Afehyiapa!!!

Afehyiapa!!! That means Merry Christmas.

I'll be completely honest nothing that cool really happened this week besides Christmas so this email will be a little bit shorter.

Christmas

Christmas in Ghana isn't celebrated as crazy as it is in America so there wasn't much we could really do. It was more of a good hang-out day for us. We got to sleep in and that doesn't sound like a lot but as a missionary waking up at 6:30 every day it was really nice. We didn't get fed by any members on Christmas day but 2 days before, we went to one of the sisters' houses. She fed us kokoente and that was my first time actually trying it. It's like fufu but it's brown. It is also known in Ghana as Face the Wall or Chris Brown. It was... Good. On actual Christmas day, we had some vanilla French toast for breakfast, egg noodles for lunch, and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. The mac and cheese was a Christmas present from another missionary in my district, Thanks Elder Smith. Since it's a new area for us we don't know the members very well, so the rest of the day was hanging out with other missionaries. 

Christmas Miracle

It rained! It's been really hot so that felt great.

Elder Muhaga's Chicken

Today we went shopping for P-day and one of the Elders that we share our apartment with wanted to buy a live chicken. The process pretty much went like this. We walked over to a guy standing next to a chicken coop and asked him how much his chickens were. He told us they were 30 Cedis each or around 6 USD. Elder Muhaga picked out his favorite one and the guy packed the chicken up for him. He pretty much just tied it's legs and put it in a plastic bag. We rode in a taxi back to our apartment and when we got back Elder Muhaga went straight to sharpening a knife. I'll spare you the details, but it's still crazy to me how much chickens can move around with their head cut off. He cleaned it up and I'm pretty sure he's just gonna cook it tomorrow. Elder Muhaga is actually a really nice guy. He's from Zimbabwe. He said he wants an American girlfriend when he gets back so if you're single and willing to wait 17 months let me know. 

Scripture of the week

Mormon 8:22 - "For the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled"

And there's nothing you can do about it Satan.

Contact me:

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

That's the whole week. Nothing too crazy going on but the work has been progressing. Have a good rest of your year everyone and I'll see you in 2022!

Elder Holyoak

Santa's Little Helper

Kokoente or Chris Brown

Christmas Breakfast

Stand Off

Christmas Dinner - Kraft Mac and Cheese

Elder Muhaga and his prize

Elder Duncan misses snowboarding

The Rice, The Witch, and The Buzz Broz

The Rice

We had multizone this week and it was all Christmas-themed. There were a bunch of activities and I got to see a lot of friends from around the mission. We watched the movie "A Christmas Carol", the one with Patrick Stewart, and they gave us popcorn. It was really nice to watch an actual movie and not just the 5-minute gospel library videos. After the movie, we ate and they gave us a ton of rice, chicken, and brownies. Then we had a missionary talent show. A few of the talents were singing, piano, guitar, stand-up comedy, and ballroom dancing. It was a very interesting show. One zone even made a human pyramid. At the end of everything, they gave us Christmas packages from home and a little present from our senior couples. That's probably the most Christmas we are gonna get for the rest of the month, so it was pretty nice.

The Witch

This Wednesday, one of the members in another missionary's ward invited our whole District over for dinner. The whole dinner was great! She made us noodles, rice, and stew. When we finished it was dark so we said our thanks and started walking home. It was fully dark because the sun goes down around 6 pm here. When we were walking on the side of the road we saw an old lady standing in the middle of the street. As we got closer we saw that she wasn't moving. Not even an inch. If you put her next to a statue I'm pretty sure the statue would be moving more. As we walked past I looked at her face. Her eyes were opened wide and so was her mouth. Cars kept stopping in front of her, but she wouldn't move. It was a pretty cool way to end the night. The funniest thing is some other Elders actually saw here about 30 minutes later on a different street doing the same thing. There's a ton of possibilities. She could've been crazy, on drugs, a witch, or just trying to start a flash mob. We just call her a witch because that's what someone shouted at her while we were walking past. I'm just glad I'm on the winning team with Jesus to back me up.

The Buzz Broz

Elder Duncan and I have been doing companionship bonding exercises. We rode bikes for the first time in our area and it was a ton of fun. Our area is mostly hills so you're either coasting or pedaling hard uphill. If you go anywhere off the main road it's pretty much just a mountain biking trail. Elder Duncan also thought that his hair was getting a little long so we went and bought hair clippers. He started slow and was cutting the top himself. I left the room for maybe 5 minutes and when I came back he was fully buzzed. I thought it was funny so I told him to give me one too. We have been asked if we are brothers a couple times in the street and one time a lady asked if we were twins.

It was a really good week and I'm excited to see what we can do to celebrate Christmas. I hope you can all do your part in sharing Christ's life this week because that makes God happy.

Contacts
Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org
Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

Scripture of the week
Exodus 22:18 "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"
I'm sure she is a nice lady, but still a witch. 

Enjoy your Christmas everyone, I hope you all get what you asked for and help someone get what they asked for. See you next week!
Elder Holyoak

Buzz Broz

Bike Broz

Christmas Feast

Mission Family Tree

Family Dinner

The Witch

2 Utah Boys in Ghana

 Aba, Father, Papa

Alright everyone this week has been full of new stuff. As you know transfers hit and I was called to train and to whitewash an area. On Tuesday I picked my new son up at the mission home. His name is Elder Duncan. He's a Utah boy from West Jordan, so that is a huge blessing. Being able to show another American around Ghana has been a lot of fun. Teaching all of the cultural stuff like waving with your right hand, saying "fine" instead of "good", saying "small small" instead of "a little bit" and a ton of other things. I think he's pretty used to all of the naked people and trash by now but I haven't asked him. He has been adjusting super well and our houses in Utah are like 20 minutes from each other so we have a lot in common. We've been working hard but also having tons of fun.

Asamanketewa

Asamanketewa is the name of our new area. I'll try to sound it out for you. (Ah suh mon keh twa) The name of our area is almost as big as our area boundaries. When we checked the map to see our area boundaries I thought it was our zone. I'll have a picture down below but I'm almost sure it is the biggest area in our mission. Luckily most of it is just the jungle so we just stay on the main roads to find people there. The whitewash has been going really well though. The last missionaries in our area haven't taught anyone in 2 months so it was pretty much a fresh start. We have had to find new people so we just talk to everyone. It has been pretty successful so far and we have met some great members in the area by doing so. I don't want to bore you with the missionary stuff let's get into the fun stuff.

Food

Having an American companion has its perks. The biggest perk by far though is food. Our new area has a little grocery store with a bunch of imported goods. One of the best things we found this week was pancake mix and maple syrup. The syrup was huge because that meant we could make French toast. In the past couple of days, we have found a ton of new stuff to make. Here is a shortlist.

-Pancakes
-Banana Pancakes
-French Toast
-Peach Shakes
-Ice Cream Floats
-Fruit Smoothies

It might not look like much but everything on that list is very hard to find in Ghana. We are trying to save supplies so these will be more like once-a-week things. We are trying to find more things to make so if you have simple recipes send them our way.

Me ti twi paa

I have had to learn a lot of Twi lately so I figured I would teach you guys some words and short phrases.

Twi - Pronounced (Tchwi)
Brofu - English
Eti sen - How are you?
Eye - I'm good/fine
Obroni- White Man (Oh Bro knee)
Basa Basa - Naughty Naughty
Ewurade - God (Ay woo rah day)
Yesu Christo - Jesus Christ

That's the whole week! I hope the Holiday Season is treating you all well. It's a little bit different in Ghana but the Christmas spirit never dies.

Contacts
Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org
Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

Scripture of the week
1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

See you all next week!
Elder Holyoak

Elder Duncan

Gifty and Co.

The one picture every missionary here gets 

Photo Cred: Elder Duncan 

Shout out Goomp Gang (You know who you are)

Our friend Pablo

Swag

Ask and ye shall receive

-pancake mix, syrup, and ice cream-

Mission map in red, new area boundaries in blue

I'm Gonna Be A Dad!

Hello everyone, this week I have big news. You might already know from the title but I'm going to be training! We got news on Wednesday night that I am getting transferred to a new area and I will be training there. This means that I will also be whitewashing. Whitewashing just means that both of the missionaries are new to the area and don't know what they are doing. I'll be doing a lot of street contacting and working with members. I'll know who I am training tomorrow when am go to pick him up so you will all see him in next week's email.

Some Random things that happened this week

Snake Smashing

We were walking back to our apartment to eat lunch when we heard a bunch of shouting. We walked over and saw two guys running in circles with sticks trying to hit a snake. They kept hitting it but the snake didn't die until the 5th or 6th hit. It was actually the first time that I have seen a snake here. They said that the one that they killed was poisonous but I'm gonna try to avoid any snake I see.

Nutrisnax

Nutrisnax is a cookie biscuit type thing and I eat them every day. It's an easy thing to eat in the morning and sometimes I bring them with me during the day. A long time ago I decided to start collecting the boxes and now that I'm leaving my area I had to throw them all away. Trust me when I say, it is A LOT of boxes.

I'm writing this email right before I leave everyone. Next week's email will be a lot more interesting.

Scripture of the week

Alma 32:37 - "And behold, as the tree beginneth to grow, ye will say: Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit."

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Holyoak

The Stripling Warriors

Dead Snake 

Last night of Mega Bed

Nutrisnax Stax

Box Man

Our last day together😢

Merry Christmas

Ghanaian Bench Press