Hey everyone,
This week really
went by quickly. Time flies by when you
have a lot of work to do. At the moment
I am compressing pictures into one file, so hopefully they will be sent right
after this e-mail is written. No
guarantees though, as there are so many pictures. As of now, most of them are from the MTC and
I haven't been able to take too many pictures of the local area so far, but it
shouldn't be like that for much longer.
The people have to be familiar with me before I can take pictures and
not look like a tourist. As for the
people in Ghana, they LOVE pictures. If
they see you with a camera, they'll say "Take a snip!" and then
they'll pose until you "take the snip." They expect you to print them out as soon as
possible, and then they make sure to put the prints on their walls or in a
case. I haven't had to print any out
yet, but I'm sure that that will change soon.
… For the most part,
we teach people on the steps outside of their house because they all only have
one tiny room that they sleep in.
However, we taught a young man on Friday and he had quite the setup for
living around here. He had a nice sound
system, actual couches, and a table that he put all of his electronics on. That was the first couch that I have sat on
since I left the mission home. They
aren't very common around here. I'll be
able to live in any condition by the time I come back to America.
About the Visas,
there is nothing to worry about. The
head of local immigration in M--- stopped beside us in his car while we were
walking by, and he asked us what we were doing about our visas. We explained that everything has been sent
out from Accra and that everything takes time, and he said "Okay, I just
want to know what your immigration status is." We won't be arrested or anything and it isn't
a big problem, and the papers are already sent so all we have to do is
wait. Don't worry about calling the
mission home or anything like that; we can handle everything on this side of
the world.
As for shrimp, I
miss the taste and crave it every time we have fish with our meals. Elder A--- uses sardines in every meal that
we eat (we eat as a group in the apartment), so I'm always thinking of
shrimp. We have a local restaurant in
the area called Annex where we are allowed to eat at, but the food is pretty
expensive for us Elders. It is about $5
a plate, which includes a pile of rice, a sauce called Chito, and 2 chicken
pieces (either breast or wing). We would
eat there every day if we could, but cooking at home isn't too bad. However, if the power goes out and you have a
lot of dishes to clean, it's hard because we only have a limited amount of
reserve water that we set aside for instances where the power is out. Last week we were out for two days in a row,
so we have to ration everything out.
Usually, the power will be off and on throughout the day, but this time
it was completely gone. While we (Elder
A--- and I) were walking to appointments, we noticed that there were workers
who set up ladders next to the trees overhanging the power lines and were
whacking all of the limbs off with machetes.
Since then, we've had a pretty steady power flow, so life is running a
little more smoothly. If you have any
recipes for making tortillas, that would be a treat to us here. We have street vendors that sell deep fried
dough balls, but other than that we just buy regular loaves of bread. It's really cheap here, and it almost tastes homemade
so it's always a treat.
...
Speaking of the
MTC, I forgot to talk about the day when we spent our activity time playing
soccer in the rain. We got super muddy,
but everyone had a lot of fun. If you
kicked the ball, it would stop after it traveled a few inches because there
were puddles everywhere and the rain weighed it down. There was a photographer for the church at
the MTC during that time and he was taking pictures every second or so. We talked to him afterwards, and he said that
the pictures might show up in the October or November edition of the New Era in
a section called "Missionary Life" or something similar. Not positive about the name of the section, but
be sure to look out for it!
We have a pet in
our home. Not a real pet, but it's a
frequenter of our trash can. We call
them cockroaches. The first time I
lifted the trash can, I jumped ten feet into the air because it scuttled out
from under the can and went between my feet, bee-lining for the space
underneath our kitchen sink. Ever since
then, I know to prepare myself for a scare because it happens each time. We don't know what to name him, and we
haven't killed him yet. Any
suggestions? Speaking of pets, there is
also a massive spider that haunts the shower.
Sometimes, you can see it hanging down from the ceiling trying to span
its way down onto your head, but if you try to shoo it away, it just rappels
back up to the ceiling. It is way too
fast to catch, so we don't worry about it.
A side note about the shower: there are no water heaters, so you have to
brave it and shower in cold water.
Usually it's a pretty welcome feel because of all of the sweat that
accumulates during the day, but I wouldn't like it if I was back in
America. I can't complain while I'm here
though, because it is all a part of the experience.
Have I told you
all about Ju-ju yet? It's the local magic practices that they have around Ghana
(and apparently all of North Africa as far as I can tell). If someone gets mad at another person, they
will yell "Curse you!" in the most literal sense, and then the other
person is cursed. I saw it firsthand two
days ago when a man threatened a woman, telling her that he would use a voodoo
doll and wither her hand. The woman was
pleading with him for a good 5 minutes before he let up. Yesterday, we gave a blessing to a girl who
was cursed with engorgement, but all I could think of in my head was
"Engorgio! Engorgio!" (Harry
Potter reference) Apparently, a
fellow classmate cursed her by saying that she would swell up, and then it
started to happen. I don't know what to
think about it all, but if any of it is true, then I am staying away from it as
much as possible. You don't want to mess
with bad spirits.
On an opposite
note, I was able to confirm C--- as a member of the church yesterday. The whole air was charged with the power of
the Spirit, and it was a witness to me that I am doing the right thing. It was also a witness to C---, and I know
that she could feel that she had made an important step in her life. Baptism is an essential step towards Eternal
Life, and I know that she will receive many blessings for the choice she has
made.
We taught The
Plan of Salvation to an investigator (Ch---) yesterday, and it looked like he
wanted to jump up and down in excitement.
He couldn't contain himself and was saying "Yes! Yes yes yes!"
to everything we told him. When we came
to the reason why we were sent to earth, he exclaimed "The Word of God is
sweet! It is sweet!" We told him
that what we were teaching him only existed in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, and all he did was smile and nod. At the end of the lesson, he asked us when he
could see us next and that he wanted to hear more of "God's
word." He is definitely excited to
listen to us again, and he has been translating everything for his family so we
hope to see more baptisms this month. A---
(the first golden investigator) hasn't been to church yet, but his sons have
been coming to every meeting so we hope to extend baptismal dates to them as
well. I can't wait to see what this next
month has in store for us.
That reminds me,
I've already been out on my mission for a whole month! Like I said before, time passes by so quickly
here. Last week, we taught a total of 24
lessons, and we hope to have even more this week. Since it gets dark by 7:00 here (every day),
we have to be in our apartments by 7:30 or so unless we are in a lesson. We cannot contact new people when it is dark
outside though. This gives us time to
cook, plan out the next day, and have some personal study before retiring at
10:30. My companion always wakes up at 5
or 5:30, but that's too crazy for me.
Like I said in my last e-mail, I get up at 6:30, on the dot.
People really
blast their music here. There is
basically no silent place throughout the whole town unless you walk into its
outskirts. All of the speakers are blown
out so the music sounds really tinny, but you get used to it after a
while. They say that you listen to the
same music that you hear during your mission, so I guess I'll be listening to a
lot of African Rap when I get back. I
haven't heard anything else besides gospel music here, but that is a lot less
common.
On Saturday (the
second day the power was out) we had eight lessons planned for the day, and
five of them fell through. I was fasting
by then because I wanted to make good use out of the fact that we didn't have
any way to eat, and then we went out to find people to teach. We were able to teach eight lessons that day
to people who had all come back from vacation, and I know that it only happened
because I was fasting. The town is
pretty empty during Saturdays due to a tradition called
"Burial." It's a tradition
that the Ashanti have here, where the people of the Ashanti tribe all gather in
one place in town and basically dance and sing for most of the day. It's to celebrate people who have died in
Ghana, and it takes place every single Saturday. The only people that you find around the
houses are children, so everything has a creepy feel about it. All I can think of is Lord of the Flies. The
absence of adults makes it terrible for contacting, but if you search hard enough,
the Lord will help you.
A girl asked me
to marry her last week, and she wouldn't take no for an answer. Elder A--- and I kept on explaining to her
why it could never happen, and finally I had an idea. I had keys in my pocket which were all on a
keychain (the loop), so I stuck my ring finger through the loop and hid the
keys in my palm. I said "Look, I'm
already married!" and she believed me until she heard the keys
jingle-jangle. It was worth a try. Now she doesn't like to talk to me, so it's
easy to teach her husband because she isn't flirting anymore. That's right, she has a husband. The culture
is different here.
Another girl
asked me out to a party as well, and I declined (of course). She said "Fine, I'll just fly back with
you when you leave for California."
I guess that I will be dealing with this for the rest of my mission.
You know, I am
enjoying everything here. In the
beginning I was thinking about home a lot, but now I just dream about it. If I can live in Africa during the day and
live in America during the night, then that makes it a pretty even
balance. I'm already pretty tan now, so
by the end I'll be a totally different person.
Like I said, I'll be taking more pictures, so you should be seeing more
of me as time goes on.
About the baptismal
font: it is green (not too bad, but green enough) because it rains almost every
day and the font is located outside.
They would have to import water in each time they drain it, so the water
is pretty much the same week by week.
Thankfully, the font is only 45 minutes away, so it isn't too bad of a
drive.
…
Much love,
Elder Twede
(--- denotes edited names, ... denotes edited personal information)
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