August 12, 2013

Hey everybody!

Well, I can't believe that I am writing you my last email as a missionary.  I can't really describe the way I feel right now. I'm so excited but at the same time, I feel like I am going to be leaving my home behind again.  It seems like everyday I go through feelings of just wanting to be finished and then there are other times where I feel like I just don't want to leave. I've been so lucky to be able to finish my mission where I have in Sofokrom.  It is such a great place and the people here are amazing. It's the first time that I've served in a larger ward and so it's taken some of the other stresses away that I've had to deal with in other areas.  I feel like I've learned the most from these last four months or so.  This last week or so has been difficult to keep my mind here. Especially because my ministerial card that I carry with me expired on the 5th! (I'm proselyting illegally! ;)...)  This last week was focused a lot on baptisms, which did help me stay focused. I had to do quite a few interviews for those in my district and so I was really busy going to different places to do that and then also we were having a baptism as well.  The one we were baptizing did so well. She was even teaching the relief society how to make meat pies at the church a day before her baptism and so she is getting very involved with the members.  Some of the members and also I have been encouraging her to think about serving a mission as well because I know it would help her out so much and it would really bless her life.  She comes from a pretty poor family and she's been lucky to be receiving a high school education.

So now, I just have a little bit over a week left until I'm on a plane.  This week is going to be a fun week.  I'm really looking forward to the time that I'm going to be able to spend with those in my ward. We are going to be having the All-Africa service project on this Saturday and then throughout the week we'll be having some other random activities.  Then next Monday I'll be over to the mission home in Cape Coast and then Tuesday we'll go through the temple and then I'll be on my way to the airport.  I still can't believe it is time for me to come home.  It almost doesn't even feel real.  Well, I love you guys and thank you all for the support that you have shown me over these last two years.  You've helped me to have an experience that has changed my life and also many others lives as well. Can't wait to see you all next week!

Love Elder Kitchen

p.s. Can't wait for some awesome American food!!! :D

August 5, 2013

Hey everybody!

I've had another great week.  We are moving closer to my last baptism which should be this coming Saturday.  We have had lot of people that have started progressing really well. We had another new person come to church on Sunday and so we had five investigators come to church.  I'm pretty sure of all of them being baptized but it just depends on when they will get baptized. Most of them are probably going to be in September or something.  I've been really lucky lately because we haven't been having to do a lot of finding. It's just been a lot of member referrals and we are so busy with them that we don't have to go around contacting or anything which I don't really enjoy doing.  A girl that we are teaching named Jennifer took us and introduced us to her older sister who lives not too far away and we are going to start teaching her this coming week.  Hopefully if the sister starts coming to church then Jennifer's parents will start letting Jennifer come with her older sister.  This week I'll be pretty busy because I have to do quite a few baptism interviews for other missionaries throughout the week and so I'll be all over the place.  Today is my two year mark which is pretty weird because I'm still here...with two more weeks...haha. My ministerial card even says that it expires today.  It's all good though. I won't ever have this experience again and so two extra weeks is okay with me. Well,  I don't really know what else to say...hope all is well! Talk to you next week...for maybe the last time in Ghana! Love you all!

Elder Kitchen

July 29, 2013

Hey what's up everybody!

Another week has come and gone.  This week it was a lot of fun to be in Sofokrom because they were having a festival thing and so they had activities in the town all week and everybody was around and were having a lot of fun.  Serving in such a small place is pretty cool because you almost get to become part of the community.  The people always love to see two white guys in ties walking around while they are doing all of their activities.  Sometimes it was difficult to teach because the whole town was over watching the football match at the park but good thing missionary work isn't all just about teaching.  One of our investigators was playing the in the football tournament and so it was fun to watch him play and he was excited that we were there. We were also able to talk to a lot of other people and get to know them.  I wish that I could have served the two years with the knowledge that I know now.  The members continue to keep helping us and pretty much all of those that we are teaching came from members.  Members should really be in front when it comes to missionary work because that's when real growth will happen. I think almost all of the people that I have baptized on my mission, almost all of them came as member referrals.  When the work is like that, it's a lot more fun and also successful.  One reason why I have loved being in Ghana is because the missionary work and relationships are a little different here.  I feel like you are allowed to get a lot closer with the members here then you would in other places. I'm going to always remember the relationships that I had with investigators and members here. I was allowed to be myself a lot more and just get to know and love the people.  This week we had six investigators come to church and hopefully one of the six will be baptized before I go.  The one that we are going to baptize on August 10th is pretty much a member already.  She calls herself one and she comes to all of the activities. She's progressed really well and also really fast.  On Sunday after church, the chief organized a big non-denominational service at the football pitch and so all of the members and us as well as a lot of people from Sofokrom all were at the park. I don't really know what happened but it was fun. haha.  Some of the activities seemed a lot like a church in the south.  It was a lot of fun though.  Today we came and played basketball for our activity and I said goodbye to some of the elders that were there because I probably won't see most of them again because they won't be meeting together again until after I leave.  It's going to be sad to say bye to a lot of these people because most of them I will never see them again.  I always thought that I would feel so excited when I was coming back but the only thing that is making me have a desire to come home is family.  If I didn't have anybody back home...I wouldn't want to leave.  I'm really going to miss this place. Well, I guess I'll just talk to you all next week!  

Love Elder Kitchen

July 22, 2013

Hey everybody!

It was just a pretty normal week this last week.  We have been working hard to try and get a good number of people to teach and it's been working pretty well.  We were able to give a baptismal date to one girl for the 10th of August and then she also came to church on Sunday. She likes us to go and teach her almost everyday and so she has been able to progress really fast and she is even planning on going to a lot of the young single adult activites with some of the friends that she has made in the ward.  Another guy came to church for the fourth time in a row as well and he will probably get baptized soon but the problem is that we can't meet him very often and his comprehension is kind of slow because he doesn't understand english too well. Whenever we teach him, it is always with one of our members so that they can translate.  He's a really nice guy though and he continues to progress.  Our relationship with the members keeps getting better.  I'm going to be really sad to leave them because they are all becoming such good friends to me.  I've spent such a short time hear but I feel like we have been able to work with the members better than I have in any other area.  So that's what's happening right now with me.  I'm just really trying to keep pushing hard to the end.  Well, I can't think of much more to say and so I guess I'll just talk to you all next week! 

Love Elder Kitchen 

July 15, 2013

How's it going everybody!?

This past week was our transfers and so the two other elders in our apartment left on transfer and the zone leaders moved in. They are Elder Boakye from Ghana and Elder Brown for Australia (Brown was in my apartment in Praso).  All of the transfers were a success, but it really didn't affect us too much.  I had to start back into the district leader stuff by doing an interview on Friday. I actually enjoy doing baptism interviews because I get to meet the people that the missionaries have taught and are wanting to be baptized.  We've been teaching a girl almost everyday for the last week and she came to church which makes it the third time in a row now. She used to be a Muslim, but now she wants to be a Christian.  She is progressing really well and the ward members are fellow shipping her as well.  We ended up having a baptism this week for a guy named Clement.  He's been coming to church for a while now and so it was good for him to finally be able to get baptized.  We had three investigators come to church on Sunday...two of them it was their third time and then the other one it was his first time. The members have been doing well with bringing people to church.  All three of them have come because of members referrals. The best way to do missionary work is certainly with the members.  I think almost all of my success has come through working with the members. I'm happy that I am being able to serve in an area that has a good solid foundation of members that are able to help us.  It makes the work so much more effective.  Now that I'm on my final transfer...the weeks just seem to be going a little bit too fast. I can't believe that it is almost over.  I'm still loving every second of it though.  Today all of the new guys were talking about food from home and it make me a little bit more excited to come home! ;) haha I'm just kidding. I've actually been eating really well lately. Last night, I cut up some potatos into cubes and then boiled chicken and cut it into chunks and then fried them together and ate it with ketchup. It was so good. Even if you add ramen noodles to it, it becomes like a stir fry thing.  I'm just making the most out of what I have. :)  Well, I think that's about it for this week.  I'll talk to you guys later! 

Love Elder Kitchen

July 1, 2013

Hey everybody!

So this week I luckily feel a lot better than I did last week. We played some basketball at the Stake Center but I took ibuprofen halfway through so now I don't have a headache! :)  So this week we had a mission conference on Wednesday and it was a lot of fun. I was able to see a bunch of people that I haven't seen in a while and for some of them, it will probably be the last time that I see them again which was kind of sad. The meeting went really well though and I got my flight plans!!! haha pretty crazy to see that.  I'm not sure but I think you were also supposed to have it Mom, so hopefully you have it and have forwarded and stuff. If not, I'm flying through London, then Dallas and then I'll be getting to Utah by about 5:05 pm.  Pretty crazy that I have a plane ticket in my name now.  Not that I'm thinking a lot about that or anything... ;)  Don't worry, I'm still working hard.  My companion was still not feeling too great so we had to take it easy for the rest of the week and on Saturday we weren't even able to go out which was no fun.  Sunday we had our Ward Conference and it went really well. We had a new investigator come to church and so hopefully she will start to progress. One of our members invited her. We're still working hard on somebody named Jennifer. She's really smart and wants to come to church but her parents aren't letting her right now so hopefully soon that will change. We're trying to work on that situation.  This week is the last week of this transfer and then next Wednesday I will begin my final transfer. It's so crazy to think about but everything still feels the same.  I still have some time where I can make a difference though so I'll keep pushing hard.  It's like the third period...just a few minutes to go. :)  Well, talk to ya'll next week!

Love Elder Kitchen

June 24, 2013

Greetings everybody!

I hope you all had a good week!  Mine was pretty normal I guess you could say. My companion wasn't feeling well the end of the week so we just did a lot of sitting around which was pretty boring, but we had to do it so that he could start to feel better.  To be honest...it was kind of one of those weeks that's really hard to come up with what happened.  One funny thing that happened during the week involved a mouse in our apartment.  We've been seeing him every now and again since we got there but we could never catch him.  Then in the morning, Elder Moffitt found it hiding in some extra room that we don't use and so I grabbed the cutlass, trying to be the big tough guy and I said that I would kill him. But of course, when the mouse jumped out of his hiding place and ran straight for my feet, I jumped in the air and screamed like a little girl and then I jumped up onto a chair.  We started chasing the mouse around the apartment but he kept getting away.  The little guy was just too dang fast.  We ended up losing him and so we were pretty ticked.  Luckily the next night, I heard a scuffle in the kitchen and ran into see what was going on. As I arrived at the door, I saw one of the elders standing there and he had his foot on the mouse. It tried to get away again but then he crushed the little annoying guy. So that was the last of little Jerry.  So....that's really all I can think about...Today we came to Takoradi and played soccer and now I have a headache because it's so dang hot here. haha.  Well, life's good and everything is still going well.  I can't believe that next Monday will be in July....time is just flying by. Well, talk to you guys next week!

Love Elder Kitchen

p.s. sorry if this email just has a lot of random stuff that doesn't make sense...my head hurts right now...