HAPPY HUMP DAY!

Well, since it has been such a long time, my email will probably be really long. Today is P-Day and P-Day is always awesome. It's extra sweet because we didn't have to go to town since we went on Thursday. We went to Bantama for the first time in 4 and a half months. It rained so we just hung out for a while. It was pretty fun.

Not much has happened since we last talked. Agykum, a recent convert has been showing us some of the people the older Elders were teaching. We are now preparing like 3 people for baptism and we are preparing someone for our new goal. I don't know if I mentioned the new goal but it is a tough one. By the end of February every missionary (now i'm feeling like i've told you this already) need to baptize a referral from a recent convert and then help a recent convert prepare names and go to the temple in Accra. Yeah its a way difficult goal but it's already set up for us in this area.

So we've only taught one lesson so far but it was cool. Elder Rogers is going to be just fine. I let him take some of the questions and he did a good job. I told him that all he has to do is tell them what he knows. The cool thing is that as time goes on he will know more and more and he will become a great teacher and a great missionary. We haven't gotten lost yet but I'm sure it will come. I can find my way anywhere (I call it my gift) so we don't have to worry too much. Sunday was sweet. We both got up to bear our testimonies and even though he was a little nervous, Elder Rogers did a great job. Sure he talked too fast but that will go away with time and practice. Then he will sound just as ridiculous as the rest of us;)

Elder Vancherie and I are a match made in heaven. We are just on the same page. We are perfecting the art of making fake mustaches out of the hair we cut off missionaries' heads. It is gross but way awesome at the same time. We are going to pay a recent convert to paint a painting of the four of us as mythical creatures (half man half animal). I'm planning on being a fish with a trident. Either that or a white tiger of course. We are going to hang it in our boring dining room. We pretty much just feed off each other.

I can't remember the weirdest thing I ever ate. Maybe pig's feet. Or chicken feet. Fu-fu is sweet but weird. Elder Rogers is already sick of the same crap we eat everyday. He'll get used to rice, egg sandwiches, indomie, chicken and rice, jollof (which is rice), and oats. I don't care. I just like to get full.

All right I'm finished for today. I'm feeling good and ready to go. My hump day is this week. One year ago I was giving my farewell talk and hanging out with friends. That day was a day of hard goodbyes but time has flown since then. Prepare the way for me because I am coming. And behold, I come quickly.

Elder Harris

BACK IN KUMASI

Good morning!

So you're probably thinking why I've been such a terrible son, not emailing for 3 weeks. I've a got a really good excuse though! The power was out for two weeks and when I went to email on Monday the line wasn't working in Cape Coast. It was all right though cause Elder Lehr and I got to talk to two member girls from Utah for an hour. It was just refreshing even though American accents sound terrible.

SO you never guess where I'm at now! Kumasi. Not only that but I am now training Elder Rogers from St. George. This has been the sweetest transfer because all my favorite people (minus one or two) have come with me. Elders Thompson, Holmes, Vancherie, Russell, Bahme, and I are all in the same zone. I even took Elder Lehr with me. He and I will always be in the same zone. I'm now living in Abuakwa with Elder Vancherie and his companion (I don't know his name yet:/). Elder Butler is going to be a Zone Leader in Dichemso and I also brought Elder Asiedu and Elder Buah with me to Kumasi. Poor Elder Agama is still in the village.

Yesterday was crazy. We drove down in a tro-tro to Cape Coast and had to wait a couple hours for everyone to get to the station. Elder Lehr and I hung out with Elder Akoki and Elder Adiefio who we may never seen again. President brought Elder Rogers and the rest of the poor suckers to meet us there. One guy who is being trained by Elder Holmes looked like he was going to throw up. On the way up the bus was driving really really slow and it finally died in Abuasi. We had to wait 2 hours for another bus to pick us up so we all got up to go explore. Of course the greenies didn't want to leave the safety of the bus so we didn't go to far. Finally we got a new bus and we got to Kumasi at around nine. Elder Ekaette was so excited ( I wouldn't send him anything again by the way, he's getting spoiled) it was really funny.

I'm so excited to be back in Kumasi. Elder Lehr, Me and Elder Butler all left at the same time and came back yesterday. We decided it's the best place in the mission. Yeah I'm a little bit nervous to be training in a new area but this place is sweet. I once asked Elder Wolfgram what it was like here and all he said was it is like heaven. Elder Rogers is a sweet guy and humble too. He's way on fire which is kind of funny. He did the exact same thing I did on my first morning which was get fully dressed in Priesthood before breakfast. Nobody does that. I can remember looking around at my roommates and thinking oh. This is going to be a sweet transfer.

I'm still alive. Emails should be more regular now that I'm out of the Jungle. Achiese was sweet but I'm happy to be back. I'm coming up to the hump and it's all going to be downhill from there. Elder White, my grandfather, died yesterday (went home) and is now enjoying himself in the states. Next is Elder Adjeifio, then the Kiffers, then Elder Akoki, then Elder Lehr and I'm going. With so many Mt's in our zone we are going to enjoy on our year day. I think they want Pizza. They claim to have found a better cheaper place but I'm still nervous. Pizza=Something bad coming your way. I think I'll be all right though.

Today we are going to town to buy food and stuff and we are going to explore the area a little bit. It's kind of awkward because we are both new and don't know anybody. I think we are already preparing three people for baptism who I haven't met. I think we might play basketball later in the day.

All right that's all for now. I'll be emailing on Monday. If it's not too late I was hoping you could send me some led pencils and colored pencils. If it is too late it can wait till later. Pray for me please! I love you all,

Elder Harris

BEST WEEK IN SOME TIME

Dear Family,

This week has been the best week in some time. Sunday night we found
out who would be going to the Leadership Training meetings for Zone
Leaders, District Leaders, future leaders, and future trainers. I
wasn't going. Or so I thought. I got called at 6am on Tuesday and was
told to get dressed in 15 minutes because I was going to Cape Coast. I
was mad at first but it turned out great. The meetings lasted
till 2pm, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday and focused on how to become
better missionaries. It was nothing new. All it did was focus us on
the most important things we should be doing for our investigators in
our lessons. It is a truly inspired program from the brethren upstairs
and has already helped us in our teaching. I guess the main focus was
on teaching people not lessons. Listening more, pondering, asking good
questions, talking about baptism, were just a few of the things we
have started doing. I have been on fire since last Monday and it has
already paid off.

The sucky part is that there is a really good chance that I could
train during the next transfer. I'm not saying that is a sure thing,
but it looks likely since Elder Buah has been here so long. If I'm
lucky we'll both be transferred and I'll be a junior companion again!
YAY! But I guess I've got to serve as a leader eventually, on mission
or after.

That has really been the big event of the week. Assin Fosu District
had a big football tournament that we went to on Saturday.
The tournament was pretty fun to go to but I
didn't get to play. It was still cool to see all the other branches in
the District. I'm told that it will soon be turned into a stake but
Achiese will not qualify to be a ward. I'm looking forward to the
future of the branch though because we have been working with some
really good future leaders.

I knew Earth Wind and Fire would be sweet. That bass player is
freaking crazy even if he's crazy old too. Who all went? 45 people?
Was it a church group?

So President Klenk interviewed Jeremy with a member of the Seventy?
Which seventy was it? That would be an interesting interview! I hope
President knows what he is doing. You can't force someone to go on a
mission and I wouldn't have liked it at all. It might help him though.

We are all trying to be a little bit better at being missionaries here
in Ghana. I believe that last weeks incident happened at a perfect
time for the mission. I've made some mistakes but I'm trying harder.
I'm excited for the future!

Don't ever worry about rambling in your letters or emails. I want to
hear everything! Little or small. Exciting or boring. I'm very far
away and those things are sweet to me. I love you all very much! I
hope you are getting my letters! I'm hearing bad things about
California which have really made me mad, but there's not much I can
do here. I guess our vote doesn't mean anything anymore. lol

I'm out of time! I love you all! Tell Jeremy that I emailed him last
week! Bye Bye!

Elder Harris
Aka Drew