Cant believe it has already been another week...22 and 1/4 months left. Im not counting down but some other elders sure are. I AM SO BUMMED!! We didnt get to watch ANY conference and thats because none of the members have tv's and if they do its just the few channels that come through local cable. And even the stake centers dont have satellites. We were told that in about a month or so we would get both the Liahona and a chance for all missionaries to watch it in the stake center but thats a month away!!! ahh. Im jealous.
Well this week has been just awesome... WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE! Which is not supposed to happen because it's not in our mission but President Sabey took advantage of the new Area President. :D We had to leave at 3am wednesday morning to get there on time. We went through the session and then we went in to do a sealing session (my first time!!). Holy COW!! It really opened my eyes about the importance of being married and sealed to your children in the temple. wow. looong time til that happens haha.
Sounds like you guys are staying as busy as ever. I cant believe how much i am missing in my families lives!! I leave for a month and a half and BOOM! I think and pray for you guys everyday and it seems to be working so ill continue of course (id continue if it wasnt working especially!) I heard about Elder Mckay last week... poor guy... Malaria is serious business...ive seen an elder go from totally excited about a zone conference to all of a sudden pale white and feeling like death. I take my medicine and sleep with the net like my life depends on it (and it does).
My week has gone by so fast, thats what happens when you stay busy and teach a lot of very effective lessons! We committed a guy for baptism... I dont know his first name cuz nobody has even used his first name but we all call him bro. Obuachy. (a lot of ghanains have this name around here haha). He is an older man who has been through a whole lot in his life and says his mind is finally stable :D. Its so great to see people change after we teach them and bring the Spirit to them! Its so hard to choose which investigators to talk about so ill jsut pick my favorite one (if we are allowed to have favorites :D) . His name is Bro. Jay. He is a phillipino! Hahaha... kinda random. He is avery very smart guy, an engineer here to work on an overpass and some other roads. His friend is a member and was actually a member his bishopric not too long ago, so he brought his friend to church and now we teach him. After teaching him for a few weeks, we committed him to baptism and he said he just needed a little more time but he broke down and bore his testimony that he knew the Book of Mormon was true...you have no idea how much this can make missionaries happy!!
Im trying to find time to write the ward! I will write soon though and just send it home.PACKAGE??!! Sounds good to me! :DHmm what to put in it... skittles are good, hmm this is hard to decide... I want a little caesars pizza really bad!! Holy crap do I miss dairy products... Somebody should make a dairy farm here and become a millionaire!! It is all powdered milk which just isnt the same, all watery. I recommend just sending packages in those US postage envelopes that seal all the way around the package (is this making sense). I say this because they dont open those packages and check what is inside :D Anways...what to put in there. Blank CD's for pictures!! (or was there some in my luggage?) Cant remember, let me go look and ill get back to you on the package haha.
Africa is sweet!! Its crazy and i love it here... the people in my apartment really make things awesome... There are sooo many differences from the American Elders and Ghanain Elders. We just dont think the same way about many things. It has been tough to get used to but im doing a lot of changing and its really helping my companionship... I got THE BEST African Elder in the mission. He really is incredible and teaches me how to teach and I really am getting good at teaching and asking questions... Getting the people to really think and to come up with the answer before i just tell them the answers to things. It works really well and im glad to be able to spend this time with this kind of a missionary! We are working hard and get to see the fruits of our labors...we had a baptism this last Sunday! It was from the other elders in our apartment. They have another one next week in another ward (because its a french family and the guy in our apartment, Elder akoki teaches them in french). Then we have our baptism the following week with bro. obuachy! We are helping people understand the importance of commitments and they are starting to follow the commitments we give them much better. We see this plan going into effect and its working with the people here in Africa.
The food is starting to taste better but some meals it is sooo very hard! We can only have Free Meals (FMs) if we teach an investigator and the member is there and then the member feeds us and we all eat together. (This is a part of the goal that was given in our last zone conference).
President is coming to Kumasi this friday! We have interviews on Saturday and im way excited!! Ive only had a small 3 min interview at the mtc with him and he is so inspired!! I love how kind and loving and how powerful he is!
Then next monday we are playing a full field game of soccer with pres as the referee! Tuesday we have an "emergency" zone conference. Its just that Elder Cardon is coming (The new area president). He is going around the entire mission to get a feel for what may be needed and stuff. So that he has a better idea of how the mission works and how the missionaries and people are. Im excited for him to come, he spoke to us in the mtc and is VERY powerful...wow. Hes a general authority!! So hes gotta be powerful haha.
Well i love you guys so much!! Keep doing what is right and dont worry about me! Im working sooo hard and following the rules just for you mom! Haha no really i am. You have to or you either get sick or dont have the Spirit with you and both would waste the Lord's time.
Elder Lehr!
PS... EAT A PIZZA FOR ME! :D (yes a whole pizza, one per person)
I cant believe it is monday already. Africa has been going crazy because there is a U20 (under 20 years of age, for you people who are slow) Tournament with teams from all over the world representing their country. It is being held in Egypt but all that matters is that it is in Africa. The whole continent is alive and its not even the world cup yet! Ghana was playing two days ago and you could totally tell when they scored... literally the whole city screams and cheers when they score, all the cars honk their horns like crazy (the taxis do this anyways). All the investigators and members with tvs invite us in to watch a game (we have to limit ourselves haha).
The missionary work has been really progressing. I havent been mentioning any of our investigators names because there are just so many. We teach 20 lessons a week without even trying and the goal for our mission is 30! HOLY COW I KNOW! My eyes were huge when I read this goal haha. We have about 5-6 people who are committed to baptism and need a date set, so we are working on that. Missionary work for the most part seems so easy, but I know its because we are doing what is right and humbling ourselves in every aspect. My companion is incredible. He is really helping me along and showing me how to teach the people of Ghana. (Its %100 different then any kind of teaching in the States) These people are soooo faithful! They really do KNOW their Bibles...It was a little scary and intimidating at first when investigators whipped out all these Bible scriptures I didnt know existed. But its all good because my companion knows the bible like the back of his hand. AND it all comes down to following the scripture in James 1:5 "If any of you lack wisdom..." If they really do pray and keep the commitments we give them then they progress and all is good! Its sad to see only 60-70 at church every week when there are a lot more members than that! We have been working hard with this Elias Goal that ive told you about.... its the goal where we interact a lot with members, especially inactive or less active members. We have visited 11 members houses that we previously didnt know where they lived this week. It is really tough here because there is no addresses or sense of direction. When we get directions it sounds something like this... "Go do this road and its the 3rd right at the roundabout then go down past the chickens and its on your right." No its not really like that but you get the point.
The easiest lesson to teach is the Restoration.... we help them understand that when Christ was on the Earth one of the things he did was establish His church. The foundation of the church was Prophets and Apostles with Jesus Christ as the Cornerstone. Once Christ and the other Prophets and Apostles were killed, the foundation was taken away and the church fell. And when it fell, the people were left with only pieces of truth that they used to create their own churches according to man. yada yada yada then the Restoration! It is a powerful lesson to talk about Joseph Smith actually seeing God and Jesus Christ. Just from teaching it we have gotten people afterwards telling us they "felt that it is true"... or feel peace or love while we are teaching them. You wont understand the joy that I have until you have experienced this missionary work for yourself. I have never been happier!!
So one thing that i havent told you guys about is our transportation! We use taxis and these buses that are filled with people called Tro-Tro's. They are all ghetto buses and that extra seats welded in to maximize the space! They are really cheap but really crazy! Pray i dont die in one! haha. We travel just about everywhere in either a taxi or tro tro. My first experience in a tro tro went like this.... I got in a bus with tons of people (of course im the only white guy so everyone is looking at me like what the heck is this rich white guy doing in a tro tro). We sat in the only empty seats which were in the back....after driving a little ways the driver hits a huge bump going pretty fast and the back door of the tro tro flies open and our seat isnt exactly welded on very good!! Our whole row started falling back until we grabbed the seat in front of us and pulled our row back into the van. We started shouting at the driver to stop! Hahaha...my companion and I just laughed and he said.. "Well this is a great first experience in a tro tro!" Hahaha...nothing to worry about mom! Its all good! :D
:D Well ive got to go to meet up with the rest of our zone to play some futbol!! They really do love that sport here :D I love you all and am happy to get your emails and letters! I am doing my best to write you back and sorry if it is only a short response! The Lord's work is definitely taking over much of my time, as it should be.
Love, Elder Lehr
