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 22, 2010
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.
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
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
"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
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
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
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
Monday, January 18, 2010
idk my bff jill
Email sent 18 Jan 2010
(Note: for those who don't know, the title stands for 'I don't know my best friend forever jill' which is from a commercial for a cell phone company.)
Ha sorry i was just thinking about that phone commercial were that girl says it so i decided to put that as the subject line! ha so ya We are not quite sure what Elder Joseph has had, it is actually getting worse right now. it seems alot like alergies or a cold so hopefully it gets better soon. He has been sneezing and sniffing all week!
All right now onto the big news... what happened on Transfers. not much, but alot at the same time. We got the call right after we got home from the beach last monday and the first thing they tell us is that Jackson will be transfered to Kumasi. That was sad because we had gotten to be really good friends because we have been together for our entire mission. So then after they told us that we then wondered what was gonna happen to us. Well now Me, Elder Joseph, and Elder Hill are in a threesome! It's really weird, we are not quite sure why President decided to do this, but so now we are all companions, and there is only us three living in our apartment. So we are covering both of our old areas, and we decided that we will switch off days. So i am still in Kojokrom, but half of the week we are also in Sofokrom and Inchaban. Its really weird because really nothing changed but alot did at the same time!
Thats funny that you are reading books about running, now you are learning all of the things that i already now :) lol that whole running barefoot is called minimalistic or something like that running. and that is why i actually got the Nike Free's. because they are supposed to simulate barefoot running and make your feet stronger. ha so im glad you guys are learning cool things! youll have to refresh my memory when i get home because ill probably have forgotten alot of it!
We heard about the earthquake in Haiti and that sounded really bad. Just this morning at 4 AM we recieved a call from our zone leaders that we needed to leave our house because there had been an earthquake warning for all of Ghana. So we went outside and sat around for a while. we thought it was kinda weird because everyone was outside. Somehow someone had said that their was gonna be an earthquake. We later found out that it was fake and somehow every single person in Ghana had been notified to something that was fake! haha so its ok there aren't any earthquakes here. But you are right if there was we would be in trouble because all of the buildings are made from cement so there would definitely be some problems!
I saw a goat get killed this week.... haha we were just walking out of our apartment and were passing by this chop bar (resteraunt) right by our house and there was our neighbor holding a knife to the goats neck. he was killing it for the resteraunt. and so we just watched as he killed it. It was kinda gross, but it was one of those things were your disgusted but can't look away. sorry if that grosses you out :)
We had a sweet lesson this week with one lady we have been teaching for a while. Her name is Beatrice. and we had a whole lesson plan of the things that we were going to teach her and everything, and for some reason going into the lesson i just changed it. I know that it was the spirit helping me to say what she needed to hear! the lesson went really well, but we need to get her to start coming to church again! we'll work on that next week!
The Africa cup of NAtions has just started so once again Ghana shuts down whenever there is a football match. It was funny actually Ghana was playing Ivory Coast and they lost by alot so everyone in Ghana was way sad.
Well so ya thats it for this week, right now i have two companions, we are having a baptism this week with 3 of Elder Hills investigators so that should be sweet!
Olive juice
Quinton
Email from Elder Joseph
we are still together as a missionary in the same apartment and the work is going forward greatly just that i am sick this past day but i am getting better gradually
(Note: for those who don't know, the title stands for 'I don't know my best friend forever jill' which is from a commercial for a cell phone company.)
Ha sorry i was just thinking about that phone commercial were that girl says it so i decided to put that as the subject line! ha so ya We are not quite sure what Elder Joseph has had, it is actually getting worse right now. it seems alot like alergies or a cold so hopefully it gets better soon. He has been sneezing and sniffing all week!
All right now onto the big news... what happened on Transfers. not much, but alot at the same time. We got the call right after we got home from the beach last monday and the first thing they tell us is that Jackson will be transfered to Kumasi. That was sad because we had gotten to be really good friends because we have been together for our entire mission. So then after they told us that we then wondered what was gonna happen to us. Well now Me, Elder Joseph, and Elder Hill are in a threesome! It's really weird, we are not quite sure why President decided to do this, but so now we are all companions, and there is only us three living in our apartment. So we are covering both of our old areas, and we decided that we will switch off days. So i am still in Kojokrom, but half of the week we are also in Sofokrom and Inchaban. Its really weird because really nothing changed but alot did at the same time!
Thats funny that you are reading books about running, now you are learning all of the things that i already now :) lol that whole running barefoot is called minimalistic or something like that running. and that is why i actually got the Nike Free's. because they are supposed to simulate barefoot running and make your feet stronger. ha so im glad you guys are learning cool things! youll have to refresh my memory when i get home because ill probably have forgotten alot of it!
We heard about the earthquake in Haiti and that sounded really bad. Just this morning at 4 AM we recieved a call from our zone leaders that we needed to leave our house because there had been an earthquake warning for all of Ghana. So we went outside and sat around for a while. we thought it was kinda weird because everyone was outside. Somehow someone had said that their was gonna be an earthquake. We later found out that it was fake and somehow every single person in Ghana had been notified to something that was fake! haha so its ok there aren't any earthquakes here. But you are right if there was we would be in trouble because all of the buildings are made from cement so there would definitely be some problems!
I saw a goat get killed this week.... haha we were just walking out of our apartment and were passing by this chop bar (resteraunt) right by our house and there was our neighbor holding a knife to the goats neck. he was killing it for the resteraunt. and so we just watched as he killed it. It was kinda gross, but it was one of those things were your disgusted but can't look away. sorry if that grosses you out :)
We had a sweet lesson this week with one lady we have been teaching for a while. Her name is Beatrice. and we had a whole lesson plan of the things that we were going to teach her and everything, and for some reason going into the lesson i just changed it. I know that it was the spirit helping me to say what she needed to hear! the lesson went really well, but we need to get her to start coming to church again! we'll work on that next week!
The Africa cup of NAtions has just started so once again Ghana shuts down whenever there is a football match. It was funny actually Ghana was playing Ivory Coast and they lost by alot so everyone in Ghana was way sad.
Well so ya thats it for this week, right now i have two companions, we are having a baptism this week with 3 of Elder Hills investigators so that should be sweet!
Olive juice
Quinton
my riding a way small bike at our bishops house.. all these little kids were chasing me and screaming, it was way funny :)
Email from Elder Joseph
we are still together as a missionary in the same apartment and the work is going forward greatly just that i am sick this past day but i am getting better gradually
Monday, January 11, 2010
Transfers are this week not last week
Email sent 11 Jan 2010
So we still don't know what will be happening with anything to do with that stuff. We will probably be getting a call later today about that stuff and we will figure that all out! So you will just have to wait till next week to hear what is happening to me. There are i think only 4 or 6 missionaries coming to the mission this transfer so it is a lot smaller of a group then the last couple have been. Elder Joseph and i's proselyting area is Kojokrom and we are the only ones that proselyte there. but the other elders proselyte in ares that are really close by. There is a place called Nketziakrom, and Mpinstin that are the other two wards that worship at our chapel. And those are covered by the elders in the other Apartment nearby. Elder JAckson and Hill's area is called Sofokrom and they have to take a trotro every day to get there because it is pretty far away. and they have there own chapel. That chapel is cool because it is the oldest chapel in Ghana and was built right when the church started coming to Ghana by the members! Our zone has 14 missionaries in it including the two zone leaders, and there are two districts within each zone. My zone leaders right now are Elder Halling from California and Elder Adamson from Ghana.
Sounds like Tyler Dean has his work cut out for him! playing the piano all of the time. ha i was always so nervous when i would have to play the piano at things like that.. i don't know why, and i would always make alot of mistakes and i felt like people were judging me lol. Since i have been here though it has been sweet. I feel like i have been given the gift of keys... i just made that up. But i haven't had any problem playing any of the hymns which is sweet so i can just play any hymn that they ask to in Sacrament or whether it is for the ward choir! I feel blessed that it has actually been that easy to do that, and it really does help the ward sing not quite as bad as they usually do.
I don't usually print out the emails, that would cost too much. It costs 20 Peswas to print one page, and usually costs 90 Peswas for the time we spend at the cafe. but all of that stuff is covered by the subsistence that we have been given.. i have become pretty good at managing my money which i think is a really cool new skill! i am able to manage my sub really well so i can have plenty for the 4 weeks sub is given!
So do you like the Boney M? ha its kinda funny.. but ya i would say that the most misused piece of equipment in Ghana is the Speakers. on any given street corner there is someone blasting music and if you are close by you can't even hear yourself talk. its actually pretty annoying, and that is were we hear all the Boney M. its funny while we have been at the cafe we sometimes hear someone blasting Mormom Tabernacle choir outside, and so we think that is really cool.
So this week was a struggle. The water in our apartment was out for three days straight! so we were having to buy a huge bag of pure water bags and bring them to our apartment. we had to use them to cook to clean and even to shower! Have you ever tried Showering with 1 liter of water, well its weird i will tell you! ha but the water is back now and we are showering like normal human beings again it is sweet!
Elder Joseph has been getting somehow sick this last few days. Apparently 8 missionaries in our mission right now have the swine flu! and thats what it might be with elder joseph. so we have been taking it kinda easy the last couple days. We had a big training with all of the ward missionaries in our wards, and kind of taught them more about missionary work and about preach my gospel. The ward missionaries in my ward are so freaking sweet. They help us out so much and im so greatful for them! It will be way weird if i am transferedd because i don't want to leave my ward because i really like them and they are really helpful in doing all of the proseltying and everything. but i guess thats part of being a missionary!
I'll write you next week with more stories about investigators and things! i love ya'll
Quinton
PS the picture that i am sending is me standing by a car that looks exactly like ours back home! and i almost got arrested for taking this picture! lol it was funny as Elder Joseph was taking the picture this guy came up to us and started yelling and said we need to ask permission first and all of this crazy stuff, so we told him he could take us to the police if he wanted too. He would have looked so dumb if he had taken us there and said i want these people arrested for taking a picture.. so obviously he didn't do anything and we still have this picture! ha so our car is in Ghana too!
So we still don't know what will be happening with anything to do with that stuff. We will probably be getting a call later today about that stuff and we will figure that all out! So you will just have to wait till next week to hear what is happening to me. There are i think only 4 or 6 missionaries coming to the mission this transfer so it is a lot smaller of a group then the last couple have been. Elder Joseph and i's proselyting area is Kojokrom and we are the only ones that proselyte there. but the other elders proselyte in ares that are really close by. There is a place called Nketziakrom, and Mpinstin that are the other two wards that worship at our chapel. And those are covered by the elders in the other Apartment nearby. Elder JAckson and Hill's area is called Sofokrom and they have to take a trotro every day to get there because it is pretty far away. and they have there own chapel. That chapel is cool because it is the oldest chapel in Ghana and was built right when the church started coming to Ghana by the members! Our zone has 14 missionaries in it including the two zone leaders, and there are two districts within each zone. My zone leaders right now are Elder Halling from California and Elder Adamson from Ghana.
Sounds like Tyler Dean has his work cut out for him! playing the piano all of the time. ha i was always so nervous when i would have to play the piano at things like that.. i don't know why, and i would always make alot of mistakes and i felt like people were judging me lol. Since i have been here though it has been sweet. I feel like i have been given the gift of keys... i just made that up. But i haven't had any problem playing any of the hymns which is sweet so i can just play any hymn that they ask to in Sacrament or whether it is for the ward choir! I feel blessed that it has actually been that easy to do that, and it really does help the ward sing not quite as bad as they usually do.
I don't usually print out the emails, that would cost too much. It costs 20 Peswas to print one page, and usually costs 90 Peswas for the time we spend at the cafe. but all of that stuff is covered by the subsistence that we have been given.. i have become pretty good at managing my money which i think is a really cool new skill! i am able to manage my sub really well so i can have plenty for the 4 weeks sub is given!
So do you like the Boney M? ha its kinda funny.. but ya i would say that the most misused piece of equipment in Ghana is the Speakers. on any given street corner there is someone blasting music and if you are close by you can't even hear yourself talk. its actually pretty annoying, and that is were we hear all the Boney M. its funny while we have been at the cafe we sometimes hear someone blasting Mormom Tabernacle choir outside, and so we think that is really cool.
So this week was a struggle. The water in our apartment was out for three days straight! so we were having to buy a huge bag of pure water bags and bring them to our apartment. we had to use them to cook to clean and even to shower! Have you ever tried Showering with 1 liter of water, well its weird i will tell you! ha but the water is back now and we are showering like normal human beings again it is sweet!
Elder Joseph has been getting somehow sick this last few days. Apparently 8 missionaries in our mission right now have the swine flu! and thats what it might be with elder joseph. so we have been taking it kinda easy the last couple days. We had a big training with all of the ward missionaries in our wards, and kind of taught them more about missionary work and about preach my gospel. The ward missionaries in my ward are so freaking sweet. They help us out so much and im so greatful for them! It will be way weird if i am transferedd because i don't want to leave my ward because i really like them and they are really helpful in doing all of the proseltying and everything. but i guess thats part of being a missionary!
I'll write you next week with more stories about investigators and things! i love ya'll
Quinton
PS the picture that i am sending is me standing by a car that looks exactly like ours back home! and i almost got arrested for taking this picture! lol it was funny as Elder Joseph was taking the picture this guy came up to us and started yelling and said we need to ask permission first and all of this crazy stuff, so we told him he could take us to the police if he wanted too. He would have looked so dumb if he had taken us there and said i want these people arrested for taking a picture.. so obviously he didn't do anything and we still have this picture! ha so our car is in Ghana too!
Click on the picture which will make it bigger and take a close look at the store names as well as the people. Note the lady in back by the building has a cushion on her head that the people use when they carry things on their heads. There is a lady behind the table to Quinton's left. Notice the items on the tables out in front of the stores. Really interesting seeing how the people do things in Ghana.
Email from Elder Joseph
We are still together as companion and today will be transfer news so we will know if we are still together but we have a wonderful time together in kojokrom ward.
For fante i am trying best to learn but not all that good. here we help people to pound fufu for the investigator and members and is a wonderful experience and that is one of my service i can do well.
for cooking i am not all that good but i can prepare some of my local meals.
For africa the weather is always warm or hot and a few time cold and we do not experience inversion
for the numbers of children there alot of them in our ward and i do not teach any class
thank for all you done i hope of having more time with elder Petersen on the mission field
hope to hear from you again
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