Week 51: Ch, ch, ch, ch, ch (the beat of every single song in Ghana)

Questions and answers from my dad...

What is your favorite thing to eat in Ghana? 

Fufu, I’d say, with groundnut soup.

Describe three different things they serve for food.

Fufu is like a soft smooth ball of like Playdough in a bowl of soup that you eat with your hands.

Then there is Banku which is like dry Playdough that you dip in stew and then swallow. Oh yeah you swallow Fufu also.

There is also fried rice, basically the same that is at Panda Express.

Now, almost a year into your mission, what are a few things you think you will miss about being a missionary?

I’ll miss the privilege to wear the tag. It is an honor to have the Lord’s name and his church on my shirt each day.

What are some things you will miss about Ghana?

Things are cheap here! So I’ll miss buying cheap snacks off of people’s heads. Haha. (They sell stuff on their heads.)

Who are your closest friends from your mission? Missionaries? Members?

Elder Bawden, one of my former companions, is a great friend. Also Elder Nabrotzky and Elder Memmott. He is new and we are in the same district. But we've hit it off really well. He is sweet. From Nevada.

What are some of the best qualities in your companion?

He is down for anything. Doesn’t really have much preference on stuff. 
So that is good in that he doesn’t boss me around or make it his way or the highway.

Tell a funny experience you have had lately?

Elder Pinnock always quotes "The Testaments" movie when we are buying something at a shop. He will pick up some oil or something and say, "Is this your work?” to the seller. Haha. It’s funny to him and me cuz the seller just looks at him all confused. Haha. Pretty funny.

Week 50: "Hit" by a Car

I'm too tired to write a long and clever email so here you go:

I heard something hilarious this week form one of our investigators. She said, "Please, is it true that in USA there is just money on the ground and that you can just pick it up and buy stuff?" I laughed and said that it wasn't true and that we have to work for money. Haha. So funny.

We went to teach this girl named A. and we had already eaten a ton that day and when we got to her house she said she was going to feed us. Oh boy. So she brought like a 3 course meal to us. Oh man. I was so stuffed to the brim. Like I couldn't sit up straight cuz my stomach was so full. It was funny haha and then we had to teach her. So funny. But we taught her and then invited her to pray and ask God if this message was true. So two days later we went to follow up and I asked if she prayed she said she did so I asked her if she got an answer (every missionary braces his or herself at this moment). She said, “Yes.” Oh man, I was so happy! So she is totally excited about it. We invited her to baptism and she said, “Yes, and that I wouldn't say yes or be inviting you back unless I knew this was true.” Wow. What a great response. I was so happy.

This transfer is almost over. I'm starting to total up things and I counted that I've talked with over 90 people this transfer. Wow. we’ve offered the gospel to 90 people in the past 5 weeks. We've had about 45 new people to teach from that effort. Of those 45, 2 have baptismal dates, both of whom are referrals, one from a member and one from another companionship of Elders. Wow. A lot of work to receive 2 referrals. But I take my success in knowing that I warned 90 people and offered them the truth and that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Maybe he was trying us to see if we would work hard and then rewarded us with 2 referrals. That’s how it is.

Also I got hit by a car the other day. That was crazy. Head on it dove off the road right for me so I totally parkoured off of the hood and swung myself to the side. It drove off not even stopping. Ha it was crazy. I walked away checking myself seeing if I got hurt but I was actually ok. So that was crazy. Missionaries are protected! It is the truth. Anyway, that is life. I'm okay mom, don't worry :-)

All right. I'm out. Love you all.

Week 49: Flied Fish

So something really sweet is that people here cant say their R's right. For example when they say fried fish, they say, "flied fish". Like they say it like an L. Yesterday an a investigator said, "I don't know how to play (pray).” So we helped her learn how to 'play'. So sweet.

One crazy rejection experience: So we have been trying this new place to be finding new investigators and me and Elder Bangura (we were on exchange) went to this one house and knocked the gate to see if we could teach someone there. So we knocked and ran into some hardcore baptists from Liberia. Man, they were really smart and even called us “Mormons” (which never happens here). They just call us Latter-day Saints. So these people were educated and kinda freaked about the Book of Mormon the whole time. So after a lesson where they completely did not accept what we taught, the husband drove up as we were leaving. He is a white man from England and an avid atheist. So he gets out and starts yelling at us from his car. Saying there is no god and science blah blah blah. So i just testified to which he reviled my testimony and then I said, all right and I tried to give him a Book of Mormon saying that he could know that there was a god. He did not accept it and so we walked away. Ss we were walking away, he yelled, "I curse your god every day and I’m still alive, and I’ll live longer than you!" Yeah, it was quite the experience. Your emotions after that are pretty everywhere. Sadness for him. Frustration that he reviled your testimony. But also grateful that we suffered for the cause of Christ like Peter and John. So it was interesting.

To conclude I've never seen scripture more fulfilled than I have out here on mission. It’s all so real. The apostasy, the hatred toward the truth, etc. it’s all so real.

Sincerely, Elder Janda

Week 48: To Homilies and Hymns

So I’ll write a few cool things from this week for you.

#1- We are teaching a pastor from a different church. His name is Daniel. He is so so awesome to teach cuz man, I can go talk deep with scriptures. The guy can read like a pro! So it’s super fun. Also he knows the Bible really well so it allows me to quote scripture left and right and he knows the quotations I'm saying. So it’s super fun.

#2 I am almost at the end of the book, Jesus the Christ. I been cranking on it the past few weeks. Reading like 10-15 pages a day. Haha. I don’t know where I get that time, mostly before bed. Anyways, I love that book. so I was reading about the apostasy and he was talking about the homilies. which to my understanding are the articles of faith for the church of England, which broke off because King Henry wanted to divorce his wife to marry his maid (lol apsotasy). But there is a homily that declares that the apostasy is real haha. That the truth was lost and the doctrines were changed long before the church was created. Haha so that was funny but then I remembered a lyric from Hamilton. In the song Wait For It, Burr sings this line "but there are things that the homilies and hymns wont teach ya." As I was reading Jesus the Christ that came to my head and was like no way.... So I looked on my lyric sheet (thanks to the fam for sending me the lyrics haha) and it is the line! Man, Hamilton is legit because indirectly Lin Manuel Miranda referred to the apostasy. Haha pretty cool.

#3 We taught this guy S. who was a referral form the Elders in Adeisu and he had come to church the week before. So we go out to teach him and we sit down and teach him lesson one. After finishing Joseph Smith he goes, "Ok I want to know more about the Book of Mormon (we hadn’t even taught him about that yet)" and so we did and he was like 'sweet'. So I then bear my testimony of the things we taught and the church and ask him how he could know if its true, to which he responds and tells us how he has been going to the church for the last 5 or 6 weeks and that he loves the church. And that he already knows that it is true. I was like woah. This is sweet. Man, he is so prepared. I love meeting those people, the ones who are so prepared that you want to say, "Will you be baptized right now?" Hahaha so yeah, but we invited him for the 23 of September and he gave a very strong "YES." to our invitation.

#4 There is a family in our ward form Ivory Coast so I get to continue my half hearted attempts to learn French! Ha I’m learning small small. But he wanted me to teach him some Spanish so I was like sweet! I can speak decent Spanish! But I go to start writing down words and only Twi comes to mind. Espanol asa (Spanish is finished). So shoutout to Eric because he speaks that language and because he shouted out to me so I'm shouting out to him. Is that proper terminology?

Arevoir mon amis (idk how to spell it, only know how to say it)

WTTM (Dad, youll get that)