Well, it's been another week! If you just want to look at the photos, I have a link down at the bottom, but you are all invited to read. Man, it was a super busy week. So I said last week we are at the beginning of the rainy season, and that is the truth. It has rained every other day here. The rain storms are really quite cool. One minute it will be 100 degrees and clear skies, and 10 minutes later, it's pouring rain. This email is going to be fairly long, so bear with me, and I hope you enjoy.
This week, I had district council on Tuesday morning, so the elders from the neighboring town came down, and we had our meeting. I have been missing American food something fierce. So I forked up some cash and bought the only decent hamburger I could find, and man, I have been enjoying it. One of the elders in our apartment is about 1 year and 6 months into his mission, so he has some connections if we are in need of some American food. But it comes at a cost. The hamburger was about 80 cedis for 4 lbs, that's about $13 American dollars, so really it's not that bad, but that's a pretty penny here. My apartment provided the hamburger, and the elders from the neighboring town provided the cheese, which was hard for them to find, and when they did find cheddar cheese, they had to buy a 10 lbs block of it for about 210 cedis. But hey, I got to enjoy a cheeseburger while in Africa, totally worth it.
So I didn't know this, but white people have a totally different type of hair than Africans, so there isn't a barber in all of Ghana that could cut my hair without destroying it. Thankfully, Elder Riley came in clutch with some hair clippers, so I slapped a trash bag on, and he went crazy. Man, he gave me the best fade an Idaho boy could ask for. It actually looks really good, considering it was done under the one light bulb in the apartment.
On Wednesday and Thursday, we had an exchange with the elders that came from Npraeso (the neighboring town), and it's beautiful up there. I got some pictures I will include of it down below in the link, but it was definitely cool to learn a different teaching style and to meet new people. On Thursday, I had another exchange, but with the zone leaders. It was in my area, so I went and talked to all of the people that I have been teaching.
For my spiritual message this week, I'm going to talk a little bit about Satan and how he seeks the misery of all mankind. When we follow the temptations of Satan, we limit our choices. Imagine you are on a seashore, and there is a sign that states, "danger- whirlpool, no swimming allowed here." We may think that is a restriction, but is it? We still have many choices. We are free to swim somewhere else, walk along the seashore, pick up seashells, watch the sunset, go home, and we are also free to ignore the sign and swim in the dangerous place. But once the whirlpool or Satan has us in its grasp and we are pulled under, we have very few choices. We can try to escape or call for help, but we may drown. Even though we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose our consequence. With that being said, we can choose how tight of a grip Satan has on our lives. And I'm speaking from experience, I could have chosen to walk along the shore and watch the sunset, but instead, I ignored the sign because I thought the whirlpool looked kind of fun. I got dragged in and spun around a few times, and luckily, God was able to hear my cry for help. In conclusion, listen to the "warning signs"; they are everywhere, you just need to listen or watch for them. Life is much better when you have a choice, and also, don't let Satan have a chance to drag you down into the water because once he does, it's hard to get back out.
Anyways, that's all that's on my mind this week until next time!
For this week's photos, I have one of me getting a haircut, a few scenery photos, and a bag of water. They are called water sachets here, and it's how we drink a good 90% of our water. They are super convenient, and when you are thirsty, just bite the corner and sip. For the food, Jollof rice with chicken and cabbage, Wagashi, which is made with milk, it's kind of like a cheese curd but the African version. The picture with me and my companion with drinks, the drink is called Sobalo, it's made with hibiscus and other flowers and ginger, it's super spicy and one of my all-time favorite drinks. Now we also went to minister to the sick at the hospital this week. For any of you that have seen MASH, the hospital reminded me of MASH, all the beds super close together.