Surprise Transfer!

Dear Family,

Yeah, the packages came! It was a great time. I'll tell you the story in a minute. :)

I'm glad your lesson went well! I like the doctrines of intelligence and learning, makes sense, 'cause I like school so much! Being aware really is a blessing. It gives greater depth of everything! [D&C 88:78-79] Right now I'm studying the lineages of Adam down. It's really interesting, and I'm actually learning so much! I can't study very many temporal things out here, but oddly those genealogies really interest me and it's like learning back home again! :) I'm glad your lesson didn't turn out like your dream! 

My health is good, too! I'm trying to make sure I'm eating at the right times and other things in order for me to have no headaches. I'm not getting consistent headaches anymore, which is a blessing! ...

It's been a busy week. So, to start it off! 

Tuesday:
It was good! We had district meeting, and Sister Aidoo gave the instruction. It was really good, and it was also really nice not to prepare an instruction for this week and to be able to focus on being personally edified. That evening we watched Ephraim's Rescue at the bishop's house with Elder Judy and Elder Moleme. That movie is really good. I enjoyed it, thoroughly. I would ask for the music to that movie, but seeing as you just sent that package, it might be a bit too late... Sorry. :)

Wednesday:
We had a really.... boring day. But I took pretty scenic pictures! We walked around in the area around Agona to some outskirting village. The funny part was that some people on this road told us that there was a village at the end of this road, so we're like, okay! Let's visit it! But.. It wasn't close. "Don't worry, it's not too far! Maybe 30 minutes." *1 hr later* "Elder 'Atu'ake, I don't think it's only 30 minutes..." but we eventually got there. And we saw a less-active on the way who gave us short sticks of Sugar cane! That was tasty. Elder 'Atu'ake taught me how to strip off the outside of it with my teeth rather than using a knife like most people do it here. Woohoo! Then we eventually got back to Agona and it started to POUR. We had PEC in Elmina, so we got a car there and.. no one was there. But the Miles were there! So they gave us a ride home. :)

 

Thursday:

A good day of teaching! We taught several people. A cool part was after we were sitting with Pa Joshua, the amazing member, we were walking and I heard up this hill some brass instruments playing, so I talked to Elder 'Atu'ake about it and.. we went up the hill! We found a group of young guys with a couple trombones, a pocket trumpet, and a real trumpet. All in very veteran conditions. They let me play the trumpet. :D It was held together with tape, no spit valve stopper on the 3rd valve slide, and.. it was a terrible mess. But I played a few scales, revelie, taps, and a couple tunes I remember. Sweet experience. :) Maybe I'll go back and get a picture for you! That was mostly it for the day. Things have been slowing down a bit in Agona.. Which.. will lead to what the title of this email is about. But that's on Sunday.

Friday!
We had a good day up in the villages of Ankaase and Saaman. We taught a few really good people, several of which came to church on Sunday. Really, it was our most fruitful day. We went to Abura in the evening, though, to do a few interviews. All were successful, and a couple of them have GREAT stories! One sister, sister Florence, started investigating the church in Kumasi, but then she moved for work to Abura (she does secretarial work for the police). While up in Kumasi, however, she met a guy in the ward up there, an RM, and started dating him. Basically, he baptized her on Sunday, and they're getting married at the end of this month. The other really cool guy was brother Philip. His WHOLE family are members. He was the first to investigate, but it always collapsed right as his baptism date came around. This time, however, he was serious. And now he's baptized. It's been YEARS that he's been the only nonmember. Cool interviews. Anyway, earlier that day we received a text from the office elders (they have those in this mission) saying that Elder 'Atu'Ake had a package! He didn't believe it (they pranked Elder Moleme this past week, too), so he called and asked who it was from. As he was on the phone, I was just walking beside him smiling to myself. He was SO grateful for the package, truly. :) He is definitely a great companion. 

Saturday:
We taught another few lessons. It was mostly another slow day.. In the evening we taught Sh., and we showed her the Restoration video. She really understood it, and we're hoping that she progresses more. We also decided to visit that one guy who is from out of Ghana. We just visited to see how they're doing. I'm really hoping that he will feel something when we're around, but I don't think that we're having too much of an effect... They treat us very well, even to give us cake and juice, as well as good fried chicken and french fries to go. Interesting experiences. He asked me about sports, and I told him I like the SD Chargers, so he looked up the Chargers on his iPad and showed me a bunch of things with them. (it was a different thing to happen during a proselyting day..) 

Sunday:

We had church! Some people from Ankaase and Saaman came, so that was great. We went to the baptism afterwards! Good times there. It was great to see those people baptized, and President Stevenson was there because he heard about Philip's story. Anyway, here's the big news: so, we were talking to him about Agona, and I asked him a question about Elmina 2 being closed. He started to connect some dots in his head and then he said, "okay, transfer as of right now. You are now in Elmina." We're Elmina elders now! We will still go up to Agona once to twice a week to have a presence (and that's all we really need or could use) It's basically a whitewashed area: we don't know anything about it, really, except a few members. It'll make for much better proselyting days, and.. just a different area, really! :) It's an answer to prayers, really.. We've been "hitting [our] heads against the wall" out there (Pres. Stevenson quote). I've learned a lot from this adventure of an area, but it's time for a little change. Maybe more to come in two weeks when this transfer actually ends? Who knows.

My time here in Ghana has been different than any other time of my life, and I'm learning a lot. Even more, I'm gaining a greater desire to learn even more. There are many things that I can't wait to understand better. :) I'm doing my best to help wherever I am, and it's not always easy when there are external circumstances that just beat you down (like long car rides all the time). But I have hopes for the future! I'm looking up. :) I am so grateful for all the support you all give me, each bit counts so much. I love you all so much! Have a great week! :)

Love,
Elder Price

Oh yeah! The water was off for a while, but when it came back on it was just a slight tint of yellow... which then progressed... and progressed... until it was black. Rootbeer! Tasted pretty gross, too. (just kidding, we didn't drink it.) It cleaned up late that night, though. :)  That was Sunday. :)

[Me: I was wondering what the heck went wrong with your water, haha! Were you able to bathe that day? Speaking of bathing, what are your showers like there? Do you normally get running water for showers? Warm water?]

Yeah! One tap was clean (it's connected to a reserve tank that auto fills with the city water. Good thing I didn't wait to get it out of that tap, otherwise it would've been dirty, too) so I took a bucket bath. :)  Running water, cold showers. It's a blessing to have a shower at all! I'm good with buckets by now, though. But really, it's showers here.



Great story that I only have 1 min to type:

We were talking with Pa Joshua when I had to call the zone leaders for something. I was talking in very normal English for once in front of Pa Joshua and his wife (who doesn't know any English). After the phone call, she told her husband that my language sounds like singing. :) Pretty neat. BYE BYE!