LB

Dear Loved Ones,

By the miracle of being surrounded by computers all day, I decided to take the opportunity and write to you during the lull of the storm. My companions made me.

The big news on this front is literally tall: Elder Wilson is replacing Elder Crane in our companionship. He`s 6`8`` I think. Elder Crane goes off to Nürnberg, which means my training wheels as mission secretary are coming off on Wednesday. Bleah. Elder Wilson will be trained by Elder Leishman as Finance Secretary, and since us secretaries stay a while he`ll be my companion for about the next six months...way longer than normal. It should be good though.

The work for transfers entails the most stressful part of our job, as we wait for President to decide everything before carrying it out and ordering train tickets. We`re doing it all tonight to make it less stressful the next few days.

Enough with logistics, let`s get to the CRAZY-cool people.

About a week ago on Sunday we visited Ikenna, a Nigerian coming off of cateract surgery. He has to stay at home and can`t look at something for too long, thus he was listening to music and that was it. We gave him some sweet material he could listen too (Elder Leishman had a slew of books on tape) and learned he has a fiancée coming in a couple of weeks from Nigeria. We`re stoked for him. I love the African contingent of priesthood here, it hovers around 50% on most Sundays.

Early in the week we visited the BRADFORDS once more. The time whooshes by every time. Had a good time with Melanie, she joined the church in October and is so solid since she reads and studies all sorts of books.

And then there was Missy. She`s in her early 20`s and is from DANVILLE CA!, only a quick trip from Bezerkeley. Also lived in TX a while, but she came here for a job and referred herself via the internet. We asked her straight up what she expected from everything, and she basically said to learn if this church was true. Very neat experience. We should be meeting this week a little.

Travel down south to the magical land of GARMISCH!! Last week Jonah, a 14 year-old friend from a 12 year-old in the ward named R.J., came to church, which he had done ocassionally in the past. The Hillens said we could teach him at their house if he got permission from his mom, which he did. Friday night we zoomed down the Autobahn and to the appointment, which was smashing. The lesson started slow at the beginning with both of the younguns cracking jokes, but as we progressed through the points the Spirit came into play. The story of Joseph Smith must especially resonate with a person of that same age. He`s also acting in the world-famous Passion play in Oberammergau and has been growing his hair out for a year. The play is put on once every ten years and depicts the whole life of Christ, lasting six hours in total. We took advantage of the fact in the lesson. He`ll be in Thailand for a little while but wants to learn more afterwards!

Yesterday we had two large dinners in a row, and I emerged from the evening not feeling in peak form. That combined with another visit to a concentration camp in Dachau put a damper on the day.

Today nevertheless made up for it. Bruku came to church, we taught him, and during the evening we went to his new digs and introduced the stop smoking program. He`s still on track for the 10th of April and is truly a man of great faith. He`ll take the whole Ghanean nation with him, you`ll see!!

Otherwise, I gave a talk, used some math during it and was teased good-naturedly afterwards. Some people understood though!

That`s it for this side of the world.

Lots of love!

Elder Ek