5 months

Note:  We normally receive Quinton's emails anywhere from 1:00AM to 2:30AM Monday mornings (8AM to 9:30AM Ghana time) - today's email was received at 11AM (6PM Ghana time)

Email sent 25 Jan 2010

Wow so first of all i would like to say sorry that i didn't get to write you guys until now, but we have had a really sweet day and weren't able to go to the cafe until now. So i might as well start off telling todays story first. Today our zone had planned to all go to the Elmina Castle just outside of Cape Coast! so this morning we got up and were getting ready to go. all of our zone took a trotro there, and since we are in a 3some we actually got to go with the Senior couple down here. There name is Elder and Sister Lamb. So we got to ride with them in there nice air conditioned car all the way to Elmina. We took a tour of the Castle and that was way cool. It was different from the Cape Coast Castle, but alot of the things were the same. We took alot of sweet pictures there that you guys will see sometime i am sure, but for now you will have to wait :) so after we went to the Castle everyone in the trotro went home but since we were with the Senior couple we went with them to the Mission home (i had never been there before) so that was a cool thing. The house was so so so nice! it seriously looked like a house out of America or something. So we talked to President and Sister Sabey for a little while, and we also talked to the office couple. After we were done there we went with the Lambs to another Senior couple that lived close by we got to sit in their house and they actually made us sandwhiches! ha we had peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches and also tuna! it felt like we were just back home and our parents were making us sandwhiches so that was cool! we kinda got spoiled today but i guess that is what you get for being in a 3some at the right time. lol then after that we just headed back to town, which leads us to what i am doing right now.. writing my family a letter!

Last week as we were shopping at this little supermarket we heard something interesting on the radio... do you remember that band Ryan shupe and the rubber band? well their song Dream Big was playing on the radio...in Ghana. ha it was so weird to hear that here because it wasn't even big song in America, but it has made its way into Ghana somehow!

Me and Elder Hill also had a little cooking escapade this week. we have always wanted to try to make the Ground nut soup. It is something Ghanaians make all of the time, and we use it for fufu and rice and stuff like that but we had never known how to make it. So we went out on a limb and tried to make it by ourselves. This was quite a big risk because we have heard that if you make it wrong it will give you diahreeah BAD! ha so we tried. And guess what we suceeded! it tastes really good and is almost just like how the Ghanaians make it. i was proud of our cooking skills and i will try by the end of my mission to be able to cook alot of Ghana foods so i can make them for you when i get home!

We have a cool new family that we are teaching in Kojokrom. The lady just showed up at church two weeks ago so we figured we might go and teach her. and as we taught her this week we actually found out that her kids have been coming to church for quite some time! wow! crazy, we are also teaching the husband, and the second time that we taught him he said that he had read the restoration pamphlet we gave to his wife and he already believed that joseph smith was a true prophet! Its so cool how well prepared some of these people are here. sometimes i feel like we don't even have to teach them, we are more like the people pointing to the gate, and they have already decided that they are gonna go through it! ha so we are hoping that everything will go well with this family, it would be a way cool thing to be able to baptise a husband and wife and their kids! a whole, family cuz that is what the church is all about folks!!! ha sorry this letter might be weird but thats ok!

Being in a 3some is fine in the fact of teaching, it is kind of harder because everyone will want to say something in a lesson so sometimes the lessons can get long, but thats ok. The only really annoying part is that we now are covering two areas. so we don't get to spend as much time on our investigators and we kinda have to share the load. Sundays are exhausting for us now. We have to go to three churches. I play the piano now for the Mpinstin ward, then we go to Kojokrom's sacrament and then we hurry and hop on a taxi to go to Sekondi so we can go to all of Sofokroms church service so by the time that is over we are totally pooped! if i had ever missed church back home now would be the time that i am making up for it lol. and yes we are always together

We don't pay rent for our apartments, i don't know how it is in other missions, but the apartment and electricity and water is all payed for here by the mission so that is nice!

I don't know what blog you were reading all of that crazy stuff on, but we definitely don't do all of that. of course we wash our food, but we don't boil it in Clorox and all of that stuff, we don't have the means nor do we have the time to do that stuff. And also it really isn't necessary.

We are still playing alot of football, but the one thing i am most excited for now is our zone just got a basketball! a legit basketball, so we will be playing next monday. There is a full court at the stake center, but we have never been able to use it due to the fact of no ball. but that problem is fixed so i will be balling it up next week. Takoradi Zone has never lost a football match.. and when i say never i mean never! ha or at least for about 16 months, i don't know past then. but we will be playing the Assin foso zone in a couple of weeks and might lose, they have like 10 of the best football players in our mission all in that zone, so it will be tough! one of them is named elder Harrison (he went to Alta) and also played on BYU's team and he is incredible, i wish i could play like him lol.

My fante is coming along, i can understand alot of what the people say, and can say alot of things back, but i am very far from being really good. I actually just bought a book today that will help me with everything, so im actually gonna start studying now! maybe in like 6 months time ill be good!

Now that we are in a 3some and we have to all sleep in the same room we have 3 beds smashed into a small room and also 3 desks, i feel like we are at an orphanage or something its funny.

So it has been a good week. this transfer is flying by so fast, its already 1/3 done! i hit my 5 month mark this last week, thats sweet! and by the end of this transfer itll be 6 crazy!

i love ya

keep doing what your doing :)

Quinton

Email from Elder Joseph

Am ok now

hello i am so grateful to write you this wonderful day for now i am strong i have been to my duties

Our area is somehow big of about half an hour drive from both area and it is nice to work more and also teaching more people and we will probably be together for the next 4 week me too i have really enjoy his companiopnship but with all we are doing great here

Hope to hear from you again

Good bye

ELDER JOSEPH