Quinton's sister, Melinda, is on a mission too!!!

Texas McAllen Spanish speaking - See her blog at www.melindasmission.blogspot.com

Monday, December 28, 2009

After Christmas

Email sent 28 Dec 2009



Christmas caroling and delivering green oranges

It was so cool to be able to talk to you guys on Christmas, it really did make my day! im already looking forward to Mothers day when we get to talk again!  Christmas sounded fun for you guys i do miss being there alot! seeing those pictures though helped me out and now im not so far away from home!  This christmas i have kinda gotten homesick but i guess that is to be expected at this time of year that has so many memories..but i really am greatful to be out here and serving and i wouldn't have it any other way... for the next 19 months of course, then i would only want to be home! lol

This week we didn't get much done proselyting wise. Because we were getting ready for christmas and everything there was so much excitement in the air! lol so i just have a couple things to talk about this week! When i got the package i thought it was so funny that you guys included those sweatbands that i have had in my room for years! i really did laugh, so today we are playing football against the cape coast zone and indeed i am going to wear one of the sweatbands! ha it will be funny!

This is a question for mom and dad. have you ever heard of the band Boney M? This is an old band in like the seventies, but Ghanaians freaking love this band and play it all the time everywhere and i have actually grown pretty fond of them as well so if you havent' heard of them you should probably check them out from the library of something! cuz they are legit! lol

ok and so now talking about the camera that i have gone back and forth on forever.. Elder Hancey's parents just sent him a brand new camera through the mail, just using those some packages that you guys use. and it got here safe and everything!!! His camera is sweet and i would really like it if you could buy one and send it sometime! you can even use my money for it! the camera i am wanting is the same as Hancey's, it is a Kodak M340 and i think it would be under 200 dollars. What Hancey's parents did is they sent it with some hot wheels and some other things, so i think that would be sweet if i could get a new camera so i would be able to carry it around all of the time :)

Sorry this email is really crappy and doesn't have much to do with anything important.

I love you,

Quinton

Email from Elder Joseph - we asked him why he goes by his first name

Happy christmas and have a wonderful new year. my father choose to be called Joseph the reason i do not know but the name always motivate me to be good.


For Elder petersen, he is doing great in football for the past nine weeks we have together he has improve in football and if he continue he can play in a proffessional team. for runing i do not do it for i am not all that good my favourite sport are football,volleyball and table tennis. i also love to play basketball but not all that good.

I teach computer operation in a computer firm and some of the program i teach are microsoft office and graphice like coral draw.

Yes i call them and it was love to hear my family for the past seven month and they are doing fine

Monday, December 21, 2009

Afenhyia paa!!!

Email sent 21 Dec 2009

That means happy christmas in Fante! and it is not pronounced at all how it is spelled, there are some weird ways the ghanains use words and it makes them sound alot different then it actually looks.

ok so this week i have slowly been getting sick... no fun. i think that my body knows that it should be getting colder so i am actually getting a cold right now and a sore throat. :( its kinda annoying having a runny nose all of the time and having to deal with it throughout the day but hopefully it goes away soon.

The week went by really slowly because we have been anticipating so many things to come. This last Wednesday we had a multi zone conference with 2/3 of our mission and President Sabey talked to us about christmas. It was really cool and very spiritual. And then after they had food catered to the chapel we were at and we basically got to eat as much food as we wanted. It was all very good, and we all felt kinda sick after eating so much, but it was definitely worth it!

This week our ward was starting a ward choir so i agreed to play the piano for them... the only problem is my ward has the biggest collection of the worst singers in the world! ha you might think that that is an exaggeration, but it is not... at all. They are not good at all, they sing some songs way to fast and others way to slow and all of them they sing totally off pitch. So that is kind of interesting, me and elder Joseph kind of have to knock them into line so that they don't sound totally terrible! lol

I'm officially 1/6th done with my mission today! thats so weird, i know that there is still alot to go but it does seem like the time is going by pretty fast and im sure it will be over before i know it. We had a cool lesson this week. We were teaching a kid named Tony, he is about 18 years old and we have been teaching him for a little while. We were teaching him Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and the spirit was really strong, during the lesson he asked us the question So is it true that Jesus Christ's church is really back on this earth? i don't know why but i got kinda emotional as i was telling him about everything, and you know me I DON'T CRY, but i was on the verge of tears when i was talking to him. luckily i kept my composure and the Spirit was strong that was a sweet lesson!

So as for the phone call, on Christmas day what we are going to do is our district is going to go carolling in the morning and hand out oranges to different people that should be really fun! then after that we will head back to our apartment. This Christmas President Sabey gave us 5 extra cedis each in our subsistence and told us that we were to make a meal for a family on Christmas. so Me, Elder Joseph, Jackson, and Hill are all working together to make this meal for this family and that will be really cool! so by the time we are done making the meal and everything it will be about 5' o clock. So i will be calling you guys anywhere from 5-6 Ghana time, which i think will be 10-11 AM Utah time. I hope that that is ok! that is the best time that i think we would be able to do it. Im not sure if our calling card works to other countries, but if it does i can maybe call you and then you will be able to call me back using the calling card, but if not that is fine i will buy enough units so that we can talk anyways! We can figure that out when i talk to you :) im really excited to finally talk to you guys again! So i hope that the time is good for you guys, sorry i was so late on getting this information to ya.

Thats so weird to hear about all of these different people getting married and stuff. it feels like my normal life should just be on pause right now, but that is definitely not the case! lol

Brandy,

You had a black baby! (Note:  Brandy has an Adult Roles class where they are assigned to bring home a mechanical baby for a weekend and take care of it.  It is programmed to act like a real baby - cry, eat, fuss, etc.)  lol that is really funny. did the baby cry every time it sees a white person, because that is what most of the black babies do over here! im glad your having a fun time in ceramics, because ceramics is sweet, my goal is to find a potters wheel in Ghana and make something that would be so cool.

Ok so now for the business. Alexis got an autograph of Galen Rupp? freak what is she doing just switching from Luke to Galen... haha but i am actually way jealous that she got an autograph from him so if its possible maybe you could drop a hint that i want one too :) lol

So thats all i have for now, but i will be talking to you guys on FRIDAY!!! im excited for that, hopefully we don't run out of things to say :)

Love,

Quinton

One again we were up to send emails back and forth - here are the follow ups.

We asked him for more details on the phone call for Christmas:

ok for us we are going to have 2 cell phones in our apartment on christmas so the we don't have to worry about the other companionship.. I have to buy a sim card, and some units to call you guys.. everything is prepaid though, and its all pretty cheap so i don't think it will be a problem. You guys don't have to buy a card or anything just sit and wait for the call. i can talk for around 40 minutes so we'll see how long we go!

We asked him about sending pictures:
 
ill start sending a picture every week it actually doesn't take to long! i just always forget so i will start next week! because the time is almost out and we are going to play football today!
 
I love you and ill talk to you all on Friday :)

Monday, December 14, 2009

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas - not really

Email sent 14 Dec 2009

So it is getting closer and closer to Christmas time! and really nothing is changing about Ghana. Its kind of weird to know that back home it is snowing and doing all of these crazy things that have to do with winter, but over here they don't really even acknowledge that christmas is coming. The only sign we have that it is drawing near is now they have changed the plastic coke bottles they sell and they now have a black santa on them which i thought was pretty funny. I am going to buy one just so i can have the wrapper with the black Santa on it!

So last week was way sweet! i told you that we were playing Cape Coast in football and that we won, but after we went to buy our things the best thing happened! We were at the local supermarket and we were looking around, and low and behold what did i see? Mountain Dew! ha apparently they have mountain dew here so obviously you know me! i bought 7 of them, one for every day of the week. i had to take advantage of the oppurtunity because i don't know if they will have it again this week, but we will see later!

This week we had the craziest thunder and lightning storm that i have ever seen or heard! As we were starting to go to bed we could tell it might rain but didn't really think anything about it, but at about 2 in the morning we here it start pouring rain and lightninging a ton! The lightning was so much that it would light up our whole room very clearly every single time. Then came the loudest thunder that i have ever heard. It really felt like an earthquake because the thunder was so loud it made our whole house shake, so this continued for about an hour and we were just up watching and listening to it because noone could sleep because it was too loud. But it was fun so i didn't care.

We had one baptism this week! The kids name is Cyprian that we baptized and he is a way solid kid. i was very happy that we were able to baptize him because we were even teaching him when Elder Hurst was here and he has been coming to church every sunday now and has a way solid testimony. The baptismal service was way spiritual which is different from most baptisms here, the talks were very good and you could just feel the spirit. I was the one performing the baptism this time and we had a little problem. The water in the font had only filled about to our knees so the water was really low, so when i baptized him i pretty much had to lay him down on the bottom of the font! lol but it worked out and i got him fully submerged the first time, i was pretty proud of myself!

My favorite scripture hero.. hmmm there are so many cool ones its hard for me to choose just one. But as for just a strictly cool guy it would have to be Ammon, or Teancum because both were crazy good warriors and also had a very strong testimony. But also i would say Moroni because of what he had to go through being the last righteous person and pretty much living out his days by himself, i really respect him for that!

We do indeed have a freezer, it is not totally uncivilized out here like you might think mom. LOL we actually have two normal fridges in our apartment and each of them have freezers.

It sounds like its getting really cold at home! i am ashamed to say that i do actually get cold some nights, its probably like 70 degrees or something like that but sometimes i feel like it gets cold, i couldn't imagine going home to 0 degree weather and snow! for now i am content living here in the heat. but i am glad that it is snowing so that dad can get lots of plowing to do. Ebay seems to be working out good for you! maybe you can start a business and start making tons of money on it! that would be really cool. i am amazed also at how well i have actually been able to play the piano here, because back home i had problems sight reading alot of the hymns, but now im really now having trouble at all and have been able to play most of them pretty well, even if i have never heard the hymn before. But that doesn't stop my ward from singing terribly... ha the Kojokrom ward i think is a little tone deaf but thats ok they try.

Brandy,

I miss Ceramics, next time you are sending pictures to me make sure to send some pictures with you and your ceramics stuff in there because i wanna see how your doing and see if you are good or if your just lying to me. lol jk i believe you i just wanna see your stuff! Also im pretty sure that i answered that Question in the letter that i wrote home to you guys, so if you get that letter, and if it is not answered in that then ill answer it, so youll just have to wait :) oh and tell Karen that i haven't gotten her letter yet so its not my fault that i haven't written her back yet!

Also be careful driving, you are already the first of the kids to get in an accident so make sure you don't repeat that ok :) just be a good driver and make good decisions and think if Quinton was driving right now would he do this thing, and if the answer is yes you can do it! but if its no, then you should definitely steer away from that thing! lol

Thanks for everything. i sent Elder Joseph the message that you sent me, so he will be writing you back probably next week!

I love you,
Quinton

Email received 14 Dec 2009 from Quinton's companion Elder Joseph Oghenemine - Quinton calls him Elder Joseph

Hellow

I am privillede to be with your son on same mission and even be his companion
my family is made up of my mother and a step-father who are both memeber of the church and an elderly step-brother who is currently on the Ghana Accre mission.

I was born and brought up in Nigeria with my father and mother but my father die when i was just 9 year.

i just the church throught my step father who bring all my family to the church in 2002 i was baptise in 24 november 2002.

The climate with Ghana is almost the same.

The system of schooling in Nigeria is 3-6-6 from nusery to high school.

i live in a city called Warri.

my father is a carpenter but i tach in a computer firm before i came on mission.

Mission is only challeging when you do not work but as you put your self in it the challeges become lessons and learning the language of the Ghanans

Have a wonderful proselyting day and my mission prisedent advise

Monday, December 7, 2009

A Week of Christmas

Email sent 7 Dec 2009

so i had this whole letter written out to you guys this morning and then the cafes internet went down and i have been very angry because then my computer froze and i lost the whole letter that i wrote to you guys :(

but now i will write a slightly smaller version!

I got your guys first package last week and i was way happy! the package was sweet and i have eaten alot of the things in it already lol. I was also way excited to get the Conference talk ensign because we don't have that here yet! so ive been reading a talk or two every day now! The package was way sweet because it was pretty stuffed! alot of other peoples parents don't pack them as much as you guys did and that made it really cool! I loved the mashed potatoes and gravy, i still have one of them left! Im very excited for the packages to come as well! so as for the watch, i don't think i will be needing a new watch. i guess you can just send me the watch bands, but im not sure if i know how to get them on. But i can try and see! and as for the camera i decided that we should scratch that idea because its too expensive and too big of a risk if it is lost or broken or something! so no need for a new camera ill just make do with what i have for now.

it is seriously getting hotter every day. it is kind of coming into the "summer" months in ghana and the heat and humidity is getting bad. but im used to it and as long as i wear my sunscreen i don't get burnt.

Me and Elder Joseph are still companion which is sweet because i really really like the guy. he is a very cool companion and a very good missionary. and Elder Hill and Elder jackson are still companions so nothing changed in our apartment. but the zone that we were in last transfer split and so now we are in a new zone so there are alot of things that are different but our day to day things changed very little!

sorry this is so short!

brandy, you did way good at footlocker im proud! and im glad you actually got to run the real course this year because it is a very fun and hard course! 21:34 is legit, and i am pretty sure that is what i ran my freshman year...the exact same time! or close to it, and the next year i ran 18:46 so i think that you should be able to do that next year as well :) good luck with running in the snow!

So mom yes i do like it when you send copies of other emails in the emails because it helps me know what my friends are doing which is cool! Don't forget that the Christmas season is a time for giving and not for getting. as i look back on how i was back home i kind of was a bad son. I didn't participate much with the family and really didn't help out any around the house or anything, so when i get home i vow to change that because i really do see that i missed out on alot of cool stuff because i was preoccupied "being a teenager" or something like that.

I love you all so much,

Quinton

PS im not sure what is gonna happen with the phone call yet so when i find out ill keep you posted

Monday, November 30, 2009

Its good to get some letters :)

Email sent 29 Nov 2009

Ya sorry about last week! we came early to the cafe because we were playing the Assin Fosu zone in a football match.. and yes we did beat them! and i even scored a goal it was way sweet! im just getting better and better at football! im thinking about going pro when i come home... jk

But ya about last week after i sent you guys the email i kept refreshing the page to see if you guys would send me something and it wasn't until i had like five minutes left at the cafe when they loaded :( so what i did was a took pictures of the email and brought those back to the apartment so i could read it! ill be answering some of the questions from that email today, but i wrote you guys a letter that ill be sending today and it should probably get to you in about two weeks or so! hopefully you guys can read it because i wrote as small as humanly possible to fit all of it onto one page! i was actually pretty proud of myself when i finished it! lol

Ok so this week i am gonna make up for my really crappy letter that i wrote to you guys last week. i was sad i didn't get a letter so i kinda wrote a crappy one to tell you guys i was mad, then i felt way bad after i recieved your guys emails and i didn't have time to write you back but oh well! So you asked what i took money out for and i took the money out because i wanted to buy a new thing of luggage. So i did, i bought a new luggage thing for 25 citis which is like 17 bucks! It's a little smaller than my big luggage so its way sweet and im glad that i finally got it! I don't know how or if you guys are looking to see if you find any good camera's or anything, but i was looking last week at prices and stuff and asking to see how much they costed. For what i think would be a 180 dollar camera in the US it costed 450 citi's so i think that if we are gonna get a camera it would definitely have to be bought in the US because the electronics here are so freaking expensive!

You asked about how pouch mail works, well what we do is we write the letter and then we give it to our zone leaders. The zone leaders then give that letter to President Sabey and then President sabey puts that letter in a package that gets sent to America, once there they just regularly mail the letter in the normal post, so for in state mission you don't need pouch addresses or anything, i hope that makes sense, its kinda confusing though.

So this week has been kinda crazy, it all started last sunday when our power went out... Our power was out for 4 days straight and we had no lights or anything so that really stunk when we came back at night and there was no way to see, or to have a fan to cool us off. Then on wednesday the power came back on, but only too half of our apartment, and the half that didn't have power was my room, so we still didn't have lights or fans in my room. We went to the electricity company trying to figure out this problem and they had to send a guy out to fix it... well the guys didn't end up coming out till tomorrow, so i went a whole week without any power whatsoever! but it is all back now and i am so thankful for that! You also asked about how the clothes washing was going.. It really isnt that bad! I always dread doing it, but when i am actually doing it i kind of get into a zone and just scrub my little heart out! LOL but ya i usually wash monday after i get back from football and just knock it out. My hands never really get raw or anything when i do it,maybe i just have really strong hands or something. But now i really do see what a blessing having a washing machine is, and maybe when i come home ill actually help with doing the wash :) lol ok i will definitely help with the wash when i come home! The sun really hasn't been a problem either.. except for the days that i forget to put on sunscreen at the start of the day and that has only happened like twice! When that happened though i got sunburnt really bad on my face, but that was a long time ago and im all better now! So as long as i continue using sunscreen i will be fine! I'm actually starting to wane myself off of sunscreen so one day if it is more cloudy i won't wear it so im working up a nice little base so that i won't have to wear it anymore in like a year or something! lol

So now about the week, it wasn't a too exciting week, we had a little thanksgiving feast on thursday with our district which was sweet! We all went to the sekondi chapel and brought food, for me i had fufu for thanksgiving and it was way good! Fufu looks kinda like mashed potatoes and the soup kinda looks like gravy so it actually did feel like Thanksgiving, and then after we ate we went around the table and told 3 things we were thankful for. Then last night we had another kinda thanksgiving feast! Elder Whaikawa (a guy from New Zealand) is going home today so he made a huge feast for the 4 elders in his apartment and the 4 in ours! it was way sweet and we just got to have a nice time there eating some really good rice and stew with all of them and it was really fun!

So some things about Ghana that are really funny. Alot of the really little kids have never seen a white person before so when they see us for the first time they freak out! They start bawling there eyes out and stuff like that and they won't let me come near them without them screaming louder and louder! Ha so that is when you just run at them and give them a huge hug! LOL and as they are screaming they then just realize that your a normal person it is really funny to see and it probably happens 3 times a week. Also another thing about mission that i always pictured different is the setting in which we have our lessons. When i always thought about mission i always pictured teaching lessons in a very reverent and quiet room where we can here each other and don't have to speak loudly to be heard... well i would say that Ghana is the complete opposite of that. almost all of the lessons we teach are outside sitting on these puny little stools that they use, and there is usually a woman breast feeding or like thirty kids that yell "o brunie" during the lesson. So its not the most reverent of places... at all! but i really do love it and the people are so receptive and willing to hear the gospel which is pretty sweeet!

I am playing the piano every sunday in our ward for all the hymns and that is working out really good... for the most part. The Ghanaians sing most of the songs right and so when i play them it isnt a problem, but there are a select few songs so far that i have played and the people sing it either way to slow, or way to incredibly fast so i have to adjust really quickly to whatever crazy way they are singing it.. its frustrating, but eventually ill teach them!

On a more sad note my watch band broke :( i am very sad because i haven't not worn a watch since 8th grade and i feel really weird not knowing the time at all times so if you guys haven't sent my christmas package yet that is the one thing right now that i would say i really want! Not just any old watch though.. the same kind that i have had before! The Ironman Triathlon Timex watch, with the rubber wristband because those are the best watches ever and im really needing one!

Packages if its a flat rate package usually takes about 3 weeks to get here, so yours that you sent should be coming soon!!! but if you are like sending a box or something those can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 or 7 weeks, just for future reference!

Brandy,

I can't believe footlocker is already this week! that was always one of the best trips and most fun races of the year! i really do love that course! just remember one thing before the start of the race.. DO NOT go out too fast! the first mile is all flat so everyone will be running and gunning from the start, but you need to make sure to stay relaxed and not go out too fast so that once the hills come you can dominate and have a blazing finish! Also remember one more thing, once you get onto the track you have only 250 meters left and you need to be sprinting full out as fast as you can. Even if it hurts terribly bad you will feel so good after the race after doing that, and then you won't have something to regret for the rest of the whole next year. That little sprint will also help you pass about 10 people and that could be the difference between medalling and not so just remember to go for it :) You'll do great i know! Elder Hill and i are very glad that you liked the Middle Distance Runner song, he says that you should look up the whole album, its called Leaves in the River! so do it! I hope you have fun at Footlocker!

Dad,

Seriously one of these days you have to get a whole in one! you are way close every single time that we go golfing so one of these days it has to fall right! i know it will, i just hope that im there to see it! Also im very glad that BYU won! that sounds like a crazy intense game! If you are reading books about Ghana you should check out one called Walking in the Sand! Its about how the church came to ghana and sort of the beginning of everything, plus i met the guy that wrote that book so that is pretty cool as well! I hear it is very good!

Thanks for sending all of the addresses and stuff! i hope you guys have a great week!

Love,

Quinton - squanto

Monday, November 23, 2009

So no email??

Email sent 23 Nov 2009

Why didnt you guys send an email this week......

Whatever im not exactly sure why you guys didnt get time but you better have a pretty good reason.

This week was normal nothing too excting happened. We had a fufu party with all of our zone last monday and we had a limbo competition, for some reason i didn't do as well as i usually do, but i still dominated, so it was a little frustrating though. While at the party we were talking about family and me and Elder Holmes (the kid from south Jordan) were talking. i told him i had cousins that went to Alta and i didn't think he would know them, but i said i was cousins with Corie and Catie and Cam. Well wouldn't ya know it me and Elder Holmes are related lol. Elder Holmes brother is married to our cousins cousin. ha thats a little funny coincedence i guess. So now whenever i see Holmes i call him cousin. We are playing another zone from our mission in a football (soccer) match today which is gonna be sweet! im really excited because we'll get to see alot of our friends from other zones and then get to play a football game. I bought a Soccer Jersey the other day, it was only 5 citis, or about 3 dollars!! ha its a Manchester United Jersey! I like it but it is possibly a little small, but they didn't have any other sizes so i bought it. Other than that it was just a normal week of proselyting where not much happened.

Brandy,

You need to check out a band called Seawolf. They have a song called Middle Distance Runner that sounds really cool! I have never actually heard the real song i've only heard elder Hill play it on the Guitar. but i think you should check it out cuz it sounds really good.

So im not really sure what else to write about this time because you guys didn't send an email..

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving though! and you can send me stuffing in my next package :) lol jk

PS i am now 3 months on mission! im one eighth through so that is exciting as well!

I better be recieving an email from You next week because monday really is what us as missionaries have to look forward to each week, and hearing from our family is what keeps us going. and when its not there its kinda sad. So i will be talking to you all next week. Sorry this was so short...

Love,

Quinton

WOW did we mess up!  We were up writing Quinton's email and checked to see if his had come through.  It had come 11 minutes earlier (1:11 AM), which was a half hour earlier than he has sent it before.  So immediately emailed ours, but he must not have checked to see if he received anything before he signed off.  OOPS!!!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Helloooooooo!

Email sent 16 Nov 2009

Wow, so much is happening i really do love to get emails, it is definitely one of the highlights of my week!!

This week went by so incredibly fast it was really weird! i dont exactly know why, but for some reason when you are putting in a full day of proselyting the days seem to fly by. It really does just seem like yesterday that i was emailing you guys, but that was a whole week ago... I don't count my time here in days, if i did that would be way to depressing so i count it in weeks and it is weird how i can really just see the weeks speeding up as time goes by! Not much exciting did happen this week though except for a few things. I had another baptism this week! We were supposed to be baptising 4 people, but for some reason only two of them showed up and i don't know why this one boy didn't. We will have to have a little talk with him tomorrow and find out why. And the other lady that didnt come to her baptism her name is Agnes... she has now been given at least five baptismal dates and has not showed up to any of them :( i don't know why) so for this baptism she actually did show up, but she showed up an hour and a half late and we were already done with the baptism so maybe she will actually be able to get baptised next time!...hopefully. The two that actually came to the baptism were both 17 year old girls one is named Felecia and one is named Esther. Esther has been coming to church now for more then a year and noone really knows why she wasnt baptised before, but its ok because now she is! Before i started teaching her i actually thought that she was a member lol. And Felecia we have been teaching for some time, even before i came Elder Hurst was teaching her, and so right after he left we were able to give her a baptismal date and she accepted so that is sweet!

Im not sure if i told you guys about this or not, but about a month ago there was the under 23 world cup (soccer) going on, and Ghana was doing very well in it! we could always tell when ghana was playing a game because there would be noone out on the road and noone would want us to teach them because they were all watching the game. Then randomly as we were walking down the street the whole country would erupt into cheers and yells as Ghana scored a goal, it was really funny! Well Ghana actually won the under 23 world cup!! which is sweet and is a really big deal if you guys didnt know. so i am proud to be in Ghana if only for there amazing football (soccer) skills!

So i am trying to keep you updated as well on weird things that i eat... this week i ate goat stomach!! it was so weird, but actually didnt taste that bad at all! When you look at the stomach it looks like one of those balls that children play with with water inside and spikes on the outside, do you know what i mean? sorry if you don't, but i ate goat stomach which was really cool, and im happy to say that i did it!

Now to answer some of your guys questions. A transfer is 6 weeks in the mission field. Each transfer you might or might not be assigned to a new area with a new companion, but sometimes you can stay as well. So when Elder Hurst left that was the end of the transfer and so i am on my second transfer in the mission field right now. Me and Elder Joseph could stay together for the next transfer or we could be assigned to a new companion, we never know until two days before so it is always a big guessing game. At the last transfer there were 20 or so new missionaries that came into the mission, and this next transfer we will be getting 14 more, that is right at the start of December, so there is a possibility i could be training one of them, but really we are not sure what will happen.

Elder Joseph doesnt speak Fante as good as me, which is funny because all the Ghanaians try and talk to him in fante because they think that he is Ghanaian, when he is not, so he doesn't understand, and sometimes i have to save him, and sometimes he has to save me. He can understand the fante a little bit better then me, but i can speak a little bit better then him. Its a weird combination, but our ward missionaries are way freaking cool and they go out with us almost every day so that helps us out a ton!

That christmas idea sounds totally fine! it will definitely be easier then having them ship me something that would be really costly or something! Maybe you guys could give me Spencers pouch adress if he has one! because it is alot easier for us to send mail here then for us to get on the internet because we only have a certain amount of time. so if you can get me his adress ill definitely send him some letters, and also if you can still work on getting some of my friends adresses as well :)

Im way excited to be getting the package :) its kinda like christmas when stuff like that comes because we get to kind of unwrap a gift! lol

Brandy!

wow bingham is doing pretty legit in football right now! Its funny because I went to Bingham and Elder Hill went to Davis so whoever wins will have bragging rights in the apartment for a little while! go Bingham! Im way jealous of your day activity because that sounds freaking sweet! you are probably gonna have to take me to do that when i come home... you know me i love shooting guns :) Im glad you had fun at the dance it sounds fun!

As for clay in ceramics, next time you buy clay you should buy B-mix... it is the best clay to use for the pottery wheel, it is a little different to get used to, but once you get used to it it makes your projects look a ton better! so try that next time ok :) Mrs. Bennet is lying to you though because she is just nice to the people that arent very good so that they don't get discouraged ;) lol jk you are probably better then me, your better then me at alot of things that i started.. running, pottery! LOL but i still am going to have a higher score on the ACT then you in the end so eat it! haha.

The language is coming along small small. I learn new things every day, but it is a lot to process because you are bombarded with language every day, so eventually i will get better and better, it will just take time, but for now i can get around because i know alot of the common phrases and the things people say in normal conversation so thats good!

I am sorry you got the piggy flu! when i had that it stunk! but im glad your feeling better. Good luck in your footlocker training and stuff!

That is definitely long enough for now! haha

Ill be writing you next week as always :)

Love

Quinton

Monday, November 9, 2009

A Man Among Giants

Last night Mike and I were up at 2 AM and received Quinton's email at 2:01 AM.  We were able to email back and forth for about an hour before he left the internet cafe for the day's activities.

Email sent 9 Nov 2009

I never really noticed this, but when i am looking back at some of the pictures that we took last transfer i realized that i looked sooooo short! haha i was like more than a head shorter than everyone in my apartment! So i hope that i am still growing! Elder Joseph is only about an inch taller then me so that isnt as bad now. and the people in Ghana aren't that tall either, alot of them are actually my height, but then there is some that are alot taller, i would say the average height is right around 5'6 which is what cha cha told me when i texted them like 7 months ago lol.

I was also wondering if that shirt i sent to dad fit? i hope it did cuz i thought it was a cool shirt and i just had to guess what size would fit him because in those shirts they don't really have sizes. i believe they are hand made and however big you make them that is what you get. So definitely tell me if that fit you!

This week has really gone by so fast, and they say that as mission goes on the weeks go by faster each time and i really do see that coming true in my life. Me and Elder Joseph are getting along really well and getting some full days of proselyting in and it really does make the days fly by! We are having a baptism this weekend which we are really excited for. we were supposed to be baptising 4 people, but we are thinking that 2 of them might fall through :( we have been teaching this one girl named Felecia for ever since i came to Kojokrom and she has finally decided to be baptised and we gave her the date and everything was cool until we came to her house on friday, she said she will be going to school in Kumasi tomorrow (which is like 6 hours away) so she won be able to make it to her baptism, we were sad about that, but it is still looking like we will be having two or three people that we are going to be able to baptize which is sweet! I feel so blessed to be over here in Ghana were people actually want to listen to our message and are so open to it. This transfer is already half over which is crazy to me. we are getting 14 new missionaries i think at the end of this transfer which will be cool to see all of the new greenies and wonder if i was that weird when i first came out...i probably was, but i have really gotten into the swing of things now and we are just doing some great missionary work here!

One thing about Ghana is that people drink...ALOT! and it is not uncommon, and by not uncommon i mean this happens like 3 times a week, that a totally drunk guy will come up to us on the road and say.. White man, Preach me! ha its so funny to see them and try and talk with them because they really have no concept of what they are doing. Just the other day me and Elder Joseph were walking down the street and this guy with a scraggly beard and a cigarrette in his mouth stopped us and said he wanted to show us something, he then began to take of his shirt. We were thinking what the heck is this guy doing. LOL it turned out he had some carving of jesus that he kept on a necklace thing. ha we just laughed because the guy couldnt even walk straight and as he was smoking he is showing us that he thinks he's religious! Funny funny people!

Brandy, so your turning into a college girl? lol i remember when we went down to stay with Melinda like 2 years ago! that was fun, live it up in high school! because once its gone it will never come back :) lol

Are you going to be sending me the SD card back with the pictures on it? because you should, because it is cool to look back on the things that we did, so don't delete the pictures on the card ok! That might mean youll eventually have to send me more memory cards, but for right now i am fine! One more thing i have really been debating is for you guys to get me a new nice camera and send it to me... I know its not the most practical thing, but since being out here i have realized that i want a camera that i can carry in my scripture bag, and my camera is way to huge to do that :( Also those rechargable AA batteries that i have been using have the shortest battery life ever which is really annoying if i ever want to do something with it. It wouldnt have to be a super nice camera, just like a $150 or less one. One of the thin ones that people have, i have been told you can get a really good deal on camera's like that at Costco, or Sams club. I would be willing to buy it if you guys wanted to send it to me and you can use my money. You could send a new SD card full of pictures of our family and our house and just things that are happening while ive been gone... just a suggestion :)

Well sorry that was so long lol, me and Austen (Austen is in Brazil) are just writing letters to each other, it takes about a month for our letters to get to each other though so that is kinda annoying, but its just good to hear from my friends when the letters come! We might have to try the HELP (Re-enactment of HELP album, like they did the re-enactment picture of the Beatle's Abbey Road album, see picture in previous blog) idea, so we will see. Im glad you guys realized it was an abbey road picture! haha and i even used my little tri-pod to take that one! Hopefully your ebay selling goes good! you can start a little business on there!

Well thats all for now, i love you and am praying for you :)

LOVE Your son/brother

The following are the emails sent back and forth:

Sent 2:08 AM
Hi , we ended up being awake and Dad checked. Your email is here!!!  We are still reading the email, but sent this now.  What did you do last Monday and what are you doing today?

Received 2:20 AM
Hey! we played football last monday and we are going to play football again today in like 45 minutes! i have really gotten alot better at it and i would say i am probably one of the best white Elders in our zone!

Sent 2:21 AM
We went to bed so late, that Dad was still awake so he came to check and found your email after a few minutes. We are hoping you will receive these. As for the shirt it fits. Not sure if it will shrink any when we wash it. We will be careful drying it, too.

Sent 2:32 AM
Oh, this is fun. You guys really get to the internet cafe early. I am sure that is because you want to be done so you can play. Go team. Speaking of football - SUU is 4 and 5. BYU and Utah destroyed their teams this week, Wyoming and New Mexico this week. Is the shirt one that a lot of people wear in Ghana? How many play? Do locals ever play with you? Is there anywhere to play basketball? Do any of the elders in your area ride bikes. One of the missionary moms said her son does in Accra. Dad says maybe he will go for a ride on your bike since his back feels better and the weather is good this week for a few days before a storm wed. or thurs

Received 2:39 AM
The cameras here are super expensive, for like a 150$ camera in the US its like 600 citis, which is rediculously alot, i know my camera takes good pictures but i really want to be able to carry it with me proselyting, and it is much to big for that, which is really annoying, like a 150 dollar camera now would be much nicer then what i have here and it would be able to take a little nicer pictures, and the main point would be so that i could carry it with me wherever, whereas now i am only bringing it along when i have my backpack, which is like never because it stinks to carry my backpack around because it is so hot! I don't exactly know what the good deals are, but all of my MTC mates are saying i could get a really nice one for under 150 and the batter life would be really good as well which is another problem im having :( sorry these are just some suggestions!

Im glad that the shirt fits you dad! you hopefully it doesnt shrink or anything!

Sent 2:50 AM
We'll check and see. I can't remember. Does it have a case that you could carry on your belt? What about batteries and charging? What is your suggestion? Or what kind is better? Do you charge your batteries right before you use them. The batteries for our camera last quite a while if I charge them the night before I go to use the camera. This is kind of like IM - in slow motion!!! I guess you are not supposed to do that.

Received 2:52 AM
ya this is fun! ha we like to get to the cafe early so we get the emailing done before football and don't have to worry about it after so we can just go and buy our things in town and not waste any time! We are really efficient :) Our zone is huge so we usually have enough for a full football (soccer) game which is 11 on 11 and we get to play that so its way fun, it is usually just us missionaries that play because we do it at the stake center! There is also a basketball court at the stake center but we have never played a full game yet, we have kinda shot around but haven't played a game, most of the Africans really really stink at basketball! LOL we have bikes in our apartment, but we never ride them because it is to big of a hassle and makes us really sweaty, we just walk everywhere i would say we walk an average of about 3-5 miles a day! so my legs are getting fit! my quads have seriously decreased in size though, so that is kinda funny, when i get home i might actually look like a distance runner for once in my life :)

Dad be nice to my bike! that thing is precious! lol but seriously go for i bike ride, that is one of the things i really miss is having a nice bike with no problems!

So we are about to leave so i probably wont be able to write you back again but thanks for being up and having this little conversation with me!!

I love you guys and i will talk to you next week!

PS keep me updated on the camera thing, or at least look and see if you can find any good ones for cheap :)

love Quinton

Sent 2:55 AM
OK, no more from us today. We were thinking you were playing football as in America, then this email let us know it is soccer!!! Americans first think of football as football, not soccer.
By, love you!!!! lots!!!!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Email sent 2 Nov 2009

Well hello!

Wow it sounds like there is tons of stuff going on while im gone! haha its weird to hear about home and everything going on while i am gone, but its really good to hear! I havent been getting a ton of mail or email from other people so if you could could you get me these missionaries addresses? I would Like Connor's, Andrews, Nate Jewkes, Zach Tuttle's, and then anyone else that you can think of that would like to write me or even just give them my address so i can be getting more letters! You should tell Mat Crook to write me as well! The more letters the better obviously lol. If you are sending a pre-paid package i do not have to pay anything to get the package because there are no duties on things like that. But if you are sending just like a box or something, i will have to pay duty on the things that are in the package. The duty is not that expensive as long as you are not sending like electronic devices or like tons of peanut butter or something. Oh i forgot to tell you we found a lady in Cape Coast that makes totally legit Peanut Butter!!! so i wont even be needing for you guys to send me any of that because i can just get it here! so im pretty happy about that! If you are sending a package their are a few things that would be cool. Tons of pictures first of all! like alot, some of our house, and my room and the rooms in our house, then of stuff that is going on while im not there, and then even like old pictures of me and stuff! because those are all really good to look at if im getting homesick or anything, and they are just cool to see! Also candy is very good, and if you are wanting to send more macaroni and cheese you don't have to send the whole box with noodles and everything, you can just send the cheese packet from it because we have noodles here i can make it with, so that will save space and weight in the package! Other than that i don't know you guys can just be creative and surprise me :)

Ha about that whole luggage thing...yes we should have sent me with a bigger one, because it was a huge hassle getting everything stuffed into that smaller one. I am even accumulating more things while im here and i have been debating buying a big luggage bag that i can use. but it would be like 50 citi's so i havent done it yet. Do you think i should? also i took money out of the ATM the other day and i think everything went well.. did it?

I just barely got a letter that you guys sent to the MTC on September 1! haha it was funny because it takes along time to get from the MTC to our mission, but i finally got it and it was a good letter! thanks! I do not need any ping pong balls LOL if i want to buy some i can get them here for really cheap haha, but thanks for asking! Ping pong is a really fun part of the day and just helps me and elder Joseph unwind (me and him are about the same skill level) I don't know if you know but the electricity in ghana is really sketchy! ha our apartment probably loses power on average of once a day! its funny, but kinda frustrating, and i have already had to take a couple bucket showers because out water stopped working for a couple days too LOL TIG (This is Ghana)!

This week was really sweet for us. while i still have to ask elder joseph what he said sometimes because i cannot understand him, but we get along very well and have been doing alot of proselyting! on wednesday we were at a members house and it started to pour! we waited for the rain to stop for about an hour and a half, but it never did so me and elder joseph decided that we were going to just walk back to our apartment. So obviously as we were walking it started to rain even more and we had about 2 miles to go to our apartment, so we were just soaking wet when we got home, i had fun though and it felt really really good!

Yesterday we finally got to listen to some of general conference! We were way happy and excited to finally be able to hear those things! So we got to watch the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions and they were really great. At the end after everyone left the missionaries were the only ones left and we made a special request so that we could listen to Elder Hollands talk because we had heard that it was so good. So they let us and man that talk was the most powerful testimony of the Book Of Mormon that i have ever heard! It was an incredible talk and we all loved it and were very greatful that we were able to hear those things! So ya thats pretty much how my week went!

Brandy!

A 4.0 that is pretty legit, im proud of my little sister! ha i never got a 4.0 in high school, i guess you could say that i was kinda a lazy guy...Congrats again on doing well at state! as for ceramics its sweet that your loving it, as you are finishing projects youll have to send me pictures of the good ones so i can judge if they are good or not! and you should totally take AP ceramics if you and Karen do it together! if you work in that class your pretty much guranteed to pass and you will just have fun doing it so it really is a win win situation! Its crazy that it is already snowing there, i am ashamed to say that i have actually gotten cold a couple of nights already here in ghana! lol when the coldest it probably gets at night is like 70 degrees! LOL

Thats all for now!

Stay sweet family!

Love

Quinton

Monday, October 26, 2009

me ma mo a ha

Email sent 25 Oct 2009

I think that that (or something like that) means good afternoon in fante! haha Im way glad you guys got to go to Elder Hursts homecoming! im sure it was a good talk because he was a good missionary... most of the time ;) lol jk I am glad that you guys enjoyed all of your Christmas presents... i tried to think of things that you guys would like and also things that would be not to expensive for me to buy! so its a good thing you guys liked it otherwise i would have been sad.

So mom you really don't have to be worried about anything, ha the beach is a totally legit beach and it is fine for bare feet. and the reason i look soaking wet in the pictures is because i went for a swim right before :) just kidding, we had been playing ultimate frisbee and it is really hot and humid so i sweat really bad, and so that is all sweat and pretty much no ocean water! yes we can play with face cards haha we play hearts and stuff sometimes at the end of the day just for fun. Surprisingly i dont get any food on my clothes but i do always make a pretty good mess of my hands and sometimes face! I have seen some small results but really most of the stuff i see is what you guys send me so keep the results coming, its nice to know what is happening out there in that world! haha

At first we had six in our apartment Elder Hancey and Musetsi, Elder Hill and Elder Jackson, and me and Hurst. Hancey and Jackson were both in the MTC with me and we are really good friends and we get along well! Now in the apartment we only have 4, Elder Jackson and Elder Hill are still there, and then me and Elder Joseph. Elder Joseph is a really cool guy. he has only been out about 4 months now so we are both pretty new on mission so it is a totally different feeling then when i had elder hurst there to make all of the decisions. In alot of ways right now i feel like i am actually training Elder Joseph because he is new to the area and i have to show him where everything is and were our investigators are and stuff like that. Its kinda hard but it is a total different experience and i am already learning alot from it. So Nigerians.. did i tell you it was hard to understand my companion in the MTC.. well with elder Joseph it is the same way, but i am working on it and i can understand him more and more everyday so everything will be fine. Elder Hancey moved to the new apartment that is close to where ours is, and then he got a new companion and 2 others came. so that apartment has Hancey and his new companion Elder Smith, and then Elder Whaikawaa from New Zealand and he is training a new Elder named Russel! so its cool now that we are not the youngest in the mission anymore and we are actually getting pretty old! lol

So this week has been lots of showing joseph around to all of our investigators and stuff but here are some cool things about it. The ping pong table you guys saw the picture of is pretty sweet, and we get to play pretty often. none of the tables that we play on are the actual size of a standard ping pong table, they are alot smaller so that is hard to get used to. and sometimes the paddle we use is just a block of wood! lol its really interesting. Just two days ago i played on a table that was about 2 and a half feet long! the kids here are really good too, but i can still lay the smack down on them! Thanks dad for teaching me the ways of the ping pong! Do you have any idea though how hard it is to correct for wind when playing ping pong? its SOOOOOooo hard. the kid could hit the ball way off the table and then a gust of wind will hit the ball and it will fly back onto the table! and you just have to play it.. its way funny and makes the game alot harder and interesting! you guys should try playing on our kitchen table sometime outside and you will know how i feel!

Me and Elder Jackson cut each others hair on Saturday, and we cut it pretty short! cuz i guess that is the thing to do.. when in Ghana do as the Ghanaians. Ha so we cut it to a two and its really short, but now my head doesnt sweat as much so that is really nice! now i have to put sunscreen on my scalp though otherwise i think it will get roasted like a pig in the Tongan islands!

With this new group of missionaries that have just come from the MTC there is one of them named Elder Holmes, i don't know him, but apperently he is from South Jordan.. small world huh? lol but he went to Copper Hills so thats probably why i don't know him, but its just cool that its so close to where i live!

Brandy!

good job at state i am proud of you and your team! you ran really fast, but i still think i can run faster :)... maybe! That stinks that barnes is quitting because he was a really good coach. The 12 hour run sounds a ton less intense and way less fun then the 24 hour run! SOrryy! ha but im sure you will get over it!

Dad,

first of all when i get back from mission im gonna dominate you at ping pong :) ha and you will have to reteach me how to golf because i have already forgotten! but plus 3 isnt bad! and i am glad that your back is getting better. You will have to keep me up to date on if anything cool happens in the sports world! like how tiger is doing, or the jazz and stuff like that!

I do play the keyboard at church now, and i definitely try not to play in slow motion because i seriously hate when people do that! so now that you say that you are a bad typer i think that you will be able to have lots of practice in these next 22 months so then by the time i get home you'll be a typing wizz! you can have mom set up Mario teaches typing for you like we did when we were like 10 if you want ;) ha

thanks for the letters and enjoy your christmas in October!

I love you,

Quinton

Sunday, October 25, 2009

First Two Months (pictures)



President and Sister Sabey



Trip to the Accra Ghana Temple









He still finds a way to practice his ping pong skills half way around the world.



Top:  family vacation before Quinton left on his mission
Bottom:  Cape Coast Castle, Ghana
He really likes this pose.


This is what he eats...with his hands.





Three South Jordan natives running into each other in Cape Coast, Ghana.
Elder Petersen, Lanaya Wallace, and Elder Hurst





Temple trip - Accra Ghana Temple



P-day at the Cape Coast beach



Reinactment of the Beatles Abbey Road Album



Elder Petersen, Elder Hurst, Elder Hill, Elder Jackson

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Email to Grandma Faye

Email sent 19 Sep 2009

Grandma!
Im glad you are learning how to use the email! and yes it is able to come all the way over to me in Ghana! I am glad you are enjoying the letters, this is really the greatest experience anyone could ever ask for! I love you and can't wait to hear from you more
Love
Quinton

Monday, October 19, 2009

Another Day

Email sent 19 Oct 2009

So im just still living out in Ghana...
This week was somewhat boring/depressing. With Elder Hurst going home we had to do lots of things to get him ready to go home and stuff so i have been thinking of when my time will be to go home and it seems so far away! lol Everyone says that living with someone that is going home makes the time go by alot slower, but it really hasnt been bad at all because we have just been out working and doing things that usually keep our minds off of all of that stuff! We had the baptism this week. This time i actually got to perform the baptism so that was a pretty cool experience! We only got to baptise 2 of the 4 that we were going to baptize because one of them didnt show up (this is now her 4th baptismal date that she has not showed up for) so that is really frustrating! lol and then the most frustrating of all was this kid named Albert he has been wanting to be baptised for some time, but his parents wont allow him too. It is very sad to see him feel bad because he is not able to be baptized but i know that eventually he will be! We have a very big strong group of kids in our ward that have just been baptized recently and he is part of them, minus the being baptized part, and they come to church every week, and do all of the things that they are supposed to so its sad to see when someone wants to be baptized so bad, but they are not able too. But we at least got to baptize two of them, they were 16 and 17 years old and they are awesome kids and you can really tell that they are going to be strong in the church!

Im glad that you guys have had a good Anniversary/Birthday! sorry i couldn't be there, but i was busy being on the other side of the world! Its crazy that ive already been out for almost two months! It really has gone by way fast, and if the rest of it goes by this fast mission will just fly by and ill be home before you know it! but as you said i may not even want to come home after! lol I see from watching Elder Hurst as he is going home it is a very bittersweet thing for him, because he is very happy to go home and see his family and everything, but also he is sad to leave Ghana and all the things he has come to love about this country. In his own words he says "It's like im leaving my second home" So Ghana really does become home to you after you get to all the really weird things about it, such as people peeing on the side of the street, Roosters crowing constantly from 2 in the morning and all the way throughout the day and just little funny things like that. I think i am already over the initial shock of being like, holy crap this is all so weird and foreign to me. Now its pretty much just normal everyday life! ...But its not America obviously LOL

Brandy! good job at region, and good luck at state! i hope you guys do great and run really fast! I am sending my letter to you back with Elder Hurst along with a couple other things, so you guys can get that from him! I'm sure you will all be excited for that! Im glad that you dominated bowling on your date! even though those aren't the best scores! I have taught you well, and you don't have to pretend to stink just cuz youre a girl :) you can go out and bowl 200's if you want! LOL

When i went for a run, we probably went like two miles, it was just me and another Elder in my apartment named Elder Hancey, we probably were going super super slow, but it was fun just to get out and run some.. we got a bunch of weird looks though, two totally white Obrunei's running through Africa, i can imagine it would look weird.

My guitar is an accoustic guitar. Me and Elder Jackson got the same kind.. It's brand is givson, so its just some knock off brand and i got it for 60 citi's so not bad. Im learning some small things on it and slowly getting better, its cool though!

Im pretty sure that i got all of the letters that you guys have mailed me! but i don't really remember when i got them! sorry, lol but i did get brandy's letter on Wednesday so that took about 14 days or a little bit more.

I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday, i am not sure whether i will stay in my same apartment or go somewhere else. We will be getting transfer calls tonight actually and President Sabey will tell us whats happening and where were going! Im actually kinda nervous to find out who im gonna be with and if im gonna be going or staying.. It's like im a little kid right before Christmas and im not sure whether im gonna get an Xbox or im gonna get some coal or something stupid like that! ha but i guess that is how it always feels. Westley is leaving today to go up to Cape Coast with all of the other ones that are leaving, so i will be paired with Elder Hancey for a day, because his companion is also leaving! With all these tons of new missionaries it is very likely that i could be training one transfer from now! that would be crazy and i don't feel prepared at all for that, but if it happens i will be ready, and i think it would be really fun and a very good experience to have to train some new little greenies!

Tell Travis good luck on his farewell talk for me! and also tell him to stop being lazy and write me so i can know his address for when he leaves so we can keep in touch on our missions!

All of the American elders that came with me on the plane all went to the Cape Coast Mission, so we all got really close and are all very good friends and enjoy seeing each other at Conferences and things. Elder Mackay was in my MTC group, he's a way cool kid so thats funny that your reading his blog! ya and Elder Carton i have met a couple times and talked to him and stuff.

As for the dead guy i have no idea what became of him... its kinda freaky cuz he is not there anymore so we don't know if he died again or just got up and walked away somewhere. Whatever happened it was just weird that he pretty much came back from the dead right as we were watching him... Pretty nuts stuff lol. we were too scared to even get close to him so we just hopped on a trotro, so we were probably the bad samaritans, but really what would you have done? gone up and talk to the zombie guy that just came back to life? i think not!

On a lighter note the mission goals are going good, and me and my companion have completed our goal of learning 80% of the peoples in our wards names, going to 15 members houses, and doing five service projects! It really helped us get to know the members better and through that we will be able to get many more referalls and help from the ward!

So thats all for now.. be nice to Wes when he gets home and don't just bombard him with questions... I'm sure if you feed him dinner he will open up alot more :) lol

This is Elder Quinton Petersen signing off

Good luck and good night!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Happy Anniversary! and Happy Birthday Mom!!

Email sent 12 Oct 2009

I actually remembered those things this time around! haha so i hope that you guys did have a sweet aniversary and i hope you have a happy birthday!! The maps of Ghana are never really that reliable, Kojokrom is seriously about 5-10 mile from Takoradi, but it takes about a half hour to get there because traffic is always really bad. We live about 200m from the big road that we take to Takoradi, so we just wake up in the morning and then hop on a tro tro!
I have 4 baptisms next week! its gonna be sweet we have been teaching these couple people and we gave them the baptismal date! it will be cool because i think i will be performing the baptism this time, and it will also be Elder Hurst's last baptism of his mission so its exciting stuff! We are going to the beach again today with the whole Takoradi zone ( about 22 elder's) to play ultimate frisbee!! Its so much fun i love it. Oh and PS i bought a guitar last week! ha i am learning all the different chords and stuff now so im going to be an accomplished musician when i come home!! ...hopefully

The area authority is coming to give a talk to our whole mission on wednesday, so we are pretty excited for that, we are headed up to Cape Coast for the day so he will give us some instruction and we'll be able to see alot of the kids that i went through the MTC with! This is the last week of Elder Hursts mission so it is really hectic because we have so many things going on at one time, we are teaching tons of lessons, we have to go to cape coast, we have a baptism, and tons of other stuff so it really does feel like the days fly by, but we are having fun and doing the things we need to be doing! It really is a great experience!

So its story time now.. Yesterday two of the Elder's in our apartment (Hancey and Musetsi) came home last night sorta freaked out. They told us this story, they were riding there bikes on the road and as they were going they looked to the left and what did they see? There was a dead guy just laying in the gutter! :S They said he had had part of his calf ripped out or something and he was just laying there dead... And that's not even the weird part at all! So today right before we went to grab a tro tro we walked past were they said that the guy was laying, and he was still just laying there seemingly dead... then right as we were leaving he somehow started moving.. he moved his arms and then sat up! it was really creepy because literally he should be dead with how bad his wound was and stuff... it was nuts! the guy is kinda like this homeless crazy guy that walks around all the time and is just crazy, we don't know what happened but its really weird lol.

Brandy! Good luck in region, i know you will kick some butt! and i haven't gotten your letter yet, but hopefully i will on wednesday and ill be sure to write you back!

I would much apprecieate lots of skittles, and tons and tons of pictures :) pictures of our house, of us, of me and my friends from facebook, of anything really.. cuz it is just really cool to be able to look at them at the end of the day, and also to show each other different pictures and stuff! Those little photo albums that Austen's parents gave to me are great so you could just send alot of those or something!

You pretty much know when you have malaria because you have the symptoms, it's alot like saying you have a cold in the US, its just really common. But the symptoms i had was diareea (spelled that wrong) fever, aches, and dizzyness. But is was lucky to not have a bad case of it!

We walk everywhere.. ha i would say that we walk about 4-5 miles a day, somewhere around there. so im staying in pretty good shape.. somehow. Our apartment is gonna go running tomorrow morning so im looking forward to that!

Im becoming pretty good at cooking some things, the thing i really like to make is a make spaghetti, and cut up some hot dogs really small in the spaghetti, then i drain the water and i put oil in the bottom of the pot and kinda fry the spaghetti, and put soy sauce on it... it sounds weird but it kinda makes chow mein noodles. And i came up with doing that myself! lol I have 3 macaroni boxes left, those are like my treasures that i only use on special occasions... but i am now out of peanut butter :( yes its a sad day i know!

I hope you guys are doing well! tell Justin hi for me, and that i hope everything goes well!

I love you,
Quinton

Monday, October 5, 2009

Sup homies!

Email Sent 5 Oct 2009

Ha so Brandy got in a car wreck! Lol the first one in the family :). But im glad she is ok and that it wasn’t her fault! Brandy you really are doing incredible at running! And I will talk to you more about that when I write you back from your letter!
This week was pretty sweet though. Our mission is working on getting to know the members of our wards better so we are trying to learn all of the names of the people in our wards, and find out where they live so we can have referalls and stuff from them. We are also doing service projects for them and just trying to get to know them better, and it seems to really be helping as we help them they will give us people to teach. It’s very nice! We actually got the oppurtinity this week to go to the Temple! We had a temple trip for our whole mission. So my zone went on Wednesday and everyone was way excited! Then I woke up Wednesday morning, and guess what? I had malaria! Fun stuff lol. It wasn’t a bad case of it and I just went to the temple anyways because I really wanted to go. So I have been taking the medicine and stuff and I was pretty much better the next day. Im just dreading if I ever get a bad case, because they say it will just put you on your bed for like 3 days straight. But for now I am totally good!
It’s crazy that its already snowing back home! Elder Hurst is gonna freeze when he gets back because he is so used to all this hot stuff. I will take a look at the blog thing that you put up and see it, but its not like ill need to be checking it because it is me saying the things on it lol. Yes I am wearing my retainers, my contacts are fine also!
I actually already got my line of authority thing so thank you for that! We actually don’t get to watch general conference at the same time as you guys :( which really stinks, but in about a month or something then we will have the chance to watch it!
We are planning another baptism for October 17 where we hope to have at least 1 but hopefully 5 people baptized! So that should be fun! We are going right after this to play football with the Cape Coast zone! It’s about a 1 hour drive from cape coast to Takoradi so they are coming down here and were gonna play on our really nice grass field at the stake center!
Dad I hope your back gets better, ill pray for you and hopefully it will get better, because I know all to well how bad being injured is! Tell brandy not to stink at driving too :)

That’s all for now, keep the questions coming so I have lots of stuff to write about!

I love you guys!!

Quinton

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

So many questions

Emailed Tues 29 Sep 2009

Hey!
First off ill tell you how my week was and then ill answer all of the questions you guys had! So last monday (yesterday) for our P-day activity we were able to go to the beach and play ultimate frisbee with our whole zone! it was freakin sweet and way fun. The week was kinda lazy and boring due to the fact that Elder Hurst wasnt feeling to well and from about wednesday on we were just chilling in the apartment hoping for him to feel better. so we werent able to actually do to much missionary work this week :( Yesterday though was probably the most awesome day of the mission so far! We got permission from president to go to cape coast and check out the castle because elder hurst hasnt seen it yet and he is leaving soon so he really wanted the chance. It was sad to actually be there and kinda see how bad it was, but it was a really good experience and we had a really good time! We took some really sweet pictures that Elder Hurst will show you when he gets home, and i believe he will be bringing home my memory card so that will be cool for you guys! After the castle i had my first american cheeseburger in ghana and it was so good! i miss that kind of food, but i have been doing pretty well learning to make different things that i like. I miss milk alot, but im not really having to much trouble.. we have powder mild but it really tastes nothing like the real thing lol. The weirdest thing was as we were walking back to the trotro station to go back to our apartment Lanaya Wallace saw me and elder hurst just walking down the street and she talked to us for a little while which was really cool!  (Note inserted by Mom - Lanaya is a friend from high school who is in Ghana working at an orphanage.)

Now is the time to answer all the questions!

My area is Kojokrom ward and it is a ward even though only about 80 or 90 people come every week, and the whole thing is in fante so it is very hard to understand, but i make it through. We have our own chapel which is actually a very nice place so that is good!

I have been sun burnt but it really isnt bad at all! i got a nice transisition because when i got here it was the end of the rainy season so it is only starting to really heat up now, i just keep putting the stuff on my nose and it doesnt really get burnt! The mosquito net doesnt bug me at all. i just tuck it into my bed when i go to bed at night and its like im in my own little room, i kinda like it.

There are 3 missionaries training in our apartment and 3 being trained me, elder hurst, Elder Jackson (from Centerville), Elder Hill ( from kaysville, who knows Blake Carter, melindas friend from BYU) Elder Hancey (from Logan) and Elder Musetsi (from South Africa) we get along really well and have a fun time in our apartment after all of the missionary work is done. We don't really know the language to well. all of our trainers can sortof get along while teaching lessons, but the ward missionaries are a big help in teaching and translating. As for learning we just try to pick up whatever we can.. its hard but im learning.

As Elder Hurst was sick i began playing elder hills guitar which we are aloud to have! and i really am debating buying one here so i can learn and get really good! that would be sweet

It is ok for anyone to email me, and i am allowed to right them back so you can tell anyone and everyone who would like to email me too. And about the blog you can tell anyone about that too!

Sorry this one is kinda short, the power cut out at internet cafe and i lost my whole letter to you so i had to rewrite the whole thing :(

But ill keep you posted keep the letters coming.

Love
Quinton

Thursday, September 24, 2009

I had eight baptisms for my first baptism...

Emailed Mon 21 Sep 2009

lol but really my first baptism was this week and we had eight people! It was sweet, we were supposed to have nine though but one kids parent wouldn't let him get baptized so we need to go and have a little chat with her to straighten her out! But it was an awesome thing to see so many people get baptized and hopefully the people im teaching now will follow in there footsteps!

It's been a strange week, and it flew by way fast. Apparently alot of my MTC mates are already getting sick with malaria and stuff so that kinda stinks but were praying for them so they will get better. two kids in my Apartment who were in the MTC with me have already gotten malaria! its sorta crazy, One of them is named Elder Jackson and he is super tall and a way cool guy. A couple days after he got over his malaria which only lasted a day he got sick again and has been pretty much out for the past couple days. So he has just been sleeping in the apartment cuz he is to sick to get up :( we think he has typhoid, so President came yesterday to give him some medicine and stuff so he will get better! But as for me im just happy that i haven't been sick yet and i wanna keep it that way so make sure you guys pray for me!

One other thing i think that i should tell you guys right now is that i am definitely going to come home with some pretty bad broken english and possibly a hard accent because Elder Hurst has a big accent and we don't actually talk to good because when we are teaching we kinda have to dumb it down a little sometimes, so thats just a warning, but i think its sweet. As for the twi and fante languages im trying to learn but its really difficult. In Kojokrom were i am now it is mostly fante speakers, and it is harder to learn fante then it is to learn twi so elder hurst is teaching me the twi stuff that he knows and usually the understand. How are you is "ete sen" in twi but it is "oh te den" in fante so ya im slowly learning different things, there is two extra vowels added into the twi language and they say the vowels different so it is harder to read.

Church is a different experience because the speak mostly fante during it so it is hard to pay attention when i don't understand anything, but it helps that they add english words in every once in a while because they don't have words for alot of things in fante.

There is alot of things that are different over here but i am making the best of them and im loving every second of it. As i walked into church last week a learned something. The women that have babies are not bashful as to where they breast feed apparently. I never thought i'd see someone breastfeeding in church but apparently its a regular occurance lol. Its pretty awkward.

The food situation is good, i eat a buttload of egg sandwhiches, alot of rice and spaghetti so im liking it. During the MTC most of us white elders got really constipated and that made things uncomfortable for 4 days. President Harmon gave me some laxitaves and they didn't work! So eventually are started keeeping track of what days i was able to "relieve myself" so i knew if i went longer then 4 days i would need to do something about it, but now i am on a very good schedule!!! :) (i thought you guys would want to know) ((This is an edited version of how Quinton described his new diet and the effects.))

Fufu is pretty good, ive had it twice and i really like it, but my favorite African food or drink ive had so far is called Alvaro, its a kind of soda pop thing and it's very close tasting to Vault so obviously i love it! The pineapple's here are the greatest things i have ever tasted. thats about all i can think about now.

Keep the emails coming its really nice to have some connection with the outside world :)

Love you all,
Quinton

I can finally email!!!

Emailed Mon 14 Sep 2009

Hey hey everyone!
So i am finally able to now get my email account set up! i am way way super happy because it was hard writing the few letters that i did because my hand really got super tired and my handwriting is terrrible so you probably couldn't even read it!

But ya so this is my first week out of the MTC and it is freaking awesome. The MTC was alright, but it felt more like a prison more than anything, me and some of the kids in our district kind of compared it to being in Carthage Jail, religious jokes are funny, because literally it was a jail! they had an electric fence around the whole compound! lol but it was still really fun getting to know all the guys and trying to speak French with all of the different French elders from Congo and the Ivory Coast. Our MTC group was the biggest group to ever go through that MTC with 61 missionaries i think so it was a little crazy but fun. President Sabey also said that he has never ever heard of 28 missionaries going to a single mission at one time ever...anywhere! so we're just breaking all kinds of records over here!

President sabey came to the MTC to tell us where we were going and who are companions would be and stuff, and I have been assigned to be in Takiradi, Kojokrom ward. I'm not in Takiradi but im about twent minutes outside of it and we live in a freakin legit jungle! It's crazy ha so then i figured out who my companion was and guess what.. Elder Hurst is my companion!!! crazy huh, but way cool. so he is my trainer and i will be his last companion on his mission before he goes home! So its great. we live in an apartment with to other companionships and so we have a lot of fun! Me and Elder Hurst get along really well and its kinda nice because he has already been in this area for a couple of transfers so he knows it pretty well and we have just went straight to teaching people! I was scared out of my pants at first when i realized i actually had to teach real people instead of fake people like we did at the MTC, but once we started teaching different people it was actually really easy and it kind of started flowing. Im obviously not a Pro yet but im working on getting better.

Also do you remember how my mission call said English speaking on it.. well i have come to learn that it was a typo! :S some of the people we are teaching only speak twi (which is actually pronounced chwee) or fante and i just have to let elder Hurst do the talking and sometimes even he doesn't understand it all. So i have alot of studying to do so i can learn to speak with alot of people...and understand when we go to church because at church they speak primarily a mix between fante and twi and it is really really hard to follow, but im trying and praying and studying so evetually it will come.

Oh ya sorry i just keep going on and on, but i have alot of things to say... Africa is crazy i seriously have just been dropped into scenes from Nationial Geographic stuff and it is really different, but its so interesting and i'm loving it.. You will be so surpised when you see some of the different pictures i have taken they are pretty cool. I am getting used to the food, i had fufu for the first time last night at a persons house and it was pretty good. They eat tons of food here so i also need to get used to that lol

There is a baptism this week and there is nine of them! ha its funny because people are really so ready to accept the gospel here it is awesome. We feel blessed to be in a country were we really don't even have to knock on doors because literally the people just come to us so the proselyting is really fun!

I just got the email you sent to Elder Hurst and it sounds like you guys are having fun, Brandy's team is doing pretty legit and tell here i'm proud of here cuz those are some fast times! and tell her to keep it up! Now that i have this email i can actually email anyone so you can give it out to people and tell them to write me on here so hopefully i don't actually have to write tons of letters because emailing is way easier and faster!

I think that is about all i have to say right now but ya tell me how everything is going back home and ill keep you updated everyweek on here!

I love you all,Quinton

P.S. Usain bolt is nuts i cant believe that anyone is able to run that fast... just my two cents lol