If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it

(Here's an e-mail Jesse sent last week but we never received)

hey! sorry i couldnt write you guys last week, for some reason the internet was down in all of cape coast last monday. we got to the internet cafe and it had been down for a few hours, but right then it switched back on! (only for like five minutes, though, and it went back out). it was pretty sweet though, we got there at the same time as elder strong, and his brother's mission call was supposed to come and he was so pumped to read his email. he was stressin when he heard the net was down, but it came on just long enough for him to read it.

so how was the grandma jolley meeting?? i got aunt joan's package a week ago. it was sweet! thank her for me!! (dont worry, mom, i'll send her a letter too.)

enjoy general conference, cause i won't be able to... haha!

it sounds like it was a sweet week for you, getting to meet elder woodhouse. he's one of my good buddies from the mish. last i talked to him, he was planning to transfer his way to provo after some time, so i'm hoping that will happen so we can hang out when i get back to provo. he was an excellent missionary. i learned alot about the word "love" from him. he loved his companions, and all of the other missionaries like crazy - but he loved the people more than any other missionary i've met - and i wouldnt say that cheaply. he's tight.

well, in the last two weeks some cool stuff happened. there's a member in the ward, brother hawkson (felicity's husband) who owns a little school (kwamie nkruma school - kwamie nkruma is basically ghana's george washington). he invited us to teach the kids how to sing some songs to them for a bit. it was way fun - pretty tough cause some of them dont speak english that well, but way fun. i was kinda flyin solo too cause elder adams is not exactly much of a singer (while on the topic, neither am i...). i'll try to send you a video that elder adams took of it.

me and elder adams both got packages on thursday from home. it was kinda funny, his mom sent him reeses pieces for me, and my mom sent me jerky for him haha. mom - the things you sent were so sweet. we were talking and were like "how does she come up with all of these ideas?" then i read your letter to me and your like "i'm not very good at coming up with ideas..." thanks a ton mom you did very well. the book of mormon is legit. how much time did you spend on that? i'm gunna save that for the primest investigator that i can find and i'll let you know who it is. my favorite, though, was the Jesus picture with the little black boy. i taped it on the inside cover of my journal and i find myself opening it every day to look at it. the other elders went crazy when i gave them theirs.

two weeks ago on monday we went to this little restaraunt in cape coast right next to cape coast castle. it has a bunch of american and european food so we went to try it out. we ordered some burgers and fries. after like a half hour, they brought out this little muffin with a tiny patty inside and some ketchup haha! it actually was good, but only because i havent eaten anything like it for about 7 months now. the fries were really good. between the four of us, we spent like 40 cedi's, though, which can normally feed a person for like 3 weeks haha!

last week, on wendesday, we were able to have a mission tour zone conference by elder dicksen from the area presidency and from the first quorom of the seventy. elder adams talks about when elder dicksen said something like "when we make sacrifices on our missions, we come to know Christ and walk where he would walk. Sacrifice brings us closer to Jesus Christ." he did very well. at the beginning we heard from the ap's then sister sabey then president sabey then elder dicksen for an hour. then we had a lunch break then heard again from elder dicksen for another hour.

one of the ap's elder kpanakua (pen-ah-cow), from liberia, gave a ridiculously powerful talk. he is just a humble humble quiet kid that smiles alot. he's not great with words, but he just speaks from his heart. he told a story about how when he was young there was civil war going on in his country. he and his family and some other people went into the forest to go into hiding from the violence. he gave more details than that, but basically he said that they were there for more than a month, eating plantain and berries that they could find from the trees. just heart wrenching. he said that he had never seen his grandmother (who was the leader of the group) pray in her life. but she began to call the people together in prayer. he said that the situation didnt get any better for a long time, but simply their burdens "seemed lighter." he talked about how God gives us our trials for our good. if we respond well, we will come out better people because of it. it was powerful.

president sabey gave some sweet insight too. he talked about how he once knew this lawyer who had this sought after position in this amazing law firm (speaking of himself). he said something sweet. after a while, he left the firm, because he had to work crazy hours. he'd usually go into work at six and wouldnt sometimes get back until well after midnight. he said "you can't be a good lawyer from 9-5, but you cant be a good husband and father from 6-12."

while we were taking our lunch break, elder dicksen told president sabey that he'd like to interview a few of the missionaries. i donno if i was just in the right place at the right time in that i happened to be standing relatively near to president as he was looking at which missionaries he'd chose. but he chose me to be one of the three or four that got to go in and have a one on one interview with one of the seventy! basically, i sat elder dicksen down and asked him a few questions, taught him a couple of things, and said amen. (just joking...). it was actually just the opposite, and it was way way way sweet.

so we had a quick baptism for samuel otoo. he is the american equivalent to engaged to a member of the ward (juliana awotwe). samual's been coming to church for a few months and is a stud, he's one of my favorite people i've met in moree. we've got a couple of other people that we're preparing for baptism, but we did his quickly so that he can be married in the temple to julianna as soon as possible (one year from now!!!).

one picture i'll be sending is a pic of me and elder adams and this freaking old recent convert named nana koffi bedu (nana denotes royalty, he's a former chief i think.) he was baptized last august and i came to moree in september. his eyes are very bad so he cant read, but hes smart. he's tight. another thing i'm sending is a video of me teaching those kids how to sing Sister McConkie's "keep the comandments." (remember her??) it was way fun. show that one to plenty of girls right around the time i'm about to go home :)

love you! love, elder mackay