One Year!!

Elder Goodrich, Chemuru & Wallin - July 22, 2016

July 19-25

What a week!  I've been out for one year now and I can hardly believe it. We celebrated by burning shirts on Friday. Since Wallin, Chemhuru, and I are all the same MTC group it turned into more of a bonfire. All three of us burned shirts and had a blast! Not only that but we made pancakes and syrup as well as steak for our celebration. It doesn't get much better than that. And then to top things off, we had a baptism on Saturday. Murphy was able to get baptized and confirmed on Sunday. It was so awesome to see him take that step in his life. When we met him for the first time, all four of us were together at a members house eating dinner and none of us wanted to talk to him or teach him since we were busy and eating. Finally I gave in and taught him the first little bit of the restoration. Soon Chemhuru joined in and then Wallin and before I knew it we had taught the whole first lesson to him. It strengthened my testimony that even though I was tired and didn't want to talk to him, that by putting forth a little effort I was able to bless the life of this man. Since that day I've watched him grow and prepare for his baptism. I can think of no greater way to celebrate my year mark than by seeing Murphy receive ordinances required for his salvation. So yes it was my one year and I had fun burning a shirt and celebrating, but the real highlight, the real joy came from helping someone make a change in their life and seeing them be baptized by proper priesthood authority. I know this church is true and I love it with all my heart. 
I share these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Baptisms!!

Interviews

Family Home Evening

July 12-18

Well coming off a rough week last week, this week was an improvement.
We still had a tough time with some of our appointments but we made
things work for the most part. Mercy's mom finally came home from
working in Tema so we were excited to start teaching her again.
Unfortunately she left to go back in Saturday so we were disappointed.
On the bright side we got Murphy interviewed and all ready for his
baptism this coming Saturday. It was quite the adventure to get to
that point. We found out on Friday evening that he was in need of a
special interview done by President Simpson. When we gave him a call
he said he was going to be in Kasoa on Saturday and could do it then.
Wallin had an investigator that needed an interview from president as
well so we made it a group trip. Unfortunately we went to the wrong
chapel. Our investigators both said that we should just walk to the
other chapel when we told them where it was. However when we stopped
to ask for directions halfway there, both were shocked that it was so far 
and said we should just take a car the last part of the way. We had only 
walked for an hour in like a thousand degrees and 10,000% humidity. 
Oh and the dust! I think I looked like a fair, black guy for a while because
 I had so much dirt on me. We made it though and we got them interviewed. 
Afterwards, President Simpson pulled Wallin and I aside and told us that these
were two of the most prepared candidates for baptism he's ever seen.
He told us we were doing a fantastic job teaching them and to keep up
the good work. Talk about a confidence booster. I have so much respect
for President and Sister Simpson. They're such great people. Oh also
just a funny story. We were stopped by a former investigator wanting
us to come back and teach her. I don't know how viable that request is
because she was holding two different one liter bottles of alcohol.
One was empty and the other was mostly empty. In fact I think I got a
little buzz off of her fumes. The sad thing is that she was once our best
investigator. She was almost there but she couldn't give some things up. 
It was just another testimony to me that changing to become a member 
of this church is hard and I respect those who do it so much more now.
 One great example is Murphy, the man being baptized this Saturday. 
Talk about a tough life. That man was the equivalent of a green beret in 
the Liberian military during the civil war. He told us that he was basically 
drunk or high the entire war which lasted quite a few years. But here he is now
making these incredible changes in his life and now ready to enter
into the covenants of baptism. It's things like seeing this transformation that 
make all the pain and struggles of a mission worth it.

Ward Mission Correlation Meeting

The Church

Exchanges with Burt....

July 5-11

It was a little bit of a slow week for us. Almost every appointment we
had this week fell through. So we spent a lot of time with members and
a lot of time just walking from place to place. I guess it was some
good exercise. The highlight of my week was an exchange with Elder
Burt. I had to go spend Friday night as his apartment and then we
spent Saturday together. Packing things for the night and next day is
a pain because you have to carry it all, however it's necessary.
Saturday was a great day. Burt and I hardly saw anyone and mainly just
walked around all day due to more failed appointments, but it was
still a great day. The few people we saw were amazing. We extended a
few baptismal dates and everyone we extended them to accepted. It was
fun. As we went around we just had fun, joked, and got to know each
other better. We spent the day with Jackson Appiah too. He's a member
in the first ward that served as a ward missionary with Asumani when I
was in Amasaman. We closed the day but sitting down at Jackson's mothers
shop and drinking malt together. It was Burt's first Magic Malt and my one millionth, 
kind of a big deal for us. I think it was a good break for Burt. He's been with Dy
for almost 4 transfers now and they've struggled recently. I was
glad I could help him and give him a break from the daily monotony.
Hopefully we can do it again sometime. Anyways, that was kind of my
shining moment this week, bringing a little joy into Burt's life.

Sister Appiah's shop

America

June 28-July 4

Well to start, happy birthday America. Sorry I couldn't be there to
celebrate it with you by lighting stuff on fire and generally acting
like a pyromaniac. However, Wallin and I are doing the next best
thing. Hot dogs with Lays potato chips. Seems fairly American. Then
I'm going to drink a bunch of malt. This week has been somewhat
interesting. I hadn't seen anyone in our area in two weeks so I'm
pretty sure they all thought I was dead. Everyone was excited to see
me and I was even more excited to see them. This week we spent some
good time with Brother Christopher and his family. He's a Liberian
living in the camp. He gave us a ton of referrals (mostly his family)
and I'm positive they'll all be baptized in the near future. We also
spent some good time with Mercy this week. I've been in this area
since the end of March and this week I finally met Godwin's father.
Godwin is Mercy's son. We also got the chance to meet President and
Sister Simpson this week. They held a zone conference with us on 
Thursday. I didn't get a chance to talk to him much personally but 
he seems like a really cool guy. He has a really thick Australian accent. 
My personal opinion is that he sounds like the pelican off of finding nemo. 
He's a sweet guy though, I'm excited to have him here as my mission 
president for the last half of my mission.

I hate my knee...

Another day in the neighborhood

June 21-27

My week really was quite awful. The previous week the whole apartment was sick so we didn't get to do hardly a thing, then to cap that off I hurt my bad knee at the start of this last week. When I say hurt I don't mean that I tweaked it a little and it was sore, I mean it went out on me and I couldn't walk for a couple days. For a while I thought that I was going to have to come home for sure. I thought my ACL went out and I was going to need surgery on it again. Yet here I am, a few days later, with minimal swelling and minimal pain. Not only is it a miracle, but one very close to my heart. My knee is something I don't like to mess around with, in fact it scares me to death when anything happens to it. So to heal this quickly so that I can continue working is such a tender mercy to me. At church on Sunday, all of the people that Chemhuru and I usually see were asking me if I was alright. I wasn't able to go out and teach this week so Wallin and Bingham were kind enough to take turns going out with my companion. Chemhuru told everyone I was injured and they were genuinely concerned about me. The love I have been shown this week has been incredible. I know the Lord was watching out for me this week. I testify that he is there for all of us whenever we need him.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, 
amen.

Break-ins and Baptisms

June 7-13

Best week ever. Florence finally got baptized this week! She was
supposed to get baptized 6-7 weeks ago but nothing ever lined up right
so it kept getting pushed back farther and farther and farther. It
almost got pushed back again this week too. The baptism, scheduled for
9:00 didn't start until almost 12:00. It wasn't that we didn't have
water or people didn't show up, it was that our ward mission leader
didn't come. That causes problems when he is the only one with keys to
the padlocks on the baptismal font. We called him for an hour, went to
his house, nothing worked and we never got in contact with him. Oddly
enough, he answered the bishops phone call and not ours though. When
he did answer the phone he lied and was of no help so we decided to
get things done ourself. That meant the missionaries took turns
playing church related games or singing hymns with those there while
the others worked on breaking off the padlocks with a garden hoe,
under bishop's supervision of course. So with the locks broken the 
baptism took place and Florence was baptized. She asked me to baptize
 her. I've been there since day one with her and it's been so amazing to 
watch her grow. Her testimony is so strong, sweet, and pure. I feel like 
a parent who has raised a child and not messed the whole thing up. 
I couldn't be more excited about this. Anyways I just wanted to share 
this amazing experience with you. I want you to know that I love this 
gospel and I know it to be true. I've seen the change it has made in 
people's lives and I've seen the change its made in me since I came here 
to Africa. I know without a doubt that my Heavenly Father is there and 
loves me. I wish for everyone to know this as I do. I say these things in 
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Wallin & Goodrich taking a moto-taxi

I love to see the temple..

Ghana Temple

Elder Wallin and Goodrich

Pretty cool week. We got to go to the temple on Saturday. Usually
missionaries aren't allowed to go to the temple very often but this
week we received permission. President Snow told us that we could go
on our ward temple trip with our recent converts to do baptisms for
the dead. Since we don't get to go that often we jumped at the chance
and went. It was incredible!  I love going to the temple. I wish I
would have gone more when I was home. In other exciting news, we
finally got things in order for Florence to be baptized! I don't know
if anyone remembers but we have been trying to get Florence baptized
for some 6 weeks now but nothing ever seems to work. However, now it's
all set and as of June 11th she will be baptized! I'm so excited for
her to finally have this opportunity. Thursday was cool too. We got to help 
Mercy and her family move. Their landlord was kicking them out so she 
and her mother had to find a new place. Their new place is better in my 
opinion though. It's closer to us too. Helping her move was in a way really sad.
We carried everything in our arms and with 4 missionaries and Mercy it
only took us 4 or 5 trips. It just is incredible to see the way everyone lives 
and yet how joyous they are. I've never seen them complain about their 
living conditions except to say Ghana is too hot (Liberia is really cool and nice). 
For me that was quite the humbling experience. I took everything I had back 
home for granted and probably will again after I get home. I just never want
 to forget what I've seen here and the impact it's made on my life. I love these 
people and this country so much and it's my home now.  This is my home.

Elder Chemhuru and Goodrich

Spring chicken (aka FROG!)

Mercy and Elder Goodrich