The last 18 hours

Hello everyone,  

     It was great to hear from all of you yesterday.  The network was surprisingly clear.  When Sister Clawson called me on Wednesday, she was telling me about how Airtel is terrible for International calls and how people from home can never call these networks.  I also remember that the Liberia and SL missionaries said that they could barely hear anything on the other line.  I don't know what was wrong but it was a great connection.  After we finished, Samche and I just hung out around the compound.  Two man apartments get boring after a while.

    I already told you a bit about the zone conference with Elder Curtis, but maybe I can share a bit more about it.  It was really long to begin with.  We left for the Kissy stake center (about an hour from the house) around 9:30 and arrived home around 6 or 7.  The meeting was good.  Elder Curtis compared us to the US Olympics basketball dream team.  He talked about how many dream teams have been attempted and that they only work when all the members work together in the team.  He talked about how all of us were recommended to Salt Lake because of leadership qualities and ability to adapt and how all of us had to combine what we have learned in preparation to train the new missionaries coming in June.  Those ones from Obuasi won't be part of that group.  They will be part of the July group. (There is a member in one of the Obuasi branches that has been called to serve in Sierra Leone)  There was also instruction about training using Christlike attributes to help them progress.

    Tonight, the senior couples asked us to make a Ghana dish that they liked when they were there called red red.  It is a rice and beans with fried plantains.  After we finish here, we are going to go to the market to buy the stuffs for it.

    I love you all.  The church is true, the Book of Mormon is true,  Heavenly Father is guiding the missionary work and supports us all.  Ghana fufu is more true than SL fufu.  (I asked for a heart felt testimony for Mother's Day.  This "primary testimony" is what I get.  He is lucky he is on the other side of the world.)

Have a great week.  Just a few more weeks until summer.

Love you, Elder Warner Ashby

                                                    

                                                  Attempt at making German Pancakes 

                                                   (one of his favorite breakfast dishes)

It did rise a bit, but became flat by the time I took the picture. Tasted good though.

Here are some highlights from our Mother's Day phone call:

It was good to talk with him and laugh with him.  He sounds happy and healthy and is focused on serving the Lord.

He told us about the mice living inside the stove.  They were able to kill one of them.

He is glad this apartment in Sierra Leone does not have cockroaches like the last apartment in Ghana did.  They bought some bug killer to kill them when he was there. He used a whole can in just the kitchen and later that night they had dead roaches everywhere.

They have fire ants that get into the apartment in Sierra Leone, so that is one reason they have put up the bed nets.  It keeps the fire ants off of them at night.  Them and the mosquitoes.

They have to store the sugar in the refrigerator to keep the ants out of it. 

He sees lots of lizards and geckos in Sierra Leone.  The big lizards stay outside but sometimes they see the geckos inside their apartment.

He told us about trying on different sizes of the rubber boots so they can be issued the right size in a couple of weeks.  Right now it just rains a couple times a week and that has been mostly at night.  but he has been told that in August it will rain non-stop.

He said he feels like he is loosing his Twi speaking since he doesn't speak it much any more.

He talked about how their generator doesn't run very well which means the refrigerater doesn't work well either, so they usually put their stew in the freezer so it doesn't spoil.

The well water is running low and they need to watch their water usage till the rainy season starts to refill the well. 

He talked about the few baptisms that will be coming up.  The woman from England and the gentleman that found the church on his own will both be baptized very soon.

He gave us an update for his landlord who was in the car accident recently.  He said that he had surgery last Friday and is regaining movement in both his hands and feet.  We will continue to pray for him and his family.

We asked about the condition of his clothing.  He said that he will be burning his sheets and some really worn out clothes before coming home and sharing the rest of the clothes that are still fairly good.  He said his tennis shoes aren't going to be making the trip home.  They are really worn out.  But his Eccos and his sandals are in pretty good shape for the use they get.

He talked about his small suitcase whose wheels are broken.  The person at the luggage center warned us about luggage with wheels.  She said they break to easily.  He found that she was right.  One wheel broke early, at the beginning of his mission and the other wheel broke going to Sierra Leone on the road to the water taxi.  The big suitcase wheels aren't in very good shape either.  He said he is leaving the small suitcase there.