Hey what’s up family?
Does that sound like a 20 year old or what? I can’t believe it was my birthday again already. It just seems like it was yesterday when we were at Craig’s house swimming and having a good ole time for my 19th birthday. Man this year has gone by fast but for sure my 20th birthday was the best ever. I will talk more about my birthday in a small time. This week was great. I am so happy to be here in Ghana serving and living amongst the Ghanaian people.
On Wednesday we had our first interviews with President Judd and it was way sweet! The Judd’s are really great and they have taught us a lot about the gospel. President Judd focused on the Book of Mormon and he talked about how we can use it more. President Judd told us that we shouldn’t drop any of our contacts without first giving them a Book of Mormon. Then he had me tell about one of the experiences I had with the Book of Mormon that changed the heart of one of my investigators. In my previous area my companion and I had contacted a man (who I can’t remember his name right now) but he told us that he didn’t want us to come back because he was already set in his church and that his church was true and there is nothing that was going to make him change his mind. Seeing we weren’t going to get anywhere with this man we dashed him a Book of Mormon and gave him a few places to read. We promised him that we wouldn’t come back and bother him any more on his request.
Anyway, I just found out that after I was transferred a few weeks later he called the missionaries and wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon that we had given him. Turns out he was baptized and is now a member of the real TRUE church. Why? Because he read the most correct book of any book on the earth and he felt the spirit teach him that the things that he read came from God are true and the book will bless him and his whole family.
Lately I have been pondering that day that I last taught him. I think to myself “what if I wasn’t doing my studies or what if I was doing something wrong and I didn’t have the spirit with me and what if when he told me not to come back that I just said O.K and left.” It’s been kind of haunting me to think about. It’s kept me on my knees that’s for sure. When I gave that man the Book of Mormon I also gave him a simple promise that if he read the book with an open heart his life would be changed forever. I know it was the spirit that told me to testify to him and leave the book, because I usually get mad and upset when I get rejected like that. I am so grateful for that day now and how happy it makes me to know that he followed the promise and read the Book of Mormon and was baptized.
Funny thing happened before interviews. Sister Judd was talking to me and Elder Nielson and she was going on and on about how sorry she was for the way we (missionaries) live and the food that we eat. Ha-ha! If she only knew what we really eat every day she would really freak out!
So on Friday we went down to this place called Krokrobite to see some members who have stopped coming to church because they live too far away and they want there own branch (that’s a story for another time). Krokrobite is down by the ocean so while we were there we decided to go check out the beach. This place was way sweet! There was fishing boats and tons of way sweet people! While we were walking down the beach something caught our attention so we decided to go over and see it. On the way over to see it (what ever it was. I can’t even remember now) this lady yells at us and tells us to come over to her place which was some beach house thing. Once we got over there we noticed a white man (shocker to see white people) that started asking us all kinds of questions. His name was Roger and he was from Sweden. Then the next thing I know we are teaching this man about the Book of Mormon. Ha-ha! Teaching this guy was way tight. It was so much different than teaching Ghanaian s because in Ghana everyone believes in God. We had no idea whether this guy believed in God or not so we were being a little selective with our words but still tried to be bold. After teaching him about the Book of Mormon we challenged him to accept a copy as a gift from us and we challenged him to read it. To our surprise he accepted the book and the challenge and he said he would have plenty of questions for us to answer the next time we came. Man this was a sweet experience. Even though this guy was willing to listen to us I still feel bad for the missionaries in Europe because this guy was smoking right in my face and asking all these really deep questions about the gold plates and where they are now. But the most exciting thing was we were able to teach white man!!!! Ha-ha and we also gave him a Book of Mormon so we will just have to wait and see how this turns out.
O.K. after our interviews with President Judd I got all my birthday packages. I really am spoiled! Ha-ha but I didn’t wait for my birthday to open them because I ran out of memory on my camera so I had to bust them open to find the memory card. But thanks so much for everything that you sent to me, Elder Nielson and I have been enjoying all of it. It really was the best 20th birthday I could ever have. My family back home showed me tons of love and then my family in Ghana showed me tons of love. After church we went to Sister Abena's for dinner. She actually had a barbecue. How sweet is that? We grilled up some chicken and it was so good. Thanks so much for everything that everyone has done to get me to 20!
On Saturday we had the all African service project, so we went out to Kasoa to do some work! The place was dirty but we were able to get everything cleaned up just to be dirtied again by careless people. I put up a lot of pictures of things that happened this week so feel free to check them out. The pictures tell a better story than what I can tell.
So this week was really good! Everything was just perfect! I really can’t express to you all how grateful I am for the things I received for my birthday and for all of you who are helping to support me back home. Thanks so much! I love you all!
Love Elder Berry / bbear nana
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