Dear Family,

I've got my B-day package sitting below the desk I'm at. I love getting them but man are they a pain to get to the apartment. I will open it when I get there even though my birthday isn't till next week. I can't just have it sitting there in the apartment!

Today, Cape Coast and Abura came to play football. I played for the first half but I was dead before the second. I said goodbye to those who are leaving in a couple weeks. They are the only group left before mine. There was Elder Keller, Elder Bahme, Elder Jackson, and Elder Mackay. Their group was huge. Elders Buah, Lehr, Tracy, Hancey, and many others will go also. I think the total was like 26 including the Sisters who left six months ago. Its weird to see them go. Today I filled out my travel information for the mission office. I believe you will get my plans before I do. On the paper it said I will leave Tuesday the fourth. It's not real yet.

I talked to Elder Tracy last night too and he said that he and Elder Pinnell want to drive down to Cali for new years and pick me up. I told he has to now and I was a little too excited for it last night. Going home is such a strange bittersweet experience. Wanting to go home and hating the fact you have to leave some of the best friends you've ever had, never to see them again, just conflicts in the mind. I've been trying not too but the date is hard to forget everyday. Luckily I have a freaking sweet companion and my apartment is cool as well. I'm also going to finish in the best area I ever served in. I have more friends here then anywhere else.

Enough about the future. Our days are becoming more routine again. We spend most of our time trying to find and teach those we contacted during Elder Eriabie's first week. They are dropping like flies but as we have strived to work and stay obedient to the new stuff President Shulz has brought, we have been blessed with some good referrals. One named Josephine came to church yesterday. We continue to search and search but contacting here is and always will be ineffective till the members help us out a little bit more. They are trying small small though and I am thankful for the way the Lord has blessed us. I'm hoping to have a baptism for two on September 3rd.

Elder Eriabie is getting much more comfortable as a missionary. It was hard for him at first and unlike my first son, I actually had to be the fire in the companionship. Part of that might have been the fact that Elder Rogers and I were both new to the area and we had to rely on each other more. I'm the king of Kojokrom now so I know the area very well and Elder Eriabie is still learning. I definitely don't feel any of the stupid pressure that I made up in my head while I was first training. The feeling that when something went wrong, like a failed appointment, was my fault and now I have to figure out what to do next. I usually have to figure out where we are going but there's no pressure. Maybe it's the fact that numbers just don't matter to me at the end of the day. They are good to work towards, as a guide, but if I did everything I could that day and we still didn't teach a certain number of lessons, well I did my best. Training is sweet and he's a cool guy so life is good and we are working hard. Not much else to report.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!! I wrote you a letter that should have been sent to Cape Coast today with the assistants. You might get it before I come home! I hope you enjoy your very special day!

Yesterday six of us went out to Shama beach to meet a sweet member family there. We planned a service project but it didn't go through because of the constant rain in our area. We took two tro tro's, then walked for about twenty minutes to the beach and boarded a small canoe that took us out to a big peninsula where there is a small fishing village. The canoe had holes in it and we had to constantly pour water out with a small container. My companion doesn't know how to swim, and neither did more then half the passengers so if we sank they would have all died, but don't worry because we weren't being disobedient at all. We aren't supposed to use "private" boats and this was a commercial ferry canoe! My companion was really nervous though and almost capsized us one time so the boat man made him change positions. He was really scared but he was shaking, lol. We made it to the people's home and enjoyed with the family. We ate this really good banku with a light soup that was just full of little fishes and eel. We also got to help a whole bunch of people pull in a big fishing net full of the day's catch. I took some sweet pics that you will see one day. These people trek to church every Sunday for like two hours to make it by 9:00 am. They are wonderful people.

Well I've got to go home now. I want to open my package! Give my love to all who still remember me! ;)

Love Elder Harris
AKA Koffi Hope
ZOOMLION/WHITE TIGER

Here it is again a little bit improved. I went to type the second verse and forgot the last three lines to I just wrote these here in the cafe. I'm still working on it though. Maybe next week it will be finished.

Hello, bloodshot eyes
Another day in the revelry
Under blue skies
Got to find some new friends
Walk around in your dirty shoes
It ain't the same but it ain't different
And you can't lose

We all went up and they shot us down
There is no use in running around

Hello Mr. Empty Space
Got to give you the benefit,
Of leaving no trace
Aren't we all on a roll?
We shoot up but I don't know
What makes takes it's toll
Who's in control?

We all went up and they shot us down
There is no use in running around