Yes I finally got those packages! And I already built a trotro out of them (it even has the mate and everything!) I'll send a picture of it haha.
Yeah James and Janet are so so sweet. And James is planning on serving a mission. I am so excited for him! He is learning fast and already contributes to Investigator's class a lot. Answering some of the other investigator's questions. Haha and it's true, when I baptized Janet, she let go of her nose (African's are afraid of going under water because they've never been completely under before) and let go of my arm but wasn't all the way under yet so I had to quickly finish putting her under and then brought her back up and she was like flailing around for dear life! But she was safe in my hands the whole time haha. She just came up choking small small :P
That's super sweet of Elder Slade's mom to say! Elder Slade told me about how Elder Rogers lived by him (Elder Rogers was in the Asuoyeboa apartment just before Elder Wheeler was but I never met him. Don't know how he knows me haha).
Oh good! You guys found Elder and Sister Zoll on Facebook! Good because I was going to tell you today how they recorded us haha. Keep up with their Facebook, they're always recording stuff and taking pictures and updating their Facebook!
As for how I am eating......let's just say I am eating to stay full. Not necessarily what's healthy.....heh heh. Ummm. For instance: Today we were shopping at A-Life (this store in town that has American stuff sometimes) and I hear from across the store, "ELDER GAGNE, THEY HAVE VANILLA COKE!" (I had previously told them how Vanilla Coke was my favorite but that I had never seen it in Ghana before) I immediately stopped what I was doing and ran over yelling, "I'M BUYING ALL OF IT MOVE!" There were only 4 cans, but I grabbed them all. And then I saw they had Barq's rootbeer too! So I grabbed 2 of those...I had never seen ANY rootbeer in Ghana as of yet either! Man I am SOOOOO excited for that hahaha. But yeah my diet (when I don't eat at member's houses) consists of rice and soy sauce (I am BEAST at cooking rice now by the way), or Kybum (chi-boom and I'm not 100% sure if that's how it is spelled) which is just a bread and egg sandwich with onion and stuff in the egg, or groundnut and jam sandwiches, oranges, bananas, cerevita (cinnamon porridge type stuff), and the stuff you guys send me. Haha, but other than that when I eat at members houses it's always WAY too much but usually fufu, or jollof rice. I love fufu now by the way. Like, if I don't have it for more than 2 days I start craving it. Fufu in Ghana soup....ohhhh mannn.............
Yeah rainy season is already half in effect. It has rained small small for the past 3 days. It'll get more and more within a month.
Yeah the new missionaries are awesome! Elder Slade is super chill and Elder Hansen is into like Minecraft, W.o.W., Zelda, everything nerdy that Jen and I are into.
Yes, every single day I learn and grow more and more. I have another sweet experience to share, but I'll talk about it below.
Yeah we have legit beds. Except my mattress has a big dip in it from where everyone has slept in it before haha. But it's comfy. I actually wake up shivering when we have power and I have the fan. I cuddle my sheets. BEST. FEELING. EVER.
My shirts are.....well....as white as they're gonna get. But there's only so much we can do haha. They got bad during the Hamattan. But so far nothing ripped or worn.
I'll try to write Austen ASAP! Please let him know :) Also, I didn't get time to send any letters today (today was deep clean day) so I'll send them next week.
I'm sending more pictures today. No worries :)
Items from this week:
-An RM (returned missionary) randomly came to our house during companionship study one morning. He served in Ghana 7 years ago and was visiting checking up on his old areas! He talked about how when he got home he tested positive for every disease pretty much. MOM DON'T FREAK OUT.
-This week was the slowest week I've had on mission so far. Only 8 lessons taught the whole week.... SO SLOW WHEN THAT HAPPENS.
-Elder Holder and I have been translating the Twi Book of Mormon into English by our own knowledge and by comparison so we can learn Twi. It's been working really well and the gift of tongues REALLY makes itself manifest. Things just make sense while we read it. We are still only on the first page, but as we go it'll go faster, because we will know most of the words. What makes it so tough is we only just BARELY have enough of a base to go off of and they syntax for Twi is TOTALLY different than English.
-We have 2 new SUPER solid investigators. One is super shy, but has come to church 3 weeks in a row (THAT NEVER HAPPENS) and wants to be baptized ASAP. Unfortunately, the font is falling apart so we are waiting for it to be fixed before we have a baptism. The other one is was the translator for Janet and she originally didn't care about our teachings at all, but now she is more interesting than almost every one I've met and takes notes during lessons, sacrament meeting, classes, etc... It's so awesome! And she is very very smart and works as a nurse in Apatrapa Hospital. They both are set to be baptized on March 18th if the font is fixed.
-Alright, so here's the way intense experience from this week:
Kader came back on saturday (he comes back from his job at a bank in Sunyani every other weekend to come to church and see Selina), so he was going to come to church, but got sick on Sunday so he couldn't come. However, sunday evening he felt better, so we went over to his house to teach him a quick lesson. We started talking about the Book of Mormon and then (typical of Kader) he went off talking about how POWERFUL the book is. He was like, "Ah! I don't even read the Bible anymore, this book has more meaning, more understanding, more powerful!" And then he went off talking about Nephi and Lehi and how the moral he got from Nephi was how listening to the prophet (Lehi) led Nephi to become more blessed than his brothers, and that they hated him for it because they were blinded by their murmuring. The spirit immediately was there while he was talking about the Book of Mormon and I was becoming teary eyed at how powerful Kader had become.
Then he talked about how while he was in Sunyani, he woke up one morning and felt impressed to pray for a chance to talk to his manager about the church. So he did, and the chance came, and his manager asked him, "What church to you attend?" And Kader explained to him everything and gave him a restoration pamphlet (the one we had originally given Kader) and literally TAUGHT the restoration lesson to him! He had his manager read a section, and Kader would explain it, and then he would read the next part, explain, etc...and at the end, the manager told him, "I want to come with you to this church." So Kader said he told him where it was in Sunyani and that he would go with him the next week when he came back. Then Kader said in the bank before it opens the manager gathers everyone together to pray, but they would pray like they do here in Ghana all shouting and chanting and stuff. So Kader said he stopped them and explained to them how prayer works and they were all amazed at how he explained it (Kader has always been able to explain stuff better than we even can.)
And he knew how things should be in the true church before we ever told him.). And now he said everyone at the bank wants to go to church with him. I had never before felt the spirit as strongly as I did while Kader told me all of these things. I realized the true purpose in him getting his job in Sunyani. At first I was angry and confused why Kader would be blessed with a job, but that the job he was blessed with would delay him from his baptism. But now I see that there was a greater purpose for it. He is so powerful. I wonder if I'll ever even meet someone more powerful than him.
So that's my experiences from this week! I'll send some pictures now :)
Love,
Elder Gagne
