Sickness and a T Bone

Hello everyone! This week was pretty uneventful. I was sick most of the whole week, so I only left the apartment a few times. Don't worry about me though, I'm feeling a lot better now. I got tested for Malaria and it was negative, so all is well.

There was one thing that happened a few days ago. We had to travel to Kasoa to get medicine from a pharmacy and on the way back we got in another Tro Tro accident. Our driver was going a little too fast and he was swerving around cars. One of those motorcycle taxi things (I don't really know how else to describe them. It's like a motorcycle that pulls a little box behind it where people sit.) pulled out in front of our van and the driver didn't have time to turn out of the way. We T-Boned the thing and it tipped over on its side. There were people inside, but luckily no one was seriously hurt and everyone was able to walk away. Our van however was not as lucky. For the next 15 to 20 minutes after the crash, the Tro Tro wouldn't start and it was leaking water. When we finally started going again the back door of the van opened and the people in the back seat had to hold it shut. Tro Tros usually have two workers in them. A driver and a mate. The mate calls people and helps fix problems like this. For some reason, this Tro Tro didn't have a mate. The driver had to pull over and try to slam the door shut like 3 times and he eventually just tied it with a rope. The car almost overheated a few times and we had to stop for gas so the whole ride took longer than 2 hours.

This week we also got transfer news. The news is that Elder Segura and I are going to be staying, but our two companions will be leaving us. Segura is going to be training, so I'm gonna be an Uncle and I'm just getting a normal comp. As I'm writing this my comps have already left me and my new one is on his way. Wish me luck!

I'll see you all next week and report how he is.

Elder Holyoak

Fut Ballers

Outside of the Mall (looks American)

Shopping in the Mall

The Last Supper

The Other Last Supper

Elder "Hole" oak

Master Chef Ghana Edition

 Hi Everyone! Some things happened this week.

The first thing that happened was cooking food for Sister Sacky. Brother Sacky is one of our favorite members in the ward and his wife Sister Sacky is just as cool. We went over to their house one day to teach a short member lesson. She ended up offering us some rice and beans and they were really good. After we finished though she told us that we now needed to cook food for her. At first, we laughed because we thought she was joking, that was until she brought us both aprons. We then went into the kitchen and she walked me and my companion through a rice and stew recipe. I helped make the rice and cut up some of the vegetables while my companion Elder Asante cooked the chicken and made the stew. At the end of everything, it paid off because we took some home and it was actually pretty good.

When I say driving in Ghana is crazy, I don't think you understand how crazy. People pass each other going like 50 mph on roads littered with potholes. Motorcyclists will swerve between cars and pop wheelies with three people on the bike. Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone die yet. We can't get into crashes though because we are missionaries and we have God on our side, right? Wrong. Yesterday we were on our way back to our area after a stake activity. We were riding in a Tro Tro (Van Bus thing) like usual and there was a car pile up in front of us. The van in front of us stopped super hard and our driver didn't have time to stop. We rear-ended the other Tro Tro. Not hard enough for anyone to get hurt but hard enough to dent the car. The best part about the whole thing was that nobody go out of their cars. They just pulled up next to each other, waved and said sorry, then drove away. That's the most Ghanaian thing I can think of.

I have a new love here in Ghana and it's called FanMilk. FanMilk is a company that makes drinks and yogurt. They sell it in bottles but the best thing they make by far is the pouches. It's pretty much just frozen yogurt in a bag, but they have a ton of flavors. Chocolate, Strawberry, Peach, Strawberry Banana, Coconut Pineapple, and my two favorites are Vanilla and Mango Passionfruit. Vanilla sounds underwhelming but it is the consistency and flavor of a Vanilla Shake. The Mango Passionfruit is self-explanatory, it's just really good.

I just wrote an entire paragraph about frozen yogurt. That's the best part about these emails, I can talk about whatever I want to.

And that's the whole week. Some advice I have for anyone on a mission or preparing for one is to find something that you enjoy doing.  If you like contacting then do more contacting, if you like personal study then study more. The more you do things that you enjoy the easier it is to do things you don't enjoy.

See you all next week!

Elder Holyoak

Little Rascal

Eden, on top of the world

Caveman Cooking

The Finished Product

Our Queen, Sister Sanders 

(Mission President's wife)

The Forbidden Fruit

Hungary Man Size

Salad Dressing = Mayo and Ketchup

KON KON WONDERLAND

There wasn't a lot that happened this week. It was pretty average when it comes to contacting and teaching. We did have the chance to do another service project, but we had to reschedule it because we didn't have all the tools we needed.

Now to the good stuff. KON KON WONDERLAND. Now it's a little hard to explain what this place actually is. They call themselves "Ghana's first farm resort and ecological park". Now I don't really know what that means but the poster had a turtle on it so we decided to go. In order to get there, you need to walk about a mile and a half up a dirt road. You pretty much keep walking until you are in the middle of nowhere. 

When we first got to Kon Kon, we were a little confused because it was completely empty. The place was pretty nice and it was well kept in most of the areas, but there was nobody there. We walked around for about 10 minutes until we found a woman who said she worked there. There were two workers total and she was one of them. She gave us a tour around and it was very interesting. You can't really call it a zoo but they had animals. They have a snake, and a donkey, and a horse, and turtles, and chickens, and pigs, and that's it. I'm honestly just happy they had the turtle that was on the poster. I even got to hold the turtle and it was super heavy. The chickens and pigs were part of the farm and they were all sorted by color. I took pictures of the chickens, but I'll spare you from the horrors I saw in the pig pens. At the end of the day it ended up being 10 Cedis, ($2 USD) and I can safely say it is the best zoo... in all of Bawjiase.

And that was my week. Good luck to all of the missionaries reading this, keep on grinding.

See you all next week!

Elder Holyoak

Me and Franklin

Petting the Donkey

White Chickens

Brown Chickens

Kon Kon Wonderland

Almost a Zoo

Goal Post Guys

🌱Sugar Cane in the Membrane🌱

Hi everyone, this week we had an opportunity to do some service. We went with one of our favorite members, Sister Afia to her sugar cane farm and helped her cut some down. To be honest, I thought sugar cane was only in Minecraft. It tastes exactly like sugar and you just chew on it to get the water out. It was really good and they even let us take some home. They grow in big bamboo-like sticks. They're also planted in the mud and water, so we got kinda dirty. Overall, it was a really great opportunity and it was fun serving our members.

This week Elder Segura and I also had more opportunities to proselyte without our trainers. We went to his area in Papase for a day and then went to my area in Bawjiase for a day. I love being able to plan my own day and teaching people lessons in our own way. (It's also just nice to hang out with another American.) Transfers are coming up in a couple weeks, so there will be some big changes soon. I could be sent to the bush with a new companion, so we'll see how it goes.

The last thing I wanted to talk about is the phone calls here. I am pretty much used to everyone's accents. Sometimes they'll say something and you have to hear it again to understand. On phone calls, this is times ten. When people talk on the phone, it is so much harder to understand them. Not only that, but they can't understand my accent either. Sometimes we text people but when they text, they sometimes use Twi phrases. They'll also type things like "De" instead of "The". Learning how to text here is like learning a new language.

 

And that's my week! I'll see you all next time.

Elder Holyoak

Sister Afia and associates

Mmmmm, Yummy!

Sugar Cane Farm

Bush Bois

Untitled Artwork

Brethren