Howdy there my lovely family! It's again so great to hear from you and know you guys are all doing well. I hope that always stays the same! It's been a pretty busy last week getting to know the rest of the area and the members houses/names. So we've got some investigators now that we're teaching and I'm happy to be here, like always! Yesterday's attendance in Sacrament Mtg was around 70, which is awesome. Only about 5-6 of those were investigators. We've gone around and found out where more members live who didn't know that the meeting place is now at Kwamo instead of at the university ward. There's plenty of things to be done here. My companion and I finally moved into our own room also. Before, we were just temporarily in a side room with only mattresses on the floor for beds. Now we actually have beds and desks... they're still working on getting us dressers for our clothes. Hopefully that'll happen within the coming days cause we just have our stuff all over the room at the moment with our baggage on the floor.
We taught investigators class again but this time I taught on baptism and took up all the time. So next Sunday my companion will teach and I'll sit. It's cool to have the opportunity to teach the class and I always ask them if they can understand me okay. If someone can't speak English, then we get help with a translator. So the members are helping and I'm happy for that. Kwamo group is looking like it could become a branch or ward very soon. There are some things that the Stake President needs to clear and papers that need to be filled out so I hope they can work hard to get those things taken care of. We're honestly not sure how long we'll stay in the building where we're living. As soon as we get more people coming, the missionaries(us) will move out to a different place. I'm not sure if I'll get to see that happen but I have already seen the increase of people coming to church and I'm grateful for that.
Kumasi is an interesting place and it's definitely the most busy city I've been in throughout my mission. There's always too much traffic and the cars here drive crazy anyway... so it's a continuous adventure where ever we go here. From our apartment we take a trotro, or van to a station that's about 20 mins away. Then we take a different trotro for another 30 mins to finally get to the Bantama chapel where we have our P-day activity. So there's a lot more traveling involved too compared to other zones I've been in. But overall I'm glad I have the chance to be here. I thought I'd never get to come to Kumasi cause I'd been in all the other areas of our mission, but I guess the Lord has a better plan than me, which is usually the case with things. So I'll continue to rely on Him and I'm sure everything will be great. Even though the other missionaries may remind me of the remaining time, it's a good reminder to let me know I need to work harder and finish strong. So in a way I can view it as a blessing. Dad, thanks for your comments and thoughts on your own last month. I hope I can do everything possible to work hard and help the area to grow and flourish. I'm sure we all have regrets throughout our lives but we need to look at them as learning experiences and not bad experiences where we failed. Regrets are there to help us move forward and know that we can improve. I think at times I and probably everyone have had regrets throughout our lives that hold us back because we take so much time thinking about the bad thing we did or the error we made but we need to see it as a chance to be better. I hope all of us can remember that we shouldn't wallow in our sins or weaknesses but we should always come unto Christ and know that it's only through Him that we can be better and repent of our sins. We should all be very thankful to our Father in Heaven for His wonderful plan and His loving sacrifice to give His Only Begotten Son to suffer and die for us so we can be made clean from our sins. I'm very grateful for the Atonement and the knowledge that the Restoration has brought concerning it. Not many people apart from the Church understand that Jesus didn't just die for us but that He truly suffered even before He was crucified. The Gospel is such a blessing to us all.
I don't have much else to say but I want all of you to know that I love you. You're all in my thoughts and prayers and I hope you're all doing great, staying safe and enjoying life's wonderful blessings. God loves us so much and we need to recognize all the blessings He has given to us. Again I love you all and I'll talk with you guys next week! Take care!
- Elder Newbold
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
July 11th
Hey Fam!
I'm here in the cafe waiting for transfer news and it hasn't yet come, but when it does I'll add it to the email or send another later. So to begin with, Happy Birthday Jude! It's a little late but it's the best I could do right now, haha. I can't believe he's 2 already! Where did the time go?
Yesterday we were somehow rained out during the time we were supposed to have church. So the attendance there in sacrament meeting wasn't the best. Few members came and no investigators came, once again. Whenever it rains here we really can't expect many people to come. Sadly that's just the fact that we face here in Ghana. But we'll shoot for a better outcome next week and do our best for now and in the upcoming week. We're hoping to have a baptism in the upcoming weeks on either the 27th or 31st of this month. So we'll finalize that and talk with the bishopric about it. Hopefully everything will be good.
Say hi to Taylor and Taylor for me when they get home. It'll be only a short time before I can say it for myself, but until then, I hope the best for them in adjusting to conditions being back home. Also best of luck to Jacob Wheeler and Nate Read, I'm excited for them and I know they'll have great experiences.
I'll be instructing tomorrow in the combined District Meeting and from what I've thought and planned out already, I think I'll be talking about Gratitude. I've realized the past couple of days especially that we take things for granted and we need to be thankful for all that we have. The Lord is truly gracious and loving towards all His children and we need to open our eyes more often and recognize all that He has done for us. So, I'll finalize my thoughts hopefully by tonight and I'll let you know how things go tomorrow.
As for a birthday package, I'm wondering if we can just wait and celebrate my birthday when I get back... is that an option? I'd rather have a banana cream pie than a birthday package, honestly, haha. I'm always grateful for packages, don't get me wrong, but I'd much rather get to be with my family and friends and get to eat a very delicious pie, haha. Let me know if that's a possibility or not. If it's not, I'd still be happy with a package.
I'm glad to hear that Dan's home and safe. I wonder if I could grow a beard when I get home... is that allowed? All the men in the family should grow beards and then we can take a picture, that'd be cool... anyway, I hope Dan had a great time and I'll be expecting to hear about his experiences sometime soon.
As for the money in my account, again I'm fine. I shouldn't need anymore til I go home, thanks. I'm still trying to find things to buy for family or friends.
Well, I hope everyone's doing well back home. I hope you're all healthy and keeping up the hard work. Thanks for the emails and the prayers and the support... the list goes on and on of the things you all have done for me. I'm eternally grateful to you all! And I hope you all know that you're also in my prayers constantly. I love you all and I'll talk to you all soon!
- Elder Newbold
I'm here in the cafe waiting for transfer news and it hasn't yet come, but when it does I'll add it to the email or send another later. So to begin with, Happy Birthday Jude! It's a little late but it's the best I could do right now, haha. I can't believe he's 2 already! Where did the time go?
Yesterday we were somehow rained out during the time we were supposed to have church. So the attendance there in sacrament meeting wasn't the best. Few members came and no investigators came, once again. Whenever it rains here we really can't expect many people to come. Sadly that's just the fact that we face here in Ghana. But we'll shoot for a better outcome next week and do our best for now and in the upcoming week. We're hoping to have a baptism in the upcoming weeks on either the 27th or 31st of this month. So we'll finalize that and talk with the bishopric about it. Hopefully everything will be good.
Say hi to Taylor and Taylor for me when they get home. It'll be only a short time before I can say it for myself, but until then, I hope the best for them in adjusting to conditions being back home. Also best of luck to Jacob Wheeler and Nate Read, I'm excited for them and I know they'll have great experiences.
I'll be instructing tomorrow in the combined District Meeting and from what I've thought and planned out already, I think I'll be talking about Gratitude. I've realized the past couple of days especially that we take things for granted and we need to be thankful for all that we have. The Lord is truly gracious and loving towards all His children and we need to open our eyes more often and recognize all that He has done for us. So, I'll finalize my thoughts hopefully by tonight and I'll let you know how things go tomorrow.
As for a birthday package, I'm wondering if we can just wait and celebrate my birthday when I get back... is that an option? I'd rather have a banana cream pie than a birthday package, honestly, haha. I'm always grateful for packages, don't get me wrong, but I'd much rather get to be with my family and friends and get to eat a very delicious pie, haha. Let me know if that's a possibility or not. If it's not, I'd still be happy with a package.
I'm glad to hear that Dan's home and safe. I wonder if I could grow a beard when I get home... is that allowed? All the men in the family should grow beards and then we can take a picture, that'd be cool... anyway, I hope Dan had a great time and I'll be expecting to hear about his experiences sometime soon.
As for the money in my account, again I'm fine. I shouldn't need anymore til I go home, thanks. I'm still trying to find things to buy for family or friends.
Well, I hope everyone's doing well back home. I hope you're all healthy and keeping up the hard work. Thanks for the emails and the prayers and the support... the list goes on and on of the things you all have done for me. I'm eternally grateful to you all! And I hope you all know that you're also in my prayers constantly. I love you all and I'll talk to you all soon!
- Elder Newbold
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Fourth of July Letter
Hey my awesome family!
Happy to hear of your amazing experiences and to witness the love of our Father in Heaven. Dad, I'm glad to hear your healthy and doing better with signs of improvement. I wish you would've told me of this sooner so that I could also join in the fasting. I'm glad the power of the priesthood has once again blessed our family's lives.
I have a quick question before I start off, just so that I don't forget to ask it. You said that Nate Read will go into the MTC Aug 10th or around there. Will he be going to the MTC here in Ghana? I'm wondering if his mission is attached to the West African area. If it is, let me know cause there could be a possibility that I could see him here. But if not, then I guess it'll be another 2 yrs. I can't believe Tay's getting home this next week... crazy how time's gone so fast with that...
So, this past week I had the chance to go to Cape Coast again, again for the purpose of going to the dentist for my companion. It ended up that the dentist's office was open but he never showed up so we just waited there for almost an hour until the receptionist guy told us he wasn't in... So we went over to the mission home and helped Sister Sabey with some things as they finished up their preparations before going to Accra to pick up the new mission president and his wife. Luckily we had the chance to see the Sabeys before they went so we could say a final good-bye. By now they'll be back at their home and here we've got a new mission president who we'll meet with on Wednesday. We'll have interviews with him and we'll get to know him a little. Today for our pday/ July 4th celebration, since we normally have a pool party, a BBQ and then fireworks, we had to at least have some sort of one. Don't worry we didn't have a pool party but we did go to a restaurant and order either pizza or a hamburger. I had a pizza and it was again amazing, haha. The restaurant here in Takoradi is called North Sea and it's about 15-20 cedi for an either medium or large pizza. We don't get the chance too often to go and celebrate like that so it's fun when we do make the time to go.
The past week hasn't been very hot here luckily and even today it's been pretty overcast with not so hot weather. So, anything besides hot, sunny weather is good weather. My health has improved and all I've got now is just a little stuffy nose which definitely beats having Malaria. So I'm thankful for that. Saturday I went on splits with Elder Thompson, one of my zone leaders, so that makes it about the 5th or 6th time I've been to their area. This past Sunday we surprisingly didn't have any investigators come to church which hasn't happened to us in quite a while! It was pretty strange to not have anyone show up but I guess it helped us to see how blessed we normally are to have someone come ever Sunday. Tomorrow we'll have district meeting and then we'll go around and see those of our investigators who were supposed to come but didn't. Sunday it was raining quite a bit after church so it didn't really allow us to go out. Normally here when it rains it somehow shuts everything down and you won't see anyone outside. It rained a little today but just for a short time.
Dad, as for my schedule when I get home, I really don't mind what we do as a family. I'll just be happy to be with you guys and it won't really make a difference to me. I'll try to look for a job somewhat close to home and then I plan on going back to school come Spring time. That's just what I'd plan on right now. This is the first time in my mission where I can say that I'll be home next month... strange. You said I'll be speaking the 28th? I'll plan for that then and see what comes to my mind to speak about. I'll be bearing my testimony in Fante, at least the little Fante that I know. Even though Twi is easier to speak, I'm in an area where Fante is spoken more and not Twi. Luckily I've got a member that helps me out so we'll see how it goes. I've got time to practice, haha.
We receive transfer news next Monday to see if I'm staying here for the rest of my time or if I'm going somewhere else. I honestly just want to stay here and finish off but it has been difficult in a few different aspects. But, hopefully things will be better and the Lord will continue to lead us in His work. I'm happy to be here and grateful for the experiences I've had here! I love you all and I guess I'll think about what I need for my bday package, haha. I don't even think about my bday coming up. Well, we'll talk more next week! Until then, take care and have a great week, all of you.
- Elder Newbold
Happy to hear of your amazing experiences and to witness the love of our Father in Heaven. Dad, I'm glad to hear your healthy and doing better with signs of improvement. I wish you would've told me of this sooner so that I could also join in the fasting. I'm glad the power of the priesthood has once again blessed our family's lives.
I have a quick question before I start off, just so that I don't forget to ask it. You said that Nate Read will go into the MTC Aug 10th or around there. Will he be going to the MTC here in Ghana? I'm wondering if his mission is attached to the West African area. If it is, let me know cause there could be a possibility that I could see him here. But if not, then I guess it'll be another 2 yrs. I can't believe Tay's getting home this next week... crazy how time's gone so fast with that...
So, this past week I had the chance to go to Cape Coast again, again for the purpose of going to the dentist for my companion. It ended up that the dentist's office was open but he never showed up so we just waited there for almost an hour until the receptionist guy told us he wasn't in... So we went over to the mission home and helped Sister Sabey with some things as they finished up their preparations before going to Accra to pick up the new mission president and his wife. Luckily we had the chance to see the Sabeys before they went so we could say a final good-bye. By now they'll be back at their home and here we've got a new mission president who we'll meet with on Wednesday. We'll have interviews with him and we'll get to know him a little. Today for our pday/ July 4th celebration, since we normally have a pool party, a BBQ and then fireworks, we had to at least have some sort of one. Don't worry we didn't have a pool party but we did go to a restaurant and order either pizza or a hamburger. I had a pizza and it was again amazing, haha. The restaurant here in Takoradi is called North Sea and it's about 15-20 cedi for an either medium or large pizza. We don't get the chance too often to go and celebrate like that so it's fun when we do make the time to go.
The past week hasn't been very hot here luckily and even today it's been pretty overcast with not so hot weather. So, anything besides hot, sunny weather is good weather. My health has improved and all I've got now is just a little stuffy nose which definitely beats having Malaria. So I'm thankful for that. Saturday I went on splits with Elder Thompson, one of my zone leaders, so that makes it about the 5th or 6th time I've been to their area. This past Sunday we surprisingly didn't have any investigators come to church which hasn't happened to us in quite a while! It was pretty strange to not have anyone show up but I guess it helped us to see how blessed we normally are to have someone come ever Sunday. Tomorrow we'll have district meeting and then we'll go around and see those of our investigators who were supposed to come but didn't. Sunday it was raining quite a bit after church so it didn't really allow us to go out. Normally here when it rains it somehow shuts everything down and you won't see anyone outside. It rained a little today but just for a short time.
Dad, as for my schedule when I get home, I really don't mind what we do as a family. I'll just be happy to be with you guys and it won't really make a difference to me. I'll try to look for a job somewhat close to home and then I plan on going back to school come Spring time. That's just what I'd plan on right now. This is the first time in my mission where I can say that I'll be home next month... strange. You said I'll be speaking the 28th? I'll plan for that then and see what comes to my mind to speak about. I'll be bearing my testimony in Fante, at least the little Fante that I know. Even though Twi is easier to speak, I'm in an area where Fante is spoken more and not Twi. Luckily I've got a member that helps me out so we'll see how it goes. I've got time to practice, haha.
We receive transfer news next Monday to see if I'm staying here for the rest of my time or if I'm going somewhere else. I honestly just want to stay here and finish off but it has been difficult in a few different aspects. But, hopefully things will be better and the Lord will continue to lead us in His work. I'm happy to be here and grateful for the experiences I've had here! I love you all and I guess I'll think about what I need for my bday package, haha. I don't even think about my bday coming up. Well, we'll talk more next week! Until then, take care and have a great week, all of you.
- Elder Newbold
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