July 30, 2012

Hey everybody!  

It was just another great week here in Swedru, Ghana and I'm lovin' it!  I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now! :)  This week we went on splits with both the AP's and the Zone leaders and it was great.  I think on Thursday we went up to a small village a little bit away from Swedru where our 2nd counselor lives.   The 1st counselor drove us up in his car and we taught a few different people..  It was nice teaching up in a quite and calm place far away from all of the noise of Swedru.  It's been a while since I've been able to teach in an environment like that.  The people that we met up there were all really nice and hopefully will progress.  Daniel came to church again this week and gave a lot of really good contributions.  It was great to see him like that.  I can't wait to see him progress in the gospel.  Hopefully we can start teaching his wife soon so that she can be coming to church with him. So today we went to Cape and had an activity.  It was cool because I was able to see a lot of the missionaries that I haven't seen in a while.  One Elder came up to me and asked me if I remembered teaching a guy named Opoku Daniel.  I'm sure you guys don't remember but he was a guy that I started teaching with Elder Hernandez and he was really smart but he just didn't have time.  Then he told me that Daniel had moved down to his area and has been coming to church and is going to be getting baptized this next week.  It was really cool because it helped me realized that my job as a missionary won't always be to just baptize people but to introduce them to the gospel and maybe sometime later in their life they will accept it and live it in their life.  This was one that didn't take too long but it makes me feel better about all of the people that I've taught that haven't been baptized that there will be more chances if the Lord has truely prepared that person to recieve the gospel.  So that was my cool story for the week. Everything is going well here and I'm happy!  Have a great week everybody!

Love Elder Kitchen

July 23, 2012

Hey everybody!

So this week was kind of slow at first but it ended up being a really good week.  This weekend at the church they organized a couples night for the adults and they invited us missionaries to be there because they were hoping to have lots of non-members at the event. We showed up and it was pretty small at first but a lot of people ended up coming to it.  They just did a small class thing first and Elder Moore and I had to make it so all of the kids that were there didn't disturb.  We turned into babysitters for about an hour and I was sweating pretty hard the whole time. Those little ones were stressing me out!  Then they all came back outside and had a big dinner and it was a lot of fun.  Some of our investigators came and we also ended up getting about 20 names and numbers of people that were there that we could call to try and go teach!  Hopefully the members that brought them will actually help us though.  Then on Sunday we had our branch conference and there were quite a lot of people that came.  We were also able to get some referrals there as well so we should be doing pretty well when it comes to having people to teach.  I wanted to try and think of something funny that happened this week but I don't really notice weird things anymore. Everyday seems to be an adventure when you are a missionary in the Ghana Cape Coast mission! haha.  So...another week down and I'm still livin'. I'm happy and having a great time here in Ghana!  I love all you guys back home! Have a great week!

Love Elder Kitchen

p.s. Go to lds.org and read the story about Elder Holland in Africa...I liked it. :D

July 16, 2012

Hey everybody!

This week seemed to have just flown by.  I can't believe that it is already halfway through July now.  It sounds like you guys had a pretty fun week with everybody up and around for the week.  Last Tuesday is when we ended up having the family home evening with the Mensah family as well as Eric and Mercy.  It was really good and I think it helped Eric and Mercy a lot.  Oh yeah, we also saw a guy get hit by a car that day too!  Luckily he was okay and the guy who hit him took him to the hospital.  I just looked back and saw him flying off of the street right about where we were.  It was crazy.  Then Wednesday we had a combined district meeting and President came and instructed.  He talked a lot about why we use the Book of Mormon in our teaching and how important it is.  I liked the instruction a lot.  Then on Thursday is when we had a lesson with Mercy and her two kids.  Eric wasn't able to be there this time.  We ended up asking them if they would like to be baptized at the end of this month and they accepted so hopefully everything works out with them!  Later in the week we had a really good lesson with Daniel and talked to him about the Restoration and about being baptized.  He said that he would pray about when he would like to be baptized.  Mercy with her two kids and also Daniel came to church this week and it was great to see them there.  I'm really excited for these next couple of weeks because we should be having a few baptisms.  I'll just keep you updated with them I guess.  So that's it with my week really.  Everything is still the same with me.  So until next week I guess!  

Love Elder Kitchen

July 9, 2012

What's up fam!?

How was the week!? That's awesome to hear the Noah was born this week!  I wish that I could see them. Also, thanks for the pictures of both Noah and Penny this week. It was great to see them both.  My week was just another average week.  Lately I've felt a little overwhelmed with all of the people we have been teaching because there have just been too many of them.  I know, you'll probably just roll your eyes at that one but we are trying to figure out which of them are serious and usually most aren't. The members have been trying to work together lately to help us and that has been nice.  The work always goes better when we have their help.  I was sad to miss fireworks this last week.  Elder Moore and I went and split a pizza for the 4th of July and it was really good. Mostly because of the cheese...it was expensive though.  We have a few investigators that are progressing well.  Hopefully they will continue to do that. Eric, Mercy, and their kids came to church yesterday and we are going to have a joint family home evening with them and another family in the branch tonight.  So that's kind of it...it was great to hear from you all this week. Have a great week and I'll be waiting to hear about everything next week.  

Love Elder Kitchen

July 2, 2012

Hey everybody!

That's awesome news that Penny came this week!  I wish that I could have seen some pictures! ;)  but that's okay. Haha. Maybe next week. It also sounds like next week I should be expecting Noah so that's really cool.  So this last week was pretty good.  Tuesday was district meeting and Elder Bush gave a really good instruction on personal revelation.  We were all sharing stories about how we have feel the Lord's hand in our missionary work so far and it was really good.  Afia has been progressing really well and says that she knows that what we are teaching is true but she said that she needs a little bit of time, especially to tell her family because they aren't members.  Hopefully it keeps going well.  Wednesday the zone leaders came on splits with us and it was sweet.  All of our appointments failed but we talked to and met a lot of people that day.  This week hasn't been crazy or anything but it's just been normal.  I woke up on Sunday and I couldn't believe that it is July.  Last July felt like it was just yesterday!  Time really does fly when you are out here.  People aren't kidding.  Life is going well though.  I feel like lately I've really started to love the people a lot more then before.  I think that has just come with time I guess.  It's so awesome though.  I really love Ghana even though it's a freakin' crazy place.  The mission officially split on Sunday too so that was sad because Elder Hunt and Elder Larsen are up there.  Today we had a fun activity in cape coast and we played football on the beach and frisbee as well.  I hurt my ankle but luckily it only hurts if I move it a lot. If I just walk then there are no problems.  Everything else is sweet though.  Just pushing along with the work!  I love you guys! Have a great week everybody!

Love Elder Kitchen