From May 9, 2011: Monday we were at the cafe and found out that Bin Laden was killed so that was very interesting news to receive. I saw some pictures of people celebrating the death. It was a much needed boost of the United States. One thing I realized is that we delighted in the shedding of blood - a bad sign that is highlighted in the scriptures. Regardless of that I was quite excited after hearing the news. Before the cafe the apartment went into Accra. Elder Nielsen will be going home this Wednesday so he was taking this Monday to buy stuff. It was fun to be in the culture of Ghana.
Tuesday Elder Nielsen came with me on a split to interview four people that were baptized on Saturday. On the split we stopped at a place that makes soft serve ice cream which was quite refreshing and topped off the pizza we had earlier that day. The Western food is hard to find and very expensive, but it was a nice treat. When Elder Nielsen was interviewing our investigators for baptism I sold pure water on my head making some money for the shop woman. The people always notice a white person selling things so it's a fun situation.
On Wednesday we were given our phone card to all home. Last call we were given 6GHC, but were given 5 GHC this time and because I had made up my mind to only use the given amount like we are supposed to. I was a bit bitter for the reduced time, but oh well. The call was a bit of a hassle at first, but we only call home twice a year so a call is a call. -I wanted to take this time to give credit to the Oldspice deodorant I have been using I had previously been using speed stick and it just wasn't cutting it because half way through the day the effectiveness would fade and be replaced with the stench of Africa. The Oldspice is great because the smell of greatness lasts all day repelling the smell of Africa all day.
Thursday Elder Gagnon and I went to the Anno's house to visit with the grandfather and work in the Gospel in the visit. We found out that he has never read the Book Of Mormon so we committed him to do so. Elder Bills also came over for a split sending Elder Nielsen to Odorkor for the day. He mentioned that I have lost weight from the time I went on a split in his area last transfer so I was happy about that. I found some resistance bands yesterday so I used them today. I figure the little exercise I can do here will eventually add up to something.
I was informed on Friday by our mission president that he needs me to switch areas with another Elder that day, four days before the scheduled transfer day. I am now in an area called Alajo closer to central Accra. My new companion's name is Elder Elder Bradford Chambers. He is from Columbus Ohio and is the eldest of eight children. In the apartment there is another companionship. Their names are Elder Hunsaker from Utah and Elder Titus from Nigeria. Elder Chambers is my fourth companion and my fourth American.
Saturday was my first full day in Alajo. most of the roads are paved and the cars are more aware of us on bikes. I feel that the area will be good. The transition will take a few days, but so far it's very good.
Sunday was fast and testimony Sunday as well as Mother's day so as mentioned before we missionaries called home so that was nice.
Monday, July 18, 2011
From May 2, 2011: The Worst Smell of my Entire Life; Naked vs Partially Naked; Fathers; Ghana's Government; Conference
From May 2, 2011: Wednesday started off great! Elder Gagnon and I started our day by going out to our investigator, Michael Sarpong and on the way to pick a tro tro we passed a sewer waste collection truck. It was working on extracting rotting feces from a place we pass everyday accompanied with it's usual foul smell. On this occasion the removal of such things created the worst smell I have ever come in contact with in my entire life. I resorted to only breathing though my mouth, but was still able to smell it. We went to the main road, looking for a car, we passed a fully naked man sitting on the side of the road making the number of fully naked adults 2. (There are too many partially naked people here to count.) Shortly after we saw a man wearing a BYU shirt and a tro tro that had a decal "Bobastic" on the windshield making it a great morning.
Thursday we visited The Aboagye family. Brother Aboagye ended up talking to us for an hour on how the eldest son doesn't want to listen to the advice the father gives him because he wants to make money in life and father is very poor. It was an interesting conversation and I likened it to my family. My father has always gave us financial and personal advice, but because of our pride with judging how is life is currently we shun his attempts to connect with us and develop a better bond. Looking back I have a lot of empathy towards my father who is single, and trying to make his way in life, but like Jonathan Aboagye my siblings and I don't acknowledge his hand reaching out to us. We all have challenges in life so we can never compare another life to ours. When I go home I hope that I will be able to rebuild my relationship with my father. Looking back all of my knowledge of him is a little before my parents were married, during the time when they were and some portions here and there after they divorced. I figure the best way for that to happen is to start to learn more about each other and develop true friend relationship.
Saturday Elder Gagnon and I went to visit this wealthy family in our ward named the Annors. The compound is owned by the grandparents. The grandfather, who is one of the few members of the family who is not a member, used to be an assistant Governor in some place in Ghana and worked for the Bank Of England and the Bank Of Ghana. The compound itself was made up of three large houses with around five cars. They also had a lawn mower. The grandchildren who live in the place are quite unaware how great they have it in Ghana. There are a few people in the country that are this wealthy, but for the majority of people here there living situation here can't compare to people back in the states. They are a great family and it was a great opportunity to visit with them. Before we left they served us warm banana bread so that was great. When we left the house we went down to a woman we have been teaching that sells coal where she served us beans and plantain making it a tasty meal and bringing us back into real Ghana. Later that night we were collecting Abigail Yenfo's information for baptism when we were trying to spell her name. She proceeds to get three Official documents of Ghana where the spelling was different for each one. I felt like the experience summed up the functionality of Ghana's government. It takes forever to get something done in the public sector and when there is something planned the government official in sectors such as the post office, the electric, water and other various offices request a bribe before the item is processed.
Sunday was a good day as well. The ward had their recorded viewing of General Conference so we traveled to another larger church building to bring the wards in one place. it was a pleasant surprise to have seven investigators at church because of the extended travel time and cost to get to the other building. The conference here is watched as a recording and the presiding athority determines what blocks of conference to watch. As result we watched the Saturday afternoon two hour block and the Sunday morning block back to back making church four hours. For the Saturday block we watch the BYU-Idaho choir sing getting me excited to return and go back to school. I think I saw a guy I worked with in the choir as well. There were other missionaries there from the surrounding areas as well so I was able to meet up with my trainer, Elder Orchard. It was fun to talk to him about life and such.
Thursday we visited The Aboagye family. Brother Aboagye ended up talking to us for an hour on how the eldest son doesn't want to listen to the advice the father gives him because he wants to make money in life and father is very poor. It was an interesting conversation and I likened it to my family. My father has always gave us financial and personal advice, but because of our pride with judging how is life is currently we shun his attempts to connect with us and develop a better bond. Looking back I have a lot of empathy towards my father who is single, and trying to make his way in life, but like Jonathan Aboagye my siblings and I don't acknowledge his hand reaching out to us. We all have challenges in life so we can never compare another life to ours. When I go home I hope that I will be able to rebuild my relationship with my father. Looking back all of my knowledge of him is a little before my parents were married, during the time when they were and some portions here and there after they divorced. I figure the best way for that to happen is to start to learn more about each other and develop true friend relationship.
Saturday Elder Gagnon and I went to visit this wealthy family in our ward named the Annors. The compound is owned by the grandparents. The grandfather, who is one of the few members of the family who is not a member, used to be an assistant Governor in some place in Ghana and worked for the Bank Of England and the Bank Of Ghana. The compound itself was made up of three large houses with around five cars. They also had a lawn mower. The grandchildren who live in the place are quite unaware how great they have it in Ghana. There are a few people in the country that are this wealthy, but for the majority of people here there living situation here can't compare to people back in the states. They are a great family and it was a great opportunity to visit with them. Before we left they served us warm banana bread so that was great. When we left the house we went down to a woman we have been teaching that sells coal where she served us beans and plantain making it a tasty meal and bringing us back into real Ghana. Later that night we were collecting Abigail Yenfo's information for baptism when we were trying to spell her name. She proceeds to get three Official documents of Ghana where the spelling was different for each one. I felt like the experience summed up the functionality of Ghana's government. It takes forever to get something done in the public sector and when there is something planned the government official in sectors such as the post office, the electric, water and other various offices request a bribe before the item is processed.
Sunday was a good day as well. The ward had their recorded viewing of General Conference so we traveled to another larger church building to bring the wards in one place. it was a pleasant surprise to have seven investigators at church because of the extended travel time and cost to get to the other building. The conference here is watched as a recording and the presiding athority determines what blocks of conference to watch. As result we watched the Saturday afternoon two hour block and the Sunday morning block back to back making church four hours. For the Saturday block we watch the BYU-Idaho choir sing getting me excited to return and go back to school. I think I saw a guy I worked with in the choir as well. There were other missionaries there from the surrounding areas as well so I was able to meet up with my trainer, Elder Orchard. It was fun to talk to him about life and such.
From April 25, 2011: Lots of Investigators; Bonku
From April 25, 2011: On Monday we went to visit a man named Michael Sarpong. He has family in the states and Europe. He is a smart guy and it had been great to meet with him. He may be moving to Dubai for several months long work thing, but if not we will be able to baptize him in a few weeks.
Tuesday was fine, nothing much happened. Richard Quarshie was able to meet with us and we were talking about the church. He said he knows the church is true, but won't visit because he doesn't know how he will leave his old church without the pastor getting upset. Later in the day we were also able to teach a cluster of guys, one happening to be an assistaint pastor. He is in the Apostolic Church and while we didn't know how he would take our message he was interested and was open to us meeting him. We ended up giving him a Book Of Mormon too. I had a lot of respect for him because we were able to have a friendly gospel disscusion where he wasn't trying to be contentous.
Wednesday we were able to meet with our investigator, Nero. Nero was working at his barber shop and he was watching Mama Mia! . He said he had watched it several times before when he was at his shop. In Ghana there are Ghanaian movies which highight tribal Africa and black majic. There are also Nigerian movies which focus on armed robbers, guns and girls. Lastly the people really enjoy American movies. Most of the ones here are focousing on white girls doing what white girls do or action genre movies.
Thursday Elder Gagnon and I ment with a Nigerian, Morris Brown. The Nigerians here are looked down upon by the Ghanians for their stereotypical personality to be internet frauders. The normal Nigerian without and actual job has to struggle to survive because people are not as willing to give them jobs and such. Morris a painter is experiencing this problem. He lives in a one or two room house with six other Nigerians trying to scrape by. I think at the end of the day he may go back to Nigeria. Anyway, on this occasion with Morris he apparently hadn't eaten for almost 24 hours and he asked us for some money. I ended up having to give him 1GHC (a Cedi can last one or two meals here). He also had us pay for his tro tro fare because he didn't have money. Elder Gagnon and I wont be giving him anymore money so we will have to talk about that with him. We are hoping he can get work soon. I have been confused with the whole situation though because he apparently spends all day looking for work, but he hasn't been compelled to sell snacks or water to people on the roads (they are called traders and are basically a walking vendor) which is what many people do here to earn some sort of money.
Well on Friday Elder Gagnon and I ended up getting lost and ended up deep in another missionary companions area. I received an Easter themed package with some Twi books as well so thank you mother for that. The candy and jerkey was great. Don't worry I shared the food with the other missionaries in the apartment.
On Saturday we taught a man who is friends with Rastafarians by a river under some mago trees. It was an interesting experience. Later in the night it started raining, but we were able to get to our investigators Comfort and Emmanuela's not getting too wet. They served us some Bonku with some really oily stew with fish, Willie ( sections of fatty pork skin) and some intestine. At the end of the meal they served us home made icecream. Ice cream is very expensive here so it was quite a suprise.
Sunday was Easter and we had 8 investigators at church with three others coming for the first time.
For Easter in Ghana there is an influx of "all night worship services" lasting for as the title says all night. For the ward there wasn't a single talk or lesson I heard about Easter itself. The opening talk was a girl reading word for word the Law Of Chastity forn in the Gospel Principle Book. The best talk was from the high counselor about the traditions of Ghana that shouldn't be practiced, namely Bride Price (think of Johnny Lingo)
Tuesday was fine, nothing much happened. Richard Quarshie was able to meet with us and we were talking about the church. He said he knows the church is true, but won't visit because he doesn't know how he will leave his old church without the pastor getting upset. Later in the day we were also able to teach a cluster of guys, one happening to be an assistaint pastor. He is in the Apostolic Church and while we didn't know how he would take our message he was interested and was open to us meeting him. We ended up giving him a Book Of Mormon too. I had a lot of respect for him because we were able to have a friendly gospel disscusion where he wasn't trying to be contentous.
Wednesday we were able to meet with our investigator, Nero. Nero was working at his barber shop and he was watching Mama Mia! . He said he had watched it several times before when he was at his shop. In Ghana there are Ghanaian movies which highight tribal Africa and black majic. There are also Nigerian movies which focus on armed robbers, guns and girls. Lastly the people really enjoy American movies. Most of the ones here are focousing on white girls doing what white girls do or action genre movies.
Thursday Elder Gagnon and I ment with a Nigerian, Morris Brown. The Nigerians here are looked down upon by the Ghanians for their stereotypical personality to be internet frauders. The normal Nigerian without and actual job has to struggle to survive because people are not as willing to give them jobs and such. Morris a painter is experiencing this problem. He lives in a one or two room house with six other Nigerians trying to scrape by. I think at the end of the day he may go back to Nigeria. Anyway, on this occasion with Morris he apparently hadn't eaten for almost 24 hours and he asked us for some money. I ended up having to give him 1GHC (a Cedi can last one or two meals here). He also had us pay for his tro tro fare because he didn't have money. Elder Gagnon and I wont be giving him anymore money so we will have to talk about that with him. We are hoping he can get work soon. I have been confused with the whole situation though because he apparently spends all day looking for work, but he hasn't been compelled to sell snacks or water to people on the roads (they are called traders and are basically a walking vendor) which is what many people do here to earn some sort of money.
Well on Friday Elder Gagnon and I ended up getting lost and ended up deep in another missionary companions area. I received an Easter themed package with some Twi books as well so thank you mother for that. The candy and jerkey was great. Don't worry I shared the food with the other missionaries in the apartment.
On Saturday we taught a man who is friends with Rastafarians by a river under some mago trees. It was an interesting experience. Later in the night it started raining, but we were able to get to our investigators Comfort and Emmanuela's not getting too wet. They served us some Bonku with some really oily stew with fish, Willie ( sections of fatty pork skin) and some intestine. At the end of the meal they served us home made icecream. Ice cream is very expensive here so it was quite a suprise.
Sunday was Easter and we had 8 investigators at church with three others coming for the first time.
For Easter in Ghana there is an influx of "all night worship services" lasting for as the title says all night. For the ward there wasn't a single talk or lesson I heard about Easter itself. The opening talk was a girl reading word for word the Law Of Chastity forn in the Gospel Principle Book. The best talk was from the high counselor about the traditions of Ghana that shouldn't be practiced, namely Bride Price (think of Johnny Lingo)
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