Dear Family,

This week was a pretty good week. 7 people again came to church! KAPOW (kung fu jump and punch at same time!) Man it was awesome! We were praying really really hard this week to get people to church. We also were teaching short lessons and only covering 1 or 2 principles. I bought a watch so after a little bit we will rap up and get out of there. It worked!

It seems that the Holy Ghost was with us a lot more. I can say that all we did was try to live worthy, get up on time and study and stuff like that, work like a dog! and plead for Heavenly Father to take care of the rest. I find that praying works a lot more when you are trying your hardest and trying absolutely all that you can.

Sister EM CAME! Holy Cow! Remember Em? She is the sister of the little brother Kwa. The father is less active. We have been teaching Em but she has failed coming to church for a long time and she was very argumental (just made up that word but it works here) when we were teaching; therefore we were just going to focus on the little brother and dad and let her come when she will. We gave the Bro of Jared cartoon Living Scriptures DVD to Kwa and he watched it and answered all the questions on the bonus part of the dvd and absolutley loved it. He even memorized the song "we will reach the promise land if we obey the Lord's command." We then read the place in Enos about it and paused the video and discussed it. Man the kid loved it. We talked about how God has a body and we were created in His own image etc. Em was present during all of this too and was contributing. We taught Em about God having a body and she freaked out and said that he was only a spirit etc. We walked her through the various Bible scriptures, ya know the "God created man in His own image" and "God talked to Moses, [and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and 75 elders of Israel] face to face" and "blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God" and the various others like Stephen seeing God etc. Still, going through all the scriptures for her did no good. However after she read the Book of Mormon and watched the video and we came back after she pondered about those things and discussed them with her little brother, she had no problem with it really. The Holy Ghost seemed to have taught her rather than just us shoving scriptures in her face. We have decided that in order to teach her we will teach Kwa, her brother, the doctrine with her by his side with the Father and then let the Holy Ghost do the rest.

Well we went to go pick up Kwa and the Dad for church as Em never agreed to come to church but said that she would one day come. Well we went and the dad came up with an excuse not to come, so we thought we were only going to take Kwa to church. Em left to go bathe and we were waiting for Kwa to finish his breakfast. Em came back fully dressed for church. We all took off after praying with the family. She usually goes to a break off of a Presbyterian church, "World Saving Miracle Life Presbyterian Church" or something like that, and it is on the way to our church. We thought she was just walking with us and then going to her church, however she walked past the Presbyterian church and went with us. All her church members were looking at her and some were talking with her etc. Man it was cool that she came. When we were at church Kwa absolutely loved it, he used to come as a small child and found some friends that he knew and instantly made new friends. I gave him my camera and he snapped photos of him and his friends and we brought them to his dad to show him. Kwa said that he loved it and never wants to leave again. Em seemed happy but still needs some more time, everyone was nice to her and loved loved loved her inviting her to join the choir and the bishop met her along with our ward mission leader and our recent women converts of her same age etc. LOVE LOVE LOVE (happy Mormon face with a plate full of jello and chicken ready to serve ya!)

We went back to their house and we gave Kwa and Em the Story of Nephi going to the promised land to read in the Book of Mormon. I told him I had the DVD of it so he wanted to watch it. They live just about 5 houses away from us so we went to get it.

When I came back Em looked hmm sad, something was not right. I went to ask her if she was okay and she was crying small with her head in her hands. I went and asked Kwa what was wrong. He said that she and the dad got in a small argument about food or something and the dad slapped her in the face hard. GREAT!... The dad wasn't there, as he left to bathe and the Holy Ghost was not there at all. It felt icky. We are going to let it all cool down and then we will go there later and try to see what we can do. Man this happens too often to my investigators. I have seen too many people, even members of the church beat their children. In US we just simply call the cops and then they bust them and give them a big warning and threaten them with the law, however here there is nothing like that. In some African cultures, if you don't beat your wife then you don't love her. They claim that in proverbs it says, "spare the rod, spoil the child" and justify beating children, family, etc. with the Bible. Little do they know that the Book of Mormon says, "the iron rod is the word of God." The prophets were not talking about, "if you don't beat your kids then they will grow up spoiled so grab a rod and get beating!" Rather they were teaching, "if you don't apply the gospel in your home then your child will probably go astray, so family home evening people lets go, family prayer and scripture study and sacrament meeting, go young men's program go!" MAN!

Last time I saw a member beating his kid in Asamankese we talked to him about it and he started to have family home evening and he threw his cane away. His children started to talk and look him in the face, the kids also started to look at us in the face as well. He became a very strong leader in the ward and now is teaching all the families up there how to do family home evening.

So if you can, say a prayer especially for that family this week. As now we have the task of trying to get Kwa baptized and get the sister to believe that all of this is true and this is the pathway back to God, even though the father is a member and hit her... Man tricky curve ball eh? Man I love this family too much so I'll work my can off to see what we can do.

Also we are baptizing the A family on this Saturday. Yeah they are the husband and wife with the blinging children at church. The kids like us and run up to us when we are coming and hug us and use our trouser pant legs as a tissue and face wipe haha. They are doing good. The little Aziko boy G wants me to always give him more books haha. We got the M family to fellowship them. Sister M was baptized about 2 years ago and is now in the Stake as a Young Womens adviser. She was going to all sorts of different churches looking for a remedy for her husbands alcoholism including buying 'holy oil' and using it to cook his food etc. She loved the churches here because she likes to dance and clap because it is 'stepping on Satan.' However one day she prayed and had a dream about 2 missionaries dressed in white shirts and black trousers coming to take her to heaven, also she had a dream about being a place with her husband being dressed in all white in a white room with everyone else dressed in white. She later said that she saw a glimpse of her temple marriage in her dream. Man all these dreams eh haha? She and her husband, now who stopped alcohol and is now a member and is the young mens president in the ward, visited the A family with us. Bro M is going to baptize Bro A. They are doing well. They will be good members.

I gave Sis M the felt tree of life game to play with her kids this week. I also taught her how to use the nursery manual on her kids for family home evening. We got 2 polybags and some paper and drew "I thank thee" and "I ask thee" on it and drew a buncha paper stuff in each bag like, "my family" and "food" and "trees" and "strong bodies" and "scriptures" etc. Then we played with her kids and taught them how to pray. Sis 's daughter will get baptized this week with the A family.

We also went on splits this week. Elder Haggard (from Chicago) came with me. Elder Haggard is a funny guy and we had a good time. We were on our way to an investigators house when I saw another investigator walking home. I greeted him and kept biking. I felt like I should stop and turn around and go to see his house. It was not reasonable because we were heading to a scheduled appointment but I stopped riding and I called Seth. Funny thing is I usually can't remember Seth's name but I did at that moment. I asked him if we could follow him and get to know his house. He agreed. We taught him and gave him the Book of Mormon. Just after teaching him, a man came running out of his house and seemed very happy. His name is JT. He begged for us to teach him as he has a friend who is a member whom he admires because of her honesty. He always sees the chapel when going to work and said that he has always longed to go there. he said he always saw us on bicycle going up and down but didn't know how to stop us. A little boy at Seths house ran inside when we came and told JT that there were 2 white men teaching about Jesus on the front porch. JT said that is when he clapped his hands together and ran out us. We taught him and gave him a baptismal invitation and he gladly accepted if he comes to know it is true. He also said that he wants us to teach him and his wife. (man this guy is really pulling my arm right? haha) I called our scheduled appointment and turns out she wasn't there anyways as she had a family emergency phone call and had to run out just before we were coming. Man good thing we listened to the Holy Ghost or we would have missed JT and his family. I'm getting better at listening to the Holy Ghost no matter how awkward or unreasonable it may seem, we and others are always blessed when we follow, listen and act upon His promptings.

We went back the next day and gave him a Book of Mormon and he seems sweet and extremely prepared.

Oh yeah mom, the correct term for fatty in Twi is obolo not to be confused with opollo the eye infection. Yes your eye does become obolo when you have opollo.

And holy crap this week we ate a lot of the stuff you sent in your envelopes! We finally got around to making your cheesecake last night and we froze it and ate it this morning. Holy cow! I do like it tons! We also devoured the mint chocolate rice krispies instantly. Man we are so grateful! The best goodies ever. Whatever you want to send is cool.

Thanks so much for all the DVD's and teaching stuff you are sending mom. The kids love it. They'd die for it. You must be prompted to send some of the stuff you send because it is what they need. Thanks mom! You are like da mom for many countries. Heavenly Father is grateful and so are we! Keep it up!

Sorry Britt has been having a poo poo week. Don't feel too bad Britt about people saying rude stuff. They don't mean too usually it's just that there is no filtration system between their thoughts and their lips. I am also missing that filtration system. I am developing it small but sometimes it just comes out. Last week I saw one of our members playing with a baby and her stomach looks pregnant. I asked her something like, "hey it looks like you are good with kids, your baby when it comes will be lucky." Turns out that the baby she was playing with was in fact her baby and the pregnant stomach was just the stomach left over from the baby. Ooopsies! Yeah I just said, "sorry-o...Your baby likes you a lot and you are a good mom! (RUN AWAY!)" Man sometimes we don't think of the long complicated string of thought that most can concerning offending someone etc. Sorry Britt. Sometimes after they have made the unintended offensive statement it is hard to back out of and they try to improvise a way out and accidentally make more offensive statements and then it just snowballs. Sorry-o Britt. Just don't mind them, they don't mean it. Even if they do mean it just don't worry about it.

Maybe for the wenchy person you can make a cake for her. In fact make a pre-emptive strike on niceness. Plan to have Dave bring you a chocolate cake during lunch or you just bring a chocolate cake and then you can invite her to eat the cake with you during lunch. Say like, "man this week has been rough so I wanted to destress with this (whip out the cake!)" You can then invite her to destress with you. "You want in?" You can't hate someone who you give cake too, also they can't hate you. CHOCOLATE CAKE for all! You don't actually have to use the chocolate cake, but you get the idea. It is that whole "bless those that use you" and despite fully persecute you and are wenches. Okay I added that last part haha.

Eb is doing great. He should get baptized very soon.

Well the New AP is, Elder Berry. He is from my MTC. He is a kinda quiet guy. AP will help him be more loud and bold. It'll be fun to see him do it because he is so quiet and reserved haha. It is like a, "whom God calls, God prepares" type of thing. Callings kind of mold us into what God wants us to become. He will do a great job.

Man seems like you guys really like that tiny doggie. Seems like she would be a fun doggie. Keep it up.

Well our zone goal should be better this month. We baptized 31 out of a 36 goal. We missed by 5...poop. However this month we instructed all of our district leaders to give more dates and visited a couple of district meetings and got them all to have baptism on the brain so currently we have 136 with a baptismal date and have a goal of 39 or 40 for next month. I hope it all works out. MAN! Stress!

Well anywho I love you all.

Sorry BYU blew it but I was expecting it. BYU blue is a not only their school color, but is also a homonym on their usual athletic playoff performance. (I made a well educated funny ba-doom-crash! {on a well muted, not loud but reserved jazz drumset, not like a rock and roll boomy drumset})

Love you all! Keep up the good work everyone. You guys are rockstars and I love you all so much.

Love Elder Bills