April 29, 2013

Hey Everybody!

I'm kind of scatter brained right now with some stuff I've had to deal with today, so let me see if I can try to remember what happened this last week.  So as for our area, it's gotten very small because now we are just in charge of just Branch 2 in Praso.  The area is pretty small and we have a very small membership with quite a few less actives.  We've been trying to work go around and find out where they all live so that we can visit them all.  The problem with finding peoples houses is there are no such things as addresses.  Unless somebody takes you there, you will never find it!  We were able to meet some people that we had never met before and we found a few investigators in the process.  The stressful thing lately is that is seems like I have no time to think about my area.  On Thursday we left in the early afternoon to Assin Foso for a meeting with the stake presidency so we weren't able to proselyte in our area and then on Saturday as well, we had to organized the baptism for some elders in our zone that were having baptisms and so Saturday was also spent doing other things.  The leaders in our branch are great though. They are working hard and making effective plans which is very rare over here. It will just take some time for the branch to stabilize and then grow.  Most likely I'll be leaving in a month though....(I'm just guessing but I think I'll be right. ;) )  Yesterday was a nice day because we were just able to relax and we didn't do too much.  Elder Brown (from Australia) and I bought 2 liters of ice cream each and have been enjoying it. I've been seeing the stuff for the past 20 months but I've just never bought it. It's strawberry and it's so delicious! Today we came down to Abura (Cape Coast) and had our district meeting the the six Sisters in our zone.  They have their own district meetings every week because they are so far from us and so either my companion and I go to it or the assistants go every week.  Now I get to look forward to another 1 hour tro tro ride back to Praso.  Well, I guess I better get going.  Have a great week everybody!  I love you all!

Love Elder Kitchen

April 23, 2013

Hey everybody!

This week has been a little busy but also really great!  Wednesday was transfer so we had to deal with all of the people coming and going from our zone and then I got my new companion, Elder Kariuki from the station.  He's from Kenya and he has been out for about 18 months. He's a quite guy and he's really cool.  The rest of the week I was mainly just showing him around our area.  Now that Elder Oseghe is going to be in Nuamakrom, I won't be going there expect on splits so it is no longer a part of our area.  It took out a big chunk of our area but it will help us to focus on helping the branch to progress.  On Sunday we had a great meeting with the branch leaders.  We all talked about the different things that we need to be doing to bring up the activity in the church.  We're really starting to work more as a team then we were before. I feel like it makes it so much more effective when we work with them because it is their branch and we are pretty much just visitors.  During the weekend, we went to the Relief Society President's house and her daughter was visiting from Kumasi with her kids and I found out that Elder Belnap is serving in her branch and she knows him really well. She even called him to say hello while I was there. It was fun to see how he is doing because ever since the mission split, I don't really know how he is doing.  The lady's name is Sister Leticia.  Last night she invited us over for a little FHE and she made cake and it was so delicious.  Her little kid is not easy to handle though!  During church this week, I was just barely able to escape with a few scratches and only one bite mark! Haha.  I swear, there is always at least one kid who wants to attack me at church in all of my areas.  Sister Leticia felt really bad but I just laughed.  It was pretty funny.  Well, I guess we'll talk next week! Have a great week everybody!

Love Elder Kitchen

April 16, 2013

Hey everybody! 

This week has been pretty sweet!  The baptism with the family in Nuamakrom went on so we achieved our family goal with just two weeks to spare! The baptism was actually pretty interesting though. So we got to Nuamakrom and we went to pick up the family in the little village that they live.  When we were about halfway there a huge storm came in and it started to pour!  We ran and took cover under some lean-to shack type thing and then waited until it wasn't raining as hard. Luckily I was wearing my sandals because we had to walk through a lot of water.  We finally got to there house and I was worried that because of the rain they would have thought that the baptism wasn't going to come on.  When we got there, the whole family was inside of their small house ready to go!  I was completely soaked by that time but it was okay.  We waited until the rain stopped and then walked down the very muddy road to the church.  It's the first time since I've come out that I've seen a full family come into the church like this. Then on Sunday they all came to church early to be confirmed. :)  So on Saturday we received transfer news and my companion is training a new missionary for his last two transfers out in Nuamakrom and I will have a new companion named Elder Kariuki from Kenya.  I'm really excited about everything...even though I expect to be leaving in about 6 weeks... ;)  I'll be in Praso for Mother's Day when I call home though.  Yesterday, on P-day, I made a pizza and it was so awesome!  I had to make a make shift oven with two frying pans and a lid.  I bought cheese, which was very expensive but worth it. It actually tasted pretty close to the way they do back home.  So this week should be interesting with transfers and everything.  I'm really excited though. Well, have a great week everybody!  

Love Elder Kitchen  

April 8, 2013

Hey everybody!

This week we were very focused out in Nuamakrom because there is a family that we are teaching that will hopefully be baptized soon. We have a goal in the mission to baptize a family and so we are hoping that they will be baptized at the end of the month to achieve the goal.  On Saturday we went out to Nuamakrom and then walked to a little village outside there called Afosua and met up with the family early in the morning. None of them really speak english but we still went out to their farm with them and helped them with some palm nut stuff and also their rice farm.  Their boy who is about 14 was showing me how to catch mud crabs in rice farm.  Where the rice is it's really wet so they dig small holes and it fills with water and then the crabs go there so that they can reach their hands in and catch.  I was so exhausted but it was so much fun.  The mother and father weren't able to come to church on Sunday because they had to protect the rice from birds but their three older kids came to church.  Sunday we went to both Nuamamkrom church and Praso church because Praso is going to church at noon now.  I'm still hoping that they will be putting missionaries in Nuamakrom but I'm not sure if it will happen until May now.  Everything else is going well and I'm happy.  I'm tired right now because we played soccer for our activity today so I'm going to go and get some rest. I love you guys!

Elder Kitchen

April 2, 2013

Hey everybody! 

I just had another normal week.  Easter was fun but it sure is a lot different then it is at home. The people where I am didn't really seem to celebrate it much even compared to last year in Sunyani.  This week we were pretty busy trying to get the baptism prepared and everything to go smoothly.  I ended up coming down to Cape Coast so that I could do an interview for the Sisters because they were having a baptism.  Saturday was the baptism and it went smoothly.  I still really love that village, Nuamakrom.  The people there are just so simple but so nice and genuine.  It's weird to think about their lives there compared to our lives back home and what we feel like is important compared to what they think is important.   It's a whole different world there.  Sunday we also went to Nuamakrom for church.   We even met the bishops son who is not a member because he has been living away from home for a while but he knows a lot about the church and wants us to teach him.  Yesterday was a public holiday for Easter so the church in Praso had game and activities at the  church in the morning so we went and played some games and stuff with the members.  This coming week is going to be a busy one. I don't even think I'll have enough time to really even be in my area.  We are going to be traveling quite a bit and next week will probably be similar.  I'm getting really tired of traveling because it's the most uncomfortable way of traveling here.  You get packed into a tiny van the has more seats then it's supposed to and then you go over extremely bumpy roads and the van has no shocks so it just shakes the whole time. Haha.  It's always an adventure getting in one of those things.  So life is going well...I can't believe it's April already. The months just keep flying by! Well everybody, have a great week! 

Love Elder Kitchen