Baptism Day!

Hello everyone!!

I am doing great out here in Kwamo, we are still staying busy and are loving the work. There is a lot of work to do out here in Africa so we are staying busy. This past week has been unusually busy though. We had zone conference on Tuesday, interviews on Wednesday, we had to go to Effiduasi and Ejisu for the Elders and Sisters because I had to do some interviews, and on top of that we were trying to prepare 7 people in our area for baptism on the 28th. It's very very busy but again I wouldn't want it any other way! It beats staying in the apartment all day doing Facebook finding. 

Zone Conference was great as always, it was a lot longer then the ones back in Utah. Back in Utah it was only 3 hours and out here it is all day, it was about 6-7 hours. It was really good though, they actually introduced Facebook into the mission. So we are now going to be using Facebook and technology more. It is a totally new concept to many as this just became a technology mission a couple months ago. It is fun seeing all the change that is happening in the mission. We will have even more change when the new mission president comes in June. The mission is starting to prepare for him to come. 

As I mentioned these past couple of weeks we were preparing 7 people for baptism, unfortunately we had to push 4 of them to April 11. We have been working with yaw and clement for the past two weeks and they were excited to except the invitation to be baptized yesterday. Emmanuel was the other young man we were preparing to be baptized but Saturday night we got a call from him and he said he wasn't quite ready, he is leaving for school on Thursday so we will have to wait for a couple months until he returns. But we had a successful baptism with yaw and clement right after our church. We had to fill the font the night before because the baptism would be early the next morning so we did and all was well. When we got to the church we checked the font, and the water was all gone! So we had to quickly turn the pump back on and fill it during Sacrament meeting. We let it go through the first hour and we had to go and teach the primary, so we left the responsibility to the ward secretary to turn the pump off when it was at the right level. As we are teaching the primary I remember that we didn't have towels ready and that I need to look for them. We get done teaching the primary and we rush to find towels and they are no where to be seen. We talk with the ward mission leader and get him to look for them as well. We soon find them in a corner of one of the classrooms in a big black bag. The towels were still wet from the previous baptisms a couple weeks ago and they had mold all over them. We let the ward mission leader deal with that problem. As we got that resolved, we come out to the baptismal room and the font is basically overflowing. We had to run out and start to drain the font, as water was about to start flooding the room. Apparently the secretary forgot to turn off the pump haha. As we started to release some of the water we couldn't wait for it to drain because we had to finish before the next ward came in. So bishop told me to hop in as I was the one baptizing the two brothers. I got in and the font was still up to the top full of water. The water was very high almost up to my chest, as I am a short person and so I had to raise my arm and basically still have my elbow in the water if you can picture that. When I baptized the individuals the only thing that wasn't underwater was my head. I think it was the closest I have had to swimming in 8 months. But yaw and clement were safely baptized and after all the running around that morning it turned out to be a great service. We will hopefully be more prepared for the next baptism on the 11 of April for Jozi, Jozial, Kendra and Maa Mary. 

We are having a district activity today which I am excited for as I wasn't able to have them with my district in Utah. It has been super fun getting to know people in my district and become close with them. While in Utah it was completely different, we weren't able to do anything together because of Covid. We weren't able to have activities or get together. I didn't feel like I ever got to know my district as well as I could have. It's been nice to have some freedom and ability to have activities. We have been able to meet up with each other and get to know other missionaries which is nice. 

Elder Flomo one of the Elders we live with tested positive for Covid, so we will all have to get tested for Covid on Tuesday. None of us are showing any symptoms so I guess we will see what happens. He got the call yesterday and the doctors told him that he tested positive, but they then proceeded to tell him to not tell anybody. They told him if he was married to not tell his wife or his kids. They said to just keep it to himself. Haha I don't know why they didn't want him to tell anybody, I guess they didn't want it to be bigger then it needed to be? I have no clue, but we called Sister Webster and she told us to all get tested on Tuesday so we will see what the tests say. 

Besides that we are still working hard, and still sweating buckets out here. We are in week 4 of the transfer so we have two weeks left and it is going by really fast. But I am doing great and staying safe. I hope all y'all are doing well, and having fun. Thanks again for the love and support it means a lot. Have a great week this week! Love you guys

Love Elder Morgan 

Found Some Missionaries at the Market

Transfers and a New Companion

Hello everyone!!!

I hope you are all doing well back home. I am doing great out here in Kwamo. We are still staying very very busy and the new companionship is working out well. Like I mentioned last week we had transfers this past Wednesday. Elder Donkor left and my new companions name is Elder Majdoub. He is a Ghanaian just out of training and he is a stud. We get along really well and have fun. It's nice to switch things up every once in awhile. One of our zone leaders left the apartment and so we got a new zone leader as well. His name is Elder Sandoval and he is an American! He is from Utah and came back out here to Ghana in December. It is super nice living with another American, it's been nice to talk with him and get to know him better. I like the new dynamic of the house. But that's about it for transfer news. 

This past week I have just been showing my new companion around our area and to the many people we are teaching. They have been busy days, which I don't think my companion is used to haha. We do a lot of walking and let's just say he wasn't walking in his last area. So it will take a bit of time for him to get used to it, but I love it. I love the hard work and long days, I can't speak for my companions though. We have about 6 or so people that we are preparing to be baptized. Hopefully we will put most of them on date to be baptized this coming week.

Anyone know why Ghanaians love cow skin, and cow intestine? I have no clue, but I get to eat it a couple times a week as it seems to be their favorite. The friends we are teaching are super fun though, we love them. We are actually teaching 3 sets of twins at the moment. All of which speak English so I am enjoying teaching them. 

Elder Majdoub's dad came to Kumasi for a conference and we got permission to go and see him from the mission president. We went on Saturday and took a tro tro to go see him. We talked for a bit, and his mom sent his dad with a package of food for us to take home so that was nice. Unfortunately it was full of foods I am not used to liking such as sardines and canned fish and other things. But they did pack some biscuits and drinks so I was happy about that. It was nice meeting his dad though, my companion definitely enjoyed seeing him.

Anyways it is still hot as heck out here but it actually has been raining so it has cooled down just a bit, not enough for me to stop sweating but enough to feel a difference. 

I hope you are all doing swell and enjoying life back home. Thanks for the emails and for the love and support it means a lot. Have a great week this week!

Love Elder Morgan

Saying goodbye to Elder Donkor

The bakery where where they make bread and other treats like shortbread  

Making Fufu

Malachi Finally Saw Another White Person!

Hello everyone!!

Yet again another solid week out here in Kwamo. The gospel is so true and I witness it everyday. A lot happened this past week but I will just point out a few highlights.

First of all the food is Interesting out here, I absolutely love the fried rice and spaghetti but the other foods I am still getting used to them. For instance I think I ate cow intestine 3 times this week. One of which we were at Maa Mary's house one of our friends and she prepared us some food (i forget the Ghanaian name for it). I'll try to explain it as best as I can. They always have either rice, fufu, banku or something In which you pinch off a bit with your fingers and dip it in some kind of stew and swallow/chew depending on which one it is. They will always have some kind of meat with it as well. But this specific time with Maa Mary we had banku with a stew and the meet that we had was cow tongue, cow Intestine and a mystery part of the cow. I'll explain what I know about the mystery meat. Maa Mary (and other Ghanaians) get a part of the cow that includes the skin and about 2 inches of fat/and who knows what. It's like they take a cow and skin it 2-3 inches deep. I don't know if that makes sense or not but then they cut it into pieces and boil them to remove the hair. When they boil it, not all of the hair comes off so they have to let it sit in the sun for about a week. So what we ate was the skin of some part of the cow and it was about 2-3 inches deep. It was very very tough and I could not even bite a piece of it off to try it. So I had to through the whole thing in my mouth and chew it enough to the point in which I could swallow it. Let's just say it didn't taste the best. I think back to when I was in Utah and wanting members to feed me knowing they can't. And now I am out here in Africa wishing members didn't feed me haha. But I'm sure it will get batter as time goes on.

Another highlight was that we have had some big storms come our way the past two days. About 4 or 5 o'clock the dark dark clouds come in and the wind picks up and it starts to dump rain. It dumps like I have never seen before. On Friday we beat the storm and we were in our dry house when it hit. But Saturday we were in Aprade teaching a family and we saw the clouds start to roll in. We tried to finish the lesson up but ended up staying longer. We actually had to finish early due to the Wind being so bad. As we were making the walk to grab a tro tro to Kwamo the wind was getting really bad, and it started to rain super hard. We still had about a 10 min drive and a 10 min walk to get back to the house. The tro tro ride to kwamo was probably the scariest ride I have ever been on haha. We couldn't see anything as the rain was too heavy and there are no speed limits or really any limits on the road. Our tro tro driver is going very fast and I just pray that we arrive safely. We end up arriving to Kwamo and have to make the 10 min walk back in the storm. Keep in mind it is pitch black with occasional light from the lighting. So my companion and I start to run to our house and at this point we are totally soaked. It's like I took a shower in my church cloths it was that bad. As we are running back to the house the dirt road has now become a literal river. So we are running through the river our shoes and pants are now muddy and soaked wet do to the deep water. We eventually get to the apartment and guess what put the cherry on top.... The power was out! Haha we ended up going with out power till Sunday night. Haha but we made the best of it, we were able to return safely home with a smile on our faces. Welcome to Africa though! Haha I have really enjoyed the experiences I have had and will continue to have while serving out here.

I'll just mention a couple more small things. We got transfer news! Elder Donkor is leaving me and I will be getting an elder who is just out of training. His name is Elder Majdoub and he is a Ghanaian! Which means he speaks Twi!! I am definitely happy about that as he will be able to continue to help me with the language as well as help me teach our friends. He will come here on Wednesday so I'm excited.

I had the best pday today because GUESS WHAT... My companion decided not to tell me that we have a Kumasi mall in which they sell some American food. We went today and it actually looked like an American store! I also had the privilege to see 2 white guys (keep in mind I haven't seen another white guy since I got to Kwamo) so that was a highlight. I talked to them for a bit and they were super cool. It is more expensive but totally worth it as I got hamburger patties, and stuff to make American food. It's safe to say I will be going there every time I need Ingredients or food. 

There have been a lot of robberies recently. One of our friends got robbed two nights ago, she ended up being okay but it wasn't the first one we have heard of. There was an incident that happened with the APs and from that time onward, the mission president said that we are supposed to be in by 6:30pm every night. But we are staying safe! Although many of our friends have had incidents, the Lord is keeping us missionaries safe. 

Anyways sorry for the long email, there is always more but maybe my parents and family can fill all y'all in on everything. I hope you are all doing well. I love you all and pray for your safety. I hope you guys have a great week this week!

Love Elder Morgan 

Do Not Use Your Left Hand!

Hello everyone!!!

We had another crazy busy but productive week. We were able to see most of our solid friends that we are teaching and found 10 new people to teach! The work out here is exploding and so it is keeping us missionaries very very busy. We usually leave the house around 9:30am and don't return until dark around 7 or 7:30 on a normal day. We do have special occasions were we have to leave early. On Saturdays and Sundays we have to leave the house at 6:30am to get to those that we are teaching or bringing to church. On those days we get up at 5:30am so like I said VERY busy! I absolutely love it though, I love being busy and coming home at the end of the day tired knowing I worked hard. To me there is no better feeling.

We have a lot of people we are teaching and so we are trying to fit all of them into our schedule, and as we walk through the streets people will come up to us and tell us that they want to join our church haha. So we write down their number and call them the next day to see when we are able to stop by and teach them. With all of these appointments we do a lot of walking, like A LOT of walking. We get to greet many many people, and with the little kids running up to me and touching my skin or playing with my hair or calling me white man in the native language, my companion and I have fun. 

One particular day as we were walking there was a group of men sitting on a bench talking. My companion and I waved and said hello. They saw us and started to yell at us, they were doing it in a joking way but they started to yell in twi and started to get on my companion. My companion leaned over to me and said that they were mad at me for waving with my left hand. I totally wasn't thinking about it and waved to the men with my left hand, and in Ghana that is a big no no. You don't do anything with your left hand. And so the men were telling my companion to teach me to greet with my right hand. Haha they ended up being cool about it, but now I know and have to consciously think about which hand I am using for everything.

Like I mentioned earlier in one of my emails, most everyone goes to church out here. There are a ton of churches and so we get to deal with a lot of them. One of our friends Afia who we are teaching attends this one church were the pastor pays the people to attend the church. We are trying to work with her and others who attend this church and overcome that challenge haha. 

We have about 5 or 6 kids that are in boarding school until March 4th. They will get home next week and we will start including them into our teaching pool. The work still continues! This is actually the last week of the transfer and so we will see if my companion gets yeeted out of Kwamo. We will find out the news on Saturday I guess. 

That's about all that we have been up to this past week. I would say that I am finally starting to get use to everything. Again I say starting haha, I still have to get use to it but I am doing a lot better then when I first came out. These past couple weeks have definitely shown me that I am nothing without my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Like I have mentioned I have had to rely on them for a lot these past couple weeks and that has brought me a lot of comfort. It's definitely been a humbling experience and I know it will continue to be. I am loving the experiences that I am having and the testimony that is growing inside me. I absolutely love this gospel and everything that comes with it. Even if I have to sacrifice a bit these next 18 months. I wouldn't want it any other way.

I hope you all are doing well, and staying safe. I love hearing from you so shoot me an email! Thank you for the love and support and I will talk to all yall next week!

Love Elder Morgan