Thanksgiving Pie

Dear Family!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Haha, I loved this email. "Happy Thanksgiving! . . . Chargers update" The best. [I wrote his email during the last quarter of the football game yesterday, so the letter was interspersed with game updates.]

The pigs tasted great! Christian basted it with some stuff. [see photos in last week's blog post].

I did get the DHL box! :D I also received... Everything else. All the packages. All at once. More on that in a lil' bit. :)

Sweet costume! Ryatt's awesome for being willing to do all these fun things! All that sounds really cool. I'm glad you enjoyed your Thanksgiving! It looks really nice! ...Thanks for the pictures of you and cousins!!!

The game: Thank you for the great update!!! WE WON! It sounds like an intense game!!!!

Soooooo here goes the week!

Tuesday! We had our last district meeting as Abura district. :( That was a really sad day. The meeting started really late because nobody had a key to the building, so we were just sitting outside waiting for the bishop to drop the key off. We were waiting for quite a while, and one of the sisters had the idea to start singing Christmas hymns! So we opened up our hymnbooks and just started singing the Christmas songs in the hymnbook. :D It was really nice.

Abura District, 25 Nov 2014

We got in the building, and it was time for the meeting! Things of note in the meeting: Everybody bore their testimony because the district was being abolished, dissolved, eradicated, demolished, destroyed, pulverized by authority, extinguished (you get the picture). It was really sweet. Our district has grown really close, and we're great friends. The testimonies were sweet, and then we sang an intermediate hymn. Next, I gave instruction! It was a really good one on improvement. I feel like it may have been the best one I have given, and we talked about what it takes to improve. We talked about the fact that people justify themselves, but that holds them back. I used quotes from several recent talks, "Lord, is it I?", "approaching the throne of God with confidence," and one other that I now forgot. We addressed things that we struggle with as missionaries, and we discussed how we can improve them and what it takes. Many missionaries get defensive when we talk about improvement, but the great thing about that was that I started with why we don't self-evaluate ourselves, and people gave two main reasons: Pride and Fear. We talked about those for a while, and I had written them on the board. Then I erased those and said that we were going to not have those two things right now. Then we proceeded to name things that we can improve on. It was just a really good, truly edifying meeting. :) The rest of the day was mostly a waste. We spent time with Elder Moleme as he died. [metaphorically--it was Moleme's last day on his mission.]

Wednesday: Transfers! That didn't change anything for me and my companion, but it changed our apartment! Elder Moleme is home, and Elder Cardon is now with us! Woo hoo! He's cool, and our apartment will work hard. The day as a whole was pretty tiring, we knew a few people to see, though when we tried to see them they weren't there.

Thursday: THANKSGIVING!!!! Though we didn't do too much. We tried to see people in Agona, but it was pouring, so we weren't able to see many people. That evening we went to the Elmina Beach Resort and ate some apple (though I think there were raisins in it?) pie and ice cream. It was nice :)

Friday: Soooo we went to Ankaase and Saaman! Great day! :) We taught one of our investigators that has been coming to church the past month from Saaman, ever since we started going there. The coolest part is that we gave a baptismal date to him. But we had to write it down because he can't hear. He reads lips!!! We didn't really know it until he explained one day. I just thought he didn't know English and maybe didn't understand our teaching completely! No, he's great, but he can't hear! He lost his hearing as a boy, in 4th grade or so, so he knows English, though the intonation is a bit off. Baptism set for two weeks from now. Now we just need to finish teaching him! :)

That night we returned home and were preparing to go out again, because we still had a couple hours. When we were about to go out the APs drove up with the zone leaders (Judy and Cardon). Those two quickly packed their things and they dropped off packages. all FOUR. 1 for my companion, and two padded envelopes and 1 box for me! Woo hoo!!! :D :D It was the best!!!! We truly enjoyed the packages. The zone leaders went to Winneba or something for a baptism of Elder Cardon's peoples, so it was home alone day! Nothing too exciting, except the fact that those packages were SO sweet. I LOVE the music, too. Thank you SO much, family. :D

Saturday: it was a really slow day. The members all went to the temple (why can't we?!?!?!?!?! Even the members ask us that! Blahhhhh..) so we tried. We sat on a bench on the beach for a couple minutes, and there were some kids playing with fireworks on the sand. Funniest thing, just some flowers and firecrackers. They have fireworks here!!! The handbook says not to use fireworks... okay, well, moving on. I sent you the picture of me playing pool! That's because we were just walking around when I saw these young guys playing. I decided to play a game against one of them. They wanted to play for money, but I said no (in Fante, because they didn't speak English and I'm trying so hard to learn Fante). Anyway, I played the game. And won. Boo yah! :) I told them all to come to church. They didn't.. haha..

Sunday! Church! The BEST DAY EVER! a ton of the stake people were there and... THEY ORGANIZED AGONA GROUP!!!!! So now it's completely official, and asap they will be worshipping in Agona! :D They named all the members up there. 101!!!!! One hundred and one!!!! So now we have a bunch more people to find and teach. :D :D :D anyway. Christian, that awesome recent convert, gave an AWESOME talk, too. Hilarious, but awesome. The bishop told him he had used up his time and he had to finish, it was funny! He shared some very strong and true points about the church and his testimony as well as the responsibilities we have as members. Great times. The rest of the day was pretty plain, we found some members' houses and talked to people. Still a slow area for now.

And today: Mellow day. I wrote you, Mom, a letter today! It has a bracelet in it for Ryatt, but I hope that doesn't tear the envelope.

Anyway.

This week was pretty hard, honestly. I'm so tired. We just don't have people to teach... and that's the hardest part. If we had people to teach, I would feel comfortable wherever, but the hard times step in when we don't have stuff to do. Amazing things with Agona are coming, and it's a miracle that A. is so close to baptism. I'm trying to work hard, still! :) Thank you so much for the support; I can't tell you how much those packages and letters mean to me. Have an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Price