October 19, 2009

hello again. it's hard to believe another week has gone by, but it's time to email again. things here are always busy, but thats just normal for me here haha. concerning the questions of your email you sent me. i record the names of the baptisms in my preach my gospel book. and journal of course, but sometimes it is hard to keep them active, so we continue to meet with them and teach them the gospel. i did all my laundry today in my washing machine. i bought it from a missionary for 120 ghana cedi, which is about 90 dollars about. an amazing price for the condition it's in right now, so i got lucky.

that's great to hear you were all in the temple together. wish i was in there with you, but the day will come soon. gma and gpa newbold are a great example, and i'm proud to be their grandchild. has rebecca already had her baby? i knew she was pregnant, but i wasnt sure when she was due.

wow thats good to hear james and marlene are home safely, it's crazy that they're home already though, that amazes me. and adam call is soon to be home huh... wow. tell everyone hi for me, i'm sure they have some great experiences to tell.

i'm still staying healthy here, which is a great blessing, so your prayers are helping me greatly! thanks. um, i'm not quite sure about everything for xmas. but i did ask for sticky notes, vitamins/pills, pics of family/letters from everyone...oh and my laser pen, out of my safe in my room haha. dan knows how to get into it. i cant remember what else i said in the letter, but i'm sure it should come this week cuz i sent it almost 3 weeks ago now. so i'd be very surprised if you dont get it this week.

my french and twi/fante are improving, which is good. i impress some people here cause i'm white, and they arent used to hearing white people speak their language haha, so it's fun to see their expressions when i start talking with them. hopefully i'll continue to learn more, and i know it's cause of the Lord that i'm able to learn this language. it's nothing like english or anything, so i'll learn it little by little (kakkra kakkra), which means small small, in twi.

this past week was one of the hottest and hardest to stand, weather-wise. the sun here is pretty darn big, and so its different than back home. i actually drip sweat here, whereas back home i never dripped sweat no matter how hard i worked. so just walking around here you sweat... actually just sitting still you start to sweat. lovely humidity. i eat whatever my companion cooks at the moment haha. he's fine with cooking, and i'm fine with not cooking, so it works out. :) but things are going well here, and this past sunday we had district conference, where we heard the leaders of the branches speak and also our mission president came and presided at the meeting. we're teaching one man named emmanuel, who is 25 and accepting the gospel very well. we invited his brother to church, and he came this past sunday. we have a baptismal date for emmanuel for the 7th of Nov. so i'll be looking forward to then. we find out tonight if we get transferred, so i'll let you know what happens.

it's good to hear that dad's work is going well and good luck with the audience response. i'm jealous you'll get to go to all those projects in so many cities. sounds great.

tell Nick that the name of Mrs. Nelson's favorite rock/mineral is malachite, and we'll see if i can still get a candy from her haha.

this past week we had a mission tour meeting in cape coast that we went to and heard from the area president of west africa. his name is president cardon, and he's a member of the seventy. he's very powerful, and he talked on faith especially, which was great to hear about.

i've noticed that there are fireflies here, which i've never seen before in my life, so that amazed me haha and i was excited to see them for the first time in my life.

also, the hemming in one of my pairs of pants has come undone on one of the legs, so as of right now, i have safety pins there holding it in place. but i'll see if i can get someone here to fix it for me.

well, thats all for now. thanks for your love and support while i'm here. i know your prayers are paying off and helping me so much. i love you all and i'll cya soon!

- elder newbold

October 12, 2009

i havent been able to watch general conference yet, but i think it'll arrive in africa here in the next week or so... hopefully. so i'll let u know. but its good to hear some thoughts on the conference talks, just that little bit u told me, i could feel the spirit, seriously. so thanks for that. i'll talk with u soon, and i hope all is well in zion for u! haha love you very much.

September 28, 2009

my companion's name is elder n'goran, and he's been a member for about 2 yrs... crazy how most missionaries are like that. they're recent converts. his family is not all members, but his brother is the only one i think. church here is different than back home haha and ya it can be pretty funny/stressful sometimes. but the Lord still blesses the members here, so it's good. according to their faith and obedience they're blessed. good to hear from you, and i'll talk with you soon! love ya
- elder newbold

September 21, 2009

hey kates, how goes it? i'm doin great here despite the difficulties. life back home is definitely easier and thats a fact haha. i'm having a great time here though and just last sat. we had 6 baptisms in our branch. my trainer is from cote d'ivoire and so me and him speak french quite a bit to eachother. he didn't speak english and now he's been here for 6 months and speaks very well and fluently. i'm safe and liking the food... well most of it. there is some food that's questionable and i try to stay away from, but it's all good. so far i havent been sick, which has been a blessing, cuz some of my mtc mates have already been very sick with typhoid. so i'm blessed to have health. the water i drink in the apt. goes through 3 different purifiers so i dont have to do any work, but the water does come out alot slower. the houses here aren't really mud huts, but cement type huts. it still amazes me to see them sweeping their dirt floors. i just dont see the point of doing that. but oh well, at least they're taking care of their places.

September 14, 2009

bonjour famille!
i just had my first experience of myldsmail deleting my whole message as i was trying to send it. so ya i'll be brief with what i'm trying to say. i'm loving it here and i'm in a modern village, called Swedru. hopefully you can find it on the google maps or something. it's called a modern village cause there're buildings and then also there're mud/concrete hut type things too. so it's crazy. my apartment is right over the street so it's very noisy but i've gotten used to it. we have 3 baptisms this saturday, for me and my companion already. this past sunday i played the piano for sacrament meeting hahaha.... so ya, i should've practiced when i had the chance at home. that kinda came back to bite me in the butt, but i'll learn from my mistakes.

please send me stamps, if you havent already. hopefully got my pouch letters by now, letters take about 2 weeks to get to you i think. where ever i go here, all the little kids yell out 'obruni' as loud as they can haha, which mean white man in twi and fante. so i've had quite a bit of that so far, but oh well i'll get used to it. days go very fast here and that's a good and bad thing. i'm loving it here, but it definitely is totally different then life in american. when i say different, i mean as different as you can think haha. it was hard to imagine what life would be like here, i didn't picture it this bad, but people still are happy and that's what counts. well i'll try to send this email and be done for today. expect an email about this time every monday. love you and good bye for now!
- elder newbold