🇬🇭 Happy Birthday Ghana! 🇬🇭

3/6/23

Ghana Independence Dayyyy!!!!

Welcome back to my email, I'll give you a little update on the last week.

First things first, we don't have water in our apartment. I've been in this area for a little over a month now and we haven't had water from the main line since I got here. We talked to our landlord and he told us the people who owned the place before him were in huge debt with the water company so when he got here he had to start paying it off. They let him have water for a few months but right before I came they just cut all of the water completely. They've filled our water tank twice and both times it has been empty in under a week. We think there is a leak or a problem with the pipes. So we've been using water buckets to shower and to flush the toilets. We also wash all of our dishes with bags of water. The place we get the buckets of water from might run out soon so we have to ration. It's all good though, at least we still have electricity. Sleeping without fans is terrible.

This week I went on exchange with Elder Sowards in the Gbawe area. Not really much to say about the exchange. Elder Sowards is a super cool dude from Colorado. They are teaching a taxi driver named Amen. We saw him like 4 times the whole day in different places. Every time he was super excited to see us.  

Everyone in Ghana loves soccer and most of the time they talk about the English Premier League. Liverpool beat Manchester United 7-0. Let's go Liverpool! Sorry Rashford. It started a lot of funny conversations with the YSAs in our ward and it's been pretty funny to listen to.

Last Monday we had a multizone activity with the Lartebiokorshie Zone. Lar-ta-B-O-core-she. It was good seeing some friends and we played some basketball. I taught a lesson about missionary safety. You'll see by the bike helmet picture, I used an object lesson to get one of my points across. I also ordered pizza from a guy named Daniel in my last area so it was good to see him again.

Yesterday we had the baptism for our friends Elizabeth and Mercy. They were both more than ready. Both were super fun to teach because they were honest and loved asking questions. The whole ward welcomed them so quickly and I was very happy to see that. I love the church in Ghana because most of the other churches I have seen here just lie and take peoples money. Even the churches that are great in the US are completely different here and corrupt on the inside. Stealing money from people with real faith in their words. If anything at all I am happy to be here helping people in Ghana not fall into a trap like that.

1 John 4:8-"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Love everyone around you and feel God's love stronger.

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

Thanks my week. Hope you're all good. Email so we can catch up. See you next week!

Elder Holyoak 

Nana Yaw

Exchange with Elder Sowards

Gbawe

Teaching at Multizone

Multizone

Multizone Activity

Elder Arthur's Birthday

Small Yaw

Elizabeth and Mercy Baptism

Pants

😁

😧

2/27/23

Email timeeeee

This week was great. It was my birthday and an Apostle visited Ghana. 

Tuesday was my birthday and I want to say thank you to everyone for all of the wishes. I turned 20 years old. It was really just a normal proselytizing day, but for lunch we went to KFC and one of our members made us some delicious Jollof rice for dinner. 

In the past weeks we have been preparing some friends for baptism. There are two small girls named Kezia and Esther. They are pretty hard to teach sometimes because all of the kids around that like to join the lesson and make noise. Another one is a woman named Elizabeth. Her husband is a member and she loves the church. The last one is a girl named Mercy. I'm almost sure she has photographic memory because she can quote some of the pamphlets word for word. I asked her how and she said, "I read it once and then I close my eyes and keep thinking about it until I remember it." 

Elder Christofferson came to Ghana this last week. Sadly he didn't visit the missionaries but he was able to meet with the president of Ghana. That was really cool to see especially because he gave him a Book of Mormon. King Lamoni???

My time is ticking in Ghana and I'm doing everything I can to work hard and enjoy it. I've learned so much in this past 19 months.

Scripture of the Week

Alma 40:25 - "And then shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of God."

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

I love all of you! Have a great week.

Elder Holyoak

Exchange with Elder Collier

Shortcut

Oh!! Nipa Ye Mobco

Ghana is HOT!

Jollof Rice

Gari and Cabbage Stew

Elder Christofferson and Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo

Book of Mormon Gift

📸 💣

 I'll send out a nice email next week, here's some cool pictures for you this week. 

🎂 EMAIL ELDER HOLYOAK: TOMORROW IS HIS BIRTHDAY (FEB. 21) 🎂

aidan.holyoak@missionary.org

Fro Yo

Valentine's Day

Sunday

Teaching Esther and Kazia

Happy Birthday Sister Zua

Tree Cutting

Recap

2/13/23

It's been a while. I've got a lot to update about.

We had the baptism for our friends Joyce, Blessing, and Charity. They are all super cool and it was a great service. That same day we received our transfer news and I heard that I was getting sent to the Odorkor Ward in the Kaneshie Zone. I was pretty bummed to leave Alajo, but I have been there for 7 months so it was probably time. I send my goodbyes all of that next week. 

Transfers were delayed a little bit so I didn't leave until that next Friday. We had MLC and Elder Zile, my last companion, came to stay in Alajo for 2 days. We got to proselyte with him and he came to my last midweek too. Elder Vogelsberg replaced me and he's a great missionary so I know that Alajo is in good hands with him and Elder Gemah.

I came to Odorkor on Friday morning and met my companions Elder Heaton and Elder Arthur. Elder Heaton was going home that next Wednesday so we were in a trio for a few days. Those few days were a lot of fun, meeting members and eating a lot of food. Elder Heaton was saying all of his goodbyes and I was meeting people at the same time.

On one Saturday Sister Jacobsen, our Mission Mom, took us to an art market. There was a ton of super cool stuff and I got a few things. Elder Heaton got the legendary zombie mask as a gift from the mission home.

On Monday we went to the beach with our district and it was actually really clean. Definitely nicer than the last beach I went to. We did some flips and bought some cool stuff again. I also learned how to drum from a guy there.

On Wednesday we went to District Council and then escorted Elder Heaton to the mission home. It felt really weird to see someone go home. I felt a small fraction of all of the weird feelings he had that day. I'm coming up on 5 months left so my day is coming soon too. 

The other few days in the area have just been working and learning. It's a pretty big area with a lot of people and places to remember. The ward is super cool though. One lady in our ward was on the Family Feud!

Scripture of the Week

Matthew 5:8 - "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Contacts

Email - aidan.holyoak@missionary.org 

Facebook - Aidan Holyoak

That's a small wrap up of the past 3 weeks. If you want to hear more text or email me and we can talk about it. See you next week!

Elder Holyoak

New Trio - Elder Heaton and Elder Arthur

MLC

Elder Heaton

Goodbye Elder Heaton

Masks

Beach Day

Odorkor

This is where we teach lessons

Drumming on the beach