Sunday, October 5, 2014

Week 54- No Jesus...No Swag!!!

9/29/2014
So everything in Ghana is Christian related. Above almost every shop you will see by his grace hair salon, or Gods gifts key cutting service, on the back of every tro tro or taxi you will see God’s Grace, or Jesus's Love, it’s really cool.  Well on the back of a car I saw this No Jesus...No swag I freaking loved it!!  Family it sounded like you all had a very good week.  I actually had the worst urge the other day to go to Burgers Etc.  I was glad you were able to get out and go to the hills and go to rock creek store.  Dad it sounds like work is okay and everything is moving along pretty well.  Mom don’t worry about the computers they will settle down.  How are your classes?  Are the kids okay?  How is baseball?  Basketball? Baseball?  Mom I will be honest I kind of want to know what is going on back home with those things.  I am glad you all had a great week I love you all very much!! 

This week was a very good week for me and Elder Bangi.  It was full of excitement and some spiritual experiences.  We are trying to work a little harder, it’s been hard to balance things but we will get it figured out.  Elder Bangi and I are doing really good, I love that guy, and we are always laughing and having a good time.  So to begin transfer news they are here.  Elder Bangi and I are staying together, so that means two more months I will be with him it will be good, I am happy with that!!  The only change is Elder Jensen is going to my last area, to be the district leader there, so that will be hard to not have him anymore but the district is still really cool!!  

I am so excited for conference!! I always look forward to hearing the Apostles and the Prophets!! They are truly special witnesses of Christ....I remember when Bednar came and I heard his testimony, WOW they are truly Apostles and have that authority, I love President Monson very much!! I read that book you sent me and I have developed a new love for him.  I will be so happy to hear his counsel this week!! I beg as you listen to the talks don’t try to remember everything they say, remember what the spirit tells you to do!! 

This week was awesome!! We were able to help Sister M into the waters of Baptism on Saturday, it was so awesome, and she was just shining with the spirit!! Usually we try to get a lot of members there and none came this week and at first I was greatly devastated, but M kind of just wanted a small spiritual experience and she got it, it was really nice!! She has been super prepared, as I did the practice interview with her, I said M what was the role of Joseph Smith, she said oh he brought back our saviors church to the earth!! I was so happy for her!! Well we had an okay week as far as being able to see our investigators, J is still very stubborn so we are going to have to not see her as much as we used too, I hate doing that especially when she has received an answer to her prayer but we have to find those who have been prepared more!  We will continue to pray for her.   This week we are going to focus on finding more people to teach and help more progress, we have done okay but our people aren’t really progressing towards baptism it’s very hard in Ghana you really have to learn to balance things. 

 I had a very spiritual experience this Saturday, one that was probably the coolest on my mission.  In this mission we are just like the old school missionaries, we walk and knock on every gate to find people to teach.  Well we were going to an appointment later at night on Saturday, and on the way there was a woman who was petting this dog, she had a baby on her back and her son with her.  Well I stopped my companion kept riding and I said is this your dog, she replied with a yes.  So we chatted small and she asked what church I was from.  I told her and she said she had been to a wedding at our temple but didn’t go in!  I explained the church to her and what we do as missionaries.  Well I started to bring out the restoration pamphlet and she said you know what Elder Carson my husband died three months ago.  Well the spirit just took over it was so dang cool.  I said you know sister G I was going to share this with you but when we come we will discuss how in that temple you visited we can be sealed to our family forever, which means you will see your husband again, and can be sealed to him for eternity, when I finished she was tearing up.  For Africans to show emotion it is very hard to see, I have never seen them cry unless I was at a funeral.  Like at church if you start crying they laugh haha its weird so it was cool to see her feel the spirit that way, and it was just a contact...we will see her tomorrow:)  You know that is how the spirit works for me, I didn’t have this super strong impression to stop but over something as little as a dog the spirit and our heavenly father was able to help me plant a seed.     

Also Yesterday at church we were going to leave but we had a recent convert take my companions bike so we were waiting for some time, well some time turned into a couple hours and Elder Jensen and our companions were getting a little frustrated.  As we were sitting in the sacrament room a woman came to the front door then started to leave, well again usually we don’t mind them but I decided to call for her, she told me she was looking for the missionaries.  So we brought her in and sat her down, by this time we had been waiting for 4 hours.  She opened up to us and explained that she is in a different ward and was baptized in December.  She started to cry as she explained her situation here.  People in Ghana see missionaries as just super great people so they always come to us.  She basically said that she is from Nigeria and was going to marry a guy and he brought her here to Ghana.  This is where she met the missionaries and was baptized.  Well as she has been here the guy is just a bum and is doing not good things so she wants to leave, he doesn’t care but she has to wait to get paid at the end of the year.  Overall she just needed someone to talk to, she just cried as she talked to us.  Well we have a very good member that has a bunch of apartments so we took her to him plus he is a great member that helps us when we run into stuff like this so we don’t face any precautions.  We gave her the option of staying there until the year ends.  Well long story short we handed her off to the ward and she was very happy.  She told us she was very relieved and very happy!!  What was amazing was we never stay that long at church but for some reason we did, and we were able to help that woman!  It was pretty neat I was thankful to be able to help her!! 

Well that was my week family!! I love you all very much and am so grateful for you all!  I miss you like crazy but we just have to do what we have done one more time and I am home!  Time goes by way too fast!  I pray for you each every single night! I love you all very much!!  Thank you for the emails! Tell me everything that is happening at home!! I love you all very much!!

Love you all tons!!!:) 


Elder Carson Elder Duke