Brady's Mission to Ghana

This week was a pretty good week. Do you know why? BECAUSE WE HAD A BAPTISM!

Man this week we baptized brother Kingsley. Brother Kingsley had been struggling with an alcohol addiction for a long time and had been coming to the church for around 9 months. We had him meet with the bishop and with Dr. Kissi and they encouraged him to stop the habit. Bro Kingsley has been reading the Book of Mormon very seriously and is in Alma somewhere. He turned down home town funerals and outdoorings where alcohol is a very big part of those programs. He scared me the day before his baptism because he called me at 12 at night and I thought that he might be drunk dialing me, however he just saw our missed calls and wanted to call us back. Whew! He came to his baptism and we got a recent convert to baptize him. He was so happy and is looking great. He will receive the priesthood next week and be confirmed. You don't get any happier than Elder Dakouri (my companion) and I were that day. Kingsley came to the general conference viewing on Sunday and was happy as well. Our bishop is happy and will take good care of him. We are going there to reteach him everything, just to make sure he doesn't fall back into the past. Let's remember Lott's wife, don't look back!

Thanks for all your prayers on Kinglsey's behalf. Heavenly Father really does listen to our prayers and he loves all of his children. Also as Isaiah says, "though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as wool, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool." I hope I quoted that right. It really is true. Kingsley is a good sheep now haha, not a goat. He listened to The Masters voice and came. The Atonement is real.

Well prior to our baptism we were having some problems with our land lady and stuff. I was thinking of what to do and we were praying about it. I felt that I needed to plant some flowers in the front patio thingie where we have some small dirt area. So I went out and bought some flowers and a little hoe deelie so I could do it, just getting the time was a problem. Luckily my companion got malaria so we made it home from a taxi ride and we got him his drugs and he went to the bathroom and then was laying down as that is all you can really do. So during that time I went and planted the flowers in the front yard, it was nighttime. The landlord lady who was having problems with us noticed me tearing up weeds and planting. She said, "ayeko!" which means, "working hard?" I responded "ya yay" which means "yes" or something like yes. She then started asking me who taught me how to plant and then I told her that Grandma Carol and my dad taught me how to plant and told her about grandma's hill we had to rip up and plant stuff on. She then asked about my family and I talked about her family and she was really happy. She said that, "your grandma would be proud of you." So everything was resolved etc. She also noticed how I scrubbed the window glass in our kitchen and how Elder Wollenzien cleaned some of the screens of the house.

The next day she cooked us some rice, stew and chicken. So now she likes us. Sometimes the Holy Ghost whispers to us to do things that don't really make too much sense but we just do them because it is right. If we do listen to the Holy Ghost then we and others are blessed.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." (Matt 5:16) Also "Love thy neighbor..."

Well the water in our house has been off for about 2 weeks now because some people have been tapping into our water lines and hooking up our water and the bill was going to the land lady. So they turned off the water until they re-route the water so nobody can steal it. So we have been showering out of buckets for 2 weeks. Boo. So we got to fetch water from our water reserve tanks then carry it inside. Boo. So one night it started to rain really hard. We rushed home and put on our shorts and took a shower in our front yard from the water spouts coming off our roof. Man showers totally beat up bucket showers.

Well general conference was awesome. We only get to watch 2 sessions but it was cool. President Monson was great. He talked about the need of going to the temple and how the Rome temple is now open in that ancient city where many preached and were martyred. Peter in fact if I am not mistaken, along with Paul. Now the gospel they were preaching, and the baptism for the dead that Paul is famous for preaching about (see 1 Corinthians 15:29) is now in full force in their old stomping grounds.

Also a good quote came from conference. Elder Uchtdorf quoted St. Francis of Assisi (the guy who is always painted with birds, it is rumored that the birds whispered to him the words and melodies of some heavenly hymns that he wrote down in the early music notation. YES I am a music geek). He said, "preach the gospel at all times, use words if necessary." Ah it is a good quote.

Anywho we went to the McCarthy Hills Stake Center at 1st Light Kaneshie to watch the conference. Man the place is crawling with recent converts that I have taught, baptized, interviewed etc. Man it was a great feeling. I saw Anna Hammond for the 1st time since I baptized her during my first transfer. Guess what? She is the primary president of the Mataheko ward. She was sitting and controlling the little kids during conference. She looks great and was so happy. I started to cry when talking with her. She really is a great lady. She loves Elder Riding and us. Man I love that woman.

Being at the conference seeing all the familiar faces and people whom I have served or served with gave me a sneak peak of what heaven will be like. Man it was a great week.

So today we went over to the church for a ward activity. Man it was cool, our ward has not done a lot of activities but now they are starting to and it rocked. We were contacting houses at around 8:45 at night, always a courageous thing to do as people sometimes get angry at you haha, and we stumbled across a non-active lady with her husband who is not a member. Her name is Linda and her husband is Justice. We went and got to know her and taught her husband. He just traveled for a couple days but we went and taught Linda some more. She was a former ward missionary but left for some reasons, we taught her about the tree of life in the Book of Mormon and sang with her and her 2 little girls and got a nearby ward member to visit her. She came to the ward conference. When I was roaming about I saw her and she was with the little kids because her kids were acting up, she told me that she didn't hear anything so I grabbed her and we sat her next to the doors in the main hall where it was quiet. The kids were fine and she heard the message of conference and is happy now. She also met her members of old, one of who is now our bishop. She said the church got really big since she left haha. She said the building was full of new faces haha. She is happy and came to the ward activity today and is making friends again. Her little girls like us but are shy when we are around.

The ward activity started with bro Baddoo bringing his basketball standard. YAHOO! We were just having a hard time of putting it together, man stupid directions. After about 10 men going, "ah why?" and me going "gahl put the thing in the Flippin Fetch allen wrench washer gahl!" We finally got it up and we played. I sweat up a storm and can still shoot. Ah it felt good to play basketball. I sweat a lot. Anywho we also put together a football goal and then we had music playing and we ate food and it was fun. Just so the ward can be more friends, it was great. The ward needs to make more friends with each other so it was cool. Prince, a boy we are trying to baptize, came with his member sister and I played basketball with him. He sat next to me in conference and I had him draw the Apostles ties and write down what he learned. He did it for every speaker. He started to loose interest so I switched pens and that did the trick. (OH now a blue pen! OH boy!)

Well the work is going on small small and will continue to move that way.

It was a good week.

Man sounds like your week was full of plays, dogs and TO LIFE TO LIFE LAHIGHEM at Fiddler on the Roof!

Man the MV play director always has cool set stuff. He is the set master. He is all about the set. I'm with him. It's all about the set and the singing! That was awesome he let Britt borrow the Amish Cart.

Way to go Britt for getting 80 kids n-sync and to pull off Fiddler. Man with fake beards and everything. It makes me all vashnookem, hope I don't water my eyes for the CZAR to see phtt phht (spits 2 times over shoulder).

Well you guys make me proud. My busy family. Keep busy. Busy is the way to go.

Anywho I will call you guys on Sunday. Probably around 3-5 your time. I gotta do the zone numbers and stuff on Sunday night again so that takes me until around 9 or 10pm here, so I will call after that. Cool. Sorry, just stay glued to a phone.

I get to go to the mission home on Wednesday for a zone leaders council meeting so I should be able to get your packages of stuff you sent. Yahoo! Package stuff!

It is a tradition to make a goodie on Sunday night so the tradition will continue.

Man sweet meat! You learned how to make it? Man Costa Vida here I come, but won't even have to leave my house. You will have to teach me how to cook again because we don't do it much around here, takes too much time and our areas are far from our apartments most the time and we don't have running water so we gotta fetch water to clean our dishes. Boo. So you will have to brush up my skills.

Anywho stay busy.

Glad that the Chinese returned missionary will probably live with the Jeffery family. Man it is so cool. That is a big deal that Trais trained him. When I contacted that Chinese family from the communist part of China, who now live in Accra, there was something special about them and they seemed highly interested. It is probably all their ancestors who they have written records for thousands of years trying to prompt them to join so they can perform the proxy work. Those many written records would make any of the old temple worker have a coronary attack of joy haha.

Zack probably got to eat lots of Ghanaian fufu dishes in D.C. Plenty of the Ghanians go there. I'm sure he baptized some and chopped fufu with them plenty. Glad he had a good mission.

Well anywho I gotta run and go back to work. I love you all. Glad you are all being blessed at home.

Hi Grandparents! Hi Grandma Patsy! For some reason I just feel like I should say hi to you and say I love you. Keep up your good work at whatever you have been doing and whatever you are planning to do, do it.

Love Elder Bills

Laundry

At the Dansoman apartment. Elder Stout made that cleaning chart taped on the wall.

At the Stake Conference. Most of these guys are in my zone.

At the old Dansoman apartment again. On splits.

Planting flowers with that hoe thingie.

The flowers will bloom soon.

Here is our land lady.

Our land lady cooked us some food the next day. TAKE AWAY even!

Showering outside in the rain haha. Don't worry our compound is closed. FARMER TAN! Aah, running water, even if it is rain water dripping off the roof!

Elder Dakouri, Kingsley and I at his baptism.

Kingsley and his nephew. That is our ward mission leader Bro. Visu on the right. He is great.

After Kingsley's baptism. Love that man.

Sister Hammond and her new primary president calling. She is keeping the rowdy kids in order during the conference. She is doing great! She says to tell Elder Riding hello. I will give her his number and visa-versa. We baptised her at the first of my mission.

We are happy!

This is Sister Coleman. She gave a talk last week on the temple, she attended for the first time very recently! We baptised her at the first of my mission.

This is Bishop Engmanns daughter. Her dimple always reminded me of Britts so I called her my sister all the time. You can't really compare because Britts pic is small but you get the idea.