Elder Flake in Ghana: 1st Letter!

Hola Familia!

I feel like saying that because all of Payton and Charly's letters start that way lol.Things are going great. I will admit it, at first I was really wondering what I got myself into. It was mostly because I was extremely tired as result of the jet lag. I still have trouble sleeping at night when my body is telling me that it's 3 in the afternoon. But oh my gosh I'm just loving it!

My companion is a big Samoan guy who speaks veryy little english which was very hard at first but I'm counting it as a blessing now. He is such a great guy and his name is Elder Taunuu.

There is seriously so much to tell you about. Sports time is fun. Yes. The rim is like 9' and 6''. I dont really go hard in the paint yet because I'm saving that for the field. But I throw down every now and then... The food is amazing here, I have no idea what all the Americans are complaining about. Probably the worst thing we've had was the fufu. Which wasn't even bad, it just made you gag for some reason. It's mostly chicken and rice, but at 9;30 pm we go and eat "snack" which is most of the time a sugary, cornmuffin-looking thing with African cocomilk that is AMAZING.

I love my companion and all the Africans they are freakin amazing. The first few days when I was feeling down, we all got together in the chapel and sang called to serve and I'll tell you what, It was hard to hear our instructor after the song. They sing so loud! They're not even good but because they sing so loud the spirit is so strong. It makes my day so much better. Just the random song, Israel Israel God is Calling is like my favorite song now because they are very shameless singing it and it sounds so good.

My companion was struggling with the language really bad at first, but he seemed okay until I saw him on his bed almost in tears, so we fasted all of Monday and it was really amazing because at the end of the day, when I was a hungry, tired and upset boy, we started talking about food and stuff and in no time, we were laughing and joking and having a good time. He was starting to understand me well and I have no problem understanding him. The powa of fast is real!