Monday, April 16, 2012

Email from April 16, 2012

Hi All,

Haha I'm doing fine mom. I'll let you know when it starts to get hard. I'm just mostly worried about when I start training in a couple months. It's easy with a trainer because he's always there to support you when you lose your train of thought. Haha I'm scared that I'm gonna scare off the kid that I'll train though. But the mission is good, it's helping me to grow up fast. Never take for granted all the members back home though haha. But the way that I see it, you only grow if you push yourself. So I'd rather have the training now, rather than when I become a leader or something.

I have absolutely no problem with my companion. He's easy to get along with. And if I have any problems I can easily talk to him about them.

Yes please send letters, I can read them during the week. It's nice to be able just to pick something up at the Post office haha.

No, I love hearing about what's going on at home with Brandon. That's cool, sounds like he's having fun doing that. So does he have a friend that he works with and hangs out with? They're doing the DI thing together?

I'm sure your talk was great. All people really care about is hearing your testimony that it's true. The other stuff comes with time, and through your own study. I remember hearing a conference talk about a man who taught a class that could hardly speak english, yet he taught the class powerfully. Because of his powerful testimony and desire to share it with the class.

Haha dad did the whole priesthood conference by himself? That's awesome! Way to go dad! Ya the conference talks are powerful. I loved looking for things to improve on from them. They make it so simple so you can apply each principle. Line upon line, precept upon precept.
My week was good. I'm feeling fine haha. Don't get too worried over there mom :P.

The thing that worries me most, and is something that I'll talk to my mission president about when I get my interview. But I feel like I'm mostly harming the people over here by helping them receive the gospel. Because hardly any of the members come to church. I feel like what we really should be doing is helping the less actives build their faith. It doesn't make much sense to me to go about helping investigators, if when they join the church that they won't have any support from the members.

For example. There is a 60 year old man that we are teaching that has totally accepted the gospel. He's been reading from the Book of Mormon everyday and is up to Mosiah 20 (Which i'm pretty positive most of the members haven't even read that far), and yet he has bad legs so he needs someone to take him from his house to the church (And we can't do that because we are the missionaries, so if we left he'd never come to church), but none of the members seem to be willing to help him to church.

I just feel like if I was an investigator who only had 1 month experience with the church, and I had no friends in the church to help me with questions that I had. Then it would be nearly impossible for me to stay active for the rest of my life. Maybe I'm wrong.

One of the rules is that I'm not suppose to write anything negative in my emails though, so do you consider this negative?

I'm getting along fine with my companion. He's one of the coolest guys i've met.

The laundry is actually easier over here personally, haha your clothes just aren't as clean. It's when I start handwashing again that it'll be exciting.

Ah, it's Cherish? Hey. Hahah you little cheater stealing the car :P. Aww man, I miss adventures with you guys. Mm ice cream does sound tasty.

Bahahaha what do you owe the IRS for? Maybe you guys should try the budget I'm living off of :P. You'd be rich in a couple months. Hahaha.

Yes you should definately get that job. But you better have it when I get back so I can go to Hawaii :).

Woah Preschool! Suzie you're getting old!

Haha that's funny. Has Brandon ever brought stuff home that you'd even want to buy from him? It sounds like he's finding pretty good stuff.

Scouting is perfect for Todd! Maybe he can take them all to get their hunter safety and fishing stuff. Then he'll have them come and beg him to take them hunting and fishing all the time haha.

That's an awesome song. Of course my testimony is growing stronger haha. You can automatically see all the blessings we have back home because of the people who live the gospel around us. Everything about the gospel is amazing. You just wish that you could teach all these people what we have back home though.

Back home we have Scouts, mutual, Home teachers, Leaders who know the scriptures and have been taught by some of the best, Seminary, Institute, Ward Activities, Dances, Good schools that teach you to read and write, Lds.org, etc.

If these people had all those resources, they would be powerful.

Ya, I know. Still I feel young :P. But the growth always comes with the challenge. Not the sling.

Soo I don't know what else to write. I'll just give you random experiences

First, one of the funniest things to me about here.

The F, S, B, A swear words here. Is just like saying crap, or darn, or whatever.

But their swear words are.. (I hope you get a kick out of this because it's worse than saying the F word)

Stupid, Little Boy, Fool.

Hahahaha, how awesome is that?

Also to call someone Fat here is really good. People love to be called fat. It means that you are well off. ( And they are seriously fat ).

Hmm some other funny things. There's this really awesome less active we've been teaching, and we've just been trying to figure out why she won't come to church because she loves the missionaries and having the lessons, and believes in the Book of Mormon.. She has quite a few reasons for not coming, and they are all really reasonable if you don't have the support like we do back home. Because we can find the answers to these quite quickly.

One, when she went to the temple and did baptisms for the dead. She was absolutely terrified when she saw the oxen that the baptismal font sits on. She'd always heard about how we're a cult and that when you get the higher offices of the church you learn things that the lower offices don't know. Some things she'd heard were that you find out that we are really idol worshippers. So she felt like when she was doing baptisms for the dead that she was worshipping the oxen. Funny, and sad at the same time that it's things like those that are holding her back.

Also the common one - The Book of Mammon. People think that the word Mormon means Mammon. We explained that one to her.

Hmm what else.

It's offensive to eat food while you are walking.

I just found that out yesterday. You need to sit down when you eat.

I haven't had any trouble with the left hand thing. I'm still not really sure when it's not acceptable.

I don't know if I told you about the gutters. But basically on the sides of the roads there a ditches full of poo water and garbage, so you just get use to the smell. I've heard a couple stories now about people that have crashed their bikes into them. Hahaha I would not be a fan of that.
But actually there has been people cleaning them recently.

Elder Eldredge has been making brownies and chocolate chip cookies from home. Talk about delicious. He was in an apartment with Sam from back home. So the first day I got here, I was like Hey I recognize you from Sam's blog! You're the cowboy hat guy that liked to sit under the AC. Yup.

Well the weeks been good, love you all. Talk to you later Alligators.

-Elder Adair

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Email April 9, 2012

HI All,

Haha you can tell that I lost weight? Ya I'm still figuring out how to eat good. I think I'm gonna eat an orange every day which is 10 peswes. Or a banana, but the bananas are kind of small.

I think I'm going to try making Okra Stew & Banku. It's got onions, tomatoes, egg plant, red oil, okra, and i think that's it. Then you eat it with Banku. I think that would be healthy for me, plus it's pretty good.

Ya the only food that worries me is the Ku Tum Brei (Just so you know I don't know how to spell any of these words, and my pronounciation of them is probably wrong too haha) with Yam. (I don't know why I don't like Yam, it's basically like a potato but for some reason I don't like it)

I can probably record me and my companion doing the handshake. But since I'm out of the MTC I won't be able to record the Ghanaians singing. (You should check the MTC presidents blog if he has one, i know he recorded us singing one time)

Where's Emily moving to? Yes you should take pictures of you with the alligators for when i get home.

Haha that's awesome. You'll have to tell me how that works with the Chickens. I've never seen someone do that back home besides Casey. Did she get you into that? How long does it take before you'll start getting eggs? Oh I guess Courtney does that too.

Um i got a click lighter so I shouldn't need matches anymore. I'm hoping once it runs out that the spark will light it.

But that's awesome, will Brandon still be in the Neighborhood then? The guy next to the Smiths? He's still enjoying that other job? Sounds like a nice job.

I'm not really desperate for anything yet :P. My companion gets loads of candy from his parents back home, and he always shares it with me haha (This isn't encouragement for you to do the same, because I know that he could buy it here cheaper. He just feels better that he's not the one spending the money hahah)

The washer basically just spins in a circle one way for a few seconds and then turns back the other way. It doesn't look like it would do much, but my clothes smell good when they are done! That's a good sign haha. And then the dryer part is basically the thing as the one at the Recreation Center back home. It just spin drys it. Then I hang my stuff up and it's dry by the next day. (The spin dry is actually what I like the most. It takes forever to ring out the clothes, plus they usually aren't dry the next day if you ring them out by hand). He spent like 300 ghana cedis. Which is like 200 dollars. But I think it's kinda smart cuz I'm sure people will pay him to use it, and since he's only been out 4 months now it will be helpful for his whole mission.

I don't know if it's the Humidity or just the fact that the clouds just spread out so it's just white.

For Easter we proselyted like normal. But today we're doing a FHE, which will be like back home. A game, A spiritual thought, and food.

On Sunday I eat breakfast, go to a meeting about how the area is doing, go to church where they speak Fante and I can't understand the whole meeting. Sometimes the investigator class will be in English which is nice haha. The investigators are always so confused that we can't even understand.

I've just had to bear my testimony once in sacrament meeting. Haha funny thing, the speakers are so fuzzy that you can hardly hear what the people are saying up on the stand. It's like they have too much bass and no treble.

Ya my companions awesome. I was kinda worried at first that he had only been out for 3 months and was going to train me, but he's really organized. Haha I'm still worried about when I'm going to train. I feel bad for the kid that I train. I'm not organized at all. I wish I had taken like a leadership class or something to be better prepared for that part.

My companion is like.. Uh. I don't know. He's obedient and he works hard. That's all I can really say. I don't talk too much so I'm sure he's sick of hearing his own voice though haha. I don't know what his family is like really. He has two brothers I think, One is a member. Then 3 Sisters? I'm second guessing myself now. His parents are seperated but he lives like 40 minutes from each of them back home.

Mm. Talking isn't really the problem. They can't understand my accent. So I'm pretty sure they just nod and act like they know what I'm saying. Then when I ask a question they usually ask my companion what I"m saying haha.

Mm the mission is kind of what I expected yes. I still feel far to young, but oh well I"ll just do the best I can. If they thought it was too early then I'm pretty sure the leaders would have figured out by now that 19 is too young.

Nope, people to find to teach are easy. We don't even go door to door. You can talk to people on the street and they'll give you time to talk to them. I haven't had anybody yell at me or be rude yet.

The only missionaries that have cars are the Assistants and the mm Supply dude. They both live by me, and the assistants will usually drive us into town so we don't have to pay the taxi which is nice.

And Yes I could upload them on the computer and send them. The problem is that these computers are super slow and I probably wouldn't be able to send you any reply messages if I did that. I'm gonna try and send my memory card home today though, it should probably take 2 weeks to get to you. The problem is that I've heard sometimes the memory gets wiped out. But oh well. Might as well try.

Fufu to me, tastes like spagetti. I've only had light soup with it though. The other day I had a soup that tasted like peanut butter. Usually it's light soup which tastes like spagetti sauce to me. Then it's basically like a ball of bread dough that you scoup up and get some soup in. Then you swallow it whole. I think the closest thing you could make to it would be mashing a potato and a banana with water (which would make the dough.) And then makes a soup with water, tomatoes, onions, some hot pepper, and oil.

I ran out of time on the computer!

Love you!

-Elder Adair

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

April 1, 2012-Emails

Dear All,

Haha first of all, I'm pretty sure that Fufu recipe is for people
living in the states. Maybe I'm wrong. I guess the instant potatoes
would just be like the Casava here. I haven't seen anybody use a
potato here yet though, I think they must be expensive, but I hear
that they do sell them. I haven't seen instant potatoes, so I'll think
about asking those from you.. But at the same time I'm hesitant
because I know that you spent 25 cedis on sending me the oatmeal and
fruit punch powder. I still think it would just be better for me to
buy stuff here. Because I'm pretty sure I could have gotten 25
minerals (soda's) over here. I haven't boughten any candy yet though
cuz I'm still figuring out how I want to spend my money.

Weird it says I only have 5 minutes left. I think the computers are a
bit messed up right now.

I think they probably do have the best schools here, because in the
MTC I could hardly understand the Africans. But Ghanains are usually a
lot easier to understand.

I think it's pretty green here. At least by the beach it is. I'd say
it's greener than back home. And the trees are cooler over here.

8 Elders came from the MTC with me to this mission. But 6 went up
North, and the mission is getting split soon so I probably will never
see any of them again until the day I leave.

My mission will be the Cape Coast mission, and the other will be the
Kumasi mission. Sam will be in the Kumasi when it switches so I'll
never get to see him. I did get to talk to him on the phone for a
minute the day I got here which was cool though. Well the comp is
being dumb so bye! Love you
The first memory card is full so I'll just send you that one. It's
basically just of the MTC. I'll start taking some pictures down here
though. I'm going to buy a camera case today. I want to get a closed
case so it won't be as likely that someone will steal it. I'll do a
tour of my apartment. Oh ya, by the way, I can use the
video feature on my camera. So that will be nice.

The place I live isn't a church, it's just like a normal apartment. We
pretty much have the same stuff as back home except no hot water, we
have to use matches to light our stove (I'm going to try and get a
click lighter to see if I can just use the sparks it makes so I won't
have to buy any more matches. Today we ran out of matches and I
couldn't make any breakfast haha. Nobody wants to share there matches.
But I understand. But ya, Sam lives up in Sunyani which is a
completely new mission area. It was actually quite far from the other
areas. but I guess there was just a town where there was like 30
people who were living the gospel and paying there tithing and
everything (I don't know where to, must have just been saving it), but
ya one of the assistants I guess got to participate in baptizing 30
people. How cool is that?

Oh I didn't tell you, I'm just up the street from the mission office.
So I actually even got to see the Mission President this morning which
is kinda funny.

That clock dealio is pretty cool. I'm still not sure if I'm not
suppose to right slang words like that when I'm writing emails though.
My white handbook says something about that but I'm not really sure
what it means by slang.
K it still hasn't logged me off so I'll keep writing. Yes they eat
lots of fish over here. Did I tell you I was eating the fish heads?
I'm glad you guys started having me eat fish at home, I'm still
getting use to it over here. I'd rather have lamb, but I'm getting use
to the fish.

It's actually only rained once while I've been here. I think the rainy
season is next month. But it didn't rain to hard, and I was inside.

Oh weird thing! I was starting to wonder if they had clouds over here
because all the time you can only see white in the sky. It's not even
puffy clouds, it's just white. But yesterday and the day before I saw
puffy clouds! Haha just thought I'd let you know. And I actually saw
the blue sky for once. The problem was that the sun was out though so
I got sunburnt. It actually isn't too bad over here I think. Compared
to Saint George at least. The sun hasn't been directly out. So it's
mostly the humidity that gets you. I mean I still sweat a lot, but I'm
not dying of heat.

No don't send me a phone card. You can buy them over here. We actually
just got phones in our mission as well because it's a safety
precaution.

I'll probably never make Fufu. You have to buy loads of ingredients
and you have to pound the stuff with a stick. For some reason you can
get a big bowl of it for just 1 cedi in town. Which is crazy to me
because of all the work that goes into making it. I think it's the
meat where they get the money from because you get a tiny peice of
meat for another 1 cedi. But it is delicious meat.

Thank Lori and Grandma for the emails. I would write them back but I'm
not allowed to. But ya it sounds like I can read emails from anyone.

I'm getting to know the town down here pretty well now. One problem,
they don't have street names so everybody just knows where the
chopbars, football stadiums, etc are. So I'm going to have to learn
all those names.

I was watching the kids play football yesterday. Holy cow they are
incredible. I was talking to my companion about it and he said because
they are so poor football is a great way for them to earn money if
they get signed onto teams. But it's terribly dangerous because people
will intentionally break the players legs so they don't get on a team.
Soo it's a really dangerous sport if you want to do it for a job. Oh
and football is soccer just so you know. I always thought they spelled
it Futbol, but I guess they spell it the same way as us. They just say
American football if they're ever talking about our football back
home.

I think my time really is about up so I'm going to go. I love to hear
from you guys.

Btw I don't think Lori knows that I'm not learning a language? I'm
just learning the greetings in Fante.

Btw my name is Kojo not Kodi haha. It means monday born. Everybody
here has there own name plus there Fante name of whatever day they
were born on.

Love ya all!