Ward Liberian

Hey family and friends,

This week was great! we had transfers and Elder Mantz made it to Swedru safely. We had a lot of trials this week for sure, but also so many miracles and good times! Elder Mantz is a big runner, and we went running twice this week. He was talking the whole time, smiling and not even breaking a sweat, while i was just trying to keep myself from falling over.. saw stars a couple times..

Most of our week was trying to find new people to teach. Our pool of serious investigators was just starting to get smaller and smaller, so we had to put on our walking shoes and get super dusty to find the elect.

One miracle we had this week was on Tuesday. We had a bit of a rough day finding and teaching, and in the evening we decided that we would go to see one of our investigators who lived pretty far from where we were. We got to the house, and for the first time, we were able to meet our investigators husband and teach him! At first he was a little skeptical about the Restoration, but we answered a lot of questions and he understood everything we taught him. Huge blessing. Hopefully we will be able to get the family into the gospel.

We are teaching someone who stays out in the bush part of our area, and she doesn't speak English very well so usually we have to go with a member to teach her. For some reason, each night we went to teach her we had a member who planned to go with us, but failed... so each time, we just had to go and do our best to speak English in the most simple for possible mixed with the very little Fanti we know.. and then try to understand her incredibly fast Fanti in return.. haha the lessons went better than i could ever imagine. I felt the Spirit so strong! She has a true desire to learn about the Savior and His gospel. In a situation like that, the Spirit says it all. She will be baptized in a couple weeks.

As we were leaving the lesson, she walked with us back to the road, and expressed that she was worried that she wouldn't be able to come to church the next morning because she didn't have any money, but that she would do her best to be there.

The next morning as church started she wasn't there. But after a few minutes i looked up and saw her sitting there listening! I am sure that she walked all the way from her house to the church with her child on her back. It would take about 15 minutes to take a taxi in that distance. I am still amazed with the faith that these people have. She will be so blessed for her sacrifice to keep her commitment to keep the commandments.

To explain the subject line, after church on Sunday, we had a "ward council meeting," i put parenthesis because our whole ward was there... lol but at the beginning, our bishop was taking roll, and at the end of the roll he called for the ward Liberian... hahah i looked around and saw this super skinny guy raise his hand. I asked a member if bishop meant to say ward librarian, and he said, "no, he really is from Liberia." hahahah Elder Mantz and i were laughing pretty hard! I guess to be a Liberian is now a calling.

This work is great! i love it here so much! sad to think it is more than half over..

The gospel is true!

Love, ELDER BEN 

Bye Bye Broadhead

Hello family and friends,

Missionary "Killer"

I can not believe how fast this week went. One day it was Monday, and the next thing i knew it was Friday!

We had such a good mission tour and MLC with Elder Vincent, the area president. He has such a love for the Savior, and knows the scriptures like the back of his hand. We are blessed to have such great church leaders.

After our MLC on Wednesday, we went to stay with the assistants for the night so we could travel with them to our mission tour the next day. I had a little too much A/C if that is possible haha i started to feel a little sick. It was also Elder Broadhead's birthday on Wednesday, so after proselyting in the ap's area, we went to get pizza from pizza hut! Pizza hut is like gold for someone who has been eating rice and beans for the past year.

Baptism

After the mission tour on Thursday, Elder Broadhead and I with permission from president, went to one of his old areas, Buduburam. He got to say goodbye to some of his converts and talk to them before he left. His hard work really made a difference in the Buduburam Liberian refugee camp. It was a cool thing to see.

On Saturday, we had two baptisms! Joyce and Sarah were both baptized in the dark lol because they came late. They are new people now. After the baptism, the ward threw a little send off party for Elder Broadhead. It was really nice. They shared scriptures, sang songs, played games, and gave him a little gift. They also gave us SO much food!! We both ate a whole bowl of fufu, and then a giant plate of fried rice. Not sure how we finished it or held it down.

We just dropped him off at the station, and by Wednesday he will be reunited with his family. I am grateful for the time i have been able to serve with him. I learned so many things from him, and he is a great friend.

Tomorrow, my new companion will come! His name is Elder Mantz. He is from Utah and he is such a cool guy. I am excited to serve with him now.

I love this work. Sometimes it sucks to say goodbye, but that is how it goes. I love the Savior, and i know this is his true church. Everything is possible through Him.

Have a great week! stay safe, i love you.

ELDER BEN

Chasing Monkeys

Peace

Testimonies

Hey, fam!

This week was great as usual. Elder Broadhead goes home in a week, so this was his second to last week here in Ghana. It is weird to think that he is actually going home. I still remember my first day on mission and seeing him and we ended up in the same apartment. That time he was just 11 months on mission, and now i am killing him with two hands!

This week was nice because we didn't

have any interruptions of having to take someone something or bring someone somewhere or go to any meetings. It was nice to just be able to proselyte all day everyday and spread the good news.

Don't tell Elder Broadhead but he is getting a little trunky lol which is normal i guess. i am doing my best at not letting him die, and also keep myself alive at the same time. When i say trunky i just mean his desire to do certain things is a little low right now ;) luckily for him we have mlc and mission tour this week, so there wont be a whole lot of proselyting until Friday. He can die in peace.

We had a really cool experience this week. One day our morning plans just dissolved so we decided to see if a recent convert was home. When we got there she took us and brought a friend that we have been trying to teach already but she has been pretty stubborn, and we sat down. haha we teach by force sometimes here ;) anyways.. as we taught her, we just reviewed Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The investigator didn't seem to really pay attention, which i don't blame her, she just got dragged into listening to us, but at the end, her friend the recent convert bore such a simple, yet powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. It brought tears to my eyes as i watched her tear up telling someone she loved that the Book of Mormon was from God. That testimony was more effective than the whole lesson we had just tried to teach. Testimonies are powerful, and can change people. We all need to keep our testimonies strong and we need to always be willing to bear it.

This Saturday i will find out who my new companion will be and i am excited to work with whoever it is. I love this work, this place, and these people.

I hope you all have a great week! Stay safe. i love you all!

ELDER BEN

Busy

Hello everyone,

this week was such a great week! I cant believe all the blessings we received this week, and i am so grateful for what happened.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty difficult and frustrating, but because of our willingness to not give up and keep trying, the blessings started to flow.

The week started off good with a great MLC. Staying at president's house never gets old ;) Sister Simpson gave us two bottles of soda before dinner, some mashed potatoes with mince for dinner, which to you probably doesn't sound that good, but when you have been in Ghana for as long as i have it is amazing! haha and she also gave us root beer and some ice cream with fruit for dessert. After that i just had to lie down on the couch and relax haha

President also put on the Sunday morning session for us which was really good! We didn't get to watch all of it because it was too late, but i was grateful for the part i got to watch.

MLC was good, and Elder Broadhead gave his dying testimony because it is his last MLC before he goes home. He was super close to crying, and i am glad he didn't, because i probably would have cried too. I'm sure going to miss this guy.

The rest of the week, we were blessed with so many new people to teach and helping all of our investigators progress. I was so grateful each day coming home and just feeling absolutely exhausted with a feeling of accomplishment.

We had a miracle on Friday night. We planned to see an investigator who lives pretty far away in a small village called Asafo, and when we got there she was sick, so we couldn't see her. So we didn't really know what we were going to do because we were so far away from everyone else that we are working with, but we both got a random idea to go and visit a recent convert. He was baptized a few months ago, and his niece who is staying with him was just recently baptized. It took about 15 minutes to get there by taxi, but when we finally got there, J our recent converts wife came out of no where and said she was ready to be baptized now! She was going to get baptized the same day as her husband, but the day of she backed out and said she wasnt ready. Since then we just kind of gave her time to think and see what happens. Now we are preparing her to be baptized this month after we review the lessons with her :) For some people, it just takes a little longer for them to become converted to the gospel. But all who diligently seek, will find.

MLC (Borrowed from Elder Peters' blog)

I'm so grateful for this gospel and for my mission experience. I love it so much. Thank you for all your support and love. Have a great week!

Love Elder Ben

1 Year

Hey fam, 

it has been one year since i have seen any of you. That is weird to think about, because it sure doesn't seem like it has been a year.. It is sad to think that it is half over. i am loving it so much here.

This week was really good. Hard of course, but still good. Each day, our plans just seemed to fall apart and we were left out in the hot sun to find new people. Finding people can be super fun sometimes. You never know who will answer the door, or what kind of people you will meet. Ghanaians are hilarious too so there are always some good laughs.

The weather is really starting to heat up, and as soon as you walk outside, you are drenched in sweat. i love it ;) luckily Elder Broadhead has some sweet sun hats that we have been wearing to keep the sun out of our faces.

We watched some of the general conference yesterday. The whole stake came and we filled the stake center. it was really nice to see so many people come. It was funny tho, because when we sat down, we heard the speaker at the conference say, "welcome to the general priesthood session." hahaha the clerk was a little confused, but didn't want to change it, so the whole stake watched the priesthood session. After that the stake president said that all the women and children should all go home and the priesthood should stay, and we watched the Saturday morning session.. ? oh well. I loved all the talks. i liked elder Yamashita's talk, and Elder Holland's talk. His was way sad, but good. Home and visiting teaching is important. Elder Curtis talked about Ghana which was cool. Everyone was pretty excited about that here.

For my one year on Saturday, we planned to burn some shirts and eat some ice cream with Elder Condie, who is also in my TC. And in the evening a recent convert invited us over to eat ampisie which was so good. After that we were on our way home, and as we started walking it began to rain a little, so we started walking a little faster. Then the rain was coming down with force haha we were running as fast as we could to get to the road side so we could get in a taxi. We were running for about 3 or 4 minutes before we got in the car, and by that time we were absolutely soaked hahaha it was really funny.

Luckily the rain stopped and we got to burn our shirts. It felt good, but now i am down a shirt ;)

We have some great investigators that we are working with in our other area. They both accepted baptismal dates for the 22nd of this month! im excited for them.

Also at the conference we saw an investigator who had moved to another area just before we were going to baptize her, but she was so excited to see us. She is going to be baptized in a couple weeks from now. It just felt good to see her so excited to be baptized and to know that you helped someone. I am happy for her too :)

I love this place. I cant believe how fast it is going. I hope i can make the best of it while i can. I love you all, have a great week!

Love ELDER BEN

ampisie (no clue if that is how you spell it) boiled plantain with cocoa leaf stew with fish. 

MLC (Borrowed from Elder Peter's blog)