Hello everyone! How is everyone? I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's celebration!
New Year's here was a little bit more interesting than Christmas. I think it's because it's a universal holiday. But I was expecting something big, but to my surprise, it was pretty dead. I even think I fell asleep before midnight! I'm still processing 2022, but 2023 is going to be a great year for us all! To celebrate, we got invited to our branch president's house to eat. We had yam fufu and rice. It was really good, and honestly just so good to celebrate Christmas/New Year's with some people.
It's crazy dusty here!! Everything is just so dry and just a powdery dust that is easily picked up by the wind. It makes it hard to breathe, and by the time I'm done proselyting, I'm covered head to toe in an inch of dust. Mainly because as you're out walking, you will sweat, and then the dust will stick to you, and the process just repeats itself until you and your clothes are ruined. By the end of the day, my white shirt is orange, and so am I. I have a picture of some people playing soccer, and the field just has a bunch of dust in the air.
In a traditional funeral here, the ceremony is a week long, and every day there is a different activity. On the last day, it is the biggest celebration. And when they bury the person. Now each ceremony is different, but the size of the celebration depends on your age and social status. So the older you are, the bigger the celebration. And if you are in the government, an even bigger one. So my companion and I heard some giant explosions, and they sounded very close to us. We were in a village pretty far from where we normally proselyte. The investigator who we were with said that the chief of their village just died, and they were on the last day of his funeral celebration. This guy was like 98 years old and was the chief of the village. So the celebration was massive. Anyway, I wanted to go see all the commotion and the source of the explosions. As I was walking towards the funeral, a guy with a homemade gun was walking towards us. He didn't speak any English whatsoever, but he called his son over to translate for me. First of all, I was shocked to be seeing a gun that isn't in the hands of a cop. Guns are super illegal in Ghana, and only the police are allowed to have them. So I was pretty shocked to be seeing this. But the gun was so cool. It was about as homemade and jury-rigged as it got but somehow worked. It had an old musket blast cap action, and the barrel was a 1/2 inch thick metal tube. It weighed probably 30+ lbs. Anyway, long story short, I talked the guy into letting me take a picture with the gun, and I was happy! That's the second time I have handled a gun in a country where they are illegal!!!!
Another little side note about Ghana is that there are so many fires everywhere - some small, some big. If you have any sort of garbage, you just take it outside, throw it in the gutter, and light it on fire. There was this huge cloud of black smoke, and I thought a car was on fire. But when I went there to see it, it was just a guy burning a ton of old TVs and old tires. It's kind of interesting. I was surprised that there wasn't anyone who came and got after the guy, but there is seriously so much pollution here. It's pretty cool that you can just set fire to whatever you want.
For my scripture study this week, I studied in the book of Acts. I studied mainly on the Day of Pentecost and baptism of the Holy Ghost. Something I find so common in Ghana churches is that people are getting baptized in the name of Jesus but, of course, not by the proper authority. Then, to give them the Holy Ghost, they just pray that they may receive the Holy Ghost. It doesn't make any sense, especially when in Acts 19:1-13, it clearly states the difference in baptism and then receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.
It's crazy to me how clear the scriptures can be when we prayerfully read them.
Anyways, that's all I have for y'all this week, and I'll talk to you next time!
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