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