Glad Tidings of Great Joy!

I've got great news, everyone! We've had running water and a working pump almost all week! It feels so good to take a real shower again, I can't even tell you.

Also, I've got pictures this week! So that's pretty exciting.

I went on my first exchange this week to the Vitin Branch with my District Leader, Elder Nelson. He's a very powerful missionary. He's also another Idaho boy. As a matter of fact, that night we tried to make Idahoan mashed potatoes for dinner using only Ghanaian resources. I would not recommend attempting that to anyone because it was freaking nasty. #Idahodoesnotbelonginghana

Also, We were able to meet with Brother Rex again this week and we have rescheduled his baptism for this Saturday. He will be baptized with Sister Rose (the wife of one of our recent converts). These will be my first two baptisms on the mission, so that's pretty exciting! In our last discussion with Brother Rex, he seemed kind of closed off and not really wanting to talk. I felt impressed to tell him that the closer he got to his baptism, Satan would try to put stumbling blocks in his way and divert his attention from serving Christ. That the adversary will do everything in his power to keep him from being baptized. I promised him that if he devotes himself to Christ and lives the laws that we had been teaching that the devil would have no such power. He looked at me after that and said, "Wow. Thank you." The spirit was SO STRONG!! #spirit Since that lesson, he has seemed much more comfortable with his decision and much more serious about his baptism. I expect with no doubt he will be baptized this week.
Also, we had District Conference this Sunday and President and Sister Cosgrave were up here. That was pretty cool. We got all but one of our progressing investigators to come! #itsonly3butstill

It was at the Picorna Hotel which is the nicest place I have seen in Ghana so far. There's also a restaurant nearby that's owned by a white European and rumor has it that it sells not just pizza, but CALZONES!!! #calzone #illletyouknowhowitis #itsinmyarea #hallelujah

Oh yeah, and district conference was pretty good, but I had trouble hearing because of the massive fans that they had to keep everyone cool. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Tamale is pretty hot.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love you all so much!

Brother John, a recent convert who received the Priesthood on Sunday

Elder Christensen and me doing laundry

Reunited with the MTC squad at mid-transfer training in Kumasi

My new furry friend I found

Crikey!

Hello Dearest Friends and Family!

You've got a very happy Elder emailing you today! Ghana is really starting to grow on me!

First off:

Kumasi was great! I got to go to KFC while I was there and it was fantastic. Also, mid-transfer training was really good! President and Sister Cosgrave spent a lot of time emphasizing the importance of using the Book of Mormon with our investigators. This was a huge relief to myself and many other Elders in the mission, as that seems to be a hard concept for some of the African Elders to grasp...they LOVE their New Testament. Also, while I was there I got to weigh myself again and I've already lost 10 pounds since I left the MTC! So that was pretty crazy to find out. #dontworrymomimnotstarving #itsallthatbikeriding

Elders Morford and Henderson at mid-transfer training in Kumasi

Also, I'm sure many of you have been wondering what I miss the most since leaving the states (Aside from all you lovely people). And the answers are as follows:
    
     Contact lenses
     American food in general
     Temple attendance 

So there you have it. Those are the things I missed the most this week. Also, for those of you interested in knowing this...we lost water again last Tuesday and we haven't gotten it back since. #dontworrymomimnotdying Our good old handyman Brother Abraham has been supplying us with tanks of water so we've been doing just fine. I'm starting to get really good at taking bucket baths.

Because we were in Kumasi most of the week I don't really have any updates proselyting wise...we were not able to get any new investigators this week. But in the little contacting we did, we did have a Muslim tell us he wants to come to church and ask for our number. He said he wants us to teach him and "maybe we can convince him to be baptized." So we just might be scheduling an interview with him and the Zone Leaders pretty soon. His name is Brother Muhammad. #gofigure

This Sunday we had a special broadcast to the Africa West area where Elder Clayton (Presidency of the Seventy), Elder Dube (Of the Seventy), Sister Stevens (First Counselor Relief Society) and Elder Stevenson all spoke. It was really good! The general theme of the broadcast was that the Doctrine of Christ helps you through hard times. And basically that by adhering to Christ's teachings He will make your burdens light. I can testify that that is true! Oh boy, can I testify that that is true!

Last thing! We had our Zone Activity today! We went up to the Paga Crocodile Pond and took some pretty legit pictures with a crocodile! It was sick! Paga is right on the Northern border of Ghana and it was kinda funny because after we were done our driver started going north and we accidentally left the country for a few minutes...#whoops. There was also a very nice man sitting next to me on the trotro who gave me very detailed instructions on how to get through Mali and Libya into Spain. #themoreyouknow

Example of a trotro (an old van used for public transportation)

 

I love you all!

"Silminga Hello!"

Hello everyone! First off, I'm sorry I don't have pictures this week. I email from an internet cafe and so sometimes the option to upload pictures is not available... luckily I'm going down to Kumasi this week for mid-transfer training and our Mission Home has wifi so I will be able to send my mother my pictures from there.

This week was a roller-coaster!

After a couple days of no water in the apartment and living off only the trashcan full of water that Elder Renfroe brought us, our water has returned and supposedly is here to stay! #yes! We will see, but we haven't had any problems yet, so that's good!

My diet has switched from rice to yams and gari [made from cassava flakes], then we dip those in either cabbage stew or tomato and sardine stew. #lotsofstew I'm starting to get the hang of this whole Ghana thing finally, except for the fact that I'm still not really picking up the language at all. #thisisntreallyanenglishmission And a lot of you have been asking and the answer is no...No one can understand me while I'm teaching. haha! But it's all good. They usually get the idea. #teachingbythespirit.

Also, we did have a few heartbreaks this week. Brother Rex did not show up for his baptismal interview on Saturday and we haven't been able to get a hold of him since then. So that was pretty frustrating. He was supposed to be baptized on Sunday right after church (that's how they do it here), but he has disappeared. Also, we were teaching our Relief Society President's less active daughter, Sister Mercy, and trying to get her to start coming back to church. We came back a few days later to hear that she had converted to Islam. That was really sad. Our poor Relief Society President was heartbroken.

On the upside, I got to teach Primary in our branch this week. I stand by my word that the little kids here are the most adorable things on the planet. We learned about why it is important to be reverent in sacrament meeting. #verypowerfullesson

That's all I've got for you this week! Much love to you all!

Dirt...dirt everywhere!

Hello friends and family! It's so good to email you all again! Here's what I've learned so far:

Tamale is a very difficult area for several reasons...

1. The population is almost entirely Muslim. This is hard because first off, we aren't even allowed to teach Muslims without special permission and that's if they even want to hear your message so that makes it very hard to find people to teach.

2. Bicycles... our area is very far away from our apartment and so we have to bike 3-4 miles just to get to our area. And it always seems our bikes are never functioning correctly. Haha there is always something wrong with them. We waste a lot of time during the week getting them repaired.

3. The heat. It's really really hot here. I think the average temperature ranges right around 40 degrees Celsius, so... yeah riding bikes in the hot sun is pretty hard.

4. The dust. I had a dream a few weeks before I got my call that I was called to St. George. I"m thinking what I actually saw was Tamale. Not only is the dirt everywhere but we have to ride through it in order to get anywhere so that makes it really hard to keep things clean and stuff.

Other than that, Ghana is lit! We got 4 new investigators this last week. Brothers Lucas and David and Sister Esther we found while contacting. They are a very powerful family and have a lot of faith in Christ. They all agreed to baptism in the first lesson so that was pretty cool.

Then Sister Rose is the wife of a recent convert. We also started teaching her this week. It's pretty difficult because she doesn't speak English very well she only speaks dogbanny (the local language in Tamale) so it's very hard for her to understand what I am saying.

The little kids here are adorable! Everywhere I go they just want to say hi! In dogbanny "silminga" means "white man" so everywhere I go I can here them shouting, "Silminga hello!" It's pretty cute.

I can honestly say that I'm only 2 and a half weeks in the field and this is already the hardest thing I've ever done. I know the Lord gives us trials so that we can become stronger and I'm trying to embrace that. I've already been so humbled by everything here. The living conditions, the people, the food. I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences with you all. I love you all so much and miss you dearly.