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7/24/23

Well, here it is. The last email.

It was a pretty good week. On Monday we met as a district and some of the Elders bought a pig. We went to the guy who owned the pigs house and one of our Elders killed it there. We packed it in a bag and they cleaned it up. Keep in mind the Elder doing all of the cleaning and cooking is from Tonga, so he was definitely qualified for the task. It took almost 5 hours of rotating the pig over a fire until it was safe to eat. We cut it up and ate it with bread. I was super surprised that it was actually really good. All we put on it was a little salt.

This week we also found the time to go to one of our recent converts farms. We brought our own cutlasses (machetes) and we went into the bush. We weeded some cocoa trees for a while and shucked some corn. She made a fire there and started to cook the corn while we were farming. By the time we were finished, we were snacking on corn. I also got to chop down some plantains and that is super fun because those trees are really weak, so you can cut it down in one slice.

I know I've said it before but in Ghana people call us Obroni. It translates to "foreigner" but people use it more like "white person". On Thursday I counted the amount of times that I heard that word spoken. It wasn't even a normal full day and we hit a grand total of 405 times. That gives you a little tiny glance of our everyday life out here.

I had the chance to finish my mission on an amazing miracle. We had the chance to baptize and confirm 2 of our friends this week. The first is Mary Osei and she is 20 years old. We taught her everything she needed to know and she came to church 3 weeks in a row, then one day she disappeared. We found out she went to Accra to do some work so that she could pay for school. She came back a few days later and we extended baptismal date. She has an amazing future ahead of her. The other one is Janet Ofori and she is 76 years old. She is the mother of a recent convert and she was baptized in 3 different churches before here. I was a little nervous putting her under the water but she did really well.

It is wild that this is my last P-Day in Ghana and my last email. I have genuinely learned so much on my mission. I have met so many lifelong friends. I have endless stories to tell. And I am so happy to have served in Ghana especially in the Ghana Accra West Mission. If you are trying to decide if you want to serve a mission, pray about it. I promise if you choose to serve and you serve with your whole heart you will not regret it.

•Week 1•

The Greatest Commandment

Jesus Christ stated that the most important commandments in this life are to 1. Love God with everything you have and 2. To love your neighbor as yourself. The apostle John also tells us that God is Love. When the General Authority Elder Klebingat came to our mission one thing he said really stuck with me. He said that we cannot have ANY hard feelings with ANYONE if we want to enter God's kingdom. No grudges are allowed. If you truly obey both of these commandments to your best ability then all of the other commandments will fall into place. If you love God you will go to church, read your scriptures, pray daily, sacrifice what is necessary to him, spend more time in the temple, and much more. If you truly love your neighbors you will not lie to them, steal from them, gossip about them, or treat them as less than you. Instead you will serve, uplift, teach, and bless the lives of those around you on every opportunity that you can. Imagine a place where everyone was trying their absolute hardest to obey these two commandments. People would give without being asked, forgive those who have wronged them, all forms of abuse would be non-existent, we would all be united (even if we have different beliefs), and we would all be much much happier. THAT is Zion. That is what we are trying to build. A place where everyone loves God and loves their fellowmen. So let's get to work. The world is getting more and more divided. There is more hatred in the world today than ever before in history. Replace hate with love. Do something today that will increase your capacity to love God and love your neighbors. I promise you will live a happier and more fulfilling life if you do.

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

I'll see you when I see you, thanks for reading this email and the past ones if you did. I love you all!

Elder Holyoak

Mary and Janet's baptism

Pig Roast

Swedru Zone

Odoben District

Goodbye Nyakrom Branch

This is where we worship on Sunday

Farm with Ester and Cecilia

Proselyting with Mary and Isaac 

District Leader Ping Pong

Waiting for a Tro Tro

Simba

Goodbye Ghana

Nyakrom Members ❤️

Hello hello.

This week we planned for some big goals and we were able to achieve them. We planned to get 10 lessons with members participating and we were actually able to achieve 18! The members were very willing to help and it helped a lot of our lessons flow better. We hope to see more of the people we are teaching at church. 

It's so weird thinking that I go home next week. Everything is always a "last one." I've been trying harder than ever to live in the moment and enjoy the small time that I have left. It's always a little funny though when I tell people I'm going home and then they turn to my companion. "When do you go home Elder Durling?" "2025"

I remember those times...

In Ghana they are huge into getting custom tailored clothes for yourself. I'm on my way out so I've got some cool stuff made. The picture is below.

I'm not gonna lie, it was a pretty normal week and I didn't get a lot of pictures. Sorry if this email was boring. Next week we get 2 phones for each companionship and that is gonna change a lot. I'm really glad that I'll be able to have it for the entire one week left in my mission haha.

•Week 2•

It's something that I've talked about before but pride is truly the source of most of this world's problems. They say that pride is the root of all evil. When I say pride I mean believing that you are superior to someone else. This causes us to treat other people as less than us and to develop the idea that only our needs matter. Ezra Taft Benson said that the center of pride is enmity towards our fellow men and enmity towards God. In reality we are all very small in this universe. We will all die one day and return to the dust so there is no use in being prideful. I suggest you all read the talk "Beware of Pride" by Ezra Taft Benson. Now sit down and be humble.

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

Well my time is short, I'll see you all soon.

Elder Holyoak

Oscar

Scary Goat

Bright

Ghana Drip Fit

Red Banana

Nyakrom

Sleep Deprived Tro Tro Rides 😴

7/10/23

I don't have a lot of time to write my email, so I'll just talk about a few things.

This last Thursday we traveled to Accra for the first transfer training. 6 weeks into your training you go back to the mission home and make sure everything is going well. The meeting was good and everything, but the trip itself was a lot of fun. 

Going to Accra is about a 4 hour drive in a van packed with people. Most of the time your knees are crammed in the back of someone's chair. We got to Accra and met up with some of the guys I'll be going home with, Elder Buckner and Elder Zile. Elder Zile and I both served in Accra together so we visited one of our favorite converts Emelia. She made rice for us and we had a good time catching up for one last time before we go home. It's all kind of hitting me now and it's so, so weird. 

We also slept in the Alajo apartment. 7 elders in total with 3 mattresses and a mat. I slept on the mat with 3 other elders. You just put your shoulder on the mat, your hips on an old pillow, and your ankles on a towel. I slept decent. After the whole meeting we went to an art market and then went home. We didn't get a car back until 7. We got back to our apartment at around 10:30. Late night Tro rides are brutal. Battling sleep without leg space. If you fall asleep you might miss your stop. 

•Week 3•

You are your life's greatest work.

The entire purpose of this life is to become a better person in every way. Here are some good quotes.

-"There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. True nobility comes from being superior to your former self." -Ernest Hemingway

-"If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change." -Michael Jackson

-Alma 34:32-33

-If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.”-James Clear

We need to continue to learn and grow in every way possible. Self improvement Physically, Educationally, Spiritually, Emotionally, Socially, etc. Are the keys to fulfillment and joy in this life. Always stay a student and learn from every person around you. I promise that as you seek for opportunities to improve yourself you will feel much more content as an individual. Humans crave progression and improvement. Find ways to improve yourself everyday!

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak 

Thanks for reading this one, see you all later!

Elder Holyoak

First Transfer Training Group

Role Playing at transfer training

Travel - 4 hours in a Tro Tro

After District Meeting

Emelia

Nyak City

Rain

Vegemite 🦘🦘

7/3/23

It's July...

This week wasn't too crazy. We just worked in our area and didn't take too many pictures. The work has been good though. We have been trying hard to get members involved in all of our lessons and it has gone pretty well. It has helped us become more united with the ward and it has helped the investigators do the same.

On Wednesday, our district leader called us and said that his companion has a fracture in his foot and that they need to go on exchange to be able to work in their area. Elder Kaufusi is the one from Australia and he fractured his foot before he came out without knowing it. We went there on Saturday and I went with our DL Elder Marx in the morning. We just rode to Swedru to get food and money so they could survive in their apartment longer. When we got back we switched and I stayed in the apartment with Elder Kaufusi for the rest of the day. We had some good talks and played some card games. He even gave me a bottle of Vegemite, haha.

Some of the people we are teaching now are really progressing. Right now we have a pretty interesting situation with Kojo and Jennette. Kojo is blind and Jennette isn't healthy enough to walk to church. We've talked to our Mission President and he said if they meet baptismal requirements and the branch is able to bring them the Sacrament when the missionaries leave then they can be baptized. So we are working on that right now. We've also got Mary Osei who has come to church 3 Sundays in a row. We teach her with some people who live around her house and all of then said they would come to church, but Mary is the only one who has kept her promise. Not much else to say we are just working hard until my time is up.

•Week 4•

Be You

Don't be a phony. Everything that has happened to you in your life and every decision that you have made has brought you to this moment. All of those decisions and experiences culminate into what and who you are. Before my mission I was a little bit nervous that I would come home a robot. That I would have to change my personality in order to be a successful missionary. I have realized that God gives all of us different talents and skills that we are supposed to use to help others. Matthew 25:14-29 shows us exactly how God feels about our talents. We are not supposed to hide them, but to use them to gain more talents and skills. Don't ever think that you must change your entire personality to fit a certain social group. Of course we all have bad attributes and weaknesses that we should leave behind us, Ether 12:27. All I'm trying to say is just be yourself. People can really tell when you are genuine or not, and most of the time they can tell when you are being fake. Take your mask off and find some people who appreciate you for who you really are.

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak 

Thanks for reading. I love you all!

Elder Holyoak

Nyakrom guys

Sight and Sound

Odoben District Lunch

Albert fell asleep

Goat taking a shower

Peppe Pot

Twinkies

Sausage

Vegemite

Always on the move 🚐 🚐

6/26/23

I spent most of this week sitting in Tro Tros. 

We did the same thing as last week. If you remember, last week our whole district slept in one apartment to wake up early and hear from Elder Gong. This week it was the same thing, except this time we got to hear from Elder Klebingat who is in the presidency of the West Africa area. We all shared mattresses and woke up early to get there on time. He gave us some pretty sweet council though. For the first hour, he talked about the premortal life and the doctrine behind the gathering of Israel. I took a lot of notes and it just made me realize that I've got a lot to study.

That day I also stopped at Swedru and got to stay another night in their apartment because I went on exchange with one of our Zone Leaders. His name is Elder Pessima and he's from Sierra Leone. It was a pretty funny exchange because he's only been in the area for a few days, but we still had a good day.

The next day we needed some baptismal interviews done by our District leader. He called in the morning and asked if we could just do an exchange and of course I said yes. I headed over to an area called Asikuma and we had a good time. A member gave us Banku and coconuts and we had a solid lesson with someone too.

The next day was Saturday and we had the baptism for our friends Godfrey, Cecilia, and Daniel. Everything was going smooth with the service and then we got to Daniel. This whole time we've been teaching Daniel we've had his name saved as Daniel Debrah in our records. As soon as he stepped into the water I asked for his full name and he told me his name is Ishark Inkum. Apparently he has like 3 names but Ishark is on his school records, so that's what we used.

•Week 5•

Work work work

On my mission I have learned that the secret to success is WORK. If you want anything in your life you have to go out and work for it. If you want a blessing from God you have to work for it. Faith without works is dead. If you want to be happy, physically fit, healthy, smart, spiritual, or have fulfillment you have to work for it. There is no way around, under or through it. We were put into this life to work out our own salvation and part of that is improving our skills and talents in this life. I can promise that honest hard work will bless your life and it's the only way to get what you want in life.

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak 

Thanks for reading! Put your shoulder to the wheel and I'll see you next week.

Elder Holyoak

Odoben District

Godfrey, Daniel, and Cecilia

Elder and Sister Klebingat Mission Tour

My final testimony

Exchange with Elder Pessima

Coconuts

Exchange with Elder Marx

Makin Banku

New Hat