Man, I'm really growing to love it here in Ghana. Sure, I have to wash my clothes in a bucket and swallow dough balls whole but I'm actually growing to love it!
So something really funny that I wasn't expecting about Ghana was that we have to teach people that the pictures of Christ on the pamphlets aren't actually pictures of him, they are just paintings... Elder Stilson was telling me that people who don't like the church spread a lot of funny rumors like that hahaha, so funny! Another rumor that we hear a lot is that the Book of Mormon is a devil book. hahahah. In the bible it says you cannot serve God and mammon so people think that the Book of Mormon is the book of "mammon." hahaha. It's soo funny!
So our water pump broke this week so I've had to take bucket showers all week. A bucket shower is...not as good as a regular shower... I'll just say it like that and you can imagine the rest. It's so primitive hahahaha.
So this week was amazing for me. I had a lot of spiritual experience and I'll share a few, just like in the Book of Mormon how a lot of the prophets say that, "I can only write but a few of the things"...etc. I feel like in these emails I can only write but a few of the powerful things that I get to witness as a servant of Christ. So I'll do my best.
First off, we taught Kwarteng again this week and I cried again. Man, I try not to but when I testify of Christ I can't help it. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and when we were teaching about repentance, Elder Stilson pulled out Isaiah 1:18 and read it to him. The spirit came so powerfully into the room as we all thought about the Atonement's power to wash the red of sin away from our lives. While Elder Stilson was talking, I started to get really emotional and I hadn't even said anything yet... so when I started talking, man i just lost it... It was so powerful and it was the first lesson in Ghana that I've felt that extreme of a spirit. I testified with all of my heart and tears in my eyes that the Lord will work with us. He says, "Come now and let us reason together..." He wants to work WITH us when we go through hard times. He wants us to become happy! Repentance isn't a bad medicine we have to take to get better, it is a joyous thing that we should be happy to do! It relieves so much off our shoulders to give our struggles and sins to Christ. It was so powerful. He is so ready to be baptized and he has such a desire to be part of the Lord's army.
We followed up later in the week with a woman named Dorris that we contacted the week before. As we were getting to know her and introducing ourselves (small small in Twi :) ) she didn't seem very interested but I heard the spirit tell me, "Just wait until the lesson starts, she'll be engaged." So we after we told her that God was her loving Heavenly Father, she cut in and said (in twi, she only speaks twi and english small small), "I feel like none of the churches are true on the earth because none of them teach what Christ did in the Bible." We were just blown away... I thought of the scripture in the Book of Mormon that says that angels are in the land preparing the hearts of the people to hear the gospel. Man, this woman was a testimony of that scripture. She was so ready to hear the message of the gospel! It was so awesome to see that we are lead to those who are ready and have been prepared by the Lord for His message of happiness. What a sweet experience :) So fun to really see that we are out here as missionaries to reap the field that is ready to harvest (Doctrine and Covenants 4).
So some tid bits:
I never knew how much I'd miss couches. We sat on a couch for the first time the other day and man..... it was so so soft... wow. I also can't remember what it feels like to not sweat, I've only been here for 5 weeks and I have already forgotten what that feels like...
One thing I know I'll miss when I go home in 22 months is buying stuff (food or snacks) from outside the window of a taxi or tro. The people they carry these big bowls of snacks and stuff on their heads and walk around the roads selling them to people in vehicles. I love calling them over and buying some dried plantain or something from them. It's so fun haha.
Until next week my friends,
Elder Janda
