i love what you said about the correlation between working hard and being happy. i was just reading the general conference ensign from april 2006, and there was a talk that said that EXACT same thing. i think it was by like elder worthlin?? but yea, it's true. anytime i get homesick or tired i just try to begin thinking about the people i'm teaching and it somehow gets easier.
i was just thinking about how the business is doing the other day...i was going to ask but you already answered haha! i'm glad to hear its at least a LITTLE busier. i hope all continues to go well as brother nelson leaves...he's a way cool guy. God has a plan though. it may not be the easiest way, but He knows what's best for us to learn and grow. He'll look out for us.
Oh my gosh that's soooo depressing about brother davis!! he's the nicest man i've ever met. kyle's two years are up in november. wow i can't believe that...
tell mom thanks for the email she wrote elder kalinja last week!! he loved it, he still talks about it. he says ''i love your family ohhh!'' i think it was the only email he got last week. usually he'll get an email or two, but not always.
this week is transfer week, we will find out later today if anything is happening to us. i dont think anything's gunna happen, but elder kalinja says he has a feeling that one of us'll be moved. we've been praying that the Lord will keep us together for one more transfer. we both know that we have alot more work to do together. i can tell we will become alot closer if we're together for six more weeks.
I sent grandma mackay a quick email last week, i donno if her address is still gmackay at cox.net and i donno if she checks it often, but you may want to send her a quick reminder to check it. how are her and grandpa and brenda doing?? what about grandma jolley??
i got a letter from mom this week. i'll be sending my response in the mail :) thanks for the five bucks, but it would probably be more convenient if you just put a little bit of money into my bank account and i can just withdraw it from there, cause i'll get it in cidis. i dont really know where i can go to change in the dollars. if i send things using the pouch i need american stamps. so if you could send a book of foreverstamps whenever it is convenient i would appreciate it.
there are four missionaries from vegas in my mission right now. elders lehr and evans i already knew, but i didnt know elder waite. he's a cool kid. he's a wrestler from rancho. his two years are up! so he leaves for home this week. we had a zone conference this past week that i talked with him for like a half hour. i asked him all about his mission, his regrets, and his advice and his plans. i sent him home with an assignment to eat a fat in-n-out burger for me. i got his email address - it's ______ in case you wanted another source of info about ghana, mom. :) i asked him if that was cool and he was like ''oh yea of course.'' so i told him maybe you'd send him a few questions.
that zone conference we had last week was so sick! it was all of the zones except for kumasi, so it was almost like a mission conference. i got to see alotta by boys!! i talked with el
der bahme and elder evans alot, who are companions. elder bahme was probably my closest friend in the mtc, he's the one who took my room at byu after i left. the west africa area president, President Cardon spoke. he also spoke to us in the mtc. i love that man!! he's powerfully spiritual. he talked alot about how and why we effectively get people to make and keep commitments, like reading sections of the book of mormon and stuff. he gave some awesome advice. that was on wednesday.friday was such a cool night, i know it is something i'll remember for a long time. the under 20 world cup was this past couple of weeks, and ghana was doing really well. as they got further and further along in the tournament and did better and better, we started to ha
ve to plan our day around the football games! when they played, we had nothing to do. they made it to the finals of the whole tournament on friday against brazil!! i'm not gunna lie to you guys, we watched it. call us disobedient, but i'm gunna justify it by again reminding you that there is NOBODY to talk to during these games. the ref gave out a ridiculous red card in the first half, so ghana was down one man. me and elder kalinja were watching it at a member's house, and we got depressed and left at half time. brazil hadnt scored, but was dominating. it was only a matter of time. we took the tro tro and taxi home, and we were walking down the street and saw a member who owns this pharmacy near our apt. we went and said hi, and he had the game on. it was almost the end of the game and still 0-0! it went into overtime and no one scored. then penalty kicks. it was so entertaining to watch all these ghanaians. none of them could hold still. elder kalinja couldnt watch cause he was too nervious. it came to a point where all brazil had to do was make one penalty kick and they would win. but our keeper came up with two ridiculous saves and we score twice to win!!
i can't tell you how crazy my people went! there were freaking stampedes going down the street. everyone was holding the flags and yelling and stuff. it was loud! all of the drivers in the cars driving by would just hold down there horns as they drove along. all...night....long. it was so awesome though!! one of my zone leaders is a samoan, so he has a little bit tanner skin. he gets asked all the time now if he's brazilian, cause the people just want someone that they can rub it in! we got a text from some others that said ''Ghana won the world cup, glory be to God!''
sunday wasnt as successful though haha. if you remember, we were supposed to have our baptisms yesterday, but elder kalinja got sick. he said he's never been sick enough that he's not been able to go out that day once in his mission. but on our baptism day it happens!! haha it was a bummer, but we're planning on next week. pray for it to all go down well. one of our candidates also cant get baptised yet because of abortion issues... that's a whole story of it's own. i'll fill you guys in as it developes more.when we got to moree the first time, the ap's told us that we do baptisms at the beach. i was way excited about that! a beach baptism would be so sick! elder kalinja wasnt so excited though haha. when we went to check out the beach a couple of weeks ago he said ''that water is dirty. this smells. you're doing the baptisms.'' haha fine by me!! so thats what we planned on doing. but we found out on saturday that we usually just use the chapel in yamoranza or combine with their baptisms! haha so if we had done it yesterday, it would have been too late to change it, but now that were doing it next week i think we might be doing it at the chapel. nonetheless, a baptism is a baptism! i'm still way excited!!!
today, we ate fufu as a zone! we all pounded it 
and paid a sister in cape coast to make some soup for us! it's taken some getting used to, but i'm starting to like it alot! i'll put more details about the food in the letter i send home. i'll do that later this week.well i gotta run, but thanks for everthing! good luck with the business dad. pray for the davis family and the andrews family and for my baptisms!!!
love you!
elder mackay
