11-8-10

My Family, Well it has been an exciting week and a very good one at that. To start things of we got a new missionary in the apartment one of my MTC mates. His name is Elder Katoa and he is from Tonga. He came on his mission and he couldn't speak English at all, but now he is doing really well and can speak it well enough to hold an okay conversation. I still have a hard time understanding some words he says though. He is pretty big, but not fat, just ripped and cut out of his mind. Them Polynesians are so dang strong. He played rugby back home. And he is a pretty intimidating guy. But man all Polynesians are the happiest most exciting people to be around. Its gunna be sweet having him in the apartment. We are gunna buy some pigs, kill em, and cook them ourselves too with his help. I will let you know how that goes. I am pretty excited about that. Another interesting thing that has happened this week is I got ring worm all over my right arm and a HUGE boil also on the same arm. Last night the boil was getting painful so I poked it with a needle and a massive amount of puss came out! So sweet! If you watch the biggest zit on utube you will have an idea. Then I did the same thing this morning. But now my arm swelled up and it just looks like a have one huge arm that’s ripped ha-ha. But it doesn’t hurt anymore so its all good. It’s pretty common to get. I think it is because of how much we sweat or something I don't know. Okay now a story about one of our investigators. We are currently teaching an 18 year old girl who is really powerful Belinda Eghan and she has some uncles who are members. She has been coming to church the past 3 weeks and she is solid. Okay now Wednesday morning we picked a car to go to Moree from our apartment In the trotro we met a man from Accra who was a member, and he was also going to Moree. He was all excited when he met us, which we didn't understand cuz he was a member. He said he was going to paint his family house and then dedicate it. He told us he was praying to find the missionaries on the way so that they could help him to do it. Okay so we bought that. When we got to Moree junction we picked another taxi and then we drove together to his family house. To our surprise we pulled right up to the house that Belinda lives in with her old grandmother. I thought at first maybe it was just her uncle, but when I asked Belinda if he was just just glared at me and said that she hated him. Right then I knew we had gotten ourselves in a pickle. We followed the man into the house and immediately the guy started pushing the old woman and threw her out the front door. But the old lady wasn't gunna give up that easy. She came back and again the guy shoved her really hard and threw her out again and locked the door. Meanwhile Belinda was just staring at us through the window. It was the most awkward feeling ever. So then the guy called the cops to come, and that is when we decided we needed to leave. So we said we had an appointment and we bailed before we got involved. So the story is.... The guy owns the house according to him, and lets them stay there, and according to Belinda they own half of the house. So now she might be mad at us, but we met her afterward and everything seems to be okay. Haha it was crazy, our investigator thought that we came to kick her out on the street. And the guy we went with from Accra wasn't what I would call a kind Latter-Day Saint. So there is a small story for ya. Now the home teaching is going well. They showed me a sheet on Sunday and all of our recent converts have home teachers, and most of them have home teaching assignments along with the members. So we are making progress and hopefully before I go we have a good program up and running, at least that is my home. We are taking a lot more of our time going with people to home teach and taking the various church leaders out on splits with us. Things are looking good. As far as teaching in church we don't really have to ever stand up and correct any false doctrine or anything like that. The leaders pretty much understand how everything works. Home teaching is kind of the only thing we have ever helped a lot with. Sunday we watched conference in church. The tapes from Salt Lake finally came in. So we watched conference for about 5 hours and finished Saturday and then some of Sunday I think. Overall my favorite was Elder Gong. I don't know why but I really liked that guy and his talk. He seems way awesome. But other than that it was really really good. President Monson might be getting a little old, he was a little off on his jokes this time around I thought haha, but he gave some good talks. I really want you to send me the conference on cd so that I can listen to it and follow along in the Liahona. It is really sweet that way. Our recent converts are all doing really well. I think out of all the people I have baptized only 1 is less active, and that is because his girlfriend who is a member dumped him and now he won’t come back because she is there. It’s too bad, but the rest are doing really good. Andrew Aikins is going to be put in the Elders Quorum right after he receives the Melchizedek Priesthood in 2 weeks. He has only been baptized for 1 month about and he was interpreting what the Apostles we saying in conference into Fante in church. Man I know I talk about that guy all the time but he really is just awesome. It is still fishing season in Moree so a lot of our recent-converts have traveled for fishing. I think right now we are getting a little over 100 poeple at church a week, but after fishing sometimes we can get as many as 140 or 150. Right now our teaching pool is pretty small because we have been having baptisms and working on other things more than normal, so this past week we worked on finding some new investigators. We met a man named Kofi Akwon and he is an interesting character. He invited is into his house and he had teachings of the prophet for almost every prophet, Book of Mormon, D & C, Gospel Principles, and all kinds of stuff. He said that his religion is called Yoga! Whatever that means. He seems to know a lot so it should be fun teaching him, but I am not to sure how he will accept it. I hope he takes it well. Other than him and Belinda we are teaching a carpenter, a random woman, and then a few students that Andrew Aikins teaches. So things are a little slow but we are still making progress okay. Today we just got done playing basketball for our P Day. The court was okay, wooden hoops, really sucky rims and puddles all over the court because it rained this morning. But it was a lot of fun. It was only the second time that I have played on my mission. And boy do I suck!!! I can't imagine how sucky I will be by the time I go home haha. But it was fun. Well that about raps things up for the week. Another gone and they keep going faster. Well I really don't know what you should send me for Christmas because really I don't need anything but here are a few ideas. Something I do want is MOTAB cds with Christmas music, anything that isn't church songs, but it has to be MOTAB, mission rule. Stationary for letters and some more stamps I am almost out. Church Dvds like I said before. They are really good for baptisms and family home evening but they don't have any to really buy here that I want. Scripture Markers. The ones I brought are finished. Mapleline or whatever. It is good to make syrup for pancakes. I want a really good but small camera case that I can latch onto my belt to proselyte with, but my camera is still doing okay so I don;t really need a new one. Im out of vitamins. And some hydroxycut because I am so fat. haha jk I think that is really all I can come up with. Well it sounds like you are all doing really well and all is good. Haven’t heard from Tris or Whit for a while how are they? China sounds pretty sweet! That’s a really cool story about the temple blocks being built by them. It is a stepping stool that’s for sure. Well it is nice to hear how you are doing and all. I am doing great and just trying to enjoy everyday of my mission no matter what happens. And so far I love it and I have had a blast. The people here are so awesome. I have truly fallen in love with the people and it just makes the work that much better. I know that the church is true, and it has been such a testimony builder to witness it in a far away land and see that it is just the same. It is the Lords kingdom. And I am so thankful to be apart of it and sharing it with the African People. I love mom, dad, miles, whit, tris, derek, and cody. And that’s not in any particular order. Take care and I look forward to hearing from you again next week. Elder Adams