"Are we there yet? WE GET THERE WHEN WE GET THERE!!!!!!" - The Incredibles

Riding the tro-tro

Dear Family & Friends,

My Café time is short today, Abomosu Zone is fighting for computers and Elder Beall and I wanted to get here early.  16 missionaries and 3 working computers in the whole zone depending on if there is light, and if there is an internet connection.  Those guys in Abomosu haven’t heard from their families for 2 weeks now. I think they want to come in here and use these computers today.

On Wednesday started walking from our apartment to the tro-tro station to get a car to Asoum and then Abomosu for zone conference. From Kade to Asoum they put 4 people (plus the driver) in the car and its an hour long ride along a super dusty and bumpy red dirt road surrounded by jungle on both sides. And when we got to Asoum we found out that so few people make the trip from Asoum to Abomosu that they load the taxi with 6 people (plus the driver, oh and kids don't count as people) So we made another hour long dusty, bumpy ride crammed in a taxi like sardines in a can to Abomosu for zone training meeting. We ended up getting there about 45 minutes earlier than we had planned. This is because sometimes you have to wait for a tro-tro to fill up with people and it can take 45 minutes, having never traveled to Abomosu before we thought there might be a tro-tro there, but we were wrong. Anyway, those car rides were fun for about 10 minutes, but after that you just couldn't wait to get out of the car. The zone training meeting was good. our zone leaders instructed us on teaching people to pray, which is something that a missionary can easily gloss over here. Asking someone if they know how to pray is like asking them if they are Christian which is a "no duh" kind of question here. But we talked about how most people pray to Jesus Christ here, and they think that prayer is more about petitioning God for money, good luck with business, and material blessings. It was a good instruction, and I think it will help us as we go to teach our investigators.

Later in the week I discovered a moving plant! I know isn't that cool! its one of those plants that has been able to evolve reflexes, it looks just like a little weed but if you touch it all of its leaves will close and the limbs of the plant will fold in toward its stems. (its not a Venus Fly-trap) When I found it I started showing Elder Ofusu Hene and he played along. I found at later that night from Elder Beya and Elder Ofosu Hene that African missionaries love showing obrunis that plant because of how surprised they are at it. They can't comprehend why you would be so interested and shocked with such an ordinary weed. It reminded me of Po the panda's duck dad saying, "To make something special you just have to believe that it's special" It was a dumb little experience but as I got thinking about it I thought about my attitude toward my mission. I have always seen it as something special, an incredible opportunity to serve God. It was a reminder to me to not take simple things for granted, no matter how commonplace they seem to be.

I have been able to get my apartment out and running with me 5 times this week, I have been surprised that it has lasted that long, but hopefully we'll keep it rollin’ this week too. Its been super fun to just take off into these windy trails through palm farms and bush every morning, jumping over puddles and romping through mud.

An older photo of Elder Peters and Elder Perry running in Ghana.

I think I talked a little bit about Emmanuel and Kate in my last email. We have Emmanuel's baptism this weekend, also we will have Daniel's baptism and possibly another member's 9 year old brother that we have had him teach and will bring the zone leaders to interview him. Our work is growing fruit, but we know we can harvest much more than we have right now. This week was a lot of just walking from teaching appointment to teaching appointment and it was pretty typical missionary work days, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Things are going good here in Kade. It’s hard not to feel like everything is just normal, but I know that in a few weeks I’ll realize how strange everything her is. It just feels so normal.   I feel like my emails home have gotten less and less exciting as life here has become more and more normal. I wish I could portray everything that happens but it is really just a lot of walking on dusty hot roads and sitting outside of peoples houses on benches explaining the restoration. I know it’s important and special, but it just feels pretty ordinary most of the time.

I love being here serving the Lord and am grateful for his blessings in my life.

 

P.S. Mom, in your email you asked me what kind of food I’m most excited to eat and I just am so excited to eat all of it cuz I basically live off of bread, eggs, rice and water.   I eat pineapples, bananas and oranges a lot. But the oranges are way different here.   They are green in color when they are ripe and they are so fiberous and stringy that you can’t eat them as individual slices very well. People shave the outer skin off of them and cut a hole in the top and squeeze the juices out of them.  That’s how you eat oranges here.