The Last Email

My dear mother,

Dad's email came first and now the emotion is wearing off and I feel more normal now. First, I don't know why but the lyrics you left me got me so excited. I know its bad to say but Elder Buah loved that song in Achiese! Especially when they say is that you choking? or are you just joking and they make choking noises. He used to play along on my guitar. I miss him. He went home about five weeks ago.

Well this is it. Yesterday, Elder Haderlie came to do interviews in Kojokrom ward. It was his last day to see most of the members there. He will spend this week mostly in Sofokrom. Eric was sick so he couldn't come to church. You can imagine how anxious I was waiting for him during the entire Sacrament meeting before I could talk to Porchia. I kept saying to my self that he would have to wait to be baptized. I got really happy when I found out he was at home puking his guts out with malaria! I was like yes! He can be baptized. I sent the quorum president to his house to bless him and we went to interview him later. He looked tired last night but I ran into him today in town and he looked perfectly normal. The baptism is all set with the total number being four. Eric, Ebenezer, Belinda, and Veronica. Eric is the only one who is above the age of twelve. Two more young kids are preparing for the fifteenth if October. Others may be ready as they continue to progress as well. That would put the baptism number at seven and the goal for Kojokrom by the end of the year is fifteen. They are being taught by the mission president and the stake president about how ward mission plans are supposed to work. Their goals will only be accomplished as the member are willing to commit and bring referrals for us to teach. It's crazy that I will be on the other side of that now.

Last Monday we went to a family home evening with a certain member and he invited a local government guy to join us. Well, apparently he didn't have much time to prepare because he walked into the small room completely drunk. As you probably know, politicians like to talk and Ghanaian politicians are worse. Our brother tried to start a discussion on what we all learned at Stake Conference last Sunday and since he wasn't there the guy seemed somehow angry and kept saying that our brother wasn't serious. He ruined the whole night and I didn't know whether I should laugh or be angry. I just decided to be fairly entertained.

Next time we communicate I'll either be in LA or we will be in the Spirit World. I'm not too big on flying. Last time I kept thinking that we could blow up or crash in the ocean or something. The worst part was that woman with the food cart who would smash your shoulder if you happened to fall asleep. The guys on the other side got the sweet woman who had a son on a mission. We got the angry woman. I wrote this the other day:

Absence of feeling as the plane goes down
Everyone's screaming but you hear no sound
Miles away but your still around
How long till we all hit the ground?

Enter the light
There's millions of people
Everybody here knows your name

Calling you out
They crowd around you
They all want to welcome you home

Wearing all white
Everything's perfect
More perfect then you ever have known

AHHHHHHHH
Millions of people
Ohhhhhhhhhh
Ahhhhhhhhhh
Beautiful people
Ohhhhhhhhhh

Sorry I'm just teasing. I know you'll probably be worried sick that day! Don't worry air travel is very safe and even though Elder Lehr's plane didn't blow up the odds are still very low. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a very bad joke, knock on wood.

Well you know how I feel about coming home if you read Dad's email. It's not easy. It's so hard to do but I know I have no choice and I must go where God would have me. I will meet many of my friends again someday. It is a good motivation to work hard and be a good boy. I'll be writing and emailing as well.

Well I don't have much more to say. I love you very much. My size for the G's is S for the shirt and SS for the pants. Yeah I'm a small boy. You can get the Drylux t-shirt one's just like the ones I have now. If I need differents, I can get them in the future. As for food, I don't care much, lol. I'm being forced to wear my suit home so don't laugh at the fact that my pants don't match it at all anymore. I hope my shoes make it to the end. If you don't want me to cut my hair I won't. I will be ridiculed since I already committed to shaving my hair but I don't really care that much. It just needs to be cut cause I look like an idiot.

All right this is the last time:

Love Elder Harris
AKA ZOOMLION/ WHITE TIGER
Dagger Todd
Koffi Hope

Hello,

Well I'm on my way out now and P-day has been killed. Now we can only have activities with the Zone every two weeks and we have to stay in our area during the other weeks. We can come to town if we want to pay the transportation fees. As I told my companion that I would like to go anyway even if I had to pay for him and me, he asked me why? You only have four weeks left. I thought for a second and agreed with him. If I had more time on my mission it would be worth it coming to Takoradi but I'm not going to force my companion to come with only some small small time left. Elder Haderlie is stubborn though so I had him come and do my dirty work. As for me I stayed in the apartment and super cleaned our kitchen and I've been on a crusade to keep it clean ever since. I went as far as scrubbing the walls with bleach. As long as I'm here the apartment will be a house of prayer, a house of learning, and a house of order. In short, a house of God. Hopefully it will be a habit I can keep for the rest of my life.

Today we played football with a bunch of member kids. We played full pitch with only 14 people total. Normally there's 22 so we had to do a lot of running but it was fun. It was my last football on mission. I'll never have the chance to see my son in Cape Coast, unless he comes to see me at the mission home. Not sure if that's possible but it would be sweet. I'm preparing myself for the end and I've bought a few things. Don't be too excited though because I have tried hard not to be a tourist and I haven't bought too much. Just some things I thought were pretty cool.

The weather has taken a turn. The skies are clearing up and the sun is shining. I spent a whole month putting on sun screen every day even though it was cloudy all the time and on the day I forgot to put it on the sun came out. I was terribly fried on Saturday, mostly on my poor nose. Ironic huh??

We had an investigator that we contacted come to church yesterday. The total number of investigators at church was five and we were excited. Our baptism will be held on the first of October and will include five people. Four are under 15 years old but that's still cool. Eric will be baptized as well. One by one we will bring Porcha's family into the church. We'll be working on one or two others who might be ready as well but it will be hard for them to come to church next week since it is Stake Conference in Takoradi. It will be a good way to wrap up the mission experience.

I bore my final testimony at zone conference a couple weeks ago. It felt really weird and I kept thinking about one Elder who left after my first transfer. He always told me to enjoy my mission. Hey time flies. They announced my leaving in priesthood meeting last Sunday and they also announced that I would teach all the priesthood on my last Sunday. Whoopie?

I thought of a birthday present if you really want to get me one. The best thing you can get for me will be a weeks worth of garments and some temple clothes. I'm going to burn all the ones I have except what I need for the plane ride. I hope you guys will come to the temple with me!

Well I don't know if I will be able to email next week but you should still email because Elder Haderlie will take pictures of them to bring to me. I got an email with pics from Elder Lehr and that guy is enjoying! I miss him a ton. Elder Pinnell is still down for January so that is still the plan. I can't wait to be at that Foo Fighters concert, lol.

I love you all!
Elder Harris
ZOOMLION/WHITE TIGER
Dagger Todd

Don't look too closely
You know I might disappear
It's not that I don't mind
In fact I do it's a fear

I came in through the outdoor
Against the masses I enter the light

My mind is up in the clouds
Seasons come and go
Seasons come and go

My mind is up in the clouds
Seasons come and go
Seasons come and go

In the sun I come undone
Spinning circles we have fun
In the sun I come undone
Spinning circles we have fun

If I go wrong, please, please just give me time
(I might come back)
Ripples and shakes, Ripples and shakes
Blank Eyes, Overdrive

I came in through the outdoor
Against the masses I enter the light

My grey world
My grey world

My Grey World- Drew Harris

Dear Family,

Today we played football against some of the members from Takoradi and Sekondie. We played all right but they scored us three times at the end. Last week I was rocking the middle part and this week I came to the game with what I call the golden spike. I pushed all hair forward into a spike of golden hair at the front. Yeah I rocked it. It's fun having hair. Too bad I'm shaving it down to a one the week before I come.

Yesterday we had our ward conference and the theme was "The Eternal Blessings of Marriage." None of our investigators came and we have moved our September 10th baptism to October 1rst. They are all too sketchy right now. I need to know they will come and stay forever before I'll even consider baptizing them. I'm in on hurry and if they don't get in the water before I leave I'm fine with that. Some would think it needs to be as soon as possible. Not so when they aren't ready.

Lately its been raining a lot. It's a pain because it doesn't come down heavily then stop and you know it's done. Instead it sort of mists all the time and you never know when your going to get beat by the rain. None of my shoes are waterproof anymore but it hasn't stopped us. We still make the appointments we set despite the rain, horribly muddy roads, and sleeping investigators. Rain just puts everyone asleep here but they are afraid to death of it and won't go out so its a good time to catch people in their homes.

The conference was sweet. I was hoping they would try to motivate people to try and get married but instead they just scared the crap out of everyone by talking about how careful we need to be in choosing a partner because you know if you choose wrong you will be in eternal sorrow... I had my mouth open a little bit. Everything he said was true but the way he brought it will just discourage them even more. Yeah you have to choose wisely but you have to move forward with faith as well. Oh well I'm glad I live in America.

I have four more emails before I go home! I'm calm and relaxed about it now...on the outside. On the inside I'm terrified of leaving my friends behind. Some are those I helped bring into the church and the idea of leaving them to face life alone is not easy. I have faith though and as long as they have a firm testimony they will stay. I give them motivation by telling them the only way you will be able to meet me again is by enduring. Maybe I'll be able to come back again some day but who knows when that will be! By then everything may change especially since those I'm closest with are about my age. Oh well this is all part of the work. I have better, more important work ahead.

I like the walrus story! It's been a long time since I've seen a walrus.

I'm out of time! I love you though and I'm glad your anniversary was sweet. Pretty soon it will be 50 years...!!

Love Elder Harris
ZOOMLION/WHITE TIGER