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
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