Week 5 (of the transfer)
August 25, 2014
My companion had something wrong with his stomach so we talked to the doctor and he told us we had to take him to the hospital to get him tested! Ghana hospitals... are so slow and weird. It took forever just to get him tested for parasites in his stomach. I guess when he talked to the doctor at the hospital he wanted him to get tested for malaria as well.... thats just Ghana. my companion had a cold once and they told him it was malaria... but he got his blood tested too for it.
Earlier that morning we thought it was parasites so we gave him some medicine for it to help my companion out. then we got the results back... and it was nothing. Whoops. So hopefully the medicine we gave him won't make things worse. We have about 3 nurses who are members, so they kinda just pushed the bill for the test aside and told us to just forget about paying.. That's just Ghana.
We got a new zone leader! Elder Lebaron! On his second day in his area he came on splits with me to Abura Dunkwa! It was so much fun! He is super talkative and has a lot of energy in him!
Things in the area were very hard this week. Everyone we have been teaching traveled and our one investigator had a ruff week. He didnt come to church and starting drinking again. I guess he didnt really understand that he couldn't just wait until the day of his baptism to stop drinking. But he is doing really well. He was just sad this weekend that he had fallen back into drinking. But we are still seeing him everyday and helping him. He is such a sweet and humble guy. I was scared he would be mad that we had to move his baptism back a few weeks but he was just okay with it and said how he would do whatever he needed to do. As we were talking to his wife that same day she wanted us to come and see her the next week to start teaching her!!! She loves the church she is going to but I guess she just wants to actually see what we are teaching since it's helped her husband so much! We tried teaching her before but she would just say oh next time!!! But i guess now she really actually wants to sit down with us!!
This week flew by but its been a lot of ups and downs. This is the last week of the transfer so we will get transfer news on Saturday evening!!!
Sunday night we were washing clothes and my companion put a load in Elder Larsens washer just a little bit before 10 pm and all of us still needed to shower!! So we just kinda sat there... then Elder Larsen asked if I wanted to wrestle?!! So thats what we did for about 30 minutes! Sunday night mania! It was so much fun! it reminded me when I would wrestle armando randomly. But i was in a lot better shape than haha.
This month has been so sweet and im looking forward to all that we have to do next week!
Hope all is well at home!
Love you!
Elder Hodges
August 18, 2014
Tithing, Crazy Lady and a Lot of Cement
This week flew by! I'm honestly kinda scared at the fact it went by so fast. But we enjoyed it so much! To start it all off, a crazy lady kinda chased us again this week.. but at least this one was wearing clothes. Hoping she would leave us alone, we went to Teddy's shop to sit and talk to him. She followed us. And wouldn't leave cause she knew we didn't stay there.. So we just walked by her and had to lose her in the market.. I really hope that doing this doesn't become a normal thing here.
The rest was just powerful. One of our guys just stopped drinking. out of nowhere he just completely stopped the whole thing and hasn't had any for a few weeks now. He has a baptismal date for the 30 and he is so excited.! When we gave him the date he was kinda not wanting to do it so soon. He was nervous about it. But we came back the next day and he wanted to just get baptized that day! He is so powerful!!
Another one of our guys payed his tithing for the first time this week! After he payed it he said he only had 2 cedis left. which is about 1 dollar or less. He used some of it to buy dinner then was left with just 1 cedi. He asked and prayed for help because he didn't have any money at all after he payed his tithing on Sunday. The next day he went to Salt Pond to try and get his electricity back on because he owes a huge electric bill! So he was going to beg that they keep it on so he could work. On his way he talked to a woman who use to come to his mill and asked him why he looked so sad. He told her all of his problems. So, then she just gave him 700 cedis!!!! It was crazy! and it was just his first time paying tithing!!!
We have been praying to find new people to teach and it worked! One day a guy in a nice car (if you have a car here, you are RICH) and he asked us a couple questions and then when we could come to his house to visit him! He is from the terkwa gold mines and his brother is a member of the church! So he just wants to know for himself if it is true!
Then Saturday we had the Helping Hands service project. It's something that is all over west Africa in August. So for us we went to mix and pour cement at a school that was being built in Yammoransa! We mixed the cement in a small mixer and then had to cary it above our heads in head pans to the top of the building. We were so tired and covered in cement by the end of it! I got some spelt down my back... it was so weird.
Elder Beck and James went home today. I'm gonna miss those two so much. They were my favorite zone leaders. It really hasnt hit me yet they they are already going home. I guess Janna is next haha.
August 11, 2014
Liberia and Sierre Lione
We got 21 new missionaries this week from the Liberia and Sierre Lione missions because theirs was closed down because of the Ebola out break thing. But the disease isn't in Ghana so we are safe here! We stay in an apartment in Yammoransa with 2 other missionaries and just travel to our area every day. But 2 missionaries form Liberia came to be in Yammoransa so they now have 4 missionaries and no room in the apartment for us. So we moved to the Moree apartment to be with 4 other Elders. One of them being my old companion Elder Larsen! Hey charlie we have been enjoying! Their apartment is so much better and its not a dark depressing basement like the last apartment. So I'm happy with the move.
I asked him how he was doing after church and to my surprise he said he was very happy! So then he went to explain that yesterday he decided he wasn't going to come to church this Sunday, but then he felt that he should pray about it. So he did, and he said, "The still small voice whispered to me, to forget all of my problems and to just go to church, I would receive blessing and be happy."
Elikem with fufu
August 4, 2014
Another beautiful week in Ghana!!! I'm enjoying it too much! We have another temple trip coming up this month so we have to organize everything for it with our Branch President. A lot of people are wanting to go so hopefully it'll all work out. The temple was closed for renovations last month so it wasn't open kra.
Yo Charlie!
July 28, 2014
This week went by pretty fast. not too much happened this week but hopefully we will ave a lot more happening soon.
We went to Abakrampma to this big random nice house in the middle of the bush to see our branch president. He wants us to start relief society and priesthood meeting in church now so we will get that going in the next couple weeks. On the way we saved a bird from a net! but it was to weak to fly. so we set it on the ground. By the time we came back to see if it had left... it was too late. some big ants had gotten to it.... so we left.
We were talking to an investigator a lot this week and getting ready for his baptism. He seemed reluctant for the date and wanted to move it back. My companion and I were worried that he would want to just keep pushing it back. But he said, "Ah, why do you want me to be baptized on august 2nd? Why that day?" so we explained how when we plan for each of our investigators we pray about a day they can be baptized and ready for it as well, and the answer we got for him was august 2nd! Then he said.. Oh sweet! then I better be baptized on that date!
Small and simple things!!!
We also went to the hospital this week to visit a small girl in the hospital. She is in a family that we are teaching right now and she wanted us to come see her. so we went to the hospital (i hate hospitals..) and she was on a bed in a big room with about 10 other kids with malaria in there. We couldn't really give her a blessing in front of everyone but I was saying a silent prayer for her and I found out after so was my companion. Ey charlie! She had a burning fever and looked horrible. But after about 30 minutes she fell asleep then woke up again! She looked tons better! She was smiling and saying "I'm fine," and was so happy! Even though we couldnt give her a blessing I'm so glad our quiet prayers were answered!
Today we cleaned the beach at Moree! Then we played football on it in our bare feet! Oh and every time I say football, its really soccer. No one plays football here. I got sunburnt and had a lot of fun! Some of the things you clean up on a beach are just weird. Especially in Africa.
If anything, Ghana is wonderful, I'm alive and happy. No one tried to feed us goat skin this week! Whoo!
Love Elder Hodges
