WEEK 6/104: Personal Revelation

Hello friends!!

So this week was better than last which is always a good thing. haha One trick I have learned on the mission and have done for the last two weeks is avoiding cold showers. ha! No apartment has a water heater, but they all have a stove. So I boil water in a pan on the stove, pour it into a bucket, then fill the rest of the bucket up with cold water to make the water just warm and not boiling hot and then that's what I use for my "shower". I get a cup and just fill the cup up with water from the bucket and poor it on myself, so it's more like a bath/shower, but its warm!  My companion even started doing that now.  I had to figure out something because cold showers just wasn't working for me! 

Okay so this week was interesting. I wouldn't say we ever had a bad day but almost everyday in the morning when we planned we thought it would be different.  All of our investigators are dropping off so as we plan it looks like we will have like no one to teach for the entire day. It also doesn't help that members don't help because the investigators we find have no support from friends to keep them interested. 

So basically at the start of the week I just mentally prepare to have a hard week. Well "by the grace of God"(which everyone in Ghana says every time you ask how they are) we were able to have a successful week!  So to begin with, we saw this older women named Sister Vita. She was busy when we first saw her so we left, but I kept having this feeling we needed to go back and see her. So I kept asking my companion if we could see her and he kept pushing it off. But the feeling wouldn't leave me so I just told my companion straight up that we need to go and see her.  He finally gave in.  So the entire time that I was getting this feeling I thought it meant Sister Vita really needed to hear the gospel and was ready to receive.  Well I was wrong. She brushed us off and didn't really care at all.  However, in the same house we meant Sister Acuse, who is her sister.  She at first really tested our patience with pointless questions, but we endured and showed her love, and she agreed to go to church.  She also said she wanted to pray so she could know for herself if it was true.  After church we asked, "Well how was it" she replied with "I want to get baptized!"   That was awesome.  

We also had another investigator who we have been teaching for a while finally agree to go to church. She liked it but worries about being baptized because she was already baptized into another church. We will teach her sometime this week and reemphasize the importance of priesthood in baptism.  But they are both powerful investigators, and I have high hopes for them both getting baptized. But other than the members the work is really progressing. We tried to visit with bishop and tell him what is going on and ask for his help and for investigators we can go and serve. Bishop wouldn't answer our call though so we finally just called our mission president to tell him because it's seriously bad. Like the members don't want to do anything and it's not just affecting missionary work it's affecting the ward as well.  Like in church you can tell they are struggling. So the mission president will talk to the stake president and hopefully we can find out a way to start helping our members.  But all in all this week was great! We have had several potential instigators come up to Elder Johnson and I saying they are curious about our church so I am hopeful that will turn out to be great! 

One thing I learned was how to receive and act on personal revelation. A huge question I have had is how do I know if I'm receiving those answers to my prayers or is it just my own thoughts?  The question has been answered several times by several people but none of their answers really hit me or satisfied my curiosity until this week. "A witness comes after a trail of your faith" Ether 12:6.  I have read that scripture many times and it has never really impacted me. But having that in my mind accompanied with something said in a conference talk really hit me.  I don't remember who said it but I was listening to a talk this week and what was said was "Sometimes we must be willing to walk in the dark for a couple of steps before we reach the light". BAM.  It all makes sense now!!  If I want to know if I'm receiving personal revelation or answers to my questions I must be willing to act on my thoughts I have even if I think they are just my own, and then see what happens. After the trial of my faith then the witness will come that what I received was personal revelation or an answer to my prayer!!  So yeah that was awesome!!  Anyways that's it for this week, love you all and thank you for your payers!!

Elder Pace

Pictured:  A meal he prepared of rice with egg cooked in it with a fried egg and beans on top.  He's getting his protein!  He said he eats plenty of fruit but vegetables are harder since you have to buy them at a market and that's not close to their apartment.  Second picture is Tanner and his companion with two investigators.

Other little info I learned from him this week:

He hasn't missed American food much except for his protein pancakes.  He said there is a place within their "compound" that has chocolate and ice cream so he's fine.  The food that he has loved that he would continue to eat after his mission are fried yam and plantains.

His transportation is on foot or public transportation.  

He emails from an Internet cafe.

Although he occasionally makes his own food they mostly buy from the side of the street.

His exercise is pushups.