We saw D (who was recently baptized) on Tuesday. D has been over-stressing himself. He is always so worried that he isn't knowing enough or that he isn't doing good enough... So we were just like, “D, don't worry so much! The gospel is huge, eternally huge! Everyone is growing and learning and nobody knows everything. You're doing great, keep up the good work.” One of my favorite things to do as a missionary is to pray for the investigator while sitting there with them. If I pray at the beginning or end of a lesson I always pray for them by name. I always plead that they can feel the Spirit and know that it's true. I really enjoyed doing this with D. I feel when I pray in that way that there is a more real connection with God. It really feels like I'm speaking with Him about this person. I really enjoy it.
Then we saw K. Oh man, the guy is passing through such a rough time. He assured us that he was still 100% committed to the gospel and that he is trusting that very soon the way will be opened up to him. He relies very heavily on James chapter 1 and draws a lot of strength from it.
Then we met this guy J at the chapel. He told us that he learned with the missionaries a while back.
We had a "mentibrofu" (can’t hear english) lesson. This is kinda hard. Twi is such a simple language that it's hard to teach in. Like if you don't have a translator with you, you suffer out here. I've been working on my simple English. If you don't conjugate any words and simplify they seem to understand better. For example: instead of "so where are you going now?" you have to say "you go where?" or "God call prophet not man". Kinda funny, but there is still power in the words you speak even if you sound like you are learning english as a toddler. I’m serious, the power in the lessons and the Spirit is still there even though the language barrier is really hard.
We met E on Wednesday. We were just walking on this bush road on the way to meet some peeps and we had an extra hour so we decided we'd walk on this back road. We just happened to bump into E on that road. That is definitely an intervention from God. We saw him and at first he was like just feeling like okay whatever. My comp was talking to him and told him that our message was special and then invited him to church. E said, “Well, I don't think I’ll be able to. (no)” Then my comp said, “Well, we will see after we finish teaching you.” :) And guess who showed up at church on Sunday... E. The lesson was really good and he understood really well all that we taught. It's my testimony that the message of the Restoration is true. You could tell as we learned that the message was really working in him. You could see that he was feeling it. Not just hearing it.
One of the lessons I've really been grateful for on my mission is my testimony of Joseph Smith. I know that he was a true prophet. Before, I just believed it... but now I know it. His words about the first vision bring me to tears when I say them. It is real, it happened. My testimony of that event moment is solid. I'm thankful for that testimony that I've received on my mission.
So Friday, we walked out to C’ house which was a beautiful trek through the bush. It was so cool. I'll send a vid. C is so solid. He came to church again this week. We sat next to each other and I asked him how he comes to church. I asked him if he walked or... he said yes. I was so impressed. This man is converted. He walks a 2 hour walk to get to church and he has been one hour early the last two weeks. Pretty cool. We had a lesson with him after church where we just read Chapter 1 of the Book of Mormon. We read it in Twi first but then realized that us obrunis reading in Twi is not the best approach hahaha, so we read in English and then had a member translate for us. I remember sitting there and thinking, this is not ideal. So I prayed and pled that God would allow the spirit to touch C’ heart and that it would be in the lesson even though the circumstances weren't ideal. I then really tried to look for it and feel it and as I did, I felt the soft almost unnoticeable presence of the Spirit. C was eager to continue whenever we paused for translation. I asked him if he believed the things that he was learning and he immediately said, yes. He was even going to ask us to baptize him if we hadn’t asked him. I love Collins. He such a humble and calm bush man. He always smiles big when he sees us.
So things are just moving along. I turn 6 months soon which is crazy... new members are doing well.
Ate some delicious fufu a couple times. Ate rice ball and pepe soup and fish, it was nice. I enjoy eating these crazy things hahaha its fun. It's always like all right stomach, you ready for this? Here we go! Hahaha so funny.
All right peace out from Ghana.
