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

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

Monday, February 22, 2010

I find it strange

Email sent Monday 22 Feb 2010

that the winter olympics are going on right now, ha but that is really sweet that there is a Ghanaian in there! ha the people over here don't even know what the winter olympics are! but thats ok im just glad that i am not mission the summer olympics on my mission! i probably would have died if i had to miss all of those sweet track events and world records! but thankfully i was born at a time that i don't have to endure that torment of not knowing what happens in the summer olympics! ha thanks!

This week was pretty sweet, and also it was very stressful. on wednesday we did a service project that was really cool. all of the 8 missionaries in our district went to do a service project at a school were we taught the kids! each companionship had a class that they taught and a subject to teach them. So we actually taught for an hour about science! They were just little kids so it was really easy stuff but it was fun to do that and it was a good experience. This whole week we have been preparing the Sam Family for baptism. we have basically been over at there house every single night teaching them and reminding them and everything. Finally the baptism came and the husband wife and two of their kids were baptized! it really was a way sweet baptism and i feel so blessed that i was able to baptize them! ha and also we baptized one other person her name is Agnes Ntiako. This women has been coming to church for like more than a year now, but she has never been baptized because she always misses her baptismal dates. but this time we got her! she was so happy to be baptized and you see her smiling and it was sweet! so ya that is pretty much how this week went.

This week we have transfers again, we will get the call tomorrow night on whether or not we are leaving or staying, and i really don't know what will happen! i could see it going either way so we just have to wait and see what is gonna happen. but ya and the best thing that is happening this week is tomorrow we are going to Cape coast and we get to hear from and apostle!!!!!!! yes that does deserve that many exclamation points! so Jeffrey R. Holland and Steven E. Snow are coming to speak to our entire mission and it is gonna be way sweet! I also get to see all of my MT's (people i went to the MTC with) that i haven't seen for six months that have been in Kumasi so that will be really sweet.

Oh and PS i don't know if you noticed this but yesterday i hit my six month mark on mission! crazy so now i am 25% done. so that is a really cool thing. We celebrated in our apartment last night with a coke. My appreciation for coke grows more and more every day now. i really didn't like it back home, but now i don't know why because i love it! ha so maybe instead of drinking vault all the time when i get home it will be coke.....probably not i think ill stick with vault but coke is good!

ha so that is all for today, youll have to wait till next week to find out what happens with transfers and everything!

i love you

Quinton

PS we are going to the beach today to play games or something so that should be sweet too :)

Monday, February 15, 2010

hey hey hey

Email sent Monday 15 Feb 2010

So ya it was Valentines day yesterday! what did we do to celebrate it, absolutely nothing is the answer and i am totally fine with that! ha i have always felt that is kinda a dumb holliday, maybe that is just cuz ive never had a girlfriend though. so maybe my aspect will change on that when i get home but we will see.

Bowling sounds like tons of fun! i do miss that alot, and probably when i come home i will be terrible though. im losing alot of skills but i think i am gaining alot of new ones too!

So this week was cool, we are preparing the Sam Fam for their baptism and we went to their house on tuesday and was continuing to talk to them about being baptized and the wife said that she didn't want to be baptized yet :( obviously we were kinda bummed about that and we really couldn't say anything to her at that time to change her mind. so we kinda left it at that. but then on Saturday we taught them again with our elders quorum president and and he was actually able to help them resolve their concerns and now all of them have accepted to be baptized on Saturday! so we are baptizing the wife and husband, and two of their kids so that will be cool! We are also baptizing one other older lady who has been coming to church for forever but has missed a ton of baptismal dates. Ha she actually pays tithing but she hasn't been baptized yet, so we just really need to get her soaked so that everything is cool!

Yesterday was an interesting day. the Sam Fam said that we needed to be at their house in the morning because they were going to feed us. When we got their it was really early like 8 am or so and they fed us rice balls with guess what kind of meat??? The correct answer is cow stomach! oh joy haha it actually doesn't taste too bad but its not something i would make a habit of eating. So ya for breakfast i had alot of rice and some cow stomach. Then in that same day we went to a different investigators house and were talking to them and they fed us as well, but this time they gave us fufu and Palm nut soup! which is my favorite! but guess what meat they gave us....once again the correct answer is cow stomach! ha so i ate cow stomach twice in a day, never thought that that would happen. but luckily Elder Joseph likes it so if i didn't want all of it a could just give it to him.

So are you guys still working on the camera. because you should really just buy one and send it to me! it doesn't have to be the kind that i asked for, i just want it to be a nice skinny kind like that for about 150 dollars. Just think of it this way, the more time you guys wait and don't buy one to send the less pictures i will have when i get home! ha so just remember that, i know of a couple elders now that have had there parents send them a camera and everything was cool with it. so just look for a good one and buy it por favor.

so one thing that makes me angry is inflation! they just raised the price of all the coke in Ghana :( it used to be 50 peswa for a bottle but now it is 60 :( i just though i would let you guys know that!

That is way cool that Bingham Wrestling did good! those guys are all cool.

Elder hills first name is Patrick but he goes by his middle name which is Joseph. Elder jacksons first name is james. the other apartment close by is still having the same elders as before. Elder Hancey, Elder Russel (both americans) and Elder Tadeo Zimbabweean, and Elder Smith from Ghana. we talk to them alot and they are all really cool guys!

I haven't heard alot from my friends but i have heard some. i got a letter from Austen along time ago and he has never sent one back, or it probably got lost in the mail i feel like that is probably what is happening with alot of the mail that is coming to me it gets lost in some black hole in Ghana. but ya i have heard from nate and he is doing well and ive written a letter to connor, zach, and andrew so hopefully ill get one coming back sometime soon. Thats crazy that they saw connor! and way cool i guess that it really is a small world after all

The Fante is coming along nicely i am studying more now and trying to figure out everything, i can get around buying things and doing small conversation stuff, but im nowhere near good enough so i will just keep working!


Sorry i forgot to bring my camera this time so i don't have any pictures to send you but usually it doesn't take long at all so i can send them! you guys should send pictures to me sometimes too on the email so i don't totally forget what all of you look like :)

i love you

Quinton

Email from Elder Joseph

Re: Valentines Day

Yes i know a little bit about valentine because i do celebrate it back home before i came on mission but it is not a big deal on mission but a time to show our investigator that we care for them


thanks for the card.

Monday, February 8, 2010

mosquitoes aren't a problem

Email sent Monday 8 Feb 2010

ha its funny about that when they asked us to bring all of that heavy duty repellent, because serisously i haven't used it once because we really don't get bitten at all here. the only time i used it was when i wanted to spray a bunch of ants because i wanted to see how they would react to it. sadly nothing happened. i was hoping they would like shrivel up and die or something cool like that, but it was to no avail.

Thats so weird that the super bowl is going on right now, i haven't even really thought of anything like that happening, but now that i think of it it is about time for that to happen! ha its so weird hearing about winter and seasonal stuff, because there is no seasons here it is always the same HOT! maybe that is why it is going so fast at this point!

But ya this week was a good week. it has been getting hotter and hotter which makes proselyting a little less enjoyable but it is still good. we have contiuned to teach the Sam Fam and they are still progressing. we taught the father on Friday and asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said that him and his family would like too! Sweet, so we are planning a baptism for the 20th of this month! it was funny as we were teaching him he was also asking questions about the temple and stuff too, how cool would that be if they were able to be baptized and then go to the temple and get sealed! hopefully everything goes well, but we will be baptizing the mom and dad and two of their kids! and also maybe a few other people too, but we'll see about that one.

Basketball last week was way fun, we were all a little rusty due to the fact that we haven't played in quite a long time, but i played pretty well, i can still drill my 10 foot jump shots in the lane, but i airballed every 3pointer i shot lol. ha couldn't expect to much though, it was just a fun time. and we were so tired and sore after. Man i was beat. Today we are having a fufu party at the senior couples (lambs) apartment! fufu is so good and were having chicken and stuff with it so im excited for that

i have been slowly progressing on the guitar lately. Elder hill has been teaching me some easy songs that he knows and ive been practicing a little bit. the worst part about learning the guitar is that you have to get calluses on your finger tips, and when that is happening it hurts way bad to push in the frets and everything. but the calluses are coming and everything is going good. im also playing hymns from the hymns made easy book too. So over time hopefully ill get good!

Tell Jeff Kunz and Eric good luck for me! and also give them my address so that they can write me! i would like a letter from them!

Time is short at the cafe this time because we are needing to go and by stuff for the week before we go the the Lambs so that is all i have for this week!

i love you

Quinton

Email from Elder Joseph

THANKS

thanks for all the mail you have been sending it really make my monday sweet and as you said that the work is sweet i am experience that now in my life even as a missionary i really like the people they are really receptive to the message we have for them and for the family they are progressing and we will be baptising them on the 20 of feb and is going to be a wonderful one because it will be the last saturday of this our tranfer and three day before the conference

for the basketball it was good because i can play before ui came on mission so i do not have a hard time with it just that i have a blitter on my foot for not using shoes but i still enjoy it

Have a wonderful week

Monday, February 1, 2010

Hello Mother.. Hello Father

Email sent 1 Feb 2010

"flees ticks mosquitoes really bother! thanks for the package thats why im writing. K9 advantix stopped all the biting. Swimming hiking and tent pitching, their not biting, im not itching. Can't wait to show you all my new tricks! thanks again for sending me k9 advantix"   :) lol i just remembered that commercial the other day so i thought that it applied nicely so im using it to start an email!

Yes i did get the package this week! i had even forgotten that it was coming so when i got it i was really excited. it will be really cool to give out those things to kids, i am looking forward to it!

So this week alot of unexpected things happened. on wednesday we were proselyting and we were on top of a huge hill and we looked out over this valley in a town called Inchaban and we see some small body of water aways away. so we decided that we would go on an adventure and go and find out what it was. so eventually we made our way over there and it was actually a big dam! and behind the dam was the most beautiful lake that i had ever seen! wow, it kinda looked like a lake that you would see in the land before time or jurassic park of something. so we got on top of the dam and took some pictures and walked around the lake a little and then we went for a swim ;) jkjk we didn't do that! ha but the lake was really cool.

Then thursday we get a call from President Sabey, and he talks to elder hill and says that there is a missionary in his old area that is going to come and be here with elder hill. So now we aren't in a 3some aymore :( which is dumb. Elder Hills new companion is named elder okwori, from nigeria. So far he has been here and is a nice guy.

yup so now its just me and elder joseph like old times proselyting in good ole kojokrom. We are still teaching that family, and all of them came to church this week! They are way cool, and i played with the 1 year old son for most of church, his name is Bismark he's a funny little guy. ha so we are hoping that this week we will be able to give their whole family a baptismal date and have them all baptised together! that would be sweet to do a whole family! They are really receptive to everything and we really don't even have to ask them to do anything they just want to do it all on their own! we didn't have to ask them to read, we didn't have to ask them to come to church, these people were just prepared! ha the only problem with teaching them is the wife doesn't speak a lick of english, yes i did just say a lick of english. Ha so we have to bring ward missionaries with us whenever we go but its still fine! ive been learning more and more fante/twi and i have even been studying now so im progressing slowly!

Ghana has been going crazy with football madness this week, they had the semifinal and final matches of the africa cup of nations. and it was pretty nuts. Ghana beat nigeria in the semifinal and people were going crazy cheering on their country it was pretty funny. and then they played Egypt in the final and they lost. so the people weren't to happy about that, but they'll get over it some time. i can't imagine what ghana will be like during the world cup...crazy

So the really cool thing that we just figured out that will be happening in 3 weeks! we are having an entire mission conference! an entire mission conference were everyone from the whole mission gets together for talks and stuff..........and guess who is Speaking to us?! an Apostle! ha Jeffrey R. Holland is coming and so is Steven E. Snow!!! we are way excited, it will be the coolest thing every to hear from them and meet them and all of that! so that will be happening the 23rd of February! i can't wait!

So thats all for now!

Jeffrey R. Holland and Steven E. Snow! way cool, so we are obivously way excited for that, and that will be on the 23rd of February so we are so excited!

thats all for now the picture that im sending you is one of me Joseph and hill outside of the mission home! the mission home is sweet and we got to take a tour of it last week! so there is the picture

love ya guys

Quinton

Elder Petersen, Elder Hill, Elder Joseph

Email from Elder Joseph

Another great trip

I am so grateful for the thought you have in writing me it really make my day memorable one i will like to tell that our mission will be having another trip this time an Apostles will be coming to instruct us and is going to be Jeffrey R. Holland and a member of the presindecy of the seventy steven E snow and we are waiting to have them speak to us on 23 feb 2010

still we are together but no longer in 3some because we have a new missionary in our apartment so we are back to our main area