21 Months on Mission!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well this week was pretty darn good. We spent most of the week in the cold weather--it has been really good here for the most part. Some days still it is really hot but not usually. Guess what; also I hit 21 months on mission, which was pretty good. I celebrated with some food from the package that Josh and Jenny sent. I got the package from Grandma and Grandpa. Those I have not opened yet. I will leave them for some days so that I can open them just before my birthday. Thank you everyone for the birthday packages!

Well, starting off from today, we went to play some Frisbee---it was pretty fun. I’m pretty tired now because my body has not worked that hard for a long time. I think everyone had a good time. Then yesterday we had a great week at church. Elder Pearson went to Achimota to do some interviews for Tantra hills. We had three new people come. It was really cool. One of them we met long ago. He was the first referral that we got from Brother Felix. He was a really cool guy but he just would not come to church. I felt that he would come, I just did not know when, so I was always trying to be really cool with him and stuff. Now he came. Then we had a guy that came last week. We taught him last week, on Saturday, and then we could not see him all week but he felt so good about the things we had taught him that he came to church again. Usually that does not happen. After church we went to teach him and gave him a date for the 18th, so right now we have lots of people for the 18th. Some of them could fail that date but I don’t believe they will---they are really solid people. On Saturday we also had a service project. It was pretty good--hard work of digging and stuff. I got like 200 ant bites on my feet; it was not fun at all. They are all red and swollen today. It’s not easy to wear my shoes.

We also had our baptism---4 people plus one from West Adenta. Elder Neilson did his first baptism ever. He did really well. He had one guy that was a bit of a challenge. Anyway he got it all done. Then on Sunday they had one more baptism. It was a good week. Our zone did 17 baptisms--some of the people had other stuff they had to do--so that was what happened. So in all it was a good week. Now today Elder Pearson and I are going over to Chuks, his driver, to see the plans they are going to make. Oh ya, he and his wife are cool. Chuks is from Nigeria and his wife from Ghana. I’m really excited to go and see them.

We had interviews this week with President. He did not renew my temple recommend, he said he will do it right before we go at the end of my mission and it’s only good for 3 months. That’s why he could not do it yet. He did not do Elder Pearson’s either, he will do it later. The interview for me was like 2 minutes long--he just said some things that made me really happy and that was the end. That is usually how my interviews are, sometimes I ask him questions but this time I had nothing.

I’m excited to meet Jenny’s cousin--you guys always talk about her. So that will be cool. Well this is Elder Pearson’s last week and then his parents will be here. So this week he really has only a few days of working because we have mission tour one day and Monday he will be preparing to leave and we have to get his stuff over to where he will stay. So that does not leave a lot of time for us to get things ready for my new companion to come in, but I don’t care we will still do great, I know we will. I just hope that my new companion is really cool and wants to work. This week also we have some cool FM’s (free meals) set up for the end of his mission. They should be pretty darn good. So this week we will be eating that and I also bought more stuff to make some stew for yams that will be really good. It’s like tomato paste and red oil and eggs, it’s really nice.

Elder Hale called us on Sunday and said there is a girl that is 9 years old that will be baptized the first week in September. So that is really cool.

Well, we are getting closer to you coming out here to see the great country of Africa. Just think--you will see more of Ghana in 7 days than I saw in 2 years--that will be pretty funny to me. I look forward to showing you around. It seems that we will only have to go around to 3 areas if I don’t leave this place next transfer, which I am sure that I will not leave. It would be cool to leave--but also it wouldn’t be easy to end in an area where no one knows you. Whatever happens I will be really happy.

Well that is all there is this week. Not a lot of stuff really going on, but I love you all tons and tons. It’s close to being over now so I won’t have to miss you much longer. Have a great week. I hope by next Monday I will know who my new companion is.

Love, Elder Jeremy Reid