Hello friends and family,
This past week has been absolutely amazing. I finally met President and Sister Cosgrave. They are absolutely amazing. My trainer is Elder Speakman from southern Utah. Sadly, he won't be finishing my training because he is going home after this transfer and I will receive a second trainer. My first area is in the outskirts of Kumasi in the Asouyeboa area Asouyeboa ward 2.
Both my companion and I are brand new in the area so we spent the first day meeting members and our progressing investigators. Our area is huge and we have to hike through the bush to get everywhere. Luckily there is a returned missionary named Sandra in our ward that has been showing us places. At the end of the transfer when Elder Speakman heads home I will be in charge of showing my new trainer around. So, I better learn the place really quickly or we will constantly be lost.
The people of Ghana are the kindest and coolest people I have ever met. They are super religious and love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Every day while we are walking, we constantly have people walk up to us and ask about our church. In the past three days we already have thirteen new investigators. We have two baptisms scheduled for this month and four for next month. The church here in Ghana is absolutely exploding. It has been amazing. Every day is filled with lessons and talking to new people. I have been really tired from walking everywhere but it has been amazing sharing the gospel with people and bringing them closer to Christ.
It has been very rainy these past couple of days and only a day in I fulfilled one of my mission dreams of being caught in a thunderstorm. We were out teaching an investigator that is really close to being baptized and it began to pour. We had to run under a roof and were camped there for thrity minutes until we decided that the rain would never stop so we walked to our flat with it pouring and lightning everywhere. It was awesome. For lunch on the first day I had fried fish and yams. I ate the whole fish including the head. It reminded me of the InsideOut Acapella song "I hope they call me on a mission" when the little kid said that his uncle had to eat a whole fish, eyes bones and all. This week a goat chewed on my pants, I mashed fufu for a lady and washed one of our investigators clothes. What I have learned is that you honestly don't know what kind of things will happen next. It is always an adventure.
Even though I have been called to preach the gospel in English sometimes it seems like really I'm not. I am doing much better understanding people's accents but everyone speaks Twi. On Saturday we were with our Ward Missionary Leader and we went to see one of our investigators named Juliet. The whole time our investigator and the Ward Missionary Leader were talking in Twi. Every so often the Ward Missionary Leader would translate into English. But even then the lesson was super hard. Yesterday at church all of the lessons and talks were in Twi so the whole time I didn't know what was going on so I just read my scriptures. ;) Luckily though, about three months missionaries usually are able to understand and speak a lot of Twi.
Today I washed all of my clothes by hand for the first time and took a bucket shower because we ran out of water. Every day there is dumso. Which means that the power goes out for a certain period of time every day. I also played basketball today with my companion, zone leaders and the other two missionaries in my apartment. I am eating very well and keeping myself very healthy.
Missionary life is amazing and very rewarding. I hope all of you have a fantastic week!!
Love,
Elder Ordyna
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