Hey Fam!Very sweet week :)
I'm glad everyone likes the pictures I'm sending! I'll try to take/send more of those!
The zone activity was WAY sweet! It was Lake Bosomtwe. I know it for a fact. Anyone that says otherwise is WRONG! (Except Lake Volta could POSSIBLY be another name for it....) Question: Did anyone else's pictures on their blogs have pictures of me in them? I'm just wondering haha.
Okay, as soon as I find a way to send a package I'll send my video card. Also, could you send another card? They are both almost full and I'm afraid if I send one home I'll run out of picture taking capability before I get it back!
The baptisms were amazing :) Everyone we thought would work out worked out. Elizabeth, Iseh, Kader, and Selina were all baptized. And I got to do it myself too! Elder Slade was going to baptize Elizabeth and Iseh but then the Bishop of Bantama ward (we had to go to bantama after church for the baptism because our font is still collapsing in Asuoyeboa) said he wanted "only 1 John the Baptist". It seems some people here, even after being members of the church, still hold onto some traditional beliefs. A lot of the members believe there can only be one person baptizing because there was only 1 John the Baptist. Honestly I find it awkward when in the actual baptism program they announce whoever is baptizing like this: "Our John the Baptist is Elder Gagne". I don't like it. But oh well. It's...their culture? I guess....
Sweet tell Uncle Scott I look forward to receiving it and to not worry about it being typed! It'll be just as sweet.
Sweet! Thanks for the picture of Dan haha. He looks way more mature and older!
Aww Carson! At least he probably shares the same fear as me now! Luckily, there's no ticks in Africa :)
Whaaaat? Traffic Circles are easy! Hopefully she learns quickly!
Good I'm glad Mom got a chance to talk to her. It must have been the spirit because it was random and in the middle of Personal Study and I wasn't even thinking about it at all, it just went POP into my head so I wrote it down on my list of things to e-mail.
Thanks for all those pictures! They were wicked sweet! SUPER happy to see Samuel's up and running again! Hopefully when we all get back we can play a show there again! And also awesome to have a picture of tarded Tango hahaha. And those pictures of Carson and Cody are super awesome! Thanks guys!
NO YOU TOOK DOWN MY BACKWARDS DRAPES?!?! I was hoping to come home and see my backwards blue drapes still hanging up :'( Haha just kidding, it would have been funny though if mom let that go for 2 whole years.
Yeah, it's pretty much an ongoing battle to keep members in the church. Although, it honestly depends on what kind of person they are. It's just like the parable of the sower. Some types of ground are soft but with rock underneath, so the seed can't take root very far, so as soon as tribulation arises, the plant will die. Some types of ground are covered with thorns and the seed gets chocked out by cares of the world. A lot of people think that the parable implies you can't change a person's heart. But Talmage says otherwise in Jesus the Christ (Referring to the book written by James E. Talmage.) Nowhere does Jesus say that the ground can't be tilled, or dug up, or weeded. That's also my philosophy too. Even the people who are baptized but may not last through trials, can be influenced and can change so that they will. But only by the power of the spirit, and only if they let it influence them. By the way, the book Jesus the Christ is....incredible. There's so many small things he points out it just blows my mind. I appreciate all that Jesus did because of that book. AND it lays out every aspect of Jesus Christ's ministry so well I can explain almost anything to people when they bring up things contrary to what Jesus has taught. I love it. I'm about halfway through it right now. I'll finish it in about 2 months I think.
Yeah I got the 3 packages! Thank you guys so much! I love the colored pencils they're sweet haha. Also, both of the journals were EXACTLY what I was looking for :) So PERFECT JOB WELL DONE GUYS.
I haven't used a single lotion yet. As for my feet I only got blisters for my first week. But now, walking over the type of terrain here, I have hobbit feet. I have calluses on my toes so hard they're like razors. Seriously they cut my skin if I'm barefoot and itch myself with my toe....But I have used tums a bunch (don't worry about me running out of those. I'll probably have enough to last my whole mission.), and the cold medicine twice. But that's it. So many unnecessary things, but they may come in handy at some point! So I'll hold onto em.
Yeah I got those pictures last week :) Thank you guys! Keep sending pictures I love them. I take pictures of them on the screen with my camera haha.
Items from my week:
-Pepperoni stick was definitely my favorite thing so far. I cut it up and put it in my bread & egg sandwiches with garlic salt and ketchup. SO GOOD.
-Mom, I was reading the liahona and there's a call for indexers worldwide. It has to do with family history, it's something that seems right up your alley and takes about 30 minutes to do a batch! Check it out on LDS.org. Look up indexing or something :P
-I was wondering if you guys could send a CD of the EFY medley. That songs hits me so hard everytime I hear it. I would love to have it here.
-We haven't had water for 9 days so far. Don't know what it is. It stinks. We spent 30 cedis on satchets so we could fill buckets to wash our clothes and do dishes. It's extremely obnoxious. We've told the Zoll's and the ZL's a few times but the guy who fixes things for the missionaries still hasn't come. Plus, our pump is broken. So we've been taking satchet showers too. I haven't felt clean for 9 days.... :(This picture is our first attempt at washing dishes with sachets. Then we got smart and just filled 3 buckets with sachet water. One for scrubbing the big stuff off. One for washing in bleach water with soap, one for rinsing.
-When I was baptizing Iseh, I said the prayer and brought his hand to his nose but he just started going backwards into the water without plugging his nose! I fought with allllll my strength to hold him above the water because he was pushing down to go under water and at the same time with my other hand fought to bring his hand to his nose! He finally stopped pushing and I brought him up and explained to him what to do again and he was fine that time. It was hilarious though. He had his mouth wide open and he was like PUSHING against me to go under. I think he was nervous, but it was still pretty funny. He was cool though :)
-WE. GOT. TRANSFER. CALLS. HOLY. COW. It's insane this transfer! So you know how Elder Holder is training Elder Hansen right now? Well, because of that, we all assumed our apartment wouldn't change since I'm training for another transfer and so is he. But here's what's going down this transfer. Bantama zone is getting split into 2 zones: Bantama Zone, and Asuoyeboa Zone. And Dichemso is getting split into 2 zones as well: Dichemso Zone, and Atonsu Zone. Elder Wheeler (Elder Holder's trainer, remember him? We miss him a lot and are seeing him tonight at Piri Piri!) is going to be a Zone Leader for Atonsu Zone with..........ELDER HERNANDEZ. WHAAAAAT SO JEALOUS! So yeah we are losing both our awesome Zone Leaders. Our new zone leaders are Elder Hatch (he's way cool) and Elder Smith from Cape Coast (Never met him). And where are they going to stay for the Asuoyeboa zone? OUR APARTMENT. Who's leaving our apartment? ELDER HOLDER AND HANSEN ARE BOTH GOING TO KOJO BADU IN CAPE COAST AND THEY ARE WHITEWASHING (meaning noone from the area previously is there to show them the investigators or anything so basically starting fresh) THEIR AREA. Man I'm gonna miss Elder Holder. Every experience I've had on mission so far has had him in it too. So it'll be weird. But sweet. Now that the Zone Leaders are going to be in our apartment, I'll get mail faster too ;D
So yeah that's basically it! I'll send some pictures now! Hope you guys like them!
Love you all,
Elder Gagne
