To start, always have to start with a funny!
As we were walking home from emailing last week, we passed this house that owns a monkey. No idea what kind, but I have a video for the monkey enthusiasts out there... Anyways, Elder Powell was playing with the monkey for a bit and then wanted to see my pen so the monkey could play with it. I thought no harm of it, and handed it to him. Right as Elder Powell gave the monkey my pen, the monkey jumped away and started to eat the pen!!! Ahhhh! We were kinda freaking out because it is a plastic pen, so the shards would be sharp, and we were more scared of the ink killing the monkey, so we voted Elder Powell to go and grab the pen from the monkey! After a few minutes of debating how to get the pen, he rips it out of the monkey's hand and the monkey got ANGRY and ran after him!!! :) Good thing the monkey had a leash because Elder Powell would have been in trouble!!! :)
Next, for a continuation of last week, our eye infections (called Apollo[ ah-poh-loh]) lasted for a few days and finally spread to Elder Coleman and Elder Powell. We looked like a bunch of zombies with our swollen and dark red eyes, but it provided for a good experience! :)
Ants invaded our house as well this week, and I couldn't help but think we were being cursed with many plagues! The day or two after my eye infection left, HUGE ANTS decided our house was a good place to make their house... We walked past them the first time we came in the door because they had just taken our windows, but when we walked back into the front room, they were EVERYWHERE!!! So we grabbed some cans of "Raid" and destroyed them all! >:)
We celebrated Elder Coleman's birthday on the 12th and made him a cake! It turned out really well using the multi-pot-oven on the propane stove technique! :) It was amazing. Oh how I miss American-made sweets!!!!!
We had a Zone Council in Nkawkaw this week, and I bought a sweet speaker while I was there for cheap! It is red and looks awesome. Has the strange voice (you know this voice if you've ever bought a speaker made in China or bought from "wish.com" LOL)
Our house is horrifying right now. The fire crackers are very common now, and so, both of our companionship's have bought firecrackers and been throwing them at each other in the house. Basically, we live in constant fear that at any moment a little fire cracker (Ghana calls them Knockout) can fly into your room can scare you! Hahahhaaa! One kind they have here sounds like shooting a gun in the apartment! HOLY LOUD.
Well. This week has been tough on the spiritual side. I have done a lot of praying and pondering. The woman we have been planning to baptize was really progressing well, but a few days before, her husband called and said she couldn't be baptized because she already has a church. We are not quite sure if she is just trying to get away from us or if her husband actually said no, but we told her that when her husband comes from Accra for vacation, that we will sit down with him and share our message with him as well. The thought that continues to come tom my mind is from Isaiah 55:8...
8 ¶For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
That is my thought for the week, that no matter what happens, as we turn to God, we can know that we cannot always see the forest behind the tree we are at now, but we can have hope for the future because if we live well now, we will be rewarded accordingly.
Well, everything is looking good for Skyping on Sunday! I will be calling around 10pm my time, around 4pm your time. I hope everyone will be at Grandma's so I can see the family, I will get about 1.5 hours which will be GREAT! :)
Elder Wawro
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Catching Up...12-12-16
Final catch-up blog post...
December 12th, 2016
I've got lots to write about this week! :)
Mom, how was craft fair? Did you get any sleep last week??? :)
Elections were crazy! The President changed from Mahamma to Nana Akufo Addo and there was A TON of celebrations! We didn't proselyte much this week because of all the parties, and in some places, riots. But overall it was peaceful! IT WAS HUGE. EVERYBODY WAS DANCING AND SINGING WHEN THEY ANNOUNCED THE NEW PREISDENT!!! :)
Well, this week has been rewarding. It started with me being angry with my companion over something kinda small, and it was really bothering me! But, as I thought about it and received some helpful words from Dad (last Saturday), I went up to him the next morning and just apologized for being mad at him. Wow, what a difference that made for sure! We now never walk without having a laugh or telling a funny story or 2, and it is amazing!!
I bought some sweet firecrackers this week that we played with for a long time! We have some hilarious videos with them, and hopefully soon, I will get to send them! :)
I made some interesting "donut holes" from the internet this week. They were alright, but since we don't have a thermometer, I just tried to fry them at the lowest setting possible... They weren't awful, but I won't make them again for sure! They took about 1.5 hours to make all of them, and they came out more like cinnamon sticks, but it was an interesting experience! :)
Elder Coleman found a Christmas tree this week which was awesome, as Elder Antwi (who just left) took his with him when he was transferred. We don't have lights, but we have some ornaments and a tree topper, but soon we will find some lights!
I saw a huge Gas truck this week which read "Highly Inflammable"! :) It is really common around here, but this is the first week I could get a solid picture of it! :)
I had fried snail the day before Elder Antwi left which was not half bad! It was definitely different, but I enjoyed eating them! I t was a little scary seeing them be hacked open and then thrown in the fryer, but it was really nice! :)
Ugh. For me and my companion, we have had eye infections in one of his eyes, and both of mine. And let me tell you, it is rough! Elder Coleman has some eye drops that really help, but it is taking a while to go away, but thankfully, the Lord has let me get some rest at night! Also at the moment, I have a terrible headache. I don't know what happened, I didn't feel great so I took a nap, and then I was finished! Yikes! But when we get home, I will be taking some Advil, Nyquil, and going back to sleep! :)
Anyways, for this week, we are preparing this lady Joyce to be baptized. I am really excited to finally have a baptism! We have been working really hard, and I am glad to see some success in the near future! :) Honestly, this is one of the hardest areas I have been to. But I know that the Lord is watching out for us and he truly is preparing souls to hear the message we have to share. We have been praying a lot for some success in our area, as our branch hasn't had any baptisms in like 6 months, but Saturday, we will have the first in a while! :) God truly will help us as we turn to him for help and guidance in our lives. He is always just a prayer and a little bit of work away! :)
So for Christmas Day...proably what will happen is that we won't go out on Christmas, unless to members, and then we will find some members and use their phone to Skype! We will just buy a bunch of credit and hope for the best!! There is absolutely zero wifi here. I have never seen wifi, but some missionaries have a little hotspot so they can send pictures from their cameras.
Love you!
Elder Wawro
December 12th, 2016
I've got lots to write about this week! :)
Mom, how was craft fair? Did you get any sleep last week??? :)
Elections were crazy! The President changed from Mahamma to Nana Akufo Addo and there was A TON of celebrations! We didn't proselyte much this week because of all the parties, and in some places, riots. But overall it was peaceful! IT WAS HUGE. EVERYBODY WAS DANCING AND SINGING WHEN THEY ANNOUNCED THE NEW PREISDENT!!! :)
Well, this week has been rewarding. It started with me being angry with my companion over something kinda small, and it was really bothering me! But, as I thought about it and received some helpful words from Dad (last Saturday), I went up to him the next morning and just apologized for being mad at him. Wow, what a difference that made for sure! We now never walk without having a laugh or telling a funny story or 2, and it is amazing!!
I bought some sweet firecrackers this week that we played with for a long time! We have some hilarious videos with them, and hopefully soon, I will get to send them! :)
I made some interesting "donut holes" from the internet this week. They were alright, but since we don't have a thermometer, I just tried to fry them at the lowest setting possible... They weren't awful, but I won't make them again for sure! They took about 1.5 hours to make all of them, and they came out more like cinnamon sticks, but it was an interesting experience! :)
Elder Coleman found a Christmas tree this week which was awesome, as Elder Antwi (who just left) took his with him when he was transferred. We don't have lights, but we have some ornaments and a tree topper, but soon we will find some lights!
I saw a huge Gas truck this week which read "Highly Inflammable"! :) It is really common around here, but this is the first week I could get a solid picture of it! :)
I had fried snail the day before Elder Antwi left which was not half bad! It was definitely different, but I enjoyed eating them! I t was a little scary seeing them be hacked open and then thrown in the fryer, but it was really nice! :)
Ugh. For me and my companion, we have had eye infections in one of his eyes, and both of mine. And let me tell you, it is rough! Elder Coleman has some eye drops that really help, but it is taking a while to go away, but thankfully, the Lord has let me get some rest at night! Also at the moment, I have a terrible headache. I don't know what happened, I didn't feel great so I took a nap, and then I was finished! Yikes! But when we get home, I will be taking some Advil, Nyquil, and going back to sleep! :)
Anyways, for this week, we are preparing this lady Joyce to be baptized. I am really excited to finally have a baptism! We have been working really hard, and I am glad to see some success in the near future! :) Honestly, this is one of the hardest areas I have been to. But I know that the Lord is watching out for us and he truly is preparing souls to hear the message we have to share. We have been praying a lot for some success in our area, as our branch hasn't had any baptisms in like 6 months, but Saturday, we will have the first in a while! :) God truly will help us as we turn to him for help and guidance in our lives. He is always just a prayer and a little bit of work away! :)
So for Christmas Day...proably what will happen is that we won't go out on Christmas, unless to members, and then we will find some members and use their phone to Skype! We will just buy a bunch of credit and hope for the best!! There is absolutely zero wifi here. I have never seen wifi, but some missionaries have a little hotspot so they can send pictures from their cameras.
Love you!
Elder Wawro
Catching Up, 12-3-16 (Saturday)
Catching up on blog posts...I missed emailing Gabe today because they changed his date and I was working the Denton High craft fair all day. Grateful he was able to email with Bill though. ~Janene
December 3, 2016
Hey, I know this is strange, but because of elections on Monday, they have moved our P-day to today. I am sorry!!! But I am on for 1.5 hours. :)
Well, I apologize for the weird week this week, in our mission, they moved our transfer schedule which effected our P-day, so, they moved it to today ( Saturday).
Anyways, this week has been great! We took some photos as a district and they turned out great! They got some funny ones and some really nice ones! :)
We have started to email at our chapel which is awesome because I have access to my camera and my USB, but still it is too slow to send pictures, so maybe soon I can send some... but don't get your hopes up. :/
Elder Coleman and I made cinnamon rolls this week and it was AWESOME. It has been a really long time since I have had cinnamon rolls, and it turned out really well! WE "bake" a lot in our apartment, we use the 2 pots system and it doesn't cook perfectly, but it does pretty well for baking without an oven! :)
Our area is growing little by little. After being closed for 5-6 months, we have began to teach some of the same people as our predecessor missionaries which has been fun! We have 2 that have said that they want to be baptized, so I am really excited for that! :)
Well, this week will be weird for sure, we have transfers on Monday (normally Wednesday) and then the country's election on Wednesday, and chances are, we will not proselyte that day, but we are waiting for the final decision on that.
As for our transfer news, Elder Coleman's new companion is Elder Powell the district leader, and his former companion, Elder Antwi is going to Tamale to be a Zone Leader. Probably, he will finish his mission there, but we shall see! :)
As for spiritual matters, I learned a great lesson from the Book of Mormon in its first chapters. The story of a family leaving all their possessions in Jerusalem after God commands them to leave before Jerusalem is destroyed. There are those who are faithful... and those who are less faithful... and those who just complain about everything. There is a scripture to the faithful son which says someting along the lines of "blessed art thou because thou hast not murmured against the Lord." (sorry for the horrible phrasing) but it is a reoccurring theme of the Book of 1 Nephi, being faithful to the Lord's commandments and not complaining about what happens along the way. Easier said than done, but truly the Lord will truly bless us as we faithfully obey his commandments and put our trust in Him.
Thanks for reading! Love ya!
Elder Wawro
December 3, 2016
Hey, I know this is strange, but because of elections on Monday, they have moved our P-day to today. I am sorry!!! But I am on for 1.5 hours. :)
Well, I apologize for the weird week this week, in our mission, they moved our transfer schedule which effected our P-day, so, they moved it to today ( Saturday).
Anyways, this week has been great! We took some photos as a district and they turned out great! They got some funny ones and some really nice ones! :)
We have started to email at our chapel which is awesome because I have access to my camera and my USB, but still it is too slow to send pictures, so maybe soon I can send some... but don't get your hopes up. :/
Elder Coleman and I made cinnamon rolls this week and it was AWESOME. It has been a really long time since I have had cinnamon rolls, and it turned out really well! WE "bake" a lot in our apartment, we use the 2 pots system and it doesn't cook perfectly, but it does pretty well for baking without an oven! :)
Our area is growing little by little. After being closed for 5-6 months, we have began to teach some of the same people as our predecessor missionaries which has been fun! We have 2 that have said that they want to be baptized, so I am really excited for that! :)
Well, this week will be weird for sure, we have transfers on Monday (normally Wednesday) and then the country's election on Wednesday, and chances are, we will not proselyte that day, but we are waiting for the final decision on that.
As for our transfer news, Elder Coleman's new companion is Elder Powell the district leader, and his former companion, Elder Antwi is going to Tamale to be a Zone Leader. Probably, he will finish his mission there, but we shall see! :)
As for spiritual matters, I learned a great lesson from the Book of Mormon in its first chapters. The story of a family leaving all their possessions in Jerusalem after God commands them to leave before Jerusalem is destroyed. There are those who are faithful... and those who are less faithful... and those who just complain about everything. There is a scripture to the faithful son which says someting along the lines of "blessed art thou because thou hast not murmured against the Lord." (sorry for the horrible phrasing) but it is a reoccurring theme of the Book of 1 Nephi, being faithful to the Lord's commandments and not complaining about what happens along the way. Easier said than done, but truly the Lord will truly bless us as we faithfully obey his commandments and put our trust in Him.
Thanks for reading! Love ya!
Elder Wawro
Catching Up, 11-28-16
Catching up on the last three weeks of emails from Gabe during the holidays. :)
November 28th, 2016
I apologize for the typos in advance, this keyboard is REALLY STIFF.
Well, I had my first really crazy rain storm this week in the mountains! The power went out and it lasted about 30 minutes, and it was really really raining! I love when it rains here, because it gets nice and cold and the wind blows a lot!
I got to catch some videos of ants moving their colony which was really fascinating to me! They moved houses in about 1 day and 1 night, and the were gone by the next day! It is kinda freaky, but SUPER COOL!
We saw a tro tro that drove both wheels on one side into the gutter this week which was absolutely hilarious. They had 30 or more people trying to push it back out, but whatever happened, it wasn't there in the morning!
Elder Antwi put up his mini Christmas tree this week and oh how I miss the decorations back home! But our tree here brought back some good memories for sure. :)
We visited a wedding this week, and it is nothing like ours back home. Here they play REALLY LOUD MUSIC FOR THE WHOLE TIME, there is lots of hip-hop dancing, drums, and an MC! Little bit different experience, but we were supporting one of our member's daughters that was getting married! :)
Lastly, we had Thanksgiving in Ghana! It was rather an expensive meal, but was totally worth it. I bought some green beans and sweet corn in Kumasi and we got potatoes and chicken in our area! We made mashed potatoes, and fried chicken with vegetables and it was AWESOME. We ate for 2 meals in a row and it was sweet! We had quite a miracle though, if you have ever tried to deep fry things and throw water inside, you might have an idea where I am going with this...
We had been frying the chicken, after we had marinated it in some oil, seasoning and water. We fried the chicken, but it wasn't fully cooked, so we were going to cook it a little longer, but we decided to put a little seasoning in with the oil (which contained water) and well... After a few seconds in the oil, we had 7 foot flames reaching the ceiling, so Elder Coleman pulled it off really fast and Elder Antwi went right for the propane tank. They were the 2 closest, so my companion and I just watched the whole mes happen as we were too far away to be of any serious help. But it provided for a good laugh afterwards and a reassurance that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he has chosen because of their faith. Truly miracles do happen, but we will miss them if we are moving too fast!
-Elder Wawro
November 28th, 2016
I apologize for the typos in advance, this keyboard is REALLY STIFF.
Well, I had my first really crazy rain storm this week in the mountains! The power went out and it lasted about 30 minutes, and it was really really raining! I love when it rains here, because it gets nice and cold and the wind blows a lot!
I got to catch some videos of ants moving their colony which was really fascinating to me! They moved houses in about 1 day and 1 night, and the were gone by the next day! It is kinda freaky, but SUPER COOL!
We saw a tro tro that drove both wheels on one side into the gutter this week which was absolutely hilarious. They had 30 or more people trying to push it back out, but whatever happened, it wasn't there in the morning!
Elder Antwi put up his mini Christmas tree this week and oh how I miss the decorations back home! But our tree here brought back some good memories for sure. :)
We visited a wedding this week, and it is nothing like ours back home. Here they play REALLY LOUD MUSIC FOR THE WHOLE TIME, there is lots of hip-hop dancing, drums, and an MC! Little bit different experience, but we were supporting one of our member's daughters that was getting married! :)
Lastly, we had Thanksgiving in Ghana! It was rather an expensive meal, but was totally worth it. I bought some green beans and sweet corn in Kumasi and we got potatoes and chicken in our area! We made mashed potatoes, and fried chicken with vegetables and it was AWESOME. We ate for 2 meals in a row and it was sweet! We had quite a miracle though, if you have ever tried to deep fry things and throw water inside, you might have an idea where I am going with this...
We had been frying the chicken, after we had marinated it in some oil, seasoning and water. We fried the chicken, but it wasn't fully cooked, so we were going to cook it a little longer, but we decided to put a little seasoning in with the oil (which contained water) and well... After a few seconds in the oil, we had 7 foot flames reaching the ceiling, so Elder Coleman pulled it off really fast and Elder Antwi went right for the propane tank. They were the 2 closest, so my companion and I just watched the whole mes happen as we were too far away to be of any serious help. But it provided for a good laugh afterwards and a reassurance that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he has chosen because of their faith. Truly miracles do happen, but we will miss them if we are moving too fast!
-Elder Wawro
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