Date
November 29, 2021
Area
Klagon, Accra, Ghana
Companion
100 miles off the equator
How Chale What's good everyone. Another solid week from Elder Lovings adventures from down under. Shoutout to my boy Kohl for getting married, love you brother. Wow weeks really feel like days and days feel like weeks out here. The time on the Lords errand trips me out. It's been a challenging one but what else am I to expect. The sense of accomplishment that comes from hard work is because it was so hard. If it was easy, it wouldn't be worth it #realtalk. To all my fellow missionaries who are in the trenches, know everything is for thy good and brighter days are ahead. The refiners fire molds the finest steel.
Weeks are straight blurs sometimes but I'll try my best to get all the most exciting points. I just barely found out that the transfer is ending, kind of snuck right past me, so there is a possibility I could become a father/trainer.
I've turned into an old man. All these carbs are giving me a belly. No worries though, I just do 6 months to sexy when I'm about to come home lol. I go to sleep as early as I can and wake up with aches in pains in my back. If any of you old farts have any suggestions, send them my way please and thank you.
Thanksgiving was non existent, no surprise there. We were so busy that day I actually ate less than normal. Bummer but such is life.
We have been teaching my old boy Leonard forever now and are just now meeting his son Kingsley. This guy is a diamond in the rough I wish we would've meet sooner. I'm speaking to every missionary when I say this. YOU ARE BEING WATCHED MORE THAN YOU KNOW. A huge reason why Kingsley was so egar to meet with us Is because 1. He's Ghanaian so he'd rather go to church than work, more importantly, 2. Because of me and Elder Dirkmatts actions to his father Leonard. Kingsley has had to support Leonard for a long time because Leonard got layed off from work. Money here is scarce and Kingsley has a family to support as well. It almost brought him to tears on how grateful he has been for our constant kindness to his dad. I've said a couple times now how Leonard lives in a straight shack with no power. He hates the dark like a little kid and he always says how lonely he feels. This broke my heart so we gave him a solar powered light. Something small every missionary would have done, but it meant everything to Kingsley. He said we have physically and spiritually brought light into Leonards life with the light and the gospel.
We met with Kingsley a day later and taught him about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. Immediately, he knows it to be true and he wants his family to be apart of it all. He wants to be baptised. We are going to continue the lessons and see if he is still committed but I've never been more stoked in my life over someone we've taught. I love this guy so much and he says how we are already family and he never wants us to leave Klagon.
Every brother needs his barber and so I've got one now. Haha our good buddy Charles has constantly told us how badly he wants to cut our Abruni (white boy) hair. We finally got the time to get it cut and he did me right with a nice fade. Middle of the cut I asked how much It was and he told me that the European style is 30 cedis. That's way to much by the way and I barely had the money for it. I told him "but I'm American not European". dad joke hoping he would charge less. It didn't work.
Sad sad story that has left me depressed. We've been teaching our brother Obed since the second week of my mission in the field and we've been progressing with him for weeks now. We've taught more than the usual because he asks some of the deepest questions. We've taught him biblical prophesies of the Book of Mormon, gathering of Isreal, stuff like that. Some of the deepest doctrine most members wouldn't take the time too read. He always says he has his mind blown and even believes all of it to be true. He has a testimony of the Book Of Mormon, a modern day prophet, and that the church has been restored from Jesus Christ himself, but he will not be baptised. He has all of the faith, but is too comfortable with where he is In life to change anything. My people reading, never be too comfortable no matter where you are. Always be seeking to deepen your faith in Jesus Christ. If you have, continue. If you haven't start. If your struggling to, hold on and carry on. He says he hopes to one day have a big miraculous conversion like apostle Paul. I lovingly told him that if that's what your waiting for, it won't ever come. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. It is through everyday steps that we grow our faith and are converted to Jesus Christ.
I bare testimony on the power of the spirit. I continued to bear my testimony to Obed and he just looked at me blankly. I looked to Elder Dirkmaat and he did the same. I started to laugh to break the piercing silence. More silence passed and my companion looks to me and said 3 simple words " that was beautiful". I thought to myself, what did I say that was so powerful. But that's not the point. It's nothing I said, it wasn't me.
Loved this last week and hope for a better one. Keep grinding, keep studying, and never stop being converted to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. It's when we get comfortable that we start to mess up.
"It's not the big boulders that we trip on, but the small stones along the way." - Chris Loving
Love you all more than you know Elder Loving