Transfers- If's and But's (candy and nuts)

by dad

Just Alex...

Okay, this week has been weird with elder Lacanivalu (elder Fij) leaving. He was the Zone Leader and is headed home to Fiji. It was really sad to see him go, but we did small parting so it was fun.

(Sekondi - Elder's Lacanivalu, Bahme, and Halling)

Elder Bahme is being transferred. Over the last few weeks I have gotten really really close with e Bahme. I am actually VERY sad. He will be missed. I'm sure he's a guy I will talk about for a while and be friends with for some time. He’s awesome and really started my mission off well. He is going to open a new area about 40 min outside of Cape Coast. It’s bush big time. He has a sweet American comp. He is the district leader there. It's a branch that worships at a rented out school building. Sunday night we were just talking in "ifs and buts" (ya candy and nuts too) and I realized how much more scary it was for him knowing that he is going somewhere he doesn’t know than for me, as I was most likely going to stay. I was really really nervous for elder bahme and actually did A LOT of praying for him and I'm stoked that he got sweet news. They'll have a lot of baptisms. So happy for him.

(Elder Bahme - my trainer and friend)

On to newer and greater news. Well my new companion is elder SINTIM. I am SOO stoked for this. He is a Ghanaian. He’s from Accra. SOO sick. Which means, I will be learning TWI! Goodbye the VERY small Fante I know and hello Twi. They say if you know Twi you can somehow understand Fante, and almost anyone who speaks Fante knows small Twi. I am so stoked for that. Also I heard he’s a sweet guy. . . so happy about this. Also realized that having a Ghanaian with you is sweet. He doesn’t let people take you for anything and knows what’s up and obviously knows the language. Also realized that anyone from Ghana will have no problem at all with ANY food that comes our way. HOLLA! So excited about that. I'm doing fine with the food, but it's just sweet to know that. He will come on Weds.

Also the new guy in our apartment is elder MacKay from Vegas. He’s in elder Bahmes MTC group and seems really sweet. e Bahme loved him so i'm excited. Should be crazy.

I got 2 pairs of pants tailored here. They did a good job. So I will go and take the rest there. They actually could have gone smaller on my pants but at least it doesn’t look like i'm wearing a parachute anymore. ha

This week Agyemang told us he for sure wants to be baptized BUT his father wont allow it. sigh... I feared the worst... but I think once we meet him and talk with him they will be cool. Maybe we can just teach the whole fam and baptize them all. Agyemang's bro and sis are interested too. I guess we will see.

Yes another amazing lesson with Ebenezer. Only saw him once. Did the whole restoration and it was very powerful. He is the type of investigator who is so smart that we will ask harder questions and give him chances to fill in spots and he does. He is so sweet and sooo smart. To spare the many details, at the end he told us that he feels the same as he did on Sat when we came and just loves meeting with us cuz he feels so different. Told us that its clear to him that he has some serious praying to do about Joseph Smith cuz that man is very important person to know about and he can see that if he knows his story is true, then of course it's all true. He said all that before we told him to pray and ask and all that good stuff. He’s so sweet.

Also this week I finished the BOM. Love that book. Not sure if I should get into the NT or Jesus the Christ next. I do a lot of reading at church and I can’t read JtC at church. sigh... got a big decision to make this week.

(Kojo Awotwe, Joseph, Elder Darrow, & King David)

Also big and sweet news. Joseph and King David... my boys... well they haven’t missed church yet and are flippin sweet. They are being interviewed on Tue to receive the priesthood. Yup... got the same feeling... so tight. I'm actually hoping that we can get Joseph's little bro to be baptized who is around 8 and have Joseph do that. How tight would that be? Wow I love this work. I love this gospel. I love my mom and dad (while I'm naming things right). I really do love you all so much. This church is so awesome.

Oh, I completely forgot to say about e Meinzer. We both had comps who had been the same place their whole mission and were both expecting them to go. Email his mom and dad plz and tell them I send my very best and I love their son very much and that i'm always looking out for that boy. e meinzer is training. crazy right. At 3 months. So weird. But he will be an awesome trainer. He is.... VERY exact so that’s awesome. He will be tight. So ya he’s not going anywhere and stoked about that.

Wow I love you all so much. You guys are everything. Thanks for all you do. Rock on baby. You’re in my prayers

elder darrow

World Cup - Ghana 2 USA 1

by dad

Since the missionaries of the Ghana Cape Coast mission have made a covenant not to watch any of the World Cup matches, I felt it only necessary to document for Elder Darrow what all the yelling was about. On June 26th, 2010 the Ghanaian nation soccer team, called The Black Stars, defeated the US soccer team and eliminated them from the World Cup (1 star outshines 50). You can only imagine the pride and joy that is felt by this small country about the size of Oregon with just one tenth the the population of the USA. They advance to the quarter finals and now play July 2nd against Urugauy. Alex had this to say about the victory...

As for Ghana and USA, for any of you who follow that or even care, you can only imagine what it was like here. I guess I just think it would be the same as if the Jazz won the title.... 10 years in a row... hahah. They flippin scream and honk and yell and dance all night long. They even have a huge congo line type-of-thing thru the street about 5 football fields long. That was interesting to watch. They love it. And what’s funny is of course, I was cheering for Ghana. I love the States, but I live here. And at church when people came up to me and said. “Aye... we scored you yesterday.” I said. “ahh. Scored on me? What? For me... I am from Ghana. I was cheering for them”. They got a big laugh out of that. And it was actually brought up in elder’s quorum and they loved that. I love this place. Really starting to know the members and the people. I just love this mission.

Typhoid or Malaria?

by mom

The blog is Kevin's deal but I just had to chime in on this one. Apparently Alex was quite sick last week when he emailed us but there is a separate email for dad with all upsetting information that must be kept from mom. I can't say I'm not grateful. What you don't know can't hurt you or cause you to bust a vein from worry. I think that's how the saying goes....

Since he is all better now, he decided to come clean on what went on:

Here is how my week was. Well. Monday night was.. well... hell. Yup. One of the worst nights ever. (up there with appendix about to burst and coughing till I throw up for hours and hours) I got home from emailing last week (already feeling crappy and well I just passed out on my bed onto of everything that was spread out from the packages. I had a nasty fever. I spent half the night with the fan full blast (as it always is), then the other half of the night was spent with the fan off and me shivering wrapped up in my sheet with the chills. Then you add running to the b-room (with runny tummy) every hour to hour and a half. I didn’t throw up and didn’t have body aches or a headache so I didn’t think it was malaria but it was no fun. I was HATING it. stunk. So morning time I called sister Sabey (our missionary mom) Elder Bahme suggested it. (I thought I would be better off calling my real mother but I guess that’s not allowed) so she said she wasn’t sure what I had but told me it would be best to be on the malaria meds. So I did. I explained that I took some Cipro antibiotics I brought from home for bad runny tummy and she said, Good, that covers typhoid. So I was taking both of those night and morning for 3 days. It was NOT fun. If that was malaria, trust me when I say be very grateful you are not at risk of it. If that wasn’t it, then I guess you are in for a REAL treat when I do get it.

So those of you who were mocking me for sending a pharmacy to Africa with my missionary, take it back!

Alex Still spent the week working. He had another baptism, many teaching opportunities and an incredible moment to share:

Yesterday was Rockson's baptism. It was so so sweet. He was working so we couldn’t do it on Tues so we did it after church. Another awesome day

This week we went to see Ebenezer. This was a guy who stopped us on the streets a while back and we gave a pamphlet (no biggie). He told us around where he stayed and we tried to find him a while back but never could. After some work, a member located this guy and took us to him. We opened and asked him to tell us about himself. He told small stuff then said religious-wise he had been to this church and that church and even Jehovah’s Witness for some time but said he knew none of them were true. He said he would give God another shot so he decided to stop us and ask. (BOO YA!!! love hearing stuff like that. he actually cares.) So we asked him about the pamphlet we gave him, about what he read and what he remembers. With the pamphlet closed he told us page for page what he read about the restoration and about how he can tell that THIS is the time of the apostasy and such. (BOO YA AGAIN!) He’s smart and cares and understands, so we then talked about God and the promise pattern and I read to him how God loves us so much and read from John 3:16 and really explained that to him and changed "world" to his name. After we asked him if he had any questions...

Well with glassy eyes he said that he has no questions. That right now he has SOMETHING in him that makes him want to cry. (Wow right?? trust me we felt that SOMETHING we know as the spirit) he then continued to thank us for finding him and how grateful he was for us. Wow was that a sweeet experience. :)

One of the best lessons taught yet.

Here's the part that makes me so proud that I don't even care that I'm bragging. Even after typhoid, malaria, or who knows what nasty African sickness he had most of the week, he loves his mission enough to write this:

I have done a lot of sweet things in my life. Had a lot of memories of being as happy as can be. Take all those, all the vacations, all the greens hit and golf played, all the amazing jazz games I've been too... (Jazz vs. warriors game 5, 6th row center with momma ). Take all of those and I wouldn't trade a single one for that night sitting with Ebenezer, hearing him thank us for finding him and seeing him touched by the spirit as he told us he wanted to cry he was so happy. THAT is what makes all the hard work worth it. LIFE CHANGING.

Love you all so very much. you’re in my prayers.

xoxox

elder darrow

Golf - Banging Pots and Pans.

by dad

Add Africa to the list of places where Alex has played golf. Why does it not surprise me that he chose a round of golf to celebrate his first 3 months in Ghana?

Last night I called E Saunders and golf was still on with him. E. Saunders is one of the senior couple missionaries that works in the office. I was sooo gidy. I have never missed a tee time that's important, (or any at all i think) and i woke up around 5:40 cuz I was so excited. It was SOO SICK. loved it. It's a day that will go down in the history books. The golf clubs stunk and it sprinkled for the first few holes. Then it cleared up and then POURED for the last 3. I honestly played pretty crappy, but i had sooo much fun. I had enough sweet shots i didnt care. :) E. Saunders was a great 'sponsor'. Very, very nice of him. He's such a cool guy.

Ghana 1 - Serbia 0. World Cup mania has hit Ghana, complete with the African Vuvuzela Horns. What's a Vuvuzela Horn? It makes that loud monotone sound you hear during the soccer matches that sounds like a swarm of bees.

You want to know what’s going on with the whole World Cup?? Anyone following the World Cup?? Well Ghana was playing at 2 right after church. :) We are under covenant to stay away from the temptation of the games so we stayed in the apartment. You could hear TVs and radios echoing in the streets. Well try and guess what happened? Ghana scored with 10 min to go. It was CRAZY here!! And it’s hard to tell you everything i saw, so i will just tell you this; as the horns, yelling, singing, dancing was going about, i witnessed a woman pop a bottle of champagne and pour it out to the small children in the streets who were out banging pots and pans. Yup. It’s flippin crazy here!

The postal system is Ghana is less than desirible. Letters from home seem to take 7-10 days, while envelope packages can take up to 2 weeks. Almost everything we sent has arrived safely. Some never will.

I wonder how much mail that gets sent to me i will never get. I want you to tell everyone that for those who have sent me a letter "if I have gotten it, I have replied. I’m not THAT guy." So their reply is in the mail OR it was lost :( sorry!

And through it all, the work goes on.

We have had some awesome lessons this week. I was getting e Bahme's cold but i didn’t want to spend another day in the apart. So i endured. It was tough. some people who really rocked are Kenneth, Vivian and Agyemang (ah-gee-mon) they are all 3 completely different people with all different stories. but they are all so awesome.

Kenneth was a really shy guy who just sat in on lessons with Thomas and Boaten ( if you remember those people then "10 blog follower points to you"). We didn’t really think he understood much English at all and when ever we ask him stuff he doesn’t really get it and is super shy. he’s maybe 25-29 and has one leg shorter (like a foot shorter) then the other. so its hard to get around etc. well two weeks ago we saw him at church? surprise! so we sit with him. when we asked him questions about what he knows and all that stuff we were SHOCKED. he basically has every pamphlet we have giving him memorized. we were shocked. this last week when we asked him (the whole promise pattern thing) if he would PROMISE to come to church tomorrow. after alot of silence and confusion on both parts he replied with... (in very broken English) i can’t promise cuz i want to be baptized and as of right now I’m just visiting till I’m ready. ?!?! BOOKAHRAH! so happy.

Vivian is a seamstress that dodged us my whole first transfer. she was a member referral from someone who is a powerful member. well we finally went back and sat with her and had a powerful lesson (this was 2 weeks ago) well she said she would come to church but the rain was plenty (wow i sound so stupid talking like a Ghanaian but that’s the first thing that came to mind) well in this lesson she opened up to us and told us that (yada yada yada) she cant read or write and is scared for everyone to know that and can’t read stuff we give her. (i mentioned the bisque! ;) ) and then on Fri. we talked about how families can be together and etc and she was really touched. opened up to us again and told us her husband is a drinker but wants to bring her kids to church (6months and 3yrs) so we were happy about that. she is awesome.

and Agyemang, well he is a 17-19 yr that Babydoo introduced to us. he is so flippin sweet. when we ask him about his assignments and what he ready he gives us the BIGGEST explanation and you can tell he read it 4-5 times. this last time we asked about his assign 3NE 11 and he told us so much he was teaching us! (not really... sigh hope no one went for that) he also is excited to come to church. well Sunday rolls around and yup... not one of them showed. sigh.... so sad. but each one of them has something big stopping them. like Kenneth only comes when his member friend Christian comes and he doesn’t always come. he needs help. Vivian i’m sure was stopped by her hub and Agyemang said his mom wouldn’t let him come. sigh... so sad. hope we can find a way to get around all that.

tell everyone i love them. sorry i dont have more time. i hope everything is well. thanks for all the letters/packages you have sent. i promise you blessings. :)

xoxox
elder darrow

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (and the random)

by dad

The Good

this week has been very interesting. the baPtizms were so awesome. the first person i got to baptize what Joseph Kojo Mann, then King David Dogbe Badasu (pronounce how you like. you won't get it right haha) and then Kojo Awotwe (same as King David). it was so awesome. so cool that i got to have Joseph as my first. he is special to me and his day finially came. i got quite nervous before hand but all went smoothly. the water was a hue of green. that was weird. i was SO focused on not messing up and everything that i don't know if the spirit was as strong, but it really was the icing to the cake when i saw Joseph's face. he had a wet smear where he recently wiped a tear after the closing hymn; The Spirit of God. that was cool. i felt like i could pack up and go home cuz i got that sweet missionary story to tell. BUT i'm not done. i got lots more to do so don't get too excited.

The Bad

the reason i say this week has been interesting is because we had 3 baptisms and 0 lessons. yup 0.... elder bahme has been very, very sick. just has had a nasty head cold, and can't talk very well. so i have been in the apartment all week. i can't even begin to tell you what it feels like and how i feel like i'm wasting SO much time but there isn't anything i can do. when your sick, your sick. SO i just stayed busy. did alot of cleaning and BOM reading. i'm reading alot. but there is only so much reading you can do before you start to space off. (interesting when you read a whole page and then you realized; "hmm... what is the par at hole number 14 at ______ ?" so then i have to stop and do something else till i can focus). wish that wasn't true but it is.

happens to the best of us. but i love that book. it's so awesome.

The Ugly

you want a good story? well, because of the

rain here (it has been raining all week, all the time) the shower water is very, very cold! showers are such a delight. sigh... the water is so cold that i have to pump myself up to shower. i usually can't stay under the water for more then 20 seconds. when i am under i'm shaking and moving and usually singing something like mad so i don't focus on the water. sigh. such a fool. hahah.

and the random...

i have noticed that the one thing i miss the most here is cheese. it really does make everything soo much better. i wish i had some of that. i found out this week that on the 21st we are doing a beach picnic and i'm super excited. that means our golf outing will be on the 14th :) oh yeah! i found out that the mission is doing a temple trip between sep-oct. so stoked! love that place.

i love you guys so so much. you mean to world to me. thx for everything you do.

elder darrow

I Love It Here!

by dad

On Friday June 4th, we got a letter from Ghana with some great journal entries. Elder Darrow says he is just about done with his first journal.

i love it here!

its funny to think that when i was praying for a mission call i asked for;

1) English speaking, 2) food i can handle and, 3) a place i will be happy and love.

i figured that i needed number 1 and 2 for number 3 to work.

well, as for the English part. HA! the only time i hear English is from other missionaries, in about 70% of the lessons we teach, or if someone is talking directly to you. they know English but don’t like to speak it. only thing i get out of church (cuz its all in Fante) is the sacrament and what i study on my own from the Book of Mormon.

as for the food. well, hmm... ha you know my feelings.

but as for number 3. well that was answered. i love it here. if i could pick any other place to serve i wouldn’t. It’s SO amazing here. such an awesome place and such a mission!

elder darrow

(Elder Bahme opening a coconut)

(enjoying the fruit (juice) of his labors)