Tro Tros are not made to accommodate tall people

Hello everyone. 

    We got back from a trip to Kumasi this afternoon.  Tro Tros were not made to accommodate tall people.  My knees were under the seat in front of me most of the ride up.  It was fun.  Adams bought protein powder and we looked at waffle makers.  Ghana is still hot.  Maybe a random ice age freeze will come through.  If so, the Africans will see a white man running and shouting with joy though the streets. (We emailed that it had snowed at home.)

     On Wednesday, we did a service project.  The service project we did was help one of the other Elders new investigators move into a new room.  We only moved one set of things.  I don't know if he had more things but he already had some things in his room and said he didn't need any more help.  Every once in a while, we will browse for an hour during the week but not often.  We did a lot of teaching this week.  Our district is leading the mission.  If you hear that it is Obuasi zone, feel free to laugh because last time the other district had more people than us, but are only equaling our average in total lessons.  So I pat myself on the back.  Yesterday, we had 11 investigators at church.  Temple will be baptized next week.   A guy two weeks ago felt prompted to come to church and has come every week since.  We started teaching him this week and will hopefully baptize him in two weeks.  I was thinking that Thomas would be home soon.  Doesn't Griffin come home soon too? 

     Oh, and I got all the packages this week, they were sitting in the mission home and just got here.  I opened Dads, but I think I might wait small before I open the others. (Good thing because they are his birthday and Christmas gifts.  We didn't think they would get there this quickly!) Kind of stinks that there is no Christmas party (mission wide).  But we will do something.  I am told that teaching in December sucks because everyone goes to their village for Christmas so noone is around.  On Monday, one of our investigators taught us how to make stew and jollof rice.

Dinner- Jollof rice, fried chicken and salad.  Yum!

For the stew, you slice up some tomatoes (but I think a can or two of diced tomatoes will do), onions, green onions, bell peppers and garlic.  Also add pepper to desired spiciness (unless you are in ghana, then add enough to stab you in the back of the throat) and some meat flavoring.  We have shrimp flavoring but any should work.

   You pour a lot of oil in the sauce pan and put in the onions and garlic and let that cook.  Then you add a lot of tomato paste (tomato sauce will work) and your tomatoes.  You let that cook small and then add the rest of your vegetables.  If it is really thick, add more oil.  You can put it in the fridge and reheat it as needed or you can take part of it and add your rice to the sauce pan and add water to cover like normal.  Let the rice absorb the stew.  Eat with fried chicken and a salad if desired.

   I don't know if this helps any.  You can add whatever vegetables you want but I think garlic and onions are always there.

   We can get popcorn here and it isn't too expensive, I just haven't had the desire to buy any yet.  Hot chocolate packs would be sweet.  We have a chocolate drink called milo, but it isn't as good.  I bought a mug this week so I can drink hot milo in the morning.  I might try the eggnog recipe but I will have to look for some things in town.  (We sent a mock eggnog recipe.)

   We took one of our recent converts out for a member present lesson, but it was more of a missionary present lesson, because he wouldn't stop talking and he talked in twi so we had no idea what he said.  He was only supposed to translate but on the first translation, he took off for an hour.  He is a great guy and is always smiling and wants to serve a mission, but he won't stop talking.  It is a good thing, but it is also not the best for teaching. 

   For Thanksgiving we might buy some more food, and do something cool, but I don't know.  I will tell you when it happens.

Hope you have a good week.  love you all

Love, Elder Warner Ashby

Awesome lightning picture
(If you look real close you can see razor wire through the center of the picture)