Meet Alex Acquah

by dad

(Elder Alex Darrow and Alex Acquah)

Alex is the grandson of Bro. Acquah. He lives with his grandfather and speaks no English. Bro Acquah was supposed to be a Chief , but instead, he joined the church a while back. He loves the missionaries. They have a lesson with him every Friday at 5 p.m. After the appointment, they have a Fu-Fu meal. This is the story Elder Darrow wrote a few months ago about his little buddy Alex Acquah.

This week we went to an appt with the Acquah family. They are one of the more rich Ghanaians around (and by more rich I mean like he has a decent house and a small farm) and they give us water (clean water) and sometimes coconuts, bread, mango etc. Well last time we went there this little boy came running out. He was poking me and such and I grabbed him and put him up on my lap. He loved it. He just sat there and stared at me. I looked at him and opened my eyes REAL wide and he looked at me and did the same. So cute. Then I smiled at him and he did the same. Then I frowned and he did the same. Then I grunted and he did the same. hahaha. I was loving it.

His name is Alex Acquah, he’s maybe 3-4. I leaned in real close to him to look him eye to eye and he did the same. Then he touched his little noggin to mine and just stared at me. It was so freakin adorable. I fell in love with this little kid. I was sweating like crazy and when our heads were touching my sweat was running off my face onto his and down his cheeks. He didn’t care. He was just so curious with me. He just chilled in my lap during the lesson the whole time. He played with my hair and was touching me and just making sure I was normal. Then he started to play with my face (like the lost boys did to peter pan ... see Hook). He just played with my face and was so curious. hahah loved it.

At the end of the lesson they gave us some water. The water is in these plastic pouch things. They hold 1/2 a liter. So I drank what I wanted as the little boy watched and I gave him the last little bit. He loved it. After saying the cutest thank you he drinks it all and when he was done he grabbed my (nicest Ike Behar) tie and wiped off his mouth and face with it like it was no big deal. I just freakin melted. shah I didn’t care at all and it was just so cute. oh man.

Wow I Love Mondays.

by dad

Today the Sekondi and Takoradi zones had a little get-together at the beach. Alex says it's so sweet to see the all other missionaries together. The two zones have 32 missionaries; 26 elders, 4 sisters and a senior couple, the Lambs. The missionaries love the Lambs. Alex says the work is going great and all is well.

(Sekondi & Takordi zones at the beach)

As for this week. Well, e Sintim and I keep working through our cultural gap. So many things are said and done that are just different. We are getting closer then ever. All good friendships have fights. We have a few. I just have stuff to work on. He’s a really good guy. We get along great and have a lot of fun.

This week e Halling gave a talk. It’s his second to last week here and next week his parents will be here. So weird that he is already leaving. I remember he had 41/2 months left when I got here and the time has already gone. He’s a funny guy and will be missed.

Also this week I went on exchange with elder MacKay who is way sweet and had a very special Fu-Fu experience. I copied out my journal and sent it. So I wont touch on that but it was quite a day. So much Fu-Fu. Sigh. So much.

Also something interesting that happened that I forgot to talk about. Ghanaians are very thrifty. The electrical stuff here is so old and you would never believe some of the things they get to work, that most of the world would have thrown out. For example. My razor that was ‘done-zo’. I saved it and told e. Sintim about it and he asked to see it. He asked if he fixed it if he could have it. I said sure. Well 2-3 hours later he took the entire thing apart and did something and now it’s working. It’s so crazy how he can do that. (Well, it’s not entirely working correctly. It doesn’t hold a charge and when the motor runs the whole machine gets very, very hot, almost over heating. But he got it to work.) They just make things work.

Thanks for everything. Love you guys like crazy and don’t worry there is lots of mail on the way. I love writing and telling you all about what’s going on that I miss on email Mondays.

Wow I love Mondays.

elder darrow

Burn Notice? Really?!

by dad

Alex being Alex...

When going to the Internet cafe to email home, there are a few things you must remember...

1. always have a good eye on your companion in case of problems on line.

2. you must remember that time is limited and you don’t have time to lolly-gag. Also in case of a hold-up, know where the best chair is that won’t break on the first swing you take at someone and know where your exits are located. (I hope we all got that I was just in a scene from Burn Notice) haha It's crazy here.

Before I start just want to thank you for all the letters and emails. That was sooo awesome. Loved them. My family rocks. So crazy that today is my 4-month mark. Really is going by fast. I know I have a lot in front of me but also can see how fast it will go.

There was a lot of rain this week. So actually it was somehow chilly this week. And when I say chilly I don’t mean cold, I mean that the temp was bearable.

Okay on to important matters. First things first, yesterday I got to see Joseph and King David be ordained priests. Wow! ... Wow! Just never thought of something like that. So flipping cool. Love those kids.

Also I got my pants and shirts tailored so now I look somehow slimmer. No more baggy, baggy cloths. The girl who does my shirts did them for free and really loves the missionaries but you know how I am and gave her money. Wouldn’t take no for an answer, but I really wanted her to have it. The guy who did my pants charged me. shah. So it was 15 cedes ($10) all together and I have tailored everything but 1 pant and 2 shirts. looks good. I sent 2 memory cards home just recently. So hopefully they get to you soon. So hope you enjoy.

(Elder Darrow - on the corner of Sekondi-Takoradi Rd)

Speaking of enjoy. ..... Hmm..... yup.... dinner at the Lambs! Spaghetti with garlic bread. And for dessert chocolate chip cookies and cookies n crème ice cream. SO, SO AWESOME! Love the Lambs. Such a blessing.

Also this week, when Isaac Dazi (our ward coordinator) came over to the apt for our meeting, I showed him the map on the wall. HA. Wish you could have seen this. They have never seen anything like it and he was shocked. Kinda freaked him out to be honest. Hahah. It was cool to go over it with him and explain stuff. Also some elders asked a while ago for mission maps and I guess they know about the map we have in our apt and I think now the APs are going to try and get one for all the apartments. Nothing like the one you went WAY overboard on, but something like it.

I have found that with e Sintim the lessons are different. Less lessons but longer lessons. So it’s a change but all is well. We have 10 progression investigators and the 2 young boys are doing awesome. I don't really like to talk about the numbers. I had a cool realization, yes the numbers matter and show progression, but it just goes back to the quote you gave me about that (confusing motion with progress and activity with results).

(The District - Elders Dadegnon, Bassey, Halling, Moiwo

front - Wolfgramm, Mackay, Sintim, Darrow)

Behind every great missionary is an even better supporting cast. Love you guys so much.

Thanks for everything.

xoxo

elder darrow

Ghana Map - Mission Map

by dad

Ghana is divided into nine political/geographical regions. The Ghana Cape Coast mission covers from the coast to the northern boarder including, the Upper West region. The missionaries however, only cover the three regions in the south, Ashanti, Western and Central. According to Alex, most of the northern part of Ghana is Muslim.

(Ghana political/geographical map)

Previous information from Alex...

There are 8 zones in the mission; Sekondi, Takoradi, Cape Coast, Abura, Bantama, Dichempso, Assin Faso, and Swedru

As for their locations, Sekondi and Takoradi are basically touching and are in Western Ghana. Cape Coast and Aubra are in the Central region. They are in and around the city of Cape Coast, neighboring each other like Sekondi and Takoradi. Bantama and Dichempso are north, in the city of Kumasi, in the Ashanti region. They don’t go much higher then Kumasi. Assin Foso (or city Foso) is right above Cape Coast, in between Kumasi and Cape Coast. Swedru is to the east of Cape Coast, right on the border of our mission and the Accra mission.

Zones - cities

Sekondi - Kweikuma, Kojokrom, Nkestiakrom, Sekondi

Takoradi - Takoradi, West Takoradi, Chapel Hill

Cape Coast - Cape Coast, Yamoransa, Nkanfoa, Mankessim

Abura - Ola, Elmina, Abura, Pedu

Bantama - Bantama, Suame, Asuoyeboa, Nwamase, Aboakwa

Dichempso - Dichempso, UST, Asokwa, Buokrom

Assin Foso - Assin Foso, Assin Foso North, Praso, Achiase

Swedru - Moree, Swedru, Odoben, Winneba, Kojo-Bedu

The Map was SICK

by dad

I like maps. When Alex wrote home a few months ago and said 'there are no maps here', I could hardly believe it. When we asked how did they find people or places he said 'people just walk with you and show you where to go'. We decided there was an easier way...Google Earth. After a volley of emails over a few weeks, we finally narrowed down his area (and still missed 'BU' because Google Earth is a blur). Then, I spent a little time creating "The Sick Map". Elder D writes...

First things first! The big package I got on Tue was soooo sweet. Thank you so, so much. It was awesome. P-doe, (dad) the map was SICK. I'm sure you knew that but thanks again. We LOVED it.

After opening everything, I laid it out on the ground and all the elders swarmed and figured it out. Some of the others elders areas were on there and where we live is on there. It was instantly put up on the wall. SO, SO, SO sick. I will say you went a BIT over board. ahahhaha but i flippin loved it thank you so much. it rocks. So now when you walk in our apt there is a huge map up on the wall. I wish you guys could know how awesome it is to get stuff from you guys.

(The wall map of Sekondi and neighboring towns)

The zone conf we had on Wed. was sweet. It was a 130 min drive to cape coast and our zone and takoradi zone all went in a big tro-tro. The conf went really well. Powerful talk from pres about completing the goal and even more powerful was the second talk he gave. It was mostly about the two missionaries in Accra, Ghana (falsely accused and jailed) and he had a very, very powerful talk about how important the rules are and why they are there and why we must always be with our comp and so on. That was sweet. The whole place was silent as we stared and listened with our mouths open. It was intense.

Alex says the work as a missionary is going very well. They seem to always have someone to teach. The difficult part is weeding through those who are truly interested in hearing what they have to share. Most rewarding, is to have a recent convert say he is thinking about serving a mission.

This week we finally got to sit with Agyemang's whole family. We have been trying to for some time and it went really well. I think with the Lord’s help he will lead his whole family into the water with a good push from us and the nagging of his eager son Agyemang. He wants to be baptized so badly and it would be cool to get the whole family. Fruits that will remain.

Still going well with Ebenezer’s and Pau Quaseys. Yup Both have a 2 year old and a 10 year old. Don’t have a lot of time to go into each of them, but going well.

This week King David was asking me questions about missions and said he is somehow thinking about serving.... how sick would that be? Wow that made me happy. He’s such a smart kid. He turns 21 in Jan. and by the time he went that would be a normal age for Africans. Makes me so giddy thinking about it.

(A Home/Area Compound type thing)

I wish I could tell you how sweet it is to walk into a home/area and have little kids run up and actually call you by your name and grab your hand and walk you up to where you are going to meet. Happens every time I walk into Josephs’ compound type thing. My heart just melts. They are so awesome. I love the kids and I really do love the people.

As for things with Elder Sintim, he is so sweet and I really am learning to love him like a brother. But he walks so slow. He is never in a rush. But not in a bad way just his personality. Just a really chill dude. He’s very upfront with people. I'm learning and adjusting. Nothing new. We are getting really close and I'm excited to get closer. Gonna learn to love that kid.

(Elders Sintim & Darrow at the Apartment - (with a number 2 haircut))

(Elders Darrow & Sintim - Pday at the Stake Center)

Thanks for all that you do. You really are so, so awesome, thanks.

Keep saying those prayers.

And don’t forget to wash your hands. The world is full of filth :) -

elder darrow

Culture and Customs - From Handshakes to Reducing

by dad

We got a letter from Alex recently which he described some of the culture and customs of Ghana. Here are some of his observations thus far...

Hand Shaking & Greetings - When you shake hands you always start on the right. It is considered rude to shake the person to the left first. Also, when you end the shake, there is always a snap. To make the handshake-snap you place your thumb on the back of their middle finger and then snapping it. All the guys do it and about 50% of the women. If the women don’t, they just leave their hand out, for you to snap off if it. Also, when your talking to people after shaking hands they will just hold your hand as they talk to you. Not like a just a long hand shake. They will shake with the right hand and then transfer your right hand to their left hand and hold on. Then once they say good-bye, they transfer the hand back and shake again. Quite weird. A lot of hand touching!

Left hand usage – It’s a big no-no to use your left hand at all (except after the hand shake). You don’t wave with it. You don’t eat with it. You don’t grab things with it. It’s just a big DON’T. I think it goes back to ‘sanitation issues’.

People are very honest, very direct and very open about everything. If you are fat…they tell you (And if you are loosing weight, they tell you are reducing). That’s just the way it is.

(Elder Darrow outside his apartment- 'reduced')

They escort you places. When you’re done teaching they will walk with you until you are back to a main road, usually a 2-3 minute walk from where you were. The men do this more often and the men will walk longer with you. Then they say their good-byes. Also, if you can’t find some place and you ask where it is or where someone lives, rather than pointing you somewhere, they will just walk you there. Cool right?!

Holding Hands - It is very common here if two people are friends. No matter the sex or if they are boyfriend/girlfriend, they will just walk around town holding hands. I like my good friend Eric Proctor, and wouldn't mind escorting him to his home, but I wouldn't walk around school holding his hand. Ha

Calling People. When you’re out and about people “Hiss” at each other. It’s a hard “S” sound like SSSSuper! You can be walking down the street and just hear “SSSSS! SSSSS!” that is coming from a window or a shop or across the street. Then once they get your attention, they put their hand up like giving you a high-five and then close their fingers (then repeat).

Taking Pictures - It’s not really ok to take pictures of poverty stuff. If people see they will get quite upset. They think you are going to give it to some newspaper or something. They don’t really like you taking pictures of their children if you don’t know them.

(Sekondi, Ghana - Gulf of Guinea)

All my love. All the way from Sekondi, Ghana

elder d

The Faith of Agnes

by dad

From Alex...

So as for elder Sintim. He is so tight. Man I am really learning to love that guy. He is from a city called Asamankese, which is in the eastern region. It's about an hour from Accra and is somehow close to Swedru (a Zone in our mission). He’s a shorter stocky guy. He’s so sweet and very, very funny. We laugh a lot together. He is also a very American-Ghanaian. He also grew up in a better off family. Of course he is still Ghanaian and culturally different, but I really am going to love being with him . It’s so cool to be with a local. He is just so much more comfortable and knows the culture and it’s a cool change. He speaks Twi (chwi) and doesn’t hear Fante( so he says. he actually hears it very well just not 100%) and while I’m at it lets clear this up. Fante the old school original version. Twi is a lot like Fante just simplified. They say Twi is way easier to learn. But its crazy cuz everyone comes from random places all from Ghana and I would say Twi is the dominant language so we often run into people who speak it then I just sit there as they go crazy and I just smile and wait for them. I get small parts of it and can understand the subject they are talking about and such but really not much more than that. And when they try to get me to speak... FORGET! (wow... that is a VERY Ghanaian saying. ... Forget... hahaha sigh...) anyway. He really knows how to work. He also knows how to Enjoy (another thing they say here... "have fun") He’s very good at knowing when it's time to work and when it's time to enjoy. He’s good at switching them when needed.

(Elder Sintim & Elder Darrow)

Also, yes this Friday with Ghana losing and all was quite sad. I can’t even begin to describe to you how different and serious the goal is for my companion not to watch. Man was he suffering. He’s a stud for that and mad respect. We were outside listening to the noise of the game and man was it intense. Very sad to see... I mean hear them lose but i'll get over it. wait... I just did. : ) And I’m sure for the few of you who knew it was very controversial and lots of yelling and people upset. But all is well.

Big news. GOAL COMPLETED!!! (to baptize a family or a husband/wife of a part member family) That is all I know. We have zone conf tomorrow and I am SO stoked to hear how it happened. I do know that is was a crazy finish as always and I’m sure it's the covenant we made helped us more then we will ever know. So crazy.

The apartment is sweet with the new elders. E MacKay is way sweet. Hope to get to know him. Could be living together for some time. Should be fun. We are going to have lots of fun.

As for members and so on there are so many things I could say so I will just say this. This week we were walking to a members house so we could teach her little brother who she wants to be baptized and it was a bit of a walk so she met us and took us there. She has been trying to get us there for some time and its not easy cuz they are so far away so we did our best. Well this is what I found out. This sister Agnes was baptized 4-5 years ago. I bet she is 17-19. She is the only member in her family. Her father and mother let her go to church but don’t support it in anyway. She has been taking her little brother to church with her for the past 1-2 years. This is what is so cool about this girl. She has been dying to get us there to teach her brother Ebenezer (different Ebenezer) and I now understand why. What this girl goes thru is unreal. She has no support from her family at all and gets her brother to come to church with her every week.

( the roads and hills of Sekondi)

Well from their house it is a 30-40 min walk up and down big dirt hills to get to the main road. Which then they have to buy a Tro-Tro (that I’m sure she pays for) and then it’s a 10 min ride to the church. Week after week she comes. After making that walk to teach him it really gave me a greater understanding for how incredible this gospel is. It gets this girl to do all that just to go to church for a few hours. What incredible faith. What an incredible example she is to all who notice her. I honestly look at her and think if I was in her shoes would I do or would have done the same... I hope the answer was yes but I don’t know. And as I sat at the door on Sunday greeting everyone as they came in it brought tears to my eyes seeing her walk thru the doors with a smile from ear to ear with her little brother. Just knowing what she went thru to get to church is unreal. I really do love this gospel so much. I know that it’s true. Sorry I don’t have time to tell you everything that goes on. I just like to share my favorite parts.

(Sekondi chapel & church)

Glad you got the mem cards and such. Doing my best with pics. I love you guys so much. Thanks for all the prayers. I see the blessings everyday.

Elder D-ROW

Love you guys lots and lots

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