Wilderness Survival

Hello family and friends, 

Life is still sweet here in Ghana. It rains all of the time, we have been caught in the rain numerous times while proselyting. The rainy season means lots of fruit, everywhere you walk you can see mangoes, bananas, oranges, plantains and papayas growing in the trees. The fruit is so fresh and taste amazing! Thank you for the package and all of the cards . It really made my day reading them and I hope the family reunion went well. I miss and love all of you!!

Tuesday. - District council was planned for today, but because the zone leaders wanted to meet with all of the district leaders we are having it Wednesday.  We did not have time for laundry on p-day so we washed all our laundry today.  We have to wash by hand. At first my hands were rubbed raw but now I am used to it. It takes about 15 minutes to completely wash one shirt. Enjoy your washing machines while you have them!

Today we talked to golden investigators Kojo and Ernest, Kojo is the man that we found at church. We met with him at the chapel, he read the entire restoration pamphlet that we gave him and three chapters from the book of mormon. He also asked really good questions and continues to progress very quickly. After the meeting he asked if he could be baptized this week. Sadly, he hasn't been to church 3 times yet and he is traveling for the next 3 months. We gave him all of the pamphlets to read and encouraged him to continue to read the book of mormon and pray everyday . We plan to baptize him when he returns. Ernest another serious investigator is also progressing very quickly. We found him while teaching two other investigators, Winston and Mary. The second we gave him the book of mormon he instantly began to read. The first time we met with him he said that in his heart he knew he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Earlier in the week we were frustrated because only two of our investigators attended church. I have realize that if we are obedient, diligent and keep working hard that the Lord will put people in our path that are ready to receive His message.

Wednesday -  We had district council, our district continues to be one of the most successful districts.  After council we had lunch at BANKU chop bar. It is a restaurant that makes big balls of mashed rice and fermented corn. You eat the BANKU with soup, the texture is the same as fufu but the taste is different. It was actually pretty nice and the soup was great. We taught Kojo his last lesson before he leaves town for 3 months. We taught him the last part of the plan of salvation. He says that he wants to marry and have kids in the church and name his firstborn son Alma. ;-)

BANKU Chop Bar after District Council 

Our area is massive it has one semi-large town and four smaller villages that are spread out and separated by the bush; super thick trees and vines. Because it is so large and spread out we have to take a Tro-Tro to each area. A Tro-Tro is a super old run down van that people pile into. The entire ride it sounds like the whole thing could fall apart at any moment. We headed up to one of our far away areas in APATRAPPA  to teach Christiana who is super close to baptism. She remembers everything that we teach and is reading the Book of Mormon every night. She was suppose to be baptized this week but had to postpone. We taught her Tithing and Fast Offerings and helped her through some problems that keep her from being baptized. Keep her in your prayers.
My companion and I are two of the very few Americans walking through Ghana. We get a lot of unserious investigators. There are a lot of people increasing their faith in Christ and gaining a testimony that Christ lives, Joseph Smith really is a prophet of God, he translated the Book of Mormon and through Jesus Christ restored His church back to the earth.
Friday - Today was a great day. We visited with three of our most progressing investigators, One has her baptism scheduled for this Saturday, July 29, 2017. The other two are scheduled to be baptized early in August. Because both my companion and I are new to the area we went with a member, Eugene, to visit ward members. In order to get to one of the member's house we had to chop our way through super tall thick bush and cross multiple rivers. It was like I was hiking not proselyting. It was super cool! Afterwards we had to hike back all the way back to our apartment in the dark because it was DUMSO.

DUMSO means On Off in TWI- There is not enough electricity in Ghana to power the whole country so the government has to shut off power in certain areas for long periods of time. It happens at the worst possible moments,  it always happens when I am ironing my shirt or about to brush my teeth.  There is no underground piping in Ghana yet so outside our apartment we have a large poly-tank that stores city water. A water pump pumps water from the tank into our apartment. The pump is run on electricity so during DUMSO we have no water. One morning there was no electricity and no one in our flat could take showers. We had to fetch water from a well.

Saturday - We started off the day deep cleaning our apartment, partly because it seems like it hasn't been cleaned for months but mainly because we have a major insect problem. There are ants everywhere in the bathroom and cockroaches in the kitchen. The other two elders in my apartment have bed bugs. I helped them to bag up all of their clothes and boil them. We also moved their beds out of the flat and now they are sleeping on new mattresses on the ground. Everything here gets super dusty and dirty so you have to clean constantly. We had dinner at brother sam's house (the first counselor). It was my first time eating fufu in the field, every time I have it it tastes a little bit better. I asked my companion how long it took him to get used to the food and he said 6 to 8 months. I still have a long way to go but I am doing well. 

Sunday - We had three investigators at church and we have one baptism next weekend. My companion and I joined the ward choir.  Choir and music in general is very serious here. Everyone loves to sing especially loud!  We taught  a woman that only spoke TWI  so we had a member translate the whole lesson. It was very interesting and hard to follow but she seemed serious and accepted a baptismal date.

Elder Woplah's Birthday

Sometimes life in Ghana is like wilderness survival but it is always amazing. I know out of all the many missions this is the one for me. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be in Ghana for 2 years. I absolutely love it here. Love, Elder Ordyna  

The Elder Speakman Smile... Like Father Like Son

Three Hour Chapel Cleaning

Elder Woplah, Me, and Elder Speakman in the Apartment

Stirring Banku with Elder Nygren