Zoo Zoo Zoo Zoo

Hello, everyone! 

This week was great. this is by far the greatest mission on Earth. i am so happy to be here and to serve these amazing people.

Achimota is doing great. i am having a lot of fun with the mixture of people that are here. there is one area which has a lot of weed smokers and people are really funny when you try to teach them the Restored gospel. But for the most part, people are so welcoming and willing to listen to what you have to say. i am glad i am somewhere where people are always willing to listen to you. i think if i got doors slammed in my face all day i would get pretty annoyed. blessings.

This Sunday morning it was raining, so none of our investigators were able to come to church.. but they are still doing really well! we are still trying to figure out how we can help them with some of their personal problems that are keeping them from being baptized, but once we fix those problems they will be such strong members in the church.

I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Smith. He is so funny and reminds me a ton of Devin! we had a lot of fun, and i learned a lot from him. he is such a good teacher and cares for his investigators so much. i will definitely remember that day. 

Today, we went to the zoo!! it was so fun. there weren't a ton of animals, but it was still way cool. we had to ride our bikes deep into the forest to get there. they had a lot of monkeys, birds, a camel, some bores, and some snakes, and antelopes. it was awesome. we were just standing there looking at some of the monkeys, and a monkey reached through the cage and grabbed my arm!! haha i screamed so loud! Also the camel licked my shoulder when i tried to take a selfie with it.. that was scary. i guess he didn't want to take a selfie with me.. 

I love being a missionary so much! The Lord has blessed me so much and i have seen true miracle. this gospel is true and i love it with all my heart. here is some twi.. good luck :)

menim sє asєmpa yi a yєde nam yi yє nokware. Joseph Smith huu Agya NyankopOn ne ne ba Yesu Kristo. Na Mormon Nwoma no nso yє apam foforO ma agyenkwa no ampa, na wOasan de onyankopOn asOfodi tumi no asi asase so bio.

Menim sє eyi ne nokware soma wOayi mpaninfoO sє wOnhwє so wO asase yi so.

Me OdO me abusua

Me OdO me nnamfonom

Have a great week!! I love you all!

Elder Ben

Drunk man, Drunk Raven, Everybody is Getting Drunk up in Here!

Happy Monday, everyone!

I didn't think it was possible, but this week went by even faster than last! Time flies when you are having fun!

This week, i was able to go on two exchanges with two of my best friends in the mission. It was a great time. The first exchange, wasn't really an exchange. Elder Vandehei just came to proselyte with me and my companion for the day. It was a lot of fun to talk with him and proselyte together. Unfortunately, he had to leave us a bit early to do some AP stuff at the office. But it was fun while it lasted.

The second exchange was with an elder in my district, named elder Lambson. He is a really fun guy and we laughed most of the day. We had an encounter with a very very drunk man hahahaha we were just walking down the street and as we walked passed the man, he stopped us and asked us to help him. He was listening to music on his phone and he accidentally hit the pause button, and was too drunk to remember how to press play again hahahahah so he gave me his phone and i pressed play for him. Immediately he started to dance and sing hahaha then he took his head phones off and put them on Elder Lambson and told him to dance, and then did the same thing to me! Then i pressed pause again to see what would happen. He got really sad and looked like he was going to cry and so i pushed play again. He went back to dancing and singing hahaha then when we wanted to go, he gave us the biggest group hug haha wow, i was laughing so hard! i dont think anyone else saw what was happening tho, because they just acting like we weren't even there. it was hilarious. 

Later, we were leaving the apartment from lunch, and there was this raven just staring right at us and walking toward us. So instinctively, Elder Lambson found something to throw at it... lol he missed and started to run at it. The raven tried to fly away, but flew straight into the wall.. He walked over to it and it didn't try to fly away, and he just stood there puzzled. Then he tried to pick it up and it flew right into the land lord's car! The alarm was going off and we were chasing down this raven. finally Elder Lambson caught the bird and i snapped a few pics and we put it outside the compound. Crazy bird hahaha 

This week was a lot of fun! Plus our investigators are all doing really well! G---- came to church yesterday almost 30 minutes early! She said that she doesn't even have a desire to go to any other church again. She is just waiting to give birth in a few months and she will be ready for her baptism. She might be the most prepared investigator i have ever had. Her friend O----- is also doing great! She wants to get baptized, but she needs to find another place to live apart from her boyfriend. But her testimony is getting stronger and stronger each day.

This work is great. I am so blessed to see with my own eyes the changes being made in other people's lives. I know that the Lord does amazing things through small and simple means. No effort is wasted and everyone means something great to someone. You never know who you might influence, but you should know that you influence more people than you know. 

Thank you all for the amazing influence that you have in my life. i am so grateful for each and every one of you.

the gospel is true

Love,

ELDER BEN

4th of July Hike

These people had a lot of trash to burn

City Lights

4th of July Hike

Elder Lambson and the Raven

No Need to be Afraid

hello America,

this week was great! i don't know how it is possible, but the weeks just seem to go by faster and faster.

This week we have been trying our best to really help our investigators to build their faith in Jesus Christ, through the Book of Mormon. it has been fun to see them read, and feel the Spirit that comes from such a perfect book. There is real power in the truth.

We have some really great investigators that are coming closer and closer to baptism. Five of them came to church this Sunday, and they were all relief society age sisters haha or relief society president is really grateful for us :) 

We were teaching one of the investigators about baptisms for the dead, and he had such a strong interest towards the subject. His dad passed away when he was young, and he loves him a lot. he was so happy to know that it is possible to help him receive the saving ordinance of baptism. He wanted to know how he would be able to do it, and we told him that he would have to get baptized first, and then he would be able to go to the temple to do it. He said that he would need to take some time to think about it, but i just pray that he realizes what he needs to do. 

Getting to work with members has been a big trial lately. it is really hard to see any of the bishopric other than on Sunday, and our ward missionaries all go to school during the day. we are just trying to find a way that works for them to do their missionary work. 

Yesterday, we got to go out with the ward missionaries to proselyte and it was fun. we had four ward missionaries walking around teaching with us like some sort of army of guys wearing white shirts and ties. and at night we visited a recent convert and their family. they fed us kokonte and acpelle with okro soup. it was so good! After that we walked home, and couldn't see anyone on the streets because they were all in the bars watching the France, Portugal game. i am so sad that France lost. i wanted Ronaldo to cry ;) 

We had a really nice lesson yesterday as well with one of our investigators who is living with his girlfriend. we talked about the blessings that come from keeping the commandments. true happiness comes when we do what is right and what our Heavenly Father wants for us. Sometimes it can be hard and scary, but nothing can go wrong when we do what our Heavenly Father tells us to do. We have no need to be afraid, or to hesitate. Everything will always work out in the end.

i love this gospel so much. i am so happy that i came on a mission, and i am so grateful for this amazing experience.

I hope you have a great week. i love you all

ELDER BEN

Adventure in the Bush

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!! God bless America. i miss my country so much, but Ghana is still pretty great! 

This week was sweet. they are playing the euro league this week tho, so it is difficult to see anyone in the evening time because everyone is watching football. i love how into football everyone is here. its almost like another religion or something. we still beat them last time we played them tho ;) hehe they always get so frustrated when i remind them of that fact. it hilarious :) U.S.A.!

Everything here in Achimota is going well. Our investigators are all doing great and we have been blessed to have a really concentrated group of investigators. For sure it is because we have gotten some great referrals from our members. 

We had a baptism this week as well! sorry i don't have any pictures... but Sister Lydia Larbi was baptized! she was a miracle. it is funny how sometimes you feel like you don't have to do anything, people have been so prepared all you have to do is fill the baptismal font. haha 

She came to us one day out of no where and said that she had gone to church a ton of times in a different area of Ghana and that the missionaries were teaching her before. i guess the missionaries that were teaching her got taken out at the same time and they white washed the area, because she said she was supposed to get baptized but the missionaries just stopped coming and then she moved. but now she got dunked! haha she is such a sweet woman who will be strong in the church.

we also had some other investigators there to witness the baptism, and after it was over we were talking to them and one of them said that when Lydia got baptized, she felt so good, and she said that the Holy Ghost spoke to her and told her that this was true. WOW! just another reminder that this is the Lord's work, and i am just here to help him as best i can. The only thing that is keeping her from being baptized is that she is living with her boyfriend.. so we have to try and either get them married, or move them apart. keep them in your prayers please :)

We got to meet our new mission president and his wife this Friday. They are way cool! They don't look like what i imagined, but they are so nice and i felt like they truly cared about all of us so much. i had no idea that Sister Simpson was a Samoan. it is crazy that i am on my third mission president.

this morning, we had an adventure in the bush. we had a zone activity in a place called Nsawam. they have a large hill that they call a mountain that we climbed! it was so fun! i have never witnessed such thick bush in my life. the trail that we took (when there was trail) was just big enough to put your shoe on and the rest of it was just think bush and trees. the whole time is was paranoid looking for grass cutter traps, which are just like mini bear traps that people set all over the place. we made it to the top and couldn't see anything because of all the trees, but there were some small areas along the trail where we could get a good view of the Eastern region of Ghana. it was so beautiful, and the weather was perfect! we were walking through a cloud the whole time almost, and on the way down it started to rain really hard! i was so happy :) i conquered Nsawam "mountain"

thank you for all the prayers and support! i love you all so much! have a great week!

Love, Elder Ben

P.S. i got the package!!! thank you so much! i love you :)

Here is my church

i fell down on my bike.. it was bound to happen considering my front brake is the only one that works..