Elder Chandler Johnson: It's Monday Again??

Hello friends and family!

It has been a pretty eventful week here in Sekondi. Sadly, all the days blend together so I'm going to try to remember some highlights of my very long day ;) When Elders, Hanson, Johnson, Bleh, and I were at the food stand on Monday night it started to pour down rain. It was CRAZY. The stinky part is that getting up to our apartment is nothing but steep hills with dirt.. so, with the rain it turned to mud. Elder Hanson and I rehashed our sweet cross country running skills and took off sprinting. When we got to a certain point, I started slipping and sliding everywhere, which for some reason I enjoyed and couldn't stop laughing for the longest time. By the time we all got back, our shirts, pants, and shoes were all muddy. Those were not fun to wash in a bucket today!

Who needs a washing machine? Not this guy!

Our total investigators are just around 30 people. Between now and October, there are 12 with a baptism date..,but some we are not counting on at the same time - having faith they will go through with it. Having that many people to teach keeps us fairly busy during the week. One investigator's name is Felix. Felix is 22, really cool guy. He was progressing great but something with a job went sour, so he is in Accra for who knows how long. There is a chance that he will be there for a year... I was pretty sad since he was the first person I taught for lesson 1 and bonded pretty well with. Another's name is Francis. He is a hunchback, can't walk very well, and has wanted to come to church for a while but could never find someone to walk him in his wheelchair to church. So, I told Elder Hanson we can do it and eventually find people to help. Yesterday we woke up an hour early (5:30) to get ready for church and to be at his house (size of a walk in closet, very humbling). He told us on Tuesday that he hopes we would actually show up and we promised him we would. BBUUUUTTTT we got there and he was asleep. It was a good walk on a foggy morning along the beach, which is the coolest thing since there are big cargo ships that you can see.

The neighborhood

Last night the Elders Hanson, Johnson, and I played monopoly. It was fun because it was all in French! I was winning for awhile, but somehow Elder Hanson won. Elder Johnson and I are pretty sure he cheated ;) This week we have Zone conference (about 20 Elders together) with the Mission President. Then on Thursday night I'm going on companion exchange until Friday night with Elder Pohaho (Tongan). He is sooooo cool. Only been out 6 weeks longer than I have. His companion is Elder Atu Ake who is also Tongan. Funniest guys. OH! On Saturday we had a big service project through "Helping Hands" at the Takoradi hospital, which was funny because Elder Hanson and I didn't know we had to go, so we got a call from the Zone Leaders halfway through personal study asking where we were. I got to use a machete to cut grass! I think that's how I will cut grass when I get home. Worst part of the week was when electrictity is turned off. It has happened 4 days in a row right at 6pm, but usually goes back on at 6am. So, at night we all walk around with our headlamps haha!

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well! Id love to hear from every single one of you :)

Elder Johnson