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.

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