Hello Family and Friends and
Bunny!
Thank you so much for your
emails! I even received your letters this week! If you want to make a
missionary's day just send letters! Thanks Teag for telling me about scout
camp! You looked like you were having fun in that hammock! Brooke! thanks for
your letter too, it was great! Shandee! Good night you are so good at drawing!
Thanks for drawing Ike for me and for everything you said! Thanks for the
pictures of the fam and everything! It's nice to see your faces!
This week was the most
interesting week of my life! There was a really bad event, then a really good
event. So before I share the bad event I just want to tell everyone not to
worry and to not freak out. :D When we went to zone training we went and bought
pizza which was great! (not even close to normal pizza but still dang good!)
when we came home, we found our bags and books scattered everywhere! We were
robbed.
But before you freak out, just
know everything is okay and we are all safe and everything is secure, and it is
very rare. My first thought was to look into stuff and re organize everything
but we had to leave it so people could take pictures of the evidence. So we
went out to teach that day, but we were not focused at all, we just kept
talking about the robbery. When we finally got home we looked through
everything. I feel really bad for one of the other elders because they stole a
whole hard drive from them full of pictures of a year being on his mission!
They stole some expensive jewelry from my companion who bought it for his mom
which was really sad. But for me I was pretty lucky because I didn't have much
pictures but they stole my head lamp, my extra memory card, my card reader (so
I can't send pictures until I get a new one.), my bleach..? and of course they
stole my beloved flip flops! Agh! But everything was okay, we ended up cracking
tons of jokes about it. Some of the things they stole were really dumb, they
stole our powdered milk, and all of the hot chocolate mix in the apartment. So
that was pretty funny :)
So I hope you aren't freaking
out, it is super rare to be robbed and everyone is fine. :) But because of that
trial God blessed us with success and a Baptism! I got to Baptize Obed on
Saturday! He is really cool and fits in to the church so well. When he came to
church on Sunday he was asking questions and giving comments, he really loves
the gospel! That moment he entered the water was such a special experience for
me. When we were changing he said simply "Elda Ballad, that was very
good." That baptism helped me so much and gave me so much comfort. I love
this gospel so much, it can change lives, and I get to be a part of it! I know
that Christ and God are watching over his missionaries and that the Spirit
testifies of the truth we are teaching! I know that God lives, I know that God
blesses us through trials. I know that if we push forward with a steadfastness
in Christ we shall not fall. I am learning so much, I know that my mission will
shape me into the person God wants me to be!
Culture Fact: I found out some
slang they use! When people are really emphasizing something they put an O on
the end of the word! Like I almost hit a guy with my bike and he said "Oh,
Sorry-o!" They also say "Chawley" (like Charlie in a British
accent.) which means "Friend" but they use it in the place of "I
tell you what." like if they say "I saw a car yesterday that was red,
Chawley it was nice!"
Questions answered: Austin, I
really like their money here! The bills are called cedis (like saying CDs) and
the coins are called pecweis (pay-sway-z) they have a 1 cedi coin as well as a
bill. They also have 2 5 10 20 50 cedi bills which are different colors and
sizes, so it is super easy to take the right bill out of your wallet! The value
of 1 cedi is 33.5 cents. So everything here is super super cheap. Like I can
buy a loaf of bread for a dollar basically. So that's always nice. Our sub for
the month is 360 cedis so it's a good amount if we want to buy extra fruit or
treats :D
Momma: I am super used to the
food now, but somethings are so spicy I can feel my ears burning!
Something new I had was yam (which is just like a boiled potato without mashing
it,) and soup that had fish mixed with tomatoes which was very nice, and of
course we ate it with our hands :) But don't worry they have us wash our hands
first. Also I can eat waaay more food that I used to, I ate a whole pizza by
myself which has never been done by me. (probably cause this pizza was
expensive and I didn't want to waste it.) Or I ate an egg sandwich that was the
size of my head. But I am exercising and biking everyday so I think I will be
okay with weight for now :) Also I wore my long sleeved shirt last Sunday and
about died so I won't be using that shirt again on a normal day.
Okay family and friends I love
you! Congrats Logan on your call! I knew that you would be learning a language!
Also Elder Kidd is in my district now so he is Kyson's cousin which is cool.
Sorry for no pictures... :'( good heavens lovey I’ve been nabbed! have a great
week! I love you all! I am doing fine and am learning so much!
Before I go I have another cool
experience! This man stopped us on our bikes, his name is Stelecon. He said
that he has always wondered about our church and that something touched his
heart to talk to us! The next day we taught him and he believed everything!
Even though we only taught him the first lesson, he said that he wanted to go
on a mission! He came to church yesterday and loved it! It's so cool that God
prepares people to receive the gospel like that! Anyways I’ll keep you updated about
him! :)
I love being a Missionary!
-Elder Ballard
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