I'm a Newtownian now

1/23/23

It was a very very interesting week.

On Tuesday we had our multizone conference. The 3 zones there were Tesano, Kaneshie, and Lartebiokorshie. Elder Gemah and I had the privilege of speaking at the conference about PMG chapter 13. That chapter is all about working with local leaders. We learned a lot when studying for it. Communication is the first step in unity. It was a good conference and I got some more cool ties.

Wednesday was when everything got weird. We got a text from the Newtown Elders saying that there was an argument between 2 Elders in their apartment and that we should come over. That was probably the most vague way to tell us, but we headed over any ways. We weren't sure if the argument was just verbal or if there was any actual fighting, so Elder Gemah and I were talking about every possibility on the car ride there. It wasn't that bad. One of the Elders didn't want to proselyte, so his companion called him immature. He didn't like being called immature so he said he wouldn't proselyte with him ever again. Kinda ironic. I ended up staying in Newtown for the day so that they could proselyte. 

The Elder wanted to talk with President, but with our luck, President wouldn't be available until Saturday. I ended up having a 5 day exchange with Elder McKnight and we had a great time. 

Here's a list of a bunch of stuff that we did:

-I burned a pair of his pants because I hit my 18 month mark.

-We went to a restaurant called Kclings and got hamburgers.

-We went back to Kclings for breakfast the next day and got eggs and bacon.

-We played UNO and the losing Elder drank 2 liters of water in 2 minutes. (I still don't know how)

-Played foosball with a recent convert and investigator.

-Played more foosball.

-Got jean vests.

-Did a bunch of missionary work.

After 5 days, I'm back in Alajo and the disagreement is mostly settled. I'm happy to be back though, the whole ward probably thinks I'm dead.

Scripture of the Week

Proverbs 14:7 - "Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge."

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook- Aidan Hoyloak

That's the whole week wrapped up. Text or email me if you want to talk! See you all next week!

Elder Holyoak

Teaching at Multi-Zone

18 Months

Foolsball

Kclings

Jean Jackets

Newtown

😏

🐟

Exchanges 🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏻‍♂️

1/16/23

We had a pretty regular week. Not a lot to say.

I went on 2 exchanges this week. The first exchange was with Elder Patane in Alajo. The day went by super fast because not a lot of our lessons fell through. Elder Patane is Samoan but he grew up in New Zealand and Utah. He is one of our office Elders right now, so it was a good change for him to get out and teach during the week.

My next exchange was with Elder McKnight. This was my 3rd exchange with him so it was a super chill and good day. They are teaching a super cool guy named Elyx and he knows the Bible really well. He knew the scriptures we were using before we quoted them. Good day, fun time.

There was one funny thing that happened this week. We passed by a girl sitting at her shop one day and I had a feeling that we should talk to her, but we kept walking. Later that day we walked past the same place and I bought something from the shop, but we didn't contact her. About 15 minutes later Elder Gemah turns to me and says, "You know something, I feel like we should've contacted that girl." He said that he had the same feeling I did the first time we passed her. We were both laughing and we decided to go back. She was kinda reluctant, but we gave her a pamphlet. We will see if we ever get a lesson with her.

Sorry this email was pretty boring.

Alma 5:33 - "Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you."

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

I've got nothing else to say, see you next week.

Elder Holyoak

Exchange with Elder Patane

Exchange with Elder McKnight

Straw Hat

Trash River

Some cool trees

Free wallpaper for you

Triple Exchange 👨🏼👨🏼👨🏼

1/9/23

We had a nice, fun, and busy week.

On Wednesday, we had MLC. It was solid, we talked a lot about working with members and Obedience. For lunch we had french fries and fried chicken, but it was Ghanaian.

The rest of the week I went on 3 exchanges, in 3 different areas.

Thursday we went with the AP's in their area, Tesano and I got to proselyte with a car all day. It was weird being in AC, but moving at the same time. The AP's are teaching like 3 different people in our teaching area, so we spent a good part of the day in Alajo still. Good day and good lessons with Elder Buckner.

The next day I went to Maamobi with Elder Allen. Elder Allen is a homie, so it was a really fun day with a lot of walking. We had some solid lessons and ate some fried rice for lunch. Elder Allen likes to rock climb so we are gonna go to Norway when I get back.

The last exchange was in Newtown 1 with Elder Ashliman. Elder Ashliman goes home in 3 weeks. We had a lot of fun in the area and he's a really cool dude. He's from Gainesville, Georgia (Not Florida). We had a lot of lessons fall through so a little bit more walking too. 

Scripture of the Week

Mosiah 4:29 - "And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them."

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak 

That's all I gotta say, love you all. See you!

Elder Holyoak 

MLC

MLC

MLC

Maamobi Apartment 

Exchanges with Elder Buckner

Exchanges with Elder Allen

Exchanges with Elder Ashliman

Carn

Train

Preaching a Sermon in 'Ewe'

1/2/23

Happy New Year everyone! 2022 felt like it didn't even happen. 

We started the week off well with a zone activity last Monday. We planned to have a white elephant gift exchange and a water fight after. The gift exchange was fun, but the water fight was awesome! We finished the whole activity with everyone soaked and I think the odds are high that we will do that again. The Chapel we were at was actually having their ward party and they invited us all to come over and eat. We all ate out of a big container and then went to the dance floor after. Great P day to start the week, but it made me pretty tired haha.

The work this week has been super weird. In Ghana they kinda celebrate New Year's and Christmas at the same time so this whole week people were busy. Or at least they said they were. A lot of our interested people traveled out of town so it was a struggle filling our time this week.

We have an awesome recent convert named Emelia who loves missionary work. She was a baptist for 33 years before she joined our church and she said that she wants to share the truth with everyone she meets. She's not joking. I think we are going to bring her stacks of pamphlets with our phone number that she can keep at her place. She also speaks English, Twi, Ewe, Ga, and a little French so we have been taking her to translate some of our lessons. We went to one lesson with Emelia this week and the person was busy so we decided to visit a member nearby. When we sat down in their compound, Emelia was calling everyone over to learn with us. She was translating everything into 'Ewe' for everyone to understand. By the end of the lesson we had around 9 people listening and we got 3 new people out of it. Thanks Emelia!

On Saturday we went to a wedding for one of the YSAs in our ward. They had the ceremony at the very beginning and then we all went outside for the reception. We sat in chairs and they blasted music for a while. There were some cool performances and we got food. I'll take notes for what I want at my own wedding, definitely gonna have fufu.

Our ward missionary Abigail left for her own mission on Thursday. We had a send off devotional on Wednesday for her and a bunch of people gave her advice. She helped us out a lot so the last few days have been weird without her in the ward.

Scripture of the Week

Jeremiah 29:13 - "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

Contacts

Email - Aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

Another long email for you all, so I hope its not too boring. Enjoy the snow back home and make some hot chocolate for me! See you all next week.

Elder Holyoak 

Water Fight Aftermath

White Elephant Gift Exchange

Tesano Ward Party

Wedding that we went to

Bye, bye Abigail 👋🏼

Elder Black and Emelia 

Relief Society

Primary

Lydia