pday fun

baptisms, competitions, and rain....

This week was pretty dang exciting!! i started out learning how to make some banku.... it is a super wierd food that i can not describe... i personally dont like it... but it was fun to make!

i also had the opportunity to have 4 baptisms! and i was the one that baptized all 4!!

I ended up getting a hair cut because it was too long for my liking.... anyways,

Rainy season is upon us... and when it rains, it pours...

so Sunday morning as we started to get ready for church, it started raining... and then it started leaking in through the windows above my bead... so i had to move my bed, mop up the pool of water that was gathering beneath it, move all of my journals and books away from the leak (I spotted the leak right before it reached my journals and everything on my study desk so i got lucky there) but it was just a pain... all i wanted to do was go to church and have a great time... we had to take a taxi because we were not able to ride our bikes in the mud, and we barely made it on time.... I am just very very grateful for sister Sabina and her willingness to feed us too much food every time she sees us.... She made us a feast of fried rice on Wednesday and then she gave us some surprisingly good waakye on sunday after church. (its like a weird bean and rice mixture... it generally tastes like crappy dog food, but food is food right?) 

On friday, the other elders in our apartment

invited us to a ward party they were having in their ward... little did we know that the ward had been planning a hymn book trivia challenge and the teams were: the ward vs the missionaries.... that was exciting.... mainly because they dont seem to sing the same songs here that we do back in Utah... like all the hymns that nobody has ever heard of? yeah... they sing those here...but, through a lot of hard work and some super good guessing skills, we managed to win.. by one point... the final score was 55-54... the ward was pretty upset that their 40 something people couldnt beat 4 missionaries, but thats what you get when you challenge a servant of the Lord to a trivia challenge about the church right???

well... my companion is pretty cool and things have been going well... the work here in Ghana is moving along... Here are some cool pictures... and here is a picture of all of the elders in my mission (we took this picture when we all met up for the Elder Suarez devotional last monday) I will let you guys try to pick out where i am... but i will give you a hint... i am wearing my favorite tie... it is green and white striped. Good luck!

Until next week!

Love,

Elder Williams

Transfers, mother's day and other fun stuff

So as a missionary, we get to call home 4 times... i had my first time last sunday... its weird to think that i only have one more Mothers day here in Ghana... oh well, this last week was transfer week! and so i got a new companion! Elder Iheanacho (try saying that 10 times fast) is my new companion. he has been out for just over 10 months and is the new district leader to the area...also, i am a senior junior companion now... i am the one that knows the area, the members, investigators, and the district... so as our zone leaders see it, I am the district leader 😂 Its a pretty exciting thing... Elder Iheanacho is very quiet and very humble (unlike my last companion) so i have also had to step up when it comes to teaching the lessons..  i have had to teach whole lessons by myself with him only introducing himself... so that is fun!

We have started repairing the relationship with the members and the bishop, so it was amazing yesterday when the bishop called and asked us to come give a blessing to one of his family members with him. so he drove us in his van about 45 minutes to his cousins house and the whole time we just had a really good talk about life....also, he always wears these super cool bead ties and i asked him where he got them. All he said about that was "I will have some made for you"... so we are starting to make the relationship better.

This morning we had a joint devotional with the Accra West mission... Elder Suarez (the newest Apostle) was the one who spoke and it was awesome to be able to feel the spirit of one of the apostles walk into a room... it just went dead silent and everybody stood up... just like before conference... but he spoke to us about how we need to obey our mission presidents better... that no matter what, we should always heed their council, and how we can always do better at contacting... ..

This week is going to be super cool because we have 4 baptisms! ... umm... i dont know what else to say, so here is a cool picture of the sunrise... a picture a member took when he threw his baby at me.

.. so that was exciting, and umm... i also ended up rewiring about half of the lights in  my apartment this week so that we would have lights that worked... so yeah..

. I also had to buy a new camera last week because the offbrand gopro couldnt hold up against the missionary life... so i got a sweet little waterproof camera for 399 cedis... (like $88)
Love,
Elder Williams

life in ghana

some stuff he picked up from the market...

homemade gym....

laundry in his apartment....

....drying clothes

two missionaries...don't think one is elder.. :)

floods & fat....?

Good Afternoon! It is another beautifully hot monday morning here in the Ghana Accra Mission! 

We havent had anything happen again this week. We have been preparing an investigator and his son to be baptized hopefully this next week. We will see... but it has been quite difficult because he doesnt really understand English... so we have to teach him really super slowly...  but it has been a learning experience for me! ummm... It has started rainy season so it has rained a couple times... but when it rains here, it doesnt just rain... like it flash floods every single street... so when it starts to rain, we have to immediately find shelter... Always respect the weather... umm... i hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Williams

I forgot to add... i finally found an acurate scale here in Ghana... it turns out i have been putting on quite a bit of weight since i came to Ghana... But i have also been lifting a lot of weights so i dont think it is all fat... but i weighed around 170 when i left, i now weigh around 185...

"here in ghana... everybody believes there is a God."

(the following is a combination of a group of exchanges between mom and Elder. :) they  had permission to spend a half hour on the internet emailing, provided they took a missionary survey. just so happened he sent his message while i was online, so i stopped and we conversed)
in response to my comment about the woman who had a dream about alex, he wrote one of my favorite lines EVER:
"here in ghana... everybody believes there is a God."
Elder:
"its hard... im not going to lie... and time seems to always be dragging on... i kinda just want to be home, but i know its for the better... "

"we are at an internet cafe... my body constantly sore to the point of crying... ive been riding my bike up hills for like 20 miles a day in almost 100 degree heat... plus i have been lifting weights everyday so i constantly want to cry when riding my bike....it is an internet cafe inside of a shipping container... so it is a wall of really old computers that are super slow and really suck.. so no food, and its cramped.... it rained this morning so it isnt that hot, but it usually is super hot....

my shoes are constantly dirty no matter how much i clean or polish them... they arent wearing out yet, but i may need a new pair towards the latter part of my mission... im going to try to go at least 8 months in each of these pairs... but i can go to the market and get a pair for not too expensive... i like my bike... the brakes suck, but they can stop me really quickly so i have no complaints... i love riding it... when i am not super sore... yeah... thats about right.... and its hills... constantly... i have not seen the ocean yet, but i have been to the accra mall... they have a pizza hut inside it and they are building a burger king there as well, but no mcdonalds... 

Mom:

WOW. who knew pizza hut was international like that?!? craaazy!! and INSIDE of a SHIPPING container?? or elder, you HAVE to take a picture!! can you do that??  :) 

i'm sorry abt the heat. i remember the humid heat of new jersey. i can remember several nightst just thinking i was going to die. literally. i was sooo hot and sweaty and it felt like i was inside of an oven. made me feel sorry for thanksgiving turkesy. can't imagine...i'm sure they are glad to be dead before they get in there....

Elder:

we just have some concrete blocks on some rusty rebar that we lift around our apartment... so its a home gym.. but i have no complaints with it i think i have put on weight.. soda is super cheap here so we drink it constantly.. but i have put on more muscle than fat... i am starting to cut back on sugar as a whole though... so when i get home, if i keep at the rate i am, i will be in super good shape and be able to lift a lot.

Mom:

aaagh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SODA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON"T DRINK THAT!!!!!!!! seriously. it's terrible for you. if not for your body, it wreaks terrible havoc on your TEETH!!! don't do it!!!! 

that's crazy abt your weights. can you take a picture of that also?? i need more visuals bcs what you describe sounds funny in my head, but i'll bet it's not as funny in real life. so yea, take pictures. document these things!!!

:) and i'm all for home gyms.... :)

Elder:

we do have a pullup bar that goes over the door like what we used to have back home... its nice

Mom:

oh. i hate doing pullups. i never could . i'm not even sure what muscles are used to do them. all i know is i can't do them....can you use one of those cooling towels?? do you knwo what i'm talking abt?? remember the one that dad let me use at the umm..4th of july thingy?? the derby?? do you remember?? maybe i should send you a couple...one for you and one for your companion. i really REALLY liked them...let me know...

Elder:

yeah, i have two of them... you gave them to me for i think it was my birthday... i think they are in the bottom of my suitcase... i havent used them except to wipe the dirt off of my shoes.. maybe i will have to start using them.

Book of Mormon

Hey everyone! I dont have any pictures this week, so im sorry for that! It has also been a really uneventful week so this email wont be very long... Im sorry again... but i have been studying from the Book of Mormon a lot this week. There is no doubt in my mind that that book is true. I have seen first hand some of the miracles of conversion that have taken place because the person read from that book.If you dont believe me, go and read it for yourself. and then pray about it with an intent to receive an answer. This is the true church.

For those of you that want an update on my Investigator, she is starting to regain her strength. she went to the hospital again and they gave her an injection and some medication? so i guess it might not have been appendicitis. But she is starting to regain her strength. She wasnt able to come to church this last sunday, and she was very sad about that. so we hope she will be able to come next week.

I think that is all i can think of this week.... umm... yeah... sorry about the length of this email.... i will try to get more stuff for next week... until then!

Love,

Elder Williams