Monday, May 29, 2017

5 weeks left.....





May 23-29

Well what can I say, it's been another great week here here in Mamponse. We are starting to hit rainy season now and more than once we were forced to find cover. Also to cover our floor in buckets so that it didn't flood. We had a man come to fix our roof for us but it seems he only made it worse and now what used to be a drip is a steady stream of water that cascades down from ceiling. It's actually quite majestic and if you try not to think about where you are you can almost picture yourself in some remote rainforest standing next to a waterfall. I would say it is tranquil. Anyways, that's not the point. The point is, we had some rain to deal with and it causes problems. No one likes to be out when it's raining, and after it rains no one will meet with you for the rest of the day. Their excuse, it rained. So naturally things were slowish but somehow we pulled off a great week. We now have 7 people that we are hoping to have baptized by the end of June. We have Samson and Felicia (they're married), we have Yaw Henaku, we have Sarah Mensah, we have Gladys, we have Jefar and her daughter Milady (2nd counselors wife and daughter) and I think that's all of them. We are hoping to add Samson's brother, Solomon, as well but we'll see how things go for him. My time left is short, but I won't feel like I did everything that I needed to do with that time unless I help all of these wonderful people be baptized. That's the reason I'm here isn't it? To help people make and keep covenants with God and perform the ordinances necessary for salvation. So that is what I shall do. Anyways, I'm still alive and coming home in 5 weeks. That's all, love you guys
Elders taking on the marketplace and using their bartering skills!


Tuesday, May 23, 2017

I now have an idea about how Jesus Christ felt....

Elder Entsie, Brother Okine, Nana & Elder Goodrich



May 16-22

Well today marks 22 months that I have spent in the country of Ghana. Some of the best months of my life. This week was no exception to that. It's had its up and it's downs but I wouldn't have it any other way. Tomorrow is our transfer so we received our transfer news on Saturday. Actually President Simpson told us early on Friday when he came to do an interview for our baptismal candidate. But it appears that Bigler will be leaving Mamponse. He's going to go to Achimota. That actually borders my first area of Akweteman. He is going to whitewash that area. That means he and his companion will both be new to the area. They are starting from scratch over there. I'll miss him a lot. We have had some great times together here. We were both hoping he would stay and see me go home but it wasn't meant to be. Instead, Zhou's new companion will be a guy from Nigeria. I honestly have no idea how to spell his name. I believe it's Nwandu. He's a cool guy. Should be a lot of fun. 

As for he highlight of the week, we had a baptism. It was for a man named Nana Addo Boakye. He's a super sweet guy. He's about 40 years old but if you looked at him you wouldn't know he was that old. He has been living with kidney failure for the last 7 years and it's ravaged his body. He has to go for dialysis 3 times a week and it has drained all of his monetary resources. In light of such a horrible condition, he decided it was time for him to find salvation. That search brought him to Mormon.org and he was given as a referral to us to teach. That was about 18 weeks ago. We have seen him suffer and push through his illness to make his baptism possible. He is one of the most prepared people I have ever met in my whole mission. He was so ready for this. As he came out of the water I saw him smile the biggest smile ever. Now keep in mind, this man has almost nothing to smile about in life. Then after his confirmation he came up to me, grasped my hand, and thanked me with tears in his eyes for not giving up on him and pushing him forward. I'm not one that is usually at a loss for words, in fact I pride myself in being fairly eloquent, feel free to disagree, however I couldn't find any words to say at that moment. In 22 months I have baptized a fair amount of people, I have taught hundreds of people, met thousands, yet no one has ever shown the love and thankfulness that Nana did. I guess this is how Christ felt when he healed the lepers and yet only one came back to thank him. I still love everyone else I've had the chance to know, but that one moment created a deeper bond between Nana and I. 

That about sums up the week. Other than that we just had a normal week of teaching and biking around in the hot Ghanaian sun. Hope everyone has a great week.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Mother's Day and Baptisms....



May 9-15

Hey guys. Happy Mother's Day. Another great week here in the Mamponse 1st ward. Highlight of the week was the 3 baptisms that we had. We baptized an older lady named Peace and her two grand sons, Francis and Sheriff. Peace's adopted daughter is a member in our ward and has been telling Peace to come to the church for a while. She decided it was finally time and now she's baptized a mere month later. She is the sweetest old lady ever. We have another baptism coming up this next Saturday too. It's for a man named Nana. He has been dealing with kidney failure for the last 7 years and through his trials he decided that what he needed was salvation, not money. And so here he is, ready to make this step in his life and perform this ordinance. We are super excited for him as well. We have some fantastic people we are working with right now. A lot of them are progressing very fast and will be ready for baptism soon. However, with the current baptisms, we are still looking out for more people to teach to keep us busy. Basically things are going great right now. Finishing off the last of my mission as strong as I can. That's about all, sorry this is so short. Also it was so awesome to talk to everyone yesterday. Again, happy Mother's Day to everyone

Celebrating with real pizza!!

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

The Storm.....

Kwasi showing Elder Entsie and Elder Goodrich around the area



April 24- May 8

I apologize for not sending an email last week. Not much happened last week though. We found a few new investigators and continued working with those we have right now. Everything was just kind of normal. 

This week was pretty sweet though. We have been working with an old woman named Peace for a while now. Her daughter is a member and she has been coming to church for a while. Well when Peace comes, she brings her 2 grandsons. These two boys, Sheriff and Francis, have also decided as of yesterday that they would like to be baptized as well. We are going to baptize them all together this coming Saturday. We couldn't be happier for them. Peace's daughter has also started to learn with us. Hopefully she'll want to be baptized soon as well. Another member of the ward, Emmanuel, has a mother who desires to get baptized as well. Gladys, Emmanuels mom, will probably be baptized in 3 or 4 weeks. She's hard to meet with but we will find a way to get around that I'm sure. The others that we are really working with right now are Nana and Gabriel. In other news, yesterday we got hit by an absolutely massive storm. It didn't last long but it was a monster in the sheer volume of water that it brought. While we were in elders quorum we watched the storm down multiple power lines causing the power to go out all around our area. Apparently it wasn't just us either, all of southern Ghana took a big hit. We came home from church to find half an inch of water in our bedroom. Elder Entsie and I spent a good amount of time rescuing all of our items, clearing our room out entirely, and then mopping up all the water. Oh and mopping water was extremely difficult because our mop was outside drying when the storm hit. It was a brutal day. It was a good welcome to the rainy season, a little late but goo nonetheless. Not much else really going on besides that though. Hope you all have a nice week.