And His Name Is... (Week 5)

Got to walk around Osu this week while we looked for supplies. Very strange to see the juxtaposition of huge corporation buildings sandwiched in between small sketchy food stands that took up their own blocks. While we were talking to a guy -mid conversation- he started to urinate in the drain and then proceeded to tell us how dirty and nasty Togo and Benin are. (Excited to go there in 10 days).

So I got new roommates a week ago and they are both from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They speak zero English but know american culture from movies and tv. When they first got here I was exercising and they both grabbed each other and shouted what sounded like "Won a weep her!" and they said that every time I saw them for the past week. Was not until last night when they started humming that I figured out what they were saying. "And His Name Is.. JOHN CENA" So they both insist I look like him and now yell John Cena when I see them.

Everyone on our floor is bringing me their electronics, irons, watches, etc for me to fix now because I fixed a watch and iron for a set of native companions with some duct tape and a soldering iron that a maintenance guy had in the closet.

The French is getting pretty intense. We are not allowed to speak english so now we all carry around our English to French dictionaries so that we can have conversations.

I hope you guys all have a great week.

Love,
Jeremy

Week 3

Not a lot has happened in the past couple days, we switched pdays for this week because everyone not in our district is leaving today to the field. Pretty amazing how much french we've learned in the past 3 weeks and how much more we need to learn in the next 3 weeks. Just because of how they scheduled things it may be a while before I email again but I hope you guys are having a great summer. Anyway here's a picture of both my roommates fitting on my shoulders. (They both gotta be like 80 lbs, it's kinda crazy and they both were born in 92 I found out so 26 not 25) Also a picture of a cool painting here.

Week 2

Not a lot has happened during week 2 here in Ghana. We are quickly progressing in the french language and are expected to be gospel fluent in about 2 months. We have had the opportunity of going to the Accra Temple every week and because my district is all already endowed Americans we are assigned to the seven am session which requires us eating breakfast at 5 am.

Elder Vinson came to the mtc this week and talked to all of us here. He said that even though the West African missions have the highest baptizing numbers in the world we should consider ourselves lazy if we only get seventy baptisms during our 24 months. Kind of a weird devotional after we have been talking for so long about how the people matter not the numbers...

Two of my roommates had birthdays this week, Elder Nsamumpya(25) and Elder Sorensen (19). We weren't able to do much to celebrate here but I gave an old tie bar and a french hymn book as presents to them because I am now realizing that not a lot of people go out of the way to celebrate those especially in the MTC.

Soon because of the short programs here my district will become the "oldest" missionaries here. Very strange because we are only now starting our third week. Finally rained today and we all got a kick out of singing "Africa" by Toto. Hopefully will have more exciting storeis once I am in Benin or Togo.

Hope you guys all have good weeks. 

Love,

Jeremy

Week 1

Taking three long flights was a long start to a long week. Each day is a long grind of ten or more hours of french and a few hours of gospel study and time to eat. It is a little brutal but I am sure it'll be worth it when we get to Benin.

I room with Elder Nsamumpya (Uganda), Elder Daniel (Nigeria), and Elder Sorensen (Texas). It is extremely humbling to hear the lifestyles that the members here have. It amazes me how much joy they can have; everywhere I go we all play games with each other, have elaborate handshakes, or make jokes- they always have a smile on their face.

We were not able to celebrate the 4th of July here but for our half hour time for sports we all played football using a half deflated soccer ball and that turned out to be a lot of fun. Also, every African here seems to be terrible at basketball.

The food is always a mystery even at the mtc; I found a full uncooked fish in my "mystery meat" (kinda pictured?) looking forward to cooking for myself when I am there. Very little time to talk but I hope you are all doing well.