FAMILY!

This week was pretty crazy. Monday was transfer news and not one person in our zone came or went. Its mostly because of the mission goal coming to an end at the end of this transfer (February 28th). Elder Clements and I should be finished with it and baptizing that referral in the next few weeks. Im excited and so is the referral! He's a 9 year old boy in a part member family and the mom told us she wants him baptized now that they are becoming active in church again. Its amazing how the Lord works to bless these people and to help them progress. Its a huge help to that family to have this boy baptized. It will be exciting for the whole family and they will become active again. :D 

Saturday was pretty crazy... the one thing that sticks out is that a random guy who seemed crazy came walking up as we were teaching that 9 year old boy nicholas. He sat right down next to us and started rambling about crazy things. One thing i remember is that he touch mine and elder clements hands, said a prayer and then after told us that we now have the power to defeat mesquitoes and dont need to use our nets hahaha. The man knew a lot about joseph smith and the church. He quoted from DnC and Moroni and elder clements and i did little talking until we finally decided it was time to leave and he started walking with us. So we went quickly to the main road and hopped in a car as he was telling us, "I bless you great angels of the Lord." Once the door of the tro tro closed i said it pretty loud but i said, "That man is crazy." I had to say it... The whole tro tro hears rumors about our church as it is so i had to clarify to all of them that we had no affiliation with him hahaha. Everyone in the car was busting out laughing when i said it. It was an experience... Elder Clements and I seem to be having bad luck with crazy people just finding us hahaha.

Yesterday we had a powerful lesson with a guy named peter. He is very humble and has a neighbor who referred him to us. The members name is richard and he is powerful! After we were done teaching he invited peter to keeping studying and praying diligently, to come to church early and regularly, and to be baptized!! :D  Member present lessons are the best way to go! Elder Clements and i had a good laugh as we walked back home after that. We were shocked since the member didnt go on a mission, has been a member for barely 5 years and doesnt own a copy of preach my gospel. Its like he know what preach my gospel was all about without even opening a copy up. We sure loved it. Later last night we had 2 more referrals to go see. Remember sister Yaa who just baptized in November? Well she took us to two more referalls. One lady was named matilda and said she loved how our church went when she came a few weeks ago and she asked what she needed to do to be baptized, so we are working on that lol. We then went to sister Yaa's best friends house, Serwa. Serwa took all the lessons with Yaa but didnt get baptized because her husband is "stubborn." We were able to get inside their home and just visit and laugh with them. He asked a lot of questions about the church and we answered them, pretty simple ones. Then he asked where abouts the church was and yada yada yada. Then he said that he and his wife will come to church. Whether he is serious or not, it made Serwa and sis. Yaa very happy!! And they thanked us so much. All they could talk about was to be married in the temple....wow! So soon and they talk about the blessings of the temple! :D  It was a great night! We came home and ate good!! We cooked a big thing of rice mixed with a tomato stew we made earlier in the week (you cant just go and buy ragu!!) and fried up some plantains (which look like bananas and when they are fried, they taste really sweet!). We enjoyed our sunday!!

This next week will fly by so much faster then last week! We have zone conference tomorrow (the 2 Kumasi zones, Bantama and Dichemso, Im in Dichemso). I love zone conferences, they are always so uplifting! And we get fed!! :D  Thats always a missionaries favorite part. One of the Elders jokingly told president that if we didnt get fed, we wouldnt come to zone conference hahaha. Presidents awesome, of course he had some kind of response to defeat the Elder, It is his profession, a lawyer. Haha. Then on Thursday we'll have district meeting then on friday we'll have splits with the zone leaders.

Well I love you guys so much and hope you are enjoying the cold weather! Last night we all got woken up to phone calls telling us that their was a ghana radio station telling everyone about an earthquake that was predicted. There has rarely been an earthquake in west africa so everyone was freaking out, calling the bishop and us to ask what they should do hahaha. We told some of them, "well lets hope you dont die cuz you didnt come to church today." Elder Akoki has no mercy for people who lie and tell us they will come to church hahaha. Its ok, we are good friends with those people so it wasnt too offensive, just funny.

I want you guys to know how happy i am to be serving the Lord full-time. I am learning so much about myself, the gospel and a very different people here in ghana. It is getting easier to have patience and show love especially to those in my apartment. Whether we are compadable or not, its getting easier to just relax and let things go. I wish i could of been like this in my own family, it would of made things so much easier and happier. A few days will be my 5 month and before this transfer ends, itll be 6 months...crazy how fast things go when i am doing the Lords work.

Love, Elder Lehr

PS: Happy Birthday Bug! I didnt forget...i wrote a letter haha. I hope you enjoyed your 14th birthday. (add sarcasm here).


THIS IS AN EMAIL FROM ELDER AKOKI (he is in Elder Lehr's apartment...he's in the picture at the very top of the blog):

Hello,
This is Elder Akoki. I was planning to send you this message to thank you but, I failed. I am very sorry, you have to understand its not my fault, it is just in us. (El Lehr might explain)
I am very grateful for your gift, I was so happy to receive, once again THANKS!
A LOT. I really enjoyed the candys. I was talking with one missionnary and He asked me how is it to be only with White Missionnaries and I told him that I am now a sweet missionnary, It was a way to tell Him that I eat so much sweet food. Evrything is SWEET in the Appart. Lets talk about you son. When He came he seemed very troublesome to me, I didnt know him very well. But up to now He has changed a lot, right now He is learning the doctrine of THE STONY GROUND (He will explain to you) HE is a cool guy, you should not worry, Iam taking care of him. I make sure evryday that He wakes up at 6.am, He takes his bath, He takes his Breakfast and his doxy and go out and feed the SHEEPS; in one word He is in good hands. And also He told me that He is really getting to understand the Book of Mormon, it is POWERFUL. He is POWERFUL. Thanks a lot and May God bless you and your Family. Bye