My Sweet Farming Story

Ok so the big thing for this week is my sweet farming story!  If you think you're a farmer and this is going to be a boring story then you can chill  and just stop reading. But if you're reallly interested in my life, then you will remember that I am in the middle of the rainforest and you would recognize that farming here may be a little different than what you are used to!


So Elder Fairwel, our friend Daniel, our friend Mavis, and I met up, hopped on a trotro saturday morning, then traveled out to Mavis' dads house in the middle of nowhere. We then got equiped for farming. So in other words all of us picked which cutlass we wanted. ( a cutlass is like a machette, but they can come in a bunch of different shapes and sizes.) I picked a nice sturdy one, and we headed out.  We had to walk up a mountain, then cross a couple of streams, then we got to the start of Samuel's farm property. (Samuel is Mavis's dad)


We started off the day with a couple hours of weeding.  You just cut everything down with the culass,  and just try to be careful that you don't hit too many rocks, trees, cocyams, or people. Yeah it's harder than is sounds.  And of course, we are just on the side of the mountain. I hit a lot of rocks, a couple trees, a few cocyams, and one person. ( aka...... I smacked myself )


But as you can suspect there are some nasty critters on the mountains in the rainforest!  Nope, no elephants, no giraffes, not lions, no tigers, no bears, not even some monkeys, but there were a lot of bugs.  Centipedes about 8 inches long.   Ants the size of your thumb.   And spiders the size of your head.  And the spiders are not normal spiders.  But the ones that fall from the sky and try to bite your neck, but you have to use your Jedi powers to fight them off. I was just weeding, minding my own business, when I feel a weed land on the back of my neck.  I shake a little to brush it off, but it just sort of moves a little more towards my ear.  Gently I reach up and feel not a weed, but a 8 legged hairy demon!  I smack it off, metaphorically wet myself, then got all sorts of mideval knight on it! I chopped at that thing for a couple minutes until it was in little pieces!  It was so scary!!!   Have any of you ever been attacked by a giant African spider??? I hope not, if so then send me your stories!


But after weeding we went and planted some kasava sticks! Though I stunk at weeding I was by far the best kasava planter there! 1 stick can be planted 3-5 times and it could do a whole stick in 30 seconds! That one was really ssweet!


YEAH STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh man that is so sick!!!!!!!!!!

Um yeah you can send stockings again that was pretty awesome! And it doesn't need to be a nice pedometer, I just what to know how far I walk during the day.

Tali: Ok so now when everyone else starts causing trouble, you remember what an awesome brother I am and now you want me back!? I remember you being so happy that I was going to Africa and you said you wouldnt miss me even a little bit! :P

Gracie: Why do you want to get out of the primary program so bad?  We just had our here and it was really nice! The main speaker was the primary president and only like 7 kids spoke so it was cool, one of the songs they sang was Head, Shoulders, knees, and toes. The cool thing with that song compaired to back home is that "they all belong to Jesus."

Ty: WOOP WOOP!!!! flips yeah you is goin to state!!!! gosh thats so tight dude! I was thinkin about that all week! im so excited!!!!!!!!! you guys are going to do awesome if you want to pull yourselves together! stay srong and inspire those around you, get the right food in your body and get the right amount of sleep so that you can do your best! and dont forget your scriptures!

Tay: things are going werll for you! i wish i could come home at like 3! just chill and snack! thatd be way nice! but hey atleast you got all them hunnies trippin!  i thought you were the one who likes to go hunting? i ate a bird that we killed with my slingshot saturday if thats the same :) the bird was just big enough for 4 of us to get a nice bite of it :)

Well that's the story for this week. Good luck at state and enjoy your week.
Love,
Elder Legg

You Should Be the One Teaching You!

I'm getting together lists of food we have to get in surplus
when I go home so that I can just snack all the time! There are no
snacks here so that's freaking annoying because I'm hungry all the time!
White chocolate chips and milk sound soooooooo good right now! All I've
had today was some plain bread and some water... it was delicious.

Man I wish I could go to the games! Its so hard to fathom that this is
Ty's senior year! It honestly doesn't even make sense! But he should go
to state that would be so sick!


Nope definately never heard of that movie! Did you know there's a movie
called the spirit of Ghana, and there's one for nigeria, sierre leon,
and liberia, it is the testimonies of members as the church came into
their countries or something.  I don't really know but my branch
president was watching one last night when we went to go teach his
"son".  Ok check this, how dang easy is it to get a baptism when your
branch president basically adopts a 12 year old boy and brings him to
church. Woop woop workin hard or hardly workin? Anyway we BAPTIZE!!!


Yeah honestly for those drugs no need to send more, they're kinda
spensive and they didnt do a whole lot, while I was on them it made it
way worse then when I finished it only helped for like a week haha but
dont worry I got enough drugs and the anti diahrrea ones help a bunch!


I left most of the Christmas decorations, but its ok I want to do a christmas outside if I
can get something going.

Ty: Ok so I am so mad that I am missing your senior year! it just
sounds like you are a total boss! you looked awesome for homecoming
and your soccer poster was crazy cool!!!! man I cant believe you're
doing so well! I left Sophmore you at home and now you're doing what I
was doing! its way cool! keep up the good work!

Tay: So how many seniors were on varsity? Ar you gonna be bumped up
next year? gosh second in districts is way good! of course you just
talked to them! wait how did you get to mcdonalds in caldwell?! who's
driving you?

Grace: where did she leave to? So now all of a sudden your a hunter?
how long have i been out here?! that's wild girlie! yeah I usually just
find a sinner and tell them to repent when I'm really stressed! but
hunting would be way cooler!

Tali: sorry you havent been feeling well! thats a pretty high fever! I
hope you are doing better! how are you liking watching the boys
soccer? what are you doing right now? were you in soccer or are you in
singing or whats going on?

Ok so this week has been cray so Ill try to get some good stories out
of it because we honestly haven't done a whole lot more than walk until
I am feeling like my legs are falling off and I start tripping a
bunch. Oh yeah and mom would it be cool if you could get me a
pedometer or whatever that thing is that you put on your hip and it
counts your steps? that would be a good package item!

Let's get yesterday out of the way! All the times I got frustrated!
First appointment isn't around and no members to help us to go teach,
solution to that:  call a teacher have him come with us, go to a
different investigator, and just chastize her on not coming to church,
and not keeping the sabbath day holy. Result of that action, she later
cooked us dinner, and so did the teachers mom!

Then Sister Patience didn't come to church, again! We thought it was
because her husband never comes, but he came and she didn't.  So from
their family the most progressing investigators are their 5 year old
twins. We ask why she didn't come to church and her wonderful excuse,
"I'm tired" I almost had a hissy fit right there since I just walked 5
miles 2 days in a row to come to her house! And of course what is her
work that made her too tired? She's a seamstress that works at home!!! Oh my goodness! I birthed a full on cow right there. We just had to walk away.


We walk about halfway to our next appointment, which we have to
traverse through the bush and we are starving, thankfully those 2
aforementioned people called us to come back and feed us! We got so
full we thought we were gonna die! So awesome!

Then we go the hour journey to the next appointment, and a dumb former
investigator gets mad at us because we don't  meet with him when we come,
but he is completely not serious because we tried to set an
appointment for him and he told us he's too busy. I don't care for that
man, but then out of no where this incredibly drunk guy comes out of
the house just going crazy. Wanting to get all in my face and know
everything about me! I was tryin to be cool but he kept swearing and
insulting me, so I just calmly told him to go and repent. It may not
have been those exact words, but he got of lucky!  If we weren't next
door to the branch president's house and this guy wasn't related to my
investigator he would have gotten wailed on!

Then we are now with our investigator Grace!  We are slowly baptizing
her whole house and shes gonna follow! We asked her why she didn't come
to church and what does she do? She starts playin the blame game! Ah
hecks no!  She said she couldn't come to church because her son wasn't
teaching her about it enough!  Verbally we told her that her son is
sorry and he will do better, and then she will also have to do better.
Mentally I told her Woman! how are you trying to make your son carry
you to heaven! You should be the one teaching you! Every time we come
here no matter where he is or what he's doing he stops and comes
running so that he can help you! He testifies to you, he prays for
you, he translates for you, he does everything you can ask for! You
didn't even take the thought to do anything! Flip come to church before
I have to get up at 5 to come and pick you! dang!
Yeah that was a fun lesson I think!

Yeah that's  proselyting after church.   Not all that much fun! But the
lessons we had were awesome and the people we taught were so great!
In our numbers that we report we can pretty well influence all of the
numbers except the amount that comes to church! That one is completely
on the investigators, and you don't usually get very many.  When Elder
Fairwell and I got here we could barely get one and now we average/
top out at 3. The work is coming and we are doing all that we can!
Just gotta put some trust in God and take a few thousand tired steps
of faith and He will do the rest! I can do hard things because I
successfully got out of bet 4 times today! But good news, that means it's
only the afternoon and  I've already been able to get back into bed 3
times! Man it's a sweet day!

Love you all and (catchy ending that I can't think of because my brain
hurts so horriby that I might just explode :) )


Love Elder Legg

Elder Legg & Elder Fairwell (pictures)

At a baptism

At the temple

How great is this picture??  I love it! Notice he's wearing his birthday boy badge!

Rain gear and fanny packs?? Now that is a nice look!

These two mean business!

The Pig Roast and Other Ghanaian Scenes (pics)

These pictures are from the pig roast that Trav wrote about in last week's email.  He was thrilled to be involved in the whole process and experience.  

 

Look at the size of that critter on the stick!

Daily Ghanaian Scenes

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Big 20th Birthday Bash (pictures)

Elder Fairwell & Trav made sure the decorations and party favors were all ready.

Here's the Birthday Boy wearing his b-day boy pin! 

Let the party begin! 

Elder Fairwell (from TX) was paired up with Travis after he was relocated from Liberia and the Ebola outbreak there.

Elder Okwu and Elder Fairwell. Was this before or after the pinata hit Elder Okwu in the face?

What could he be writing at a time like this??

What party is complete without a cauldron of popcorn and bobbing for popcorn??

Pin the Tail on the Donkey anyone??  Elder Moyer spent 13 minutes trying to find the donkey, and still ended up on the wrong wall--and the floor! Trav even started him pointed in the right direction. He stunk at the game, but he made a great cake!

  

Party favors and gifts for everyone. 

No party is complete without a little singing and dancing........
and Travis loves to do both!

 

Trav's had pinatas at his parties ever since he was little.  We couldn't let him turn 20 in Ghana without one!  But nobody likes it when the string comes off before the candy comes out.  Oh man! 

It was the 20th birthday he really wanted.  Thanks to all who sent letters/cards/goodies/presents.  It really was a total success!  He had the best birthday ever! 

I'm Too Fat to Even do a Somersault!

The week was good and all sorts of fun stuff!  I'm feeling better!  We got rid of the juju.

So this week I don't have a ton to say so ill just hit you with those pics, they say a picture is worth a thousand words! Man then you really got a long one right?

Tyson: Flip you're turning into a stud!  Like honestly I still picture sophomore you. I can't believe you're going to graduate at the end of this year! Dude get the back tuck down.  That would be so sick! I'm too fat to even do a somersault!  Whip that team into shape! Tell the coaches I said y'all stink because you don't have captains!  Keep with it, go hard and Love it!

Tay: Dude so you'er going with the boys to homecoming! I thought you had to be with a junior or a senior to go? That's how it was when I went! But don't worry just shake it down and enjoy!

Gracie: Yeah you'd be a good table.  I was thinking for Halloween I might be God, or Jesus Christ, or Joseph Smith! You never know, I'll try to be creative!  We shall see!

Tali: Here we are starting to talk about Halloween, but it's not as fun as pulling down our stuff from the attic!

It's good to know some things that have been going down and that everyone was safe! Thank goodness it was not my car!!!! (Tyson & a friend were in a car accident, but not in the old truck)

We just got done playing basketball and my brain doesn't really work now! Playing in the 12 o'clock sun kind of gives you some heatstroke and then going into air conditioning kind of puts your body into shock!

Love Elder Legg

We Are Gosh Dang, Dadgum, Mighty Hunters

Ok so yeah, 3 parties to go over in just a few minutes here we go!

So first is the one year party:

We went to a restaurant called 3rd Floor. It is on the top of a gas station and we had heard that it was supposed to be a really cool place!  We show up and we can't even find a kitchen, so it just looks like a bar. We spend 20 minutes trying to find a waitress so we can get served!  Then they tell us that the rice is 10 cedis which is about 9 cedis more than it is supposed to be!  So we get grumps and order 1 so that we can see how big it is and decided if we want to buy more.  45 minutes later the lady finally brings a plate.  At this point we had been expecting that she would just bring us all some because it was taking forever!!!!!! But nope, she was very rude about how we had only ordered one and that we needed to be more patient. We ordered some more, and I got grumps, stood up knocking my chair over, so that all of the people around could see my displeasure.  I traveled around the building in search of a kitchen.  When we finally found it, my companion and I threw down our complaints and got them to miraculously increase their service.  I still was pretty mad, so I went outside and just bought some bread and Egg on the side of the road for 1 cedi 50 peswas!!  That's real.  Also the bread and egg lady did everything from scratch, and had it all to me in 7 minutes.  Oh well, the rice was good and there was a large piece of chicken, so that was good! But there was a gigantic speaker right next to the table and the DJ was playing it super loud!  Ugh oh well, it was good.

Ok now birthday party:

First off the other apartment bailed on us, so we were pretty mad at them.  But in preparation my companion and I decked out the house with all the decorations that my wonderful mother sent and the party was rockin! For food we cooked a huge cauldron of popcorn, then made a caramel sauce, and that was pretty intense.  We were in the makings of a punch bowl!  But for 4 people we didn't need an entire drawer of juice! Then Elder Moyer made a cake too :) it was sick.  We tried hitting the pinata, but instead it was hitting us. Elder Okwu got smacked in the face. And Elder Fairwell got it dropped on his head :) perks of putting blindfolds on your friends!!  Eventually I got it all busted up! Also Elder Moyer is the absolute worst Pin the Tail on the Donkey player I have ever seen in my life.  In one turn it took him 13 minutes, he ran into every study desk in the room, he fell on the floor 4 times, and eventually ended up sticking his tail on the opposite side of the room!  And I pointed him strait at the donkey to start with!!  We took a lot of sweet party snaps! Also the presents and letters were awesome mother! You flippin rock!!!

And last the pig roast:

We had a big "Elder Davuke is finishing his mission" and "the Lathems are starting their mission" pig roast. We went out to 2nd Branch's branch president's farm, slaughtered a pig, put it on a spike, roasted it up, chopped it into pieces, put it on some plantain leaves, then just went full on raptor!  Yeah we got to the farm and I got put on the orange gathering patrol.  So basically Elder Hoskins and I went hunting in the bush with our sling shots!  And yes, we are gosh dang dadgum mighty hunters! We killed a squirrel.... we did that with sticks, but still we had the slingshots!  It was cool also because we can't settle for normal, we had to grab the oranges with awesomeness! We used coconut shells as blades and we jumped off of all sorts of stuff to get them.  It was pretty off the hazook.   Then we all killed the pig and fried it.  After a long time over the fire we took the pig down and laid it on some plantain leaves and chopped it up.... oops we pulled it off too early, so we chopped it into pieces and filled a big banku cauldron and just boiled it.  When we finished cooking it, we just had huge chunks of meat in our hands and started just tearing it apart! Yeah it was pretty sweet! We are awesome!

Then Wednesday my companion and I traveled to Kade for exchanges.  But I got sick so to start off the exchanges I was vomiting everything I ate, and then also to end the exchange I was doing the same thing! So for Wednesday through Friday I had some nasty flu like food poisoning something.  But I got over it on Saturday and then I caught a really nasty head cold!  So for these last three days I have been throwing down the drugs and I missed a lot of proselyting last week which made me sad!  But I am feeling better now... Ok no I'm not.  I feel like Imma die, but that's just because my drugs are starting to wear off so I needa refill Ok I'm coming!... Ok back in about 15 minutes I"ll be feeling good!

So how long were Gma and Gpa here? Good thing dad got back safe! I'm sure dad will go on another trip before I get home, so that's all good right.

Nah I haven't heard of anything with General Conference! I had no idea!  Oh well I will get the Liahona version or whatever.

Yeah I'm gonna be an awesome husband! Always carry the stuff, grab the door, get the chairs, and escort her everywhere! Full blown gentleman style!

Tali:  Primary programs, those are always super fun! How was Cold Stone?

Ty: So what's going down with soccer? Yeah some guys saw a preview for that movie and they said it looked super good!!! Hope everything is well!!!!

Gracie: Of course you rocked math!  Didn't you know Your big bro travvy was always the math master!!!! And why do you want to get out of the Primary Program??  Those are always fun!!

Tay: Sheesh you gotta be careful or all of those girls are going to be all over you!  Then you're gonna have all sorts of problems! good luck!

Umm so that sounds like my week! I slept for almost 24 hours, so that might be why I was kind of boring for the last few days :) Love you all miss you! I'm now 20 years old and halfway finished with my mission! Gosh time flies, as long as you're not in it, you wait a long time then look backwards and you can pretend it went fast!!!

Love Elder Legg