Sep. 3

Dear Mom and dad,


Greetings from West Africa Kasoa Area , how are you doing? is the house finally finished and ready to go ? man the weather is starting to Warm up , there are some more letters in the mail for you this week and I have two more written sitting in my room waiting to send to you. This Saturday probraly was the highlight of the week , we went with our ward to a Multi Stake Sports activity that included football (Soccer) , basketball , volleyball at track events at the sports stadium , in downtown Ghana Accra right across from the airport. My companion played soccer while elder sio and myself played basketball . Well we won the tournament in basketball , track , took third in volleyball and lost in the final to a penalty in soccer. It was a great day for our Stake Kasoa Stake. we took home two trophies. it was fun because I got to see some missionaries I had never met , who when they saw and spoke to me , thought I had been on mission for at least a year or more haha.Also I saw several of my MTC teachers there who were playing sports. It was a fun  day.
this month we are shooting between 5-6 baptisms , we have 8 investigators with baptismal dates , but we need to resolve some concerns with them. At Church on Sunday we met four new investigators that we will be going to visit this week.  Our investigators are sweet, we play soccer and basketball with members and investigators every Wednesday and Saturday morning and we have got a lot of referrals from that. Its a great way to get investigators
Let me talk a minute about my companion, we are doing great , we have our ups and downs but I love my companion , he is teaching me a lot , and to be honest I wont say a lot about this because I don't want to brag , but I did about a 3 week training program. He is a good example to me and we are enjoying the work. this last week was his 21st anniversary so he is preparing to head home back to SA.

Aug 27th

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well today let me start at the end of the day and work my way back to the morning well we got back from Accra Mall and we saw that there was water flowing in the back of the house flooding ,but then we realized that some one had hope our fenced ripped the chain of the cage holding our pump ,stolen the pump broke the pipe and left the water running. Well what a crazy day and an even crazier night we have ahead of us. Well It was like I was back in south Africa , except I was a missionary , walking around a nice air conditioned mall it was super nice. I felt like I didnt want to leave , but I was able to do some shopping at Game, Mr. Price exct. so much needed stuff as well. Well sounds like you guys are pretty busy and thats great. Well the work continues , Long tiring days , starting with gym or wrestling in the morning and companion and personal study at night. Its long days ,but I am losing weight. Oh just a heads up , every missionary I have met has informed me that CTR clothing wont last more than 6 months and I think they are right , almost all my pants the pockets have holes and I tore one pair of pants Im having fixed on my bicycle last week, you know your clothes face more harsh elements here in ghana and stuff can become ruined or spoiled quickly faster. In my letter I am talking about the investigators , the languages exct. . So My email today is not very long also we have to run to get the stuff at the house fixed. Our goal however this next month is finding , finding , finding , if we work and teach hard , with the companionship of the holy ghost our goal for baptisms this next month  is 15 so we are really shooting high but through the lord all things are possible. Please  I want you guys to know I love you and I miss you , do I struggle yes , is this the right thing to do yes , do i need prayers yes please, they will help me and strengthen me. I love you so much
sincerely,

Aug 20th

ell this past week I was able to participate in my first African Helping hands as a missionary . For the helping hands service project we went and we cleaned our local hospital. It was a great day and we got a lot of work done. Well as I said my companion is our new district leader. Well last friday I received a call and talked to the APS about how I was doing , how well I know the area exct. and then Elder Imende found out Monday night he  was leaving to Kolf town to be a zone leader and my companion found out that he was becoming district   leader. Yes Mom I will be going on splits with other missionary when ever my companion needs to go interview for baptisms or if we have to go sort out any problems. Also for District  leader council we will be traveling to Odokor where the kissis life. For the first time this past week I visited the kissis home on Friday. We had lunch at their house and walked around to see the hospital , also they say hi by the way. They have a nice home , and I know we aren't suppose to hug women but Sister Kissi or momma Kissi gave a big hug. I will be able to visit them when ever we go for meetings. Well Since Elder Imende left , the new missionary in the house reminds me of my rugby days and days back in UVU , his name is Elder Sio , he is Samoan , He knows a few of the guys at UVU and we listen to the same Polynesian music its great. Well it was another great week of the work of the Lord. I was able to ride to the furthest part of our area about a 20-30 minute ride this week and for the first time I did not have to stop , or push my bike or become super tired from pushing it. It was really great and its nice that when i go on splits I can be the senior companion =) . This week has been really fun , teaching , wrestling , cleaning , studying , the work is great. Hey guess what at Christmas time I will be throwing away all of my 2xl garments and buying Larges , again yes larges, my companion and I go to the gym from about 5:45-6:45 , its really worth it and its really helping me to be better on the bike and ride for longer distances.

Well family I want you all to know that I love you thank you for keeping me in your prayers you are all in mine. Enjoy your time together
A mission really changes a person physically mentally but most importantly Spiritually. I want to bear you all my testimony that the gospel does bless families  that Joesph Smith was a true prophet called of god , that through him the Church of Jesus Christ was restored , I want you to know that there is great power in the priesthood and that it can be used to bless families , to help people and to bring our Brothers and Sisters un to Christ. Never forget to pray at night to thank the lord , never forget to pray in the morning to say good morning to your father in Heaven , read the Scriptures daily even if its only one verse , Family this church is true this gospel is true , I know its true, I am serving the lord and pray and hope that you all will be blessed and protected for my service, Family I love you all and miss you and Its great to receive emails but Letters and or Packages are so much better Sara and Logan win the Letter contest so far =)

Love you all be safe , be strong , be smart
Love your Brother , Son , Uncle ,

Aug 13th

Pday , we woke up did some small washing the then headed to the cafe. We emailed home after that we met up with The other two elders from our disctirct and we took a van/torto to the where we were meeting the rest of zone, from there the office elders came and picked us up and took the entire zone to the beach, it was great time walking on the beach , playing sharks and minos and then playing some good ole football, no one swam , but we all got pretty wet ;) haha, it was a really fun day and we finished it off by a member bringing some rice and chicken which was nice.
 The next day was zone leaders council and thanks to the versatile missionary booklet I was able to give a good instruction on  finding and retention keeping people active in the church. After my instruction our district  went to the orphanage to do our service for the week, as a district we have planned to do service at least one a week. After that we went to meet a new investigator called sweetie , who is a nice young girl who is on holiday from school and has meet with missionaries before , when we visited her we basically just read over the chapter in Nephi talking about the tree of life and helped her to understand what the chapter means.
Wednesday I about died, we had to walk about 3-5 miles to go fill up our gas tanks ,and when we arrived there was a long long line because there is a gas shortage in the country and we thought we would have had to wait for hours and hours but when we got there they called us to the front of the line and we were able to get serviced right away which was nice, (the lord works in mysterious ways) It hit our missionary subsistence pretty hard though because it was about 10.50 each! After we returned home my companion and I went to visit Sister Helen a nice lady who we are helping learn English she is Liberian , we had   one of the greatest meals from a member I have had , we had fried yams, which are like potatoes , then sauted onions peppers and tomatoes with deep fired fish and then an avocato and onion salad which was great , she feeds us well and we visit her every Wednesday she also lets us watch tv when we visit so I have been able to keep up on the Olympics.
Thursday we did finding most of the morning which we found a few new investigators but this week had some real difficulties with teaching because it was the week of the funeral of the president. Thursday night we had a three hour lesson with an investigator named Uncle Jimmy who is 74 years old who I have told you about in a letter so I will let you wait.
Skipping to Saturday we played football in the morning with the investigators which was fun until I slid and scrapped all the skin of my left leg,you know I put ointment on it and stuff and it did nothing but a Member named Sister Togba rubbed a leaf on it and its about healed now , its amazing how nature works. After we played soccer in the morning I went on splits with our district leader elder Imende and we taught about 4 lessons till the rim on his bike broke and we are waiting for a new bike to be brought because it was too much money to repair it. After that we had a baptism of a nice young girl named Victoria where I was informed as we are starting that I was giving a baptismal talk so I had to rush to prepare but I got the job done and did a good job I think. It has been a good , week I have some free time today so I will be writing some letters to the family , I hope all is well , I miss you all very much , please keep me in your prayers , best wish
love your son,