I Didn't Shower or Shave for 8 Days… It Was Great!

Email from 12/16

Happy happy birthday Tali dear, happy days will come to you all year, if I had a wish then it would be a happy happy birthday to you from me!

Afishiapaa!!! Happy Birthday!

I hope you're enjoying! You are now entering the double digits and I am about to enter the single digits until I return home! (because he has 9 months left) See you soon!

Email from 12/18

I sent off a few quickies Monday. We only got a few minutes because the internet was down and yesterday the power was off, but I get this out now so good luck!

The Trip to Accra was terrible! :P My goodness:  rode in a trotro 3 hours each way, got really bored, and really hungry the whole time!  But also it was wonderful!  I slept all 3 hours of each trotro ride.  We didn't eat plenty, but the small that we did eat was very delicious.  And the best part was we got to finally watch Meet the Mormons!  And it was suuuper good! (A movie out in theaters here about the diverse lives of 6 different families---one is getting a missionary ready to head to South Africa--hit a little too close to home for me)

Oh yeah and with packages, I got number 1 and number 3. But not package number 2 so I'm not sure where that went. I did get the Christmas Card and that was super cute! I enjoyed how it totally looked like a graduation announcement, but for our whole family!

TY:  Man you are always going out for fun activities with your friends! I was always just staying in with friends! Where do you get money for all the shenanigans?

Tay:  It's a good thing you are enjoying Choir! Man I miss it! But it's cool because your totally rockin it up and all the chicks are so all over you!

Gracie:  Sheesh you got to go to the botanical gardens? Lucky! I don't even remember the last time that I got to go there!!!

Tali: I hope your birthday was really nice and you enjoyed everything!  Know that you are getting too old and you need to stop!  If you keep getting older, that means I have to keep getting older.  Which means imma have to get married, and have kids, and move out of the house! I can't do that or then I can't take care of you!

Hey! So good news Christmas is comin soon and I am super excited. We had our district meeting yesterday.  We spent an entire hour getting  the preparations set up and assigned, so this better work or we will have put a whole lot of work into this for nothing.  But we got all the money ready for it, and I don’t think there is a whole lot left to do. The important things for now are we have to find some members who are willing to cook for us!

This week we still haven’t had water. Oops, if you don’t know what I’m talking about that’s totally my bad.  So um we are on to week 3 of having no water. Sometimes we have to go down the street to fetch some out of a dirty little well.   A few times my companion and I have traveled to the other missionary’s apartment to be able to bath.  Hehe last week I didn't shower or shave for 8 days… it was great! I looked like some scary wild man!  There wasn't really hardly any beard, but there was a bunch of dirt all over me and my hair looked really nice!

You're telling me about this wonderful Assistant, but you haven't sent me any pictures, nor have you had her email me or at least get me her email. How old is she by the way? But yeah really I'm in. Set me up! 

It's funny how back home if your 19 and you aren't ready to go out on a mission, you don't.  Here most Africans don't come out until they are like 22.

Love Elder Legg

That is the Way I Choose My Ties & Pens

Ok so basically no time!  I got to the church at 4:30am just so I could email because our preparation day is going to be cut short because we are traveling to Accra this afternoon.

I have no idea, it varies. (I asked how long his letters and packages were taking to get to him) I can get them within 10 days, or I can get them after 2 months.  Being in the bush doesn't help.  Because added to the postage time, is the sitting in the office, and being transported to me time, which usually takes a while.

So you want to know about my ties and pens.  Ok so the pens are the last part of the equation. First, it starts with a look at the events of the day.  If I want to look nice and wear a tailored shirt, or if I just need to look regular and wear a regular shirt.   Then I shirt up.  I then have my ties divided into 2 sections in my closet.   Worn and not worn.  So that way I wear every single tie before I wear one again.   Then with a slim shirt, I pick a nicer tie.  Or with a regular shirt, I pick a regular nice tie.   I have very few ties that are not nice, but now I just have the good and the better.   So after a tie has been picked and added to the body apparel, I go to my bag of pens and pick one that matches in the way I wish.  Sometimes if there isn't really a matching one  I will just pick a color pen that hasn't been used in a while.  But that is the way I choose my ties and pens!   A very meticulous process! (we noticed his different pens in his pictures & we all tried to guess how he picked them, so we had him explain)

Thanks for putting the money in mom it will help a ton I'm sure!

I am gonna go get ready for Accra.  Sorry I don't have time, but I love you all and miss you!

Love Elder Legg

Some Serious Munchin on Some Serious Grindage!

For Thanksgiving we had 15 liters of ice cream, a couple of pineapples, a bunch of po po, a bushel of bananas, a peck of plantain chips, and a morsel of "meat pies."   We mixed it all together in our bowls and just did some serious munchin on some grindage!  It was fun we all got together in the evening and we had a nice eatery!  I really wanted to  have a turkey bowl but we couldn't get a hold of an American football.  It was fun, but we didn't get to have much of an activity. So hopefully our plans for Christmas will go well and then we will have a great party!

Man I really wish I could have gone black Friday shopping!  Man it is so much fun and you get good stuff! Yeah I wasn't wanting the computer now! I was planning on getting it with you next year. I need to pick it out and make sure you get a good one :) but yeah 200$ for a 50" does sound pretty sweet! What is happening to the old tv? That big, old silver one does sound like it would look real nice in my room!

YAYYY baby!!!!  Woop woop, so mom tell me how real does it feel that your son is totally old enough to have a child and you could be a Grandmother? Because I am even older than Erin and she's poppin out kids!  So guess what?  You're next! woop woop!

When is Brittany's baby supposed to come?

Yeah the bush is really good, it's a lot cleaner, it's a lot cooler, but what bugs me about it is you don't have access to a lot of the things that you have access to when you are in the city. If power is out Monday then you don't get to email home. They don't sell a lot of the food stuff you want.

Tay:  What do you mean you don't have a lot to say? Out of the kids you wrote the most!  But you do realize you did a whole bunch of stuff this week. You just treat it like it's normal, but really there was at least one activity everyday that to me would sound cool, whether you cleaned your room or hung out with a friend or watched a movie or ate some food!  To me that is sweet!

Tali: My Thanksgiving was pretty awesome and we had a whole bunch of fun all day teaching people about it! How was your Thanksgiving? Are you excited to be back in school?

Gracie: I'm glad you enjoyed that movie! Umm for thanksgiving I ate a bunch of Ice cream with all kinds of fruit and crumbly stuff mixed in it it was super cool! Did you tell the Reese's that they need to have another kid so that you can have some people to play with?

Ty: So you got a sick suit!  Put it on and send me some pics! Bro you should just start taking pics with whatever you are doing, just random stuff, and then send it to me that'd be cool. Also you can take some pics of your bedrooms and send them to me! Yeah and how/who invited you to go to the BSU game with such great tickets?

So this week... ugh I had a good one and now I cant remember anything!!!! Ok here we go. 

So my companion and I had a lot of fun this Thanksgiving teaching people completely wrong what the holiday is for! My companion can speak English very well.  Most Filipinos speak English and he is from a pretty wealthy family, so he has a good education. We were talking about a mission in the Philippians, and my companion knows the area. He said that in that mission an average place is much better than our best place here in Ghana.

One of our investigators, Sister M, is way not serious.  We have been working with her for a while. She started getting really serious, but then we found out a bunch of her secrets and she stopped being serious!  Secrets like her "husband" is really just a super player, and she isn't married to him, she is just one of his concubines. So she was kinda being a bum on Thursday, so we asked her if she was having a nice holiday. Of course she didn't know what holiday we were talking about.  We let her know about Thanksgiving and she was amazed.  We said it's a world wide holiday and it's really sad that she doesn't celebrate it.  We gave the background of it, on how it came about because the world wanted to show their thanks to God on a special day. So they made the holiday Thanksgiving, and anyone who doesn't celebrate it must not be that thankful to God. She realized it was true and she began to celebrate it right then!  It was fun, and we helped her to really understand what it is about.  But most people here think celebrating holidays is just a weird thing to do and they don't like to do it.

I know I have grown a bunch spiritually and I notice it, but I feel a lot more like I am just exhausted spiritually. When we study the neighbor next door is blasting "gospel" music (which really just invites satan in because it's so terrible) out of his industrial sized speakers. In the evening when I am trying to prepare for sleep, and all night while I'm trying to sleep, the Church across the street has all night prayers where they scream and speak in tongues.....also through their many industrial speakers! While we proselyte we are verbally abused and insulted by every young single adult aged man we find. Most of our lessons the people refuse to listen to us, or are just not mentally able to grasp the concept that God has a body! But it's no big deal if I get a good night's sleep I can handle anything. If I don't get a good night's sleep then it usually ends up with some Ghanaian boy lookin like a total fool in front of all of his friends. And then they all make fun of him instead of me... maybe not always the best response, but I am trying my best!
I have kind of gotten pretty blunt when I give commitments, when I know they are not serious about that commitment. Most of the time when you ask them if they will do something they say, "if God permits."  Man and I just nail them. Oh are you sure, that means if I come back and you don't have an answer to your prayers then you are blaming God? Or if I then follow up, and they say they are still praying to know, and that God hasn't answered them. I let them know that either they haven't prayed at all, or when they pray they don't care what God has to say because he has promised to answer us every time we ask! It gets brutal sometimes, but they always know I'm right, so they kind of feel bad, and it makes it easier for us to drop them if they are not serious.

Would it be possible for you to put some money in my account? Hehe, you know Christmas is coming and I don't have plenty, so I need some for our Christmas outfits, my Christmas hair, and our Christmas party. It's kind of an expensive holiday! Thanks mom I love you you're the best!

Oh well sorry, but out of time today! I hope everything is well and I miss you guys a bunch! Thank you so much! 

Love Elder Legg

I'm Not Yelling!......... I'm typing loudly!!!

(Response to our 11/17/14 email)

Ok well then don't send any more packages! (I told him how much it cost to send his Christmas packages) I need things when I get home! I can survive off of sadness and misery here! But I do really neeed that computer that was supposed to be my 18 bday present! (oh, he's still plenty sassy!!)

My companion is sweet and we are having a ton of fun!

Ooo purple nails! Don't worry right now I am working on growing my hair out, and then I will get purple extensions tied in! :) (I've got sparkly purple nails right now, & don't worry, if anyone's getting purple extensions it's me!! )

Yeah Imma get some bead ties, don't worry! (We keep seeing pictures of other missionaries wearing cool beaded ties)

Oh come on mom, if he can just play here, it's not really a problem then right! But he's not kissing any girls until hes 16 right? (his girl crazy brother)

Tay:  How many stake dances do you go to?

Ty:  So you don't like TVHC (Treasure Valley Honor Choir) huh? But you're still good at basket ball? Good because did you see my jersey!!??  I'm the boss now! (there are pictures of him in his jersey that he loves in a previous post)

Tali: Are you sure it wasn't scary?  Or are you just telling me that those crazy kids are just makin up stuff!

Gracie:  So did you like Box Trolls or it was just too scary for your liking?

Ok so I'll try to put stuff in this week's email!



(Response to our 11/23/14 email)
Yeah so light was on, I had no meetings, but instead the internet providers shut themselves down for a week and a half!  It just came back on Saturday evening!!! (reason for no email last week)

Yes, yes, I failed to send in my emails this week.  I understand, but I am not to blame.  I mean you could try to put the blame on me, but honestly, as I previously mentioned.......I live out in the middle of the rain forest.  So technology is a bunch of junk.   For a little over a week and a half the internet providers shut themselves off for no reason!   Also one of the phone service providers was shut off and having problems for a long time.   I'm not sure what is going on, but they say they are working on it.  Also our power company has been having a bunch of problems!  It got so bad that we literally had a full on revolt at their center and an angry mob came and attacked the place until the light was turned back on!  It was really sweet, because the center is in my area :) hehe.... now I'm not saying I was a part of the mob, but I coulda been!

Mom what year was it where I broke my lip and I didn't have to sing, but I still got to hang out at TVHC? (He took an elbow to the face & he bit through his lip during an indoor soccer game and had to have his lip stitched back together at the ER)

Man I can't wait till I get home and rock school, then rock work, then rock wifing, then rock early marriage. And just show these people what life's supposed to look like!  Then Ty and Tay can go on mish, come back, and I can watch them do it too!

Ty: Ok ok I get that TVHC sucks, but still you just gotta make the best of it!  Imagine if you had to go there with your lip ripped in half, and you weren't even allowed to sing!  That was actually really fun!

Tay:  Were there any cute girls in the choir?  Not many, but you got all the ones that were there? Hey good work on you talk bro! (He gave a talk at church this past Sunday)

Gracie: Isn't Paranorman old and we've seen it before?

Tali:  I'm not yelling!... I'm typing loudly :P  (They manage to argue even thousands of miles apart.  He grumped her about asking about snow in Ghana.  So she grumped him back & said he didn't have to yell at her. & that was his reply)  So how was Tay's talk?  Did he do good?

Yeah for Thanksgiving I am trying to set up some turkey bowl. (football game they play here Thanksgiving morning)  I want to find an American football, but the likelihood of that happening is pretty slim, so instead we might just go out and play basketball or soccer. And so far Imma try to make some mashed yam and gravy... it'll be pretty sweet.  In my apartment we are 3 Americans and 1 Filipino, so we can all celebrate it!  I'm not totally sure though, so we will see what happens.

So yeah sorry but I don't have anything to say because my time is up and my head is going to explode because I'm so tired! We have power off so much here, I no longer sleep, and this morning I had my eyes sealed shut with goop.  It was freaking nasty.  Love you thiiiiis much!

Love Elder Legg

Making Friends & Changing Lives (pictures)

Eating in a hut

Trav Around Town (pictures)

Talia says to see how many different animals you can find in this picture! 

Time for climbing trees.  He might need some practice.

Two seasons:  dry and wet.  This must be from the wet season.

Check out this structure.

Eating Ghanaian Style (picture)

Banana Muffins

Making Fufu

Eating Fufu
(at least he put his tie in his shirt...it will stay clean)

Making Time for Sporty Fun (pictures)

Basketball time.  Check out the flag & barbed wire behind them.

Group photo:  Trav is in the center

Apparently, he didn't make it in time to pose. 

Do you like my new jersey??

What do you think?

I love it!

Look how tall it makes me look.  That's a full sized fridge behind me! :)

I've got some serious moves in this jersey!

Those socks totally complete the look!

Elder Legg on the Loose in the Jungle (pictures)

Lost in the jungle already??
What could he be looking for?

Oh good! They found the path.

Elder Fairwell

Is that a fanny.........or a fanny pack??

Good to know, when he comes home he has a future in jungle modeling!

Could stay here over night if they can't find their way back.

Oh good, they found water! :) A sip of that would sure taste refreshing.

What a goofball! Glad he still has his sense of humor!
(maybe)

Elder Fairwell wants some fresh water too.  Yum!!

Nothing like fresh, clean water to wet your whistle after a long, hot day in the jungle.

Maybe a nice, roadside meal is a better way to end the day.