Emergencies, Friday the 13th, and Drunkards

Matching shirts :)

I apologize for keeping the suspense going. ;) The power was out yesterday so we couldn't email, but the power came back this afternoon! Small and simple blessings. :)

Monday was pretty standard. We went to the market and then came back to wash and clean everything. I took a little nap and then went out to get Elder Ofordeme fitted for a suit. We only emailed for an hour due to things.... and then went to FHE with the Imbra family. We had a wonderful discussion of Temporal and Spiritual self-reliance, Tithing, as well as priorities. Christian had a good question about spirits and their bounds and limitations. So we opened up Doctrine and Covenants and explained it for him. His questions are always so deep and heart-pondering, that I believe he ponders the gospel with every waking minute of his life. :)

Playing in the rain

Tuesday Zone Meeting! Lots of things are changing in the mission, about supplies, communication, living conditions, finances, etc. It was slightly disturbed due to a Sister almost fainting and then nearly dying due to a blood clot in her brain, where, whenever she gets excited or stressed causes a hormone release which triggers an attack. So we rushed her to the hospital (might I remind you that their "hospitals" here are really really really really really sketchy clinics back home....) And they got her hooked up with drip (IV) immediately. She's doing fine now so don't worry. :)

Emmanuel and Suzy are daily lessons. Although, Emmanuel is the only one really progressing, which is sad because it would be nice to baptize them together. :/

I whipped up some banana pancakes for my companion and me for dinner. Best pancakes ever.

Lawrencia,
she can cook a mean meal. :)

We kicked Wednesday off with Fufu and Abenkwin. It's not the best thing for you, but it really is one of my favorites now. We had a lengthy conversation with a man at the chop-bar which led to the church and the Book of Mormon. You can always place your money on the Book of Mormon. :) Appointments were wishy washy.... and the sun just bakes. Afternoons are hard since no one is around, so it feels pointless to be out ourselves, but I know one of these days we'll see why we're out at that time of day. PEC went better for once. It seems like the ward leaders are actually going to do something about our ward mission leaderless condition. So we continue to pray for an active leader. :)

Rainy days during the dry season....? It's been raining nearly every morning, and especially so on Thursday. A killer study session took place along with our weekly planning. The day was normal except for a freak rain storm at 5 which came out of the blue and soaked everything, it lasted for an hour and ruined the chances for appointments....

At the Chop bar
with our boy Christian!

Friday the 13th woooo! And it was a good day indeed. Only good things happened. Christian came with us to go proselyting, we fed him lunch, and then went teaching. He caught on really fast to how we teach and contributed a lot which was good for him. Only 1 appointment fell through which never happens! I'm so glad we had that kind of success with Christian.

Jesus the Christ is one of the best books I've read (I'm still reading). It's filled with so many amazing thoughts and facts that it just overloads your system with wonderful knowledge. :) So Saturday had a great start because of personal study. Elder Holland said you'll make or break your mission during the hours of 6:30 and 9. And that is so true. Every day's quality depends on the quality of your morning preparation. The day overall was a hit and miss. We went to a baptism for the other Elders. The water was a nasty brown. I couldn't see the bottom or even their knees. "That's nasty dude." So that was good though. It's always nice to see people ready to follow Jesus Christ. Even if you're not the one responsible for their conversion.

The normal leashed up monkey
on the street.... ;)

We fasted on Sunday for the Sister who had that emergency. Hopefully this problem will lessen as she's on her mission. They showed the Sunday sessions of General Conference finally Woohoo!!!! Only.... it was in Twi.... So it ended up being 4 hours of noise with familiar faces. While we were out and about, several drunkards (all at different times) came up to us and asked us to share with them our message from God. We politely gave them a Word of Wisdom pamphlet that they'll hopefully read after they come off their hangover. Nearly all of them, however, kept talking over us telling us they wanted to convert us, saying our church isn't true and that they themselves were prophets of God.... Clearly. Mami Sopa fed us small small, so Elder Tom and I made some lovely Indomie.

So that was my week! Be grateful for constant power! ;) It really is a simple blessing I didn't realize back home.

Emmanuel, my main man :)

At times we may feel that we are reading the scriptures and learning a lot, but our testimonies don't seem to be growing. We might ask ourselves why? Testimonies are founded on the simple basic doctrines of the Gospel. Sometimes, too much knowledge will begin to push out our Faith in those simple things, and we begin to rely on the knowledge. My reminder is, Everything needs to be in balance. It's good to learn new things, but we need to remember that those extra, complicated, deep doctrines aren't essential for our conversion. The Lord delights in plainness. The Gospel is meant to be simple and easy. :) Don't make it complex.

Life is great! During this time of gratitude especially, remember the gifts our Savior gave to all of us. :)