Oct 30, 2017
Mission Updates
Some individuals are almost ready: We were thinking that five people were going to be baptized this coming Saturday, but we feel that they need additional preparation. I guess they will be baptized by the missionaries that will be here next transfer. There are so many people who are really preparing for baptism here; it’s crazy!
Recent converts & investigators: The three new converts struggle to witness the sacrament because they’re almost always late. There was a girl that came to church a few weeks back who we found by helping her grandmother make the brooms. She is super busy as a student, so it’s difficult to teach her lately.
A visit from a Seventy: We got a surprise announcement from the mission that Elder Kacher, of the Seventy, will be visiting us this coming week. The visit had been shifting dates for a couple months. President Cosgrave told us he would visit the next transfer, later it was shifted to next year, and after that announcement came the current one. It seems a little rushed and it definitely caught me off guard. This last week is just going to go by super fast, I can already tell.
My companion, Elder Gadah says that I’m different from all the missionaries that he’s known back home. I taught him everything that I could. He has adopted my styles and he’s really an incredible guy.
Giving a Talk
I was asked to give a talk yesterday in church. Since my ministerial card expired yesterday, I wanted to talk about what I had learned from these last two years. I had a lot to talk about. I think I could list a thousand things, but I put it down into five main principles:
- The value of uncompromising obedience
- The need for meaningful scripture study every day.
- How to recognize the promptings of the Spirit
- Self confidence and people skills
- How critical ordinances are for salvation
It was a good talk, but they had to give me a slip of paper telling me that I need to summarize and finish, so I wasn’t able to say everything that I wanted. I think that the people who liked it the most were the Senior-couple missionaries in the branch and a couple of recent converts. I’ve never been given a note like that before xD
You know, I think I learned exactly what I was supposed to learn from these two years. I just need to hold on to it and stay true to it.
My Trip Plans
I’ll leave my apartment (in Effiduasi) early on Monday morning because I want to visit Asuoyeboah one more time (I just love the people there). Then I will go to town to email before going to the Misison Home (in Kumasi) in the mid-afternoon. I fly out early Tuesday morning from Kumasi to Accra and then I will go through the temple. I’m going to finally get that one ancestor’s work finished before I go home. When I was in the MTC I forgot the paper because they were rushing us to get to the temple. So I’ll do it then! Yay! There will actually be a ton of time, because we get to Accra about 8 am, but we don’t leave Accra until 10 pm. That flight will arrive in Amsterdam by 6 am, Wednesday. Then I fly out at 10 am or so and land in Detroit around 1 pm. I leave Detroit around 3:30 and get to Iowa about 4 pm. Lots of lay-overs; I’m not too excited about that part.
I really wonder what it will be like coming home. I’m so excited but at the same time, I really don’t know how to feel. At my last weekly planning session, Elder Gbettie texted me asking how I felt to be planning my last week of missionary service. My response? Empty. It’ll be strange to have an ‘RM’ stamp. But, I’m about to get there, so I better get used to it.
I can’t wait to see everyone. Will Grandpa be at the airport?! I want to see him so bad! I was telling my companion about him last night and how grateful I am that I worked for him on the farm.
I remember when I first came to Ghana and I’d say I was nervous. I was only scared the first day that I went out proselyting, after that everything went better! The food was extremely strange (sometimes it still is), but I survived it back then, and like the plant that was growing from the crack of cement, I’m really thriving now.
With love,
Elder Gilbert.
PS – We’re going to a Kente village today, halfway between Effiduasi and Ejisu, so we tried to come early because we’re going to have a district activity that is sort of like a send-off party for me and one other missionary in the district. Right now I am in Ejisu at an Internet café to email, because the place in Effiduasi is junky. So on our way home, we’ll take a turn-off, buy some kente, and then right back to Effiduasi.
See you in a week and two days!
Just Gilbert 