August 17th, 2015
Hey Everyone!
Sorry there was no email last week. I was on the computer for 30 minutes then the lights went out. All electricity in western Africa comes from the dam at Lake Volta and a company called ECG (Electrical Company of Ghana). The electricity goes out often here. There is a large chance that it will go off every day. So, sorry there was no email.
These last two weeks have been really, really busy. Last week, my companion and I had our first baptism and then this week we had 4 more! Wow! 5 already this month is crazy. Out of the five, I only really taught 3 of them and they are a family.
I’ll start at the beginning of last week. So the days were going really slow, but we had a ton of lessons. I think about 40 lessons in total that week. Saturday was my birthday and I went on exchanges with the other missionary in our district so that my companion and the District Leader could go do baptismal interviews with our candidates. It was a day of a lot of finding and nothing really special happened during the day, just a normal day. Later that night, every Saturday we go to a members for a FM (free meal) and so we went there and it is tradition that if it is your birthday then they dunk you with water. So my companion told them it was my birthday and after we got done eating my birthday meal (Banku, Yum right!...) They sat me down on a stool and dumped water on me for about 10 minutes straight. I have pictures that I'll send next week. I was very wet! After that we had our PEC meeting at the church house and I had to sit in an air conditioned room for an hour and I was freezing cold! Anyway that was the only thing that really happened out of the ordinary that day, so besides that it was just a normal day. I haven't got your package yet either. I think that it's just sitting at the mission home and no one wants to come out to Klagon to give it to me. Hopefully I can get it soon! So that was the biggest thing last week. The baptism was awesome. His name is Prince Ofor and he is from Nigeria and he is the coolest guy in the world. He was a professional Futbol (soccer) player in Nigeria and then he decided to move to Ghana with some friends. He's been taking lessons from the missionaries for about a year and he finally got baptized so it's awesome.
This last week wasn't so great. We were super busy all week and on Wednesday I had a very bad lesson. I was very fatigued and my companion was getting frustrated with me during the lessons for not talking enough, so he told me in the next lesson he wasn't going to talk at all. It was a lesson with two women and they only speak Aywe so we had a member present to translate. I really had no idea what was going on in the lesson and we had somewhere to be so I ended in the middle of the lesson and we left. The member was a returned missionary and him and my companion chastised me for like 10 minutes on how bad I suck at teaching. The next morning in companion study, my companion went off again chastising me for not knowing the Bible well enough. He has a firm belief that we should only use the Bible for the first couple of lessons because that is what people know and man it was rough. I just wanted to lay down all day, but we went out and I was trying really hard to be more involved in the lessons and the day was much better then the one previously. I feel like I am doing much better in lessons, but my companion is still upset that I don't have a lot of scriptures memorized in the Bible. So that's what I'll be working on the most this week! Saturday we had our service project. All of Africa had a service project I think because I got some pictures from Brian Woolley doing some service as well.
Dad mentioned that some in Accra went to the beach but the Stake that I'm in (Tema Stake) went to Tema General Hospital to paint the building. We woke up at 4:30am in the morning to get to the church by 5:30 and then left in a bus with our ward at 6:30. We worked from 7am – 11am and it was real fun. I was able to contact 2 people, but they live in different areas, so I sent the areas their information. We got home and then went straight out to proselyte. We didn't get home till around 9:30pm and I don't think I've ever been so tired. I fell asleep almost instantly that night and my companion told me that I was sleep talking and that I was teaching the Word of Wisdom and I was speaking very clear. I don't think I've ever slept talked in my life, but I guess it is in my genes! lol!
Sunday was really busy as well. We woke up early to fill up the baptismal font. We were able to have 9 investigators in church! It was missionary Sunday. We gave all of the talks and taught all of the lessons during the day. President Heid even came to give us a nice surprise and teach the investigator/recent convert class. He is a very good teacher, but I wasn’t able to see him teach because I was teaching the youth class. It was a good Sunday! This week we had some crazy numbers as well. I think we taught about 37 lessons and we have 4 more people with baptismal dates in September! It was really rough because of my struggles in lessons, but we have been blessed with people more prepared then I ever thought possible. Things still aren't easy, but I am getting more familiar with how things work, so it makes it much easier. I can tell you guys have been praying for me and I am seeing the blessings.
Today, (Monday), we went to Nungua to play basketball with the missionaries there. There is a mall there that really reminds you of the US and Elder Barnes and I went on exchanges there. We even got a cheeseburger and fries! I'll make sure to send pictures next week.
To answer some questions: My companion’s brother is a Bishop back home, but his mom and other brother aren't members. He took the news about his girl friend surprisingly well.
The culture is getting a lot easier and eating foods isn’t so bad anymore. Yesterday night though I had to eat like 3 pounds of fufu. I thought I would explode!
That is about all that’s happened these last two weeks. I am writing about our lessons and spiritual experiences in my journal at night so don't think I'm ignoring these events. It's just a lot to write!
Love you,
Elder Smith
Hey Everyone!
Sorry there was no email last week. I was on the computer for 30 minutes then the lights went out. All electricity in western Africa comes from the dam at Lake Volta and a company called ECG (Electrical Company of Ghana). The electricity goes out often here. There is a large chance that it will go off every day. So, sorry there was no email.
These last two weeks have been really, really busy. Last week, my companion and I had our first baptism and then this week we had 4 more! Wow! 5 already this month is crazy. Out of the five, I only really taught 3 of them and they are a family.
I’ll start at the beginning of last week. So the days were going really slow, but we had a ton of lessons. I think about 40 lessons in total that week. Saturday was my birthday and I went on exchanges with the other missionary in our district so that my companion and the District Leader could go do baptismal interviews with our candidates. It was a day of a lot of finding and nothing really special happened during the day, just a normal day. Later that night, every Saturday we go to a members for a FM (free meal) and so we went there and it is tradition that if it is your birthday then they dunk you with water. So my companion told them it was my birthday and after we got done eating my birthday meal (Banku, Yum right!...) They sat me down on a stool and dumped water on me for about 10 minutes straight. I have pictures that I'll send next week. I was very wet! After that we had our PEC meeting at the church house and I had to sit in an air conditioned room for an hour and I was freezing cold! Anyway that was the only thing that really happened out of the ordinary that day, so besides that it was just a normal day. I haven't got your package yet either. I think that it's just sitting at the mission home and no one wants to come out to Klagon to give it to me. Hopefully I can get it soon! So that was the biggest thing last week. The baptism was awesome. His name is Prince Ofor and he is from Nigeria and he is the coolest guy in the world. He was a professional Futbol (soccer) player in Nigeria and then he decided to move to Ghana with some friends. He's been taking lessons from the missionaries for about a year and he finally got baptized so it's awesome.
This last week wasn't so great. We were super busy all week and on Wednesday I had a very bad lesson. I was very fatigued and my companion was getting frustrated with me during the lessons for not talking enough, so he told me in the next lesson he wasn't going to talk at all. It was a lesson with two women and they only speak Aywe so we had a member present to translate. I really had no idea what was going on in the lesson and we had somewhere to be so I ended in the middle of the lesson and we left. The member was a returned missionary and him and my companion chastised me for like 10 minutes on how bad I suck at teaching. The next morning in companion study, my companion went off again chastising me for not knowing the Bible well enough. He has a firm belief that we should only use the Bible for the first couple of lessons because that is what people know and man it was rough. I just wanted to lay down all day, but we went out and I was trying really hard to be more involved in the lessons and the day was much better then the one previously. I feel like I am doing much better in lessons, but my companion is still upset that I don't have a lot of scriptures memorized in the Bible. So that's what I'll be working on the most this week! Saturday we had our service project. All of Africa had a service project I think because I got some pictures from Brian Woolley doing some service as well.
Dad mentioned that some in Accra went to the beach but the Stake that I'm in (Tema Stake) went to Tema General Hospital to paint the building. We woke up at 4:30am in the morning to get to the church by 5:30 and then left in a bus with our ward at 6:30. We worked from 7am – 11am and it was real fun. I was able to contact 2 people, but they live in different areas, so I sent the areas their information. We got home and then went straight out to proselyte. We didn't get home till around 9:30pm and I don't think I've ever been so tired. I fell asleep almost instantly that night and my companion told me that I was sleep talking and that I was teaching the Word of Wisdom and I was speaking very clear. I don't think I've ever slept talked in my life, but I guess it is in my genes! lol!
Sunday was really busy as well. We woke up early to fill up the baptismal font. We were able to have 9 investigators in church! It was missionary Sunday. We gave all of the talks and taught all of the lessons during the day. President Heid even came to give us a nice surprise and teach the investigator/recent convert class. He is a very good teacher, but I wasn’t able to see him teach because I was teaching the youth class. It was a good Sunday! This week we had some crazy numbers as well. I think we taught about 37 lessons and we have 4 more people with baptismal dates in September! It was really rough because of my struggles in lessons, but we have been blessed with people more prepared then I ever thought possible. Things still aren't easy, but I am getting more familiar with how things work, so it makes it much easier. I can tell you guys have been praying for me and I am seeing the blessings.
Today, (Monday), we went to Nungua to play basketball with the missionaries there. There is a mall there that really reminds you of the US and Elder Barnes and I went on exchanges there. We even got a cheeseburger and fries! I'll make sure to send pictures next week.
To answer some questions: My companion’s brother is a Bishop back home, but his mom and other brother aren't members. He took the news about his girl friend surprisingly well.
The culture is getting a lot easier and eating foods isn’t so bad anymore. Yesterday night though I had to eat like 3 pounds of fufu. I thought I would explode!
That is about all that’s happened these last two weeks. I am writing about our lessons and spiritual experiences in my journal at night so don't think I'm ignoring these events. It's just a lot to write!
Love you,
Elder Smith