E-mail dated 6/8/15

Family and Friends,

Akwaaba! Thank you everyone for your emails and support this week. First off I need to apologize for last week and my horribly short email! Elder Loader and I weren't able to email last Monday because of an internet problem, and the rest of the week was super busy so we had very little time. I'm so sorry! It sounds like every one is excited that school is out though and that the weather in Utah was similar to Ghana! I don't remember too many massive rain storms back home, so it was surprising to me even though I'm really used to it now. Speaking of rain storms, yes, there was a tragedy in Accra this week and around 200(?) people died in a massive explosion. We have seen news excerpts and a few articles, but the harshest reality was seeing pictures on peoples phones that are on the internet of piles of dead bodies being carried away by trucks. I've seen some pictures I won't soon forget! Thankfully the missionaries were safe and that the President of Ghana is doing all he can to try and make sure it doesn't happen again. It been pretty crazy.

For me this past week has been pretty eventful! On Tuesday, all of Dunkwa went down to Praso for a zone conference with President Stevenson and it was a lot of fun. It was an all day event though, so we were exhausted by the time we got back! The rest of the week Elder Loader and I began to fill our schedule with new investigators because our teaching pool decreased a little bit after our baptism of 4 on May 30th! Thankfully, we've had great success and have some potential people to join the Church on June 20th. Along with new investigators this week, we had 14 Recent Convert lessons(!). I absolutely love my recent converts. Abigail is doing great, and she loves her calling in the primary. Evans and his family are so strong in the gospel and he makes great contributions in the gospel doctrine class as he answers investigators questions. Sarfo is still preparing to go on his mission, and Matilda is preparing to go to the temple next year and receive her endowments! It's been amazing to see what the Lord has been able to do with this area in the few short months that I have been able to serve here. I'm so blessed!

This week actually got pretty dang cold here in the mornings (24 degrees celcius!) and I had to sleep under my covers without a fan on me at night. It felt great! Hopefully it can continue, but I don't know if it will. Also, today was a really fun day as the Praso district came to Dunkwa for the first time ever and we had a P-Day activity! We played football for a few hours at a park near our apartment and then we pounded massive fufu! We had over 20 servings prepared and it was delicious. We have to email a little late today, but it's well worth it!

To answer your questions:

1) Zone Conference was awesome. I think President Stevenson may have uploaded some pictures on his blog! I don't know if I'm in any of them, but it will give you an idea of the building that we had the instructions in!

2) All of Evans family came to church on Sunday, but John was in Kumasi so he couldn't make it! Everything is great though and we are now using him to help us teach a man who lives in the same compound as him. Seeing the testimonies of recent converts is so powerful.

3) No, there's no amusement parks anywhere in West Africa besides Nigeria! Nigeria is by far the nicest and most developed country in this part of the world. 

4) The kids here actually recently went back to school! They were off for all of May and then they will vacate again in August for a month or two. The kids play football, help their parents and do whatever they want. There is a channel here called 4Kids and it plays a lot of Disney Channel shows and kids movies. The other night Elder Loader and I were able to watch part of Enchanted and it was awesome! (It was playing at Solomon's house and his kids were watching it)

5) The package is here in Ghana! Just not in Dunkwa... I got a text from the Office Elders telling me that it had arrived, but it may take a few weeks before it actually gets to me. I will let you know as soon as I get it!

Thank you all again for the emails and your support this week. I hope that everyone stays safe and enjoys their summer! I love all of you.

Love,

Elder Degen