Almost everyone...

by dad

From June 11th thru July 11th, 32 countries will compete in the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. It's held once every four years. For the first time ever Africa, specifically, South Africa will host the World Cup. Six of the teams competing; Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South Africa, and GHANA are from Africa. In most countries, normal life stops during matches. It's estimated to have cumulative views of over 26 billion, from all over the world. That would be 250 times the record 106 million that watched the 2010 Super Bowl. Almost everyone in the world will be watching, almost everyone.

... zone conf was so powerful. as of May 23, 73 missionaries have completed the mission goal. so in 6 weeks over 55 missionaries need to baptize a part member fam. :) President Sabey just laid down the law and let us know that without the Lords help we can't do that. it’s not realistic. he told us that the path ahead is dark and unclear, but as H. B. Lee taught, we need to "walk to the edge of the light and perhaps a few steps into the darkness, and you will find that the light will appear and move ahead of you" Pres. Sabey talked about how we were going to do that. so we are starting another goal. and its crazy, but so sweet! he said this is the best way to get help from God.

New goal... 1) every missionary will enter into and keep a covenant not to watch any football matches from June 11th to July 11th (World Cup) and 2) by Sunday Sept 26th, every missionary will be blessed to baptize someone who was found while a World Cup football match was being played.

Boom right?!?

The point of this goal is "a unique opportunity for us to draw near to the lord and covenant to obey him and in the process find peculiar and powerful people" super excited for this. he went into depth about it and said every night each missionary will report to his district leader on their obedience and every night we will get a text from the assistances with the scores of each game each day so we stay in the loop. sweet right. its gonna be crazy.

To Africa, the World Cup is more important than anything, and when you have a mission of 60% Africans its quite crazy. excited to see how that turns out. it will give us a chance to receive help thru obedience.

Alex will participate in his first baptism on June 1st.

we have a bapt. tomorrow the 1st, King David, Joseph, and Kojo. Kojo will complete the goal for us. crazy to teach him. he doesn’t know any English at all. it was interesting when we were filling out bapt. info sheet. we had some problems... ahhaha. he lives in a small fishing village and has no idea how old he is. or for that matter, how old any of his kids are. we asked and he said. um... 50. then the wife said no 60? then another 57? they have no idea. stinks right.

i love it here.

i love you all so very much i think about you guys like crazy. Can’t wait for letters.

Xoxox

elder darrow

When the time comes, you gotta put it down.

by dad

Elder Darrow is enjoying another week in paradise.

as for me i was blessed to stay in the great town of Sekondi, as well with my companion. we only had one change in our whole zone. the new elder is from Payson. he’s tight. i'm guessing next transfer there will be a lot that will change. i guess we will see but as for now things are sweet.

(L to R - Elder's Lacanivalu, Bahme, Halling, Darrow)

(Apartment FHE with FuFu dinner)

this last week E Bahme and i fasted with Justice and his family so that we can get help (so they can get married and baptized). it was really cool. we need a lot of help cuz he drags his feet. we also have a non-member husband with a member wife we are teaching. Also, Richard (Joseph and King David’s friend), isn’t progressing like he should be. we don’t want to wait for him to baptize Joseph and King David. so on June 1st i will be baptizing Joseph, King David, and the non-member husband. that’s going to be sweet. it was cool to hear Joseph and King David say that they would like me baptizing them.

i also wanted to tell you all that i had one of the most amazing experiences of my life. i don’t want to tell you a nutshell story of it cuz it was so amazing. i made copies of my journal and sent them to you. it was UNREAL. best day on my mission so far and i doubt anything will change that. (i'm sure something will but can’t see how) let’s just say that I KNOW that i was called to serve in this mission for a reason. and that it was decided LONG before now. even if i had time to email it, i would get way to emotional to tell/type all that in public. so i'm sorry that you will have to wait but it’s on its way. It’s so awesome.

Elder Darrow said he has French Toast in the morning w/ an egg and has Ka-Kro and beans for lunch. Ka-Kro is fried plantains w/ spices. A normal lunch plate costs 10 pesewas for the beans and 20 pesewas for the plantains. That about .21 cents.

His passion for Fu-Fu has yet to be revealed. A Cassava is a starchy, root that is a major source of carbs. A Plantain looks like an over sized banana, but tends to be firmer and lower in sugar content, and usually requires cooking or other processing. It's a staple food in West Africa.

i have been having fufu more and wanted to clear some things up. fufu is made from cassava and plantains. it is NEVER served plain. it is always in some soup. There are 3 main soups that people make with it; light soup ( super spicy lots of pepper), ground nut (made with groundnut paste... its like peanut butter kinda), and palm nut (made from these weird nuts. also spicy). then they add fish or crab or shrimp or snail or chicken to the top. lucky for me i have a companion who can put down everything that i don’t like (all but chicken). then the fufu isn’t so bad, IF you take smaller bites and just swallow it without chewing. i'm doing better but i don’t really like it. i don’t know why or when i will. just not that awesome but when the time comes you gotta put it down.

(Sister Mensah making Fu-Fu for the Missionaries, with Irean in tow)

(Elder Darrow & Elder Bahme helping with dinner)

Lastly, he said...

tell grandpa Bill that the story i'm sending home from my journal is about g-ma. it's amazing and i wanted him to know that she is watching over me and protecting me. she rocks.

i love you and miss you so very much. tell everyone hello

Elder Darrow

Walking the Rails.

by dad

So here is what’s going on with your son over in Africa.

Transfer calls are today and i'm really hoping nothing changes in out apartment. This is Elder Fij’s last transfer here, he goes home in 6 weeks, so i hope we all stay. I’m sure Elder Bahme has a transfer in the works. He has been here almost 9 months so it will happen for sure in the next 2. i just hope i get another 6 weeks with that guy. he’s awesome.

Elder Darrow has taken a liking to the area where he is serving, Sekondi, Butamagybu (BU), and Katan. He says he probably walks 5 - 6 miles a day. There are two ways to get to BU; by street - when they are in working in the city of Sekondi, or by walking the rails - when go they straight from their apartment. They spend time in BU to teach and to work with members. One of the families they visit there is the Mensah family.

This is a picture of Sister Mensah and her daughter Irean. Alex said Sister Mensah is not as mean as she looks.

Elder Darrow is fanning the charcoal to help the Mensah family cook dinner. Irean is trying to warm-up to her new, giant white friend.

this week we did 2 service projects. we cut lawns. it's so much fun! Not. the way they cut lawns here is with machetes. you basically do just what you think, get low and swing a sword around as many times as you need till the grass is low and all cut. it takes forever! man it just rips up your hand. i seriously respect people who do that everyday here. makes me miss a lawn mower or just a good weeder. really did stink.

Alex has emailed home that there are little kids everywhere. In fact, there really are a lot of children in Ghana. Almost 37% of the population is under 14. That compares to about 19% in the U.S. The life expectancy there is just 60 years old.

This is a group of kids that followed Elder Darrow around to watch him do magic tricks and make his ring disappear. They were very fascinated with the camera.

as for the goal and what's going on here, we found out that Justice and Catherine (the two who are ready and just need to be married who said they would do the civil marriage) said that Catherine’s mother wouldn’t except it so we are back to square one. Justice has to go and do the knocking (he goes to her mom and gets a list of things that he has to buy their family so he can marry there daughter). that is a HUGE nut. so hopefully we can get him to do that or i don’t know what we are going to do. they have been trying to do that for the last 6 months so i guess we will see. :-)

i found out this week that Thomas and Boaten (bwart-en) are moving. they were 2 people who were prob going to be baptized in June and they were just here for school. now they are gone. so that’s a big bummer. So with brother Atto (ah-toe) moving, there goes 3 baptisms planned for June. really sad but its not about the numbers. i planted a seed and hope things turn out. we do have 2 baptism planned for June so far. on the 9th of June we have Joseph and King David. and on the 15th we have Rockson, a guy who was mostly taught by Elder Bahme but still is sweet. so with those 3 and hopefully Justice & Catherine, we could have 5 baptism in June plus another 3 maybe so lets hope it all works out..

i love you all soooo much and i can’t wait to hear from you again. make sure you are reading those scripts. and keep on praying. i see the blessings in my life everyday.

xoxox

Elder Darrow

Mother's Day was Awesome. I can't wait till Father's Day!

by dad

Alex is doing great! First of all, he shaved his head. He actually did it when he was in the MTC, compliments of Elder Meinzer. Alex says it 'helps with the heat'. Jan - March is the hottest time of the year in West Africa. Now comes the rain season, May - July. They have already had the pleasure of walking home in the rain, soaked to the bone.

He said the apartment they live in is nice.

It has everything we need. It has separate bedrooms for both companionships, with a nice bed, complete with mosquito net and fan. The apartment has a kitchen, a place to eat, and even a laundry room. Now if we only had a washing machine.

So i am getting along quite well with my companion. i ask a lot of questions and i always want to know what's going on, so sometimes i push the limit. He rarely gets upset. It's good.

(Elder Darrow & Elder Bahme)

All of the sun has enhanced Alex's freckles. Apparently, freckles aren't a common occurrence in Ghana.

the people are amazed with my freckles. they think it's like a weird skin disease. they always ask me about them with real concern and make sure i'm okay. it's crazy.

As for the Mother's Day call, Elder Darrow sounded happy as can be. The work is going well. He gets along great with his companion. He loves the people. He expressed gratitude for the things he has been blessed with, 'cuz these people don't have anything.'

He misses anything cold and is committed to liking Fu-Fu. And lastly,

tell everyone i love them!

Alex is an Uncle

by dad/grand-pa

Last night, May 7th, Morgan Kate Hammer joined our family. She is 6lbs 13oz, 19 inches long. Before Alex left he said 'the two things I'm really going to miss over the next few months are the Jazz in the Play-Offs and Morgan being born' (not necessarily in that order.) Shortly after delivery Jess smiled and said. . . 'I wish Alex was here.'

Jessica, Nick and Morgan are all doing great.

Judging by now I'm almost sure it was the spirit.

by dad

Alex starts all of his emails with the same phrase... "ok, wow i have so much to say!" I think he looks forward to purging his thoughts each week, almost as much as I enjoy soaking them up.

first off i had my first trip to the hospital! Not for me but Elder Bahme, and he is okay. long story short he had to get an x-ray.

Well when i was at the 1st hospital i stepped on a scale. i didn’t believe it. i figured it was broken. so the next hospital we went to, the next scale said the exact same thing.??? hmmm... the odds of 2 scales being broken to the exact same number. ya... weird... :). so i guess the Ghana diet works. down 38lbs in under 6 weeks. shah dang! eat that jenny craig.

There are 4 senior couples serving in the Ghana, Cape Coast mission. The Saunders (Wellsville, Utah), the Turners (Thousand Oaks, Ca.), the Kiffers (Ketchichan, AK) and the Lambs (Bountiful, Ut.). These couples provide office and member support through-out the mission and are very loved by the missionaries that serve there.

(Bro & Sis Lamb)

well i got the chance to have another meal at the Lamb’s house. It was glorious. They are awesome! Wow. We got spaghetti and garlic bread. topped off with brownies and ice-cream. So unreal. it is super rare that we got to go there and too long to explain why it worked out. (just so you know how rare and lucky i was, the ground beef that was in the sauce, the Lambs bought when they first landed in Accra and have been waiting for that meal to use It. they have been here for close to 5 months.) wow im lucky. it was amazing.

i also wanted to tell you how safe it is here. really it is. our apartment is safe and we are always safe around town. they all love us. NOTHING like what i thought it was going to be like. im sure if you were doing stupid things at stupid times it would be bad but all is well. so don’t you worry momma.

oh, i saw a white man in town today. BOO YA! so weird. really. i am one of the few here and its crazy to see another who doesn’t have a tie on. well as for me im getting along quite well with Elder Bahme. he is a super nice guy. so that’s fine. don’t you worry.

(Elder Bret Bahme)

i had my first exchange with Elder Moiwo. we went to his area Kweikuma (kway-ku-mah) a neighboring town. i was really nervous about it all but things went smoothly. Made me very grateful to have Elder Bahme. we did well though.

well we ended the exchange a bit early so we could start our mission fast. that was cool. started at 6 pm sat and ended 6 pm sun. cool to think that 131 missionaries were down on their knees praying at the exact same time! all asking for help with the goal that we are so far behind on. that was super hard to go that long but its not like i couldn’t go without another meal.

President Sabey has challenged the mission. The goal is is for every companionship to baptize a family. Either a new husband and wife or a spouse of a member. They started it before Elder Darrow arrived and it ends July 4th. They are almost 50% of the way thru the goal and have 36 of the 131 missionaries who have completed it. They are behind as a mission, but Alex is very excited about their future.

we have a couple who is ready for baptism. they have been ready for 5 months but we are waiting for them to be married. its really weird how that all works here. we go and see them twice a week and they know the gospel doctrine so well. its kind of hard to go and teach them cuz its just review. So... last time we were about to teach them Elder Bahme said to me ‘i have taught them everything, so how about you take the lead and put your own spin on it. i don’t know what else to teach.’ so i said 'okay. we will talk about the apostasy and the restoration and focus on the book of Mormon.' i figured i could do that.

He said he was going to open then let me teach most of it and he would just bare testimony at the end. well during the prayer i just got a feeling that the topic i picked wasn’t exactly what they needed to hear. so when it got to me i went from teaching about the apostasy, restoration, and the BOM to saying, ‘well today i want to talk about what exactly happened with Joseph smith and when he went to pray.’ i had a weird feeling (judging by now I'm almost sure it was the spirit) that said they haven’t heard in depth what actually happened. so we turned to JSH and read like 15-19 or whatever the verses are. we really talked about how hard the devil was trying to stop JS from praying and all that stuff. the spirit was really the one doing the teaching. its weird cuz i have such a strong testimony of him and that already, but the power i felt made my testimony grow even more. Joseph Smith is a stud! after baring testimony with tears falling and seeing both of them get touched by the spirit with tears all well, we wrapped it up and ended. it was amazing.

after we got out we were walking away in silence just thinking about the lesson. after about 2 min my comp broke the silence with the words. "powerful" and that’s exactly what it was. things like that i will never forget and can’t wait to have more experiences like that one. it was crazy.

well fast forward a few days that couple agreed to do a civil marriage (the traditional one takes forever to finish and is expensive but all they need to do is the civil one to be baptized and do the traditional one later.) it’s just not common for people to do that. they like to drag their feet so i hope we can hurry this along and get them baptized. pray for them and for the mission to find families to teach

i love you all so so so much and i can’t wait to hear from you again.

elder darrow