Family that I love and miss so much,

It has been yet another week in the mission field. I have to say that this week has been the most uplifting and spiritually strengthening week I have ever had in my entire life. I’m not sure how else to explain except by copying day by day out of my journal. Ill show only pieces of what I wrote because it’s so long.

October 27, 2009

Today was awesome when it comes to missionary work! We have started working on the mission goal, which is to reactivate someone by getting them to come to church 3 out of 4 times in a month, then baptizing a referral from that less-active member. So today we were headed over to a less-active member’s house named Alex. He has come to church twice so far and we need him to come at least once more for the goal. Another awesome thing about Alex is that both times he came to church he brought a different friend with him. So as we got to his house we knocked on the door and both of his friends answered the door and said Alex wasn’t around. So we were kinda disappointed, but asked the two friends, Richmond and Clifford if we could share a small message with them. They agreed and I had already had a good feeling about this. We started lesson 1 and answered questions they had about the Restoration. They were sincerely agreeing with everything we taught them, about Christ’s church and the Apostasy and even the Restoration through Joseph Smith. The Spirit in the lesson was powerful and my companion and I were shocked when they both said they want to be members of the church!! How blessed we were as a companionship to have the goal fall right into our laps because we worked hard during the Elias Goal or preparatory goal. We haven’t completed the goal yet, but this was definitely a huge blessing that we gave thanks to our Heavenly Father for!

October 28, 2009

We went to visit Clifford and Richmond at 11am today and found that Richmond was out, so we taught Clifford. He had plenty of good questions so we answered those first, then moved on by teaching him about the Book of Mormon and how it came about. My companion, Elder Adjeifio had told me before getting there that it’s my turn to start the lesson. So I began teaching him where the Book of Mormon came from, what it contained and why it is important. After my part was over, Elder Adjeifio started teaching him how to pray and how he can find out if it is true. It was another great lesson where the Spirit was definitely present. He said he could already feel that what we were teaching him was true, but that he would pray anyways. The rest of the day went really well, including the missionary fireside that we were in charge of and had been planning for the past couple of weeks for. The fireside was to motivate members to bring their friends and family to the missionaries and even to teach the members a few things about introducing the church to their friends and family. It was a success because our 2 companionships got 10 or so referrals a piece and it was an uplifting meeting. (I was asked to bare my testimony near the end of the meeting J). It all went well and we have been continually blessed in our efforts this week.

October 29, 2009

Today was one of the best days of missionary work! We went to teach Clifford and Richmond again and found that all of them were there, including Alex. Clifford and Richmond had a lot of questions and so we answered them one by one and then moved on with our lesson which was mostly for Richmond since he missed the lesson yesterday. It went well and Alex participated with his testimony which made the lesson even more powerful. After the lesson we had lunch and headed to Daban (sounds like Duh-bine). There we taught Obuachy who will be baptized in a few weeks (since General conference is this Sunday and stake conference is the next Sunday). While teaching him about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, it started to rain like I have never seen before! It was pouring harder then ever! So we waited for the rain to stop after our lesson and it never did. It was getting late so we took some plastic bags to put our scriptures in and headed down the road to a member’s house, sis. Elizabeth. That’s where Elder Akoki and Elder Harris were teaching someone. We walked through the pouring rain which was totally awesome and actually refreshing since it was cold. We got to Elizabeth’s house and found them there waiting for the rain to stop, which it didn’t. We waited a small time with them and sis. Elizabeth pulls out a plate of rice and stew and says,“Heavenly Father won’t kill you for eating this.” She was referring to the rule President had made about FM’s (free meals). The rule was that we had to teach a non-member first then eat with them. BUT! That rule ended with the Elias goal on the 25th of October (unless president tells us it’s a rule this Saturday in Zone Conference WHICH HE DID). So we didn’t break the rule, but it was hilarious how sis Elizabeth told us that Heavenly Father wouldn’t kill us for eating her food. So we ate and decided it was getting too late to wait for the rain to stop so we walked the few miles back to the main road to get a tro-tro. It was still pouring so hard and we loved every second of feeling one bit of cold. (atleast me and Elder Harris did!).

October 31, 2009

Today was Zone conference, which was exciting and very powerful. Among the great instructions, Pres. Sabey’s final instruction on the “deep doctrine” was my absolute favorite. He started with this quote, “The doctrine of oneness is the doctrine of Exaltation.” We have been taught so many times in so many ways about being unified whether it is unity in companionships, Eternal companions, families or even as church members (zion). We talked about what it meant for the Father and the Son to be One. They are infinitely more One then they are separate. President then talked a lot about how our mission prepares us for Eternal Marriage. He said, “I care more about what kind of husbands you will be, than what kind of missionaries you are.” Why would a mission president tell us this? It’s got to be extremely important if he tells us that and also if he talks about marriage more then any other mission president in the world! He then talked about how difficult the first few years of marriage is because of how different we will be from our spouse. Pres. Then showed us an example of how giving 50/50 in your marriage is setting up to fail. We both will have different perspectives of what meeting “halfway” is and so it won’t match up. We have to give our all, 100/100. Instead of give a little, take a little; It’s giving my all and not expect any return and be thankful if I do. President then gave us a pretty deep statement, “Celestial Marriage is both the End and the Means.” We have to have Eternal Marriage to make it to the celestial Kingdom and Eternal Marriage is what forms us into the kinds of people we need to be to get there. After he finished talking about marriage, he focused on the Atonement. He was a lawyer back home and he explained what it’s like to be the advocate for a defendant who has to be brought in chains. He related the situation to us with Christ as our Advocate before the Father. He then read a scripture of what the Savior will say in our defense. DnC 45:3-5: “Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him--- Saying: Father, behold the sufferings of and death of him who did no sin in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; wherefore, Father, spare these my bretheren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.” In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ became One with us so that we could become One with Him. His arms are stretched forth towards us. Are we showing our love to Him by “feeding His sheep?” We should be preparing to live the law of consecration because we have been told that someday we will, why not start as much as possible now? “He that saveth his life shall lose it, but he that loses his life shall save it.” I am grateful for the Spirit that was present in the Zone conference. It has really helped me change a lot of my points of view in life.

November 1, 2009

Today was the viewing of General Conference at the stake center. We only got to watch 2 sessions, Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings. No, I did not get to see Elder Holland’s talk on the Book of Mormon, but I do have the printed version. I had our investigator named Bounti sitting next to me during the conference. He asked plenty of good questions about what was going on and how the church is organized. I could tell he enjoyed (as did the rest of us) Tad R. Callister’s talk. Bounti said he agreed with everything that was taught by Elder Callister and when he was done speaking, Bounti said, “wow, he is a powerful man. I could really feel it.” Bounti really has been prepared for baptism so I committed him to be baptized while we were having a break between sessions. He said, “when is the next baptism taking place?” I was shocked and told him the day then he said, “Ok, ill get baptized then!” I was being really bold with him and felt that that is how I needed to be. I enjoyed conference a lot and am going to apply the things I’ve learned, especially about gaining an unconditional love for people. That will include service to every person I notice that has a need. I will definitely need the guidance and help of the Holy Ghost and it will take time to fully apply this principle in my life, but I am totally willing to learn and grow. Submission is something I am learning so much about.

All of these experiences happened in only one week! Is that even believable? I didn’t even have time to mention a “many mighty miracle” (as sis Sabey would call it) that happened on Friday with a random contact. He is a really wealthy man but the most humble man I’ve met. He accepted the whole Restoration and loved “our teachings” (as he called them). Being submissive to the Lord’s will truly brings blessings, especially blessings that form me into a better person, missionary, son, brother, future husband and future father. I am blessed more then usual when I serve others and give my all to His work. I can’t wait for you guys to see how much I have grown and changed. It’s only been 2 months and my life has flipped upside down (in a good way of course). All I have to do is be humble and submit myself to His will and do my best and the rest is done for me. Ghana really is a specially place to serve the Lord.

I hope you all know how much I love you. I think about you every time I pull out my scriptures because there is a picture taped in the back.  I pray for all of you everyday that you will continue to serve faithfully, gain even stronger testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ and keep the “big picture” in mind. Remember how important it is to leave the herd of 99 for that 1 lost lamb. When you are apart of bringing somebody back into the herd, you can really feel the love the Savior has for that person.

This week I took a lot of time to make sure this email home taught you all a little something about the faith here in Ghana. I hope you now know how much I am learning and progressing. I can’t wait to call you at Christmas!! Only a month and a few weeks away now!
Love,
Elder Lehr

PS: 94 weeks left for me to serve full time, I had better get busy! Each time you think of me I want you to ask yourself this question: Did I make a difference in someone’s life today? If not, you better start getting busy too!