Dear family!

This week was a week full of great learning experiences. Man it was tough but rewarding, I learned a lot.

First off with some good news. They re-opened the Ivory Coast mission, after being shutdown because of the civil war and political riots. They took ALL of the Ivory Coast missionaries who were transferred here to Ghana back to Ivory Coast. They called them that night and by the morning time they were all gone. So this is good that the work will continue there again. However this leaves us here in Ghana a little short handed.

One of the companionship's in McCarthy Hill now has to be in a group of 3. This gets tricky. I had to be in a group of 3 for about a week when Elder Riding went home. Man teaching with 3 missionaries is tough. So Elder Gagnon, Elder Nielsen and Elder Maculay are together until transfers. We took Elder Gagnon for 1 day so he could interview a girl named N. for us. She is great.

N. is awesome. Her aunt is a return missionary sister and has been bringing her to church since she was born. Now she is 8 and ready to be baptized. She has a relative that is a muslim but absolutely loves the church. That person would join but family persecution could be dangerous if that person left the muslim faith. We went over there and watched one of the Book of Mormon cartoons with them and the rest of the member children there. This one was about Mormon and Moroni and how the Book of Mormon was compiled from all the many records. Man it was awesome. They all understood and absolutely loved it. The spirit was very strong! There is this song in the cartoon where Mormon is singing about how he is writing and transcribing the words of the prophets so the world would someday know Jesus Christ, and I was touched by it. Mormon and all of the other Book of Mormon prophets wrote down all of their words "that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." I was touched that there were people from very far places sharing the restored gospel to the little children who were preparing for baptism and that the muslim relative was recognizing that what we were teaching was true and was from God. I wonder if any of the prophets had the opportunity to see moments like that as they were writing. I pray that the muslim relative will have the opportunity to accept the gospel in this life and be able to choose freely without danger.

I'm grateful for how pure and undefiled the Book of Mormon is. It is true. The little children love it and recognize the goodness contained in its pages. They were very touched by it and the Spirit that was felt. I'm sure that person had never felt that before. What a truly good person and the relatives will be strong members.

Well lately we had a sad experience with Prince (name changed). He came and asked us some questions about stuff he was confused about, such as do we worship God or Jesus? or "Who is the ruler of this world?" and "What is the kingdom of God?" etc. We tried answering his questions the best we could etc. Then he said that he is going to join with the JW's because we can't prove our beliefs. He then brought out a stack of books, literally about 2 feet high of all the pamphlets and books and DVD's the JW's gave him. He said that they prove everything and the Holy Spirit gave him an answer. I felt absolutely terrible. I felt like I had failed in helping him recognizing the importance of the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost. I then told him something around the lines of, "if the JW's gave you all of these books and you have read them, why have you not read the one book that we gave you? We are commanded to 'judge not according to the appearance, but judge a righteous judgment' and brother Prince, you cannot make a righteous judgment on this until you have honestly and truthfully read and prayed about the Book of Mormon. If you will honestly and read with faith in Christ and desire to obtain an answer, not a way to prove others wrong, but to obtain an answer as an earnest seeker of the truth then the Holy Ghost will tell you and you will know that this is true just as we know this is true."

Anywho I felt really crappy the whole rest of the day, like a disgusting feeling. I feel like I had sinned and failed him because of the way we taught him, not focusing on the Book of Mormon enough but on other things. I prayed for forgiveness that night and I felt relieved a bit. On Sunday morning I still felt crappy but I read a place in D&C that said, "I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." I then recognized that I needed to forgive myself for not teaching as well as I could have and do a better job next time. I hope that Prince will read and come back. I''ll try not to look back and dwell on the crappy past, isn't that what turned Lott's wife into a pillar of salt? But rather learn from the past and face the future (run for it marty!)( Back to the future reference!)

Well anywho

While on splits we went to the Kissi's house to teach LT, the karate french togo guy. He brought his brother who was visiting from Togo. His brother had visited the church in Togo as well, however we couldn't teach him really because he only spoke French. We went to the Kissi's house and Dr. Kissie and his wife were eating fufu. They invited us to eat and we did. Man they were eating the hottest ground nut soup I have ever had. We were chit chatting with the Kissi's and started talking to him about how great Ghana is and he lit up and was so happy and started talking about the history of Ghana and stuff, a true patriot. He then asked if he could sit in with us during the lesson. BINGO! LT was happy and read the Book of Mormon places we left him. He said that he read and then we asked him some questions about it. We then taught him about the priesthood and he all of the sudden put it together and said that a restoration of the priesthood was necessary! I then seized the moment and asked him if he recognized the "ah ha, this makes sense I GET IT!" feeling was the Holy Ghost testifying of the truth as we the missionaries said very little. I have never seen Dr. Kissi smile so big. Everyone was happy. LT accepted to be baptized and come to church. Dr. Kissi bore his testimony on how he joined the church in the 70's and how the church came to Ghana, in the which he played a MAJOR role. LT was sitting there intently listening. Even LT's brother who couldn't understand a word was listening and seemed to 'get it' as well.
On Sunday LT, his daughter, his wife and his brother came to church. LT was happy and seemed to know a lot of people. Our first counselor was nearly jumping up and down when he saw him because they were schoolmates. His wife seemed okay with everything, we will meet her on Saturday and make friends with her. LT's daughter Andi (names changed) drew a picture of us the other day I guess. We walked with LT and Andi from the Kissis house one day and held her hand because a road is nearby. She drew a picture of 2 missionaries with black tags holding her hand, she being in the middle and the missionaries on the outside. She even wrote our names by us, her dad said. Andi is in kindergarten and seemed to enjoy church as well.

Paul's (all names changed) uncle came to church as well. We have been visiting Paul, his less active brother Fred, his less active sister Matilda and the rest of the family. We brought the active Brigg family over to meet them. The house is really a sketchy place. There is a bar attached to it and people buy and smoke questionable things there and the place floods every time it rains. You gotta walk across some planks of wood so you won't step in the mud. Anywho after time and time of visiting the family, he came! He seemed to enjoy church as well, maybe he didn't understand everything but he still had a good time.

Well we should have some upcoming baptisms this week. We will baptize N (the niece of a return missionary), B (the son of a member) and hopefully Mary.

We might not be able to baptize Mary (name changed). Bishop visited Marys husband's workplace to get approval from him to baptize Mary and he wasn't there. The husband claimed to his wife that he sleeps at his workplace but when our bishop got there the owner of the place said that he goes home at 5:30 every day...apparently he stays at a different house after work and has not told Mary. I have seen this before and it usually means he is in a polygamist relationship, not only having an affair but usually the man will pay a bride price for the woman and traditionally marry them. The women just don't want to ask questions for fear of the affair being true, losing their financial support, separation of the family etc. Bishop will do some more investigating on the issue. Hopefully it is all just a big misunderstanding.

Oh some more good news. They got some more literacy class books for the literacy class so now people will start to learn to read! YAHOO! This is great!

Yo so guess what! I just stopped typing for like 20 min because Prince (name changed) called me. He apologized for what he said on Saturday and said that he overreacted and that he read the chapters in the Book of Mormon we left him and he is interested again. He said he is not done in his search for the truth. He asked me for the name of the church Christ made and how can he know which of the 2 churches to join. We left him the 3 Nephi account of Christ commands of naming the church and how it should be organized. Man the church is true! Go Prince Go! He said he will call us later after he has read and prayed about it.

If you can all pray for Prince that would help!

Well glad grandpa's birthday party went well. I request that we go to the Spaghetti Factory on our way home and eat broccoli and mizithra cheese! If not that same day, then the next. Deal haha?

Ah man someone is playing blues on youtube in the cafe. I miss the blues.

Well this morning we took a trip to the sisters apartment because one of them felt bad because of an investigator situation. Don't worry, we didn't go inside haha. We asked permission to go there. Turns out that one of their investigators was in an adulterous relationship and after learning the gospel and being interviewed by President Judd, built up enough courage to confess to his wife. Well the couple is now getting a divorce and the sister missionary is taking it hard. So I prayed on what to do to make her feel better and figured we would buy them pizza and just be oblivious about the whole matter. So we went there and delivered them some surprise pizza and left. We always tease this sister about her cooking food with her feet because we asked her if she could cook and she said, "I have hands don't I?" Then we asked her "does it taste like you cook it with your feet?" She always said yes, she can cook with her feet so we tease her about it. Before I go I will make her a card in the shape of a shoe with the Isaiah scripture on it saying, "how beautiful are the feet of those who publish peace" or something like that. Hopefully it'll keep her going.

Anywho the church is true.

Oh fun story before I go. Elder B's old girlfriend got married last wednesday...we think...we have no way of actually knowing. She was having 2nd thoughts and sent an email to him and stuff. He told her just to get married, hopefully she did.

Anywho Elder Holt gets hitched soon. COOL!

Well I gotta run. Family I love you. I know the church is true. Our family rocks.

See you very soon.