E-Mail 7/30/2012

Dear Family,

Sorry about last week. Ya Sis. Shulz called us last week just to check
up on me. Everythings good it’s just the internet.  I have a pretty
sweet email from last week that is hopefully saved in the drafts. I
can’t really remember all the stuff that has happened this past week.
I know the pres of Ghana died. The Olympics started (what devin gets
to do is sooo unfair), and Swedru zone is pretty much the zone in the
district. Lately I’ve been somewhere in the middle with attitude on
mission. Like overall i’m happy but with day to day things I’m not.
Maybe I’m happy but I’m not enjoying. Anyways for the email about
grandpa is that Great grandpa? That’s what I got out of it but I was
unsure. As for the transfers I didn’t think it worked like that but I
guess I am wrong. I know a few people still got moved around but my
zone is exactly the same. I figured you guys wouldn’t enjoy Batman but
I’m pretty sure I will. I love that the league of shadows is back. I
don’t care for the catwoman. This movie sounds sweet. They follow the
comics when Bane first meets batman bane ends up breaking batmans
back. Then Alfred nurses him back to health. I’m confused that you
aren’t sure over whether he lives or not. But as for the justice
league batman doesn’t necessarily need to be in it. I remember the
guys involved talking about not doing justice league. The darker
themes of these movies probably won’t fit for justice league anyway.
Batman,by the way, is just an honorary member of the league. He is one
of the founders but he isn’t full time. I don’t know how they’ll
handle batman in the justice league movies but I think the avengers
will be better than them. I’m sorry about your guys car troubles. Just
something new every week. Maybe you guys should buy a ford ranger. The
mightiest vehicle in all the land. As long you love it The Ranger
never dies. Seriously though you guys don’t have to worry. You pay
your tithing, you’re supporting 3 kids on missions, you’re temple
worthy, you magnify you’re callings, etc. It’s just like the people of
Alma when they fled the armies of king Noah. They were totally
righteous but the Lord still sent things to chasten them.
“Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people ;yea, he trieth
their patience and their faith” The people just had to bear their
afflictions patiently and everything worked out fine. Even think of
that scripture in Romans 5. I think you guys even sent this one to me.
“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that
tribulation worketh patience;  And patience, experience; and
experience, hope:” so really this is just something that is there to
build your faith regardless of how hard it may be. Now the work
related business. We’re having a problem with a few of our recent
converts who are under age. Their parents are either telling them to
work on sundays or miss church so they can have money to go to school
or something like that. We’re trying to get in to talk to the parents
and luckily we need translators for both of them so we have to
coordinate that as well. We also had a run in with a polygamous this
past two week sort of. We met the family of a member. I had never
recognized her before or most of her children but they are pretty
active i guess. Well it turns out her husband has two wives. He’s
baptized and everything. soooo yaa? We didn’t find out that he had two
wives from them but from correlation meeting. Not quite sure what to
do there. We have finally figured Mary, James wife. She is going to
come this friday for a interview, go back to where ever, come back the
next week for Holy ghost, then the following weeks she’ll get a job
and work until all the marriage stuff is worked out. Sweet!!!!!
everything works out. We have a girl Eunice that we’ve been working
with for awhile and she’s finally started coming to church so we’re
hoping she’ll be ready by next month. Then finally Big Boy Ransford.
Let me tell you fast about Ransford. His mother called us over as we
passed by to come and take his to church because he wasn’t going to
any and he said that one day he was going to come to the church at
junction (ours). Sweet. He understands all that we’ve so far and he’ll
probably be ready very soon. He might struggle giving up a few things
but other than that he’s set. Well that’s all the ime I have. Love you
all. Glory in tribulation because it builds your faith.
From your son,
Elder Holder

E-Mail 7/16/2012

Dear Family,
 
       Sorry for the short message and the late hour. Through some poor planning this day we are emailing later than usual so I’m trying to just to get a little something in for next week. This past week has been good. One of the other guys in the apartment has been on a role lately and has just been chastising us for a whole bunch of stuff. Holy Cow. I actually find it funny but it does get old. We also started teaching this one kid, James Blay. He is super stubborn. He was staying with a pretty strong member family in the branch. It was kind of sweet to see his progress even in a week. He had started coming to church two weeks ago. Then we started teaching him. He said he would never join he just had some questions. Then it was just that he wouldn’t take the Book of Mormon. He didn’t want the people at his house to sit in the lessons because they were “deceivers”. Anyways it moved up to he’ll join but not go on a mission to he’ll go on a mission but he won’t obey all the rules. It’s been cool. My lesson with him was when we got his brother Kotey to sit in on the lesson. His brother just gave it to him the entire time. Not the route I would have taken but it did save us like 15 or 20 minutes so that we didn’t have to resolve his “questions”. He left this morning. I think I’ll miss him but that’s how things go I guess. Transfer news is this Saturday so we’ll see if I stay here in Kojo Bedu. Oh by the way Dad, I’m in a town called Winneba. It’s like 50 miles west of Accra. So you can tell Nat that. We had a baptism on Sunday. Cecilia. She been taught just about since I got here. It’s been a long time. I decided I don’t like her step father who I believe is drunk or intoxicated most of the time. Luckily through some work we were able to get everything we needed. She’s a sweet girl. 15 yrs. old and her birthday was on saturday. With the magik kpackage we’ve gotten a few people to start helping us a lot and we actually didn’t do all that much to get them to. The Magik works. Alright I’ll wrap up because I need to go. Today I saw a guy climb a thirty or forty foot tree. He sells coconuts. He ran out so he decided to just climb one and get more. No safety equipment or anything. Just went up forty feet. Also the coconuts cost about 50 peswas. Although I guess he knocked four down so that’;s 2 cedis. 40 ft. high for 2 cedis. Cool.  Thank you guys for everything. I’ll do better next week. me odom mo.
Your beloved son
Elder Holder

E-Mail 7/9/2012

Dearest family,

Glad to hear things are going well. Things have been alright with me
I guess. Hold up I’m trying to remember what happened last week. We’ve
been seeing James at his new job at the church. He might actually not
be as married to his wife as we thought. Here in Ghana the church will
recognize some traditional thing called the “knocking” for marriage to
allow baptism. It’s like asking for bride price or something like
that. We asked him if he had done it and he said ya but the branch
president said he didn’t finish it. So he may have accidently been
baptized outside the bonds of marriage.  Oops. Once he gets money he
is going to get it done by the legal way. This new job is paying him
way more. A whopping 10 cedis a day. Before he only got 4. Let’s 10
cedis is about 7 dollars and ya that’s actually fairly good here. As
me and my companion have gone about we kind of are slacking on working
with members but the magik is working still. In one way or another we
got referrals from each of the people we chose. Clarissa brought a
friend to church, Charles brought us to a person, and the Anane’s want
missionary’s to start teaching their grandmother who lives in a
village somewhere. Everything is actually working pretty well. Now we
just have to reset the Magik. 4th of July was super. I sang my country
tis of thee and my companion was being kind of a wet blanket all week.
Then later that night I sent a text to a companionship where one is
from the UK. I don’t think he saw it but I thought it was funny. It
goes like this. “Ask Elder Moore how it feels for his back water
country to be beaten by rebels 200 years ago. They were supposed to be
the best in the world and couldn’t even keep one colony from becoming
the greatest nation on earth. GO AMERICA!!!!!” Other than that nothing
special about 4th of July. As for the mission crush don’t worry. it’s
no big deal. I just think she’s really cute is all. We’ve just been
trying to get her and her brother active again. It’s slowly working.
As for the other less actives they didn’t really come to church so we
got to check on that. It’s hard because one of them doesn’t speak
english at all. It’s coming along. My companionship is still
struggling a bit. We had a discussion to try to fix things on saturday
but it’s still kind of meh. I figured today I’m doing what I’m
supposed to so if elder dikane is going to get offended or upset the
rest of the time we’re together I won’t worry about it. Especially if
he won’t tell me what’s wrong. Hopefully things will change but if not
I’ll be contented. Let’s see, splits tomorrow, Pres. Shulz is visiting
us on Wednesday and a baptism Interview on Thursday. Oh Cecilia who
we’ve been teaching about ever since I got here in winneba is finally
ready to be baptized. Thank goodness. It has taken a very long time.
She is actually pretty solid. She’s in the choir and has been coming
every week for the most part. That’s all I got right now. As for the
contacts I’ll see if I can find my prescription. I’m pretty sure I
brought it with me. Transfers are in two weeks so I might be sent off
somewhere. We’ll see.

Tootles family,
Your son,
Elder Holder

E-Mail 7/2/2012

Dearest family,
 
 Oh beloved members of the house of which I have come from. Lots of good things happened this past especially yesterday. I at least am thanking it to the “Magik”. Last Wednesday the Assistants came and gave Me and Dikane an assignment. It was a complete new way of working with members. Instead of just going and asking for things you actually just go ask and ask them to pray for the area of which you reside. Seems simple but choosing the right people proved difficult. Anyways we are supposed to follow up and somehow get referrals in our next visit but have been unable to do so. Well we went and visited three members and asked if they could pray for the area. They thought we were just coming to ask for referrals so it actually caught them a little off guard. I guess just asking for a few prayers actually works pretty dang well. Yesterday great and marvelous things happened. First James was confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Earlier my companion and I went and picked an investigator who I first met when I got to Kojo Bedu. She has never come once. She was there yesterday. A less active woman who we’ve only stopped by a few times and doesn’t understand english came.  Another less active we met earlier this week. I was blown away on sunday. Also heard a sweet conversion story of a member who we’re going to right after this. essentially she knew someone in the church and one morning just decided to go visit to see. She ended up loving the teachings and how the Church does things and then brought her husband into it as well. This woman is powerful and I never knew. If nothing else is accomplished this Magik just builds relationships between missionary’s and members. Which is really all that we need. Yesterday was sweet. Especially since I have a mission crush on one of the less actives that came. Curse you mission crushes. Anyways as for the other things. James was falsely accused of stealing and that’s why he was arrested. Our apartment is out of food and out of money. Something was wrong with the cash today so no one in my area got their whole subsistence. Elder Dikane kind of stopped talking to me. I don’t know why. Every time I ask him if anything is wrong he says nothing but he barely talks to me. Soooo proselyting has been super fun the last few days. Now for the iron story then i’ll be finished. sort of. Well it was a rainy night and I needed to take a shower. My companion had already went to bed to I was walking in my towel trying to get more dry. I walked by the ironing board and was like “well i’m actually cold right now maybe the iron will warm and dry me up a little” so I turned it on, held it across my chest and part of my stomache. It wasn’t really warming up all that fast so i wasn’t worried. Theenn I decided that my stomach needed it more and somewhere between rotating the iron to go sideways on my stomach it got pretty freakin’ hot and gave me a burn mark on my right side while I questioned to my self “Ouch, Why am I being STUPID?!” So that’s that story. Um yes i am on my last pair and i was wondering if you ever sent my license or not. It’s kind of important I guess.
Anyways fair thee well oh beloved family of back home. Now my family is my apartment and branch of which I serve until I return unto thee.
Your greatest missionary of the childish sort
Elder Holder