September 6, 2010 - Computer Finally!

 Dear All,

 Sometimes I think the Lord has an odd sense of humor. The area I'm in - my first area, mind you - is the largest in the entire mission. The Mc'Carthy ('th' make a 't' sound) Hill 2 area. My companion took me to the top of a mountain (and yes, I said mountain; the entire area is nothing but mountains - that's plural). and had me look out in every direction. He said that everything I just saw was my area. I felt like Simba with Mufasa, but instead of "I'm gonna rule this someday!" it was "We have an appointment on that mountain over there, and then another one over there after that, and then that one we should proselyte at...". It's also rather dangerous; we have to use bikes for everything, but the slopes are 50-60% grades at most points, with ruts, bumps, ridges, rocks, mud, loose dirt, and shrapnel of all sorts littered all over the path. It took a while to get used to learning how to bike through all without dying, but I've more or less gotten the hang of it.

My new companion is Elder Zadi. He's from Ivory Coast where they only speak French, and thus had to learn English by himself, on the fly, while in the Ghana MTC. He's only got a few months left, and you can tell from how he views everything (especially in keeping the rules - or rather, the abundance of the antithesis thereof), but he's a cool guy. I'm just learning what I can for now, giving him the benefit of seniority for the moment, and will perhaps start to straighten things out as time goes on. I just wish he wouldn't listen to rap all the time... Haha.

Now for the people. It's incredible. People here are so prepared to receive the Gospel, it's unbelievable.  The first day, we committed two street contacts and three first-lesson people to baptism (or, more specifically, to a baptismal date, with appointments to prepare for it). It was hard for me at first; they agree, and yet most don't even know what the Book of Mormon is, much less any of the Gospel principles. I first thought that they were just agreeing because there are so many dag-gum Churches here, being baptized is practically a fad. But then you hear them say the closing prayer; the way they thank God for bringing them this great light, how much they appreciate having the missionaries sent to them to let them learn of the Lord's word, and all sorts of stuff like that - it's amazing. Later, once they've prayed about it and read the Book of Mormon for a bit (few can read well, but they still do their best), they have such strong testimonies that there's no logic or force in the world that could change their mind about the truth. Ask them any question, and while they may not be able to answer it with the 'correct answer', they just say "I don't know, but the Holy Ghost said it's true, so..." And that's the end of it. They know it's true. It reminds me of what Dad told me before I left: "It's not about what's in [the mind], but what's in [the heart]."  That is so very true here. I've never seen so many people with such strong faith and ability to feel the Holy Ghost without any understanding of what they're learning, other than 'it's true'. Understanding everything else for them comes with time - but they know it's true. It truly increases my understanding of what Christ meant when He said 'become as a little child, and be baptized in my name.'

As for the culture, there are things that are definitely different, and I've noticed them right away. First off, you can't do anything with your left hand, for traditional sanitary reasons (I'll leave it at that). That means you can't shake hands with your left, you can't eat with your left, you can't hand money to pay for something with your left, you can't accept anything from someone with your left, you can't waive at anyone with your left; nothing. If you do, it's a massive insult. Luckily, I'm white, so when I mess up once in a blue moon, most just write it off as me being a stupid American who doesn't know anything. Works for me.

The other odd thing is how being white affects everything here.  First and foremost, they rip me off on the price of everything; it's ridiculous. Second, and more interesting, is everyone shouts "obroni" when I ride by. It means white-man, and mostly the kids chant it. It was odd at first, but then I realized that most of these kids, if not the people as well, have never seen a white man in real life before - ever. So they get excited (if that's even the right word for it) when they see one; there hasn't been a day gone by without some bunch of kids chanting "obroni" in the streets when they see me coming. I find it oddly ironic, since it sounds a lot like "ebony", slang for reference to a black man (like in the song "Ebony and Ivory"?).

Which finally brings me to the language(s). First and foremost, people around here speak Twi [pronounced ch-wi, cause a 'tw' makes a 'chw' sound for some reason; go figure - it's all messed up]. A lot of people in Accra, however, are from the Ga tribe, and thus speak Ga instead (Twi is from the Asante tribe).  It's kind of hard, cause Twi has such an incredibly small vocabulary that they use the same words over and over again, but in different ways, and thus mean completely different things. They also have a huge stress on vowel annunciation. For example, a long 'a' is completely different from a short 'a'; an 'o' is different from 'oo'; 'e' most often says its name, but not always; an 'i' says its name, unless used as an end letter, and then it makes an 'e' sound (like Twi ends in an 'ee', but yie has 'i' say its name).  Moreover, Ga, Fante (Western/Cape Coast language), and Twi all have very similar words and annunciations for some words, so it's hard to catch which is which sometimes.  Apparently, there are areas they call "the bush" which are so underdeveloped that 85-90% of the people only speak Twi, which makes things hard. I wanna serve there; it' the closest anyone can get to jungle area.

Which is the final bit of info; apparently, the Church has decided that, for the time being, it's not worth sending missionaries into the Northern parts, with the Jungle, due to the possible danger and lack of major roads, as well as the fact that it's more of a priority to build up the Church here first before moving on. Darn; I was looking forward to being transferred to the heart of the jungle. Oh well; "I'll go where you want me to go", right?

Anyways, that's about it for now. So much has been happening, I can't remember what I'm suppose to write. I'm gonna start doing what Elder Bills does (the district leader and part of the other companionship staying in the apartment; Mc'Carthy 1 Area), and make small notes in my planner about key things I should write home about.

I am finally allowed to write e-mails, using my regular e-mail. The Church's normal e-mail service doesn't work way out here, so we're cleared to just use our regular Gmail and just be careful and accountable for what we do.  However, since this IS my normal one, I'll have TONS of crap to sort through every time I log on.  To make this easier for me, I've created a filter for my e-mails. Anything with "Elder Collings" in the subject will be labeled as Mission, and I'll read it. If it doesn't have that in the subject though, it won't be labeled, and thus I won't read it. So, it's up to you to be sure that happens.

Oh, one thing I should mention. I don't get letters at my apartment; I only get to pick them up when I go to the Mission Home or whatever for report/conference/something-or-another, which only happens every 3 weeks (that's also the only time I can mail them out). So, the letter situation is as such:

-  It takes 2-3 weeks to send a letter to Ghana Accra Mission

-  I only get to pick up letters once every 3 weeks, if that

-  I only get to send the responses at the NEXT 3 week meeting thing

-  It takes 2-3 weeks to send a letter to America from here

Letters are great, I don't have to read through them as fast as email.  Please remember that there's 6-9 weeks of latency for letters. Nothing I can do about it; so please don't get frustrated if it's a few months in-between responses.  Also, on that note, I've only gotten two letters, both through the DearElder system (one from UT, one from MI). Only send hand-written if you want to send pictures or something; then you have to use standard envelopes, not the pouch system, but those seem to make it through fine. DearElder uses the pouch system.

Also, also, don't send packages through normal FedEx or DHL. We have to pay a lot for those. Instead, try to use the flat-rate stuff for everything. Can't remember the exacts, but that's the advice given through the Mission Office. AND, finally, if you DO have to send anything through normal stuff (like, a box of stuff or whatever), and you make up the Customs list of everything in the package and its price, be sure to under-price everything. This is from the AP's themselves while we were in the Mission Home. Apparently, the Ghana Customs people take the total given in that, convert it to Cedi (Ghanaian currency), and then crank up the price, and force the AP's to bargain it down to the standard place. In other words, it's very corrupt (as expected) and thus needs to be compensated for. I'm not saying anything other than what we've been told to say; I'm gonna leave it at that, and just do whatever (if you ever even need to worry about that).

Anyways, that's it for now.  I'll try to keep better track of everything and actually have a decent letter next time.

This Gospel is true! Take care, and God bless!

--Elder Collings