Gone to Ghana!: My 1st Area...Obuasi / I am "Obloni"

Hello all!

I am in the Obuasi zone. I am right outside of Obuasi covering two small villages by the name of Asonkore and Kwabenakwa! It is in the mountains, but nothing even close to the Colorado mountains!

My trainer is Elder Nortey-Annan. He is a Ghanaian from Accra.

He is a great guy, just finished his training and is only 4 months out on his mission.

It rains almost everyday here but the dry season is supposed to start November 1st! Although we have somehow stayed dry so far! It is a little different having to cook for myself. Most meals whether I cook or not consist mostly of rice, bread, egg, some kind of stew, and water. I have also been having a decent amount of Indo-mie. The Ghanaian version of Ramen. (I like Indo-mie better!) Unfortunately I do not get to watch General Conference for the duration while I am here. We have had a lot of lessons with a lot of people and the culture here is soooo different! If a woman wants to breastfeed her kid in the middle of a lesson, she will stay right where she is and not even try to cover it up. She just gets the job done. I also had my 1st baptism yesterday. An older lady by the name of Victoria Asanti. Also on Saturday, we committed 4 more people to baptism. So everything is going well!

I have gotten used to the term "Obloni" which means 'white man'. Everywhere I go, kids will see me, start chanting Obloni and just want to be able to give me a high five! (Either that or ask me for money). My p-days are on Monday. So this morning I got to wash all of my clothes by sitting on a stool with a giant bucket of water with soap powder. I also get to go do some grocery shopping today! I love the work I am able to do here. I really miss and love all of you at home! But I also love the people here so much! I am currently healthy! Although while I was hanging my clothes on the line inside, the fan was going and I cut my finger on it. It is all cleaned up and fine though.

Odo (Love) Elder Taylor Brandt