Transfer News 😀😅🥲

Sooo, as you can see we received transfer news. I am being transferred to an area called Awutu Breku in the Winneba Zone. My companion will be Elder McLean, who only has this transfer left before going home! Elder Duncan is staying and receiving a new companion named Elder Tidwell. I know it's about time we get split up but transfers are always sad.

The week was pretty chill. It rained a lot so all of my shoes are muddy now. We had the AP's over in our apartment for a day and that was a lot of fun. One of them actually lived in our apartment earlier in his mission. Shoutout to Elder Englebright. We have just been teaching the people who are serious and visiting members all week. Saying goodbye is always sad, but I know we will meet again in this life or the next.

Really not a lot happened this week so sorry for the boring email. I've got some good pictures though. Next week will be more eventful I can promise that.

Scripture of the week

Helaman 8:25 - "But behold, ye have rejected the truth, and rebelled against your holy God; and even at this time, instead of laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where nothing doth corrupt, and where nothing can come which is unclean, ye are heaping up for yourselves wrath against the day of judgment."

Alrighty, I've got to pack my bags now so I'll see you guys next week! 

Elder Holyoak

Rain Men

I Keem

Favorite Fried Rice Vendor... you will be missed

Bush

Saying Goodbye

Building where church is held

2022 Ford F-150

The Natural Man

Cinnamon Rolls and Sickness

OK I'm gonna apologize in advance, I have almost no pictures from this week. My companion was sick most of the week so not a lot really happened.

Exchanges

Before he was feeling sick, we went on exchanges with our district leader Elder Bright-Essiakoh and his companion Elder Webley. I had the chance to go to Elder Bright's area and we had a lot of fun. He is a Ghanaian so he knows Twi and that is always a huge help. We had a great day biking but their area has a bunch of hills so it gets pretty tiring. Halfway through the day it started pouring rain so we were biking in mud a lot of the time. Overall it was a good day.

The rest of the week is kind of scattered in my memory so here's a bunch of random stuff that happened.

-Ghana beat Nigeria, so they qualified for the world cup.    

-Lots of studying and listening to talks.  

-I'm back to boiling water for hot bucket showers.    

-Got really bored and we started throwing water bags at stuff. (Responsibly) 

-Elder Webley made cinnamon rolls for General Conference and they were delicious. 

-Elder Webley also made breakfast sandwiches with Spam. Spam is still gross, I'd eat Fufu over Spam 9 times out of 10. The sandwich was pretty good though. 

-We listened to all sessions of General Conference in our apartment because they didn't broadcast it at our stake center.

Scripture of the Week

Romans 15:1 - "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves."

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak 

I hope everyone was able to watch part of Conference. There were some amazing talks! if you haven't listened you should go back now. There is a ton of good stuff in there.

A very very slow week but we will be getting transfer news this week so I'll keep you all updated on the new changes.

See you next week! 

Elder Holyoak

 

Exchanges with Elder Bright-Essiakoh

Cinnamon Rolls

Brother Tetteh (Elders Quorum President)

Guys being Dudes

🏍 💥

Another day, another dollar, except we don't get paid. This week wasn't the most eventful for us. We are trying to rebuild our teaching pool so it has been a lot of street contacting and member visits.

Onomabo

There is one man we were teaching this week named Matthias. He is super enthusiastic about the church and has been taught by missionaries before. We asked him where he stays and then it got a little confusing. People in Ghana don't really have street addresses so it can be very difficult to find them. We talked to him over the phone and he told us to take a taxi to Quashie Nkwanta Station. We went and that was about a 15-20 minute ride. Then we were supposed to ask from there how to go to Onomabo. One guy told us to wait and then pulled up on his motorcycle. We hopped on and left. The whole ride there was a rocky dirt path through the jungle. It took probably 30 minutes to get to the actual place. The best part is when we got there Matthias had left to go to a soccer game. 😕 He eventually did show up and we had a good lesson. The ride back was pretty good. Except we took a different motorcycle and the guy crashed with both of us on the back. Everyone is OK, don't worry.

The rest of the week was solid. It has been raining more, but the heat still exists. Ghana is the first place I've been where it starts raining and while you take cover you start to sweat. If you look at the weather forecast it says 95° and rainy. 

Scripture of the week

Romans 8:18 -"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

This week I decided to take a bunch of pictures of the paths in our areas so that you guys could see what we see all day.

I'll see you all next week!

Elder Holyoak 

Moto ride

Missionaries 

Paths I take in our area

Our friend Guillermo (from Argentina) 

🏨 Hospital Trip 🏥 (Not for me)

A very eventful week here in Asamanketewa. From American food to hospital visits. Let's get into it.

American food

Right now I am in a 4 Elder apartment. Our apartment has me and my companion Elder Duncan, but we also have Elder Webley (who is from Washington State) and Elder Bright-Essiakoh (who is a Ghanaian). It was Elder Bright's birthday this week and Elder Webley decided he wanted to make an American dish for every day of the week. A list of the meals have been hamburgers, chili cheese dogs, potato soup, teriyaki chicken, spaghetti, french toast, and breakfast burritos. Elder Duncan and I are blessed to be in this apartment. Haha.

Biking and more biking

This week we had a baptism interview for the same boy that lives in the middle of nowhere. For the interview we told our district leader that we would have to bike pretty far. I don't think he knew how far I meant. It takes about an hour and a half to bike there and a good part of it is uphill. When we got there no one was in the house and we almost left when the boy Kelvin showed up. Kelvin is in a part member family and he speaks ZERO English so every lesson we have taught was through a translator. We were able to get the interview that we needed and then we had to bike all the way back. 

Hospital Trip

Yes, I'm fine and my companion is fine. We were walking near the main part of Asamankese on Friday when we got a call from some of the Elders in our district. One of them said he needed us to get a taxi for them so they could go to the hospital. We asked what was wrong and apparently one of the Elders threw up blood. We rushed over and got him to the hospital. We thought everything was good when we got there... until we walked into the hospital. The next hour was one of the most unorganized experiences I've ever had. We had to walk back and forth for each little test, while we were making sure our Elder didn't pass out. The funniest thing to me was that this hospital was sponsored by an energy drink called Lucozade. They had an ad for it on every sign there. We were able to figure out the problem and he has Typhoid Fever. You get Typhoid from infected water and fruits. He is on medication now and has been doing a lot better. Pray for Elder Hill.

Esubo

We held a baptism this week. It was kind of a headache trying to squeeze it in because it was also Stake Conference this week. After a bunch of struggles, everything went smoothly. The two candidates were Kelvin and Eunice. The other guy in the pictures is Ebenezer. He is from the other Elders' area. Kelvin is the boy that we bike to and he is a great kid. I don't think he's missed a day of church in months and he lives in the middle of the bush. Eunice is one of our friends and she works at a seamstress shop where a bunch of our members also work. She is super positive all of the time and Ebenezer is actually Eunice's brother. We didn't figure that out until a week ago. We were teaching Eunice and other missionaries in our area were teaching Ebenezer. Overall they are great people who will make great members.

Scripture of the week

Alma 5:40 - "For I say unto you that whatsoever is good cometh from God, and whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil."

Beautifully simple, Simply Beautiful

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak 

Well thanks for reading this monster of an email. We have been having tons of fun here and we had the chance to make another Facebook video! I'll let you all know when it is posted so that you can watch it. Thank you all for everything, you are always in my prayers and I'm grateful for every single one of you.

See you next week!

Elder Holyoak

Cool View

American Food Week

Mmmm... Cheeseburger

Chili Cheese Dawg

Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

Potato Pasta Soup

Long Bike Trip Aftermath

Village in the bush from our bike trip

Esubo

Ghana Hospital

Hospital tests sponsored by Lucozade

RIP Honda Pilot