July 9

Mother, 

I am doing really well this week. I had a pretty good week. It sounds like you are doing good too!! That is so sweet about Shawn. When Shawn gave me a blessing before I came on mission it was probably the most powerful blessing I have ever heard. Shawn is awesome. You need to send me some pictures of it that would be awesome. So we met the president this week. It went really well they are really new to being in mission and you can tell that but I think he will change a lot of things up which needs to happen.   It also sounds like he is going to let us meet more often then every three months for p  days which will be sweet. What I like about him is he is taking charge he just is doing what he thinks is best. We were riding around with the mission president and wife and she is so cultured shocked it is so funny!!! I told her that i remember exactly how she feels. She says she always wanted to serve a mission cause they are both converts and then she was like now they got here how is she going to do it. She is worried a lot about the food and stuff. She is so funny and so nice. There was this dead cow being carried along the road they were selling the meat. And she was like you don’t eat that right? We said yeah. She is so worried about what we eat its funny. So we were supposed to have three baptisms this week. Well the old missionaries have been teaching them and stuff then i got transferred in and taught them a little but i knew they weren’t ready and i told my companion that. But he disagreed and wanted to baptize them bad. He  has been in this area a while so he has the say. So we arranged it all and stuff, so Sunday morning we are waiting for them to come. Guess how many came to be baptized 00000000000000000000!!! I wasn’t to disappointed cause I think it is best for them they don’t know exactly all the need to know so hopefully if we find them we can teach them more and prepare them for a month or so. We have been calling them and trying to find them but we can’t. So elder Zoll is now gonna be over are area which is sweet cause this area is so big. So they are going to split it and make a new branch which will help out the missionaries a lot!!! So he is coming down this week on wednesday and taking us to get pizza then we are going to look for buildings and he is going to meet with the branch pres to discuss what needs to happen. So I think maybe soon this area should be getting a little better. President Shulz told the mission by far this is the hardest area. I didn’t really believe when I came but now I know what he is talking about. Not to complain but it will really make me strong and help my mission out a lot. I can tell you I have never prayed so hard in my life and relied on God. God is here though I know that!! he is with me. So when ever I need comfort and am in need he always helps me through everything. I have developed a strong testimony of prayer. Prayer is so important. We need to pray day morning day and night to give our heavenly father thanks. He wants to hear from us and is ready to bless us we just have to use our agency to pray for it cause that is what he doesn’t have from us. For food I am okay anything is good.I don’t need the ensign or anything we get that. Thank you mom!! HOw is your book of mormon reading going? Love you mom have a good week!!

July 2

Mother,

Happy MOnday! MOndays are good days for missionaries. Today is a holiday in Ghana I guess ,which they close down everything ,I am down to 1 cedis, and Elder  Lemor and my companion have no money. We tried to go withdraw money but every atm in this city is closed!!! So we will have to go and get it tomorrow. We didn’t find any wild animals on our hike so it was okay.  Our apartment is like 5 minutes away from the chapel, so we are really close. I think the new area we are teaching in will be a lot more successful. The old area they didn’t have like any success. Yeah the church is the same just a lot of Twi. This branch is actually a lot more helpful and more official then my last branch. Like last Saturday they did a big activity and played soccer and also played like musical chairs and stuff so that was fun. I love this area but I made a lot of close friendships in my last area and maybe it will just take time. There is this woman in our branch who is like 52 she is awesome , a really nice lady.   I am trying to set her up with bempa owusu cause he is also not married it was funny. She told me that she will let me know when she decides, she reminded me of you!!! But you can’t really do anything on p day especially out here cause it’s so far. Mother I am in Africa do you want me to go golfing or bowling or something like that? You have any suggestions what we should do? Cause I don’t have any!!!  (  Ryan said this because I was teasing him about his hike last P Day.  I said, “ Isn’t that what you do everyday, can’t you play basketball or something?”  )   Elder Lemors new companion is Elder Sagers. He is fromTwin Falls, Idaho. He is a cool guy. WE are meeting the new president on Wednesday so we will go to Kumasi then.  Yeah I think I got all of the packages that everyone sent me they were awesome. I love everything that everyone sends there is nothing that I don’t like!!! I like the protein powder. I also like the one that grandma sent too!! We are having a baptism this week. We are baptizing this mother and daughter, they are both so sweet. I love them so much and am so excited for them and the decision that they are making!! It’s so funny every Sunday there are these three kids that come to church. One day we invited them into our gate to play soccer and they loved it and we invited them to come to church again.   Little did we know they knocked at the gate at 8 in the morning ready to go. It is so funny they love the church. I will have to take a picture with them soon. There is one boy named Joel he is 11,  Pastor he is 11, and one that is 7. Yeah the money withdrawal is right. I have been spending a lot of money here its tough because travel was a lot and my companion ran out of money last week so I have been using my money to pay for his food too. I think I will be okay with the conference dvds. But thank you. Well mother I love you so much and have a great time up in Washington!!