Camping in Ghana

Happy Monday everyone! 

this week has been great! i was sick for a few days, and then my companion for a few days. but luckily we were still able to proselyte and save Achimota :)

I had my first district meeting last Wednesday and it was fun! i had absolutely no idea what i was doing but i feel like it went well. i love my district! so many fun people. i talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon for instruction. The most important thing about the Book of Mormon is not that it proves that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, or that it proves that the Church is true, but the most important knowledge we gain from the Book of Mormon is that our Heavenly Father LOVES us. And also that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. The Book of Mormon is so powerful, and I love it so much! 

On Friday we were able to take S----- to the temple. Our original plan was to take the whole family there to listen to the devotional and then to walk around the temple, but his children and wife got stuck at school and work. So we just took S-----. By the time we left, the devotional already started.. and when we got there, we sat down and two minutes later or less, it was over... hahaha but it was okay, we were still able to show him the temple and talk about it. He said that he doesn't want to wait any longer to get baptized with his family. We had to hand them off to the ward next to us tho, because they don't live in our area, but i am not worried about them. It was such a great experience to see them change so much. This is truly Christ's Church.

The weather this week has been pretty off and on, and this weekend it rained quite hard. probably the hardest it has rained since i have been here. our light has been out since Saturday night and the water is also not flowing haha so last night i didn't feel like suffering through the night trying to sleep in a pool of my own sweat, so i took our beds, and put them on the porch of our flat and then tied our bed nets above us and we slept outside haha. it was nice. it rained a lot during the night, and it felt so nice.

On Sunday at church there were a lot of people that didn't come to church because their houses flooded from the storm the night before. For the third hour, we split up into groups and went and visited all the people who were affected. it was a good experience to help them and they were so happy to see us coming to help them clean. it was pretty funny because they put all the white people in my group, so there were like 15 white people just walking through the village. it was great.

my time is basically up, so i will finish here. i cant wait for the next week and new adventures to come. thank you for all your love and prayers! i love you all so much! have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Ben

Elder Okereke enjoying some banku with okro stew yummmm

Here is my area haha

as you can see, i am enjoying having the mall in my area. my sub is going to finish fast... lol

It has been raining like crazy here this weekend. Putting my umbrella to use 

142

This area is so sweet.

Hello everyone! i hope you had a wonderful week this week! everything is great as usual here! i am loving my new area and new companion so far. when i first came, there weren't too many people that they had been teaching. they had just recently dropped some of their investigators, so we have been working to build our teaching pool and working with the members a ton! 

We had some really cool experiences this week with working with members! we haven't gone door to door contacting this week at all.. we have just been teaching the members, and then they find, and even are starting to teach their own friends the message of the Restoration! it has made the work so much more effective and i love it! 

We started teaching this guy that lives really far away, on a big mountain. our first lesson we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as we were teaching all of his little kids came and greeted us. so we told him that the next time we come we want to have the whole family there. when we came on Sunday, we taught about the plan of salvation and at the end, everyone there had baptismal dates! hahaha it was wonderful!

We also have this member named Bobo, who lives in a compound with a ton of other people. and we are now teaching just about everyone in the compound and we just move from person to person lesson after lesson. hahahah it is so sweet! 

Our area itself is just sweet. we have a mall, a golf course, a forest, a zoo, PLUS we have a man living in our area that is 142 years old!!!!!!! WUT. oh and also there are like 20 white people that come to church each week which throws me off a bit, but it is fun. they are students at BYU doing some eye care here in some of the villages.

I haven't really noticed a big difference in being a district leader. people just call me more often asking me for money. haha it is kind of annoying. our district just got big too... i don't know why, but this week they just added three new companionships to my district. so now we are 10 haha it will be so fun each week at district meeting.

I love being a missionary so much. you never know what is coming around the corner. i don't know what it would be like to not know this message. and i am so glad that i get to share it with others.

there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you helped someone come closer to the Savior. keep up the good work and share the good news with someone! 

I love you all so much! God is wonderful! 

Love, Elder Ben

ps sorry, but i cant send any pictures today because i forgot my cord in the flat.. sorry mom

Bye Bye Dansoman

Hello everyone! 

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! thank you for all the amazing mothers out there, and especially my mother. i love you! 

My mind is blank right now, trying to think of all the things that happened this week. i had such a great time skyping you! haha even tho i couldn't see your faces for a bit. 

my testimony of the Book of Mormon grows so much each week! i have never studied the Book of Mormon so deeply before in my life. i didn't realize what i was missing out on. i can stay on the same chapter for four days and receive new information every time! this book changes people. it brings them closer to our Heavenly Father and gives us more peace and understanding of our duties in this life. all we have to do is read it. I can testify to all of you that the Book of Mormon is true and that Christ is the son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world. 

This week we have been trying to do more service around our area, and it has made such a difference in how i look at missionary work. i loved it so much! from drying onions, to setting up and taking down chairs for weddings. lately i have just tried my best to be an answer to someone's prayers each day. being a blessing and doing all i can to forget myself and i have loved every minute of it. 

so on Saturday, we  attended a wedding of a couple in our ward and it was pretty nice actually. there were tons of people there and the way they do weddings in Ghana is pretty funny. First of all. after the vows were said the groom was invited i guess you can say to kiss the bride, and it was by far the most awkward kiss i have EVER seen. i wanted to cry a bit. hahahaha it is just because it is not their culture at all to show any display of affection in public, but still it was sad. 

But after they cut the cake and said toasts and what not, they brought the bride out into the middle and people just came around her and started dancing and screaming and they were literally throwing money at her and rubbing it in her face as she just sat there and took it. you can imagine me, being the only white person there, laughing out loud in the back and instead of the people watching the bride, they are just staring at me... it was an odd day. 

From Elder Peters' Blog

But one of our investigators came to the wedding out of no where! it was awesome. he was talking to everyone and making friends. he even told me that he just liked being at the church. and that he always felt so good when he was there. sadly he couldn't make it to church on Sunday because he attends Seventh Day Adventist church so he does he washing and house chores on Sunday usually.. so i hope that he will be able to find time to come to church because he is such a great guy. we had a super powerful lesson with him on Sunday about the Book of Mormon with one of our members so hopefully if the Book of Mormon wasn't enough yet for him to come to church, the young woman that came with us can persuade him to come ;) just kidding. 

So its true i am leaving Dansoman. i am super sad to leave actually. i love this place a lot. but i am excited for my new adventure in my new area, Achimota. plus i have a new assignment to be a District Leader. I have no idea what i am doing.... but I'm sure I can figure it out lol good thing Fletch is also a DL and he can help me out :)

Today was pretty great! i woke up and started washing all my clothes and sheets and stuff to get ready to pack tomorrow, and my companion came in and said, "you're doing it all wrong." and then he washed literally everything i own in less than 45 minutes as i rinsed and hung them up to dry. he's a stud African boy lol. then we went to Kaneshie and had a sweet zone activity. we watched as two Tongans and a Hawaiian killed, gutted, and roasted a pig.. it was wonderful. i wish i could send a video of them gutting it, but maybe when i get home we can just have a pig roast in our backyard and i will gut it for you ;) 

Well, i hope all of you had a wonderful week! i love you so much and you are all in my prayers. keep up the good work! 

Love, 

Elder Ben

P.S. there is a mall in my new area and they are opening a pizza hut TOMORROW! destiny.

i dont know what this is, but our ward missionary plucked it from a tree and told me to eat it... not good. looked like brains and tasted like brains.

ye didi (let's chop)

Elder Ban, will you be my friend?

hello everyone! 

Greetings from the center of the earth, Ghana. this week was great! and it ended with fireworks on Sunday, when Francis Essuman, and Beatrice Louho were baptized as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! i am so happy for them! things here are going great!

So since i have come to Dansoman, i haven't eaten banku at all... until this week, and we ate it 3 days in a row! i finally got my fix of fermented corn dough! it was great to be honest. the first night, we went to our elders quorum presidents house and they made some for us. as we were eating, a small girl, about 6 years old named Ayuraba, came up to me without saying a word and gave me a letter, and then ran off. after i finished eating it i opened the letter and inside was a small note that said, "elder ban, will you be my friend?" hahah it was the cutest thing. When we were leaving, i walked out the gate and Ayuraba came running back to me and gave me a new note that read, "i love you." hahahahah so now i have a new best friend in Ghana. Her name is Ayuraba and she is 6 :)

I love the fact that no matter where we come from, we are all children of God. We are all family. in my apartment i am the only white person, and the other three elders are from D.R. Congo. At first i felt like i might feel a little left out, or that i wouldn't be able to get along as well as i wanted, just because of the culture difference, but boy was i wrong. Like i have said in emails before, we all eat together everyday. Almost everyday we eat Congo fufu, and the other night we sat down to eat, and i was the first one to put my hand in and take some fufu. after i took it and started eating, one of the elders in my apartment just looked at me and said, "where are you from? are you sure you are not Congolese?" hahahaha i guess i can eat like a Congolese now.. it doesn't matter who you are, or where you are from, we are all brothers and sisters.

I love this gospel so much, and how it changes lives. the Book of Mormon changes lives. i don't want to think about what my life would be like if i didn't know about this gospel or the atonement of Jesus Christ. i know that God has a plan for all of us, and that plan is perfect. if we follow Him and keep His commandments, God will give us our own land of promise.

never give up, God lives, Jesus Christ is His son.

love, ELDER BEN

Family picture after the baptism. Beatrice is the one on the top step in the white

this is why i am fat

Francis Essuman

and this is my friend Pipi