I'm in Kasoa!

Dear Family and Friends,

I have safely arrived in my new area, Kasoa, with my wonderful new companion, Elder Okwu. I am happy to say that whatever weakness' the area once had, we have decided to change and improve that! We are looking forward to the coming weeks together. I am excited about serving in my first WARD and STAKE- definitely a blessing and the church is a lot more mature. its exciting for me. I have also never served in an area with so much wealth and educated people. I am in a whole  new world, a fish outta water. its a bit rough to get used to for me but im managing. 

The apartment is potentially very niice, but a bit discouraging because we have no running water to it.  W 

e live on the second story of a 3 story house. We fill buckets from downstairs and then carry them up to our apartment where we bath with and clean. I am so tired of succking out of my satchel bottle. we dont have a way to get water through our 3 stage filter (in lib we had a manual pump to push waterr throuugh). It looks like i am going to be buying somee bottled water today. im so exhausted of taking 5 minutes to drink a glass of water. anyways,  other than the water the apt is good. the best part ought to be that being on the second story allows me to overlook my area. Thus, as i study each day and ponder my duty to preach the gospel, i get to look out over the area i proselyte in. I enjoy the view!

I am in an apt with a new missionary in training, cant spell his name... elder vandehei... from the states. and also an elder from souuth africa named elder tapelli... allso cant spell his name. we are all pretty fun and get along well! 

The biggest news about my new area is the fact that everybody lives in houses. cement houses. and they stay inside for the most part. and about 80% of them live inside compounds. This is a bit strange for me because i am used to contacting people just relaxing outside their home because its too hot to stay inside, but now they are all hidden away from me. and to make it worse, i cant even knock doors, i have to knnock gates to compounds! anyways, it is a pretty huge adjustment for me. sure is a lot harder to find people to teach, we really rely a lot on the members for referrals. 

Elder Okwu and i get along just great. He is a fun guy, a hard worker  and so eager to learn. I often find him up eary in thee morning studying. He is willing to try new things and experiment to find succcess. He is a relatively new missionary, roughly 6 months out. 

I had a crazy experience this week that has blown my mind. Ghana has built the largest mall in west africa and it just opened this week. It just so happens to be a few minutes drive from our zone and president asked us to try a bit of contacting around there to take advantage of the excitement. When i walked inside the mall i literally shriveled up into a ball and cried. It is as nice as any mall i have ever been to in the states. it was AIR CONDITIONED, the advertizing was the same as america, everything was just so... nice! they have a supermarket inside too which is just as nice and has the same setup as walmart. I shopped in my first supermarket for the first time in over a year and a half! ah, it was so mind blowing! I didnt even buy anything! i could hardly even contact anybody either i was so in shock. I haven't imgined being in a shop like that for another 6 months. gah. it really threw me for a loop.  Im not sure i ever want to go home! it was a crazy experience forr me.  

This keyboard is a bit strange and seems to enjoy double typing letters. sorry for thee substanntial amount of typos today. Time is up so i thinnk ill end it here for today! thanks for thhe prayers on my behalf andd know that the work conntinues on here in ghana! love you!

 

-elder Fairwell

Sister Berrett is the best and makes us banana muffins! YUM