November 24, 2014
Hey family!!!:) like I think I start every single email off
the same by saying I love you guys tons and miss ya but I don't think that will
ever change I'm always going to love my family and always going to miss ya!!
Well to start off transfer news are here. We waited until 11:30 pm on Saturday
night to finally get them. So our new AP is Elder Clark I was so happy about
that he deserves it he has busted his butt out here like any Idahoan boy
haha!:) Also Elder Valdez is going to be our new office elder. He and elder
Morrison are going to enjoy plenty! And for me.............I'm going back to
the bush probably the most bush in this mission haha Asoum!!!:) I'm so excited
to go out there now that I'm settled into Ghana and don't have to worry about
anything else I can really learn Twi it's a very good opportunity for me
especially in the village of Asuom where most speak Twi! It will be so much fun I'm actually
really really happy to go back to the bush where the temperature is cool and
the stress is low it will be a blast!!! No more cheeseburgers probably for the
rest of my mission.:) oh yeah and my new companion is Elder Graves, a
tall mother from Arizona I think he is a good guy though I'm happy to serve
with him:) I think Dad will like me in the bush more it’s much more safer out
there and our apartment is so nice we never have lights off it will be awesome
they have a generator and its sweet! However I'm going to miss Elder Bangi my
black brother from Uganda I love him very much like a brother! It's amazing how
two people from totally different cultures can come so close as brothers! We
have definitely had our differences and have insulted each other at times but
that's what happens sometimes but we forgave fast and were always laughing
about it later. It was almost like joe joes and mine relationship haha fight
one day laughing the next people were always laughing at us. I will miss bang
man! His new companion is Elder Puitow from tonga, they will enjoy! This is
crazy though Elder Dranii is going home on Tuesday I can't believe it it's gone
by so fast he barely hit his one year with me now he is going home wow I will
miss seeing that guy!
As I sit here and write to you it feels like I'm actually at home I have my Christmas music in the background and just writing home it feels weird for me. This week was a weird week for me. We worked but it definitely wasn't hard work haha. We did a service project for one of Elder Jesse's investigators and it took all day she just kept giving us things to do for her. It was fun though she fed us some mean banko(I’ll come back to that) and gave us some nice coke. Well as I was sitting there the woman was a very nice woman but I really watch people and see the things they say so I know if they are a serious investigator or not you have to here! Well she gave a lot of signs and elder Bangi and I realized that she kept us there all day just so people could see white people at her shop and come buy her products, eh is like a wedding designer. She even was taking pictures of us eating banko with her and so I caught on and took my tag off on every picture and held it in the center of the picture....she didn't like that very much haha but it took us 6 hours and all of Thursday to realize that she wasn't serious...see what we face here haha you have to be very careful with people here they lie plenty but most the time it's out of respect not to offend you hahahah. Well we were able to see our recent convert that night and as we were there my stomach starts feeling a little weird haha so I told Bangi we got to get out of here man I'm going to poop my pants! Well we got on our bikes and started our 15 minute bike ride home. Well in Ghana there isn't any restrooms they have a homemade box on the side of the road which barely covers you so on my bike riding home I was just singing Oh No.... Oh No......Oh No!!! Well it got so bad I had to consider letting it go in my pants on the way there and I thought can you imagine a white person riding down Africa on his bike with Diarrhea running down his leg haha! Well I was able to ride my bike very very fast I would have beat lance Armstrong even while he was blood doping in any race that night! I made it to the house and to the toilet and destroyed it so bad haha it was that dang banko that lady fed us chii I was running haha!! That's my story haha!!
Well I say I have left this area with everything I had! We weren't able to baptize C! He had work and we couldn't get him to our special interview with the president. All our other investigators aren't serious so Bangi and I had to drop them all and we are starting out fresh! We had that boy J but his father is a rasta and said we can't come there anymore so that sucked because J asked great questions and would have progressed! On Sunday we had Stake Conference and Elder Bednar and Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Gay the former mission president here in Accra spoke to them via broadcast and it was really good!! They talked to them about bride price and how wrong it is and about traditions of men and false culture. They talked about not going into debt just for a nice funeral or wedding....which people do here like nothing so that was good! In Ghana it is required that you feed everyone that comes to your funeral or wedding with nice food so poor families go crazy into debt for these things.
This week in my personal study something that really stood out to me was I was reading in 2 Nephi Ch 7 and it was Isaiah's prophecies of the gathering and scattering of Israel. I read something in particular in the last verses in that chapter about how others will kindle their own fire and follow that light. I thought about that and if we see that today? Jesus Christ said I am the light of the world! He is the light we should follow yet people kindle their own fire and follow their own man made light not the light of Christ and justify it with some truth. For example we have an investigator who knows he needs to do what is right and love his neighbor and says that is all you have to do and you will be saved, also we have others who say oh my relationship with God is great I don't need to pray or read my scriptures, we have people who even challenge God and his fully ordained Apostles and say women should have the Priesthood because we need to be equal.....they have clearly kindled their own fire and are following their own light. We are seeing this and we need to remember the covenants we made at baptism. We promised God that we would we keep his commandments and follow the light of his Son. That includes keeping the commandments, being a good person, serving, loving others, enduring to the end, sustaining the prophet and apostles and follow the light of the Savior! I know that if we do that we won't need to fear in the last days we will be okay!
Mom,Dad,Colby I love you guys tons! I am so thankful for you each, I tear up with happiness and gratitude when I think of my family! Pray for those we think of the least, pray for other families who are facing the same trials we are, pray for the weak and pray for the missionaries!! I love you guys so much!!
Love you guys!!
Elder Duke
As I sit here and write to you it feels like I'm actually at home I have my Christmas music in the background and just writing home it feels weird for me. This week was a weird week for me. We worked but it definitely wasn't hard work haha. We did a service project for one of Elder Jesse's investigators and it took all day she just kept giving us things to do for her. It was fun though she fed us some mean banko(I’ll come back to that) and gave us some nice coke. Well as I was sitting there the woman was a very nice woman but I really watch people and see the things they say so I know if they are a serious investigator or not you have to here! Well she gave a lot of signs and elder Bangi and I realized that she kept us there all day just so people could see white people at her shop and come buy her products, eh is like a wedding designer. She even was taking pictures of us eating banko with her and so I caught on and took my tag off on every picture and held it in the center of the picture....she didn't like that very much haha but it took us 6 hours and all of Thursday to realize that she wasn't serious...see what we face here haha you have to be very careful with people here they lie plenty but most the time it's out of respect not to offend you hahahah. Well we were able to see our recent convert that night and as we were there my stomach starts feeling a little weird haha so I told Bangi we got to get out of here man I'm going to poop my pants! Well we got on our bikes and started our 15 minute bike ride home. Well in Ghana there isn't any restrooms they have a homemade box on the side of the road which barely covers you so on my bike riding home I was just singing Oh No.... Oh No......Oh No!!! Well it got so bad I had to consider letting it go in my pants on the way there and I thought can you imagine a white person riding down Africa on his bike with Diarrhea running down his leg haha! Well I was able to ride my bike very very fast I would have beat lance Armstrong even while he was blood doping in any race that night! I made it to the house and to the toilet and destroyed it so bad haha it was that dang banko that lady fed us chii I was running haha!! That's my story haha!!
Well I say I have left this area with everything I had! We weren't able to baptize C! He had work and we couldn't get him to our special interview with the president. All our other investigators aren't serious so Bangi and I had to drop them all and we are starting out fresh! We had that boy J but his father is a rasta and said we can't come there anymore so that sucked because J asked great questions and would have progressed! On Sunday we had Stake Conference and Elder Bednar and Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Gay the former mission president here in Accra spoke to them via broadcast and it was really good!! They talked to them about bride price and how wrong it is and about traditions of men and false culture. They talked about not going into debt just for a nice funeral or wedding....which people do here like nothing so that was good! In Ghana it is required that you feed everyone that comes to your funeral or wedding with nice food so poor families go crazy into debt for these things.
This week in my personal study something that really stood out to me was I was reading in 2 Nephi Ch 7 and it was Isaiah's prophecies of the gathering and scattering of Israel. I read something in particular in the last verses in that chapter about how others will kindle their own fire and follow that light. I thought about that and if we see that today? Jesus Christ said I am the light of the world! He is the light we should follow yet people kindle their own fire and follow their own man made light not the light of Christ and justify it with some truth. For example we have an investigator who knows he needs to do what is right and love his neighbor and says that is all you have to do and you will be saved, also we have others who say oh my relationship with God is great I don't need to pray or read my scriptures, we have people who even challenge God and his fully ordained Apostles and say women should have the Priesthood because we need to be equal.....they have clearly kindled their own fire and are following their own light. We are seeing this and we need to remember the covenants we made at baptism. We promised God that we would we keep his commandments and follow the light of his Son. That includes keeping the commandments, being a good person, serving, loving others, enduring to the end, sustaining the prophet and apostles and follow the light of the Savior! I know that if we do that we won't need to fear in the last days we will be okay!
Mom,Dad,Colby I love you guys tons! I am so thankful for you each, I tear up with happiness and gratitude when I think of my family! Pray for those we think of the least, pray for other families who are facing the same trials we are, pray for the weak and pray for the missionaries!! I love you guys so much!!
Love you guys!!
Elder Duke
(This was written after he found out Camille got her transplant, a liver and a kidney, and was doing great. This has truly been a miracle for our family. We have a great love and admiration for the donor family, who ever they are. Thank You)
Subject: Never
Doubt!!
Hey you guys!! I am on but just
wanted to say how happy I am!!! I am crying right now but it’s not because I’m
sad but I am so grateful for everything. I knew it, I knew Heavenly
Father had his hand in her life, and there are guardian angels including Corban
watching over her. I am so happy! Well I am going back to the bush and
President has a lot in store out there and said that I am the man to open a new
area, a hard area, in the bush, it makes me happy
that President has that trust in me. Today at the chapel a member said
that my work in Kaneshie is over and I truly did a great job and turned it
around the relationship with missionaries and members. Today we had a
pure water dodgeball fight with two zones and that was a blast and had a ton of
fun, I saw Jensen and that was cool. Well in the bush no more fast
internet or wi-fi so it’s just going to be back to trusting in God and having
faith it will be an adventure and so much fun.
Family I have prayed for Camille
every day of my mission, I haven’t missed a day and I promise you every time I
prayed for her I felt Heavenly Father telling me it’s okay and comforting me,
at times I even forget and I feel bad because I’m like this is a big deal but I
feel so much at peace with her and know and knew that everything is okay no
matter what happens. I thank my Heavenly Father every day I am so
happy!!!!
I love you guys so dang much!!!!!
You are always in my prayers!!!
Elder Carson
