October 31, 2011 ~ Sweetness

What's up everybody?

How is everything going?  This week was pretty sweet.  I'll start with last Tuesday.  That day was our p-day and after we did everything in town and stuff, we came back and made some barbeque chicken that the Bennett's had left us and it was really good. Then for dessert, we all pitched in and Elder Eldredge made us some brownies, they were so delicious!  The next day was just full of lessons. We had some good lessons with Harriett and with Vivian.  Harriett is really awesome, but we aren't really able to teach her very often.  Vivian is the one who we baptized this last Saturday.  I started reading the Book of Mormon a week and a half ago or so and I'm in about Alma chapter 45 or something.  I really love that book!  It has the sweetest stories in it!  Then the next day, I went on splits with Elder Obasi because Elder Eldredge had to go and interview Vivian for the baptism.  That day was sweet because I was playing the leader because it was my area and I actually felt like I did pretty good.  Then Sister Affiah made us some dinner and I don't really know what it was called.  It was plantains and some sauce stuff.  It was pretty good.  Then on Friday, the Zoll's came up.  They are the couple missionaries down in Kumasi and they are awesome!  They bought us pizza and talked to us about how they are the ones who we call for emergencys now and stuff.  It was a really sweet day.  Then on Saturday, we had my first baptism!  It was a really sweet experience.  Vivian is such a nice lady and one of our strongest members now.  After that, our day went downhill and everybody was failing their appointments.  So during dinner, Elder Hernandez and I carved watermelons for Halloween!  We couldn't find pumpkins so we just stuck to watermelons.  It actually worked really well.  Then on sunday, I gave another talk and then I confirmed Vivian during church.  I was really nervous to do it because it was my first time.  Then that night, Vivian called us and told us to come over so we did and she was making us fufu.  It was really good. I also have to say that I ate every part of the chicken that was given to me...spine and all. Haha you guys are all more picky then I am now!  and for dessert we came back to the apartment and made brownies again.  So that was my week.  It was pretty sweet and I had a lot of fun.  I hope that you all are good back home!  I'm praying for you guys all the time!  I love you and talk to you next week! 

Love Elder Kitchen

Elder Hernandez, Vivian, and Elder Kitchen at Vivian's Baptism

Elder Kitchen and Winnefred (little girl that we are teaching her older brother)

Elder Kitchen and Phillip the watermelon (no pumpkins available)

October 25, 2011

Hey everybody!

This week was a pretty good week.  This has been a long but good week. I'll just start from the beginning.  Last tuesday at district meeting, the Bennett's left us a bunch of their food because they had no need for it so we just all split it up.  I got some peanut butter, cream of chicken soup, and some other good stuff.  It has been really nice but it is pretty much all gone now.  Then we had family night at the church on Wednesday and that was fun.  We taught them popcorn popping on the apricot tree this week.  It is really funny to see all
of these people singing these songs and doing the actions.  Thursday was just a boring day...pretty much everybody failed their appointments and it was just extrememly hot.  On Thursday, we went to teach Vivian in the morning and she surprised us with a bunch of Banku that she made for us. It was a little better this time, but it is still not my favorite.  It was with a tomato and onion sauce.  It also had sardines in it. It was my first time eating sardines and they really weren't that bad.  She is such a nice lady.  Her baptism is on this Saturday so that will be my first baptism.  We were suppossed to have more people baptized on Saturday but they have just stopped progressing so we are going to have to work on them a little bit more. The next day at night, we were teaching some people and we were pretty far away from the appartment and it started to pour.  It was about 9:00 at night so we waited for a little while, but we just decided to go because it kept getting worse.  So we were running back in the dark from the middle of the African bush while all of the dirt roads had turned to rivers.  It was so much fun!  We got completely soaked.  Luckily I was wearing my sandals and not my normal shoes. There was so much water everywhere!  Then we had church the next day and that went good.  I conducted sacrament meeting and I also gave a talk.  My talk was on exaltation so it probably went in one ear and out of the other for everybody in the audience but I had a good time. My talk was 20 minutes long and it only took about a half hour to prepare it.  Then yesterday, we went down to Kumasi for a zone conference where a member of the quorum of the seventy was there to talk to us.  His name was Elder Gavarret.  It was really cool to have him there.  The main point that I got out of the whole thing was that we need to be able to use the Book of Mormon better when we teach.  It was really long though.  It went from 10:00 AM- 4:15 PM.  I was really tired, then we had to get in a bus for another two and a half hours back up to Sunyani so I was really tired.  So that was my week.  I also got a package from Grandma Jensen when I was down in Kumasi. Thanks Grandma, I love you!  Well, I hope everybody has a good week this week!  I love you all!

Love Elder Kitchen

Elder Kitchen and Elder Hernandez with Elder Gavarret (member
of the 70) and his wife.

 

October 17, 2011

Hey!

This week was a pretty good week.  Since last week it was transfers and stuff we now have a completely transformed zone.  This week something sad happened. :(  The Bennett's had to leave because of some medical stuff.  They are fine but the mission sent them home because they didn't want anything to happen while they were here.  It's sad because the Bennett's did so much for us missionaries and now we don't really know what to do.  We cleaned out the a room that had a bunch of the landlords stuff in it so we could have enough room to have a primary class.    It was so dang hot this week.  I swear, when you are standing in the sun it feels so dang miserable.  It is one of the worst feelings that I have ever had.  We went to a baptism at Nkwabeng this week.  It was the zone leaders who baptized four people.  It went really good.  That same day, we went to a members house and we did some service for her. We did some weeding in her garden so she made us some Banku and Okra stew.  I guess you could say that it was not my favorite.  When it comes to African food....I'll stick with fufu.  In church this week I taught the priesthood class.  It went really good.  One of our really awesome investigators is named Harriet.  We only teach her on sundays because she is so busy.  She is really smart and the most organized Ghanain I have ever met.  We just taught her about the Book of Mormon and it went really well.  We are really excited about her.  We are also teaching an older man named Micheal.  He seems like he could be a really good investigator.  We are pretty much teaching him everyday so it is going really well.  So that was my week.  Not too crazy or exciting.  Next week I'll be in Kumasi on monday so it will be a lot more interesting.  Well, talk to you all next week! 

Love Elder Kitchen

Pictures

October 10, 2011

Hey everybody!

How is everything going?  So this week was just another normal week for me.  Nothing really special happened. Last Tuesday the power went off at night so it was extremely hot because I wasn't able to sleep with my fan on.  It was transfer week so we went and dropped off a couple of the elders to the bus station because they were leaving Sunyani.  Luckily when we got back the power came back on.  Then we just had a normal day of going out and teaching.  We were going to have have family home evening but because there were a few clouds which made it look like it was going to rain...nobody came!  Some of these people are just too scared of the rain.  It was really annoying because we had planned everything that we were going to do and everything but we just had to sit around and waste our night.  Then the power went off again at the same time as the night before so we had to sleep without fans again!  Sleeping without a fan is not easy here in Ghana.  I heard this week that this is the 4th hottest mission!! I believe it too.  So the next day we got our electricity fixed because we didn't want it to happen again.  It costed us 110 cedis, but it wasn't our money, so I'm just glad that it got fixed.  That day the new Elder came up.  His name is Elder Obasi from Nigeria.  Friday was sweet because we had some good lessons.  Our first lesson was with Vivian.  She said that she still plans on getting baptized at the end of this month so that is pretty sweet.  Also, there is a couple named Harriet and Reginald.  They are from Accra and they are awesome.  They are probably the smartest people that I know in Ghana.  The lesson was just so awesome with them.  We taught them about the first vision and the Book of Mormon.  They were really interested and it just was really sweet.  The only problem is that we can't meet them very often.  They are really busy because they both work and travel a lot.  Hopefully everything keeps going good with them.  Saturday one of our members made us some fufu for dinner.  It was so good!  I really like fufu now.  It was in a chicken soup and it was just delicious.  Sunday was just a normal day as well.  The power all over Fiapre was out though so we couldn't turn on our air conditioner or fans so it was not comfortable at all!  The power came back on right as church was ending.  I saw a bunch of people trying to beat up a guy because he tried to steal something.  It was really weird.  It just made me think that this is one of the reasons that Ghana is still not progressing very much.  I still love the people though, it was just a little weird to see that and there was nothing that I could do.  Then it started to pour so we had to run back to the apartment.  We couldn't do anything else because of the rain so we just sat around in the apartment.  Then today we went and played volleyball. It was a lot of fun.  I miss playing sports all of the time.  Oh yeah, I'm going to buy some weights from my companion.  He got them for 120 cedis but I'm going to get them for like 60 cedis.  It seems like a lot but I really need something to work out with.  Also, I will be able to sell them when I am done with them so it's all good.  So that was my week...just an average week for an African missionary.  I hope everything is going well back home!  I love you guys!

Love Elder Kitchen

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Hey Mom!

I wish that we had some more fruits and vegetables.  I eat an egg sandwich every morning and then maybe some rice or Indo Mie (top ramen) and then maybe I will make some tortillas or something with some beans and stuff for dinner.  There really isn't any variety here.  I had fufu this weekend though and I loved it!  We are still a unit not a branch.  The other three units became branches.  Fiapre is the one that has been here for the shortest amount of time.  I think in December it will be one year.  Yes, me and Elder Hernandez are still companions.  I'm not sure about next transfer though.  That is in the middle of November.  I can't wait for that thing.  I hope that I get it soon because I need some good food.  I was thinking that maybe if you could send some of that whey protein stuff.  It might be able to fit in a flat rate envelope.  I am trying to work out in the morning and also I don't really get any protein so I was thinking that it might help me out.  Just let me know what you think.  I can't wait to get packages...they are the best. Thanks for fasting for me. :) I'm having fun, but it is really hard at the same time.  So, how is work and everything going?  Is school still going good?  Well, thanks for all of the support!  I love you and miss you a lot!  Have a great week! 

Love Sam

October 3, 2011

Hello everybody!

This week has been a pretty sweet week.  We didn't really get to go out and proselyte too much.  Darn!  haha, I'm not too disappointed. Last Tuesday I instructed at my first district meeting.  I was pretty nervous to do it.  I don't think that I did a very good job, but it is done and over with and I did it. Haha.  We also are teaching a man named Elijah and he is really cool.  He seems like he is really accepting everything that we teach him.  We asked him if he would be baptized at the end of October and he said that he would if learns a little more about the church!  Hopefully he will continue to want to learn more.  After that, we went to the Eusbett Hotel restaurant and had some PIZZA!!!  It was the first American food that I have had since I have been here.  The only problem is that I may or may not have spent 12 cedis to get it and I also may or may not have bought 9 cedis worth of Dr. Pepper to go along with it....Hey!  Don't be getting mad at me!  It was something that had to be done!  Also, our district leader was with us and he just went home today and so we had to have a party for him.  So I spent a grand total of 21 cedis and all of that stuff and I only get 120 cedis in a month! haha, I'm still on track for the rest of the month.  It was sooooo goood!!!!  I love pizza.  The next day, our district leader was still on splits with us in our apartment because his companion was in a meeting down in cape coast for a couple of days, so me, Elder Hernandez, and Elder Vanchiere went to his area to go to some of his appointments.  I got some sweet sunglasses that I would never ever wear back home, but I thought, "What the heck?! I'm in Africa."  I'll have to send you a picture of them sometime.  After that, we came back to Fiapre to have family night, but again, it got rained out.  It absolutely poured on that day!  I had to run through it and I got so soaked.  So we just decided to make some no-bake cookies and stuff because we couldn't go out.  Then on the 29th, we had our cleaning day because apartment checks were the next day.  We spent the whole entire day cleaning that dang apartment!  It was super clean after though.  Then the next day, President and Sister Shulz came up and did the apartment checks and interviews.  It was fun to see them because we don't really ever get to see them up here in Sunyani.  Mom, I noticed in your email that you saw pictures of Sister Shulz's blog and it talked about them coming up and having a conference.  That was up where I am in Sunyani.  They made 3 out of the 4 units into branches up here.  The only one that isn't a branch now is ours.  The church has only been up in Sunyani for one year now.  So on Saturday, we just set up everything for that conference and stuff and we all just hung out as a zone.  The assistants drove us around and stuff so we had a lot of fun.  Some members made all of us some Fufu and it was really good.  I really like Fufu now.  Right after that, we went back to the Bennett's apartment and had a pancake party!!!!  I was already full, but those pancakes were delicious.  So on Sunday we had our District Conference.  It was sweet to not have to plan church for one week.  After the conference and everything, another member make all of us some Fufu because a couple of the Elders left this week.  There was so much Fufu!  It was really good though.  I have eaten more African food this weekend then I have the whole time that I have been in Ghana.  haha.  So that was my week.  Really busy with a lot of different things.  This week is going to be back to normal.  I'm actually kind of glad for that.  It is transfer week this week just if you were wondering.  So I have now been out in Sunyani for one transfer.  Well, I hope everything is going well at home.  Tell everybody hello and that I love them.  Talk to you next week!

Love Elder Kitchen

p.s. Happy Birthday to Brett and Jeff! I hope you had a great birthday Brett and Jeff, I hope that you have a great birthday as well!