A Fun Christmas

We spoke with Conner briefly this morning.  All is well and he is feeling good.  His Twi is improving and his English sounds a little different.  We sometimes chuckle at the phrases he uses and the way he pronounces things.  I think he looks forward to the holiday season being over as everyone is so busy right now they are not having much success teaching.

It is the Harmattan season in Ghana.  The Harmattan is a dry, dusty wind that blows from the Sahara Dessert from late December into early February.  Sometimes it is nice as it dims the sun and decreases the humidity.  However, it can also bring about issues with allergies and some other health problems.  Conner said he hasn't noticed much of a difference where he is at yet.

Sister Keyes (Mission President's Wife) posted this picture showing the haze brought by the dusty wind.

Conner's email this week:

This last week was great. Christmas was basically a 2 day

Fourth of July. Everyone celebrates it, but where I am at they

don't have a lot of money. They basically just eat a big meal

and spend the day with their families.  At least that was the

impression I got from going from members house to

members house to wish them a Merry Christmas. Fireworks

here are pretty cheap so we got see a lot as we walked back

to our apartment Christmas night. Thursday our ward had it's

Christmas/ End of the Year party. It was fun. They brought a

lot of food to it so we left full. They like music a lot here in

Ghana so they rented like 4 big commercial speakers and

played music until we had to go home. The F word doesn't

mean much here at all. I was laughing pretty hard at some of

the songs they chose to play at the church building.

Ghanaians have there own pop and rap artists so it is fun to

listen to them. Some of the bigger ones are Stone Bwoy,

Shatta Whalle (I spelt that one wrong I think), and Lucky 

Dube. If you are interested in listening to them, do so at your

own risk. I am not sure who is clean or not. Anyways, I won

a game of Musical chairs and danced some. I was surprised

to have some Ghanaians tell me I was good at dancing.

The work was slow this last week because people didn't

want to speak to us. It will pick up again this week. Let me

know how Christmas was for all of you. I hope everyone has

a happy new year!

-Elder Garrison.

A New Companion

We spoke with Conner on Monday morning and we were able to speak to him again on Christmas Day!  It was so wonderful for all our family to be together and have the opportunity to talk with him.  Conner said on Christmas the Bishop had him over for dinner.  Conner had gone to a store like Wal-Mart and bought some candy to give away on Christmas.  The candy has ginger in it and is not as sweet as our candy.  Conner said the ward will have a Christmas party the day after Christmas.  In Ghana they celebrate throughout the New Year.  Many people in Ghana will celebrate New Year's Eve by going to church. 
Conner sounded upbeat and happy.  He said he was not homesick which we were thrilled to hear.  We all missed him as we celebrated Christmas.  Conner has such a big presence and has a contagious laugh.  However, we are thrilled to know he is happy and well in Ghana doing that which he has always wanted to do!  

This weeks email:

So this week we had transfers and Elder Matakaiongo went to Akatsi in Volts region.  I miss him but I have another good companion named Elder Lyamu (sounds like EE Yah moo).  He is from Nigeria.  He has been out on his mission for almost a year and a half.  I am guaranteed to leave Afienya in the beginning of February.   Anyways, life is good here in Africa.  The work has been slow with Elder Matakaiongo leaving, but hopefully it will pick up soon.  I am not really sure how Christmas will be like here.  I imagine that there will be a lot of loud music and dancing tomorrow. I will let you know what it is like here next week.  To me it is hard to wrap my head around that it is actually Christmas.  It just feels like it has been just one long summer here. It does not feel cold enough to be Christmas.  For the month of December we have been reading a chapter of the Gospel of Luke everyday.  Jesus Christ’s life, ministry, and Atonement is absolutely beyond description.  What he did for us is unimaginable and truly life saving.  I hope this Christmas is a very merry Christmas for all of you.

Elder Garrison 

A lot going on!

Conner sounded great today!  He asked me to send him a recipe for some no bake cookies so he can make them next week for Christmas.  He does not have an oven in his apartment so he cannot bake. He said he isn't home sick and it doesn't feel like Christmas there with the climate.  When he was on the phone with me someone came up to him and asked him for the shoes he was wearing.  He was wearing his Nike shoes today.  Of course, he had to say no as he had no others shoes with him and people are often asking him for things.  

Conner's weekly email:

This last week we had a lot of good things happen, but we

had a really big step back with someone we had on date

for baptism before all the good happened. She tried to hand

back all the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon. We also 

had a member she was staying with say he didn't believe in

the church anymore. That sucked. Sometimes people forget

that in this life we will have a trial of our faith and we need to

remain faithful through it to receive a witness of the reality of

God and the truthfulness of this church (Ether 12:6). We were

able to talk them down and commit to just keep moving

forward. I don't know what is going to happen, but I pray

the outcome will be well. Anyways, the rest of the week was

great. We met with Henry, the man we met late at night last

week. We met his wife and kids. It is very rare to be able to

teach families out here, so I am excited. The spirit was strong

as we talked about the plan of salvation, or God's plan in

regards to sending us, his children, away from his presence

and into this world. It also deals with why he sent us here

and what happens after we die. As we spoke about how

families can be together forever, their eyes lit up. The spirit

was in their small shop, and you could just tell how badly

they wanted it. If I could help them go to the temple to

participate in that, and I was unable to do anything else of

worth, my mission will still be a success. Another thing that

was great about this last week was we had our Christmas

zone conference. It was spiritual and uplifting for the first

half and a lot of fun the second. We watched a lot of skits by

missionaries that were so bad they were funny. Apparently

everyone was too busy working to practice on them. We then

had a nice lunch, even to American standards and some of

us spent a few hours throwing around a football. A few days

later we had a zone activity for Light the World. People were

able to tour our chapel and received a Book of Mormon. We

nearly gave out 30 Book of Mormons. This week is Transfers,

so we will find out what happens for the next 7 weeks

tonight. Transfers fell on Christmas so they shortened this

one and lengthened the next one. I hope this week is full of

joy and fun as everyone gets ready for Christmas. Let me

know how you all are doing.

-Elder Garrison

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Christmas Celebration in Ghana

Conner has not been able to email pictures home as the internet connection has been terrible at the internet cafe in his area.  You can imagine that we were thrilled to see these pictures of Conner today!  The mission had a Christmas multi zone conference.  It looks like the missionaries had a feast, received a gift, enjoyed a devotional and played some fun games to celebrate the Christmas season.  Conner looks so happy in these pictures!  It made our day.  

Here is Conner's weekly email home which truly touched our hearts:

This last week I went on two exchanges, so that meant a lot of time out of my area or in Tro Tros (buses).  We didn't teach as many new people this week but we did have two people commit to baptism.  The first was our Bishop's cousin and he will be a strong member of the church.  He has already read Gospel Principles and is asking us great questions.  The other person we found almost miraculously.  As missionaries we are supposed to be out teaching, serving or finding people from 10 in the morning until 9 at night.  The sun goes down at 6 in the evening all year over here.  Often times it can be hard to find people to talk to past 7:30 because everyone is asleep or eating.  It was one of those days when I was on exchange last Thursday, so we just started walking.  A man came up to us and we started to talk.  He asked us who we were and why we were there.  We told him and had a small gospel discussion.  He said that something inside him just told him to come talk to us. We explained how that was the Spirit and a little about how it works.  He ended up asking how he could join the church.  One thing that has brought me so much joy here in Ghana is the strengthening of my relationship with the Holy Ghost.  I love the way the prophet Elijah explains how God speaks to us.  "....the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks...but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." 1 Kings 19: 11-12.  Too often we expect something different than what the Lord gives us.  We often expect things to feel a certain way that when the Lord speaks gently we don't feel it. I have often found that I am too preoccupied and stressed with not feeling the Spirit the way I want to feel it that I miss that still small voice.  I am learning to just do what I know I am supposed to do and to trust that the Spirit is there.  I have been noticing it more lately.  When we read the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, pray, strive to follow the commandments and to be more Christ like, the Lord cannot help but to speak to us in that still small voice.  I know that voice is real. I have felt it countless times.  It only comes when you work for it.  This Christmas season is the best time to see if Christ will speak to you through the Holy Ghost.  I hope that you all had an awesome week.

Elder Garrison

Another Good Week

Conner was able to call us on Thanksgiving which was a wonderful surprise.  He is allowed to call family on holidays, birthdays and Mondays.  However, I didn't know if he would have the time to call on Thanksgiving as it isn't celebrated in Ghana.  It was so fun for us all to be able to speak with him.  He was going to try to send me photos on Monday but the computers in the internet cafe are not very good and he wasn't able to send them.  I hope we are able to somehow get pictures of him while on his mission.  From time to time a picture of him is posted on the mission Facebook page and I am grateful for that.  

Conner's weekly email:

This week has been good.  I had two exchanges or swaps with other missionaries in my district and with my zone leaders, so I was not in my area as much as I normally am.  It is always fun to go on exchanges because you get to meet a lot of new people.  Thursday we went to the temple to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was great to be in the House of the Lord again.  I could just feel the Spirit so strong in there.  I felt refreshed and ready to try to help get people to go inside for themselves.  Today we went to the beach again for a zone activity.  We had fun playing two hand touch American football and eating some jolly rice, it is rice that is orange and somewhat spicy.  As far as the work is going, things are picking up.  We have a few people we are teaching that seem very serious.  We even had one person have a dream about us taking her to Christ.  We are hoping for some more success in the near future.  I am going to try to send pictures to my mom so she can post them on Facebook.  Hopefully they go through, the computers here give me a hard time sending pictures home.  I hope everything back in the states is going well for everyone.  Let me know how you all are doing.

Elder Garrison