Yam Fufu

Hey, what's up, everyone? How has life been? It's been a crazy week. I'm so excited to tell you!

To start off the week on Monday, we did some shopping. It's kind of funny heading up to Tamale and seeing such a cultural difference. Even though I am still in Ghana, everything is so vastly different. Everything, including the food here, is different. That was a challenge I ran into and wasn't really expecting. I went shopping, and the market was full of goods I haven't seen before, or things I was looking for didn't exist in this region. So it has been interesting to learn how to cook all over again. Lucky for me, I have had American goodies to hold me over!

On Tuesday, we had a district council meeting. In Tamale, there are 4 sisters and 12 elders, so it was a pretty big council meeting. We talked about our experiences with the Klebingat zone conference, and also the president is implementing new obedience standards. He calls it the 17 points of consecrated obedience. He is really cracking down on disobedient missionaries, which is super nice; it only makes it easier to follow the rules. The rest of the day was a normal proselyting day and was full of good works!

On Wednesday, the wall tiles in our washroom and shower room decided to fall off the wall. They were not installed properly the first time. So we had to call and have someone come and fix it. My companion and I took turns with the other companionship staying in the apartment while they worked. We were told they should not be left here alone. It took them 3 days to put new tiles up, due to constant power outages and supply delays. While it was my companion and my turn to be supervising, I have never been more bored in my entire life. Sitting in an apartment with absolutely nothing to do. I did, however, start the New Testament. So far, that has been awesome. I found a 2019 Come Follow Me on the New Testament, so I have been reading according to that. The New Testament is so good!

On Thursday, I was out and about! Thank goodness. My companion and I have been doing more walking than I have ever experienced. I asked him why we walk so much and why you chose to teach investigators that live so far away. And he then told me that we have bikes! So this whole time, I have been walking my butt off, and we have bikes!! He just chose not to tell me. But turns out, the last elder, the one that I replaced, got in a collision with a moto and spoiled my bike, so I had to go get it fixed. The rim was completely bent, but I straightened it just enough to ride it to the repair shop. I got it back a few days later.

On Friday, we had the usual proselyting. We went to see one of our investigators, Sister Rose. She was making yam fufu. In Nkawkaw, the only fufu they have is half Cassava and half Plantain, and it is very stiff because cassava is very small here, and plantains barely exist at all. Here they make fufu with only yam. It's much lighter, but still really good. Sister Rose was so kind and gave us some to eat.

On Saturday, at the end of the day, I went to the market to buy a few items for Sunday. On our way out, we stopped at the yellow-yellow station to pick one. As usual, the drivers were arguing about who would take us. I wasn't having it that day, so I just picked one and got in. The other drivers were not happy with my decision at all. Usually, they will respect your decision and let you go, but these ones were persistent. So, Elder Mukanya and I sat in the back of this yellow while probably nine other drivers surrounded us, yelling at our driver. Our driver tried to drive off, but the other drivers held his yellow back, turned off the key, hit his hand, and forced him to drop the clutch. All sorts of things were preventing him from moving. Our driver was getting so mad that he hopped out and literally started to fistfight with nine other drivers. I wasn't going to stick around to find out the result, so we slipped out the back and found another yellow. It was pretty crazy. I wish I would have had my phone out to get a video, but I wasn't fast enough.

On Sunday, we had church, and it was super good. We had a priesthood meeting and went over a talk called "The Ladder of Faith," which was super good.

Well, nothing too eventful, but the work is proceeding. Differences in culture make the work fun, and it's always good to learn how to cook in more ways than one! I hope everyone is doing fine and dandy. I'll talk to you next week!

Photos: There were some photos that I forgot to include in last week's email, so I will include them this week.

Photos with one of my favorite missionaries ever!

A photo with the Idaho squad

Me when I first got to Mini America!

There is a real ice cream place in our area, and I am sure enjoying it.

Mud hut

Yam fufu

We eat lots of dates here; it's kinda cool. I have never seen dates before. They are basically one big, really good raisin.

Mini America!

Hello everyone! It's me again. It's been another week, and so much has gone on, and there's plenty to update you on. Hope you enjoy!

This week was pretty wild. To start off, the week on Monday was my first P-Day in Tamale, and it was awesome! Mainly because everything is new! There are new places to eat, new people to talk to, new trails to walk, and just new things to discover in general! To start the day, we went to Melcoms, which I have talked about before. It's pretty much the Walmart of Ghana. Then we went to this fried rice place called Big Ben's, and wow, it was so good. Honestly, it reminded me of fried rice at home from a restaurant called Golden City. After that, we came back to the apartment. I did my wash and got ready to go proselytize.

Tuesday, we did not have district council because we had a zone conference the next day. So, for Tuesday, we had some appointments scheduled. While we were at one of our appointments teaching, there was a woman who just came and joined our lesson. Afterwards, we talked with her, and her name is Gifty. She was interested in our message. She was given a Book of Mormon by a church member many years ago but never thought much about it. So, we set a time to meet with her on Saturday, and went our separate ways. Pretty cool, but honestly, I didn't expect anything to come from it.

Wednesday, we had zone conference, and this one was special. Elder Klebingat was doing his mission tour. We had to leave our apartment at 5:30. The nine-hour ride up to Tamale was on a nice, air-conditioned bus. Now, I thought the seven-hour ride back down to the Syunani stake center would be with that same luxury, but I was wrong. I got the pleasure of bouncing around in a hot tro tro for what felt like forever. But, nevertheless, we got there safely, so all is well. Zone conference was not until Thursday, so we had time to chillax. We stayed that night in the Abesim apartment along with 10 other elders. It was a party.

Thursday was a great day! Elder Klebingat's instruction was fantastic! It was seriously so good. He talked mainly about problems in the mission that needed to be addressed and chastised those who needed to be chastised! It was awesome. He also taught me that who you are on a mission is who you will be after the mission. And he talked about what rules you decide to follow determine your fate in the afterlife. D&C 88 has the perfect scripture for this situation: "For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory. And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory. And he who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore, he is not meet for a kingdom of glory. Therefore, he must abide a kingdom which is not a kingdom of glory."

Also, President Kunz had a wonderful instruction about how light cleaves to light and how darkness cleaves to darkness. It reminded me of when my dad was teaching me how to drive. He taught me that where you look is where you go. If you are looking at the barrow pit, you will subconsciously steer towards it. The same goes for life. If your eyes are fixed on the glory of God, then that is where you will go. Because I love to fly so much, I tried to relate it to flying. Sometimes we may not be able to see our destination, but we know the direction. That reminded me of my favorite talk by President Uchtdorf, explaining how, when our compass is set on the right direction while flying, we are making regular checks to ensure we are still heading in the right direction. If not, we make a small adjustment to correct the mistake, and we will end up at the intended destination. But when our compass is off (or our eyes are fixed on something else), we will end up somewhere completely different. I absolutely love this principle. All in all, it was my favorite zone conference so far - very spirit-filled! However, the best part of the day was getting a package from my Aunt Toot! And that is why my email is titled "Mini America"! It is so nice to have things from home! It may have taken forever to get here, but I am so thankful for all of the thought and effort put into making life a little more comfortable for me.

On Friday morning, we were headed back to our area. We were supposed to hop on a bus at 5:30 am (I'm happy it was a bus - the zone leaders must have learned their lesson). But despite setting more than three alarms to wake us up, we all slept right through them and woke up right at 6:30 am. It was the weirdest thing. We knew we were way late, so we hurried and packed our things and bolted to pick a taxi. We picked a taxi, and it just so happened that the taxi we picked was out of gas. So he had to stop at the filling station and fill up. What a turn of events! We finally got to the bus station, and the bus was miraculously still there. We were about an hour and a half late, and the bus had not left yet. It was most definitely God's hand. I do not know why all of that happened, but I know there was a reason for it.

Saturday was a normal proselytizing day in my area. I'm still trying to get used to everything and remember everyone's names. We met with Sister Gifty, who I talked about earlier. She was super interested and loved what we had to say, and invited us back. We answered all of the questions she had and were thoroughly impressed that we had answers to all her questions.

Sunday was a great Sabbath day. My new branch is awesome, and the branch president is super correct and just a great guy.

Anyways, it was a great week. I told y'all there was so much that went on. I was out of my area for a lot of this week, so I don't have any cool culture stories, but I sure will have some next week. Anyways, I am very thankful for all of y'all. I hope you have a great week.

~Elder Gilbert

Photos this week:

Some nice fried rice 

Elder mukanya and I in a shop 

Tamale sunset 

I bought a traditional Smock there is a video of me wearing it. All of the old farts wear a Smock here and I don't know how they do it. Smocks are made out of kinte fabric wich is super durable but way heavy. Wearing a Smock is like wearing you're biggest winter coat. Mine weighs about 10 lbs

One of my favorite kids in Ghana is this little girl named Vivian she's not as cute as my little sister but a close second. 

The staple food in the east region is fufu and in the north it is tezit and brah. tezit is like bonku but completely flavorless and so slimey. It is the worst food I have eaten yet it makes me gag. but the brah on the other hand is made with leaves and it is awesome.

A member boy I nicknamed beans. He's way cool but he tried to stab me with a makeshift knife he built. 

And me holding mini America! Literally can't express how happy it makes me to have American foods!! So thankful for it and for the peeps looking after me. 

Oh and I can't forget the Muslims. 

Mosques

Hello everyone! It's been another week, and I hope everyone is doing great. This week has been one of change for me as I've moved from my old area to Tamale. It's pronounced like "Tom-a-lay", not like the Mexican food. Although there has been plenty of change taking place, I'm continuing to enjoy it, and honestly, I'm so happy that I can go and experience something new.

Tamale is in the northern part of Ghana, and I'm about a 9-hour bus ride from Kumasi. So I'm far away from the rest of the mission. In my former area, they mostly spoke Twi, but here they speak Dagbani. So all the Twi I learned became completely useless to me. On the plus side, 90% of people here speak English. Unlike my former area, where 90% of people spoke Twi, so, for the most part, I can communicate. Another noticeable difference about Tamale is that it's much hotter than my other area. I thought my former area was hot, but oh, I was wrong. Another difference is that it's completely flat with no hills, no mountains, and absolutely nothing. It's as flat as it could be. No one drives cars here. It's all "motos," which are motorbikes, and "yellow-yellows," which are the three-wheeler transportation things in Kumasi that are called "prageya." Another difference is that almost everyone here is Muslim. This is the Utah of Ghana, except for Muslims. Have you ever driven through Utah and looked out over the houses and seen the steeples of all the LDS churches? That's how Tamale is with Mosques. There are two or three of them on every block. Muslims pray five times a day, so every couple of hours, I get to hear ALLLLAHHHHHH AKKBARRRR blaring from the loudspeakers on top of every Mosque. Although it's annoying, I gotta give it to them for being loyal to their religion and for actually praying five times a day. Sometimes I struggle to say five prayers a day. All in all, my new area is awesome, and I'm super happy to be here. I have a lot to get used to, but now I actually feel like I'm in Africa. I'm in the place with mud huts. It's super hot, dusty, flat, and looks like the Africa you see on the Discovery Channel.

The main city of Tamale is actually really big. There are so many people here that it makes my former area look like a little ghost town. I have a small video of me walking through a part of the city that I will put down below. But once you get on the outskirts, it gets much calmer.

I got a new companion, Elder Mukanya. He's from the DRC Congo, and he's a super cool guy. He speaks very little English as he's a French speaker. So communicating is a little bit difficult at the moment, but I will soon figure it out. We spend about an hour every morning and night studying English together, and we are learning little by little. His testimony of the gospel is one of the best I have ever heard, and he has a heart of gold. I'm very grateful to have him as my companion.

I have a new companion named Elder Mukanya from the DRC Congo. He is a super cool guy who speaks very little English but is fluent in French. So, communicating with him can be a bit challenging, but we spend about an hour every morning and night studying English together. We are learning slowly but surely. His testimony of the gospel is one of the best I have ever heard, and he has a heart of gold. I am very grateful to have him as my companion.

This week, I was finally able to study in Come Follow Me, which was cool. I have never tried to study Isaiah because it always goes over my head, but I put my nose to the grindstone and tried my best, and wow! It's actually really good. The reason I decided to study Isaiah is because, in my personal study, I was reading in 3 Nephi 23:1-4, which commands us to search diligently the words of Isaiah as they are great. If Jesus Christ himself was talking about how great the words of Isaiah are, I could probably take some time to study them. It was pretty cool when I read these things; I made the choice to try and study Isaiah. It was exactly what Come Follow Me was highlighting this week. The hand of the Lord is everywhere! I would invite you all to try and study the words of Isaiah; there is much in there that we need to know.

I hope everyone had a great week, and I hope everyone's upcoming week is great and spirit-filled. I love and miss you all. I'll catch you next week! -Elder Gilbert

For this week's photos:

-A kid in my former area wanted to take a picture with me.

-On my last night in Nkawkaw, we bought a bottle of communion wine and drank it. Don't worry, it was 0% alcohol. I thought it was hilarious, though.

-A picture of me and my new companion.

-Elder Mukanya fell asleep during a lesson, so I had to pick on him a little bit.

-A picture of a Tamale sunset.

-A picture of palm nut soup.

-A video of me walking through part of town with the sound of the Mosques in the background. I will get a better video sometime.

Transfer News.

Hello everyone! How is everyone doing? I'm sorry that I didn't get an email sent last week; I ran out of time. Anyways, it has been a super eventful two weeks. So, let me catch you up.

I finally got the call! I will be transferring out of Nkawkaw this Wednesday. I have been training Elder Willden for one transfer. Typically training is two transfers, but the president says I am needed somewhere else in the mission. There will be an Elder who will come and complete Elder Willden's training. It feels weird having only one transfer with him, and I feel bad leaving him halfway trained, but it is what it is. I am super thankful and so happy for all of the time that I have spent here and all of the relationships that have developed. I will miss this place PAA!! Elder Willden will also be missed; I had a great time with him, and I am thankful for the privilege to train him. But I am overjoyed to be moving forward. I have loved my 8 months in Nkawkaw. But it's time to go!

Last week, Monday, we went to a cave. Or at least the signboard said it was a cave, but it really turned out to be a crack in a mountain. I guess you could have considered it a cave because there was one part that was slightly wider than the width of my shoulders. Other than that, it was pretty claustrophobic, totally worth it though. To get to the cave, we had to rock climb; it was cool.

We had a baptism for our dear sister Lydia Midorse; she is one of Ernestina's kids. She is 18 years old. The family is almost completed. We have baptized 4/5 people in the family. Sadly, I won't be here to help the 5th one into the waters of baptism, but I will be happy to hear when he has been wherever I am going to be.

There has been so much that has gone on, you have heard a majority of it, but I gotta save some stories for next time! Hope y'all have a fantastic week. Love y'all. Talk to ya next time. ~Elder Gilbert

Photos:

I found Mountain Dew! Only one bottle, but it was so good.

Gobe beans. They are so good; the woman packages the beans in plantain leaves.

The cave.

Baptism photo.

A kid made a makeshift bow and arrow.

Rice ball and groundnut soup with Elder Willden.