Sekondi photos

My Big Friends

My Little Friends

Sharing a Soda

McAllen Kweku Oppong a.k.a. Mike

by dad

Beyond the emotions of transfer news, Alex also emailed about the missionary work and service they have been providing. It seems that he has been very blessed with amazing experiences. The members of the Sekondi wards are very strong in the gospel and are very supportive of the missionaries. He will miss them and their friendships. Regarding the past week, Elder Darrow wrote...

I called e Mackay earlier in the week and he said "you wouldn’t believe what I did today. I had a baptismal interview for Mike Allen.' He's the guy who we taught every single day for a month and then he moved to Kumasi. Well long story short, they have been teaching him and things are going sweet. (Duh...) He said the day was set for Sunday. So come Sat night I called Mike and he freaked out. About as happy as I have been on mission. He told me 'Thank You' like 30 times. He was just so happy and it was so cool to hear him tell us how grateful he was for us.

Come Sunday e. MacKay said the baptism went great and Mike was more then excited. He was trippin. Was just so awesome to have all that work out. I really got to see the hand of the Lord work thru me as we were teaching him. I have never been guided by the spirit more then when I was talking to him. Said a lot of thing and made a lot of promises to him that i would normally never make, but when I did it wasn’t me talking. Just such a great feeling and I'm so happy that he is actually baptized. Wow. So cool.

(Baptism of McAllen Kweku Oppong - next to E Lehr!)

To explain the name... he said his name was 'Mike Allen' but said it with a Ghanaian accent. He told us to just call him Mike. Then e Mackay said he thought it was actually Mac, but just said it like Mike. And now that they have the actual spelling it's 'McAllen Kweku Oppong'. - He will always be remembered

Things are going great with Sarah and Augustine. Lessons are still super powerful and we have really been focusing on if they get an answer to prayers. (They are active in their church and are in the choir and all so it’s hard) They tell us they always feel different when we are around and that they do feel something different when they pray about all the things we teach.

Also this week we have been going to Kojokrom a lot to teach Pricilla. I told you about her last week. We have spent some time with e. Dodd and e. Bassey out there. Well the lessons with her are sweet and sorry I haven’t told you more about her. Lots of crazy stories not enough time. But we have a baptismal date this week for the 12 of Feb. so that will be cool.

elder darrow

Transfer News

by dad

Change is a good thing. Alex sent a lengthy email about his experiences this past week. I will share them later in the week. As for now, Elder Darrow is being transferred to Kumasi. It’s the second largest city in Ghana. It’s in the Ashanti region on the map to the right (light brown area). It is one of the northern most cities in his mission with missionaries, except for some new areas that have recently been opened to missionary work. Here are his thoughts on the transfer.

(Good-bye Sekondi)

I shall now talk more about transfers. I wont go into crazy detail about what’s going on in Sekondi and all the places. I am going to Asuoyeboa (ass-see-oh-bwah) in Kumasi. I will be with e. Holmes. Also in the apartment is e. Baron who was just transferred in and a Ghanian e. Adu-Gyamfi. Also, e. Yapo going up to Kumasi and will be in my same district. I also have the privilege to be with e. Mackay again. I’m so very excited about that. As for e. Matheson, he is, drum roll please.... training. He will teach exactness in obedience.

Today the Lambs took our apartment to NorthSea (restaurant) and picked up the tab. (I didnt have my black magic card or I would have tried). We all got pizza and needless to say it was complete awesomeness. ... simple! The Lambs rock and I will miss them so so much. Very sad. That’s about it on the week, or at least all that I can put in an email that you can understand.

I’m very sad to leave cuz it’s home. On Sunday when I was expecting to go,

I was at the door holding my little bud alex and had a very depressing moment at the thought of never seeing him and all the others again. It does help that there are good chances you guys will come out so I will get to see them all again, but still sad. It’s been my home for 10 months and honestly know a lot of the people here better then most of the families at my home ward. But as sad as I am to go, I’m more than ready.

Thank you for the prayers and for the love and support and for all that you do and have done for me. I know God is listening when we pray to him and believe me you, that I’m praying for all of you who are praying for me, my mission and the missionaries in general.

THANK YOU!

love you like a fat kid loves cake.

elder darrow

p.s. e. Matheson was just randomly telling me some random story and about someone who someone else blah, blah, ... and it led to the conversation about recent converts. I just realized that every single one of my recent converts (except Patrick cuz he was sick) was at church Sunday.

Wow. I WILL miss Sekondi.

Searching for Service.

just Alex...

(a soccer field in Sekondi)

First things first. Thanks again for all the emails and mail. You guys are so very awesome. I got the 3rd pack from Jess with the all the ties. I had a lot of fun giving ties out to all the people I love in the ward. I think there was 7-8 ties that Nick owned at church Sunday. It was really fun when we went to Meshaq's house and spent over an hour teaching him how to tie a tie. He had 1 tie that someone tied for him a year ago. haha. That was a really cool experience. Thanks again Hammers

As for the week, I worked extra hard searching for people who are in need of our help. I get focused sometimes walking from apt to apt and don’t stop and help. I can’t even tell you the hours I spent pounding fu-fu this week.

In one of the 'walking searching for service' I saw a woman who was stirring Banku. Stirring Banku is like stirring cement that is about to dry. Well I stopped and helped her. It was so hard. And she was very grateful. Well because of the way her shack was built, the whole time I had smoke in my face and burning my eyes. Instead of talking to her as I worked, I had to put all my focus on not fainting into the fire. So after I was done, I talked to her about the church. She said that she knows King David (recent convert). She is actually working for his aunt and has talked about the church with him.

Well we came back later that day and taught her with King David and had a solid lesson. After the lesson we walked back to her house so she could show us where she lives so we could continue to teach her there. She’s from Sunyani and is in Sekondi for school for a year or so. She is going to what is like a community college in the states for accounting. It's called Poly Tech in Takoradi.

Well after that first lesson she got her sister involved. Her name is Augustine and she is also very interested. We went back and had a solid lesson about prophets. Then went back again and had a solid lesson about Christ. They are both very interested and I'm so excited to see what happens. We talked lots about the fruits of the spirit and how they will know when they get an answer to prayers. So pray for them.

We are also teaching a cool girl named Pricilla. She’s so smart and I'm sure will be baptized. Things with Marsha are still moving along sweet. She is at church every week and I'm sure once the baby comes and she gets recovered, she will move along very fast. So very solid though.

We also have another young girl who will be in the baptismal pool some time soon. She is one of Paa Kwesi's cousins. (The Paa Kwesi that was bapt. when i was with e Sintim) So that’s cool.

Transfers are a week from today. If I leave Sekondi that will kill me. But I would love to go anywhere. Ghana is just awesome and I'm sure the kids are equally awesome in Sekondi or Foso or Cape Coast or Kumasi. And I love the kids.

Got to see e Meinzer at p-day today when they came out and that was so sweet. Love that guy. All things are well. Thanks again for all that you do.

BIG LOVES

elder darrow

(Christmas day in Ghana 2010)

(Elder Darrow & Elder Sintim on p-day)

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

by dad

The regular weekly email was filled with gratitude of 'support from home' and insight on the day-to-day life as a missionary. He continues to tell stories of little children that melt his heart and he's unceasingly enamored with Ghana. He is thoroughly enjoying his experiences. Here’s some of his thoughts...

Allright, a big huge fat THANK YOU for the packages that were sent. On Thursday night the lambs came back from Accra and stopped by the mission home. My mail came. I got 7, count them 1, II, 3, IV, 5, 6, VII! It was so flippin awesome. We put on Christmas music and I was a little kid all over again. I got Grandmas package and that was completely awesome. I got Steph’s packed with the tuna and malaria meeds, and memory cards. I also got 2 of the 3 of the packages full of ties from the Hammers. Big, big thank you. That stuff is so awesome. Also the summer sausage that was slipped in makes for great add in to my egg sandwiches. I also got 3 from Hales. Lots of fun goodies that I love so very much, but I’m actually happy you don’t send them cuz it reminds me how addicted I was to them. But was so completely awesome. I really can’t thank you all enough. So awesome so again... I THANK YOU ALL!!!

On Thurs. we had interviews. Was a very cool interview as always. Pres. Sabey rocks it. Come Fri. I was stuck with an epic cold but I had exchanges with e. Thompson to his area and I wasn’t about to miss that day. I trucked on all day. Not the smartest thing I have done but it’s over now.

As for an update with Marsha, she had a bap. date for Jan 18th. But to make a long story short, she’s 8th months prig (I thought she wasn’t that far along... but who knew?) Well with the added stress of that and always being so busy, the lessons have been a bit rushed and we/she wants to wait. I know she will be baptized someday, but she just wants to go a bit slower. So things are sweet there.

That’s about all for now. Once again thank you, thank you, thank you, for all that you do. The work is going along and I’m doing just fine.

BIG LOVES

elder darrow

Ghana 2011 - Happy New Year.

Well, just Alex...

Well hello, hello family. Happy flippin New Year. Wow. My long year in Ghana has just begun. All of 2011 is Ghana! Woop woop! (Do it twice) As for mail this week... the post office was closed for a long time so a bunch of elders have a ton of stuff coming. Hopefully it all gets here. We have interviews on Thur so I'm sure mail will come then.

As for the week here in Ghana, things are going just swell. This week we spent a lot of time helping members. I didn’t feel like we did too much teaching but it was very productive. Tues was our wards Christmas party so we spent all of Tuesday helping with that. It was cool cuz Grace Bonsi was in charge of all the food (she’s a caterer and a recent convert. ... do you think it's weird I find caters to teach and baptize... hmmm). Anyway, we show up to Grace's house and 15-20 people from the Relief Society were there and helping. Then over the morning other Young Men and Women came to help. There was a big line of fufu pounding and others doing stuff for different types of rice and stews and all types of stuff. It was really cool to really WORK for them like that. I felt like that’s the first time they all got to see the missionaries really go at it. We all left there with blisters from pounding fufu and soar arms from fanning fire. That was a lot of fun.

Then from there to the church to set up and enjoyed ourselves at the party .

(Elder Darrow entertaining the members at the Ward Chirstmas Party)

(Elders' Mathesen, Newbold, Thompson, Darrow and Haderlie)

After that e Thompson and Yapo baptized a family of 5. A husband, wife and 3 of the 5 kids. They have 5 girls all under 13. How sweet right. Ya it was a powerful meeting cuz the whole ward was there. The rest of the week with the holidays a lot of people were busy all the time (including Marsha who we went to see twice but always busy...not like "Oh I'm busy today." but like we meet her with 4 people running around the kitchen with her and she’s WORKIN).

So we did a lot of hanging and helping members. I really love that. I have gotten very close with some of the people here. I feel like letting the members know how much we love them and want to help them, pushes the work along faster then anything else. After all, 2 years from now we all go and the members are the ones who help them over the conversion so they have to have friends to push them.

This New Years...didn’t do anything CRAZY, (you gotta remember we still represent Christ) but we did have fun and make noise etc. You know me. I find a way to have fun.

On Sat there was a huge party at the stake center with the whole stake. Was very fun. Had volleyball and soccer and basketball. It was fun show the Africans 'how I be' on the blacktop. (Unfortunately they didn’t have any golf fun so all I had was b-ball) but we enjoyed on New Years Day.

No need to worry about anything. I'm safe and staying healthy. Love you guys big big time.

Thanks for all that you do.

Xoxox

elder darrow

(What up Santa?)

Christmas week.

(Merry Christmas ~ snow-in-a-can on our Apt. door)

Just Alex...

Well hello family. What a crazy week it has been. It was so good to hear all of you. Sounds like everything is going just smoothly, which is always good. Well all is wonderful and I’m so happy I got to talk to everyone. It was just a really cool pick-me-up. I’m glad you got to ask all your questions. I just like chatting with you all.

Let me start with Sunday. Church was packed with all the holiday churchgoers (C&E Christians). Well we had a missionary Sunday. All the elders did everything. We taught all the different classes and our ward missionary leader spoke as did I. For a few weeks I had planned out what I was going to talk about, but as I was waiting to speak I was 'told' to change everything, so I rewrote in my mind a talk. That was fun. I got up and spoke on the Book of Mormon. I just tried to make it as simple as possible and still keep it powerful. It all went just great.

It's always fun to stand up and say... "Mema mo ache' agema ya hinuah" (good morning then declare my tribe and say I’m from a royal family) and then getting the whole room to praise me with "YA HINUAH!!" that’s always fun. hahah. You know I would enjoy that. hahahhah. Oh man.

But all went well on Sun. We went over to meet with Marsha and Rex who have been sooo busy with their work and she’s like 5 months prego. We were planning on meeting with them and setting a date for Marsha to be baptized but it was Rex's b-day and it turned into a huge party with a full 3-course meal that was quite delicious. (She is a caterer so she has GREAT food) as we were walking out her husband told me he wants her to be baptized. She has been coming to church the past 3 months but they are just so busy all the time. So he is planning on making time now that the holiday season is passing. So I think it will be sometime in January. She’s awesome and they will be a powerful family in the church. So I’m excited about that.

So as for this past week, pres. gave us each an extra 5 cedis ($3.50). He wanted us to all take someone out to get food. 5 cedis can serve about 1 person each IF you go to a good chop bar. If I just gave the 5 cedis to a family it could feed them all. So on Christmas Eve we went to BU and took Joseph, Patrick, BabyDoe and Peter (his older brother) out to a chop bar and enjoyed. It was really cool. They were very thankful which is always nice. Saw and met some members in BU and had a great night out and about.

(Joseph, Patrick, Elder Darrow, Peter, Baby Doe - Christmas Eve)

Christmas day was a day I will never forget. I figured missionary or not Christmas day is all about fun. Well I found that you could still have fun out and about and not just sitting in the apt. eating loads of food. After waking up and opening the small Christmas gifts, I had pancakes for breakfast. It was the last mix I had and so glorious. Then we went out and contacted for a bit. We haven’t done a lot of that on mission yet. So we went around and talked to random people. Nothing crazy sweet came out of it but I’m sure if Christ were around he wouldn’t just sit around on his birthday, he would be out and about. Of course he would come back and have cake cuz who doesn’t love cake?? But he would work.

Then after we took Meshaq to a nice chop bar and we got jollof and chicken (jollof is like fried rice mixed with some type of tomato stew, almost like the classical Mexican rice) and popped down 2 minerals. It was really cool to be out and having fun with a person I love so much. We were originally planning on going with Joseph and King David but they had some meeting at the stake center and said they wouldn’t know when they would be back but they would call. Well right as we were walking out King David called and said they were home and that we could meet. Sigh... we just put down a huge meal and if we go there I was going to have to do that again. But let's be honest. It’s not like Alex to turn down food (if its good food).

So we went to Joseph's compound. What’s always sweet about that is I get to hang and wrestle around with Pah Pah. Always a joy. I taught him how to play with a yo-yo and then taught Joseph how to play with one. We met up with e. Thompson and e Yapo and the people they were taking out and we ate again, and enjoyed ourselves, again. But it was really cool to go out and actually be a missionary on Christmas day and spend time with people I have got so close with over the past 9 months. I know that I’m ready to leave this area but I will truly miss them so much and will hate to say goodbye.

Then it was back home for the Christmas call. (And after the 2 lunches and contacting it was like 3ish) so that was basically Christmas here in Ghana.

Thanks again for all that you do. Thanks for being so awesome and so uplifting and so supportive. Thanks for being all that I could ask for and more. Thanks for all the prayers and for just being so extremely helpful. Love you guys big time.

xoxo
elder darrow

p.s. I did miss the snow.

Ivory Coast Missionaries transferred

by dad

Last month Ivory Coast had presidential elections, in which two candidates declared themselves the winner (which has made things there a little exciting). Political instability, clashes and the threat of military intervention following the disputed elections, have prompted the Church to move its non-African missionaries serving in the Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Abidjan Mission, to the french speaking countries of Togo and Benin. These countries are both to the east of Ghana (see map in the right column).

No missionaries from Ghana have been relocated. Alex says Ghana continues to be a very safe place for the missionaries.

On a lighter note, Alex recently spent time in Takoradi at the market. He says it can get pretty exciting there.

I still have a Washer.

just Alex...

I will start with the fact that for the next 6 weeks I still have a washer. Yup, 6 more weeks in Sekondi. The area got a bit dry, so we will have to do work to get it back to where it should be. Lucky for me Ghanians are incredible and it won’t be too hard. We are going to just do crazy work and I still may be transferred and not get to see the fruits of anything. So at the end of this transfer I will be here 10 1/2 months. How crazy is that? (I’m getting old). I guess we will see how things go. sooo. Don’t worry about me. All is going well.

On Thur night the Lambs were so kind as to bring our apt over for my b-day feast. The Lambs are just the sweetest people you can ever find. I love them so much. As always we enjoyed big time.

We had apartment checks from the Sabey’s on Sat morn. I was able to have a small interview meeting, just pres. and me. Man was that a sweet experience. The interview ended with a powerful blessing and a hug. I honestly felt like I was hugging P-Doe (dad) and it’s really all that I needed. He could have just showed up and gave me a hug and left and all would have been well.

Thanks so much for all that you do. Love you guys so so very much.

So crazy that Christmas is coming. Gonna be weird to hear you all again.

Wow... just got excited.

xoxo

elder darrow

Happy 20th!

by dad

There is something universal about little boys and muscles. For a boy, there isn’t just one event or sign that you’re getting older, but the ‘muscle flex’ seems to be the best indicator that you are growing up. Alex celebrated his 20th birthday last week. I have missed watching him get older this year, but I have enjoyed watching him grow.

Alex writes…

My birthday; THANK YOU a million times. The Zone Leaders had a meeting on Weds. in Cape Coast and came back with 2 packages for me. That was so sweet. The packages were amazing. Thank you so so much.

The pants fit perfect. The length is a tiny bit long. It’s sweet to wear pants that fit again. As for the shirts, the neck is right but they are a titch baggy.

Here is how my birthday went. Woke up and had pancakes with syrup. Yes... it was glorious. I made a plate and as an apt we downed them in 30 sec. Later I had a bowl of the (Capt. Crunch) cereal you sent me. I used some crappy milk but it was perfect (cuz you need small just to make is wet). It was awesome.

Later we went to restaurant and I got myself a cheeseburger. Costs $12 cedes ($8us) but it was so flippin awesome. I thank you! At night we did have the Hostess Ding-Dongs and ice cream. And yes I used the candles. Thank you so much for sending all that stuff. My birthday was as sweet as I could ever have with my current condition, so I thank you so much. You guys rock.

As for updates with Mike Allen, e MacKay got a hold of him. He stays far away so they are going to try and see him some time. He did tell us that he is planning on coming back after the holidays so lets hope. He’s so sweet.

All week I have been jumping rope. e Thompson has done it the past 6 months and e Matheson has never jumped rope. I spent 3-4 hours teaching him how to jump over a rope. He still doesn’t have it down exactly, but if you could have seen where he started and what he can do now. He can do like 7-10 jumps without hitting. It’s like a fresh cut lawn. I just look and stare... (tear...) so proud. e Matheson really is a nice guy. Very loving. He has a friend in me. We have gotten a lot closer this week.

Missionary life: It’s not easy. .... "but if it was easy everyone would do it”. (shout out to mom!)

Next p-day Aubra (zone) comes to play and then its transfer news. I’m kinda up in the air. I would like to go, but staying wouldn’t be so bad. e Thompson is a sweet guy so it’s cool to have him here. It’s crazy how fast this transfer has gone by. It would be hard to change right before Christmas and not know anyone, but it’s not like I have a problem making friends! Haha.

I saw in e. Proctors mission pics (Korea) that he was wearing a Ghana - Kente tie. BALLER. Man did that make me happy. Haha.

Mom no there isn’t a lot of anything put up for Christmas here. You would love it.

Sorry I don’t have more time. Love you guys big time!

Thanks again for everything and thanks for all the b-day wishes.

LOVES

Elder Darrow