Elder Crane- 8/14/17

Dear America,

Some of the highlights of this week include chopping wood with a dull pickax, going to an expensive Chinese restaurant with President and Sister Cosgrave, getting transfer news, and starting to train the new assistant and office elder in our apartment.

So Elder Ayim is going on transfer and I'm getting a new companion named Elder Crane. He is from Gilbert, Arizona and I've known him since I was in Tamale. He was being trained while I was there. New assistants and office elders come earlier on transfer than everyone else because there is so much for them to learn and prepare for before the big transfer day. So Elder Nygren, the new assistant, has been here since Friday night and Elder Crane arrived today. This week will be a big one for us. There will be transfers and departures and a whole bunch of people to deal with. This is when the mission home gets fun:) When anyone in our apartment leaves on transfer, President Cosgrave takes us out to a top-secret traditional thank-you dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant. It was pretty westernized Chinese, but still way out of the ordinary and much appreciated. 

One funny thing that I was thinking about this week is how many things I've gotten used to that were so shocking to me when I arrived. Things like crazy driving, terrible English, flagrant false advertising, and disregard for copyright laws don't even phase me anymore. But there are also a lot of wonderful things that I've gotten used to, like teaching the gospel, working with a companion, serving others, and looking to the Lord. I love being a missionary in Ghana. 

It was sad this week when we went to visit one of our solid investigators and saw him hiding from us. The saddest part is that he didn't stop hiding when he had seen us see him.... so we left. Not much we could do. 

 Are you losing your accent now that you are in the office around more Americans?  We hope you bear your testimony in TWI and in an African accent. I can't really tell, but I get comments from a lot of the new African missionaries and members who say that I'm easy to understand. My speech has slowed down a lot since I came, and I definitely don't talk like an American. Maybe you'll hear a little of it when I get home.

Tell me one other cultural things.  For example you always eat with your right hand since the left is used for the bathroom. Yeah, we only use the right hand for eating or greeting or buying or taking something from another person's hand. That custom is more highly enforced in the north. We also greet people in a pattern from right to left, not necessarily whoever is closest to you. Funerals are a huge deal and involve a lot of extravagant embellishment, as do weddings and baby naming ceremonies to a lesser extent. Bargaining prices is a tradition that people will be shocked if you don't follow. Greeting strangers on the street is a must (verbal AND visual). Other churches here are run like circuses. Or magic shows.

Tell me about one or more of your investigators that we can pray for as a family. Daniel and Akua and their family. They are so sweet but they stay very far away from the chapel and can't afford transportation. We have a huge van that we drive around, but missionaries can't give rides.....:( Daniel sells lotto numbers, which is a crappy job for anybody. And it's gambling. He doesn't make very much money. Akua speaks and reads Twi. She loves reading her Twi copy of the Book of Mormon with us, and she is so humble and ready to accept what we teach. She doesn't realize it yet, but she's good at listening to the Spirit. She helps her husband support the family by fetching heavy tubs of water for constructions workers on her head whenever she gets the opportunity. I know three of the children that stay with them pretty well: Evangiela, Comfort, and Wisdom. I'll try to send pictures of them next week.

Tell us one fun thing about your mission President. President Cosgrave is so cool that we wrapped his car in plastic wrap a few nights ago with the assistants. He left the big ball of plastic outside the office door and has joked with us about revenge. We'll see what happens.