One Year

  These are some questions I asked in my email to him this week in regard to his Hump Day:

   How was your Hump Day?  Now that it has officially happened.   What could you say is the thing that you absolutely know for sure now?
   What have you learned since leaving and how has your testimony been strengthened?
   What has been the hardest thing for you?
   What has come easily to you?   What do you wish you had brought but didn't?   What do you wish you hadn't brought or could have done without?   Did you burn anything on your hump day?  Is that a tradition in Ghana?
    He answered these all jumbled together.  I hope you can pick them all out.

   

Hey guys,

     My one year was somehow interesting.  The day itself was slow, because our lessons all fell through and contacting was slow.  That night Elder Lindley and I ate the Mac and Cheese that you sent me. And a few strips of bacon.  Today, we are going to the Exodus restaurant that Elder Shraedel and I went to for our birthdays.  I know for sure that fufu is amazing and that the Book of Mormon is true, (I can't remember who sent that little blue reference book, but that thing has been amazing.  The Missionary Companion book has been great too, but I think I left it somewhere and another missionary claimed it.  If you find another, can you send it to me.  If it happens to turn up, I can dash the new one to someone) and I think I mentioned it last time but daily study has been a great thing I have come to enjoy.  Contacting was the hardest thing to learn to do.  Now it is normal.  Walking everywhere has come easy.  I wish I brought hangers.  Even though they are cheap. I wish I hadn't brought a ton of stuff that has sat in my bags for the last year and not been touched.  Like so much bug repellent, and so much medical stuff that I hope to never use.  They just sit in my bag and get moved around when I search for something in the bag.  The only time I see mosquitos is in Kumasi at night. And I slept under a net then. I swear that they are worse back home. I guess during the dry season there were more but I still had more bites on my arms and legs at Bear Lake than I have here.  Burning things is a foolish tradition of our fathers.  The only time we burn things is if there is a lot of clothes that we don't want any more, or garments.  I will just give away some of my clothes to recent converts and save the rest for back ups.  I found another note in my pocket today when I put on my new pants.  I thought I found them all, but I guess not. (Before he left I wrote a bunch of little notes of love and encouragement and sometimes a scripture and hid them in pockets and corners in his stuff.  My hope was that he would find them at times he would need the love and encouragement most.  He found most of them the first week in the MTC, so that was a bust.  I'm glad he still had one left to find.) The fruit roll ups never spoiled but they did get soft.  They were still good.  I swear that I told you that.  I bought a Kente vest.  Elder Osei, who was in my first district, gets them from a guy in Kumasi and he is a distributor among the missionaries.

my new Kente vest

    So last Monday, We went back to Kumasi and Elder Lindley and I and Elder Riplinger and Nagata all stayed in Kronum again.  This time we went to KFC first and ate there.  Afterward we went to the apartment.  Since I was the only one of the 4 to serve in Kumasi, I ended up being the travel guide.  We went back to town and tried to get a tro to the place.  It was late in the evening so most tros were going home.  There was one guy on his way home who dashed us a ride half way which we were really greatful for.  We slept on the floor again, but we brought our blankets this time. Again, I was happy for my alarm to go off. There were not so many creepy crawly things as mosquito's who buzzed in our ears all night.  The next day, we went to the mission tour with Elder Curtis.  His talk was really good.  His talk focused on the king Benjamin chapters and Alma 5.

KFC enjoyment!

    This week was somehow slow because of investigators and unsucessfull contacting.  But it wasn't to bad.  I went on exchange with Elder Norty-Annan to his area and Lindley took the district leader to ours.  Elder Mkandla, the DL, said that he did a really good job.  My day in the other area was cool.  We had some sweet lessons there.  We started our youth activities this week.  It wasn't as good as we hoped.  Not many youth came and those that did came about an hour late.  We put on Best 2 Years, but they couldn't really understand what was said.  The speed of the people talking was too fast for them I think.  I hope that it works in the future.  For our baptism, Richard is a 14 year old boy who is a cousin of two recent converts and Ike's cousin, but because none of them are living in the same compound and not immediate family, we have to wait for December to baptize him.  He is still coming almost every week.  He missed yesterday because there was rain, which was most of our investigators excuse for not coming to church.

   This week will be the first full week we have had all transfer, which means that this week might go by really slow.  It is just one extra day, but three weeks of missing a day is a lot.  We plan on working hard to find new people and teach those others we have found, like Ike's uncle.

   I know that this mission is where I belong, (even though Liberia would be sweet) and that what we are doing here is strongly supported by our Heavenly Father.  It is an amazing experience to see the Spirit testify to these people that this message is true.  And I look forward to working hard through this last and final year.  And I also testify that fufu is an amazing food.  Maybe not celestial, but amazing.

I love you all. Enjoy your break from school.  I love you all.  One down, one to go.

Love, Elder Warner Ashby

Really cool moon picture. 
If you look close you can see the outline of my house

Elder Ashby, Elder Lindley and Elder Riplinger