So what's up my little FuFu Family

So this week was kinda cool but of course it was filled with the usual disappointments (including this dang sticky keyboard!). Such is life.
Sometimes life hands you a sticky keyboard and there is nothing you can do about it; however sometimes life gives you a nice keyboard and you never realized it was nice until you have tried this sticky keyboard of good and evil.(see 2nd Nephi chapter 2) haha.

So cool story #1.
Last last Sunday (2 weeks ago) they asked me, on the spot, to confirm Samuel (Victoria's son) as a member of the Church. The blessing stated that Samuel would be given the Priesthood and would need to exercise it a lot in his home and that he would be responsible for bringing many of his family members into the church by helping them understand and read the scriptures and the doctrine. So we went over to their house to teach them some more stuff and Samuel was there with his older sister Comfort. He was sitting there with her helping her read the book of Mormon chapters we left her and was teaching her about faith. We gave his sister Comfort a baptismal date after that. It is crazy to see how this little 14 year old punk who has normal has 14 year old problems, can also be such a great influence for his family. The priesthood is real. We are still working with Comfort, who we hope will be baptised soon. She is learning that in order to be baptized that she needs to come to church EVERY Sunday haha. Step by step.
Samuel is doing a good job.

I learned a couple things from this. The priesthood is very real and it is a very big responsibility to hold it. You have always got to be ready and worthy to use it, because you never know when it will be needed or when you will be called to 'step up.' Kinda like how you always gotta have a short concert ready under your guitar fingers, you never know when you are going to need to play.

Also I learned that younger people are understanding the scriptures and doctrine more than the older people. The more time people have been in the world, the more they justify the things they do and twist the scriptures. We were teaching this 16 year old girl Bernice, Sis Alice daughter, and we asked her to explain the Sabbath Day commandment back to us or explain what Moses and Abinidai were teaching us concerning the Sabbath. She said very plainly "well we can't buy or sell on Sunday." The older adults that were sitting with us were like "well what if i'm going to church and i'm thirsty? Is it against the Sabbath to buy pure water?" or "what if I run out of charcoal for my fire and I can't cook. Is it breaking the sabbath to go buy charcoal?" or "I can't go sell my goods on Sunday after church?" We taught them about preparing on Saturday and they still weren't buying it, looking at us as if we were crazy. Bernice however understood it plainly and she understood the rest of the commandments because she is younger and still pure. Another reason why she understood was because she can read and go to the source of the commandments, the actual scriptures, and read what they say. They don't have to learn from other sources downstream after the lies/commandments of men have trodden through it.

Sad story about Bernice (sis Alice daughter) though. She had "malaria"
(every sickness whether it be actual 'malaria' or not, they all call it malaria) these past 2 weeks and was not able to come to church. She goes to boarding school in another town in the central region, about 2 or 3 hours from here. We have been teaching her while she is back on vacation.

Boarding school here makes going to church hard. People consider the private schools to be better education than the government public education so people want the children to go to private school if they can.
So the private boarding schools are all church schools, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian etc. At these schools they DO NOT let you leave the school premises to go to church or anything like that because they provide a church for you to go within the school. So if you are LDS you can't go to church because it would involve you leaving the school. Dig? So Bernice can't attend church because she is going to a boarding school. I wish they could get permission to have their children leave to attend the LDS church, but they haven't been able to. People aren't too worried about sending the kids away to school as they are blinded 'by the traditions of their fathers, which are false.' President Golden, from the 70, during stake conference strongly counseled against going to boarding schools that do this or sending your children away to school because they still need to be raised by parents. Nothing justifies failure in the home, but the people still send their children away to private boarding school. They don't seem to understand that by following the counsel from the prophets and by keeping the commandments and going to church that they will be blessed more than if they went to the boarding school. IT IS A SOURCE OF FRUSTRATION FOR ME!!!

So Bernice leaves to boarding school in 2 weeks. She has come to church 2 times about 5 months ago before she went to boarding school.
She can come for the next 2 weeks and then she will leave to boarding school. The rule is they have to come to church 4 times before they can be baptized. This is a smart rule so it'll ensure that people are serious and won't be put under covenant and then fall away. The problem is that we have the Tema stake conference for her 4th Sunday and they WILL NOT do confirmations at Stake or Ward conferences so none of the missionaries can baptize anyone that week because the confirmations would be delayed. Remember for a convert baptism, they do the confirmations during the sacrament meeting not right after the baptism like they do for a child of record baptism. (they still confirm children of record during sacrament meeting anyways. I try to explain it to them but whatever, they are
trying) So we won't be able to baptize Bernice because the 4th week is stake conference thing and she is leaving to school after her 4th week. President Smith told me that we need to wait until she comes back from school in 6 months before she can be baptized. I felt really really bad about this so about 10 min later I dug up enough courage to call President Smith again and try to persuade him.
I felt like you do when you are staring at the phone for 10 min pacing around trying to talk yourself into calling that girl to go on a date or to a dance haha. I was nervous to call him again, so I acted it out first with my companion and built up a really good way to ask President. So I called him again but he wouldn't budge on the rule. I just don't want Bernice to be away at boarding school with no parents and no constant guidance of the Holy Ghost, but I understand and everything. Man I was bummed out though. So that was not my favorite day.

Well here are some more funnies, our choir sings a lot at church. They don't sit up front on the stage and sing but they just sit in the audience in the corner then stand up and sing. The women were all trying to hold back their former church ways but they were all kinda rockin back and forth and stuff, but doing it kinda sneaky haha. I think part of this is their former church ways and that everybody here dances whenever they hear music so it just happens.
Remember that everyone is Ghanian so they dance not awkwardly. It was funny.

Also Bishop was talking about going to stake conference to 'fill your bucket.' When talking about 'bucket' he pointed above his head. I was kinda confused but quickly realized that the women carry buckets on their heads. Usually I think of 'bucket' as a wooden thing with a little metal tie around it with a handle but here 'bucket' means big metal bowl that you carry on your head. It made me giggle.
During Sunday School I had to resist making some comments about the Holy Ghost. They were asking about why He appeared in the form of a Dove? I wanted to explain by standing up and flying around like a dove and cooing and then fly around like a crow and caa-ing. The scriptures are teaching us that the Holy Ghost is reverent and calm and comforting, it ain't noisy and annoying like a crow. You want to shew crows away (thinks of grandpa's scarecrow) while we usually welcome doves.
Alas, for the sake of reverence I didn't do it but I probably should have. People would have understood.

See I teach like you guys? You guys physically took your kids outside and fed them mannah (banana bread) water struck from the rock (diet
sprite) and quail (bbq jerky or buffalo jerky) and made them wander out in the wilderness (church parking lot). I betcha they learned quite a bit. You guys are good teachers. Everyday I find myself being more like you. My South African companion even asked me what "gaaall" and "fetch"
means.

Hey on some good news we are going to baptize John on Saturday.
I just gotta go meet his wife and sneak it out of her if they are correctly married or not. The dudes will always lie. The wife has been out of town for the past months but comes home tomorrow. Nice. John is a great dude. He read and had a feeling and we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he was like, "phew. Well I guess i'd better be.
There is no denying what I felt." SWEET! We are still teaching his family. Bishop asked his fellowshipper from the ward to baptize. The older woman from the photo last weeks husband.

Nice well I will enjoy the blueberry funkenstein hat you made when I get home. Send me a picture. Hit me! YaOW! Man there ain't no funk in Ghana. WE want the funk, gotta have that funk.

Hey dad, I have been getting your letters and they are the best things ever. Keep on sending them. Your words are very helpful to me and help me get through the day. They build my faith in the Savior and in Heavenly Fathers plan for all of us.

Well I gotta go family. Pictures soon to come next week. Sorry the internet was being poopy and wasn't uploading my pictures.

I love you tons.
The work is continuing!