April 22, 2013

Hey everyone!

     Ghana is amazing, I love every minute of it.  Well, most of then, when its lights out at night it gets a little hot but that's alright.  The water situation has been better but we ran out of water again today.  Mostly because its P day and we use a lot of water to wash our clothes.  I'm getting the hang of washing my clothes by hand.  We are so incredibly blessed back home just to have washing machines!  The baby powder is saving my life and my hands.  I put it on my neck 2 or 3 times a day so my collars aren't completely yellow by the end of the day.  It’s made a huge difference and I didn't have to spend an hour scrubbing the collars of my shirts today.    

       Life in Ghana is becoming pretty normal now.   I eat oatmeal every day, I  really like it.
Add some milk and brown sugar and it is good.  Highlights of the food for the day is probably the hot chocolate we call milo, I drink every night before bed.  Why on earth I love drinking hot chocolate in
Africa is beyond me but it’s amazing.  I'm starting to eat more fruit.  The fruit here is to die for!  The pineapples are so sweet.  They mix pineapple and mango trees and the fruit is super good.  I've also had a few mangos.  Holy cow talk about a slice of heaven.  I love the mangos.  Dried Costco mangos will never be quite as good again.   
      Our investigator got baptized on Saturday!  It was really cool to see him make that choice.  He's been investigating the church for a couple of months.  I'll never forget the feeling I had.  It was truly an incredible feeling.  I gave him one of the coins that Byron gave me afterwards.  Man, you should have seen him smile!   It was so cool!  I gave it to him right before he left and then I saw it just stop and kind of rub his fingers over it and he got a big ol' smile.  That's a day maker if there ever is one, more than getting a free shake at Wendy's.  Though I could go for one right now...
       Our other investigator is progressing like crazy.  He never ceases to amaze me.  On Sunday we got to church at 8:30 and he was already there.  He lives on the other side of town, a 30 minute walk for us at least and he has kind of a bad foot so walking is hard for him.  He walked all the way there and was there before us!  Makes me want to be better.  I swear I'm learning more from these people then they are from me at times. We started teaching a new woman this last week.  We were out contacting one day and she called us over and wanted to learn more.  She came to church on her own last week so we challenged her to come again on Sunday and she did.  Friday we had an appointment to meet with her at 12 but she called us in the middle of companionship studies and said that she was at the church waiting for us.  We rushed over and taught her the first lesson and gave her a date.  She's amazing!
       

     Well, that's about it for this week, I'm hoping for another great week.  I love you guys so much.  Thanks for the prayers and support they help so much.
 
Love, Elder Clark

Hey Everyone!

Hey Everyone!                                                                                                    April 15, 2013

So Oda is going well.  Mom I'll try to try those recipies sometime but I don't know if I'll be able to. Elder Mann cooks a lot for us, he wants to open a resturant when he get home so he's a good cook.  I told him he has to teach me over the next 12 weeks.  I had Fufu this week.   It tasted good. The best part was the little piece of beef that came with it! I loved it, I never knew I would miss beef so much.  You can get it here but its expensive and in cans. They have 'sausages' here.   I also found baked beans at the filling station. BEANIE WIENES!! I'm excited for that. I have to save up my money from the month for it though. We  ice cream here sometimes. For lunch one day we did the "Challenge." You and your companion buy a tub of ice cream and cookies and eat the whole thing. So we have ice cream and cookies for lunch. It was awesome.

We had my first Zone Meeting on Tuesday. We rode in a tro tro for an hour to get to Kade and met with the zone. It was good. The Senior missionaries brought chocolate cake for us. SO GOOD.  We got some good pictures, I hope to send some home soon. It was fun to travel up there. After we road back with them because we were working on our well pump. It’s the tail end of the dry season so the well is VERY low. We went without power for 2 days so we couldn't pump and then the last couple days it’s been too low to pump. We have a 660 gallon water tank that we were living off that  dried up so last night got to draw water from a well for the first time!  It's harder than it looks but it was super fun.  I experienced my first bucket showers.  I felt amazing after the shower!   We're hoping and praying for rain soon so we can have more water.

They work is going really well. My companion and I made a different strategy to be better so we've been finding more people to build up our pool of investigators. The other Elders had a baptism on Saturday and things were kind of hectic. They were supposed to fill the font on Friday but it was lights out so they couldn't pump it so they went Saturday morning to pump it.

We're teaching a guy named Francis. He's one the few that we started teaching with me here. I love that guy. He came to church on his own right before I got here so I was there for his first lesson. He is SO faithful. He understands everything and prays about everything and knows the church is true. He’s going to be baptized in 2 weeks.  I will always remember giving the Book of Mormon. His eyes lit up and he got so excited about it. We read from it some and then when we were leaving he was giving it back to me because he didn't know he got to keep it. I told him it was his and he was so happy. He just hugged to his chest and was so happy.

What else about Ghana? It’s super different here.  We do a lot of walking and meeting people.  The Twi is  different but I'm not super worried about it. We're trying to get the members more involved in teaching people who speak it which is good.

I love you guys, I hope all is well.

Elder Clark

April, 8, 2013

Hello from ODA.    It’s on the western edge of my mission that's about all I know.  We rode on a tro tro for 4 hours to get here last Wednesday.  I'll probably be in Oda for 6 months or so.   

 Oda is sweet.  We work hard and last week we were really successful.   The apartment I'm in isn't bad.   We don't have an oven which is a bummer but we do have a fridge which is even better.  The bread you can buy is sooo good.  I love it.   

Yesterday was my first Sunday.  It was hard.  They said it was an English speaking mission but all of the meetings were in Twi so I didn't understand anything.  It was fast Sunday for us because we don't get Conference for a couple of months so I had to go bear my testimony as a new missionary.  I'm pretty sure only about 20% of the branch understood me.  The area is pretty huge but we just stay in the city because we can't afford to pay to go out.  The branch is supposed to split around the time I finish my training which is pretty cool.

It’s pretty jungly here, more so than I thought it would be.    Saturday night we had a rain storm and it was crazy!  I was soaked super fast and the lightning was crazy!  It lit up the whole sky and was pretty much the coolest lightning I've ever seen.  Its super hot here but not unbearable.  I love it and I love being a missionary so I don't notice it.  
One last thing is that they have tons of dogs and cats that are soo cute and I just want to pet them, especially the kittens.  Then I have to remember that nobody has pets here they just raise them for food. 

Thanks for all the love and support, I can't tell you how much it means to me.
Love,
Elder Clark