Week 12: Good Week!!!

Dear all,

"The mission hates Bushionaries" - Elder Ferrin

Apparently my new nickname is Elder McFairbear.  I don't know why the missionaries are calling me that but they do haha. This week has literally flown by. I guess the saying is true if you lose yourself in the work the time flies. This week was a nice spiritual week. There was something different about it! I am so happy that the Broncos won the Super Bowl. Everyone was giving me so much hate but now I have bragging rights. I hope that Manning doesn't retire though. I want to be able to see his last game! It has been really hot this week. Everyone keeps saying that this means we will get rain soon but literally I just think it’s hot. There isn't a single cloud here in Oda. I got a haircut this week. I think it looks really good. The guy I go to pays a lot of attention to detail. Also, we had a Word of Wisdom lesson with our investigator and when we were done just took the tea out of his house. He thought it was funny and said he didn't like it anyway.

Monday
Just a normal P-day you know just washed our clothes and stuff. We didn't do any shopping because we are all broke. But  I did play ball like usual, we hung out with the other guys until 6 and then went to proselyte so pretty chill day. I enjoy sharing Mosiah 2:41 with members and less actives. It tells us that we need to remember how happy people are when they keep the commandments, like reading the scriptures and going to church and stuff. It says if you do this then you will be received into heaven. It’s a perfect scripture to share with people.

Rice and Salmon in a Stew

Tuesday
Well today we stayed in the apartment all day because Ferrin was sick.  The dust in the air is really getting to us all. I am lucky I haven't gotten sick yet. So for some reason I have a hard time reading the Bible, so I thought today would be a good day to start reading the New Testament or something but like midway through i had to switch back to The Book of Mormon. What stood out to me the most was Mosiah Chapter 14. I love this chapter because it talks about Christ and all that He suffered for us. (I encourage all to read it) It’s pretty humbling to know what Jesus Christ went through, and it’s a good feeling.

Wednesday
We had our district council meeting like always. We talked about Lesson 3. We talked a lot about the topic of enduring to the end. It was a powerful meeting honestly. For breakfast I had something called Waakye (pronounced watchay and it’s pretty much where they cook the beans and rice together and put this stew on top. You will just have to look it up. Also I’m going to start boiling eggs and have it with it. lol I finally have both nativity sets. I got the second one today. Ferrin and I had a good spiritual day. We sat down with our investigator and had a powerful lesson about Adam and Eve and then talked to him about his baptismal date. Everything is going to work out. So we tried something new today. Since the church is in my area we chose to do something genius and contact around the church and said that they wouldn't have a problem finding our church because it was right there. We had our coordination meeting with our new branch mission leader. I am so excited for his willingness to help the missionaries. He will be going out to proselyte on Wednesdays. Good day.

Thursday
Today I had a pretty nice study.  I studied about Moroni and how he refused to be a leader and commander of his people because they were so prideful and wicked. And how like they didn’t see that the Lord had prepared a way for them. We saw plenty of people today. Ferrin and I are working our butts off, I totally misplaced 30 Cedis. I have no clue where it went. I need to be careful with my money. Nothing else really happened today. The work is still hard and Ghana is still hot and I’m
learning twi well.  When all of us were at the apartment, we decided to play liars dice. That game is really fun and we all are good at it---definitely a game I’ll teach people when I get home. Working with members right now is really awesome because they will give you referrals like crazy if they like you.

Friday
Not much to say about today besides our plans fell through, our back up plans fell through and our back ups to the back ups fell through. We taught a couple of lessons but still feel like we didn’t do anything.

Saturday
Today was too hot man! It was Ferrin's birthday today but we didn't take any breaks and worked hard, and saw 6 people before the baptism that took place at 5. I am really impressed on how things are really picking up right now. A cool experience happened today-- So we sat down with this investigator and started talking about the restoration. Midway through this lesson this guy wanted us to explain to him what something meant, and me and Ferrin were a little confused because he was participating really well and we were teaching fine. He began to tell us about a dream that his sister had about him and how she dreamed about him getting poisoned from drinking too much alcohol and dying shortly after. She saw that everyone in the compound was crying and stuff. Ferrin and I looked at each other and knew right away it was time to teach the Word of Wisdom and  I asked him this question. "Do you think God is giving this to you as a warning?" and he knew right away that he needed to stop drinking because he didn't want that to happen, and he told us that he had a strong desire to stop drinking and he knows what we taught him are true. What the weird thing about this is, that we have been praying for his desire to stop drinking. I have a strong testimony that the power of prayer works. I have told people before that if you just have faith along with prayer anything will happen! We went exploring a small bit and found huge termite mounds over 8 feet tall. We enjoyed pizza after the baptism.

Sunday
Our investigators didn't come to church. But in order to hold their dates they need to come to church every week before their baptisms. I’m getting nervous haha but everything will be fine. So another neat experience we were about to leave church and this member said that she needs me so I call the other missionaries over to see what the issue was. She wanted us to bless her small daughter who obviously was sick. So we were like okay, you know we were feeling the Spirit strong because of fast Sunday and all. So Ferrin anointed and I blessed, Perry stood in the circle and Hunt made sure nobody came into the room while we were blessing. Let me tell you the Spirit was so strong. There is something special about blessing a small child. I have no clue what it is but we all felt the Spirit so strong for sure. We have FHE tonight and tomorrow night.

Monday
We got harassed by a mad man when we were in a taxi at a stop light. We both saw him and just thought oh crap he’s coming for us, I  had to roll up my window super fast. But yeah bought some soap for 7 cedi, not about to buy any food because I’m scared I’ll be transferred and not be able to take food. We didn’t play basketball today---maybe we will next week.