Hey!

Email sent Monday 14 Mar 2010

Wow these weeks are just coming by really fast right now. just so you know the space bar that i am using right now is pretty hard to press down so sorry if some words are connected or something!

It sounds like you had a ton of basketball to play! ha we actually played basketball one time this week. we live by alot of hostels and one of them has a basketball court and we saw some guys playing there so we went to play for second. This was right after we had finished a service project so we were in normal clothes. now usually Ghanaians are not good at basketball at all! but this oneguy that we played was really good. we were playing barefoot so i actually got a huge blister on my foot but it definitely was worth it to be able to play for like tenminutes. Even thoughim pretty crappy at it right now!

You will be happy to know that the shoes that we got me are holding up really really great. i wear the slip on ones more because they are easier to put on, but i really like both of them and i could see them lasting all the way too the end of my mission. They better for how much we payed for them!haha

I forgot to wish you a happy birthday last week dad, but i promise i was going to. i am in the process of writing you a birthday card that i will probably send through the pouch, and so youcan write me back! 57 wow your getting up there aren't ya! :)

The transfer is already half over which is crazy it feels like i just got here! we are teaching this one really smart guy and we were teaching him about the book of mormon this past week, He is the first investigator that i have ever had to do research on the church he asked us about poligamy and stuff it was weird and i didn't know how to best answer those questions. but we got through it fine! i bet that missionaries in the states have to explain that stuff alotwhich would be weird. I'm thankful to be in ghana thats all i can say.

Fufu is probably the best food on the planet. The more that i eat it the more i like it. somehow you guys need to try it sometime even though it is weird the first time you eat it. I have been eating more and more lately and right now ive really only been eating Indomie (ghana's version of Ramen) But it is way better! i go through about 40 packages every two weeks now lol. i need to start eating more rice though because it is less expensive!

Elder Jeppesens first name is Kirk, like Captain Kirk. but his parents aren't trekkies i already asked him. He lives in a small town called Sugar City in Idaho...its kinda by Rexburg I Think.

Thanks for buying the camera!!! i am excited because that means i can start taking pictures again soon! wooo! thats crazy that you gotsuch a sweet deal on it! Woaye adee.(that means well done in twi)

sorry about the omg incident people should just know what i mean... maybe next time ill say omgosh! ha

Thats all for now this keyboard is really angering me and my hands aregetting tired ill send a better email next week

Im sending two pictures this week. one is of me playing a sweet mancala game that i was dominating at, the other is me pointing to a sign. Aparently someone has figured out the day for the end of the world! lol

i love you

Quinton

Playing Mancala

End of the World?

Ghana Cape Coast Mission Conference

December 16, 2009

6 of the 8 zones

The other 2 zones held their conference in Kumasi

Email from Elder Joseph

Indeed the week runs very fast i can`t just imagine that two weeks has gone by when elder petersen left for kumasi i am raelly enjoying the lord work in this mission though sometime i feel try but the though that i must work for the lord it always push me going and i know that lord will provided a way for us that the work will not be streeful but that we will serve and return with honour

i am really grateful for your prayer and my the lord bless you more

Thanks bye

Re: Tell us about Kumasi!

Email sent Monday 8 Mar 2010

Hey parentals and sisters! its been a crazy week with alot of stuff happening i will try to answer all of your questions that you guys sent to me even though there was a buttload of them! haha.

First off about the camera i absolutely do not want a camera that takes AA batteries. Those kind of rechargable batteries are super super crappy and they don't last long at all. Ok i just want one that is the same thickness as the one i told you about. it doesnt necesarrily have to be that one, but one like it, because any bigger than that and it wouldn't fit into my scripture case with everything. Just go to costco and look at them. The batteries that those cameras have a lithion batteries and they last a long time and if you sent me one battery it would be fine because i would be able to charge it once or twice a week and everything would be ok. But ya definitely nothing bigger than that, and definitely definitely not anything that takes AA batteries. because theyre crappy thats all there is too it! When you buy the camera it should come with the battery charger and the battery too so everything will be cool. Just take like 150 out of my bank and buy the thing :) Melinda can help if you need it. ha sorry Thanks for listening to my littledeal on cameras

AFter we went and saw elder holland we took a big tro tro with the rest of our zone back to the house and we were just waiting in our house washing clothes waiting for the phone call. We finally got the phone call and i had to pack all of my stuff that night! the drive to Kumasi is about 5-6 hours so its not totally long, but longer than you would like to sit in a vehicle for. We took what was called an STC bus and its just one of those big nice charter busses like we used to take to footlocker and stuff. all of my stuff fit nicely inside of if so it was cool. Kumasi is a totally different beast than Kojokrom i think i told you last time that it was a lot like america! haha they actually have really big houses here and stuff and really nice places and it is a ton bigger! My area now is probably like 2-3 times bigger than my last area, at least it seems that way! we do a lot of walking during the days but most of the are is flat which is a nice transition from the hilly place of kojokrom

Elder Joseph is still in Kojokrom and he is training a new missionary that just came! He is actually training an Ethiopian! crazy huh, but the guy doesnt run so we wouldn't have gotten along because he is wasting his god given gift by not running! lol just kidding but seriously he is.

The UST apartment is pretty cool, it is smaller than the one in Kojokrom but its still nice. We actually live in a compound with plenty of people and we live on the third floor of the building, which is the top floor. we actually have a nice little balcony thing that looks out onto the city of Kumasi and that is cool. And Both Elder Jeppesen and Elder Holmes have washing machines that they bought so i can use them and i don't have to hand wash for the time being :) yay!

We had our zone conference this week and President Sabey announced a new goal that we would be having as a mission. That every missionary needs to baptize one wife and husband family befor July 4,2010. It should be a sweet goal. i know that it will be tough but we will be able to do it with the Lords help!

Kumasi is a lot different in the fact that there is less humidity than kojokrom, but it is a lot hotter. I sweat a ton up here and i don't know why. But i guess ill get used to it i just have to drink like 3 liters of water a day. Lately i have been growing my hair out! ha so right now y hair is somehow long for a missionary in ghana and i have been rocking a sweet comb over the past couple weeks! i figure that this is the only time ill be able to do that and so ill keep my hair for a little bit and maybe cut it in like a week or so...or maybe more idk.

Elder Jeppesen has had malaria this week so we have actually been in the apartment alot, which stinks. we get way bored but he is getting better so we'll be able to go out again tomorrow!

Kumasi P-days stink so far. we have not had any planned activities and we have been basically staying in the apartment but that is gonna change next week i am gonna organize at least our district if not our whole zone to come to our chapel and well play some football because i miss it! so thats what we are going to be doing! My stomach is much more developed than Elder Lehrs and so no i don't get runny tummy when i ate there. But did i tell you that there is a sweet track there? im making plans that one P-day we are gonna go there and im gonna see how fast i can run a mile! ha hopefully i can brake 6! maybe lol

Im glad that Julianne likes my text emailing! lol hahaha rofl idk... should i go on :)

i love you guys ill talk to you next week :)

Love

Quinton

Email from Elder Joseph

Re:  Tell us about your week!!!

We are heading forward and it was a wonderful one though it is really stressful to adopt to new changes but the spirit is still the same with missionaries but we are getting to known each other.

The last transfer elder Petersen was the only person who left our apartment and my new companion`s name is Elder Chewaka from Ethiopia and he is new on mission so he is trying to learn like me, he is just from the MTC not all that because we just baptize the investigator but there are others we were teach that are progressing that he left for the new missionary.

THANK TILL WE HEAR AGAIN

Me ko Kumasi!!!

Email sent Monday 1 Mar 2010

Ha so ya i guess i don't get to tell you the news of the transfers since elder Joseph already told you. But i have been transfered to an area Called UST in Kumasi! My companions name is Elder Jeppesen. Kumasi is so much different than Takoradi was. it is a ton more developed and you can tell that the people have a ton more money out here! So ya my area is partially on a campus up here called KNUST. Apparently it is a really big nice university and there is tons of really smart people up here. Everyone speaks Twi up here instead of Fante so i have to change some small things about the things that i say, but for the most part it is the same language so thats not really a big trouble! Elder Jeppesen is a cool guy. He is from a very small town in Idaho and one other thing about him.... he is 6'4" haha so we have one of the tallest missionaries in the mission with one of the shortest in the mission! lol but i think we will get along well and be able to work hard together. They told me that UST is a little harder of an area because the people are more prideful because they are somehow more smart. i can already tell that from being out here so its kinda a new aspect of mission but its sweet and i am ready to embrace it and have fun. I am now living in an apartment with Elder Holmes and Elder Adjei. We are somehow related to elder holmes which is funny. Corie and Catie's cousin married his sister or something like that so were related! haha he is a cool guy. And elder Adjei is really cool too, he is going home this transfer though so he is almost done with mission which is crazy!

So ya now ill talk a little bit about the sweetest day every. The mission conference we had on tuesday was so so so cool! we traveled to Cape Coast and we got to catch up with friends that we hadn't seen for a whil and all of that stuff and then after that we got to go and sit down and wait to hear from an apostle. Finally they got there! There was Jeffrey R. Holland, Steven E Snow, and Elder Cardon, and Elder Dixon of the Africa West area presidency there! They alll gave talks and it was so incredible. All of there talks were good and i really felt the spirit a ton when i was there. We got to go up and shake all of there hands before the meeting and that was really cool so now ive shook hands with an apostle! lol so Elder Hollands talk was amazing. he is an incredible speaker. and he is way funny. It amazes me how he can go from having a whole crowd laughing to bringing in the spirit so strongly in like half of a second! so that was a really sweet experience and i think that i will remember it for the rest of my life!

Yes i did end up getting the package! thank you again for all of this stuff. it is really sweet to have some small candy and stuff that will shut my sweet tooth up! The cookies were really really good and i still have a few left even! (Note about the cookies - We sent Quinton a package with the cookies on Thurs., Feb. 4 and he probably received it on Tues., Feb. 23.  They were oatmeal chocolate chip and were a couple of days old when we packed them in a lays stax container.  So you know they were old ,but he still thinks they were really really good!!!  That tells you about Quinton's diet in Ghana :)  So now i think again i will remind you that i need you to send me a camera. because now i can't even copy pictures from elder Jeppesen because his camera is a Sony and it uses a different memory card. So please take some money out of my bank account and buy like a 150 dollar camera and send it too me :) thanks

I don't really know anything about the pouch using envelopes i haven't heard anything about that at all so i would just say to stick to using no envelopes for now.

That is cool that we finally got the windows done! now maybe in the winter our house won't be freezing cold! ha but seriously. so ya that sounds like a crappy situation that is happening with the Jordan School District. i hope something good happens with all of that stuff, so keep me updated.

it seems like there are earthquakes all over the place these days. i hope that we don't get one here in Ghana. That would really change the mission and i don't think i would enjoy phyiscal rescue work as much as spiritual rescue work :)

ha so for now that will suffice. we just went and had pizza at this stadium in Kumasi and even got to go onto the track and the field! Kumasi is cool but it is more hot and the P-days aren't as exciting, but ill get used to it!

Love you guys

Quinton

Email from Elder Joseph

NO LONGER COMPANION

it has been a lovely been with elder petersen for the past few days as companion for he is a good missionary and as mission has for us wee can stay forever but atlast tranfer has divide us but am still in my former area and he has been tranfer to other area and right now i have a new comanion from Ethopia and he is also a good missionary

i started my mission in mey of last year and ihave been in kumasi where elder petersen has been tranfer to and i was with my trainer called elder Adamson from Ghana we were together for four and half month after which i was tranfer to elder petersen

it wonderful knowing you and for the wonderful things you did for me the past christmas and pray htat our father in heaven will richly bless for family

thanks

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 :)

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.

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

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