April 9th, 2012

Family,
Man, that Kayaking sounds like a ton of fun. We hiked up a HUGE mountain this morning and it really reminded me of all the times we would do stuff outdoors and up in the mountains. It was an awesome experience. The whole mountain is just covered in jungle and some parts look like Tarzan where all the vines hang down. No animals though. I took a ton of pictures, but I'll just send a few of my favorites. We probably walked a good 8 miles to get there and then maybe 1.5 miles up the mountain on a very steep incline. They didn't have the back and forth trails like we do back in Utah, so we just hiked straight up the mountain. We talked with the chief of the small village at the bottom of the mountain and he insisted that he pray for us before we go up. So he took a shot glass, poured some alcohol into it, and said a prayer while he shook the glass a little bit at a time until he had thrown all the alcohol out onto the ground. It was pretty dramatic and I had to get a picture with him. After he did the little ritual he poured his glass full again and started drinking. One of the members hiked up the mountain with us and he gave this chief guy 2 cedis for praying for us. The member tried to say we were fine and that we didn't need the prayer, but the chief insisted. The chief (Ohene [oh-hee-nee] in Twi) assigned two 10-year-old boys to take us up the mountain. When we got so far up the mountain we found a man who had a corn field up in the mountain. He had a machete and offered to take us to the top because the little boys led us the wrong way. Turns out he didn't know the way and just forged his own path by chopping everything down with his machete as we followed behind. Eventually we came to some huge rock wall that we couldn't get past. By that time we were all tired so we just went back down the hill and finished. It was a lot of fun and I probably sweated my weight's worth in water.
So I got the packages from home; two from you guys and the one from Goo and her mom. I wore the shirt that they sent me in the package, it's nice! Tell them thanks! I'll send pictures. The chocolate was and still is awesome! I appreciate the cookie dough mixes too. We have oil that I can put small in the mix to help it be better. i even found out they make margarine here too. You have to buy it in huge bucket quantities, but it's here. Pretty much anything they make here can be set out in the sun for months and you can still eat it; like their fried fish....gross. Those pencils were great, just the kind I needed! Thanks!
This last week proselyting was a little hard. We went from 11:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night going from place to place, from appointment to appointment, and no one would sit down with us. Mondays and Thursdays here are what they call "market days". On market days, every one lines the streets with things to sell. You can usually buy things for cheaper on market days too. But amongst all this, NO ONE IS AT HOME. It makes it very difficult to try and go around and teach lessons. Even after they all finish around 6 or 7, no one will meet with you because they say they're tired. So we went the whole day with no lessons. That was hard, but I imagine other missions have it worse, so I'll be grateful for what I got. The sun is difficult to work with here, It's just always so hot and it makes you tired, so sometimes I'm sure other people think we look like we're about to drop dead as we ride our bikes down the streets with our helmets on while the sun beats down on us. My companion is awesome though, I hope they keep us together next transfer. We find out tomorrow. Elder Thom, our district leader is training a new missionary, so at least one person from our apartment is leaving.
Mom mentioned something about rain causing depression. It doesn't rain nearly enough here to do that, but it does have it's occasional heavy, but brief, rainstorms. Almost all the time everything is bright and sunny. My companion says it's not that way in Nigeria. He says it's usually cloudy and cool during the rainy season and he says Ghana is even more hot than his place in Nigeria (Aba State).
Well, that's what's been happening this last week. The work is starting to slow a little bit and we're having to work harder because people aren't just flowing into the church like they were last month, but it's all good. I can't tell you how much the Book of Mormon is loaded with brilliant patterns that solve life's problems. Captain Moroni is the bomb. Just to re-tell a story in the Book of Mormon: Captain Moroni leaves Zarahemla (the main city) and goes out with his armies to re-capture some Nephite cities that had been lost to Lamanite armies. So while he's working hard and fighting with everything he and his armies have, he sends an "epistle", or a letter, back to Zarahemla to Pahoran (the chief judge) and pretty much tells them off for not sending provisions to the soldiers that were defending their freedom. Then Pahoran sends a letter back explaining that we had been kicked out the judgement seat because of some political up-rises and that's why he hasn't been able to send any provisions to Moroni's armies. So Moroni sends his armies back up to take over Zarahemla again, and ultimately kill everyone who is causing trouble. Moroni then makes a law that anyone fighting against/ preventing the cause of freedom in the land would be put to death immediately. Just to quote a couple verses, it says, "...he was exceedingly wroth because of the stubborness of those people whom he had labored with so much diligence to preserve; yea, he was exceedingly wroth; his soul was filled with anger against them." (Verse 14) Then after he kills and imprisons all the people causing these up-rises against their freedom it says "for there was no time for their trials at this period". He just gets things done! He doesn't have time for those people who are being stupid. ha, anyways, I really love the Book of Mormon.
I hope everything is going well at home, everything is going well here! I'll send the pictures now. I love my family! Thanks mom and dad for the way you raised me, I really could have ended up different if my parents were weird. ha

Love, Dallin (Elder Littlefield)