December 28, 2011

Hey everybody!

 

It was so much fun to talk to all of you guys yesterday.  It was weird hearing all of your voices and knowing that you are actually alive even though it doesn't feel like it.  So I didn't really talk about what happened this week so I guess that I will just do that.  On Wednesday we went on splits with the zone leaders and that was a lot of fun.  I went with Elder Speechly and he is a really cool guy. So that was on Wednesday and then nothing really happened on Thursday.  Then on Friday we went down to Kumasi to have our Christmas party thing with the mission.  We had some talks and then an activity.  Lunch was really good and I had a massive piece of chicken that was a big as my face! Then we got to watch Forever Strong!  I really liked that movie before but I liked it even more I think because I haven't watched a movie in almost 5 months.  The best part of that day was trying to get back to Sunyani though.  The line at the bus station was huge so we decided to try and get a tro for all of us back up to Sunyani.  A little ways outside of Kumasi that tro broke down so we had to try and find another way back.  Luckily we were able to hire a bus to take us the rest of the way to Sunyani but it was an interesting adventure.  Getting back from Kumasi is always difficult for some reason.  We got back really late so we just got ready for bed and then went to sleep.  Christmas Eve was a pretty good day too.  One of the members fed us dinner and it was the best fufu and chicken that I have ever had! The chicken seemed like it was boneless chicken from back home.  The soup was perfect too.  Then we went to a baptism and after that we all went to the Eusbett and ate pizza as a zone.  It was a pretty good Christmas Eve. Then on Sunday we had church and then we waited until I could call home.  It was a pretty good week and I had a lot of fun talking to you guys.  I'm glad everthing is okay and always keep me updated! I love you all and talk to you next week! :)

 

Love Elder Kitchen

 

 

December 19, 2011

Hey everybody!

 

Dang, I am just freezing my butt off right now. This vodafone cafe has way nice air conditioning! So this week has been pretty good.  Today has probably been the best part so far.  I'll tell you more about today later on though.  So we have been teaching some good investigators.  One of my favorite is probably a guy named Frank. He is a teacher at a school and he is very smart.  I love going to teach him because he always reads everything that we leave him and he understands it very well.  We have been teaching him the plan of salvation right now. We are trying to start to teach his wife as well and that would be sweet because I don't really teach a lot of families here.  This Friday was a lot of fun because it was different.  We had to go and get our bikes that were getting fixed at the repair shop so I ended up going with Elder Eldredge to get them.  Then we had to ride them out to some place and it was really far because Elder Eldredge had to do a baptism interview.  Then we rode all of the way back to Fiapre and I was dying by that point.  It was a lot of fun though. Then we stopped at Lizzy's Fried Rice and then I switched back with Elder Belnap.  Then we went and taught some sweet lessons so it was a lot of fun.  A lot of our investigators are leaving for a month because they are students and they are on break now.  So we have to find some new investigators.  Saturday was just normal.  We went to the baptism that was happening at Nkwabeng and that was good. Then on Sunday I conducted sacrament meeting in Twi and English because we had a member write down what to say in Twi. I did terrible but the members were happy.  Then I helped in primary and we taught them how to make paper snowflakes and we helped them write Christmas cards.  So that was my last week. So today has been awesome because we are in Kumasi right now.  We came down and played a big football match.  It was a lot of fun to see everybody there.  Then we just talked with a bunch of people for a while.  It was sweet to see Elder Francom there because he went to Viewmont too!  It was weird seeing a familiar face.  Now we are just emailing at the sweet vodafone cafe and then we are going to go and shop around in Kumasi for fun.  I'm not looking forward to the drive back up though....it's just too long, especially when you are riding in a dang tro!  haha.  So I have been having fun.  It hasn't felt like Christmas yet so I haven't been homesick or anything.  I'll bet I would be if it were snowing and they were celebrating Christmas like we did.  So I hope everybody has a great week! I'm excited to talk to everybody! Whoever wants to talk just go over to Mom or Dad's house and Christmas and we'll all talk! Talk to ya soon!

 

Love Elder Kitchen

December 12, 2011

Hello!

 

How is everything going?  We had a pretty good week over here.  It started off with me giving the instruction at District Meeting.  I did it on Jacob chapter 5, the allegory of the olive tree.  I had a lot of fun with it even though I probably made myself more confused in the end. Haha.  Then the rest of the week was left with mainly teaching lessons.  The things that used to be funny or weird here are now completely normal so it is sometimes hard to think of fun or crazy experiences.  I run around chasing goats and roosters and scaring them.  I also get yelled at by little kids all of the time because I'm white. Haha.  A lot of people say, "White man, how are you?" So I say "Black man, I'm fine."  It's funny because it sounds weird but it's completely normal to them.  Maybe I can think of some other fun things to tell you while we are talking on the phone.  This Saturday I finished the Book of Mormon again.  So that was the second time I have finished it since I have been out here.  I read quite a bit this last week just for fun.  I love the part towards the end of Alma where Moroni send Ammaron an epistle and talks about how if he doesn't stop then he's going to hunt them down and kill them. Ha! He is just such a stud. It's going to be sweet to meet him someday.  Then sunday was pretty good because President and Sister Shulz were able to come to our church for sacrament meeting then we went and had a district meeting where President instructed and it was awesome.  I love being able to see President and Sister Shulz because they hardly ever come up here because they are so far away.  We were so hungry after though because we hadn't been able to eat since morning so we went back to eat but the problem was that we had run out of propane for the stove the night before so we had to cook on a little charcoal African stove thing.  Today has been a good day as well so far.  We ate fufu today for lunch and it was really good.  The chicken was delicious too.  So that was my week. I hope everything is going well.  I love all of you and hope you are having a wonderful Christmas time! :)

 

Love Elder Kitchen

Sam eating pizza!!!  He looks so happy. :)

December 5, 2011

Hey everybody!

What's going on back home?  Africa is just the same as it has been for the last four months.  The beginning of the week was sweet because we watched conference on Tuesday during district meeting.  We watched the sunday morning session of this last conference.  I loved watching it this year.  I don't know why I used to complain while I watched it.  Then the rest of the week was pretty normal.  We just taught some lessons and stuff but we were a little more busy because we were trying to make sure that we had the two people that were getting baptized ready.  Luckily we got them both ready and everything went great.  So we were able to baptize both of those investigators and it was really sweet.  I love being able to see the change that happens in their lives when they learn about the gospel.  I can honestly say that they always just seem so much happier when they accept it and begin to live it.  It is so sweet!  Friday was fun too because Elder Eldredge and I went on splits and that was our first time doing that since I have been to Ghana.  We both came up to Sunyani together so we have been in the same apartment for a while.  We had a lot of fun especially when we decided to get pizza for lunch! It was so good!  I miss having pizza a lot back home.  I just miss good food in general. haha.  But I guess I would say that the highlight of my week was the baptism.  Church was stressful though because there were only about 5 people there when we started and by the end there were 22 people but about 14 of them were kids!  Sometimes it's really difficult to get people to come to church on time...let alone at all.  The work is still going though and we are doing our best and that's all we can do.  The rest is out of our hands.  So my week was good but stressful.  It sounds like everybody got hit pretty hard with a storm!  I hope everybody is okay.  If I was in freezing cold weather with wind right now I think that I would die because I don't think I've been in a temperature below like 80 degrees since like May or June!  I'm going to have a difficult time the first winter that I get back.  I won't miss the sweating though.  Honestly, I smell terrible all of the time.  haha. Well, I hope everybody is doing well! I love you guys a lot!  Have a great week and be safe!

Love Elder Kitchen