I'm sorry its been a month sense I last emailed. I'm just keeping myself as busy as possible. And utilise the experience and knowledge I have obtained to help as many people as possible! The past few weeks have been pretty text-book there really hasn't been anything crazy go on here. But I will tell you about what has gone on.
My companion has been living with a partially torn minuscus for his whole mission. But every Monday we have been taking trips to the hospital for various checkups for him. Now as I have described in the past going to a Ghanaian hospital is an "experience" to say the least. But I will say that it is probably the most organised system they have. Although they have the system down they can't do anything about the people. So here's the kick. In ashanti tradition, you are to name you're child after the day they where born. For example I was born on a Monday so my ashanti name is "kwadjo". for people born on Thursday its "yaw" Friday their name is "kofi" so on and so fourth. So at the hospital there is usually a large amount of people in the waiting room. The nurse will come out and call the name of the person she desires. The only problem is the name she will call is one of 7 options, so she will call KOFI!! and you will see 8 kofi's rush to her to see wich one it is. I have been there for an accumulation of many hours and this seems to be a major problem but I think it's kind of silly. Sometimes it makes it extremely difficult to do missionary work, you go up to someone asking for a brother "Yaw" and they happen to know 200 guys named "yaw" in that area. And I'm not even going to mention the difficult of getting the people in our teaching pool straight, the nice thing is if you forget someone's name you have a 1 in 7 change to get it correct.
My weeks have been full of meetings, zone conference, and exchanges. Exchanges are nice because it really can keep me motivated. I won't lie, with each passing day it gets harder and harder to get outta bed on time in the morning. But needless to say mission is such a blessing and I'm so happy for what I have learned so far. Plus I know why I am here so that gets me up everymorning and keeps me out the door! For our last zone conference my companion and I gave instruction. It was quite nerve racking but we performed well! Our topic was on seeking and following the spirit.
The past few weeks my companion and I have been covering two areas we cover kronum, and pankrono. Pankrono is about an hour away from kronum and it is a small branch but full of powerful people. We have three investigators over there and each of them are by far the coolest people I have ever taught. Each of them had testimonies of the church before we even came to teach them. One of them his name is brother oheme. He is a 70 year old man and has been to countless churches throughouthus life. He says when he realised that the church he was previously attending wasn't true he yet again sought out another church. He told us that he narrowed his choices down to three churches, a one man church, the pentecost church, and the church of jesus christ of Latter day Saints. He brought these three churches to the Lord in prayer and he felt special about the church of jesus christ. When we first met we taught him of the Book of mormon ans presented him with one and encouraged him to read only one chapter and to pray about it. When we next visited him he told us that instead of reading one chapter he had read HALF of the Book and desired to be baptised after reading 3 Nephi 11 I would be lying to you if I said I didn't tear up. It was amazing.
As for the other two people they are a couple Victoria and Dominic. For them Dominic was fist Introduced to the church by a friend and he attended church once in accra. Then his business moved him to pankrono where he met Victoria. They where both looking for a church to attend Dominic remembered the church but didn't know where to find it. So instead of just attending some random church that they chose. one Sunday they traveled 4 hours all the way to accra just to find the churchhouse he was familiar with. And when he got there he was directed to the church in pankrono before they left accra Dominic attended a sacrament meeting with Victoria. And in that meeting she said she had a spiritual awakening. And she knows she has found the true church. All of this was relayed to us after we finished sharing our testimony with them after a lesson. They stopped us from speaking and said they wanted to share their testimonies. Really powerful.
Well the day that every African missionary must experience at some point has finally came... I got worms... not really sure where it came from. But I do know that there was lots and lots of them little buggers. One day I looked in the mirror and thought I was lookin a lil to frail so I started eating more but I just kept getting smaller I wasn't walking anymore then usual. So I put 2 and 2 together and got 6. Called the mission nurse and got hooked up with some sweet worm pills to take care of the problem. I am beyond exited in a few months to buy food and to not worry for my life while eating it.
I have been studying from the Book of mormon and my scripture will be from Omni 1: 25-26
25 (and in all things which are good; for there is nothing which is good save it comes from the Lord: and that which is evil cometh from the devil.)
26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.
For the first verse I just want to relate this to the world we live in today. There is so much that is good that people are trying to disguise as evil. Some of the big ones are family & religion these things are good. And for our benefit. So let's use the spirit inside of us to distinguish good from evil. It has been given to each one of us to know good from evil. To act for ourselves and not to be acted upon (2Nephi 2:26) so let's utilise this God given gift to do good! And to share good!
For the second verse I love how we are begged to come unto christ and to partake of HIS salvation. Contrary to many beliefs, there is only one way to be saved. And that is Jesus christs salvation. We all must partake of his redeeming love and put our will on the alter. Or as the verse says "offer our whole should unto him." What will christ do with our soul? Well he will refine it, make it better. And eventually perfect it. But he can't do any of that if we never give it to him in the fist place. Use you're gift of agency to do good, to follow christ, partake of his salvation, give you're soul unto him, endure to the end, so that in the end " ye will be saved."
Anyways that's all I got for yall. Enjoy the fall season that you are going into, once again sorry for the radio silence. I will be better. Love yall! ~ Elder Gilbert
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