The week was great! We had a "Missionary Sunday" yesterday where all 4 of us in the apartment participated in the sacrament then me and my companion gave talks along with our ward mission leader....then we had a baptism for Francis, Frederick and Mcallan!! That was freakin SWEET!! I'll send pictures tomorrow since im being transferred......drum roll.......back to the village!! This time its Assin Fosu!! I didn’t want to leave here but if i went anywhere i wanted it to be there ha. So it’ll be sweet. New companion is elder Joseph from Nigeria. Way cool guy.
I’m stoked for coop and his family, that’s so awesome! 2 weeks!! wow! Nate....knows how i feel haha. I’m sure its a lot alike...just different language.
I’ve been slacking on the letters....I’m just so done with letters, I write a whole bunch of them, get %10 returns so I stop. I know I know....my family has done really well with letters....but an email is just as good right? I’m doing pictures more often, I hope that counts for something. I hope it DID, cuz i can’t do that anymore so hope you appreciated that ha.
So on Saturday we went out to a place called Ampabame pronounced ampami. That is where Mcallan, the guy we just baptized yesterday, lives. After teaching him about the Aaronic priesthood he had a question that he asked in an interesting way....he was sooo excited to be baptized and couldn’t wait to receive the priesthood so that was his question, how long do i have to wait to have the priesthood?? We told him that its supposed to be the day you are confirmed but the bishop is in charge and we hope that he will talk to you about it. He just recently moved to this place from Takoradi (a bigger city than this small village haha) He’s heard that there is a small river that flows down the road from the town and that there are huge fish there that are children of the river goddess and if you touch them you will die very shortly!! hahaha. He, like us, didn’t believe it but wanted to see the huge fish they were talking about so we went down the trail to the river and brought bread to feed the fish and found the place. Its JUST catfish and tilapia....haha. I wanted to just go catch one and bring it on into the town to show them, but then i figured id just be transferred and they’d believe that i died hahaha. Mcallan took is two puppies with us, reminded me of walking our dogs, miss them! When we came back one of the men of the town asked me in Twi if i touched the fish....i told him that tomorrow i will go catch like 3 of them and we'll cook it and CHOP! He said no no no no no you shouldn’t do that if you like your life. I laughed, but they really do believe it. Crazy. Kind of like Juju, Satans power. watever. haha.
I have 7 months left and president has given me another assignment so I’m pretty sure I might "die" in this next area. I’m stoked for that! Assin Fosu is the zone I was in when I was in Twifo Praso, but now I’m actually in the Assin Fosu part an hour away from Praso. It’s an hour or so north of Cape Coast and they’ve been trying to make the area a stake! It has 4 powerful wards in the city and one down the road. We'll see if I get to experience that before the end. I’ve been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and am still amazed how i feel during the days that i read compared with the days I don’t, and yes that happens even to missionaries. I can really feel a power helping me, especially with temptations. I’ve gained a strong testimony of that and will keep that with me the rest of my life. I will never forget elder Holland’s talk about the Book of Mormon, go watch it again....it never ceases to amaze me the power in his words. I hope you have had a good week, a busy week, busy is always a good thing I’ve noticed, if we aren’t busy then there is something wrong. We always need to fill our days and weeks with meaningful things to do, run out of ideas? Look for someone to serve, or even better....go home teaching haha. The Lord CAN’T use us if we don’t go out and try to find something meaningful to do. Seems like a simple thing to learn but it’s real and that is how the Lord frames us into who He wants us to be.
I gave a talk yesterday about remembering our baptismal covenants and focused on a few of the qualifications for baptism found in DnC 20:27 I think.....I have it highlighted in my scriptures its on the left page bottom right of that page. My favorite one that I talked about was taking upon us the name of Christ, I used an example of working for a company and always having to do your best or else everyone will judge the company because you are their representative. I ended with the tree of life...mentioning an insight that the first thing Lehi did after partaking of the fruit was he desired his family should also partake of it. The ward members needed to hear that....not a lot of full families in this ward. I ended with DnC 18....the worth of souls is great. I really felt the Spirit as I spoke and that was a huge answer to my prayers....I know missionaries are seen as ultimate when it comes to speaking at church etc and that i shouldnt be nervous to speak.....but i still am. Im nervous for a homecoming talk haha. So much expectations to live up to. I know that my Heavenly Father can use me more effectively because of the studying I’ve done on my mission, the Spirit cant recall something to my memory if it was never there.
I hope you enjoy the pictures and video im sending tomorrow!!(video didn't work) Mostly of the baptism...Francis and Frederick were all hyped up like we were about to play a game, they wanted a sweet video to remember it so my camera and his phone did the trick, that’s the video ill send haha. You’ll love it but think its kind of funny and a little weird before a baptism haha. I love those guys...ill miss them for sure! :D Well have a good week, love you!!
I love all of your emails....you really take the time to write me, sorry im not more like you! This week kinda sucked....i had a bad cold and still have the snuffles ha.
Sorry bug! That sucks....keep your eye on the ball!! Black eye and stitches...attention hog?
THE BEAST IS GONE!! What??? You sold my truck? I loved that truck----hahaha---thanks for finally getting rid of it!!!!!
Im horrible at writing emails, sorry for that, just cant wait to come home so i dont have to write you emails, just talk to ya ha. This week we have a sweet baptism, so stoked for that!! And then transfer news comes next monday, comes so fast. Only 5 more transfers left...good thing they come so fast!! :D
Love you have a good week!!
Life back home sounds so complicated. I dont want to come home....life is so easy here. Just come move here, we'll live happy and stress free and be able to strengthen a ward here in ghana....what do you think? I cant even think of what to say anymore ha. We gave 4 people baptismal dates this week so thats exciting! Only 3 of them came to church though :( One of them is judith, she is our ward missionarie's sister. She's very quiet and very shy, you would never think she is 20! Looks like shes maybe 16. Shes pretty funny and always at institute and church so thats sweet! 2 others are francis and frederick. Francis is the guy who made friends with a member in utah on facebook and is now talking to sister missionaries on the phone and came to church the last 3 weeks!! Whoever says facebook is bad needs to learn how to use it! :D Theres my two cents about that. Frederick is his brother who hasnt been to ANY church more then 10 times in 3 years...promised to come yesterday and DID! Sweet guys! They love us and are going to bomb us with questions, elders quorum lesson is to blame....went into WHO created the earth...nice lesson for two investigators right? haha so we've got some work to do to be ready for their questions ha. THE KIFFERS ARE GOING HOME ON THURSDAY!!! HOLY SMOKES! Can you believe that?!?! Our zones got together and gave them two big thank you cards with signatures and a few words from everyone in kumasi. And printed a big picture of all of us up here and had them print ghana cape coast missoin....no i didnt spell that wrong on purpose, its what they printed on their and the kiffers thought it was funny since they know how ghana is haha. Sister Kiffer cried and gave me a huge hug ha, i told her what you tell me mom, this is not goodbye!! Its just a see you later! :D
Well i hope everyone has a better week....so happy to know the plan of salvation!
Love Elder Lehr
Sorry i am writing today, i read the emails yesterday but wasnt able to respond because we had to go meet with our bishop for family night which is sweet, i dont think the bishop has had missionaries over in a long time so that was nice. Right when we show up he was talking to a man and said we should take his number and call him and teach him this week. SWEET!! Im loving our bishop more and more the more i get to know him. This ward is pretty powerful! On sunday we had 4 investigators come to church who should be baptized by the end of the month! So that is exciting. One of the is named Francis. He said we randomly became friends with a guy in Utah on facebook and he started talking to him about the church and gave his number to the missionaries at the call center and they have been having conversations with him. He showed up to church last week asking to see us and for his own copy of the Book of mormon! SWEET!! The first day we met with him he gave us his brother, Frederick, to teach as well and we went there today to see them, powerful lesson reviewing the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, their next assignment is to read 2 nephi 31 which is the Doctrine of Christ! The baptism chapter ha. So that is sweet. Bantama's 2nd ward had a member bring two of his friends to church who stay in OUR area and we are supposed to see them tomorrow! Im stoked! Serious people to teach! The Lord is doing His work and its amazing to be apart of the miracles that consistently happen when we are just doing our simple part of going out to work. I love it. Our bishop has given an assignment to the ward council to call 2 ward missionaries from each auxilary to teach the 5 lessons after baptism to our recent converts....Elders will teach the men and relief society the woman and etc. And that doest count the 2 other ward missionaries that he has already called that are preparing to go on mission. One of them went with us today, it was sweet. His name is dennis and hes probably my favorite member in our ward ha. Well ive gotta go,.i love you all and hope you know how much our father in Heaven loves you. Anytime you need a reassurance or just a good peaceful feeling, go back to the basics of prayer and reading the Book of Mormon daily, ITS POWERFUL! Ive noticed since President and Sister Sabey gave us fresh book of mormons for Christmas and wanted us to read 9 pages a day starting with the new year. We will finish by the end of Febuary. While we read we are supposed to focus on all the scriptures where the Savior is either talking or talked about! If youve ever done this youll know that its practically every other verse! :D Im noticing things from the book of Mormon ive never noticed before and its enriching and refreshing. I love this book!
Have a good week!
Love Cody
