Malaria is not so fun

Hey Malaria is not as fun as you all made it sound to be. You just
feel really tired and week and cold and hot. Thankfully they have
created some pretty sweet miracle drugs, which make you feel better in
about a few hours after you take them. Unfortunately, that doesn't
mean that you can go out and do things, it just means that you can
sleep all day and be really boring for your comp. Nat I hope that Josh
is feeling better and that everything is going ok. Those pictures were
amazing. Ry thanks for the cook book, even though at this particular
moment it doesn't do much for me in about 14 months it should com in
handy. Mom and Dad hope that you had fun on the trek. Sounds like it
was a success. You should tell me more about it. I have not gotten the
package yet , but hope to soon, thanks. Jen and Shaun, congrats on the
soccer, and baby. We played a match today and besides taking the skin
right off one of the players hands everyone said that I have improved
a lot. Speaking of football, we have a member with us, who goes out
and helps with the twi, who is convinced that there is an octopus in
Germany that every year picks the winning team for the wold cup, by
attaching itself to the correct flag every for years. Apparently it
has only messed up once since 2002, and he is completely sure that its
the perfect solution to always knowing whats going to happen with the
world cup. Along with that we had a lady stand up in sacrament meeting
and bare a "powerful" testimony. In the testimony, she shared an
experience that happened to her the previous week, where she was
staying up to midnight reading the bible when all of a sudden she felt
like she needed to pray. She knelt down and all of a sudden a gunshot
went off right outside her door. She immediately started to roll on
the ground and speak in tongues. She became very animated as she was
relating the experience and I'm still not sure what to think of the
whole thing, because I know the lady and it somehow seems to be
something tha she would make up. Everyone else besides Elder Bond and
myself seemed to have no problems with the whole thing though, so I
just kinda kept quiet. The last experience that I have time to write
about is a little more spiritual. On Saturday we had the last real
chance to find people for our current goal. that goal is for every
missionary to not watch and of the world cup and then to baptize
someone that we found during one of the games. Saturday and Sunday
evenings were the last games for us and Sunday we had to get home
early to report on the week. We only had about an hour before we had
to go in, so we stopped and said a prayer. After the prayer, we went
and started to contact people and were able to find about 5 solid new
investigators in that hour. I know that God blesses his missionaries
when they try hard to do what is right. I love you guys and cant wait
to right again next week. Love Ty

Happy 4th

Hey guys, sorry that I was not able to write this last week. I got to
celebrate the fourth in a very special way this year. I got malaria.
It was so much fun!!!!!!! J/k Actually, last Monday we went to one of
the other missionaries apartments and took some of there pots and made
some lids that fit really tight so that we were able to use them like
a dutch oven. We then made three of the most delicious cakes that I
have ever tasted in my life. Unfortunately, half way through was when
I started to feel sick. I have continued to be sick until yesterday
afternoon, and by that time it was too late to plan for the holiday.
Today we did got to another apartment and we had fried rice and
watched church history videos though, that was a blast. Yesterday we
baptized the granddaughter of one of our members. Her name was Susana,
and she is a really sweet girl. We had planned on baptizing her last
baptism, but she wasn't quite ready, so we told her that she would
have to wait. She felt so bad and you could tell that she was ready to
cry so this last few weeks we worked with her a lot and she was
finally ready on Sunday.It was really cool, because the grandmother
who she stays with was so supportive the whole way. She kept on
telling us that when Susana was baptized she would take her to the
temple with her so that she could walk on the temple grounds. That is
really amazing, because most people have to sacrifice a lot to buy the
bus ticket to get to Accra, and then its about a five hour ride on
terrible roads on top of that. The other news from Ghana this week is
that Ghana lost to Uruguay. Most people were not very happy about
that, but at the same time, they are really proud, because Africa
(especially Ghana) did so much better this world cup than last time.
On Saturday, one of the days that I was feeling the sickest, we met a
baptist teacher trying to give it to one of our recent converts. We
walked up and he started the conversation by looking at us and
pointing to the Book of Mormon and saying "did you give him this
book?" I answered "yes", and he said "Well I just need to tell you and
him that this book is a lie and that you are teaching false doctrine,
and that you are going to have to stand before God one day and tell
him that you led his children astray." I asked him if he had ever read
the book and he said no. I then with the help of Elder Bond gave it to
the man and told him that he had no right to say if it was true or
false if he hadn't even read it, and that we would gladly stand before
God and tell him that we know that the Book of Mormon is true.
Unfortunately we couldn't talk very long, because I was about ready to
fall over at this point because of the Malaria, but we did stay long
enough to give it to him about prophets and baptism too. He then
launched into this twenty min. monologue that was talking about fifty
different things that didn't really make much sense. I finally
interrupted him and asked if I could ask a question, to which he said
I'm in a hurry right now and have to go, he then talked for five more
min and then just kinda left. The whole thing was really kinda funny.
I'm sure that everyone reading this has had similar experiences that
are just kinda funny. They seem to happen a lot to me.Anyways, that's
about all that happened this week worth writing about. Mom and Dad
have fun on the treck. That is so cool that you get to do that. Also
tell the Vaughn boy congrats and that that is a sweet mission. One of
my favorite comps. was from Sierra Leone. West Africa is in my mind
the best place to be for a missionary. Also, Sierra Leone seems to be
a little more advanced than Ghana. Also the pictures worked great and
anyone else that wants to send pictures via e-mail is most definitely
invited to. Everyone else, I hope that you all had a wonderful 4th and
that everything went well. Sounds like you all are doing well.
Love Ty
P.S.: Ry you should have waited and given it to that guy at the
theater. He had no right to do that. In Ghana they give so little
respect to the women here that it makes me sick. When I get married
I'm going to do all that I can to be as good as you all in treating my
wife with the up-most respect. It makes me so angry when people treat
women poorly. If they had thrown the stinnken thing at you that would
be one thing, but at Brooke its completely different. That's what I
think anyways. Ty

First of all, I would like to say happy Fathers day to Dad and the
rest of the dads in our family. Next, I am sorry for complaining about
not getting e-mails and letters from you guys these last few weeks. I
really do appreciate and love you guys. Third of all I would like to
say that I am jealous of Ry for getting to go the the world cup twice
and that I am not jealous of Jon for getting to watch it with a bunch
of sweaty south Americans. I see all of the Africans cramped together
in front of a TV, and for some strange reason, I have the desire
sometimes to join the group and become a sweaty spectator myself.
Ghana has done really well until this last match with Australia in
which they did not live up to there full potential and the tied the
game 1-1. That means that they need to either tie with or beat Germany
on Wed. to continue into round 16, which for any of you who know
anything about pretending to know football that's not an easy thing to
do. Needless to say, the number of lessons that we have had these last
few weeks has gone down, and we have actually had some of our good
investigators yell at us for even suggesting to turn off the TV for 5
min during the per-game show for the Ghana match. Things here are
going really well here though. We have met some really sweet
investigators during the matches that we never would have found if we
were not watching the match. God love to bless his missionaries. I
hope that all is going well with all of you guys back at home. Thanks
mom and dad for sending the e-mail with grandmas testimony. That was
really special. Ryan, I was actually able to get and to see your
e-mail with all of the pictures. Those were the first pictures that I
have seen of the family in the last 9 months. Thanks so much for
sending them. Your girls and your wife look really really cute. You
look good too I guess. If anyone ever sends me any kind of a package,
or even a letter, the best thing that I can get at this point in my
mission is pictures. Its so cool to see people and how much they have
grown. On thing that I wish that I had brought with me was pictures
from home. It helps a lot with your companion too, when they can
actually see who they are talking to. The missionaries now go through
g-mail and so things go a lot faster. If anyone wants they can try to
send pictures by e-mailing them as an attachment like Ry did. I hope
that it works.
Today Elder bond and myself went and climbed a "mountain", (it only
rose about 200 feet above the rest of the surrounding area) with some
of the other missionaries. It was really cool, because we had to go
through about as much of the African bush that you are ever going to
find in southern Ghana. It made me feel like and explorer, and I wish
that I had had a cool safari suit while I was doing it. It was a lot
of fun. Unfortunately the only wildlife that we were able to see was
the brush in with a ferocious lion, that I was able to tame and train
to jump through a hoop. (I put that last line in far all of you that I
reading this to your children). There actually seems to be a shortage
of any animals in Ghana, besides chickens and goats. Other than that
everything here seems to be great. I love the work, just as much as I
love you guys.
Love Ty