Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.

Dear family,

I think the hardest part of my week is trying to think of a way to start these letters and than what to write.

This week on Tuesday I got to go on splits with Elder Wollenzien again! I really love that kid he is so funny. Funny thing is we were both together for both of his birthdays in the mission field. Last year we were companions in Ordorkor and we both were suffering with pink eye, now this year we were in Osu having a good time teaching together on splits. While we were on our slits in his area we saw a lot of people and started teaching a lot of new people for him and his companion Elder Nielson. Ha-ha! Yes, Elder Nielson was my companion too; they both can’t get rid of me.

On Saturday night we had 4 failed appointments in a row, kind of a frustrating thing. Then we got this call from this member around 7 pm and he was like “I got this friend that I want you to teach” we ask if we could come right then and he said that would be  fine; so we went on this wild hunt to try to find this place that we had never been before. We finally found the place around 8 and the member was there with his friend. We started doing a little teaching and the member was right there just a testifying to everything we had to say, it was a picture perfect lesson. After we got done introducing what we do we ask him if he had any questions. He said yes. What is this Book of Mormon? My companion and I looked at each other with a little smile on our face. We have been really focusing on using the Book of Mormon and it’s just that much better when the person that we are teaching wants to know more about it. We explained what the book is and how it can help him answer questions about life. Our member friends bore a solid testimony and pretty much wrapped it up for us. We invited him to church and he said that he would be traveling to Kasoa. We told him that we had a branch there. Yesterday we found out that he went to church. MONEY! Ha-ha

We had another interesting experience this week. We got this other referral from these members that work at the area office here. They told us that they wanted us to teach this man and baptize him as soon as possible. We were thinking great we teach him give him a Book of Mormon, give him a date to baptize, and then commit him to church. It will be as simple as a 1 2 3 baptism.  Well when we got to meet with him it was everything but that. This man is a doctor and he lived in England for 15 years. He is very smart and knows way too much about the bible. He has read the bible so many times that he pretty much in his mind has proven it to be false. We tried to introduce him to the Book of Mormon, and he just shut us down. Then he started telling us that he doesn't believe that Jesus is the Christ. I have only met maybe 5 Ghanaian that don’t believe in Christ and the sad thing is they have all had influences out side of Ghana mainly they have lived in Europe somewhere. Ghana is a blessed land and the church is exploding here. At stake conference we will come together as 4 stakes and leave as 6.  It will be exciting to be a part of that in a couple of here in Accra.

As I was studying in the Book of Mormon this week, I was reading through first chapters of Nephi again. The first few chapters are the most read chapters in the book of Mormon, probably because I get to second Nephi and forget to read and then I would start over again. Any way I was reading and I was just so impressed with Nephi as always. Nephi was a stud, I want to be just like Nephi. Every time a challenge came up in front of him he did "not forget"

When I was taking history classes in school I would always wonder why we had to learn this stuff. The teacher would always say something like “so that we don’t make the same mistakes as these people did”. I have been reading through first Nephi studying Laman and Lemuel and the things that they did wrong so I won’t make the same mistakes as they made. There are a lot of things that we can learn that they did or didn’t do. They were slow to listen to the words of God, quick to do inequality, slow to repent. They harden their hearts, and they complained. One thing that has really stood out to me this time around is that they did "forget." in chapter 7 verse 10 Nephi says "How is it that ye have forgotten that ye have seen an angel of the Lord? 11) Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten what great things the Lord hath done for us, in delivering us out of the hands of Laban, and also that we should obtain the record? 12) Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.

Each time that Laman and Lemuel rebelled they demonstrated that they were more concerned about there own well being and had totally forgot about the eternal purpose of life, Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father. Sometimes in life or even on mission we can forget what’s really up and we tend to get causal about things. In Helaman 5:12 he said   And now, my sons, remember, remember. I know that as we follow Nephi's example and never forget but to always remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation. Let us not forget but to always remember.

Love you guys,
Bbear

I know that the Book of Mormon has a power of its own to bring others unto Christ

What’s up my best family?

How has everyone been this week?  I got the stuff from that guy that came so thanks so much for that mom.

I don't have much time and the lights have been giving us problems but I know I need to send a quick note to my family.  We have this investigator named Ruth. I think that I mentioned her before. She is 24 and has a little girl. We have been teaching Ruth for some time now but she hasn’t really been progressing much. She wasn’t coming to church and she wasn’t reading the Book of Mormon so my companion and I talked a lot about what we could do to help her. We decided that if she wasn’t going to read the Book of Mormon then we would just read it to her. So every time we went to see her we read one or two scriptures that went along with what we were teaching her or we would just read a whole chapter to her and then talk about it. This seemed to be working quite well because she never told us to stop coming and she liked having us round. It was about two weeks into reading the Book of Mormon to her, her whole attitude about the church and about the gospel change. She started coming to church and starting reading on her own. Well she pre-pared herself for baptism and everything went well all the way up to the day of her baptism. Then her mother heard something about the church and wouldn't let her be baptized. It kind of through me and my companion off but we believe that she has a testimony and will be able to get through this and work things out with her mother. I know that the Book of Mormon has a power of its own to bring others unto Christ and help them see the truth in all things.

This week we had our interviews with President Judd. It was really sweet! I love that man. I wish that I had more time to talk to him, but we only got to spend a short time together. We mostly talked about what we can do to work this skin problem out. We are trying a few different things right now and we are seeing improvement. I think it has more to do with all the prayers in my behalf than anything! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. I can feel the power of pray in my life right now. Everything is looking better so I’m happy about that! My companion and I are working hard, and we are working on changing the boys into men. We are doing all that we can to be the best that we can be!

Sorry for the short one but I just wanted you to know that I am alright and I love you guys and miss you so much!

Love Bbear

Everything in the Book of Mormon is there to help us live our lives so that we can return to live with God.

Greetings from Ghana,

Well it has been another crazy week and it has gone by fast along with the last transfer. Congrats to Lone Peak in the dominating win at STATE! That is legit! Too bad it wasn’t a game though, it would have been tight to beat AF in the championship, but we will take the win anyway. Nice work Brod!

We had a meeting with President Judd this week. We talked about a lot of great things, but we mostly talk about the step that Elder Holland wants our mission to take. That is to become a Book of Mormon mission. So forgive me if you hear me talk a lot about the Book of Mormon in my letters in the weeks to come. I have had a lot of fun already trying to make my self a Book of Mormon missionary with my companion and it seems to be doing wonderful things for us.

The prophet Joseph Smith said that if we "take away the Book of Mormon where is our religion, we have none".  Our religion is based on the Book of Mormon and if we take a look at the definition of religion we see that “re” in Latin means “to do again” and “lig” means “to bring together”. Kind of like the function of ligaments in our body. From the meaning we see that “religion” means “to bring man and God back together again”. So if our "religion" is based on the gospel principles found in the Book of Mormon then the soul purpose of the book is to bring man back to live in the presence of God.  We should be thankful everyday that we have such a book.  The Nephit’s never had the book; neither did the Laminites of ancient times. That is because it was written for us. Under inspiration from God, Mormon chose specific stories and events from centuries of writings that would benefit us today. Everything in the Book of Mormon is there to help us live our lives so that we can return to live with God.  Why would not everyone want to read this book?

The golden question of the Book of Mormon is: Do you want to learn more about Christ, His teachings, and the atonement? The Book of Mormon does not contain the things which are pleasing unto the world and so the worldly are not interested in it. But it is meant for everyone, we invite all men to read it. (Introduction to Book of Mormon) It has something for every one no matter what they are facing in there lives. It is a different book for me now than it was two years ago. Yes the words are still the same but the things that I learn from it today are for what I need at this time.

Well things have been crazy for us. We have been running all over the place with meetings and transfers, but we still managed to have a great week out teaching. We got three families to come to church this Sunday. I think that is the most whole families that I have gotten to church on my mission. Things are looking good with them but we are praying that it will all work out. They are sweet people and they loved church on Sunday. Me and my companion baptized a lady named Rose Marry this week. She was a referral from her member father. She is way sweet, and was so excited to join the church. She is married and is 28 years old. We are now working with her husband. The baptism was sweet even though it almost didn’t happen. Her father is really old and she is kind of on the heavy side so he almost drowned her. He had to do it a few times but in the end it was all good. Everyone was happy and they were very happy to be together in the church. That’s what this is all about! Bring families together, not any better joy than doing that!

I got to split. I didn’t get transferred. I’m still with Elder Mudenga. He got a letter from mom and he it made him very happy, and he even shared the story today in our district meeting so thanks for doing that mom! He loved it and with that I love you all. Keep doing what’s good!

love Bbear