President & Sister Sabey

by dad

Last week we received a letter from Alex's mission Pres. Mel Sabey. The Sabey's are from Littleton, Co. where Alex was born. They lived in the same stake as we did and Pres. Sabey was called as stake president shortly after we moved to Utah. We KNOW Elder Darrow is in great hands.

(Sis. Sandra Sabey, Elder Darrow, & Pres. Mel Sabey)

Monday morning emails are a great way to start the week. This week Elder Darrow wrote home and said he dreamt his sister had her baby (she's due May 3rd), that he wants more family pictures, that they are busy teaching and that he loves getting letters (see the DearElder link to the right). He also gave some details on life in Sekondi, Ghana.

This week we had dinner at Bro & Sis. Lamb's. They are the couple in our area (from Bountiful, Utah) and it was so freakin good. They rock. We got to eat real food and just feasted. Their place is a little bit different than ours...

i was trying to find a way to tell you all what it is like to be in Ghana or to be on a mission in Ghana and this is what i have basically nut-shelled for you. Take your average amount of money spent on anything in a day and divide that by 6 or 7 and live off of that. Turn your TVs and other electronics off. Make all your lights 1/5 as bright to save power. Take all of your clothes, put them in a bucket with some soap and scrub those bad boys till your knuckles bleed and swell up. Then before getting dressed everyday dip your cloths in water, ring them out then put them on. Because of the sweat, cloths are ALWAYS damp. Nothing you can do about it.

Surround your bed by open fires cuz that’s what if feels like trying to sleep. Then become completely paranoid about anything that lands on your body cuz if you get a bug bite there is an actual threat of a real killing disease. Then learn to love the tiny little ants that are everywhere. Then remove yourself from all your friends and family and almost any connection to the outside world. Then walk and walk and walk in the blistering and piercing sun miles and miles everyday.

AND JUST WHEN YOU THINK IT COULDNT GET ANY WORSE.... imagine you are in a place where every single person loves you! Where people love to talk to you and just want to get to know you and be your friend. When little kids see you they just yell in pure happiness and joy and run up to you and want to talk. They will hold your hand and walk with you till you tell them OH YEA (it's okay) or the occasional YA FOE (hush up (in a nice way)) cuz they just freakin love us and want to be around us.

A place where when you speak any Fante at all they will all laugh and smile and love you even more cuz they love it when they hear a white man speak their native tongue. A place where people don’t care about money or what they have. A place where people just want to get to know you just cuz they are always looking for friends. A place where people want to hear the gospel and have been prepared to hear it by the Lord. A place where you actually forget about how hot it is when you’re teaching a lesson because the spirit is so strong. Everybody greets everybody and everybody is honest. If you were caught stealing the city alone would kill you before the police got a chance to come. They protect each other. A place where you can give a kid some money to run and get you something a few minutes away and you wouldn’t think twice that he would do anything but what you asked of him (i have used that once and i gave him a sweet tip, 20 peseways or like 11 cents). they have 100% respect for everyone.

Ghana is flippin amazing and i love it.

i love you guys so much. i miss you like crazy. i can’t wait to hear from you guys again and i hope the packages get here soon and hope more letters are always on there way.

love you, love you, love you.

elder darrow