Die Bugs, Die!

Hello Everyone! 

First of all i would like to just express to all who are reading them just how much i love you! a mission is HARD. but i could be more blessed to have such amazing friends and family to love and support me, so thank you all! 

I hope you all had as great of a week as i did! it is funny how it works.. no matter how hard the week may be i am still filled with joy. definitely a blessing straight from heaven. We had a good week teaching wise. we have kind of been filtering out our teaching pool and focusing on helping our investigators towards baptism. our people are progressing nicely!

We met this guy named J--- a few weeks ago, and since then we couldn't follow up with him, until Wednesday. we were just sitting in a lesson with someone and he came and put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I will see you after you are finished." and then walked off haha it was a little creepy but i was stoked to see him. so after our lesson we went to his house and started talking, and it was super powerful! the Spirit was there so strong, and we committed him to be baptized next month! unfortunately he couldn't make it to church this week because his grandmother got sick and they had to take her to the hospital.. but i am sure that he will come this week! 

This week was also interesting because since i have been in Dansoman, nothing has been wanting to really work out. it isn't that the people aren't great or that they aren't accepting our message, just that every time something comes up that pretty much puts their progression to a halt. but with every dark cloud there is a silver lining, and this week was definitely a silver lining.  At church our bishop came up to us and gave us a referral. he is 9 years old and is living with strong members and he told us that we need to teach him all the lessons this week and prepare him to be baptized this Sunday! hahhahah what?! and also we went to bishops house that night to teach a recent convert that lives in his house and we started talking to him for a bit. my companion started talking to him about the Ivorian woman we have been teaching, and that we had basically finished all the lessons with her and that soon she will go to Ivory Coast with her husband soon to get married legally and then baptized there. he asked us why we couldnt baptize her here, and we explained that we had talked to our ward mission leader about her situation and thought that he had talked to the bishop, but he didnt! haaha so turns out that in africa if the family of the man and the family of the woman both say that they are married then they are actually considered married by the government, and that we can baptize her!! i was so happy when i heard that!  so now we are going to her house this wednesday with bishop to talk to her and her husband and hopefully we will be able to baptize her either this week or the next! 

never give up!!! no effort is wasted, and no effort goes unnoticed by God! 

On Friday we were just about to start our companionship study when our house got raided by men coming to spray our house to kill all the bugs! we had to get out of the house super fast and there was spray everywhere!! it smelled so bad! hahahah but it was worth it for sure because i was so done with cockroaches lol we had to spend Saturday morning washing all our dishes and cleaning our apartment to get the smell out of the house so we wouldn't get sick. it was really quite a hysterical moment. 

i got a member in my ward to wash my clothes, so that was nice. i pray that she will continue hahhaha i lost my desire to wash my own clothes lol

We went to see one of our investigators and he was talking to someone on the phone, so he said, "hey my american friend is here, talk to him!" so i started talking with her on the phone and she asked me where i was from, and so i told her i was from Utah. she asked me if i was white, and i said yes lol and she said, "are you sure?? i don't believe you! you sound like a Ghanaian to me!" not going to lie i was super sad... i don't want to sound like a Ghanaian. as much as i love the people they sound like they are 5. so be prepared on mothers day i guess hahah i will do my best to speak american but i don't know if i will be able to pull it off.  i wont be giving my homecoming talk until i get my american accent back hahah i refuse. long ways away, but remember it ;) 

Anyway, this week was amazing! thank you once again for your love! i love you all so much! without a doubt the church is true. God loves you, and i love you so much! dont be afraid, only believe :) 

LOVE ELDER BEN

The crew thuggin during our apartment fumigation 

Elder Green from Arkansas 

Elder Nilsson from Springville 

Elder Kabasele from D.R. Congo

Elder Langi From Tonga

Elder Perry from Farmington 

Trying to save all my things from smelling like bug killer. Literally everything i own 

They are finishing the house next to us, and this guy was on the roof doing some work and i took a picture and he just started to do all these different poses hahahahaa super weird but it was funny

Fufu de Congo

Sup Fam? 

ELDER NILSSON GAVE ME A MOUNTAIN DEW. 

FROM AMERICA!!! ALMOST CRIED LOLOL

Everything is going so great here in Ghana! not easy, but great! This Tuesday and Wednesday i didn't feel too good, so it was kind of boring for a sec, but the second half of the week was great! People are getting closer and closer to baptism it is so exciting! i just pray that they continue to progress.

The reason for my subject line is in my apartment it is one american and one Congolese. i have started to forget what white people even look like. i have to look at pictures every now and then just to remember ;) but all of the elders in my apartment know how to cook super well! almost every day we have eaten Congo fufu. theirs is different from Ghana fufu. they make it with corn powder, and cassava powder and water and then mix it all together. it tastes pretty good. it almost tastes like corn tortillas haha. so i have been enjoying that quite a bit.

My desire to wash my own clothes has gone out the window so this week i have been working on finding a wash lady haha i think i found one that will come every week to wash my clothes for me!

we finally had people come to church this week! i was so happy! i was sitting there singing the opening hymn when i looked out the window and saw two of our investigators walking through the gate! it made me so happy!! hahah finally!

We cant do this work by ourselves. this isn't our work. if we want to be successful in the Lord's work, we need to be on the same page as Him. i have felt so much love this week. so much happiness comes from doing what the Lord wants you to do. my hope is that all of our wants and desires are in line with what God wants us to do. if we just do our best at doing everything that He wants us to do we will find a true happiness that extends beyond this life and lasts for an eternity. The gospel is true, and i love being a missionary. i cant imagine myself anywhere else right now. i am truly happy to be a servant of the Lord.

Keep up the amazing work back home! i love you all so much. And more importantly God loves you all. It is a commandment to love one another as He loves us. Which means it is possible :) i thank you for all the love and support i have received from all of you.

be happy :)

Love, ELDER BEN  

And That is Why I am Here

Hello fam and friends! 

This week was super special and i learned so much! i love being a missionary. it is funny how things work. sometimes there is something that you feel like you need to learn, the Lord comes in and picks you up and throws you onto the correct path. not by force, but he definitely knows how to put things on a silver platter sometimes. 

Everything that i needed to have happen, happened. and i didnt even know i needed it to happen. i knew that something needed to happen i just didnt know what. and now everything is working out so much better than before. i have felt so much love from the Lord through family and friends this week.

i am so thankful to have been blessed with everyone in my life. i sometimes wonder why i was blessed so much. how did i get so lucky? 

My testimony of the scriptures and the love that the Lord has for all of His children has grown so much over this week and a half.  realized that, that is the one and only message we have. everything we teach the people is because of one simple fact, that our Heavenly Father loves us. A love that cannot be comprehended. A love that cannot be measured. A love that each of us can feel if only we do the things that will help us to feel it. and that is why i am here. This gospel is the only way that the children of God can feel the complete and total love that God has for us. that is why i am here. 

sometimes we forget about our purpose. our purpose is to share the love that we have received to everyone that we can. we can get caught up in our own wants and duties. but if we focus on keeping the knowledge that God loves us we will always do what is right. and we can share that love. 

This week i have been studying about the savior. When Elder Rasband came to speak to us he said that when he was mission president he would ask his missionaries what the reason was for them to be on their missions. the missionaries gave him a plethora of answers but he said that the best answer he got was as simple as, "i came because i love the Lord, and i want to serve him." I thought about that, and i realized that i loved the Lord. but i could love him a lot more. my mission president said that if you learn more about Him, you will love Him more. And if you love Him more, you will love yourself more, and if you love yourself more then you can love everyone as well. it really opened my eyes. i never thought about it that way, but it is true. my my mission has now changed for the good. all because of the love of the Lord shown through some amazing parents, friends and mission leaders.

All is good here in Ghana. the weather is kinda weird right now. it is starting into the rainy season, but as of late it has only rained during the night making the days super humid, but it isn't too bad. soon it was start to rain loads. 

keep learning of Him. and then share his love to everyone. this gospel is true. and He lives and loves you!

I also love you all! keep it real ;)

Elder Ben  

exodus 22:18 

romans 8:38-39

cute obibini's

main room 

market next to our apartment

my fast food restaurant.

Conference Adventures

Whats up everyone? 

I am so happy to see that you had a good week this week, and that you are all safe. i have definitely missed you all a ton lately. this new area has been so amazing, but so difficult at the same time! but i am happy and grateful for my trials, and pray that i am learning all the things that the Lord wants me to learn.

Our teaching pool is growing and doing well, but as of now we wont have any baptisms for a little while. things aren't really going our way, but i cant complain at all! i love being a missionary so much, and being here in this place with these amazing people and serving them is so great! We met this guy named P------ on Tuesday. he is so cool. we were just walking down the street and my companion stopped and backtracked and went down this road on which he was walking. we started talking to him and he is so nice! he is from Nigeria, and he is here to play football. just 6 months ago he converted to Christianity, and started going to church at some one man church. and when we met him we knew that God had prepared him just for us. we set a baptismal date with him, and he is doing so well! just another miracle from the Lord.

Saturday was such a blessing. we woke up and went to the chapel and went to the temple with the rest of our ward. we had around 50 members from our ward squished into one tro tro haha. i needed to feel that peace of the temple so much. even tho i didn't get to do too much, it didn't matter. the temple is a powerful place. When we got back to Dansoman, we got a call from our district leader saying that if we wanted to go to Keneshie they would be showing the Saturday morning session live there! so we got in a tro tro and traveled for about 30 minutes to the Keneshie stake center and watched the whole session! it was so nice! i felt like they were speaking directly to me, and saying all the things that i needed to hear! i have no doubt in my mind that they are God's prophets and apostles.

on Sunday, we had one investigator at church! sadly she cant get baptized until she becomes legally married to her husband, which in Africa is quite the process. it is sad. but she is amazing and will be such a strong member of the church one day.

Also, on Sunday at church we were told that they would show another session of general conference at Keneshie! so we went of course! i loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk so much! it was perfect! and after the conference i got to talk to Elder Finch, my mtc companion. it was so nice to see him and talk to him.

right when we got back to the apartment from general conference, another missionary called us and asked us if we were going to the next session. i had no idea that they were even going to play the next session, because it would have started at 8. so we called the zone leaders, and they said that we could go as long as we would be back to the apartment by 10. so we got back in a taxi and went to Keneshie again. when we got there, no one was there... hahaha they weren't showing the session. i was pretty sad, but at the same time i was so tired. so we just had to go back to the apartment.

This morning, we went to the gym lol. it has been a long time. a brother in our ward either owns or is a manager at this gym and it is soooo nice. i felt like i was back in the U.S. but we did some super sweaty and embarrassing aerobics, and then worked out on some of the machines. it was nice, and i felt pretty good after. turns out i haven't lost any weight since the last time i weighed myself. i am still at 160. but my face doesn't look so fat anymore. it must have gone somewhere else i guess haha. after that we just went to the mall and talked with some of the other missionaries. and i played 3 games of pool and no one could beat me haha probably just because i am only 6 months on mission and the people i was playing against only have like 6 months left lol. but i still won ;)

So this was my week. everything is good. just moving along, and trying my absolute best. things are great in Ghana :)

Have a wonderful week! enjoy the pleasant weather, and try to not miss me too much ;) love you!!!

Love, Elder Ben