Packages/letters from home - Happy day!
Sunyani (Is that an outhouse?)
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
September 26, 2011
Hey everybody!
So this week was a pretty good week. Last p-day was sweet down in
Kumasi! There are so many people there! It is also pretty dirty, but
I'm getting used to that living here in Africa. We were supposed to get
our mail and stuff that day in Kumasi but they didn't send it up! We
weren't too happy because the one chance they get in like a month to
send stuff up to us, they don't take advantage of it. I bought a couple
of African ties down in Kumasi too. I think that they look pretty
sweet. On Tuesday, we just did our normal thing and had district
meeting and went out and proselyted. On Wednesday we got all ready to
have our family night, but it rained a bunch so people didn't show up on
time. It kind of ruined the whole thing, but when it stopped raining a
lot of people came and we just played Uno the whole time. It is so
funny to play with all of the Africans because they absolutely love that
game. Everytime we go and teach some of the people, they ask if we can
play Uno. It's pretty funny. One of the Elders in my apartment made
some no bake cookies and they were so good! The only problem is that
they are expensive to make so we can't have them very much. On
Thursday, we found out that Propser, who is a man that works for the
church was coming up and bringing our mail! It was so great! I got two
packages from Mom and some letters and all that fun stuff! It was so
awesome to open up those packages and get good food and candy! Don't
ever worry about sending me too much stuff. Haha. Thanks for the SD
card reader Mom, it is just what I wanted. On Friday we did a service
project in the market in Sunyani. We woke up at like 5:00 in the
morning and went and cleaned the garbage off of a really dirty street.
Everything went good except we were really tired after. We also found
out that day that we had no water because the man weeding our yard with a machete chopped our main water line in half the night before and
didn't tell us! He just shoved a stick down the pipe to try and fix it!
Haha. We needed to shower after the project so we hooked up the hose
to the main water line and fed it through the window and into the
bathroom and screwed the shower head onto the end of the hose. It
worked so great! I got a sweet video of it so I will have to get it
home sometime soon. Also, right as we were doing that, our power went
out so we had no power and no water. Our shower was so awesome though.
On Sunday, I got to teach Sunday school this week. I think that it went
really good. I taught for a good 40 minutes and I had more material,
but I just ran out of time. That is one thing that I wouldn't have been
able to do back home. I love church because that is the one time we
get to turn on our air conditioner! It feels so great! We started our
third hour of church this last week too. We taught a way good lesson on
Sunday too. We taught Harriet and the lesson went really good! The
only problem is that we can only meet her once a week. We think that
she could be a really great member because she is really smart. Our
other investigators are going pretty good. Elijah and Micheal are
progressing good. Hopefully we can get a baptismal date for Elijah
soon. Also, Rita is coming along, but not as good as before so we will
probably have to baptize her at the end of October instead of the
beginning. Other than that, life it going good. It is still extremely
hot and humid here and I'm still trying to get used to that! Well, I
hope everybody is doing well! I love you all and miss you! Have a
great week!
Love Elder Kitchen
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
This is a letter to Elder Kitchen's Grandma Kitchen from a senior couple serving in his mission.
Hello Pat--
I thought that I would email you a picture that I took of Elder Kitchen. He is a good elder and learning a lot.
I watch him do the sacrament and lead the singing (that means standing up in front and singing a little bit of the song to set the pitch and then leading. I don't think that he did a lot of that at home) then speak spur of the moment at the baptism and teach and I know that he is being used by the Lord in ways that will bless his life. The work is hard and often slower than we would want but it is coming. The area where he is (Fiapre) is a little behind the rest of Sunyani because they got started later so there is a lot to be done there.
The picture is of Elder Hernandez, Elder Kitchen's companion and Elder Kitchen and some of the kids in Fiapre.
I don't remember if I sent you this second picture or not, so I included it again. It was taken at our district meeting.
Tell all hello for us. We're doing well.
Love, Marlene
I thought that I would email you a picture that I took of Elder Kitchen. He is a good elder and learning a lot.
I watch him do the sacrament and lead the singing (that means standing up in front and singing a little bit of the song to set the pitch and then leading. I don't think that he did a lot of that at home) then speak spur of the moment at the baptism and teach and I know that he is being used by the Lord in ways that will bless his life. The work is hard and often slower than we would want but it is coming. The area where he is (Fiapre) is a little behind the rest of Sunyani because they got started later so there is a lot to be done there.
The picture is of Elder Hernandez, Elder Kitchen's companion and Elder Kitchen and some of the kids in Fiapre.
I don't remember if I sent you this second picture or not, so I included it again. It was taken at our district meeting.
Tell all hello for us. We're doing well.
Love, Marlene
Monday, September 19, 2011
Pictures
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| Elder Hernandez and Elder Kitchen with local children. |
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| Elder Kitchen with dinner. |
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| Local Scenery |
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| Elder Kitchen |
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| Elder Eldredge, Elder Kitchen, Elder Hernandez and Elder Akpan |
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| Elder Kitchen |
Elder Kitchen pounding Fufu for the first time.
September 19, 2011
Hello everybody!
I hope that everything is going well back home in the States. Things are going pretty good over here in Ghana. We just do the same thing everyday over here. I wake up at 6:30 and then get ready for the day. We taught 40 lessons this week so we were pretty dang busy. One of our investigators told us this week that she prayed and heard a voice telling her that this is the true church so that was pretty sweet. She wants to be baptized but she wants to wait until October 29th because she wants to try and get her Mom to come with her. This sunday we introduced the members to the member missionary goal. They came up with 15 as the number of people that they want to have baptized by the end of the year. We only have like 30 people coming to church right now! It sounds like it is going to be difficult but hopefully it ends up being good. I'm pretty excited to see how it goes. One of our investigators that we taught on Sunday was awesome. She is like the first person that I feel like I could have a really good discussion with about the church because she understands things really well and she doesn't get confused very easily. I really don't know what else happened this week, I'm sorry that this email is so lame. I forgot to write down the things that I have done during the week and that makes it nearly impossible to remember what happened. I'm in Kumasi right now for P-day. I'm excited about going out because I have been told that Central Market is pretty crazy. Hopefully all goes well. Well, next week's email will be a lot better. I love you all and hope that you have a great week!
Love Elder Kitchen
I hope that everything is going well back home in the States. Things are going pretty good over here in Ghana. We just do the same thing everyday over here. I wake up at 6:30 and then get ready for the day. We taught 40 lessons this week so we were pretty dang busy. One of our investigators told us this week that she prayed and heard a voice telling her that this is the true church so that was pretty sweet. She wants to be baptized but she wants to wait until October 29th because she wants to try and get her Mom to come with her. This sunday we introduced the members to the member missionary goal. They came up with 15 as the number of people that they want to have baptized by the end of the year. We only have like 30 people coming to church right now! It sounds like it is going to be difficult but hopefully it ends up being good. I'm pretty excited to see how it goes. One of our investigators that we taught on Sunday was awesome. She is like the first person that I feel like I could have a really good discussion with about the church because she understands things really well and she doesn't get confused very easily. I really don't know what else happened this week, I'm sorry that this email is so lame. I forgot to write down the things that I have done during the week and that makes it nearly impossible to remember what happened. I'm in Kumasi right now for P-day. I'm excited about going out because I have been told that Central Market is pretty crazy. Hopefully all goes well. Well, next week's email will be a lot better. I love you all and hope that you have a great week!
Love Elder Kitchen
Monday, September 12, 2011
September 12, 2011
Hey everybody!
So how are you all doing? My week has been pretty good. Let's see...what did I do this past week...So last P-day after I emailed all of you, I went and bought some Dr. Pepper and Coke because it was my 1 month mark! It was so amazing, I love American stuff. Then we went and taught one of our investigators named Emmanuel. He is like a 14 or 15 year old kid and we teach his 2 sisters and their one friend. It is going pretty sweet. He comes to church a lot and he has never had the lessons. He had just gotten a Book of Mormon from the old Elders and that was it. The next day was zone conference and that was pretty awesome, except for the 2 and a 1/2 hour car ride that we were extremely squished in the backseat of the Bennett's truck! We had four of us in the back. We got down to Kumasi and I met up with four of my good MTC friends. That was fun to see how they were doing. The main message from President was that we need to make sure we are obedient to all of the rules. After zone conference, we went and picked up our washer! It's pretty sweet to have a washer because we don't have to wash our stuff by hand like a lot of the others have to do. Then the ride back up was just as uncomfortable as the one coming down. Later that day, Elder Hernandez and I gave one of our members a blessing because she had been having some really bad head pains and the next day she was fine! That was pretty cool. On Thursday it rained a bunch so we couldn't really go out because all of Ghana shuts down when it rains. People won't let you teach them if it rains and taxi drivers even pull over and stop driving people around. After it stopped raining, we went and ate at a chop bar and I had some rice balls and ground nut soup. Not a huge fan of it, but I can eat it. On Friday, we went to go and see a cultural dance thing at the cultural center and it turns out that they decided not to dance that day. They just cancel things when they don't feel like doing it. So that day was just another normal day. On our way back to the apartment at night, there was a Pentacost church that were all praying in tongues. Over here, lots of people think that praying in tongues is yelling and screaming gibberish as much as they can. Satan has done a pretty good job here confusing the people here and distorting the doctrines of the Bible. You could just tell there was something not good about that place. Saturday, was a little crazy. I had to go on emergency splits with Elder Akpan because we needed people to stay at the apartment while it was getting fixed. I ended up teaching pretty much a whole lesson and that was pretty sweet. Then on Sunday, I had to give a talk. I prepared a fifteen minute talk in about an hour. That is something I couldn't have done a few months ago. All of the Elders wore their suits on sunday because we have air conditioning. We all looked awesome! We also gave three people callings. It feels pretty sweet sitting up in front of everybody because I feel like the bishop! It's pretty funny, but I would die if I actually was a bishop. We had a record number of people come to church! There were 32 people there this sunday. So that was my week. It wasn't too exciting but it was pretty sweet. I hope all is going well at home. I love you all and would love to keep hearing from you all! Until next week!
Elder Kitchen
So how are you all doing? My week has been pretty good. Let's see...what did I do this past week...So last P-day after I emailed all of you, I went and bought some Dr. Pepper and Coke because it was my 1 month mark! It was so amazing, I love American stuff. Then we went and taught one of our investigators named Emmanuel. He is like a 14 or 15 year old kid and we teach his 2 sisters and their one friend. It is going pretty sweet. He comes to church a lot and he has never had the lessons. He had just gotten a Book of Mormon from the old Elders and that was it. The next day was zone conference and that was pretty awesome, except for the 2 and a 1/2 hour car ride that we were extremely squished in the backseat of the Bennett's truck! We had four of us in the back. We got down to Kumasi and I met up with four of my good MTC friends. That was fun to see how they were doing. The main message from President was that we need to make sure we are obedient to all of the rules. After zone conference, we went and picked up our washer! It's pretty sweet to have a washer because we don't have to wash our stuff by hand like a lot of the others have to do. Then the ride back up was just as uncomfortable as the one coming down. Later that day, Elder Hernandez and I gave one of our members a blessing because she had been having some really bad head pains and the next day she was fine! That was pretty cool. On Thursday it rained a bunch so we couldn't really go out because all of Ghana shuts down when it rains. People won't let you teach them if it rains and taxi drivers even pull over and stop driving people around. After it stopped raining, we went and ate at a chop bar and I had some rice balls and ground nut soup. Not a huge fan of it, but I can eat it. On Friday, we went to go and see a cultural dance thing at the cultural center and it turns out that they decided not to dance that day. They just cancel things when they don't feel like doing it. So that day was just another normal day. On our way back to the apartment at night, there was a Pentacost church that were all praying in tongues. Over here, lots of people think that praying in tongues is yelling and screaming gibberish as much as they can. Satan has done a pretty good job here confusing the people here and distorting the doctrines of the Bible. You could just tell there was something not good about that place. Saturday, was a little crazy. I had to go on emergency splits with Elder Akpan because we needed people to stay at the apartment while it was getting fixed. I ended up teaching pretty much a whole lesson and that was pretty sweet. Then on Sunday, I had to give a talk. I prepared a fifteen minute talk in about an hour. That is something I couldn't have done a few months ago. All of the Elders wore their suits on sunday because we have air conditioning. We all looked awesome! We also gave three people callings. It feels pretty sweet sitting up in front of everybody because I feel like the bishop! It's pretty funny, but I would die if I actually was a bishop. We had a record number of people come to church! There were 32 people there this sunday. So that was my week. It wasn't too exciting but it was pretty sweet. I hope all is going well at home. I love you all and would love to keep hearing from you all! Until next week!
Elder Kitchen
Monday, September 5, 2011
September 5, 2011
Hey everybody!
It was nice to get all of the emails. All of the days over here are starting to blend together. We teach lessons all day and that's about it. I don't know if I've told you all this, but in Sunyani, the missionaries run the churches. We are the smallest place because we are a unit. Everybody else in Sunyani is a branch. Yesterday I conducted sacrament meeting! So that was a crazy experience. We also confirmed three new members and gave two of them the Aaronic Priesthood so yesterday was a pretty busy day. The people here are extremely nice, but that sometimes causes problems because they will just lie to your face because they don't want to make you mad. They will call us and tell us to meet them at a specific time and then they won't be there. They are all kind of flaky but they are very nice people. So I'm trying to think of the eventful things that happened this week...I stepped in a huge nasty thing of mujd and possible human waste the first time I wore my sandals. That was really gross because it smelled really bad and I wasn't able to clean it off until after our next two appointments. So it is still hot and very humid here and I guess it will only get hotter. I'm having to get used to the smell too. Africa is kind of a smelly place. I'm getting used to the food. I had a very good egg sandwich from some little street vendor. I could get used to eating that all of the time. I don't know if I said this last time but in my apartment, there is Elder Akpan from Nigeria, Elder Eldredge from Idaho, and my companion Elder Hernandez. I'm pretty lucky because we all get along really well. So I just remembered one thing that happened. I almost got hit by a car! The dang taxi was on the wrong side of the road and almost hit some other car so he had to swerve off of the road and he almost hit me. I had no clue what was going on so I didn't even move out of the way. Elder Hernandez was wondering how the car didn't hit me because it was so close. I need to get better organized with my thoughts. I'll tell you about one of my investigators. His name is Elijah and he is a really nice guy. We just introduced the Book of Mormon to him and it was way awesome to see his face. It just seemed liked something clicked for him and everything made sense to him. I love those parts of the lessons that we teach. We taught 24 lessons this past week and that was with half of the people failing their appointments. Sorry this email is so bad. I will make sure next weeks is a lot better. I love you all and keep sending me emails because I love them. Sorry if I don't respond sometimes. I get a little short on time here at the cafe. I love you all and can't wait to here from you next week!
Love, Elder Kitchen
It was nice to get all of the emails. All of the days over here are starting to blend together. We teach lessons all day and that's about it. I don't know if I've told you all this, but in Sunyani, the missionaries run the churches. We are the smallest place because we are a unit. Everybody else in Sunyani is a branch. Yesterday I conducted sacrament meeting! So that was a crazy experience. We also confirmed three new members and gave two of them the Aaronic Priesthood so yesterday was a pretty busy day. The people here are extremely nice, but that sometimes causes problems because they will just lie to your face because they don't want to make you mad. They will call us and tell us to meet them at a specific time and then they won't be there. They are all kind of flaky but they are very nice people. So I'm trying to think of the eventful things that happened this week...I stepped in a huge nasty thing of mujd and possible human waste the first time I wore my sandals. That was really gross because it smelled really bad and I wasn't able to clean it off until after our next two appointments. So it is still hot and very humid here and I guess it will only get hotter. I'm having to get used to the smell too. Africa is kind of a smelly place. I'm getting used to the food. I had a very good egg sandwich from some little street vendor. I could get used to eating that all of the time. I don't know if I said this last time but in my apartment, there is Elder Akpan from Nigeria, Elder Eldredge from Idaho, and my companion Elder Hernandez. I'm pretty lucky because we all get along really well. So I just remembered one thing that happened. I almost got hit by a car! The dang taxi was on the wrong side of the road and almost hit some other car so he had to swerve off of the road and he almost hit me. I had no clue what was going on so I didn't even move out of the way. Elder Hernandez was wondering how the car didn't hit me because it was so close. I need to get better organized with my thoughts. I'll tell you about one of my investigators. His name is Elijah and he is a really nice guy. We just introduced the Book of Mormon to him and it was way awesome to see his face. It just seemed liked something clicked for him and everything made sense to him. I love those parts of the lessons that we teach. We taught 24 lessons this past week and that was with half of the people failing their appointments. Sorry this email is so bad. I will make sure next weeks is a lot better. I love you all and keep sending me emails because I love them. Sorry if I don't respond sometimes. I get a little short on time here at the cafe. I love you all and can't wait to here from you next week!
Love, Elder Kitchen
Thursday, September 1, 2011
This is a letter sent to Elder Kitchen's Grandma from a senior couple that live by her and are serving in his mission.
Dear Pat—
What a fun surprise it was to hear that the new elder assigned to Sunyani was Elder Kitchen! Most of the transfers take place on Wednesday but because it is so far to get here we pick new elders up on Thursday. Elder Kitchen came with another experienced elder who was transferred from Cape Coast to sunyani with him. We
so miss the elders that leave Sunyani because we are somehow like a
family here, but it sweetened the loss to have Elder Kitchen come.
We picked him up this morning at the bus station after his bus trip to Sunyani from Kumasi. He seemed to be handling things well. At least he wasn’t crying and seemed to able to go with the flow. It is quite a cultural shock for a little while. That’s a lie it is a monumental cultural shock, but it doesn’t seem to take long for the elders to feel right at home. We took him and his companion shopping to buy a few things to eat. He had no idea what he should get but we all helped him out. In a few days he will know more what he really wants to eat and buy.
We then bought them some lunch and took them to their apartment. Which you will remember is part church.
We like to think, and we are quite
sure that it is only the elders that are the cream of the crop that are
assigned to Sunyani because of the things that they are asked to do, and
how far away they are from the mission home. In three
days he will be in church and will probably lead the singing, do the
sacrament, speak in church or teach the Sunday school lesson if not
more. Plus, since the church is so new there are really no
referrals from members which the missionaries in the others areas have
so many of, so here the elders just walk the area and contact or talk to
the people they meet and see if they can find people interested in
hearing the gospel message. It is truly a missions mission.
We are grateful that he is here. We need him in the Fiapre area of Sunyani.
He made it safely. The sunyani family will take good care of him.
Love, Marlene
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