Hello friends and family! It's been another couple of weeks. There really hasn't been much going on the past few weeks, but let me catch you up on what has gone on.
First of all, I've been on a few exchanges this week with members in my district. One exchange with Elder Ison and another with Elder Williams. Exchanges are one of the more fun things in mission life. It's cool to go and experience a different companion and a different area for a day.
We had some baptisms last Sunday. We baptized four of our people we found, and I have got to tell you a story about Kojo Fordjour. He is the old man in the baptism picture. He is in his late 70s and he also is the chief of Humjibre village. We have been teaching him the past few weeks, and we have seen a complete change in him. The funny story I have about him is before the baptism, we all took photos, and then I went and climbed into the baptism font. All of the candidates were standing in a group not pretty far off from the font, and you could tell most of them were pretty nervous. But not Kojo. He seemed to be bouncing up and down. As soon as I got in the font and called for someone to come get in, I saw Kojo start to run. And I don't mean a fast walk. This old freaking dude was literally running to the font. He had so much momentum that when he hit the stairs to climb into the font, he nearly jumped into the water. I just thought it was super cool that Kojo recognized the change that needed to happen, and he was stopping at nothing to make sure that change could happen NOW!
Another crazy thing that happened is a hurricane! Well, not really a hurricane, but it sure as heck seemed like one. We were just proselyting one evening, and next thing we know, the sky is black, and the wind is howling, and we are 30 mins away from home. We decided to get into a pragya and get home as fast as we could. As we were on our way home, the worst part of the storm hit, and it was pretty cool to watch but also terrifying because I was right in the middle of it. Palm trees were bent in half, the roofs of people's houses were flying overhead. Entire buildings were being picked up and thrown. Power poles uprooted themselves and fell over the roads. Flying pieces of tin roofing were everywhere, and literally, the heaviest rain. It was wild. By God's grace, we made it home safely, and no one in our village was seriously injured. But lots of buildings were ruined, and it took about four days to get power back to Bekwai and Humjibre. I have a video of some of the aftermath down below.
Other than that, life's been good here. I really enjoyed General Conference this week, and honestly, I am still digesting it. One of my favorite things that was stressed so much is if we have made promises with God and we have broken them, we can always come back to Him. Our promises and blessings are still here! How wonderful is that? I thought it worked perfectly into my personal study I had that day in Romans 11:
"23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again."
Earlier in the chapter, it talks about being grafted into the house of Israel, or becoming a part of God's chosen people. The only way to do this is to be baptized by the proper priesthood and make covenants with God. Then you can be counted as one of the house of Israel and an heir of the Abrahamic covenant.
The scripture uses the example of an olive tree and how a bad branch can be grafted onto a good olive tree, and the bad branch will eventually become good again. This scripture in Romans, along with this general conference talk, lets us know that if we have been grafted in once and have fallen away, God is able to graft us in again. God wants us to follow Him, give us power, and keep His commandments. When we do, blessings have been promised.
I had many thoughts during this conference, and it was seriously such a good one. I especially love what the prophet said, and we are so blessed to have a prophet of God in our day. Let us not take him for granted. ~ Elder Gilbert
