April 3, 2017
The Challenge of Leadership
Well, as far as challenges… my companion is going home, so his resolve to work is weakening. Elder Antwi has been a very unique companion, and I absolutely love him. The challenge with leadership is always keeping people happy, hardworking, and obedient. It’s still a challenge balancing nurturing and correcting and all those things. I’m trying to focus on the Spirit and follow promptings immediately. We’re handling those situations with care. Oh yeah, we now have added 2 companionships of sisters in my Zone.
It will be a new change of pace after this week with my companion going home. Time doesn’t feel like it’s getting shorter for me, even though it is. I’ve still got plenty of time left and things to do. I want to work super hard to the end.
More Traveling
This past week we went to Bolgatanga, and this coming week we are going to Kumasi, Oh the joy of service! 😀 When we went to Bolga, The most interesting part was that we slept outside while we were there. It was so hot inside. Bolga is even hotter than Tamale this time of year. I was burning up! I was BURNING! So because of dust, the ventilation is kept to a minimum, and the fans blow hot air. Outside, you just go up with a blanket on top of the roof and enjoy. I have pictures, but unfortunately we are at the lower quality Internet cafe, so I can’t send those.
By the way- I found out about my pictures, I lost 350 cuz it got corrupted. Not fun but that’s just how it works.
Conference
I got to watch 3 sessions of General Conference: Saturday afternoon, priesthood, and Sunday morning.
We watched Sunday morning live and it was really, really sweet. There was definitely some great food for thought. I was thinking a lot about following the first prompting that Elder Rasband was talking about in the Sunday morning session of Conference. It’s something that I’m really gonna work on.
One Week Later…
April 10, 2017
Changes
This past week was very interesting for me. Even though transfers were supposed to be this coming week (due to a few different things), I’ve already received my new companion.
When we went to Leadership council in Kumasi, President told several people to just bring their luggage to the mission home when they came for the meeting. So right after the meeting, President told everyone their transfer news. Then I left with my new companion as my old one was to stay at the mission home, to wait his last week until he goes home.
My new companion is the second American I’ve had thus far. His name is Elder Lierd from Lehi, Utah. He’s a really cool, smart guy. He’s ahead of me by one transfer and I’m super ready to learn from him. It seems like my new companion is a very hard worker, so with both of us on the same page of desire to do the work, we’ll soar, I believe.
I Still Have A Lot to Learn
I recently had a humbling experience that makes me feel like I really need to improve my leadership and correcting skills. I was super direct with a zone member a few days ago and now they’re pretty upset with me. It gets super complicated, but you know me when someone is upset with me I have a hard time containing myself. I just want to make things okay, but I need to be patient to regain trust. All in all, time is moving fast and slow at the same time.
Sometimes it’s difficult here because I can’t just leave my companion and go for a run, which was my main source of solution back home. But I can handle it, I’ve got a handle on it, and it feels good to be able to say that.
Everything considered, Tamale is pretty cool. I’m still learning from my mistakes, still trying to be better and get out of old, bad habits. It takes time, y’know! Just gotta keep going. I love this work, some days are better than others, but everything is okay!
That’s all for now,
Love,
Elder Gilbert
Question: How many baptisms do you have in a year where you are? I think if you take the average zone of about 10-15 and multiply that by 9 every month (I’m not sure if that’s accurate though). It has to be close to 120 in the mission per month (120×12) which would be approximately 1400 baptisms in a year. Interestingly, Ghana Kumasi Mission has one of the lower baptism rates in West Africa. I wonder how many missionaries are currently serving in our mission? I know at one time it was about 120, but I don’t know now. That’s the best guess I have at the moment.
Just Gilbert 