dear fam,
i wrote down some random things throughout the week that i wanted to tell you guys about, so here it goes!
after mom mentioned general conference last week i got all excited cause i've heard davis and alot of other missionaries talk about how much they looked forward to it...but as i was thinking, i realized there is a seven hour time difference between here and utah, so we'd be watching it pretty late if we were watching it live. i asked some other elders and i guess the wards usually get a dvd sent to them and watch gc together in about a month or so... but i hear sometimes they only show one or two sessions and sometimes they show them in fante or twi... so i'm pretty bummed about that - i'll get the liahona in the mail and that'll have the addresses written in them so i suppose i'll have to deal with that!!
as for me i'm still doing fine! my health is great, i'm slowling gaining the weight back... i get tired very quickly when we walk up mountains or hills (and there's alot of those in my area) or when i run. i'm healthy, i'm just in bad shape haha. we just drove to takoradi to play some football with that zone... and it
was awesome because i saw alotta my mtc mates. i also saw elder evans finally! he's such a stud. he's been in the same area since last november... his only area!! he is training elder bahme... who i became way good friends with in the mtc... i was sooo happy to see all of them.
this mission is amazing. from top to bottom. president sabey is a rock star and sister sabey is essentially a mother to all of us. when president got to the mission, he decided he wanted to set goals for the whole mission. he is not concerned about numbers at all really. he really focuses on us getting "fruit that will remain." with the faith of these people, it's not hard to get baptisms. he wants people that are prepared for baptism, understand the message, and will remain active.
the first goal he set after he became mission president was families. every missionary had to take part in a family baptism, because they are more likely to keep each other active and can be sealed in the temple. the time period was three months. i wont go into
details but on the last day there were alot of baptisms and they all achieved the goal.
the next goal was 1 family and 1 future leader baptised in three months. a future leader is basically someone who speaks english, can read, and is smart. these people will become active in contributing to the ward. a very high portion of the population is illiterate and/or doesnt speak english. again, some last second miricles happened and we got the goal.
next came the goal of 1 family, 1 future leader, and 1 member referral in five months. mfs will stay active because they have friends. this one ended about a week or two after i got to cape coast, and we got it! its crazy how prepared these people are for baptism...
during zone conference a couple of weeks ago president told us our new goal... reactivate one less active and baptise one member referral from that less active by the end of february. we're way excited for it. me and elder kalinja have already reactivated a young man named robert... we hadnt even asked him for a referral yet, but on sunday he brought a friend to church!! we were so pumped...
there is also another part to the goal, though. there is an elias goal, a precursor to our new goal. we are trying to become closer with the mimbers and create an environment that people will feel comfortable when they are baptised or reactivated. by oct 25th, every missionary has to 1. perform 5 service projects to memebers 2. visit 15 members homes 3. accept no fm's "free meals" (this one a lot of missionaries don't like. there are some members that will avoid missionaries because they think that they have to feed the missionaries every time they come over, and dont have enogh money to feed them. we are changing that.) and 4. learn 80 percent of the ward members names. were already done with the first two and were going strong with the third, but the fourth one is freaking hard. these african names and faces are IMPOSSIBLE to remember. i'm really worried about that one it's hard...
but yea this mission is an awesome place to be right now. 28 new missionaries came in with me, which allowed for plenty of new areas to be opened up. next transfer there will be 21 more! then on december 2nd there will be like 15 or twenty MORE! president sabey was talking to somebody in the mission dept of the church who told him that he's never heard of so many missionaries going to the same mission over such a short period of time. by dec 2nd, HALF of the mission will be three months out or younger. HALF. thats nuts.
one of the first things pres told us was that there was no ladder in the gcc mission. when he says that he means that, as you become experienced, you become a district leader, then a zone leader, and finally an ap. davis will attest that elders will try to impress the mission president in order to gain position if there is a ladder. there really is no ladder here. the only real requirement for getting an assignment is president must know that he is able to trust you. when i came, one of the ap's became a trainer. the ap who replaced him had never been a district leader or a zone leader before. president makes sure that everyone knows that position doesnt matter and i love it.
my favorite thing to do right now is to study. i wish i could just stay inside and study all day long sometimes. the spirit teaches you so much when you put in the prayer, time, and thought. i'm learning such cool things in my scripture study.
we went to the temple on tuesday! which is something that doesnt happen alot, once a year if we're lucky. it was a really spiritual experience. we did a session, then we went and did some sealings. the temple president spoke to us and so did pres sabey. they are powerful men.
i'm getting to be way close with alot of the elders in my district. elder strong, one of my zl's is a way cool kid, and i'm way tight with my district leader, elder dunford. he's from wisconsin. i'm going on exchanges tomorrow so i'll be companions with him for a day. i'll be in an apartment with three other american's so i'm way excited about that haha!
the day after we went to the temple was the best proselyting day that me and elder kalinja have had. we've been praying to be able to find future leaders. i know i havent told you about my area, moree (more-eee) yet, but most people don't speak english. they speak fante. all of the church meetings are in fante. it is very hard to find future leaders. that day we contacted and made appointments with FIVE of them!!! we're really excited about that.
our ward worships in a school house. it's pretty ghetto. i'll send pictures when i can. the walls of the one room building, about three fourths of the way up become a chain link fence, and it is in the busiest, loudest part of the village.
i wrote down some random things throughout the week that i wanted to tell you guys about, so here it goes!
after mom mentioned general conference last week i got all excited cause i've heard davis and alot of other missionaries talk about how much they looked forward to it...but as i was thinking, i realized there is a seven hour time difference between here and utah, so we'd be watching it pretty late if we were watching it live. i asked some other elders and i guess the wards usually get a dvd sent to them and watch gc together in about a month or so... but i hear sometimes they only show one or two sessions and sometimes they show them in fante or twi... so i'm pretty bummed about that - i'll get the liahona in the mail and that'll have the addresses written in them so i suppose i'll have to deal with that!!
as for me i'm still doing fine! my health is great, i'm slowling gaining the weight back... i get tired very quickly when we walk up mountains or hills (and there's alot of those in my area) or when i run. i'm healthy, i'm just in bad shape haha. we just drove to takoradi to play some football with that zone... and it
was awesome because i saw alotta my mtc mates. i also saw elder evans finally! he's such a stud. he's been in the same area since last november... his only area!! he is training elder bahme... who i became way good friends with in the mtc... i was sooo happy to see all of them.this mission is amazing. from top to bottom. president sabey is a rock star and sister sabey is essentially a mother to all of us. when president got to the mission, he decided he wanted to set goals for the whole mission. he is not concerned about numbers at all really. he really focuses on us getting "fruit that will remain." with the faith of these people, it's not hard to get baptisms. he wants people that are prepared for baptism, understand the message, and will remain active.
the first goal he set after he became mission president was families. every missionary had to take part in a family baptism, because they are more likely to keep each other active and can be sealed in the temple. the time period was three months. i wont go into
details but on the last day there were alot of baptisms and they all achieved the goal.the next goal was 1 family and 1 future leader baptised in three months. a future leader is basically someone who speaks english, can read, and is smart. these people will become active in contributing to the ward. a very high portion of the population is illiterate and/or doesnt speak english. again, some last second miricles happened and we got the goal.
next came the goal of 1 family, 1 future leader, and 1 member referral in five months. mfs will stay active because they have friends. this one ended about a week or two after i got to cape coast, and we got it! its crazy how prepared these people are for baptism...
during zone conference a couple of weeks ago president told us our new goal... reactivate one less active and baptise one member referral from that less active by the end of february. we're way excited for it. me and elder kalinja have already reactivated a young man named robert... we hadnt even asked him for a referral yet, but on sunday he brought a friend to church!! we were so pumped...
there is also another part to the goal, though. there is an elias goal, a precursor to our new goal. we are trying to become closer with the mimbers and create an environment that people will feel comfortable when they are baptised or reactivated. by oct 25th, every missionary has to 1. perform 5 service projects to memebers 2. visit 15 members homes 3. accept no fm's "free meals" (this one a lot of missionaries don't like. there are some members that will avoid missionaries because they think that they have to feed the missionaries every time they come over, and dont have enogh money to feed them. we are changing that.) and 4. learn 80 percent of the ward members names. were already done with the first two and were going strong with the third, but the fourth one is freaking hard. these african names and faces are IMPOSSIBLE to remember. i'm really worried about that one it's hard...
but yea this mission is an awesome place to be right now. 28 new missionaries came in with me, which allowed for plenty of new areas to be opened up. next transfer there will be 21 more! then on december 2nd there will be like 15 or twenty MORE! president sabey was talking to somebody in the mission dept of the church who told him that he's never heard of so many missionaries going to the same mission over such a short period of time. by dec 2nd, HALF of the mission will be three months out or younger. HALF. thats nuts.
one of the first things pres told us was that there was no ladder in the gcc mission. when he says that he means that, as you become experienced, you become a district leader, then a zone leader, and finally an ap. davis will attest that elders will try to impress the mission president in order to gain position if there is a ladder. there really is no ladder here. the only real requirement for getting an assignment is president must know that he is able to trust you. when i came, one of the ap's became a trainer. the ap who replaced him had never been a district leader or a zone leader before. president makes sure that everyone knows that position doesnt matter and i love it.
my favorite thing to do right now is to study. i wish i could just stay inside and study all day long sometimes. the spirit teaches you so much when you put in the prayer, time, and thought. i'm learning such cool things in my scripture study.
we went to the temple on tuesday! which is something that doesnt happen alot, once a year if we're lucky. it was a really spiritual experience. we did a session, then we went and did some sealings. the temple president spoke to us and so did pres sabey. they are powerful men.
i'm getting to be way close with alot of the elders in my district. elder strong, one of my zl's is a way cool kid, and i'm way tight with my district leader, elder dunford. he's from wisconsin. i'm going on exchanges tomorrow so i'll be companions with him for a day. i'll be in an apartment with three other american's so i'm way excited about that haha!
the day after we went to the temple was the best proselyting day that me and elder kalinja have had. we've been praying to be able to find future leaders. i know i havent told you about my area, moree (more-eee) yet, but most people don't speak english. they speak fante. all of the church meetings are in fante. it is very hard to find future leaders. that day we contacted and made appointments with FIVE of them!!! we're really excited about that.
our ward worships in a school house. it's pretty ghetto. i'll send pictures when i can. the walls of the one room building, about three fourths of the way up become a chain link fence, and it is in the busiest, loudest part of the village.
there is a market right outside. the first week of church this man kept yelling through the walls during the sacrament meeting in fante that we shouldnt be worshiping in a schoolhouse... these people need a chapel. they have bought the land to build one, and they are hoping to have it start being built by early next year, so hopefully that works out.
my appartment is in a town called yamoransa. i live with three other african elders. elder balyejusa (balee-juice-ah) is a tewnty two year old from uganda. he is really chill i like him alot. his companion is a twenty five year old ghanain named elder agama (ah-gah-mah). he's one of my mtc mates. then there's me and elder kalinja. we all get along fine, but the africans have a much different sense of humor. they are very simple people. they do not understand sarcasm at all. they think very simple things are funny. the other day we were all walking by a statue of a turtle and elder agama said "elder kalinja, do you want me to buy that turtle for you?" they laughed and laughed and talked about it all day long...
the day after we got to the apt, we sat down with the aps and decided who would be in which area. yamoransa and moree are both brand new
areas. we took moree, because elder kalinja is a little better with the language. to get to moree, we take a tro-tro for about five or ten minutes down the road, then we have to take a taxi for about five or ten minutes and we're there. sometimes we have to wait for ten or twenty minutes for a taxi or tro tro to come by though. (tro tro's are basically an old ghetto vw van that people PILE into and travel for very cheap, and works essentially the same as a really poor version of a cat bus. look them up online if you can find them they're really funny).
moree is a VERY poor village. elder kalinja grew up in ghana and has served in other villages but he always says that he's never seen anything like this. there will be kids with very little or no clothing wherever you go. it really breaks our hearts to see the environment that these kids will spend their lives in. it is humbling. you are all lucky in america. every day people ask me for money, or if i will take them to america or give them a passport or marry them.
the kids are my favorite, though. they have a little chant that they do whenever they see you, they go "obruni, obruni, how are you? i'm fine, tank you, and you??" i'll try to get some videos for you its awesome. they come up to me and feel my arms and hands they're so fun to play with and there's TONS of them in moree.
moree is a huge village with lots of hills and mountains. i'd say it's probably like ten miles in diameter. we still havent been to parts of it. the people are so prepared for the gospel though. this might remind you of germany, kevin, but basically any time you want you can walk up to somebody and start talking to them and sit down with them and teach for 45 minutes. we usually don't do that though. we try to set up appointments because the people who will follow through with the appointments are more interested in the message than others.
so me and elder kalinja havent had any baptisms yet...but we have some scheduled for october 18th!! i'm so excited about it. we have six people (and hopefully a couple more maybe...)
one of the people who will be baptised that day is named kabina fynn (ko-bin-ah, a very common name here). he's sweet. we've been teaching him since our first week here. one time we came to teach him, and a big group of like five of his friends all listened and some of them really seemed to enjoy it. we committed them all to come to church together. anyone will tell you that they'll go to your church but its hard to get them to actually go. they all came together yesterday it was sooooo sweet. we've taguht them a couple of times. i'm getting to be close with a couple of them.
im' loving it!!!
i'll say it agian, the days are sooo long and sooo tiring, but we accomplish so much in one day, it's so rewarding. it's not easy, but i love it.
i was talking with one of my mtc mates today about how much the mission makes you appreciate your family. i really miss you guys alot!!! love you!
love elder mackay
ps mom i got your letter (or should i say questionarre} today. i'll hopefully fill that out and send that sometime this week or next. dont feel bad about all the questions mom, its smart and i like it cause i'm always short on time to email. as for what i need, i'd say letters are the best, candy would be lovely. some of those toothpics that dad always keeps in the visor of his car that are in the shape of a 'p' would be nice because the less i put my hands in my mouth the healthier i'll be ;) maybe like ten zip lock bags would be cool, they help keep food good for longer, and some scotch tape. i use that alot and they dont sell that here... and a cafe rio pork burrito or salad. i can get by just fine without all of these things (except for the cafe rio), so don't rush or anything. if you werent planning on sending anything for a while then dont. no worries. love ya!
the day after we got to the apt, we sat down with the aps and decided who would be in which area. yamoransa and moree are both brand new
areas. we took moree, because elder kalinja is a little better with the language. to get to moree, we take a tro-tro for about five or ten minutes down the road, then we have to take a taxi for about five or ten minutes and we're there. sometimes we have to wait for ten or twenty minutes for a taxi or tro tro to come by though. (tro tro's are basically an old ghetto vw van that people PILE into and travel for very cheap, and works essentially the same as a really poor version of a cat bus. look them up online if you can find them they're really funny).moree is a VERY poor village. elder kalinja grew up in ghana and has served in other villages but he always says that he's never seen anything like this. there will be kids with very little or no clothing wherever you go. it really breaks our hearts to see the environment that these kids will spend their lives in. it is humbling. you are all lucky in america. every day people ask me for money, or if i will take them to america or give them a passport or marry them.
the kids are my favorite, though. they have a little chant that they do whenever they see you, they go "obruni, obruni, how are you? i'm fine, tank you, and you??" i'll try to get some videos for you its awesome. they come up to me and feel my arms and hands they're so fun to play with and there's TONS of them in moree.
moree is a huge village with lots of hills and mountains. i'd say it's probably like ten miles in diameter. we still havent been to parts of it. the people are so prepared for the gospel though. this might remind you of germany, kevin, but basically any time you want you can walk up to somebody and start talking to them and sit down with them and teach for 45 minutes. we usually don't do that though. we try to set up appointments because the people who will follow through with the appointments are more interested in the message than others.
so me and elder kalinja havent had any baptisms yet...but we have some scheduled for october 18th!! i'm so excited about it. we have six people (and hopefully a couple more maybe...)
one of the people who will be baptised that day is named kabina fynn (ko-bin-ah, a very common name here). he's sweet. we've been teaching him since our first week here. one time we came to teach him, and a big group of like five of his friends all listened and some of them really seemed to enjoy it. we committed them all to come to church together. anyone will tell you that they'll go to your church but its hard to get them to actually go. they all came together yesterday it was sooooo sweet. we've taguht them a couple of times. i'm getting to be close with a couple of them.
im' loving it!!!
i'll say it agian, the days are sooo long and sooo tiring, but we accomplish so much in one day, it's so rewarding. it's not easy, but i love it.
i was talking with one of my mtc mates today about how much the mission makes you appreciate your family. i really miss you guys alot!!! love you!
love elder mackay
ps mom i got your letter (or should i say questionarre} today. i'll hopefully fill that out and send that sometime this week or next. dont feel bad about all the questions mom, its smart and i like it cause i'm always short on time to email. as for what i need, i'd say letters are the best, candy would be lovely. some of those toothpics that dad always keeps in the visor of his car that are in the shape of a 'p' would be nice because the less i put my hands in my mouth the healthier i'll be ;) maybe like ten zip lock bags would be cool, they help keep food good for longer, and some scotch tape. i use that alot and they dont sell that here... and a cafe rio pork burrito or salad. i can get by just fine without all of these things (except for the cafe rio), so don't rush or anything. if you werent planning on sending anything for a while then dont. no worries. love ya!
