The Spiritual Guy In Africa

It was a good week. A lot went down this week. I had a lot of good adventures this week. To start off, this week was transfers. Our district leader got transferred, which was a good thing because he spent nine months in the same area. But as for me, I am halfway done with my training!

On Monday, we climbed the mountain in our backyard. We were told there was a giant paragliding platform on the very tip of the mountain. So we set off, not even really thinking about it. But oh my heck, it was a hike and a half. It wasn't extremely difficult. There was a road leading all the way to the top, but it was steep and forever long. But we made it! It was super cool up there. We heard every Easter there is a giant party up there, and people paraglide off the mountain. While we were hiking up to the top, we found a guy who was also walking up the mountain with all of his things. He was headed to the same place as us, and he said he was going to work on the radio towers up at the top of the mountains. So we helped him carry his things. When we got to the top, sadly, the platform was gated off. But lucky for us, the guy who we walked up the mountain with had keys and just gave them to us and said to bring them back when we are done! So we four Americans had full access to a giant paragliding facility. It was pretty cool. I have plenty of photos I'll put in the link.

As for the other crazy experience, Elder Bloomfield and I went to a high school sporting event. It was a soccer tournament. Multiple schools in the area were playing each other to see who was the best for this year. Apparently, it is a really big deal because there were a lot of people there. People love their soccer. Every time a team scored, the people would lose it. They would jump up and down and storm the field. During one of the matches, a group of "rastamans," which is just Ghana's name for potheads, started yelling and shoving each other. Apparently, there was a disagreement, but that's normal here. But people tried to get involved and break the fight up, but it only made it worse. Instead of just two people fighting, it was a giant group of people fighting. Once we realized it was getting pretty bad and the spirit was gone, we decided to try and leave along with a lot of people. We were just casually walking away from the match when a mass of kids came running past us yelling "knives and scissors." So we turned around to see what that meant, and the mob had moved into the field and also doubled in size. But this time, many of them had machetes and scissors, and they were just going to town on each other, just swinging machetes frantically into this huge crowd of people. And I wasn't able to see anyone get stabbed with scissors, but I was able to see someone get smacked a few good times with a machete. I haven't asked, but I guarantee someone lost an appendage in the mix of that. It was kind of scary, but I was in awe because all of this happened over a small disagreement at a high school soccer match. Kinda crazy. Lucky for Elder Bloomfield and me, we were able to get away fast enough.

That's something I find very cool about the Spirit: we were having a great time watching this soccer match, and right before things went south, we already had the feeling to leave and were on our way out. If it weren't for the Spirit telling us to leave and us listening to what we were being told, we would have been right in the middle of that mob. God is good. He protected my companion and me that day, and I'm sure many people were also protected. I love having the Spirit to warn and protect.

For this week's photos, I have one of me at the market with our neighbor Elizabeth. She sells fish, and she is a wonderful lady. While at the soccer game, kids wanted to know how to tie a tie, so I taught them. There are photos of the view from the top of the mountains, and there is a video of me stirring banku, a very popular Ghanaian dish that tastes and smells like corn silage. Mango season is in full swing, and I was able to get one of my favorite photos here in Ghana so far: a little boy going to town on a mango. I hope you enjoy.

Wet Obruni In Africa

It's the end of the transfer. I have one more transfer left with my trainer, Elder Bloomfield, which is a good thing because, as confident as I am to tackle Africa, I think I need just a little more time to get a good grasp of things. It's been a much better week this week. We were able to find some more people to teach. We thought our area was running a little dry, but the Lord has provided again! He will never let you down.

This week's story actually happened last night. We had a free meal at Mommy Phyllis's house on Sunday evening. It was a little windy, but we didn't think anything about it. We were eating our dinner, and the weather just got gradually worse. But still, we thought we were bigger than the storm that was brewing. Mommy Phyllis's house is about 15 minutes from our apartment, so we set out thinking we would beat the storm. We set foot outside her compound, heard the gate lock behind us, and it started to drizzle. The sky was completely black. The wind was howling, and it started to pour rain. And I'm not talking no little wussy rain. This was pretty impressive. We decided to turn around and head back to Mommy Phyllis's house, but she had walked back, and the gate was locked. No matter how loud we yelled, the rain pounding on the tin roofs was louder. And also, to add to the absolute chaos, we started the journey off with four missionaries, and we were only three standing outside the gate. So there we were, three obrunis (white guys), soaked head to toe, locked out of any shelter in the middle of the tropical storm in Africa, and Elder Bampoe was nowhere to be found. It was about as wild as it gets. Elder Bloomfield, Elder Riley, and I were walking around in the rain that was so heavy, it was hard to see. We found a little shelter under the overhang of someone's roof. We said a quick prayer that went something along the lines of, "Help us to find Elder Bampoe and be protected throughout the rainstorm." We were already soaked, so we sought out Elder Bampoe. We were calling his name and looking everywhere. We finally found him in a nearby member's house. They saw him out in the rain and pulled him into the house. But Heavenly Father had answered our prayers. We found Bampoe, and we may have been soaked and covered in mud, but we made it home safe.

We had two more baptisms to end off this transfer. I'm super proud of these two. One's name is Precious. She is nine, and the other is Isaac. He is 11. We have been teaching them for a few weeks now, and they expressed a desire to be baptized. So we asked the mom for permission, and she said yes. Super happy for them. I hope that we can teach the mom and help get the entire family into the waters of baptism, but only time will tell.

This week's photos include one of me right before disaster struck. You can see how the wind is bending those palm trees. We had a meal of fried plantains and bean stew, a picture of all the elders in my district, us all shoved in the back of a taxi, and a pig that I wanted to get some bacon off of. Some videos of after disaster struck. We were scared that the phones were going to get ruined in the rain, or I would have some more videos and pictures of the rainstorms because they are crazy! I'm pretty impressed some of the structures remain standing throughout these storms.

Anyways, it was a good week. I hope all is well for you guys and I love and miss you all. Have a great week!

Tan Man In Africa

Another week bites the dust! I apologize for the short email this week, but if I'm going to be honest with you, it's been a super long week. I was informed of my grandfather's passing this week, and it has hit me pretty hard. I'm not quite sure how to deal with that while I'm 7,000 miles away from home, but this too shall pass. On top of all that, I have been quite sick the past few days. I must have eaten something bad. I'm not sure what caused it, but I'm hoping to feel better in the near future!

Enough of the bad news. Let's get on with the good news! Elder Bloomfield and I are continuing the Lord's work even with a few setbacks this week, and we are preparing a few more folks for baptism! If all of the lessons and the teachings go well, they will be ready by next week! I love being able to watch people's testimony grow and develop. Many of the people we are teaching are ready for the gospel. They just need a helping hand to guide them and encourage them along the way.

This is such an interesting life out here for me. I am almost used to it, but there are a few cultural differences I am not used to. One of them is no cutlery when eating! Hands only. Kind of a silly thing, huh! But oh man, I miss having a fork and spoon. My mom was smart, and she told me to pack a pocket-size fork/spoon combo, but sadly it is extremely frowned upon and almost considered disrespectful to whip out one of those bad boys and start to eat with it. Although I was raised differently, it is something I am just going to have to get used to.

My favorite scripture this week is Matthew 10:39, which states, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Basically, what that is saying is if you lose your life or lose yourself in the work, you shall find your life. That's just another testament to getting lost in the work because eventually, you will find your life.

For this week's photos, we had what we call an FM (free meal or family meal) with one of our members. We call her Mommy Phylliss (she is the lady in the green shirt). She fed us ground nut soup and rice ball with what I think is pork. I'm not really sure on that one, but it tasted pretty good. She's a pretty good cook, but as Alan Jackson says, "it ain't like mama fixed it." The video is of me and Elder Bloomfield grinding palm nut, which is this very fibrous nut that they flavor a lot of food with. A very popular drink here is malt. Most of the Americans don't like it, but I think it's pretty good. I find it interesting that it is made by a well-known beer company.

Anyway, that's all I got for this week. It was kind of an off week for me, but hopefully, things will return back to normal here soon! I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I'll talk to you next time!

Here is the link to my photos.

Tan Man In Africa!

This week was a blast! To start off the week on Monday, my P-day, we had a district activity. We went to Lake Volta, which is the biggest and probably the only lake in Ghana. But we found out that there is a ferry that takes cargo and passengers to the other side of the lake. It was only 4 cedis for a ticket to ride, which is about 50 cents - totally worth it. I was like a little kid in a candy shop getting on a big ship. I was so happy to see a large body of water. The only thing that would have made it better was a fishing pole. Another cool thing is there are fishing boats. I'm surprised I didn't get yelled at for taking a photo in one of them, but I'm here for the experience - you only live once, right?

On the other hand, we went from a cockroach problem to a man-eating spider problem. I mean, take a minute to look at the photos and look at the size of that thing. I had to get the CKC rounded up again. CKC stands for "Cockroach Killing Crew", which consists of Elder Riley, Elder Bloomfield, and myself. We played a quick game of Rock-paper-scissors to see which unlucky elder would get to attempt to kill this behemoth of a spider. It was not me, thank goodness. We tried to spray it with insecticide, but it just ate the insecticide like it was an afternoon snack. So we did what any man would do and smacked it repeatedly with a broom. We have won another war - CKC-2, Africa-0.

On Sunday, we had three baptisms! Super cool. I'm so very proud of the people that made the decision to be baptized, and I am so thankful for the opportunity Elder Bloomfield and I had to teach them. I cannot wait to see where the gospel will take them! I love being able to see how quickly people can progress through the gospel. We have only been teaching these wonderful people for about a month, and the progress they have made in such a short amount of time is surely the work of God. Once you plant the seed by sharing the message of the gospel with them, it grows. Pretty soon, they want to know more and more. I can't wait to see who and what else the Lord has in store for us.

For this week's photos, I have a bunch from our district activity and the ferry. I have included a video on how they load it. They pack that sucker right up to the brim with cars and people! And the cool fishing boats - I would like you to notice how most of the boats have a scripture on them. It makes sense as to why they do that. It looks like a miracle that they are still floating. The food of the week was garden egg stew with boiled plantains and yam. Man, it was good! I would tell you what is in it, but I don't even know what was in it. The only thing that I know is in it is garden egg and sardines. I have some scenery photos of all the rooftops of Nkawkaw - I thought that was cool. Also, baptism photos and the pictures of the man-eating spider.

Well, that's it for this week! I hope you all have a wonderful week. Until next time!