Ashanti King's Mother's Funeral

Me with my Go to Fried Rice Man (Azito Baby)

Dear family and friends,

Well, this week has been an interesting one for sure. 

So, the Ashanti King's mother passed away a couple months ago and her funeral is taking place currently until the 15th of December. Funerals here in Ghana are crazy already but when you add the fact that it is a powerful political figure it gets way out of control. The funeral will be for 15 days and the government, the military, and the Ashanti region staff will all be present. Shops, schools, and businesses will be closed for a couple weeks and the assistants to the president informed us that we have to be in our apartments every night at 5. If anyone is outside past dark the Ashanti kingdom will cut their heads off because they do not want anyone to see where they will bury the body because it will be buried with a lot of jewelry and really expensive things and they don't want grave robbers. At first, I thought it was just a rumor or a myth but all of the Ghanaians say that it is true. All I can say is that I don't want to see if it is true, I will definitely be in my apartment by 5. 

Today we were supposed to go into town (Kejetia) to buy all of our groceries and things for the next couple weeks but were unable to because of the funeral. Kenyasi is very far away from downtown Kumasi so things are much more expensive. I guess I will be living off of fried rice and top ramen for the next week until we can get to town. Which is absolutely no problem. Fried rice here in Ghana is absolutely amazing. It is definitely the closest Ghana dish to American food. It is rice cooked with soy sauce, topped with coleslaw, ketchup, mayo, and noodles with a side of chicken. Who knew that ketchup and mayo are good with rice? Ghana life is sweet and I have loved every moment of it. I will definitely have thousands of stories to tell for the rest of my life about these short two years here in Africa. 

This week flew by so fast. We went to mid-transfer training this week as well. All of the new missionaries and their trainers attend in the middle of the transfer to see how everything is going. It was a great time and we were able to receive a free meal so that was nice. With the funeral and mid transfer training, we weren't able to have much proselyting time this week. But, we were able to make the most of the time that we had. We saw all of our progressing investigators and met many new people. We are planning for two baptisms this Saturday as well as two baptisms next Saturday. 

Me with our investigator Francis. He will be baptized on Saturday

Remember to share Light the World with everyone! The gospel has brought all of us so much joy and happiness and we need to share it with others. Christmas in Ghana will be much different than back home. There are no lights, no trees, no Christmas music blaring everywhere. Even on Christmas, I have heard that people still go to work and it is like a normal day. They don't make Christmas a party like we do in the states the Ghanaians go straight to the reason why we have Christmas; Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and the opportunity I have to share a message every day about Him. 

Hope everyone has a great rest of their week and only 20 more days until Christmas!

Love,

Elder Ordyna

Me with a missionary about to go home (Elder Batubenga)