By Bonnie Blackburn Hart

Young men in college have much on their minds: getting to class on time, getting homework done, having fun, and where their next meal is coming from.Young men on missions have much on their minds: finding willing people to hear their message, working to strengthen the local branch, being obedient, staying safe, and sometimes, where their next meal is coming from.
The transition from a freshman at BYU to a trusted missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is staggering in the speed it must be achieved.
Elder Jayce Porter, 19, of the Colorado Springs North Stake speaks of this transition, "When I was in college I still felt like I was just a goofy little guy. But now that I am out on my mission, I finally feel like I am growing up."

The predictable daily events for a young man like Jayce Porter in Colorado might include store-bought cereal, fresh milk other comfort foods, a car when needed, family support, and a common and comfortable culture that includes a language he has spoken as long as he can remember. Elder Porter was transported into the beautifully magical land of Ghana in Africa amongst an equally beautiful people whose culture is as foreign to him as any culture could be.
The Republic of Ghana lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of tropical Africa with a total size similar to the size of the state of Oregon. The population is approximately 19 million.
Elder Porter's first real look at Ghana and its people occurred when leaving the Missionary Training Center in Ghana on what he describes as the most beat up bus in the country. He threw his nice clean luggage into the back of the bus full of dust and mud. It took four hours to reach the CapeCoast.
"It was literally like being in an oven on wheels," Elder Porter says.

The bus ride, though stiflingly hot, was beautiful.Elder Porter said. "We were literally in the jungle of jungles."
The green is intense and the trees are enormous. The people carry everything on their heads: tables, engines, baskets of fruit. The women carry their babies on their backs with a little piece of cloth and the children are left flopping along, but secure.

Elder Porter's assigned city is Obuasi. Obuasi is an important gold mining town and a good place to buy locally produced gold jewelry. However, like most mining cities, the workers live in very humble circumstances. The poverty is staggering compared to the United States. The meagerness is so impressive that when Elder Porter first walked the streets of Obuasi he forced himself to stay busy to keep his eyes from tearing-up.

Elder Porter's apartment is on the third floor of a building; the chapel is one floor below. Obuasi has only one branch at the moment but the church is growing rapidly. Upon arrival, Elder Porter is so surprised at the condition of the apartment he asks questions and smiles to keep from looking shocked. He has a bed and a beat up cabinet in his room.To this day, he and his companion go on periodic mice hunting ventures in the apartment.

Many mornings the water shuts off and the Elders have to fetch water from a tank. Elder Porter is getting used to taking a bath in a small bucket and learning to wash clothes by hand. The electricity shuts off daily, which surprisingly, the Elders don't mind. The apartment is next to the biggest nightclub in town and Elder Porter says, "The only time we have peace and quiet from the blaring music is when the power shuts off."

Elder Porter arrived in Obuasi during the "harmattan." The harmattan is during winter when a dry, cold, dusty wind blows from the Sahara desert to the west coast. Elder Porter explains, "It's when the Sahara desert comes down and pays a visit to the rest of Africa!" The sand causes everything to get dusted with red. Even the moon looks red because of the dust in the atmosphere.

Other seasonal storms, although rare, are something that a Hollywood effects director might dream up in a movie. What a surprise for a new Elder to see rain clouds forming in the distance and moving at great speed towards the west. When the rain clouds are almost above, a wall of sand races towards the village and pelts any villagers or missionaries unlucky enough to be outside. Immediately after the sand comes the pouring rain.
Ghana is mostly hot and sunny. Elder Porter's mission is one of the only ones in the world where the missionaries can wear hats and sunglasses while tracting. Many of the Elders lament that the sun beats down so hot that they are balding. Elder Porter says, "They all blame it on the sun!"

According to Elder Porter, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ghana is growing rapidly. He believes the religious excitement in the region is similar to that at the time of Joseph Smith. Shops and cars around town have signs "Jesus saves" and "God is great." The people will talk openly about religion. Freedom of worship is a constitutional right in Ghana, and significant Christian and Islamic populations live side by side in many parts of the country. Census figures indicate that the largest religious group in Ghana consists of Pentecostal or Charismatic Christians (24.1% of the total population), followed by Protestants (18.6%), Muslims (15.6%), Catholics (15.3%), other Christians (11%), Traditionalists (8.5%) and no other religion (6.9%).

Although English is the official language, Twi (pronounced "chwee") is the local dialect the people speak. Elder Porter learns this difficult dialect by working with a manual and reading the Twi Book of Mormon and English Book of Mormon side by side. Elder Porter laments, "Maybe some day I'll understand what it all means! It is frustrating not knowing what people are saying!" Elder Porter had a Ghanaian companion, Elder Kissi, for a few months who helped with the language challenge. Elder Kissi's father, Elder Emmanuel Abu Kissi, an Area Authority Seventy for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a doctor and author of the book Walking in the Sand about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' history in Ghana.

The church meetings are all in Twi. Church is often louder than Elder Porter is used to. There has been a minister from another church attending the investigator's class adding fiery comments.The English-speaking missionaries have found this to be a challenge, as most of the conversations are in Twi and they often can't figure out what is being said. They do understand, however, as the class starts repeating "Amen!" when the minister starts challenging the teacher. The elders have learned polite ways of getting the class back on track again.

On Elder Porter's first fast Sunday an investigator, who had been there only twice, bore his testimony. After teaching this man and his friend about the Restoration, this young man asked Elder Porter, "Why did you not come here sooner?" Elder Porter says, "They are so ready to hear this wonderful message that we have!"

The faces of the investigators include a boy named John who is ten. According to the missionaries, he knows more than they do about the gospel. John wants to be baptized but he can never get anyone to bring him to the baptism. Elder Porter especially loves to hear John pray.
"John prays for a long time about the things he is grateful for. John has nothing. He just wears a pair of shorts around. But he is just grateful," Elder Porter says. "I have learned that all of these material things just don't matter.We can still be happy no matter what we have."

Elder Porter is teaching the gospel to a family of four who has accepted the invitation to be baptized. He shared with this family the names of his parents and siblings. In gratitude for the gospel message, this family promises to name their future children after Elder Porter's family. Elder Porter wrote his family saying, "So there could very well be little Ghanaian children running around with our names in a few years." The Ghanaian family couldn't tell, however, if Elder Porter's brother, Scott, is a name for a girl or a boy.

On another occasion Elder Porter and his companion taught a family after which the little boys took the missionaries' shoes and shined them with the little bit of shoe polish they could find.

Communicating with the people is a growing experience in cultural differences. Everyone who is older is addressed as "mommy" and "daddy." Because of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' familial ways of addressing each other, the Elders potentially call members and investigators mommy, daddy, brother and sister.

The people have a unique way of shaking hands. First they shake hands and then they slide down to the middle finger and snap one another's fingers. Another unique communication is when people want to get the attention of someone else they will hiss. Elder Porter has gotten used to it but says, "I almost feel like a dog when I answer to someone hissing at me!"

Elder Porter is impressed with the local leaders of the branch. The leaders are constantly working with the members, cleaning the building, teaching seminary, and anything else to keep the branch going. The Branch President in Obuasi works in the mine during the day, goes to his farm for a few hours in the afternoon, then he goes to the church and cleans and does his work.

The country is infused with its own history and celebrations, new and charming to the American missionaries. Recently during a Ghanaian anniversary, all of the children left their schools in their uniforms and marched through the streets.

The local children love the missionaries. The missionaries will often play football (soccer) with the children. Describing one such competition, Elder Porter reports, "It was so much fun! We got rocked by a bunch of ten year olds!" He continues, "There were just tons of people around watching us play because we are pretty much the only white people within miles and miles." Elder Porter loves the children. Anytime they see the missionaries they yell, "Oburoni! Oburoni!" This means: White man! White man! The children love to run up to the Elders, hold their hands, and follow them around.

Dr. Joseph Appiah-Kusi, a Ghanaian professor of medicine living in Seattle who plans to find Elder Porter when he visits home in July says, "When you go to Ghana and someone meets you for the first time, they immediately consider you their friend. There is an Ashanti (the name for the people in this region of Ghana) proverb that "A stranger is a friend you do not know." When a stranger shows up in an Ashanti home, he or she is first offered a drink and food, before talking about the purpose of one's visit."

For the Elders, an invitation to dine in a home is a cultural adventure. The food most commonly eaten in Ghana is called Fu Fu. It is a type of dough made by pounding plantain in a bowl. The dough is then dipped into a bowl of "soup" and then swallowed whole. No chewing. The soup might have many things in it: whole fishes, sardines, crab legs, goat meat, goat skin, and many other random pieces of food. Elder Porter has learned to eat many "weird types of meat." To not eat food offered is considered rude and an insult.

On preparation day, or P-day, Elder Porter can be found playing basketball and eating pizza at one of the very few places that sell the American youth staple. Other P-day activities have included visiting the local gold mine and golfing. On one P-day, Elder Porter and 15 other missionaries donned jump suits, boots, and head-lamps for a venture into the mine.The missionaries were surprised to see the modern technology and safety employed. Obuasi also has one of the very few golf courses in Ghana. The attractive golf course was built by British expatriates who lived and worked at the gold mines during colonial rule.

The entire missionary zone meets in the city of Kumasi for zone conference. Kumasi is the capital of the Ashanti region located inland about 85 km north of Obuasi and is the second largest and oldest city in the country. Kumasi means "under the Kum Tree." According to the legend, the Kum Tree was planted in two towns to determine the Ashanti capitol. The tree survived at the location that became Kumasi.

Elder Porter describes this exciting city, "So just imagine the craziest city you can think of and times that by about 10. Kumasi is NUTS!! There are so many people and tons of insane tro-tro drivers. (Tro-tros are wagon-like pick-ups that are used for transportation to locations where municipal buses do not get to in any town or city.) You can stop by the roadside or by the street and wave, and tro-tros will stop to pick you up. The ride costs about 8,000 cedis which is equivalent to $.80.

Rarely are missions the postcard pictures of perfection missionaries will sometimes write home to families.The missionary's full-time responsibility is building the kingdom, and the energy it takes to do that is palpable. Tough weeks are when investigators can't keep their appointments. Elder Porter remembers a week when they walked around all day to their scheduled appointments and either the people weren't home or asked the missionaries to come back another time.

"The truth is that I most definitely have been blessed! To be honest, I probably should be dead by now... pretty comforting I'm sure," Elder Porter joked in a letter to his parents. "But Heavenly Father definitely looks out for His missionaries. I have been in very good health and have not had anything that has stopped me from the work."

The greatest moment for missionaries is when the people they teach accept baptism. "I have found that some of the times when I have felt the Spirit the strongest so far on my mission is when I am using the priesthood. I have come to realize how truly wonderful and powerful the priesthood is. What an amazing gift to be able to act in behalf of our Heavenly Father," says Elder Porter. "It is such an amazing experience to be standing in the circle of worthy priesthood holders and confirm our investigators to be members of the church and give them the Holy Ghost. It is a wonderful sight to look into the center of the circle and see the different colored hands and know that we are all God's children."

Elder Porter's father showed him a scripture in high school which at the time made him laugh. Today it takes on a significant meaning as he walks the streets of Obuasi, Ghana. 1 Corinthians 13:11 reads, "When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Elder Jayce Porter says, "A part of me just wanted to stay like I was, always goofing around. But now I am starting to realize the really important things about life, and I have kind of changed my goals and my thoughts about life. You start to really realize what is important- like Heavenly Father, the church, and family."