What a week!

 
Man this last week has been crazy but I have to start out with a story from last week that I forgot to write last week. So my companion and I were standing out and the entrance to the chapel waiting to catch a tro tro to a town called Achaise to go there for the day. It’s about a 30 minute drive or so. We were standing there for about an hour and tro tro after tro tro were all full. I was standing there and I was waving at them and every other car, except taxis. Finally I kept waving at all the personal car and my companion decided he was going to go and sit down and wait. I kept at it and started waving at these big dump trucks too. I saw one and waved at the guy, he started laughing and then he actually stopped! I walked over and he asked me where we were going. He was going to the same place so he told us to get in. Man it was so cool! It's the biggest truck I've ever been it.  I contacted him and we've actually been teaching him too. It was pretty crazy that he actually stopped though.  It was awesome.  I don't know how I forgot to add that to the letter last week.
 
This week was nuts though. I go some big news of Monday night. We were all at a member’s home for FHE and my companion got a call. He sees it’s President Hill. Transfers are this week and we know trainers are being called. I knew he would train so I wasn't surprised. He walked outside for a minute then walked back in and told me that president wanted to talk to me. Well long story short, President assigned me to be a trainer this next transfer. Wednesday I get to go my "boy." Elder A. is training too so one of us will be opening a new area again this next transfer here in Oda. We went to trainer’s council in Accra last Thursday. We got up at 2:30 AM and left at 4 AM to get to the meeting at 9 AM. I thought it would be 2 hours, it was 4. It was really good. I really love President Hill. There are 17 missionaries training this transfer, 1 is a sister so 16 guys. Of all the trainers I'm the youngest by 2 transfers, 3 months haha. They had us all stand up and introduce ourselves and everyone looked at me like I was really young. Of the 16 new missionaries coming in 15 are from America so it’s pretty likely I'll be training an American too but we'll find out on Wednesday. This means that I will be in Oda for 3 more months totaling 8 months of my mission.  That is a long time in one place.
 
So that was the big news for the week. Hannah, Matthew and Dad, if you guys have any advice on training, my eyes are wide open.
 
Sunday was our branch conference. It was a fantastic Sunday! The 2 branches combined for the meeting. We had 197 people come, that was the most we've had yet. Each branch has been getting 80 or so, combined we had 20 new people. We had 2 less actives we've been focusing on to come church and we had 8 investigators come to church. I was so excited! It's the most I've had on my mission so far. Most of them it was their first time coming to church. A bunch of them were people we contacted this week. This week I really had us focus of finding and contacting and it really paid off. One guy I contacted while we were riding our bikes and he was carrying a gas tank so I stopped and helped him carry it to the gas station. He then gave me his number and house number and asked me to come that afternoon. We stopped by and did and introduction lesson and invited him to the conference. He came and he actually knows the branch president really well. Another boy I was sitting by one day and started talking to him. I gave him and invitation that we printed for the conference and he came.  At the conference he kept asking me to come and meet his family. After church we went and met his family and taught them and we'll be going back there. It was just a fantastic day. There was another man, and his friend, which we have been teaching for a while that came too.  It was such a good day. The chapel was full. It’s crazy how happy that can make a missionary when you see the church full of people and investigators smiling and having a good time. Makes the work so rewarding.
 
Saturday was the All Africa Service Project by the Mormon Helping Hands. You see those yellow vests at disasters and stuff. I finally got to wear one! We cleaned a lot of the road sides. I weeded for the first time in Africa. What we would use a weed eater for in the US they use machetes. You just lean over and swing it close to the ground to cut the weeds.  It’s like mowing the lawn with scissors. It was a good time though. After we cleaned the Chapel and then we had a soccer game between the 2 branches. My branch won!
 
That’s pretty much the excitement for this week. Exciting things are happening!
 
Love,
 
Elder Clark