Sobolo Juice

Hello everyone! It's been a great week here in Nkawkaw. There has been quite a bit happening, and a lot of changes are soon to be made.

On Monday, we ate dinner with a family called the Boatengs. We've been there before, but it was the mom's (Faustina) birthday, so we wanted to go there again. And plus, she makes the best rice and stew around. It's seriously so good. Anyways, we had a wonderful time with them talking and enjoying the night. We ended with a spiritual message about baptism because Faustina is preparing to be baptized.

On Tuesday, we had District Council meeting. The topic was on the integrity of the heart, and it was good instruction. Later that day, we went and saw our investigators and helped fetch a bunch of water for a lady we met. She had two 50-gallon barrels that we filled. It took about 45 minutes because the well was far away, but we got it done. My neck was sore after that.

On Wednesday, we had interviews with the President. We are in the last week of the transfer, so I was able to find out all of my transfer news a little bit early, which was nice. I found out that I will be staying in Nkawkaw for two more transfers to train a new missionary. I'm super excited for that, but that means I will be staying in this area for a total of nine months. That's a long time for one area, but it will be good.

From Thursday to Sunday, the zone leaders had baptism interviews, so the Mpraeso elders came down, and we did a little trio exchange for a day. It was good. On Friday and Saturday, it was Elder Adu's birthday, so we celebrated by going to Rock City. I bought him a pizza, and we enjoyed. The rest of the day was normal, just the usual proselytizing, serving, and teaching. On Sunday, we had good attendance at church, and Elder Adu shared his testimony because he is leaving. So all in all, it was a super busy week, but it was good.

I hope you all enjoy, and I hope everyone has a good week!! ~Elder Gilbert

For my photos this week, we have:

Square toilet

I got to be an operator for a minute

Rock City squad

Pizza, pizza

Breaking the kernels off of maize to send to the mill

Sketchy bridge

Rice and stew

Cat Kabob

Hello everyone, this week was crazy to say the least. Let's hop right in!

Monday was market day. It's mango and pineapple season here and you won't believe how good the fruit is. I took a picture of the fruits I got at the market, so you all can see. This week's family was the Achampong family. The mom's name is Ruby; she is a single mom with three kids: Jeff, Kelvin, and Henry. She is a teacher at a local school. All the teachers in Ghana have been on strike because they are not being paid enough. This means no paycheck until the government agrees to pay them more. So, she's a little stressed, but we had a wonderful meal with them all. Jeff and Kelvin said they would like us to make them American food, so we made spaghetti with an assortment of noodles, or they called it noodles and cow stew. It's kind of funny; we call it spaghetti sauce, and they call sauce a stew. Jeff, the eldest, wants to open a restaurant when he is older. While we were eating, he surprised us and brought us out a kebab of some sort. We asked what meat it was, and he said "agyinamoa," which means cat! I was a little surprised, but you know dang well I ate it. And you know what? It was way good, and it tasted nothing like I expected it to. Great experience! I would recommend.

From Tuesday to Sunday, there was plenty that happened, but on Tuesday, we had district council, and the elders in Mpraeso came down off the mountain. The Queen's mother passed away, so there is a requirement that all the people in the town have to wear either black or red; those are the funeral colors. But because we wear white shirts for proselytizing, it was safer for them to come on a week-long exchange with us. The President also said they were supposed to. So that's what happened. The elders, on their way back up to their apartment, somehow lost their phone. It had been a whole day, and we hadn't heard from them, so my companion and I went up to Mpraeso to find them. And you wouldn't believe the tomfoolery I saw. Ghanaians don't mess around when it comes to funerals. It was a huge festival of just a bunch of drunk people dancing and screaming, and there was even a guy in a full ghillie suit with a dead chicken strapped to his forehead. But we found the phone and found them. All was well. I have been in a six-man apartment for a week; it's been crazy.

The nice thing about being on an exchange all week is that's double the number of people in our area, so a lot got done, and we have lots of new potential investigators. We are nearing the end of the transfer, so we have found new people for next transfer!

That's all for this week! It's been crazy, and I'm excited to have a normal week again. Anyways, love and miss you all. Hope you all have a wonderful week. Elder Gilbert.

For my photos, I have:

The market run

My favorite little kid (the one in the hat)

Ghetto Bridge. I love ratchet bridges for some reason.

Lunch with everyone: groundnut soup and rice ball

The cat kebab

Eating with Jeff, Kelvin, and Henry

Diesel Smoke

Hello everyone! It's been another great week. There's been lots happening.

On Monday, July 4th, for our weekly visit, we went to one of the Amanfrom elder's investigator's homes and enjoyed rice and stew. Spending time with these people is the best part. The investigator's name is Lydia; she's a single mom of three. We enjoyed each other's company, but then the rain set in. We got stuck at her place for 45 minutes waiting for the rain to let up, but it never did. Elder Riley and I got sick of waiting, so we decided to brave the rain. That was a bad idea. We took off out of the house as fast as we could, but the rain was too strong, and it was already too late to turn back, so we proceeded on. The rain was so strong that it created a few rivers that we had to cross to get to the main road. Elder Riley was wearing his nice church shoes, and if they got wet, they would get ruined. So, I put him on my back and carried him through knee-deep water all the way to the main road. It was awesome. We finally got to the road and waited about 10 minutes for a taxi to pick us up; I guess no one wanted to pick up two soaking wet white dudes. Later that night, we made a makeshift grill and cooked burgers and hot dogs and later set off fireworks. I may not have been arrested, but all of our neighbors knew it was America's birthday.

From Tuesday to Saturday, we had normal proselytizing. I had two exchanges with Elder Riley, one in his area and one in our area, and, of course, more rain. We got soaked twice in a week; that's a new record! There has been so much rain recently that everything is flooding, including people's houses. Not a good deal. Also, a gigantic tanker of fuel ran off a bridge and crashed; it was fully loaded with diesel and caught on fire. It's still on fire today. It was a huge miracle that it was diesel fuel and not gasoline or it would have leveled a good chunk of the city. It crashed partway into a river, and all of the fuel caught fire, so the entire river is on fire. And the smoke is thick; hence the name of my email.

On Sunday, we had a baptism for our wonderful sister Ernestina. Her kids were baptized a few transfers ago. I was so happy that she made the choice to join her kids and make covenants with the Lord.

I believe that's all for this week. I hope you all have a wonderful week; I'll talk to you next time.

-Elder Gilbert

For the photos this week, I have:

-A video of a crazy kid

-Bonku and Pepe with onion and fish

-Baptism photos

-Photos of a moonshine operation we stumbled upon (I thought that was sick)

-A video of me carrying Elder Riley through the rain

-Photos of all the flooding

-Chicken sausages and corn on the 4th

Land Of The Free, Home Of The Brave

Hello everyone, Happy 4th of July! As a Gilbert and on America's birthday, you best know that I will either be burning, shooting, or blowing something up today. Wish me luck!

This week was a good one. We started the week off with an FM on Monday. The family we were going to meet up with traveled last minute, so we weren't able to meet them. Instead, we met with our neighbors, had dinner, and had a spiritual message. It was still a great time!

Tuesday was zone conference, so we had to wake up at 5:00 am and leave for Kumasi. As I have expressed before, I love traveling here. It gets the adrenaline going sometimes. Zone conference was probably my favorite one yet. The topic was the divine companionship, which is your companion, yourself, and the Holy Ghost. There were some great insights, and it was a wonderful pick-me-up.

Wednesday, one of the many perks of living with a zone leader is that all of the good American foods are in Kumasi. Although I'm not allowed to go shopping there because it is not my area, the zone leaders have to go to MLC, so they have a few hours to go shopping and cruise around Kumasi. On this trip, they found a can of pumpkin puree. It sounds weird, like why would you want a can of pumpkin, but oh, the possibilities are endless! We made pumpkin shakes, and man, they were so good. All of our ice cream comes in little bags, so we put some pumpkin puree in and cut open 24 bags of ice-cream and dumped them into a blender. It said we needed pumpkin spice, and there isn't any pumpkin spice here, so we looked up the ingredients in pumpkin spice and made our own! It was so cool. Although I am going to be so happy when I can just roll up to Big Js and tell them I want a pumpkin shake, pay the $4, and leave. But it's all about the experience, right!

Thursday to Sunday was just your normal missionary work. I went on two exchanges, one with Elder Dredge and one with Elder Riley. They were both awesome, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go with them and learn. With it being rainy season and standing water everywhere, mosquitoes and malaria are in full swing. Our church attendance was one of the lowest we have ever had, with a whopping 25 people. Many people are infected with malaria. Hopefully, the malaria pill I have to take every day actually works.

I think that's about all for this week. Plenty of new memories have been made this week, and there are many more in the making, especially with it being the fourth of July. I'll let y'all know next week if I get arrested.

This week's photos:

Mr. Amankwah (the older man) - we told him we would come help him weed his garden, but instead, he just surprised us with a meal of rice and pepe with turkey eggs and coconuts at the end! This guy has a heart of gold; he was the first member here in Nkawkaw.

"Killie Willie" - fried plantain with groundnut. I love it.

The exchange in the rain.

The pumpkin shake.

Groundnut soup and rice ball.

The sunsets this week were gorgeous.

Reese's Puffs that Elder Riley found - they were expired by six months, but they were still great even though they were stale.