Sticks And Stones

It's going to be a shorter email this week; there isn't too much to talk about, but I will do my best to keep you entertained.

This week, with the passing of Easter, everything was much calmer, which is a good thing. Easter was absolutely crazy here in Nkawkaw and the neighboring town, Mprieso. We were able to meet with a few new investigators who found us. They enjoyed the message we shared with them and would like to meet again soon. Along with that, almost all of our investigators came to church! It was wonderful and a pretty rare occasion.

Solomon is progressing well, and we have a baptism date set for him. This guy is going to be a bishop one day; he is solid!

Growing up in a big family, I have always been good around kids. Nothing that they do usually bothers me, but there is something very different about the children here. THEY DISTURB ME. I swear some of these kids want to kill me. Elder Bloomfield and I can be sitting there teaching a lesson with someone, and a kid and his gang of buddies will come and steal our bags and take off running. We chase them down and get our things back, and they are still trying to get stuff from us! "Oh white man, give me your watch, give me your phone!" We usually just say we will give them something, so we give them a Book of Mormon and take off running in the opposite direction. Although I have had quite a few sour interactions with the kids here, there are a few nice moments. Sometimes I like to play a game they call "Sticks and Stones." It's like tic-tac-toe but cooler, and it has a lot of different sets of rules and ways to play it. But it's fun to play every now and then.

But that's really all for this week. Transfers are in one week; it's crazy how fast time is flying. But I'll talk to you all next week.

Sincerely, Elder Gilbert

For the photos this week, we had a few beautiful sunsets and a scorpion that Elder Riley killed, and me playing with the kids.

Birthday Suit

Hello again! It's your favorite African man. This week seemed to stretch on forever, but we had a lot going on, so I have plenty to tell you.

One of my favorite things about Africa is the transport. When you are heading somewhere that is more than a 15-minute drive, you have to pick a taxi from the junction. The junction is a place where lots of taxis are parked with their drivers trying to get the attention of literally anyone. Ironically, all the drivers who are heading to the area you request are usually yelling at each other in a circle. You get their attention by either whistling or doing some hissing thing with your teeth. Now, once you have their attention, this is where the fun begins. The circle of drivers now has their attention on you. You point the direction you are wanting to go, and the drivers who are heading that way run to you and try to pull you into their taxi. Now that would be great if it were only one driver, but that is a rare occasion. Usually, there are 5-6 drivers all headed to the same place who want your business. They are not afraid to literally fight over you. It's a pretty wild experience, honestly. You are being pulled around by 6 different drivers while some are fighting and exchanging words in Twi. Now I'm not much of a gambler, but it sure seems like gambling whenever you select a driver. You just hope and pray the driver you selected has a nice taxi or tro. Usually, I get pretty lucky, but on occasion, I get a ratchet one. Along with ghetto taxis, when the number of seats in a tro is 12, that actually means 28. It's almost like a game to see how many people you can possibly shove in one vehicle. By far, one of my favorite games.

I had zone conference on Wednesday, so I was traveling 2.5 hrs to Kumasi, and we had stake conference on Sunday, so I was traveling to Konongo, which is about 2 hrs away, so I have had plenty of travel this week.

Now in the middle of all this was my birthday! I have never had a birthday away from home, so it was an interesting first. Although I was far away from home, I had so many messages wishing me a happy birthday, so I thank all of you for wishing me a happy birthday. I was lucky my companion and the other elders in my apartment made it special for me. And also, I was able to open a present! My amazing aunt Sara and uncle Derk packed it with me before I left with strict instructions not to open until my birthday!

If I'm being honest, I didn't even think I was going to make it to 19 years old. Even looking at the number 19 makes me feel old, but I guess no one asks to get older; it just happens. I found out that it is tradition on your birthday that you get soaked. People dump buckets of water on you when you are not expecting it, and that's the truth. I indeed got soaked, but all in all, besides having to accept my age, it was a great birthday.

I talked about our investigator, Solomon, in the last email, but I would like to expound slightly. He is a Facebook referral, which almost seems like cheating, but he might just be the most solid investigator Elder Bloomfield and I have ever seen! I mean, this guy kicks butt. We went to teach him once and we taught him the restoration of the gospel. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to "Read, Ponder, Pray." The next time we went back, this guy taught us the restoration and also taught us the Word of Wisdom! This guy is impressive. We haven't even made mention of the other things he was talking to us about. The Lord most definitely prepared him for us. He is keeping all commitments and has already told us that he wants to be baptized ASAP. We told him that before we can do that, there are many more things we must teach him. As a response, he says, "Make it quick! The end is near, and I want to be saved!" 

I have many photos this week. I ate something very interesting - pig skin and fat in Pepe soup. The fat off animals is much cheaper than actual meat, so no one really eats meat besides chicken and fish because they are the cheapest. It was pretty good once I got over the fact that it was just fat. I found a cool Nkawkaw sign, me getting soaked with like 7 buckets of soapy water, dinner with Mommy Phylis on my birthday, a picture of the tro-tro with our branch all headed to Konongo, a picture of me passed out asleep on a tro-tro (we had to leave at 5:00 am to get to ZC on time, so I was tired), a birthday pancake, and Steven with a knife!

All in all, a great week. I hope you all enjoy the photos, and I hope all is going well at home! Sincerely, Elder Gilbert.

Catfishn In Africa

Another good week in Africa. This week, it was so hot. It was probably the hottest I have ever felt. Then, after it was super hot for a few days, it rained all day and cooled off. That night, it got down to about 75°F, and I almost froze to death. I had to sleep with a blanket. My body can't decide what's going on. But it's okay. I know that I have adjusted to the heat here because, like I said earlier, I freeze when it's anything below 75°F. I'm not a fan.

We are halfway through the transfer, so we are just trying to get people ready for baptism. We were given this sweet referral this week. His name is Solomon, and he owns a chicken/fish farm. It was super cool to head to his place and see how they farm here in Africa. I'll link a video of him feeding the fish at the bottom, but he's a super cool guy, and his English is really good, so I can actually communicate! He also farms sugarcane. He gave us some sugarcane to take home and try, and wow, sugarcane is way better than I thought it was going to be. Anyway, on another note, we are just continuing to meet new people each and every day. We met this new lady, her name is Emilia. We buy bread from her. We never really talked to her until we stopped to buy bread one day, and she just started asking so many questions! Now we stop and are teaching her. So I'm excited to see where this one goes.

I'm learning how to cook here, small small. Elder Bloomfield and I prepared groundnut soup and rice ball on Saturday with the help of our neighbor. It turned out really nice. I'm honestly surprised it turned out good because most of the stuff I attempt to make isn't nice. I've said it before, and I will say it again, but cooking is not an easy task. I am very grateful for my mom and dad. They usually handled that task in our house. It's only a minor thing, but I'm sure thankful for them.

Well, other than that, I've just been carrying more buckets of water on my head. I will honestly start carrying things on my head at home too because it is so much easier just to plop stuff on your head and carry it.

Anyway, love and miss you all, and I will talk to you next week!

White Guy In Africa

After a crazy week last week, things have really calmed down this week. Thank goodness! This was a week of lots of spiritual and physical food.

I looked forward to General Conference all week! I was super excited to hear from the apostles and the prophet. That's something that has really changed out here; back at home, I didn't really have any interest in General Conference, but in Africa, it was that little touch of home that I really needed. Although it was nothing like watching Conference at home - there was no big screen TV, no popcorn, and no Oreos - the message was the same, and the Spirit is always the same: never changing and everlasting. But, like I said earlier, I fed myself spiritually.

Mango season is in full swing here in Ghana, and the market is full of mangoes - I mean buckets and buckets of ripe mangoes. I wasn't able to grab a photo of all the mangoes, but there were thousands of them. I prefer not to buy them from the market; what I like to do is to get them right off the tree - that is when they are the best. Some of these mango trees are super tall and riddled with lots of mangoes. The most effective way to get the mangoes down is to just chuck rocks at the tree in hopes that you break one loose. Occasionally, you will have one fall to the ground. The mangoes here are much different from the ones at home - they are super stringy. So, you just bite the top off and try to squeeze all of the mango out of it. They are super nice, and they are even better when you have been walking for a long time. You find a nice mango tree, grab a mango, take a nice break, and eat it.

We had quite a few free meals this week, too, so I got to experience some new foods. I got to try groundnut soup and rice balls - one of my new favorites from Ghana. It's basically just peanut butter soup. We showed up to the family house and sat down to eat, and they told us there was cow in it! Oh boy, I was so excited to be having some beef! But, to my surprise, it wasn't the beef I was thinking. It was cow stomach and intestines. But, surprisingly, it was super good. I may have gagged a time or two, but once I got over the thought of it, it was super nice. And bless their heart for feeding the missionaries.

This week's photos include groundnut soup and rice balls, me and Elder Bloomfield eating mangoes with Derrick (he is one of the youth we taught and baptized a few weeks ago; he wants to be a missionary but is too young to go on a mission, so he comes out with us a few times a week), pictures of my General Conference view, and me carrying more water. This time it was the big bucket of water, and man, it is way heavy. I'm thankful for my cousin Parker Gilbert, who taught me how to properly squat, because being a 6'3" American in a place where all of the doors are short, I have to squat with a full bucket of water on my head fairly often. But this time, I had to pour it from my head, and I spilled everywhere. I felt so bad, but it's OK.

I hope y'all have a fantastic week, and I'll speak to you next time.