Birthday week

hey!
my birthday week was pretty sweet, i gotta admit! on monday we went to kakum, which i told you a little about last week, i'll see if i can send a pic of it after i'm done with this email. on wednesday me and elder strong went on splits, and it was way cool. thursday was the big two zero, and it was just a regular proselyting day until the evening when we got home. i decided to treat myself like a king!! i ate jolof rice plenty, and also had some kenke, which is kinda similar to fufu, i love it! i also spoiled myself with some mineral (thats what they call soda here)...as you could probably guess i had sprite :)

i saved all the mail i got from the last couple weeks and opened them, which was sweet. my letter from cindy was sooo funny i laughed out loud. tell that boy matt to finish up the papers and get out here with me!!! i got a nice letter from juan fajardo, david's father. he's a way cool guy. i opened shauna's package, thanks girl i love it! especially the pictures. and mom, the birthday package was sweet. that Jesus The Christ book is awesome!!!! i'll put it to good use, believe me. you really did well mom, thanks! i also opened the letter you sent with the sports update and a couple of cody's letters. (that kid's such a stud. he's gunna be a PRODUCTIVE missinary for the Lord. also, his mom sent elder kalinja an email this week, which he LOVED. tell her thanks so so much). they are both awesome ideas mom i loved them! i dont know how you think of all this stuff to send to me, but its always awesome stuff.

i also saved all of the recordings from the fam onto the voice recorder and listened to them all that night!! i really enjoyed that alot, thanks everyone. (and jason, kit is about the sickest name i can think of for a bird). mom i dont know if you listened to what dad said about you in his recording, but it was special. i'm so fortunate to have parents like you.

i also created my own birthday cake. it consisted of a loaf of bread with a match stuck in the top as a candle. this is africa! ...overall it was a cool day. i think it was how the birthdays on the mission should be; a regular, productive missionary day followed by some stuff sent from home... thanks everyone!

on saturday we had some more baptisms!! there were 8 in all: gladys otoo, princela dadzie, john sasah, isaac nyanka, sarah oteng, esther sagoe, mary kwofie, and joseph mensah. it was soo sweet! we held it at yamoransa chapel this time, right next to our apartment. john sasah was a referal we recieved from a less active, robert mensah, that we activated.... meaning... we completed our goal already!!! its humbling. honestly, though, it was the coolest to see gladys baptised. she is a 16 year old girl that has been through SOO much in her short life. we've spent alot of time with her in preparing her to join Jesus Christ's church, and i really have grown very close to her. i'll write it all in a letter home, so i can take my time and tell you all about her situation and you can put it on my blog or whatev.

it was kinda a bummer at church yesterday, though, cause we had to end church early. i've told you about our ghetto schoolhouse chapel... and there was a funeral going on next door that was BLASTING music. it was sooo loud you couldnt hear the person sitting next to you unless they yelled. (as you can guess, ghanaian funerals are diferrent than ours haha... they have lots of music and dancing and tons of food and laughing haha)

thats awesome that daunte remembered my b-day, he ALWAYS does with everyone. he's the man.

to answer your questions, a regular letter costs about 2 cedis to send home, which doesnt seem too bad, but adds up if you write alot.

almost every day i eat an egg sandwich for breakfast. they also have this stuff calle "melo," which is basically hot chocalate, that is way cheap and easy to make so i have that with breakfast. for the other meals i'll eat rice with different stews and stuff on them, or i'll eat indomie (similar to top raman) or i'll buy some jolof rice or kenke or fufu from somewhere near buy.

kakum really didnt freak me out that much... i'm usually afraid of heights, but it was way safe and not THAT high at most points. some of the others, especially the ghanaian elders (mostly elder owusu, an elder in my zone) were TERRIFIED. it was sooo funny i got some video of it for ya.

well my time is nigh...thanks for everything, everyone i love and miss you!!! your in my prayers, dont worry about me the Lord's got my back!!

love, elder mackay

and the shoes are doing very well...