Fufu from Strangers

 Hello everyone! This week was one of the best weeks of my whole life probably. We had some amazing experiences, and I'm learning so much about the gospel and life and missionary work and the rest. It's been great. 

One big highlight this week was stake conference. Our stake split not too long ago, so this was the first Cape Coast Stake conference and wow it was good. I've been here for so long that I know quite a few people around, so it was fun to see all of them. We also had six of the people we're teaching come which was a miracle! Big blessings. 

This Sunday we also had a cool experience with Emmanuel, a guy we're teaching. We've been trying to meet with him for awhile, but he's a hard guy to track down. The Brundages, who are the senior couple missionaries here, gave us and the zone leaders a ride back to town in the backseat of their truck (which was kind of a tight fit with four big hefty Americans but we managed), and they dropped us in town outside Melcom, which is a big grocery store in Cape Coast. We got out, looked around, and there was Emmanuel, walking away from us across the street! We ran and caught up to him, and ended having a great lesson with about the Book of Mormon at his house. He's an interesting guy. He comes to church all the time and loves the Book of Mormon but doesn't want to get baptized. Hopefully we can change that soon. 

The miracles don't stop there though. The great thing about Ghana is that most everyone lives in compounds. They're basically u-shaped buildings with rooms on the outside and an open area in the middle where people cook and hang out and stuff. While we were waiting for Emmanuel to get his Book of Mormon from his room, we started talking to two ladies at the compound. One (named Rejoice) was washing clothes and the other (named Regina) was cooking fufu. I started talking with Regina, noticed she was working on fufu, and jokingly asked, "Are we invited?" Meaning, can we have some. I do this a lot to start conversations with people who are outside cooking, so I didn't think much of it. However, she said yes and was serious about it. After the lesson with Emmanuel, she told us to go and come back at 4. We did, and they made us a super nice fufu dinner with light soup! We didn't even know them, but they were just that nice. And the soup and fufu were really nice. We shared a message with them after, and we're planning to go back on Tuesday to teach Rejoice again. Blessings! 

I think that that exemplifies Ghanaians. They didn't even know us, but they gave us food, talked to us, and wanted to hear a message from us. It was awesome.

 

I know this is getting long, but I've been counseled to not shorten it by my mother so I'll just keep going. 

Things in the Cape Coast 2 area, which is in the Cape Coast District, which is in the Cape Coast Zone, which is in the Cape Coast mission are going super well. We have a baptism this Friday for Grace, Benjamin, and Anthony that we're very excited for. I love Anthony so much. We've baptized his sister, brother, and niece, and now he's also coming to Christ. It's really great. Last week he came to church alone, walking like 2 miles. He's awesome. So is Brother Yawson. He was a high school science teacher but is now retired and loves calling me and Elder Seeley his sons. Also, Grace is really funny. We were reviewing the baptismal interview questions and she told us that there's a married guy trying to take her as a second wife, but apparently they haven't broken the law of chastity and she said she'd stop talking to him so that was exciting. So basically she's a 50+ man eater. 

Anyway, life is good. I have felt so much love for this area and the people we're teaching lately. I know that God has put me here for a reason, and that this area is where I'm supposed to be. I love Ghana and Cape Coast and being a missionary. It's not easy or perfect and we make dumb mistakes a lot but God still uses us to do his work. It's amazing. 

Also, our new zone leaders are here and they're really cool. Their names are Elder Clemons and Elder Moody and they're both really cool guys. Elder Clemons is from Texas and Elder Moody is from Arizona. We've really enjoyed ourselves. 

Go feed the missionaries! 

Love, 

Elder Johnson

1. The fufu from Rejoice and Regina. It was Elder Seeley's first time eating fufu in the field and he honestly did better than me. That guy's a stud.  

2. Elder Seeley and Elder Ogdon being pallbearers at stake conference

3. The road to Anthony's place, one of my favorite houses in Ghana. 

4. A gorgeous stack of pancakes that me and Elder Seeley gently destroyed the other day. 

5 to the end: our old district: the farewell tour.