Elder Gabe Wawro in GHANA: First Video!

Today we have cleaned our apartment, I bought some laundry detergent to soak my clothes before I hand wash everything today to de-stress, and we just went shopping! To hand-wash all my laundry takes like, 3 hours of scrubbing! It is great for relaxation though, as weird as it sounds.... I love it to be honest!

I am hunting around Kumasi to find a place to buy a little keyboard for the apartment so I can practice hymns and eventually play the hymns at church in some months down the road. Pretty relaxing for sure! :)

(Mom: I asked him if local church members fed them nightly dinner like we do here) Nah, the members don't feed us often, but Godfred feeds us every time we go over there which is good! No meal calendar passed around to sign up...all those States missionaries should spend some time in Africa to see how much stuff we take for granted everyday!!! We cook most our meals, eat out a couple times a week, and maybe with Godfred every 2 weeks or so.

I put together our budget plan I created to sustain us for the week. Missionaries don't get much money, so I crunched the numbers for grocery shopping and needs, and we have like 3 extra dollars every week. :)

Needs:
-Fake Bacon (also good for most packages)
-Mini oven mitts
-Shoe polish kit with the shoe brushes
-New watch for Elder V
-1 or 2 highlighters
-Conversion chart from standard to metric
-Duct tape
-Car air fresheners
-FRUIT SNACKS
-A definite need is a small locking money box or similar item to hide my savings money
-Gonna need Gillette razor blades every 3 months or so because they cost as much as my weekly food bill...... yikes.

Wants:
-Fruit snacks
-EZ cheese (insert mom-gag here)
-Basic piano book
-Hard candies
-Life saver mints
-Ingredients for cookies, but not mixed together. I have eggs and butter available here so you'd just have to send the dry ingredients and I can get the rest!
-Black blue and red pens
-Anything else that can fit in the padded envelope

Thanks for mailing me a package... if I get the package, it'll either be this week at mid-transfer training or at the mission tour on May 3rd.

This week has been so tough, but so rewarding. The week started off super strong with lots of appointments and good lessons, but by the end of the week, especially Friday and Saturday, all our appointments fell through. But here's more about my crazy week!

Our Investigators so far:

Bro V. - He is really awesome. He latched onto the Gospel from lesson 1 and he has introduced us to like 5 or 6 other people in the space of time that he's been taking lessons! He is awesome and he is scheduled for the 14th of May for baptism.

Bro O. - He is tough. He seemed promising, but he doesn't keep commitments any more. He understands our message and lessons and we explain lots of doctrine, but he can never feel the Spirit because he is a little prideful of his knowledge, but we love him and we're working on a way to teach him better! :)

Bro I. - HE is amazing. He used to practice witchcraft and was like a major priest and did some scary stuff so he's gotta talk to the mission president, but still! He has turned his life around. He wants to join the church after searching through many churches who didn't accept him, but he loves us because we open arms for him even if he has some steps to take. May 14 baptism date as well.

Bro D. - He lives like 45 minutes walking from our house, in Ampame, but he is worth it. He wanted to know the truth about 'Mormons' because some of his friends told him weird stuff, but after our lesson, he agreed to come to church and he is sooooooooooooo awesome. Also a 14 May baptism date.

Godfred (AKA 'short time') - He is our member missionary and he is hilarious! He loves going out with us, feeding us banku and fufu and joking around. Love the heck outta him and we all joke around as buddies! He is even starting mission papers! :)

Bro G. family - We have been praying for a family and we found one! There is a family of 5 that are eligible for baptism and they love the church. They were looking for a church and they jumped on board after coming with us! They like many think that the church is really rich since we hand out pamphlets and books of Mormon, but oh well! :)

We had Zone Counsel this week which was good to see who the good missionaries are and the not so good ones! :) We decided about our zone shirts and that was an absolute nightmare trying to get all the locals on one page.... But the zone leaders will figure it out :)

I will not be sending packages home... The base price is 516 cedis plus whatever weight I add on, so that will not be happening.... Sorry.... But I will get presents for the family for when I get home. :)

We spent some time in Pakyi (muslimville) and it is tough over there, but Nkoransa and Kotwi are my favorite places to proselyte! We met a guy this week who told us about a prophecy of a Ghanaian Moses that was found in a 1993 newspaper and about Nostradamus the prophet.... It was interesting for sure! :)

I love the "Teachings of the Presidents' series. I have been reading almost every night about Ezra Taft Benson and I love it. I read for like 2 hours last night and man was it good.

I never realized how much I take for granted in America because many things here are different. Like A/C, all paved roads, marked roads, nice houses, good sidewalks, a transportation system and much much more, but especially constant electricity!

Love ya and catch ya next week!

Elder Wawro

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