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. 
