Christmas Craziness!

Picking Up the Mail for the Week
(He does it just like a real Ghanain!)

Mission Home Open House

This week was something. We were preparing for all types of conferences and parties and such. The post office was pretty crazy this week. We spent hours there trying to pick up all of the packages. We finished our project of buying sim cards and credit for people to call home. The cost of these types of things is crazy.

Mission Home Open House

The different events we had this week. We had a Mission Home open house party on Friday. It kinda fell flat. Only a couple people showed up. We had another one on Sunday evening and a lot more people came. Even Elder Nash from the area Presidency. I was in charge of the children and coloring with them. It was a lot of fun. I was coloring this picture of Mary and Baby Jesus with this 8 year old girl. I'm asking her about school and stuff. It is quiet for a while and she just says, "They shouldn't have killed Jesus, he was a good man." It was the cutest thing ever. So we had a little discussion about Jesus. It was a really fun night.


Saturday was our bush Christmas Zone conference. It was pretty good. We made Christmas cards for our investigators. Elder Harris talked about teaching about Jesus from the Book of Mormon. Elder Koronikalou told the Nephite Christmas story. Sister Heid talked about following the spirit's promptings. It was really good because I have been thinking a lot about that lately.

Dinner with President & Sister Heid

They Ate Too Much!

Sunday there was a great talk given by one of my favorite members. Sister Owuwumi talked about Sacrifice. It was probably the best talk I have heard in Ghana. It made me think about how as missionaries we are called to sacrifice.  All God has asked is that we sacrifice a little bit, even if we don't understand. Sister Owuwumi talked about Abraham sacrificing his son. He didn't know why. It was difficult. Abraham could have said, "Oh, God knows what a struggle it was to have this child, he would want for me to keep him." He could have said, "Oh, God is talking about the other people who have more than one son." or he could have said, "I don't understand why so I won't." But Abraham didn't ask any questions. He became as a little child and became willing to make the sacrifice.

Today we had a multi-zone activity at the beach. It was super fun. I got to play football and cards and some soccer. It reminded me of how much I love the beach. I love the breeze, the sound of the waves, the sand. Oh it was so nice! I did miss the ocean though.

Anyways, I love you all. I think I will try to skype around 3 my time. Our church has been changed to only 1 hour and at 9 so I am free pretty much all day. If you have any other requests of times or anything just email me and I will be able to view it.
I love you all so much.
Elder Shelton

Brigham's Apartment
Part of the Mission Offices Complex

Mission Office & Home Complex

Getting Ready for Christmas

Fam,

This week was difficult and tiring. We are trying to get ready for Christmas and there has been so much to do. We are getting Christmas calling cards all ready and it has been stressful because its a lot of running around and trying to communicate things with the phone people. It wasn't all that easy. It was also a week after coming off of transfers which means we had a lot of office updating to do. We didn't get to proselyte at all this week. Thursday we were to stay in and deep clean because of the election. I cleaned all day and it wore me out. I don't think missionaries ever deep clean anything, (or even clean anything). So it was a lot of work. I am actually grateful for Rosa (Brigham's boss in high school when he did janitorial work at our local elementary school) for holding a high standard for cleaning. It taught me how to clean.

My new companion's name is Elder Anusiem. He comes from Nigeria. Like my other Nigerian companions he also comes from a richer demographic. His parents work for the church. He is a really cool guy. It has been a while since I have had an African companion so that has thrown me a little curve ball, especially here in the office when I am talking and trying to get things done at a million miles per hour. I have had to learn to slow down and be a good and patient teacher.

The nice thing about being in the mission home is that you feel so much more of the Christmas spirit. There is more Christmas music and food and lights and parties. The bad part is that it is making me miss home even more this Christmas than last year. But I am grateful to have senior couples and President and Sister Heid to be my family for Christmas this year.

One thing I've been thinking about that I will miss about Ghana and that I have missed since coming to the city: I miss people not caring about how they look.  I love being around people that you can walk up to and they could care less how they look. It was really refreshing.

Anyways, Questions
How are things going for your new companion?
It has been a lot different. He is still getting used to things around here but he really wants to work hard and learn things fast. He is really trying to improve in many ways.

Is he able to drive the stick shift? Can't drive at all. Our trotro got taken away unfortunately so I am not even driving the manual. We got this big ol ugly soccer mom van that can't really fit anything besides people. It really is terrible for dropping off supplies.

What was a miracle this week? I got a free T-Shirt at the Vodafone store because I asked if they had any and the woman just dashed one to me.

Tell us about the election. It was very peaceful. Ghanaians don't look for an excuse to be violent. They look for an excuse to party. So mostly it was pretty normal except there was less traffic which was nice. Then when they finally declared the winner people were just celebrating. Packing many people into small cars, hanging out the window. Honking the horn and driving fast. That's a fairly normal practice for weddings and funerals. So not much excitement.

Do you still write a weekly email to the mission president? What do you say to him? Yep, mostly he knows what I do. I usually just write him a spiritual thought I was having during the week.

What was the best thing that happened this week? We had zone training and then went to the temple. That was pretty sweet. We watched the Christmas Light the World video. It was fantastic.

I love you all,

Elder Shelton