we can strengthen the faith of our investigators. Wednesday was just a really good day I'm starting to learn the area and get to some investigators and the church. I just am thankful to my Father in Heaven for everything. 

"View" from our apartment

Another powerful lesson on Thursday with Hawa we got her to change her answer from "one day you will see me in the church" to "on Sunday I will come." This week we have had some great lessons and we are doing some great work as well. On Thursday I also got bit by a kid that was pretty interesting. That has not happened before haha but it is all good. Also an investigator named Esther said that she loved my swag hahaha. I guess that's still a thing?  

Well we had weekly planning on Friday. It was kinda fake cuz I'm still like 50% lost. But I am getting the hang of this place a little bit. We were just talking about how we could strengthen our investigators faith.  Oh and BTW we have a baptism set for the 18 for a guy named Abeiku. He has been coming to church for forever. He just needs the lessons and the missionaries schedule and his schedule never lined up. But for some reason it all of a sudden cleared up for us haha. So the Lord is truly blessing us.

Saturday we woke up to our apartment completely flooded with water...  That's a long story. So our water filter isn't working and yeah kinda figured that out after 3 days of drinking from the tap that I thought was being filtered. Anyway,  we just closed off the tap for the water to go into the filter but it never comes out.  We accidentally left it on all night and it finally exploded when we were asleep and just started pouring water everywhere. The cleanup was fun. 

PSA: IF YOU EVER COME TO GHANA, NEVER EVER EVER FOLD A PAMPHLET AND GIVE TO SOMEBODY TO READ. IT IS NOT CORRECT IN THEIR CULTURE. IT MEANS THAT YOU THINK THEY ARE ILLITERATE. YOUR'E WELCOME. Yeah so my companion did that and he got ripped a new one let me tell you haha. The things you learn.

So you know what's totally awesome?  This area has been averaging 2 investigators at Sacrament  Meeting every week and this week we totally almost quadrupled that. We were supposed to have 8 but one of our investigators didn't show. But I'm cool with 7. We met a lot of the ward today. They are pretty cool haha. But overall this has been a great week and I'm excited for more time to come here.