Alligators!!

Hello there everyone!!

I hope everyone is having a great week!! Here in Ghana things have sure been better than the last few weeks.  For one, the teaching is getting a lot better.  We are seeing more people and we have been able to talk to and teach more people this week which sure has been great!

You all remember D and J, the two high school kids, well the last 2-3 weeks they have basically dropped off the face of the earth. they just stopped meeting with us completely. well this week we figured out it was because they went home for like 2 weeks because they had a short vacation from school but they are back and they are so so ready to learn more about the Gospel!!  So this week we have been teaching them a lot and that has been awesome!! We even went on Saturday morning and played basketball with them and a few of their friends at the high school which was soooo fun!   But man they have hops. The kids we were playing with couldn't make a normal shot to save their life but man they could hammer down.  They were dunking like it was nothing.  Although i don't think the rim was quite at 10 ft but they were throwing it down easy haha.  But we absolutely smoked them haha.  But seriously D and J are the best ever.  They are really serious about wanting to be baptized  and they show up to be taught all the time which is so so so awesome! We are hoping that they will be ready to be baptized by next week because there is a possibility that we wont be here for the next Sunday because that week is transfers.  But we wont be baptizing them unless they are really prepared because we don't want them to get baptized and then go less active two weeks later because that is something that happens a lot here in Ghana.. We have lots of less actives and that is one thing we are trying to work on too is to get them back to church.  But man. The work is going a lot better here this week that is for sure! 

But another sweet thing that happened Saturday when we were at the high school was absolutely crazy.  We were walking back to the entrance of the high school and D and J told us to follow them over to a big cement block thing and we couldn't tell what it was but we got up to the edge of it and you never would have guessed but a dang alligator jumped up and almost killed us hahahahaha.  I have now seen two alligators and i will say that i would not mess with one because they are so scary hahaha. Those things will snap whenever they want and you wont even see them coming for you.  Ha it is a good thing they have them caged up basically in a huge cement fort. But man it was sweet!!!

Well folks, I hope that all of you are doing awesome.  I want to encourage everybody that sees this to just keep pushing forward.  Enduring to the End is something that we are commanded to do. and to follow that commandment we need to:

1- keep the commandments.

2-repent of our sins always
3-partake of the Sacrament worthily each week

4-repeat

As a representative of Jesus Christ, I promise you in the Name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that Living the Gospel Principles WILL bless your life. Our Heavenly Father tells us: "I am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise"

Live the commandments, live worthily, and you will be blessed. That is a promise. The blessings may not come how or when you think or want, but they will come.

I love you all so much and hope that you have an amazing week!!

Love 

Elder Porritt

We found a shop that has American candy!!! hallelujah!!

 Ghana doesn't know what Thanksgiving is but You already know that Thanksgiving will be a party with an American companion. We will be following a strict schedule this Thursday, but man we might need to fast Tuesday and Wednesday to be able to live through all of Thursdays activities:)

 This small boy wasn't exactly fun to see... we will just say that the insectiside spray was busted out in record time.

11/16/2015

Hello there everyone!!!

Well this week was really slow.  Elder Snow was pretty sick from Wednesday-Saturday so we didnt even go out most of the week.. even if we would have went out, it would have been hard for us to compete with the crusade that went down this week...

I have never ever seen anything so ridiculous in my life as what I saw with that crusade.  There was well over 10,000 people that gathered in the park and on the streets and just everywhere around that place and holy cow it was stupid.  we went down there on Thursday night to see the scene and I got a pretty good video of it all going down but the video is too big to send home.  The people just yelling hallelujah and jumping up and down. wowzer it was a site to see. I sent a picture of the sign they have had around town for a few months.  It is pretty comical haha!

We only taught one lesson this week.. So that was pretty crappy, we just were in the apartment all week because of the sickness.. but we are really ready and excited for this week. We are excited to see who we can find and bring closer to our Heavenly Father!!

The one thing that was awesome that happened this week was this.  Ghana is cool because when original baseball, football, basketball jerseys are made for Americans, a lot of times there are factory mistakes on jerseys and they cant sell those jerseys online or in American stores so they send them to these African countries like Ghana and they send them for free and the people here can get them for free and sell them for however much they want. so get this.  Nolan Ryan, Cooperstown Jersey. Houston Astros, #34, 25 cedis which is the equivalent of about 6 US dollars.  If you find a nolan ryan cooperstown jersey in america for under 100 dollars you let me know hahaha I got this thing for 6 bucks and it is sweet!! I know he played most of his time with the Rangers but he did play with the Astros for a while and this jersey is awesome!!! I am so excited about it.  Elder Snow also found a Chauncey Billups and Tracy McGrady jersey both are New York Knicks jerseys haha so that was a pretty cool part of this week!!

Well that is all that happened this week, I know its not much but it was hard because we didn't really get out of the apartment much.  I hope all is going well for all of you back home.  I love you all so much!! I know the Book of Mormon is true and I would encourage you all back home to read every single day from it.  It will help you no matter where you are in life.  I know that is true. 

Love, 

Elder Porritt

Here is the description of the Crusade... very interesting. these signs are literally everywhere.

view from behind.. during the night this place was packed with at least 12 thousand people... maybe more... it was unreal.

Us and Mobby just acting cool

1st Transfer on the Mission

Well I am being transfered.  haha just kidding!  But yesterday was the last day of my first transfer and I will be staying in Techiman with my good pal Elder Snow.  man that kid is awesome and we get along so well!! I am really enjoying my time with him but Wow it was a rough week here in Ghana.

As far as teaching about the Gospel, we aren't doing too well.. It just seems like every person we talk to is not serious.  They accept the commitments to be baptized and to come to church, to read the Book of Mormon, etc. but they won't do any of them.  We are struggling with the people here because they are really stubborn and they don't want to change their ways.

We did meet one guy who we think might be a bright spot here.  His name is Dennis.  (Basically there are like 10 names in Ghana for men.  It seems like everyone we talk to is named Dennis, Phillip, Kofi, Daniel, etc. just a lot of basic names haha)  But so Dennis.  He is a professional footballer.  He plays for a Class 2 Ghana team which is like AAA compared to MLB but for soccer. But he actually is looking to go to Europe to go try out for Barcelona, Chelsea, Madrid, one of the big boys over there so this guy is sweet!! and he is super super nice!!   We taught him this week and he likes the message and wants to learn more but the problem is that at any time, his coach in Kumasi can call him and tell him that they their vacation is over and that they need to report back to Kumasi for training so we are just praying that he gets to stay over the holidays like he is hoping as well.  But he seemed really interested so I guess we will see about him throughout this next week.

Now this week there were some interesting things.  Elder Snow became a surgeon.  I don't know if you have seen the side of my big toe lately but some will remember it, it came from pitching when my toe would slide but I have that huge callace/wart on it and it has been hurting me recently so Elder Snow performed an operation and I will say that it was the most painful thing that I have ever experienced in my life and I really don't even know if it is going to be better for sure.. I will send pictures but man it was not pretty.

One thing that stands out here are the insects/ spiders.  They are huge.  We saw a spider the other day that was like 4-5 inches diameter.  They just keep getting bigger as we keep seeing them and I do not like that at all..  The bees, the mosquitos just every single thing is bigger and looks scarier haha i don't like that kind of stuff at all!!

One thing I want to share with you this week come from 'Jesus the Christ' by James E. Talmage.  If you haven't read this book I would encourage you to read it. it is amazing.  This is what i read.

What other man has lived with power to withstand death, over whom death could not prevail except through his own submission? Yet Jesus Christ could not be slain until His “hour had come,” and that, the hour in which He voluntarily surrendered His life, and permitted His own decease through an act of will. Born of a mortal mother He inherited the capacity to die; begotten by an immortal Sire He possessed as a heritage the power to withstand death indefinitely. He literally gave up His life; to this effect is His own affirmation: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”^q And further: “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.”^r Only such a One could conquer death; in none but Jesus the Christ was realized this requisite condition of a Redeemer of the world.

I want all of you to really think about what that says and what it means to you that Jesus Christ, the perfect, humble Savior of the world, gave his perfect life for YOU!!! Think about that and think about what you need to do to show your love for Him.  He is our example.  He is who we need to pattern our life after.  We need to try and be like Him! I love Him. I know that he gave his life for me and my sins. He is perfect. I want to be like Him and I want you to be like Him too.

I love you all so much and I send my greeting from the one and only Ghana.

Elder Porritt

My Toe Before Surgery

Our District

Mobby is the Man, except he leads us through this crap...

Our Breakfast the other day haha, it's an indomie sandwich:) actually really good, Elder Snow showed it to me.

Happy Halloween from GH!

Happy Halloween from GH!!

I hear it has been really cold back home which stinks!! But it has been really really cold here too.. I think the low this week was 90 with about 80% humidity haha.. It is toasty around these parts now.  And you all know how much i sweat.. Every day when we get back to the apartment its about as if i jumped into a swimming pool haha!!

Anyway wow it was a really hard week.. I actually got sick Thursday and couldn't even get up out of bed because i was so sore..  I pretty much slept the entire day.. Other than that just this week I don't know why but people dont want to see us for some reason.. every time we try and go see people they are either not home or they are too busy or they have some excuse and don't want to talk and man.. It is hard.. It is hard to have patience because I know we have the truth and i want them to be able to have the truth as well but they are too busy for some reason.. Plus another great thing is called Market Day.  If its market day, 90% of the whole city goes to the market because people sell their stuff for cheaper on market day. So guess what day market day is? Wednesday. And Thursday. and Friday.  Soooo that is about the crappiest thing ever because those three days it seems like a ghost town around here..

Halloween was surely the bright spot for the week! and you will get the description of what we did in my pictures!! WHOOOO!!  But it just so happened that on the morning of halloween elder Snow found a spider that was about 3 inches wide with its legs out.. sounds small but you go grab a ruler and see if you want that spider on the wall a foot from your face then decide what you would have done if you would have seen it hahaha!!

We have been studying the Twi book of Mormon because why not!! We actually speak a little Twi because the people here like to see if we can speak and they wont speak English with us so that is for sure a trial for me because right now i know about 20 words in the Twi language..

So you remember D and J? well they are progressing but they haven't came to church so its struggling a tiny bit.. They love everything we teach them and they accept everything and they really really want to be baptized but we cant actually baptize them until they have been to church three times and they have only came once so we really need them to come or else we wont be able to baptize them! Other than them, we have nobody progressing which is so dang hard.. Elder Snow says that Techiman is probably the hardest zone in the entire mission and if i can get through it here and have a good attitude then when I leave Techiman, the numbers and the teaching and everything will get better! But I really love Techiman even though it is tough for teaching.. I just want people to have the truth..

I know this Gospel is the truth.  I know that it was restored through Joseph Smith.  I know that Jesus Christ gave his perfect life for us.  He suffered every single pain that has ever been felt and he died for us.  I hope you all can think about what that really means.  Think about what he actually did for YOU! He loves you! and I love you all too!! I hope all is going well for you all!! Have such an awesome week!!

Love Elder Porritt

 Halloween costume #1 -Futbolers.  My team was Asante Kotoko Which is a Ghana professional team. Their mascot is the Porcupine!!

 Costume #2 - We dressed up as missionaries!! hahaha solid picture here for sure!!

 Pictures of my favorite boys in this whole country!!!!

These two are the biggest studs ever!!  They are the coolest kids on the Block!!

FUFU YUM!!