“By small and simple things are great things brought to pass

Hello Everyone,

Well it’s starting to feel like Christmas season this week. It snowed last night, so we might have a white 25th of December this year. Ha-ha! We have been waking up to our local pub/bar blasting Christmas tunes every morning. We have heard the song by Taylor Swift “Last Christmas” probably more than 100 times this week. My last Christmas here in Ghana was really sweet and one of the best that I have ever had and this Christmas will be my last in Ghana and its going to be very sweet.  Elder Wing and I are really excited about it. The pollution has moved in fully and the air is dirty. IF we walk to the top of the hill and look around it looks worse than the Salt Lake valley in the winter. It is really bad and we have been dusting plenty.

This week we were in a taxi going up to our apartment (we got really tired and lazy) but anyway the taxi driver ran over a dog and pretty much killed the bog on the spot.  We just couldn’t leave it there and let it go to waist so we went and picked it up and took it to a member that lives near by.  So anyway they prepared it up nice for us and we ended up eating it with some nice peanut soup and fufu. I felt really bad for the bog but there is a bunch of them around our place so I don’t think anyone is going to miss it.  Anyway it wasn’t bad and it filled our bellies.  It’s just kind of hard to get over the fact that you’re eating man’s best friend.

Now that you are all grossed out again, I can talk about the week and how everything is going. I almost forgot that it was transfers this past week.  Elder Wing and I didn’t get transferred this time, so we will be together for another one which will be about January 17 (I think).  Our whole district stayed the same because this transfer for the mission wasn’t very big.  I think the next transfer will be a big one.  A couple of my good friends went home this last week, Elder Boyd from Mapleton and Elder Orchard from Salt Lake. Both of them trained when I was in the MTC so I met them when I first came. It’s weird to see people that you came close to go home and move on from mission life but that time comes for every one.

Elder Wing and I are still killing it here together. We get along very well and I feel that it is helping in our work and in the relationships we have with our friends / investigators. We got six correct people to church this week, and we are working with them to have them return this upcoming week. There is so much to be done and just doesn’t seem like there is enough time in the day to fit it all in. Kind of sounds like some of you back home are feeling like that too. The Holidays are bringing plenty of things for us to do, and the time is small, small. There is a little thing that I think that we could all put in our time this Holiday season and that would be finding joy through serving others.

In Elder Ballard’s talk last conference he told a story about a man who sold everything he had to head to California during the gold rush. The young man worked hard digging for gold to make so he could earn a fortune. He looked and looked for that one big nugget of gold that would make him rich. The pile of rocks was the only thing that was getting in his way. After a while the man became discouraged because he had not found any gold and he began to believe that there was no gold so he decided to go home. Then one day an old man walked up to him and explained that there was plenty of gold in those rocks. The man took two of the rocks from the pile and smashed them together.  Inside the rocks were small flakes of gold. The old man had a bag on his waist that was full of gold, but full of the small flakes.

“By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. And by very small means the Lord … bringeth about the salvation of many souls” (Alma 37:6–7). Alma teaches us in this scripture that we need to spend more time looking for the small flakes of gold less time wondering where the big nugget is. It’s the small and simple things that bring about great and wonderful things. I know that this Christmas we are not all going to find that huge big nugget of gold under the tree or wrapped in a box. But I know that we can all bring great things to pass, by the small and simple acts of service that we can do for one another. Small acts of service can bring us wonderful feelings of love from Our Heavenly Father which is a lot better feelings than the ones you get when you open that biggest, and baddest present that was under the tree. 

I read a book yesterday (yes me, and I read the whole thing from start to finish in like 3 hours.) The book was really good and it talked about a man who went against everything that his ego stood for to give a family who had nothing the best Christmas of their lives. I can’t remember the title but it is the new version of the "Cracked Wheat for Christmas". It was really good and helped me see that it is so much better to be a giver than a receiver. I would recommend to you that you read it this year, since it is like the first book that I have ever read all the way through since "Holes". (I don’t even think I ever even read it.  I probably just watched the movie.)

I hope that you all have a good week; I’m not sure when you get out of school but I hope that you enjoy your break! And in a couple of Sundays we will be able to talk more about that kind of stuff. Have fun in the snow.

Peace and love

bbear