Elder Porritt in Ghana: Crazy weather in Ghana

Hello there everyone!!

One thing that has stuck out this week is the weather in Ghana. Let me just tell you that if you think a thunderstorm in Utah is big, you need to just forget that. Just forget it right now. Utah thunderstorms or just normal rainstorms in general have absolutely nothing on Ghana ones. Monday-Friday this past week I saw the 5 biggest thunderstorms of my life. The lightning goes every 3-10 seconds for hours and hours. It is unbelievable. We saw the lightning strike a telephone pole a few miles away and the thunder was deafening. And to top it all of with weather.... We were out about 5 miles away from our appartment on Friday and there was no possible way we could have made it back so we took cover but the rain just comes in sheets. It'll drop 3 inches in 10 minutes easy. The drain system is pretty good here luckily or else flooding would be massive. But when we took cover from the rain, me and Elder Snow both saw it at the same time and we about died. A funnel cloud. I have never seen one in person so that was about the scariest thing of my life. But it was huge!! So me and Elder Snow were panicking because to be honest a tornado would rip this whole city to shreds because nothing is built good. Everything here is built like you would think in Africa, a tornado would destroy everything. Thankfully when it was starting to get really really scary it started to go back up into the sky and disappeared.. So that was fun I guess haha!! Unfortunately the picture i took of the funnel was blurry...

Today has been a good P day because we went to Monkey Village which is about an hour and a half away from here in Techiman but it is just a big forest full of monkeys. We went on the tour and i probably saw 200 monkeys. It was the coolest thing ever!! They sold bananas and peanuts and the monkeys would come up and eat right out of your hand so I definitely was up for that!! It was a fun time.

The food here is getting better. Fufu is theeeee best!!! I really love fufu and one of the members here makes it for us and we have been there twice already. It is powerful food. The soup they serve it with is basically a runny tummy creator. But it tastes good so that is good haha!! I dont like Wakkye though... (rice and beans) that is pronounced wah-chay by the way. It is another big thing here in Ghana.The food is doing okay for me.

This week I learned how important the New Testament is in missionary work and it makes total sense because what is the first four books about?? Its about the Ministry of the only perfect man to ever walk this earth. Christ is the perfect example and he is who we need to pattern our lives after in all aspects of our life. Also the example of the disciples is an amazing one. They didnt know Christ but he came up to them and said "come follow me. I will make you fishers of men" and the new testament said that they 'straightway left their nets and followed him' .
We need to leave out nets and follow Christ. Worry a little less about the worldly things that dont really matter in the grand scheme and come follow Him. Be an example. Do service. Love one another. And go look at John 14:15. That scripture is one of the best ways to pattern your life. If you truly love Christ then it will be your priority to do as He says.

The work has been slow this week. Everyone here loves God and has some faith in Christ but they seem like they dont want to change the church that they go to. They have one or two lessons with us and then we never hear from them again and wont answer their phones and that is super discouraging to me because I know that we have the truth and that we can help them gain salvation but they dont want it right now.. President Cosgrave told us that we are laying the foundation of the Gospel though which means that since the GKM (Ghana Kumasi Mission) is only 3 years old, its not a susprise that the newly opened area isnt accepting the gospel right now. He says that most of our missions right now will be getting the word out of the gospel and leaving good impressions on the people here. In about 10 years or maybe less, this mission will be baptizing more people than any other mission in the world. I really believe that too. There are 27 million people in this country. When the fire of the gospel hits here, oh boy its gonna burn fast. So that is how the missionary work went this week.. Hopefully this week we find the people who need the Gospel right now!!

I love you all so much and you are all in my prayers!!

Elder Porritt