Twi, Eggs and Boils....?

23 July 2012

I think i got it... it is Twi... Etisen meaning how are u? or hows it? Were the ) and the } both the back to front e?? Just makes you say the eh sound and not the e.
That is cool... did the lady show you that? I hope I don't shame myself when I speak Twi to her.

Did you know that I am the ZL over the McCarthy Hill area?? Which part….. Tell her I am staying in Awoshie... and McCarthy Hill Ward worship in the same building as us!!!

I will bring you some Golden Tree Chocolate…... but honestly I miss Cadbury….. there are no milk solids in there chocolate so it is a little chalky….... but it doesn't melt so that is a bonus!!!

I am going to get the nativity sets today…….. yay!! Hopefully they will be fantastic! And great!! i have one so I'm just going to get the others. The place is pretty close to here.

I never do understand why people do things they know are terrible for them! No one really smokes over here but they can drink like nothing else!! Even before modern alcohol they were fermenting the palm tree wine which turns out to have a really high alcohol percentage!!!

The boil was completely gone by Wednesday!! Thankfully!!!!! It popped Monday night and they are so weird!! And gross..haha

BUT I was grateful cause Thursday night was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in Ghana.

The Alex Boye concert!! It was sooooo good!! And you know….. Ghanians get really into things!! He sang a few of his original songs, then told his conversion story, sang some hymns shared his testimony and then sang "I'll believe in him" by Kenneth Cope.. Jenna sang it a while back at something and I have loved it since!! He finished with a song called "The World's Greatest" by R.Kelly but it is talking about not being ashamed of God and telling all about Him to the world and to all that ask!!!

It was so cool!! The stake centre was full!!! They had lights and a spot lights and a big sound system and they had a projector on the front lawn of the temple to play it when the hall was full and there were about 100 white people there!! That were not missionaries!! It was so weird...  haha

I am going to cut my hair tonight…… so that it will have time to grow before I get home. I am just going to trim it and not buzz it.  So hopefully I will look handsome when I get home. LOL.

While I remember can you please forward these or parts you choose to Blaze... or her mum.  They would like to know some cool stuff to..

My companion had hard boiled eggs for breakfast the other day. Elder Akak from Nigeria walks in….

“ your eating eggs”....”yeah”.... :for food???”….” umm yeah what else are they??”  (look of shock and disbelief) “For FOOD??? BY THEMSELVES!!????”  ... “haha yeah.. We don't have anything to eat them with”. It was pretty funny!! I am going to miss moments like that. I cannot wait for everyone to eat Ghana food!!! I am soooooooo excited. I am gonna make fufu and banku for you. Lite soup, groundnut soup and gari sockings…... and jollof rice and Ghana fried rice!! YAY!!!

You will love some and hate some I know!! Hehe
well that is all for this week!! No baptism but hopefully this Sunday so I will keep you posted!!!

Remember your Saviour and to smile!!  LOVE ELDER ANDERSON

More Baptisms, cyclones & soccer - it's Ghana after all

We had the confirmations for our baptism this past sunday! for gideon and charles.

This wednesday is transfer day, but no changes here then Saturday we are having a missionary devotional, president Judd is coming to
be a guest speaker.

We are going to have 4 workshops with basic questions about the church answered About The Book of Mormon, The Plan of Salvation, The mode and necessity of Baptism, and the The Nature of God, our Heavenly Father.  I think those are them

Each companionship is teaching one workshop each, Then we are going to have a Q&A time with President Judd and he will finish
off the meeting! (with a few musical items along the way!)

We have another baptism for this sunday! i will let you know about all of them after they happen

This week was pretty cool, we found some great people, We planned to go finding in a particular area, and we barley reached there when people started contacting us and coming to us to teach them!! IT WAS
REALLY COOL!

some wanted to know who we were, they have seen us around and thought us students, but why would we go down a dirt hick road???
but it was really cool. one even fed us after we taught them... and we had just met them!!!

All in all we had a pretty bomb week.

Saturday night was the UEFA football (soccer) final... so ghana went
crazy!!!  It was a good thing it didn't start till 7 and finish around 10 due to overtime and penanlities!  cause we were safe and sound in our house!

However!!! saturday Ghana had the craziest storm since ive been here felt like a catergory 2 cyclone or something!!!!  then light went off and stayed off until late sunday afternoon!!!  so lots of generators going to be able to watch the game!!!  It knocked over bill boards, moved the traffic lights and brought down a bunch of power lines!!!

crazy times!!  signs of something right!!! hehe
But we are all safe!
love elder Anderson

SOON to be the FINAL phone call home

i cannot believe that in 3 weeks i will make my final phone call home and that just 3months after that phone call i will be home again!!!!
I can imagine things are going to be pretty crazy when i get back!!!  i bit of a shock actually but still i can't wait!! As much as i don't want to leave Ghana, and finishing doing this work, i have accepted that there is a time and a season to everything!!
love elder anderson

a Hot Easter in Ghana

9th April 2012

Ghana has been soooo HOT this past week it is ridiculous!!

Easter has come and gone here in Ghana and it is an amazing holiday here!!
Commercialization has not really happened for easter yet. (It has for christmas and now the young generation focus more on santa and presents)  But Easter is still mostly pure!
I have never seen Accra Shut down like i did this easter i would guess more than 90% of the population was at church on friday and yesterday!   It was really amazing! I have not seen one easter bunny or one easter egg and it is actually really nice.  Eater is a time for families and remembering Jesus Christ.  Today being easter Monday most families are making the most of the last public holiday by going to the beach, nearly everyone in Accra goes, they say that they go to be close to Jesus, as he walked on the water, i am sure there will be places where loud music, boozing and dancing is happening but i know there are some places where there will be singing and praising and hallelujah's to the almighty God.

There is a member in our area who gave us a referral (his neighbour) so we went to see them, and i tell you that climbing mt warning was easy compared to the hill we climb to get to where they stay!!! and they climb up and down everyday!!! sometimes more that once!!!!! IT WAS CRAZY, about a 30-40 min walk (there is a car that takes you half way, but it is difficult to get and there is no set time when it comes!!!) 
But what makes it worse is that it doesn't look steep or tall!! you look up and you can't see anything higher but it just keeps going up and up and up!!

But it was worth it!  We have been teaching a sister and a brother (not the same family) and they are just soaking up the gospel and the Book of Mormon in particular.  When Elder Holland came he focused on the Ghana Accra Mission becoming a Book Of Mormon Mission and we have really been doing that, using the Book Of Mormon more in our contacting, teaching and studies. It is the main source for teaching the restored gospel, it is the foundation of everything, and needs to be the keystone of our testimony.
As we have been teaching this to our investigators it has really helped them to come closer to our Saviour and has really helped them receive their witness that the Church is true!!

I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday, fresh from the MTC again, so i am looking forward to training again, but it is going to be tough, as i will still be ZL as well.

Hope everything is great over where you are as i don't know if your home yet....

But lots of love from elder A Anderson!

Finally Rain

Hey hey!!!

Well it has finally rained here!!! it has been a good 2 months since in rained and everything was sooo dry and dusty!!! But with rain comes the inevitable LIGHT OFF!!!!
It has been ridiculous!!! The light has been off for about a total of 18 hours just in the past week!!!   (if not more!!!)

We had a baptism on sunday, it was really really nice, the ward relief society also had they anniversary so we got cake and all sorts of goodies!!! It was almost like refreshments at a baptism! hehe..  but not quite.  Our bishops wife makes and decoates cakes and she made 3 big cakes for the ward! it was really cool with the Relief society emblem and charity never faileth  and what not.. we also all got pens with Relief Society Anniversary engraved in them!!! 
We baptized Mary-ann and Helga Smith, daughters of a member from a different stake and Dorcas Owusuwaah, who is the niece of the stake president, It was really nice! we had it after church so a lot of members were able to come!

http://maps.google.com.gh/maps?q=odorkor+ghana&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl
if you zoom in on P.A Gaisie Estates you will see my new chapel....
and in the top corner you will see odorgonor gas petrol station that is across the road from our apartment!!!!  so you can see where i am!  
If you zoom in, follow the road down a little and you will see a construction with no roof and then a house next to it... that is our place!  it is like a u... almost 

Well ghana is still being sweet to me and i have a few months left to really work hard!!

I know that there are a lot of unanswered questions!! but thanks for keeping me updated!!!
promise more next week when i get you email from home!

hehe
Elder Anderson!

Huge Area

It has been so so hot here in Ghana, my new area is HUGE!!! and like i said the members are really nice..  The bishop lives about a 30min drive away from the chapel, so we don't really get the opportunity to go to his house very often.  But his family are really nice!!  We went for ward clean up on saturday and it was really great to get to know some of the members!!  One lady came up to me and said.. "i know you! from Koforidua! its me Sis Quashie, i moved here a year ago after my husband died!!!"  I remembered her too!!! i was pretty amazed she remembered me actually! 

Another funny thing is the stake president that used to live in the USA moved back to ghana just over a year ago..
and there 2nd week back in ghana he picked up my companion and me (elder evensen when i was in buduburam) and took us to one of our meetings, as the car we took changed its destination while we were on it!!! so it dropped us else where and lucky they were going to the area office or we would've been late!!!   They also remember that! it is such a small world! hehe!  when we went to visit them last week sister badoo made us pizza.... if that answers the question about the western food!! they also like Ghanaian food!

The members are great, the ward is also nice and i am back in accra...
the stake conference where they will make the 4 stakes here in accra into 6 will be next month and they are have a combined 4 stakes, stake conference!!!! HOW HUGE WILL THAT BE!!! the venue is yet to be announced!  that is a lot of people!!  but it is evidence that the church is growing here in ghana!!

the mission is also hope that by next year the oldest district in the church will become a stake!!!  that will be an exciting day!!! it is the place in ghana called Abomosu where the church was officially started!! the oldest meetinghouse is there and they are still a district mainly due to language concerns! BUT hopefully by this time next year!!!!

Thanks for the photos they are really cool!!!  think about some cool ghana stuff that you want... besides a monkey and a black baby as i don't know how possible t those 2 will be to get thru customs!! super excited to eat some mcdonalds!!!

Lots of love Elder Anderson!!!

So much for not getting transferred!!! ZONE LEADER!! :)

First, this is the worst keyboard i have ever typed on in my entire life.  The buttons don't push, they are stiff and some don't work at all!!!

But some exciting news.. you can see a photo of me on the church website!! cool huh!
The one from elder holland's visit are up at  
http://www.lds.org/church/news/elder-holland-tells-ghanaian-saints-to-be-their-best/photo-gallery?lang=eng
i am right in the middle of the group photo

OH!!! and i almost forgot, but i did get transferred after all!
I also received a new calling as a Zone Leader of the McCarthy Hill Zone... So Buduburam and Kasoa is now in my zone again.
My new companion is Elder Seroka from South Africa, and he is one transfer older than me but is going a transfer early.. so he will go home in just  over 10 weeks!!! how crazy is that!! then i will be left with just 12 weeks till i am home!!  then only 7 weeks till conference!!! wow this is going fast!

It was sad to leave elder john but i know he is in good hands with Elder Hanks from my mtc..  yep the one that made the billionaire mission call video.. he is still around! lol

My new ward is rich.. never have i seen so many cars in the chapel parking lot... more than full!!!  Dr. Kissi who was one of the first members when the church officailly came here almost 30 years ago is in my ward with his whole family, they are really cool and love the missionaries and go to the usa nearly every conference. He has a hospital here called the deseret hospital and did my first check up in ghana while i was still in the mtc!! but he doesn't remember me!

The ward is so wonderful with referrals too!! bringing in their friends to the gospel, they really have a desire to serve!!!  The stake conference where they are creating the new stakes is in a months time to so that is pretty crazy, the current stake pres is also in our ward, and he is really cool, his children grew up in the usa and they moved back to ghana to help the church grow about 3 years ago!  i wonder if he will stay as the new stake pres!

i love this work!!!

Love elder anderson!!!