Elder Aidan Holyoak: 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