February 1, 2010

hello again,

details for life here ... well, it's hot, dusty and humid. i have to have a fan on me anywhere i go, if possible. as for what i eat. it ranges from fried rice to oranges to plantane to stew and spaghetti. i make a certain bean stew with tuna fish, and i make enough of it to last me about 2 weeks. that's only if i eat it like once a day. i evenly ration everything out. there's some other ghanaian dishes that i'll have every once in a while as well. so i'm beginning to gain more weight. dan said he's lost like 5 pounds, so i might be catching up to him... i doubt it though haha. 

the shower each morning is nice and cold, so i have to get used to it every time i try to get in. my bedroom it barely big enough to have two beds in it, so there's about no walking space. my bed had a net over it so that the mosquitoes don't eat me. luckily i've been safe and haven't had malaria. i'm hoping it stays that way too :).

most of the roads here are dirt, but there are some paved. those that are paved are not paved very well so there'll be holes in the roads, basically everywhere, which makes it difficult for the little taxis to drive around. the roads are not wide at all either, so i really hope that i won't have to ever drive here. it wouldn't be easy.

as for the baptism yesterday, it went okay. it was supposed to start at 9am, but there was a misunderstanding and so the branch president thought it was at 10. so we were calling him and he finally came at about 9:45. but it still turned out well. we had two sisters that were for our branch and then 6 others for another village. that village had to come cause they didn't have running water to fill their font.

alright, well i'll talk with you soon and i love you tons!
- elder newbold

January 25, 2010

hello there family!

oh it is good to hear from you guys every monday. thanks so much for always writing to me and taking that little bit of time out of your sunday evening.

lets see, this week was pretty normal, but still great. we did finally get one of our investigators to come to church. but we had to go and pick her up from her apartment. she lives pretty far away and she told us she would've been to shy to just come on her own. she's an SDA and so she usually is attending church on saturdays, but we convinced her to come and see how our meetings go. she said she had a good time and that she'll ask us some questions, when we meet with her next. so i was very grateful to have to come. her name is Beatrice and i think she's around 22-23. something like that. hopefully she can continue to progress and she'll finally realize that the sabbath day is in fact now on sunday. it's not easy for her to see that, but with the Holy Ghost touching her heart, i know that she'll be converted. it's only a matter of time now.

we have our baptism this coming saturday, i know i've said that for the past two weeks, but it's final now. we've got more candidates as well now. so i think besides those original three sisters, there will be added another sister and a young boy. so far, those are the people who will be baptized this saturday.

every day is a new experience, and things are still going well for us. the language is slowly coming along, and i know that if i continue to work at it and try to communicate with people speaking twi, that things will work out and i'll be able to speak it a lot better.

at first, when my last companion left, i began to lose the weight that i lost, cause i wasn't eating as much. but i've learned to cook a few things and now i'm gaining the poundage back :) so it's only a matter of time before i'll have that weight back, haha.

i'm happy to hear nick survived getting his braces on. that'll be a really fun time for him.... seriously though.... haha. i'm sry nick you had to get braces but you'll get used to it, i'm sure. actually i really have no idea if you'll get used to them, but i'll keep you in my prayers. hopefully things go well and you'll only have to wear them for a year. i remember jeff lake in california had his on for like 3 yrs... i just laughed at him and told him i felt bad. so good luck with eating food and brushing your teeth. love ya.

ok well, it's always good to hear whats happening back home. tell James and Marlene congrats and also let them know that when they meet a couple named the Rappleye's, tell them that i'm serving here in Swedru with their son. He's the elder that just came to our apartment this passed transfer. his parents are there in the D.R. as well, but i think they'll be close to the same place. so they'll be meeting them.

i hope all is well with everyone and i send my love to Brad and Chels, their kids, also Katie and Dan and Nick and MOM and DAD and Izzy Fizzigan. tell the rest of the fam hi for me when you get the chance and also the ward members. i'm happy to hear about everyone. God bless you all and i'll talk with you soon! Love you tons.

- Elder Newbold

More from January 18th

it's raining right now as i'm at the cafe, and i'm listening to someone else's computer playing some song that Akon sings. you wanted details so i'll give you details. homes here range from blues to yellows, from brick to mud. i take the public transportation, meaning taxi, to church and back each sunday, and then on fridays for PEC meetings. sometimes if we are going to visit an investigator who lives pretty far away, we'll also take a taxi, but other than that, we do live in our area and we usually just walk everywhere. the cars here are always old and battered, but that's what the people drive around for their jobs so what can they do. the sun's basically always cooking me when i'm under it, walking, so i try my best to stay under shops or roofs when we're teaching people. but sometimes i don't always get that chance.
- elder newbold

January 18, 2010

hello again my family and friends,

i'm happy to have the opportunity to write to you, and i hope some of my experiences and writings will help you understand how things are going here for me. another week has come and gone, and now we start another. things continue to be successful, and we're planning on having the baptism this saturday. if all goes according to plan, we'll have 3 sisters getting baptized. we receive more referrals each time we go to church and things get busier, but it's well worth the time and effort.

we had kind of an unusual experience this morning. i was woken up at 4:00 a.m. this morning by our district leader. he's also from layton and has been on his mission for 16 months. but anyway, he woke us all up cause he received a call from the zone leaders, that there were supposedly threats or signs of an earthquake that was about to happen. so, me trying to stay as calm as possible, just waking up too, i got some money and a few other things and we got ready to go and stand outside to await this planned earthquake. but as time went on and we wondered if it was actually true, we received a call saying the threats were false. we had stood outside for about an hour, waiting for something to happen. luckily we were safe. the reason why we would go outside, is because we're in a 2-story building that probably would've collapsed, and it being made of cement, that wouldn't be good. so, apparently, our whole mission also evacuated their apartments. so things are back to normal now, but i guess there had been a false prophet who had made a prophesy of the earthquake to happen this morning and some people believed him. that was my crazy experience very early this morning, haha.

the past few days, my companion's sort of been feeling under the weather, but i'm sure he'll be feeling better soon. i've been seriously blessed here, with good health and i have only the Lord and all of your prayers to thank. i try to do my best to eat things that look clean and only drink the clean water, so i've been pretty fine and havent gotten sick. i'm still awaiting the day that i get malaria or typhoid, but who knows, maybe i'll get lucky and won't have to ever experience what it's like... haha that would be nice. i can only hope and pray though.

thanks for all you do for me and i'm excited for the mormon tab music to come to me. that'll be so nice to hear haha. you guys are awesome. i feel privileged to be a part of the Newbold family and to have grown up in the gospel. everyday i realize how blessed i am to have grown up in our family and in the USA. God is truly gracious and loving to me. i'm glad to hear things are going well back home. tell the family hi for me and i'll talk to you all very soon! love you all so much!

- elder newbold

January 11, 2010

Hey family!

this past week was good and we planned a baptism for the 16th of jan, this coming sat. but i think we may have to change that date cause one of our investigators will be traveling. i'm still in a 3-some for today, but this afternoon, i'll go back to being just with my original companion. transfer was yesterday and now there will be another elder coming to our apt. so things will go back to normal haha. things have been going well lately and we continue to have success, so we've been blessed by the Lord always. yesterday at church, we were able to have 4 investigators come and one brought her husband which we were very happy to see there with her.

mom - about the package, it's just the mp3 player and the memory card. on xmas day i told you guys my mp3 player's battery fried, but i cant replace the battery cause i cant take it apart without destroying it and doing more damage. so i just bought a new one thats similar to my other one. so you don't have to wait for anything else. thanks very much! if there's room in the package for anything besides those calc. pills, that'd be great if you could send some more pepto tablets, they help out a ton. also my companion was asking me if you could send some sleeping pills or something like tylenol pm. he has trouble sleeping at night haha theres gotta be something wrong with his head though, cause he wakes up at about 2 in the morning everyday and then has trouble going back to sleep. so whatever you could possibly get to help him. he doesnt wanna try any medicine here at the local pharmacies and i don't know why. so thanks again. everythings going great here thanks to all your prayers back home.

i'm so grateful for everything you've done for me! thanks for the ensigns also, i got that package this past week. tell gma and gpa newbold thanks for the shirt they also sent to me, i love it. i've definitely felt the blessings here.

i hope you received the pictures i emailed last week. i was able to find a cafe that allows me to plug my camera into the computer to email pics. ok well, i'll write you soon and tell you more about whats happening here for me but until then take care and i love you!

- elder newbold

January 4, 2010

hey there fam!

sry i didn't email last week, i kinda couldn't, so i'll tell you more about that. beginning last sunday evening the 27th, there were riots outside our apt. and throughout the town. apparently there was one muslim man who had been killed in a bar, that saturday night before, so they buried him on sunday and then that evening is when everything started. the muslim boys got together and grouped themselves and started destroying things in the town, so it wasnt safe to go outside. so monday morning came and the police kinda settled things down, but the riots continued and we still couldn't go outside. it was pday and we were planning on having an activity as a zone, to go and play soccer, but we weren't sure if we'd be able to get out of the city. luckily things were calm enough for us to leave and then come back that night, so we were blessed. tuesday came and in the morning we went out and proselyted but then in the afternoon we had to come inside again cause the riots started again. so that's when they brought in the military and settled things down. so sunday night through wed morning, we were hearing gun shots, and things were kinda crazy, but in the end we're safe and so things are good now.

so that's why i couldn't email, but now him happy to be talking with you again. christmas was wonderful and i'm very happy that i was able to talk with everyone. um i already bought the mp3 player and also a memory card, for one of the elders here. so make sure you send both those things along with the calcium capsules, thanks so much.

i'm glad to hear my hand-written letter finally got to you, sometimes it does take a really long time in pouch.

thanks for answering those questions i had, dad, it cleared things up pretty well for me. so how was everyone's new year celebration? i hope you all had a great time and stayed safe. oh by the way, i'm now in a 3-some for companionship, because one of the other elders went home a few weeks early for school. so now i'm experiencing what it's like to have two companions. it can be difficult at times but i'm sure we'll get through it okay until transfer when a new missionary will come.

so that's all for now and i'll talk with you all soon. love ya!

- elder newbold

November 30, 2009

hello again!

this week went by very fast and i'll let you know some of the details and stories. but first, to answer those questions. about the phone call, i will be the one to call you on that day and i'll be calling from my apartment cell phone, so i hope the reception will be okay and you'll be able to hear me. but i'll find out what time i'll be calling on xmas day. i'm fine with stamps here, i'll let you know if i ever need some more soon. but i think i'll be okay with the ones i've got. the packages have not yet arrived, according to my knowledge, yet. but i'm sure they're on their way. and if they've arrived, then i'll be getting them this week from the zone leaders. so i'll let u know more on that as well. my companion does get some email, but not from family. his family doesnt have any email address that they can talk with him through and i'm not sure if they know how to work a computer either. but i'll ask him if he'd like for you to email him too.

it is getting drier here each day and i've had to start using lotion cause of the dry weather. but oh well i'll get used to it. it's still humid though and hot.... so that hasnt really changed.

i'm jealous to hear the family was all over for thanksgiving. i didnt really have much of a celebration for that holiday here haha. so it was just a normal thursday here in ghana. dad, good luck with the book and that work concerning it. i'm excited to see how it's progressed and finally to see the final product. i'll buy one from you, okay? haha.

it's good to hear your being missionaries back at home in our neighborhood. keep it up and look for any opportunities to help and serve them. just like ammon in alma 17-... it's an amazing story and we've read it many times with our investigators.

this week we had a baptism and it went well. there was a problem in the neighboring village, with their baptism and they could not get any running water for their font to fill up. so they traveled over to our chapel and we had a combined baptism. the biggest one i've ever seen haha. 14 people baptized. so that was pretty cool to see, but it was pretty long too and it started an hour late haha.

i'm glad to hear i'm a full tithe payer haha. as the bishop declared. so i'm happy for that. time is running out here at the internet cafe, but i love you all. tell dan not to get sick anymore. i'm curious how his car is doing and if he's still using my phone or what.

i do have alot of questions from the scriptures, dad, so i'll be writing a letter to you and hope that you can answer them for me. thanks for everything and i'll talk with you all very soon! bye

- elder newbold