Early Skyping!

Well guys I have news. I'm going to be able to Skype home for Christmas! Here's the deal. It's going to have to be on Monday (the day before Christmas Eve) and it will have to be in the morning to afternoon. Remember that I'm about 6-7 hours ahead of you guys. So me Skyping in the morning means you're still asleep. I'll still need to get on my e-mail to write the mission president so you should send me a good time to call you that day. Anyways this week was pretty good. We were able to baptize a family of 4. It's so nice to get families to belong to the same church here. A family of 5 can all belong to separate churches. It's crazy. Not a whole lot to say for now. I keep forgetting that Christmas is coming up. There's no lights, snow, cold weather ...(it's scorching), not even any Christmas music being played. I'm still looking forward to a pleasant Christmas though and talking to you guys on Monday. I'll post some pictures for your enjoyment. Have a sweet week. 

-Elder Silva

Transfer News: That will make six months :)

 What a great week it has been. Guess what? We are up to 14 baptisms... with hopefully 3 more on the way this week! Man it's not easy. So okay, okay, so I did push the gut a bit (in the picture I sent you last week as a family) and I had just eaten a lot of food, but hey what fun is a story without a bit of drama added? On that note, my stomach has gone down a bit. I took up running again... for 3 days. Yeah working out on a mission isn't easy. Proselyting pretty much takes all of your energy. I'm really going to try to keep it up though... on January 1st (what? It'll be a great New Year's Resolution). To answer your questions...

As for the oven, no we don't have one. We use gas stoves. I'm feeling pretty alright. Transfer news came and I'm staying in Obuasi another six weeks. That will make six months. I'm honestly glad I'm staying. I wasn't ready to leave quite yet. Please practice kindness and forgiveness in the ward. I've seen so many people change branches from inner disputes here.

I'll definitely be able to call at Christmas, and I'm working on a way to Skype.  I look forward to the packages and I look forward to hearing from you guys next week. Have an awesome week J

-Elder Silva

The "New Me"

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! My birthday came and went pretty quickly. There was one point I was lifting some weights (an Elder bought a bench bar) (yes I'm trying to work out (yes I don't like it)) when my companion threw a big bucket of cold water all over me. It took alot of mopping, but I was laughing the whole way through. Thanksgiving came and went without a blink. I'm not even sure what day it was on. I decided that my motivation to work out is that I'm 19 now and by twenty I want to become the "new me". If I can convert this fat as fast as I convert people I'll be there in no time. Speaking of converts we had another baptism yesterday and December's looking to be fruitful as well. I've been blessed with a great area for sure. Sorry to hear about the stomach flu. I'll either come home with an iron stomach from this food, or my stomach will be on its last breathes and I'll have to live off porkchops and appleshaush. Things with the investigators are going swimmingly. We have several promising ones for this next month. The only problem is that once they are baptized it will be back to the ol' contacting ship. Contacting isn't fun in the Ghanian weather, so we look for as many referrals as possible. Referrals save missionaries from many hours of wandering helplessly so give them out when you can. My companion is doing well. He doesn't speak fluent Twi, but he can understand it. It's a big help since the language barrier is one of the biggest problems the Ghanian Kumasi missionaries face. The roommates are still too many (8 is a bit much after 4 months), but we're moving along. Funny how Mom mentioned Austin Williams. He's my zone leader in the same apartment. He's a good missionary and a kind guy. I told one lady it was my birthday and how old I was and she said I should still be in the house drinking milk.
Have a wonderful week! 

 Coconuts...not the best, but I eat them!

 One of the Elder's bed sheets...

 Priscilla. I love baptisms! 

-Elder Silva