21 December 2009

Hey everyone! Hope you guys are enjoying Christmas break. I heard the Northeast got pretty pounded with snow this last week. I'm missing the snow a bit. It just doesn't seem like Christmas without even any pictures of snow. We were pretty busy today (more on that later) so I'll have to be pretty brief today because we don't have much time at the cafe. First off: Christmas calls. I'll be able to call you guys on Christmas. We already got our sim cards and credits so on Christmas I just need to load the into our phone and MTN willing call you guys up. It sounds like we'll be pretty busy on Christmas so I think the best time for me to call is when we get home for the night. So that will be about 9:30 here or 4:30 there. I can't wait to here how you're all doing. Oh and transfers are Wednesday, we find out about them tomorrow, so that could change things I guess. Anyway our Christmas conference was great. All of the missionaries came down to the Temple Square in Accra. It started at 9 but because of traffic we had to leave the apartment around 6. Traffic signals aren't all that popular around here. First we had I guess the typical Zone conference where we went over our numbers for the previous six weeks. Our mission had a goal of 230 baptisms last transfer and we were able to get 222! For Elder Ewudzie and I we have already given 2/3 baptismal dates for this transfer and are hoping to extend 2 more this week. We are really hoping to surpass our goal, but it won't be easy because of the general Holiday confusion. The people we are hoping to baptize are Sis Janet, Sis Darko, Godsway, and Jeff Wilson. Well after that we had some instruction from I guess the West Africa Area Doctor Missionary or something. Then President Smith gave some instruction and we had testimony meeting. After that we had lunch. There was plenty of food, but I guess it wasn't like last year because the meal didn't really live up to the hype. There was Banku which is sort of like playdough, then I think jollof rice, and of course chicken. After lunch we had some cultural presentations. The Ghanaians danced, the Nigerians danced, some Cote d'Ivoire Elders sang french carols, a couple Elders played guitar and harmonica. But the highlight was the pacific islanders performing a haka. It was really fearsome except that there was one, Elder Tavo, who just can't help making everyone laugh. He'd always smile and wink while everyone else on stage would be glaring. Well after that we had some really great instruction from President Cardon of the area presidency. I think we are really lucky as a mission to have the area presidency here so we can hear from them so often. Then after that we concluded and got mail, took pictures, etc. before going home. I really like getting letters from you guys. I plan on writing back to you all asap. It was cool to see Patrick was a Jedi for Halloween. I was surprised he didn't want to be Darth Vader. So like I said we were really busy today. That was because we had a little district Christmas activity. It was really, really cool. We pooled some money and bought a goat which we took to a member's house. Then we killed it and roasted it. I have lots of great pictures of us killing, roasting, butchering, cleaning, and eating. I'll try to get them online for you guys as soon as I can. It was a lot of fun, but was more work and time consuming then I thought. No wonder people started farming. By the way, goat doesn't taste that great. It's really tough. And there is good reason why people don't say "like a goat to the slaughter". I'm excited for this Christmas. First we are going for breakfast to Nana Bobio's and we'll help him kill a ram and pound some fufu and then in the afternoon we are going with all the missionaries in the city (Accra) to I think it's spelled, Elder Ahadjie. or maybe it's President. anyway, he's a member of the area seventy who is in our branch and has the missionaries over every Christmas. Well I've got to go now, I can't wait to hear from you on Christmas. Love, Elder Chambers