this week was pretty good, yesterdays zone conference was pretty sweet. Pres Sabey announced that he is going to be able to open up small small groups in kumasi!! He wants instead of 8 places of worship in a city that has 2 million people, 22 places of worship. They way he is doing this is renting missionary apartments with a big enough hall to hold sacrament meeting and have the missionaries RUN EVERYTHING until it grows big enough or atleast a group leader is ready and trained!! This will help so much! People will soon be able to walk to a building no matter where they live. He is opening up 3 of them this next transfer and before he goes home next summer he plans to have all 13 of them ready to go, plus a new building for Suame ward who doesnt have a building. THIS IS EXCITING!!! He is taking all of the wards and branches that have 4 missionaries and move 2 of them to one of these new areas. The area presidency is so excited for this and is just trying it out in the new Region up north! Its sweet...we are laying an incredible foundation for the growth of this stake. 5 years down the line it can split a few times!! It will be amazing to finish my mission here, i hope i get to stay for long!! :D 2 of the 3 new groups opening up this next transfer were in my old area asokwa! Its so exciting! There is a member out there who taught families in here area every monday night and taught primary each week at her house and now she will have one of these small group meeting houses RIGHT BY HER HOUSE!!! HUGE tender mercy for this woman! The Lord is seeing how faithful she is and this is a huge blessing that comes from it. There will be almost 50 missionaries in this city soon! This mission has a possibility to split by the time pres Sabey goes home. That is a goal of his. He is incredible.

Thats pretty awesome about tyler organizing the fireside and sharing personal experiences! Sounds like he is growing up a bit! Him quiting football sound like anyone you know?? Haha. He's a stud! We are definitely still finding new people....its more productive to serve members....we dont even ask for referrals, just serve them and let them know how much we care and the referrals follow! Its an incredible place to serve. Our mission broke the record for baptisms in a single month, i think it was close to 170 or something. Think about that for a second. We are working on a goal that focuses on recent converts, NOT BAPTIZING A HUGE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE!! And you see how the Lord has used the recent converts to further the work. Its really amazing. Ponder how sweet it is to be a missionary here in ghana right now! Im so blessed and thankful for my call to serve, especially to serve here. I love it.

Thanksgiving will be awesome! Im sure grandma would love to hear from me haha. Either way, Christmas is coming soon! :D
Karlis grades slipped??? Was that a prophesy? I CALLED IT! :D BOY CRAZY!!! WORSE THAN GIRLS AND GIRLS ARE WORSE THAN DRUGS!!! :D

We have been given by the Brethren, 8 fundamentals of Preach My Gospel that we are to focus on. They help us to increase the effectiveness of teaching. It teaches us HOW to teach and not just WHAT to teach. The first fundamental is the Doctrine of Christ. Its found all over the Book of Mormon, but my favorite scripture to demonstrate it is the whole chapter of 2 nephi 31. WE ARE INSTRUCTED TO GO THROUGH THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST ON OUR VERY FIRST VISIT AND POSSIBLY ASK THEM HOW THEY WOULD FEEL ABOUT BEING BAPTIZED!!! Can you believe how bold that is. It tells them right off the bat what our purpose is. We still wont just baptize anyone, but fruit that remains, but it gives them a goal set and we are able to prepare them to reach that goal, whatever it takes. ITS SWEET!! :D

I love you a lot! I hope you can see how much serving a mission has changed my life. Its incredible what the Savior can do with someone who is ready and willing to follow through with whatever he wants done and the way he wants it done. Church is definitely true. Book of Mormon is incredible scripture, so clear and pure. I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

LOVE YOUR SON, Elder Lehr

The new companion is freakin sweet! His name is elder kundiona from zimbabwe, bordering country of south africa. We are getting along pretty good. No he's not a greenie! haha. Elders kamara and thompson are in my apartment. Kamara is from sierra leone and thompson is from orem. Both way cool guys, sweet apartment. The guys in prison will serve their terms and then be released, we dont talk about that.

We had a lousy one investigator for the conference viewing. I was a little upset but its all good. Saturday we taught bro. kwame (the really smart guy who said he's "half way in, not all the way yet") on saturday. It went pretty good. We talked about the creation and fall of adam and eve and life on earth. Next time will be more on the atonement which will be sweet!! He's coming along slowly but surely. He said he wants to study the Book of Mormon in depth, so we'll see. Love lessons like that, these people keep me going!

Im excited for tine working a lot!! GO TINE!! Sorry about her backing into pres truman'S truck, how did that turn out??

Exciting about bug doing well! She needs a scholarship since i couldnt get any! hahaha.

So raiderS!!!!!! Beat the chiefs!! YAA!! OT!! hahaha go raiders!! Finally....ever since that superbowl that we should of taken the 2k. haha.

Definitely agree with the fasting and praying and going to the temple! That will help, but sometimes the Lord just wants us all to learn and grow so it still might take time before things get good again. Just hang in there!! I watched two talks of conference that i loved and made me think of our family so much. The first one is pres eyring in the sunday morning and then pres monson in the sunday morning!!!! Those two talks are so sweet!! Please watch them as a family!! :D

Well i love ya!! Have a good week!

Love elder lehr!

Hey fam, doing well. Yes we had 4 investigators at church yesterday, one is a 19 yr old girl who's grandparents have been in the church for forever. She just stopped going to her church and has been coming and finally someone told us she WASNT a member. We teach her only on sundays since she is a hair-dresser all day everyday except sunday. Her name is gloria, she is very serious and wants to be baptized, so that was a nice baptism that fell into our laps. haha. T|he work is gonig pretty well here, just looking for more people to teach, always harder in the cities but not too bad.

TRANSFERS! So my companion is going to elder harris's apartment and im getting an elder from zimbabwe who is pretty cool i hear. haha. No other big changes except a few more elders going to the new area in the next REGION over. The city there is called Sunyane and now there will be 6 elders and a couple that was just put there. That place is growing small small haha. Elder Akoki is the new assistant! hahahaha. I love that guy. Kinda sad i have a new companion cuz i love elder marsan but we'll see what happens.

Thats awesome about your stake conference. I DIDNT KNOW THINGS IN OUR AREA BACK HOME WERE THAT BAD-HIGHEST FORECLOSURE? DANG! So glad im still here for another 10 months. Things better settle down. haha.

Well everything is going well. Healthy and happy, what more can i ask for. Missionary work is so rewarding! I love helping people come unto Christ and find the TRUE church through their own efforts. Helping people to gain a testimony is not an easy thing, but when it happens its the sweetest feeling. Love it.

Well gotta go, love you guys!

Have a good week....slackers....world series??? Not even ONE update, apparently the yankees are out so thats good. haha.

Love, Cody