It's been another week! Time is cruising along. This week was eventful and honestly full of some pretty great memories. It's almost rainy season here in Nkawkaw, so it has cooled down slightly, but the humidity has gotten much worse. But the cooler temps combat the humidity fairly well. Something cool that happened was I had never seen a cockroach in my life until two nights ago. I stay in a four-man apartment, and we are always up chatting. It was getting fairly late around 10:30 on Saturday evening, and Elder Riley walked into the kitchen. My companion and I were in bed, almost asleep by this time, and we hear a scream followed by Elder Riley's croc flying into the hallway at about the speed of light. I get up and rush to see what was going on. Well, he had walked into the kitchen and saw a big roach, so he tried to kill it. But apparently, those suckers can fly, so it scared him, and he just started throwing his shoes in an attempt to kill it (it's a pretty noble move, in my opinion). I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing that there was a live roach in the house, so we decided to go hunting. Elder Riley's weapon of choice was his croc, and my weapon of choice was a nice stick. Elder Bloomfield held a flashlight. We each had an important and equal role with one objective in mind: find and kill. So we set off into the depths of our cabinets, looking like a bunch of cavemen, only to find there wasn't one cockroach; there were many of them. I don't get scared too easily, but when there is a family of cockroaches flying directly toward your face, things get a little WESTERN. We fought and battled till about midnight. We had a pile of dead cockroaches, but we weren't able to get them all. That's a job for another day, but in the end, I think we came out on top!
I am starting to build up relationships with some of the people here in Nkawkaw. It's getting easier for me to communicate and understand what people are saying, although I do not speak Twi. I am learning every day, and I can now greet people in Twi. I may have a lot to learn, but just as my dad says, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."
It is crazy to me how much the gospel can change lives, and how prayers are truly answered. We are teaching a preacher named Frank from a different church. We contacted him on the streets. At first, he didn't seem interested in our message, but we insisted and set a time to meet up and talk. We served Frank first by fetching his water for him. Then, we left him with a small gospel message and a Book of Mormon. We asked him to read and pray and to ask for himself if the things we teach are true.
The next day, we got a call from Frank. He would like to meet up with us again and has questions about the Book of Mormon. Come to find out, he had read a good chunk of the book and testified to us that he knew these things to be true. I find it amazing how God works. Frank is a pastor, and his job is to preach. He is a devout member of a completely different church but decided that all he knew was wrong. He cannot come to our church as of right now because preaching his sermons on Sundays is how he makes money to feed his family. We teach him almost daily, and I have faith that he will further come unto Christ.
Anyways, enough of that! For this week's photos, I put them into a Google Drive. So, if you would just click the link, it will take you to an album with all of my photos on it. There are a few pictures of food. The picture with the red oil is a peanut stew which is enjoyed with yam, and the other is kenke, which is fermented cornmeal ball and a fish stew to accompany it. There is a video of me scared to death in this ghetto taxi that was at a discounted price to ride in, and I know why it was discounted. There was smoke from the engine rolling into the cab through the vents. It was an experience to say the least. The picture of me and my companion with the matching ties is a picture of us with Frank. And there are also videos of me and Elder Bloomfield peeling yam and grinding up onion for the peanut stew.
I hope you all enjoy. I love and miss you all. Until next time.