Photo found on a blog of a senior missionary couple, the Pace's, with this caption: This district did a unique version of the 12 days of Christmas. It began with "On the first day of Christmas by branch gave to me.. a referral living by me. Additional verses were: Four Standard Works, Five Golden Investigators, Seven Babies Crying, Eight Maids Breastfeeding (so common in Ghana), Eleven Balls of Banku (common Ghanian food), etc.
It was very clever.
Dear Family and Friends,
It has been a fantastic week! On Tuesday we went on exchanges. I got to go on an exchange with Elder Gillam, our district leader, in his area. His area is called Odumase (O-doo-mossy) and it is full of wonderful and faithful people. We taught many lessons and a member even fed us some rice! Score!
Wednesday and Thursday we were in our own area and then on Friday we went to Juapong for a contacting activity. I got to go back to my last area! It was awesome to see some of the people I know so well there.
On Saturday evening our branch had their Christmas party. We didn't have a great turn out, but it was fun all the same. They started playing the first presidency Christmas devotional, which I was very excited to watch, but they decided to stop it after the first two speakers. I didn't even hear any of the first presidency messages. Darn. Then we watched a bunch of musical performances. People were singing in their awesome African languages and doing crazy African dances. It was sweet. Then they served us with some popcorn and a chocolate drink of some kind. (Not hot chocolate. It was actually cold.)
Sunday morning Santa came! We woke up to cookies, candies, shoe polish, and drinks sitting on the table for us. Who knew Santa's reindeer could make it to Ghana? I opened my packages from home and started enjoying some of the goodies. Then we got ready and headed off to church. We had a wonderful sacrament meeting and the room was full. We even had some investigators there. After church we headed home and then traveled to Ensign College so we could Skype. After Skyping we met at the apartment with the other elders in our district and ate lots and lots of healthy food.
This Christmas God blessed me with many miracles. I want to share just a few. The first one is the miracle of being in Africa. How cool that I get to spend this time in such a beautiful and adventurous land! We were also blessed with the miracle of having water on Christmas day. Several days before Christmas our pipe had started flowing and we were surviving with the water in our tank. The night before Christmas our tank was pretty much empty and we were worried we would have a dry holiday. Christmas morning when we went out to check the pipe it was flowing. What a blessing it is to have running water! Then of course their was the miracle of Skyping my family. God has blessed me with the technology to be able to talk to people living on the other side of world.
I can't believe that Christmas is over! It has come and gone too fast. I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas. My Christmas was a delight. I am so grateful to be a missionary. I am grateful to have a wonderful family and great friends who are so good to me. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and my needs and who hears and answers my prayers. I am grateful for my Savior who has provided the way for me to return home.
I love you all and hope you have a great week! Happy New Years in advance!
Love,
Elder Radmall
Skyping with Elder Radmall - our first time since he has been in Ghana!
It was so good to see him!!
Questions from Mom:
Q. Did you sing at church for Christmas? Did your branch have music, speakers?
We just sang some hymns as a congregation and heard a few speakers talk about the Savior.
Q. What did you have for your Christmas feast?
For breakfast we had coffee cake. For lunch we had jolof rice. For dinner we had fried chicken and hot fudge brownie Sundays.
Q. Did your companion and the other missionaries in your apartment get Christmas packages?
My companion didn't, but I think they are expecting some packages to come.
Q. How are your shoes holding up? Do you need new ones?
My shoes are doing great! They should hold out for the next six months.
Q. Best lesson you taught this week?
This week we shared a lot of Christmas messages with people we taught. One of the most significant to me was when we talked to a recent convert about the shepherds who were visited by an angel after Christ's birth. The thing that I love about the shepherds is when they had heard that a Savior was born they went "with haste" to find Him. And after they had seen the babe they spread it abroad. That is the great privilege we all have. We can come to know Christ by accepting His Gospel. Then we can spread it abroad to help others know Him as well.
Q. What was the best gift of your Christmas?
Getting to Skype with you guys of course!
These photos were sent by Elder Radmall's former companion, Elder Kallon from Sierra Leone. We sent him a few Christmas gifts - a tie, mint M & M's, and a tie clip. He skyped with us yesterday before Bryan did - and it was a joy to get to know him and talk to him.
Ghana Accra Temple at night
Elder Kallon at the temple.
Elder Kallon with new tie, tie clip and M & M's.
Brownie cake made by Elder Kallon. He says Bryan taught him how to make this brownie cake.
Tro-tro with goat on top. Photo taken from the Pace's blog. They said that they passed the van 10 minutes later, and the goat was gone. They hope whoever owned the goat got off and took the goat with them!!
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