Hello everyone! Sorry, it's been a long time. But I have been so busy lately, I haven't even had much of a "pday" the past few weeks, let alone have enough time to type an email. So sorry about that, I will try to get better at managing my time.
Transfers happened, and I have been called to serve as zone leader over the Suame Zone in a place called Kronum. My companion is Elder Negone; he is from Côte d'Ivoire. We are the same age on the mission. Our area is in Kumasi and is very much a city. But it is a very nice change from my previous areas, which have been pretty bush. Some of the differences I have noticed are that I live next to a main road, so it's not easy to sleep at night. And also, people actually speak English!! I swear in Humjibre there were days where the only English I heard was the words in my head. Also, education is much more valued in a bigger city. When in villages, education is not readily available. If they want to go to school, they must travel and spend money. So people don't have as much of a chance to get educated in small places. So I have enjoyed English conversations with a few folks out here. One downfall with education is pride. Pride makes missionary work very difficult, but if it was easy, everyone would do it, right??
Kronum is the first ward I have served in, and I am just loving it. Lots of old members and devout people. I've been here for 2 weeks and I didn't have to prepare, bless, or pass the sacrament. I just went to church and it was all already taken care of!! There's even a dude from America in my ward. He lived in West Virginia for 20 years but moved back to Ghana. I asked him if he knew my aunt Deb, sadly he did not. I guess the world isn't as small as I thought it was. We worship in a stake center, which is super cool - a big step up from the schoolhouse in Humjibre. I'm just living the life of luxury right now!! Super grateful! I absolutely loved Humjibre and I was sad to leave. That place has my heart. Full of nothing but good people and love. But I'm onto my next adventure.
A funny story that I have is as zone leader, we do an exchange with the assistants to the Mission President once a transfer. So we traveled to their area, and I had a wonderful exchange with Elder Mba. We live about an hour away from the assistants' area. When we got back to our apartment after our exchange, I realized I had forgotten my fanny pack, which had the keys to our apartment inside of it. It was probably 10 pm at this point; we called the assistants and graciously they agreed to bring us our keys. So we got to sit by the roadside and wait for our keys. When the assistants came with our keys, we began our walk back to our apartment. We live inside a compound with other people. We all access our individual apartments by one main gate, which gets locked somewhere around 10:30 pm, so once that gate is locked, you are out of luck. Neither my companion nor I thought about this. So when we acquired our keys at about 11 and made it to our apartment around 11:15 or so, the gate was locked. I was standing near the access door and was pounding on the gate and shouting, hoping someone was inside and awake. My companion was doing the same thing, except he was looking for a way to jump the compound wall. Meanwhile, I was still standing in front of the door. I had stopped shouting because I thought I heard someone. The next thing I knew, the door flies open and I catch a steel pipe right in the ribs. About a second after that, our neighbor realized it was us and quit attacking us. As I was recovering from the blow to the ribs, he explained that he was sorry and how he thought we were robbers trying to rob him. What a day we had.
This week in my personal studies, I have been studying from the new "Preach My Gospel". I have been learning how to have more of the Spirit with me when I teach. And I stumbled upon this wonderful scripture that has changed my perspective on the scriptures entirely. It is Alma 31:5:
"5 And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had a more powerful effect on the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore, Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God."
I love the concept of this scripture. Not only does preaching the word of God lead people to do what is good, but it is also more powerful than the sword or anything else!! Take a moment to think about how you would feel if someone took a sword (or in my case, a steel pipe) and put it up to your chest and threatened you with your life. That has a pretty powerful effect on your mind, doesn't it? But we learn here that the words of God have more power over your mind than death itself! So cool. So what I learned is I need to use more scriptures as I teach. And I think it's something we all need to be equipped with. Most people put a gun on their hip for protection in a time of need, but how many of us put scriptures in our minds for a time of need? Sure, a gun is powerful, but scriptures have a more powerful effect on the minds of the people than the sword.
Anyways, that's all folks! I'm still living and learning out here and just doing the best I can with what I have. Sure love and miss y'all! ~Elder Gilbert
