So this week was full of crazy stuff and tro-tro rides galore!
Sorry you felt like you were sleeping on a plane this week in your bronchitus cave.
While you were in your uncomfortable bed I was on a buncha the most uncomfortable and long rides in a tro tro EVER! I think I have been on a tro tro for about 10 hours this week!!!
We had a bunch of "holy cow!" moments this week.
Holy Cow moment #1
We have been trying to get a woman named G in the Kade branch baptized. She has met with plenty of missionaries and has been taught all of the lessons multiple times. She has been having a hard time leaving her church. I first met her and she was unenthused and not really interested, however she likes Elder Afu so we just sang some hymns with her. We challenged her to be baptized the first day I met her and she accepted but wouldn't accept a date to be baptized on. We met her again at her store where she sells meat and again sang some more and shared with her about the Holy Ghost and the Book of Mormon, she accepted a date hesitantly. We met her again later and sang some hymns with her and her husband and her kids, she told us that she had read! We went back to her store to share with her and she said she was feeling sick and we should come back later. We were about to go but felt like I should I enquire if she had prayed and if she had received an answer. I enquired and she just sat there for a moment in silence. She then shed a tear and said that she knows that it is true. She said that she had a dream and that her late (dead) father visited her wearing a white shirt and black trousers, she said that he was dressed like us. He told her that he was now a member of the "Latter Day Saint church." All eyes were slighty wet. We didn't say much more but sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" in her little butcher shop. It was a beautiful thing. She will be baptized this Saturday. This has been a LONG work in process. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to meet her and help her down this path. Their family is going to ROCK!
Holy Cow Moment #2
We have a recent convert in Kade, in a suburb called Adonkrono. His name is Frank (pictured in the very green Irish looking landscape photo with us, he has the side bag). Frank took us over to meet his friend named E. E has been very sick with Typhoid for a long time and says that he usually doesn't look like he does because he has transformed and become very skinny because of the sickness. One of our members brought him some herbs and he has been getting better. We met with E for just a small time and we gave him the Book of Mormon. We read a place with him about baptism and repentance. We challenged him to be baptized if he knows if the Book of Mormn is true. He said that after reading that small place he knows that it is true and would be baptized as soon as possible. He then shared that he had been praying to God to help him change his life and find the right place to go. He had been attending many churches but stopped due to frustration. He prayed and then we were led to him.
This lets me know that the Holy Ghost prompts others to benifit others. God answered E's prayer by sending the Holy Ghost to prompt the member to give him some medicine, then He prompted Frank to share the gospel with him, then He prompted Frank again to bring us to meet him.
E is already repenting and is very happy. He came to church on Sunday with his friend and was very happy.
We then went over to have some Zone Training in Koforidua on Thursday. The whole North Zone met together. We all arrived early and Elder Chimuka brought his guitar so we decided to practice and arrange Silent Night. Elder Chimuka and I will accompany the choir. The first verse will be just a quartet singing the parts, I got stuck to do the melody because nobody else would...Drats. But Elder Afu, Elder Anderson and Elder Holt are singing the other parts. Elder Holt does a surprisingly good job. Nice low voice.
The 2nd verse is the whole choir/zone singing parts.
The 3rd voice is the whole choir going "ooooohh" while the Senior Couple missionaries, the Terry's, sing a duet for the last verse.
It'll be nice. Sister Smith started to cry. Yup nothing like a little string plucking action to bring those tears.
Elder Chimuka does a good job on the guitar, we are going to practice tomorrow right before.
There are only 2 things that bring a tear to the eye, a very pretty guitar and a trombone solo...of course these are 2 different types of tears. One of joy and one of pain haha. Budoom crash!
Elder Farnbach gave a really good instruction on "How to Begin Teaching." I heard it before when we were in McCarthy Hill and I applied it and all of the sudden our baptismal dates went through the roof. He is a great zone leader and great friend. He is going to help me out with the Christmas talent show. I'll explain later ;)
Well after the zone training we went back to Asamankese and visited a family, the fathers name is D. D is a great man and has been meeting with the missionaries for a long while. He is friends with the Asamankese branch 1 President. We met with him and he knows the Book of Mormon is true. He has been postponing the day of his baptism because he was the guy in charge of a bunch of churches money stuff. Guy is really a learned and smart person. Well we bore our testimony and taught the kids how to pray and then gave them a date for the 15th of January. He accepted. He felt like this would be enough time to cut all the ties with the other churches and fully join. Our Branch President is so giddy because he can give him a calling once he joins. His family of 4 will also join. He has 3 kids. 2 girls and a boy. They are excited.
We then had a baptism on Saturday. We were supposed to baptize 2, Felicia and Ellen; however we got a call Saturday morning that Ellens father just traveled in from an obscure village and she had not told him about the baptism and didn't want her to do it that day. I didn't even know her dad was alive! I thought he died. So we baptised Felicia, there were a lot of good members there to support, and then ran over to Ellens house to meet her father. Her father is a good and honest man, a farmer. He had met the missionaries before and likes us. We sat down with him and taught him about some of the commandments we keep and he made friends with us. He likes how we baptize the same way as Jesus Christ did. He gave us his consent for his daughter to be baptized. We invited him to come and witness it and support her in her decision. He was delighted. We asked him if he would learn with us and if we could teach him these things, he agreed. We will teach him once he gets done with some extended family problem stuff. Will baptize her on the 22nd, with her dad there to watch it ;)
This brings us to the rest of Saturday. The other Elders in our district have been struggling. So I went on splits to Oda to see their sacrament meeting and see what was going on and to do a baptismal interview. I have been to Oda 1 time prior to Saturday and we visited with some members who had minors they had not yet baptized. The families were hmm not unwilling to have their kids baptized but they were just not wanting to do it now. They still have the tradition that you need to be old and very knowledgable about the gospel. I told them that I was 8 and didn't know a whole lot but I knew that it was right and that Jesus Christ did it and that I would get the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. They are hesitant to do the baptisms. There has been a hardship with the Oda branch. They have a lot of older members who want to keep things the same from the time they joined. Not really willing to do new things. Since this is a church of constant revelation this is a hard thing.
For the past months the Oda branch has been re-opened they have been having an english problem. Elder Moses and Elder Kinalwa are from Sierra Leonne and Uganda, they only speak English. The members don't like that much. They are not getting referrals and people have told them that they don't like them because they don't speak Twi, etc. When I heard this, I wasn't sure what to think, but when I went there I found out it was true. The branch has those who are willing, and those who are stubborn, or not willing to change.
The branch leadership is amazing. The President is a Gah and since I am fresh from Accra I sputtered out some Gah to him and I am his new best friend. We had him meet their baptismal candidate and he is very kind and a great man. He is excited for the baptism and is ready to give the baptismal candidate a calling.
I sat through their investigators class and it was almost entirely taught in Twi. This made some of the members feel left out as not all Ghanians speak Twi. Also when they speak the Twi, they are not using the scriptures as 90% of Ghanians can't read Twi. So I talked with the instructor after and I took him through the scriptures small about the need of a common language in these situations and the need to use the language of the scriptures and he absolutley agreed. He agreed to teach the class in only english now. English is the official language of Ghana.
When I was there, President Smith's 1st couselor, President Secheree was there to give some instruction on the whole English issue. The 3rd hour of church ended up going for 2 hours...people were strongly voicing their opinions on the issue. A lot of hmm not nice things were said. Anywho President Secheree let everyone voice their opinons and then took down their concerns and addressed them very professionally. He then explained that we sustain leaders and follow their counsel. He went through the scriptures with us. John 6:58, 60-61, 66-69. Jesus just taught the people about taking the sacrament. A whole congregation size. The people said that "this is a hard saying; who can hear it?" Some of them even started to murmor. Then in verse 66 it says "from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." Then verse 67 says, "Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?" President helped us understand that ALL of the congregation left except the 12. HOLY COW. Then 68 and 69 tell us that they didn't leave because they knew that Jesus had the words of eternal life and they had a testimony. So we as church members need the word. If we can't read, we can't obtain the word. If you can't understand the language of the prophets, you can't obtain the word.
The church has a literacy program in the wards and branches. Even the Oda and Asamankese relief society presidents learned to read and speak english through that program. It works! However people think that, "this is a hard saying" and they begin to murmor. A lot even left. I hope that they come back. I pray that they will come back. Presdient Secheree lovingly explained everything to everyone. He loves the people. He doesn't get paid to do his calling and he has a broken down car and has had to drive it until it breaks down and then take a tro tro to the branches then return late and try to figure out how to fix his car. He left at 3:30 in the morning to be there and does this regularly. He loves the people, a lot and it pains him to see people get offended at something like this.
However there were a lot of old members that stayed. They were sweet and gentle. They were concerned but understood that this must be. They have faith in the Savior and in the gospel.
Well I gotta run.
Oh we are doing the talent show practice. I am going to play with Elder Beeston. He plays the harmonica. We are going to play a medley of "God Blessed Texas and Boot' Scoot n' boogie." Elder Farnbach was on the folk dance team and has agreed to lead my backup dancers of boot scooters. I have to teach him the dance tonight. Us north zone people are sleeping over at the mission home tonight. Elder Holt and some others are in on the boot scootn. I was going to play something pretty but I went and played some pretty stuff for sister smith at the mission home and then played her some country and she got really happy. President loves country and so do the Elders. So country it is.
Well I love you all.
Sorry about dads foot and your sickness.
Get better very soon!
Thanks for all your debit card emergencies. Love you!
A buncha people with a baptismal date! WOOOO!
Asamankese is the place to BE!
Getting our medicine.
The district Elders!
Our chapel in Asamankese. It is a weird thing. The chapel is so nice and it is right out of nowhere. The rest of the town has dirt, cement houses, goats, kiosks and palm trees.
Elder Afu plays the keys. The branches love when we are there because Elder Afu plays for the sacrament meeting.
AAAAAAAHHHH!
IF YA SMELL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKIN!
North Zone Food!!!
North zone, Zone conference food. It beats up all other zone food.
The little girls were singing hymns standing up on the chairs. They wanted to feel just as tall I guess. It was cute.
