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| Ghana Temple |
Mission is a roller coaster, ups and downs, everyday is something new. Especially this week!
So monday after we emailed we had an FHE with the Manu family (you say it like men oo like a cow goes moo, menoo) and the food was awesome! not a lot of pepe so really good! felt a great spirit and loved the fhe so remember to have solid fhe because thats the best thing ever!
Tuesday i showed mariam the picture of mom saying thanks and she got a little teary eyed and said ' o your mother, she is so sweet, that is precious, she is so beautiful'. so thank you mom she even kept the picture! i had some really good papaya and got an african hair cut. so it is really short, but hey that's what you get from a barber in Ghana!
wednesday was a good solid day of working hard and I said if I think of home I will just go and work harder, so I did and from tuesday to about thursday I really was just lost in the work! it was so sweet and I felt so blessed just to be happy. When I did think of home it just motivated me to be a better missionary and set the example and win some blessings for the family!
Thursday was more good work and I really tried to work by the spirit and our lessons went great that day.
Friday was happy birthday to Elise! so I sang to you at about 10:30 and again on sunday because I figured that would be about as close as I could get to what you were doing haha but I taught marcus about likening the scriptures and it was just a great lesson and then we saw matlida and she might be moving to kumasi for some school, which sucks but hey she has a life to live, this is my life to live right now.
So we went to visit mariam and her daughters and on our way we found a lady who had dropped all of her groundnut (peanut in america) as she was hawking near flagstaff house. we cleaned up as much as we could but so much fell down the gutter (gutters here are sometimes open or sometimes closed with little slits in the sidewalk but are about 4 feet deep) so they were just gone. She stood up and as I looked into her sweat covered face, dirt all over her and trying so hard not to cry, i just about did cry. My heart was filled with compassion for the women who couldn't even listen to our message because she spoke one of the strange 45 or so languages in Ghana. and when her daughter came to translate she had to run off and sell or she would never get money.
so with this in us we rode on and in Mariam's neighborhood we heard a roar throughout. Ghana had scored a goal in it's qualifying match! so big up downs there and everyone cheered and yelled and you could hear it each time they score!
Saturday was crazy, my companion almost went home and I tried to work harder and talk with him and do what I could but it didn't make to big of a lasting difference and when the night came he ended up being all depressed again. So he talked with president and president had the magic touch, huge crisis averted. but keep praying for him.
Sunday desmond was at church like an hour and a half early! he cleaned up and loved church and really is ready to just be like elders quorm pres or something haha but after church I wrote ashley and then we went over towards bishops house for a lesson with his neighbors. We passed mariam and talked with her and ended up playing 'umpi' with the kids there. I can 't really explain how to play it, but ashley's letter will have more on that. I got some great video though and a new game for everyone when I get home!
We got to bishops and he told us how he had lived in his tiny 20 square foot house for about 30 years and was all happy and good and so was his family and they treated us like gold and tried to cook for us and everything! but bless that man and his family they are celestial.
so some fun facts:
Everyone has a ghana name or tribal name, usually it is what day you were born on. so I am que quo asomodgn because i am wednesday born. there are about like thirty kwami's or names like that in each neighborhood but somehow they know which is which hahah.
Mom kentata is a musical, so the movies we watched on sundays are kentata!
Everyone has a hometown and a hometown song, they are super just native exactly what you would imagine and so they are my favorite of the ghana music.
Girls wear wigs and weave ons because no one has long hair so it's like the equivalent of make up or plastic surgery to them. they save up to get fake hair and to wear it they have to tightly braid down their hair and it gives them a head ache each time and it cost like 30-40 cedi and still they do it!
I say some koreans and thought of rj, and it was weird because now when I see obruni it throws me off and I'm like.. let me guess.. service project for three weeks... wow you must really know ghana.. bet that was super hard and life changing haha sorry that was mean it is just a joke among the elders when we see the typical, messy hair, backpack, tank top sunglasses obruni that for some reason everyone dresses as when they come.
It rained on sunday and it is so crazy, like an instant monsoon! we got trapped inside and i loved it!
sunday's everyone plays football and goes to church, wish more would come to the right church but hey that's why i am here right?
The work goes on and I love it!
Love you all and I really am so grateful for each of you! Mom did you ever get the letter I sent a little while ago?
Love you!
Elder Van Wagoner
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