AWESOME WEEK

This has been a pretty cool week. Dominik came to church again so we only need him to come one more week for the goal. Williams will be baptized hopefully on January 3rd, 2010. Even though none of our other investigators came, we are still on track for the goal.

Last Friday, we had a special Zone Conference for Christmas. President Sabey spent about an hour and a half teaching us about the Doctrine of Christ's birth in the flesh. He also talked about Mary, Joseph, the Wise men, and the Shepards. At different intervals we would sing Christmas hymns. We then had a huge ghanain meal that was awesome. We were all given cool kinte(not sure how to spell it) ties with GCCM on them and a ghanain symbol that represents God. We also were given a lot of cookies. It was pretty sweet.

On Saturday, the Kumasi Stake had an Christmas Carol night where each ward got up and sang some songs and quoted scriptures about Christ. Our Ward did very well and even got special recognition from the Stake President at the end of the night (kind of a smack in the face to the other wards if you ask me). The missionaries were also asked to sing a couple songs at the end of the program. We sang our own mission song, "Ghana Cape Coast Mission," which is based on Adam-Ondi Aman, followed by "The First Noel." As we sang the very last note of The First Noel, the power went out and the room became pitch black. Everyone in the audience was yelling and clapping their hands as we left the stage in the dark. I guess were just too powerful:)

So Kumasi is pretty quite despite the fact that it's Christmas season. Nobody has any decorations except some places in town. I guess they just can't afford it. They still love it though and we should have some fun on Christmas day. We will be cooking a meal for Sister Yaa's Family. Somebody asked President Sabey if the missionaries will be allowed to have FM's on Christmas and he told us that he had an immediate impression to say yes. But only if the missionaries were providing the free meal. It should be cool. We are making French toast.

These next two Christmases will be very special for me. They will be only two where I will be representing the Lord as a full time missionary. This will be an awesome opportunity to provide service to the people I have been called to minister. I will probably never have this opportunity again so I will make the most of it.

Christmas Letter

December 6, 2009

Today is Christmas. OK, not realy but just imagine for a minute, I hope you like your gifts. Not much, I know, but at least it is something. Try not to spend it all in one place :) So did Santa come last night? If he didn't, I blame Jeremy for killing the car and getting Grandma beat up at his show! Do you think she will come to the next one :) So I'm full of smiles cause today was an awesome day. We were fed at dinner and got cake from Sister Kiffer to celebrate Elder Adjeifio's birthday. He left for Cape Coast three days ago. On top of that, we had a guy come to church today and tell us he felt comfortable, so when can he be baptized. Pretty sweet if you ask me. I also confirmed this guy named Eric as a member of the church and confirmed to him the Holy Ghost. It was prety nerve racking giving him a blessing in front of the Asokwa ward. It went pretty well though.

So like I said today is Christmas so you better enjoy yourselves cause you only have one more without me (if I don't get killed by some voodoo queen or Jehovah's Witnessess!) Enjoy the fact that you don't have to listen to a brand new bass ripping through the house and several other houses down the block. Try not to go to the emergency room with half a finger and a lame story behind it. At least spice it up a little bit. Maybe you could say that it got bitten off by a large tarantla spider from the Orient. That would be pretty cool. As for me, I'll enjoy my decorated refrigerator and the fact that we will have the Kiffer's apartment to ourselves. We will enjoy!

Give love to the family. I love you all and miss you. Merry Christmas!! I'll call you soon.

Elder Andrew R. Harris

P.S.

I miss Disneyland and cheese.

FEELING LIKE A TRUE MISSIONARY

This has been an awesome weekend for Elder Akoki and I. We went on Zone Leader Splits with Elder Mason and contacted a whole lot of people. After teaching one of our investigators, Elder Mason muttered that we should sweep the whole compound and without asking grabbed a broom. All at once every person in the compound freaked out and started screaming at us to stop. One person was trying to tell us that in Africa NOBODY sweeps at night. This is absolutely ridiculous of course (my companion is an African) and we finished the whole compound. They thanked us and we felt pretty good about it. I finally felt like a true missionary. I was reminded of a missionary I met in Ensenada, Mexico named Elder Cook. While we were contacting we came upon a bunch of guys digging a big hole. Without hesitating, Elder Cook jumps in the hole with his Priesthood clothes and a shovel and starts digging like a mad man. The guys were stunned and wanted to know who the heck we were. Of course we were kind enough to tell them we were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Elder Mason reminded me a little bit of Elder Cook.

Yesterday, everyone were were expecting to come to church actually came. Williams was there fifteen minutes early, Francis came with his brother Dominique, Abdela came with his ten year old son, and Maa Abena came with us. It was pretty awesome.

Theres not too much else going on. We are working with the Asokwa bishopric to find more less active members. There are over 400 in the ward but most have moved or traveled. Hopefully we will be able to find some more people to help. Christmas is coming fast and we have a special Zone Conference on Friday. It should be pretty sweet.

HARD WORK

Hello! So everything is pretty much the same here in Kumasi. Everyday we get up and pretty much waste time (street contacting/former investigators) till lunch then we walk to Ahinsan where our real work has been. Unfortunately our less actives still didn't come to church yesterday. I wonder what their excuse is this week.

Elder Adjeifio has been transferred to Cape Coast where he will be a zone leader. Replacing him is a new greeny named Elder Clemments from Idaho. He is a cool guy even though he can be kind of quite. Its awesome to not be the new guy in the apartment. I feel bad though cause Elder Akoki is now the only African living with us.

A couple cool things happened to us this week. On Friday we had nothing to do in the morning so we decided to go get Elder Akoki a haircut. There was a man there already so we sat down to wait. For about twenty minutes we just sat there about a foot from the man talking about baptisms and missionary work. When the man was finished he turned in his seat, looking straight at me and said, "The Book of Mormon." Both my companion and I said sa, and asked him how he knew about the book. Apparently he is a less active member who traveled a while ago and hasn't been to church since. We are going to try to meet him this week. I don't believe in coincidence out here.

Abdela came to church again this week. He just showed up for Sacrament meeting last week and was very interested. He was formally a Muslim and wants to become a Christian. We taught him the first lesson and he told us he feels very comfortable in the church and wants to be baptized as soon as possible. Of course we told him there are some steps to take but we are hopeful for him. He is going to bring his wife and child next Sunday.

I also gave my first confirmation to a man that was baptized a couple weeks ago. His name is Eric Ocansey. I was really nervous in front of the whole ward but it went well. It was a pretty cool experience.

Things are moving fast here. I've been out for two months now and it feels like no time has passed at all. Right now I'm just hoping Christmas was as good as Thanksgiving:)

So I'm getting pretty tired. Its hard work walking all day and teaching in the heat. Its getting dryer though so its been nice even if the heat hasn't gone away at all. I don't really think it will get much cooler for the Hamatan.

Its getting more normal here every day as I've already said. I went to the busy part of town today so that was a crazy new experience but for the most part nothing new happens that often. You will never really understand Africa till you've been here for a while. I laugh at the way I thought about this continent before I came here. I'm just glad i'm in Ghana. All I have to say is that I'm doing fine. I'm getting more and more confident in myself (maybe too much sometimes) but I would still be lost without Elder Akoki. Pray he doesn't get transferred in six weeks! Zone Conference has been moved back a week so I'm still waiting for letters. Its been agonizing the past couple weeks and zone conference won't be for two more weeks.

Well I thinks thats it for now. I bought a Guitar, The brand name is Fendar. Its pretty sweet except the strings are awefull. Maybe thats something else i could use, Strings and some picks (good picks;) I love you guys a lot. I'll talk to you soon too! Good bye!:)