First Baptism

Hello Family and Friends!!!

Etinsane (how are you),

 I have had an amazing week here in Ghana. I went to KFC in Ghana for the first time this week as well as had my first baptism yesterday. I hope all is well back home.

Tuesday- I had zone conference in Dichemso. My zone Asuoyeboa and the Dichemso zone were combined. It was great to meet other missionaries and to be instructed by President and Sister Cosgrave. We learned about how to teach the doctrines using simple but powerful words. As well as the importance of inviting and following up. We can't force people to join the church we can only guide, support and help them. They have to make the choice and the Holy Ghost will testify to them that it is true. 

Wednesday- I had Mid-Transfer Training at the Dabine Chapel next to the mission home. Halfway through the first transfer all of the new missionaries and their trainers meet with President and Sister Cosgrave to discuss how everything is doing and how everyone is adjusting to mission life. They told us to continue to be great missionaries, be obedient and work hard every day. A mission saying is Start Right Stay Right. It is absolutely true. The way we start our mission will definitely impact us later on. We need to build good habits now that will go on to later in the mission as well as in the future. It was great to see all of my MTC friends again. Because our mission is so big it is very hard to see everyone all of the time. We are spread all over the mission. Afterwards, we went to KFC for dinner. It was my first time going here in Ghana. Man, it is absolutely crazy. It is by far the biggest KFC I have ever seen. It doesn't have three levels like I thought but it was still massive. The food is super expensive. It is 15 cedis for two pieces of chicken, fries and a drink. We had extra money from our sub this week so we decided to go out and splurge a little bit. It was great. 

Because of Mid-Transfer Training and Zone conference, we didn't have much proselyting time this week so I am sorry I don't have many stories about teaching our investigators. This next week will be much better 

Thursday- Today we went to Apatrappa to visit Sister Christiana. She is scheduled to be baptized on August 13th Elder Speakman's last Sunday. Time has flown by. We only have two more weeks in the transfer and then Elder Speakman will be going home and I will be getting a new companion. After we taught her a man came up to us and said that he was almost baptized and then traveled for a long time and now that he is back he wants to be baptized. We met with him and he is very serious and close to baptism. We had no idea that the other missionaries were teaching him and knew nothing about him. It was amazing to meet him. 

Friday- Today we had another amazing experience. We were in one of our super far away areas and it was getting super late (about 9) and we were going to be late for curfew. We were both super tired and wanted to take a tro but we had already used a lot of money for transport and we were inspired to walk all the way to the apartment. As we were walking we talked about how that if we really wanted to we could hand out over one hundred books of Mormon in one day very easily. Everyone we passed on the street would take one. Everyone is very religious and believes in Christ. So it can be very easy to set up appointments and teach people but a lot of the time it can very difficult for people to progress and come to church because everyone already goes to church every Sunday and have callings in their church.  We had one more Book of Mormon and we wanted to place it before we went to the apartment. We kept walking and waiting for the right person. Then a man named Ike called us over and said that he is interested in the church and wants to join. We gave him the Book of Mormon and met with him on Saturday. If we continue to work hard and are obedient and doing the things that we should be Heavenly Father will place people in our path that are ready to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ghana is the coolest place ever. 

Sunday- Today I had my first baptism!!! It was one of the craziest first baptisms someone probably could have. Early in the morning our Ward Mission Leader went to the church and turned on the pump to begin to fill the font. The baptism was scheduled to start at 12:30 pm but at noon only two feet of water was in the font. We were really stressed out and had to find a solution really quickly. The ward mission leader said that he had it all under control and would go and fetch water to fill the font. Thirty minutes later he said that he had solved the problem and that the font was ready. We went to go look at the font and the font was filled much higher but the water wasn't clear anymore it was a dark murky dirty color. IT WAS DISGUSTING. He told us that he fetched water from a nearby stream. We couldn't cancel the baptism so we went on with it despite the water. To make matters worse the front doors were locked and they lost the key. So, basically, everyone that came to watch couldn't see anything. I was the one baptizing so I had to go into the dirty water. But, I felt even worse for the people being baptized, they had to go completely under the water. Despite all of those problems, the baptism was a success and the service itself was very nice. The Spirit was there and people felt true joy. 

I hope all of you have a great week! I love you all so much and will talk to you soon.

Love, 

Elder Ordyna

It's a Jungle Out There 

A river we have to cross to get to one of our investigators. When it is raining it is flooded!

A 'Bow Tie' an Investigator Made for Me

Asuoyeboah Apartment

Ghana Funeral

Wilderness Survival

Hello family and friends, 

Life is still sweet here in Ghana. It rains all of the time, we have been caught in the rain numerous times while proselyting. The rainy season means lots of fruit, everywhere you walk you can see mangoes, bananas, oranges, plantains and papayas growing in the trees. The fruit is so fresh and taste amazing! Thank you for the package and all of the cards . It really made my day reading them and I hope the family reunion went well. I miss and love all of you!!

Tuesday. - District council was planned for today, but because the zone leaders wanted to meet with all of the district leaders we are having it Wednesday.  We did not have time for laundry on p-day so we washed all our laundry today.  We have to wash by hand. At first my hands were rubbed raw but now I am used to it. It takes about 15 minutes to completely wash one shirt. Enjoy your washing machines while you have them!

Today we talked to golden investigators Kojo and Ernest, Kojo is the man that we found at church. We met with him at the chapel, he read the entire restoration pamphlet that we gave him and three chapters from the book of mormon. He also asked really good questions and continues to progress very quickly. After the meeting he asked if he could be baptized this week. Sadly, he hasn't been to church 3 times yet and he is traveling for the next 3 months. We gave him all of the pamphlets to read and encouraged him to continue to read the book of mormon and pray everyday . We plan to baptize him when he returns. Ernest another serious investigator is also progressing very quickly. We found him while teaching two other investigators, Winston and Mary. The second we gave him the book of mormon he instantly began to read. The first time we met with him he said that in his heart he knew he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Earlier in the week we were frustrated because only two of our investigators attended church. I have realize that if we are obedient, diligent and keep working hard that the Lord will put people in our path that are ready to receive His message.

Wednesday -  We had district council, our district continues to be one of the most successful districts.  After council we had lunch at BANKU chop bar. It is a restaurant that makes big balls of mashed rice and fermented corn. You eat the BANKU with soup, the texture is the same as fufu but the taste is different. It was actually pretty nice and the soup was great. We taught Kojo his last lesson before he leaves town for 3 months. We taught him the last part of the plan of salvation. He says that he wants to marry and have kids in the church and name his firstborn son Alma. ;-)

BANKU Chop Bar after District Council 

Our area is massive it has one semi-large town and four smaller villages that are spread out and separated by the bush; super thick trees and vines. Because it is so large and spread out we have to take a Tro-Tro to each area. A Tro-Tro is a super old run down van that people pile into. The entire ride it sounds like the whole thing could fall apart at any moment. We headed up to one of our far away areas in APATRAPPA  to teach Christiana who is super close to baptism. She remembers everything that we teach and is reading the Book of Mormon every night. She was suppose to be baptized this week but had to postpone. We taught her Tithing and Fast Offerings and helped her through some problems that keep her from being baptized. Keep her in your prayers.
My companion and I are two of the very few Americans walking through Ghana. We get a lot of unserious investigators. There are a lot of people increasing their faith in Christ and gaining a testimony that Christ lives, Joseph Smith really is a prophet of God, he translated the Book of Mormon and through Jesus Christ restored His church back to the earth.
Friday - Today was a great day. We visited with three of our most progressing investigators, One has her baptism scheduled for this Saturday, July 29, 2017. The other two are scheduled to be baptized early in August. Because both my companion and I are new to the area we went with a member, Eugene, to visit ward members. In order to get to one of the member's house we had to chop our way through super tall thick bush and cross multiple rivers. It was like I was hiking not proselyting. It was super cool! Afterwards we had to hike back all the way back to our apartment in the dark because it was DUMSO.

DUMSO means On Off in TWI- There is not enough electricity in Ghana to power the whole country so the government has to shut off power in certain areas for long periods of time. It happens at the worst possible moments,  it always happens when I am ironing my shirt or about to brush my teeth.  There is no underground piping in Ghana yet so outside our apartment we have a large poly-tank that stores city water. A water pump pumps water from the tank into our apartment. The pump is run on electricity so during DUMSO we have no water. One morning there was no electricity and no one in our flat could take showers. We had to fetch water from a well.

Saturday - We started off the day deep cleaning our apartment, partly because it seems like it hasn't been cleaned for months but mainly because we have a major insect problem. There are ants everywhere in the bathroom and cockroaches in the kitchen. The other two elders in my apartment have bed bugs. I helped them to bag up all of their clothes and boil them. We also moved their beds out of the flat and now they are sleeping on new mattresses on the ground. Everything here gets super dusty and dirty so you have to clean constantly. We had dinner at brother sam's house (the first counselor). It was my first time eating fufu in the field, every time I have it it tastes a little bit better. I asked my companion how long it took him to get used to the food and he said 6 to 8 months. I still have a long way to go but I am doing well. 

Sunday - We had three investigators at church and we have one baptism next weekend. My companion and I joined the ward choir.  Choir and music in general is very serious here. Everyone loves to sing especially loud!  We taught  a woman that only spoke TWI  so we had a member translate the whole lesson. It was very interesting and hard to follow but she seemed serious and accepted a baptismal date.

Elder Woplah's Birthday

Sometimes life in Ghana is like wilderness survival but it is always amazing. I know out of all the many missions this is the one for me. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be in Ghana for 2 years. I absolutely love it here. Love, Elder Ordyna  

The Elder Speakman Smile... Like Father Like Son

Three Hour Chapel Cleaning

Elder Woplah, Me, and Elder Speakman in the Apartment

Stirring Banku with Elder Nygren

Senior Missionaries of the GKM

There are wonderful Senior Missionaries that served with us in the Ghana Kumasi Mission. They helped in the office as well as giving us supplies and equipment for our apartments. 

Elder and Sister Templeton (Apartments, New Zealand), Elder and Sister Schow (Office, Utah), President and Sister Cosgrave (Mission President, Utah), Elder and Sister Wardle (Apartments, Utah), Elder and Sister Dearing (Apartments, Utah)

The following is from Brother and Sister Dearing:
Here are some pictures of your sweet sons. They are the most awesome missionaries ever. I am Sister Dearing and my husband and I are a senior couple here in the best mission ever in Ghana Kumasi. I am the mission nurse and my husband takes care of the temporal needs like apartments and anything else the missionaries need. We love these missionaries so much. They are such fine and wonderful young men. They serve the Lord with all their hearts. What great examples they are. I feel blessed to associate with them. I believe I can sneak a hug in.  May the Lord bless you all

Apartment Supplies 

I HIT MY ONE MONTH MARK

Hello Family and Friends!!!

I hope all is well back in the United States. Life here in Ghana is sweet and going by so fast!! It is crazy to think that last Saturday I hit my one month mark. This week was amazing.

Tuesday- I attended my first district council. There are four companionships in my district (8 elders). Elder Johnson is my district leader and he is from Utah. He is a really awesome guy. Apparently our district has been one of the most successful in the mission so President Cosgrave is coming to our district council tomorrow. In total my district had 26 investigators at church and scheduled to baptize 8 people this week. The work is going very well. After council we went to their apartment for lunch. We had stew and rice. I have probably eaten my body weight in rice so far. At first I couldn't stand it but now I am loving it. The food is super spicy so by the time I get home I will be able to eat anything. 

Wednesday- We taught our investigator Abigail. She is the daughter of the ward's first counselor and sister to a returned missionary. She is super close to being baptized and we finished lesson three with her. Her testimony of the gospel is so strong already. She has been to church more than a dozen of times and loves it. My companion and I hope that she will be baptized by the end of the month. We visited one of our investigators in the hospital because she wasn't feeling well and decided to buy some medicine from the village medicine man. Even though her husband told her not to she poured the medicine into her porridge. It turned out that it was poison. She was taken to the hospital and she asked for a blessing. It was the very first blessing that I have ever given. It was an amazing experience and the spirit was super strong in the room. Christiana (our investigator) has such a strong testimony of the gospel and hopefully should be baptized this month. 

Thursday- We taught Kwame and Hannah today. Kwame has become less and less serious every time we visit. He was talking about creating his own church where he would combing Christianity and Islam together and asked my companion and I if we would be the church preachers. Even though he acts like he is not serious, he told us that he is still praying every night to see if the Book of Mormon is true. Which gives us hope that one day he will receive his answer and become more serious. Hannah on the other hand is very serious and taking in everything that we teach her. But, she isn't progressing at all. She hasn't read the Book of Mormon, prayed, or come to church yet. We can't force her to come we can only encourage her. And that is exactly what we have tried to do. 

Friday- We had 8 new investigators today. We taught the Restoration five times. I now feel like I am a pro at the lesson one. Practicing really does help in all things, especially in teaching. As part of my new missionary training every day my trainer and I role play different situations and lessons. Practicing and studying has really helped me to teach better, feel more comfortable while I teach and to better be in tune with the Holy Ghost.

Saturday- We helped clean the chapel today. In Ghana chapel cleaning isn't just a simple vacuuming and dusting. It is a full on deep clean of everything. Because it is so dusty and dirty we have to sweep the whole church, mop it and wipe down all of the chairs, walls and tables. It took three and half hours to clean the whole the chapel. Afterwards we played futbol with some members for a little bit. 

Sunday- We had 8 investigators planning to come to church with us but after calling them and reminding them about church only two showed up. It was really disappointing but we met a man named Kojo. He said that ten years ago his friend invited him to church but never came. For the past couple of years he has been searching for the right church and hasn't found it. He was praying last week and remembered that his friend had invited him to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and came yesterday. He answered all the questions and was very powerful. We visited with him at his house after church and taught him the Restoration. He was so eager to learn everything and very attentive. At the end of the lesson we invited him to read and pray. Today we got a text from him telling us that he knows that the church is true and wants to be baptized. It has been one of the most spiritual experiences so far. 

I love you all and know that missionary work is lead by God. As we are obedient and work hard we will find people that are ready to hear the gospel like Kojo.

Love, Elder Ordyna

Kejetia (Kumasi Central Market)

APT Road to Apatrappa

Asuoyeboah Road

Amazing Sunset in Asuoyeboah

Elder Speakman and I Enjoying Some Fried Rice

Washing Clothes by Hand

Rain Storm

Soldier Man and His Chickens

Bishop Owusu's Family During Family Home Evening

Asuoyeboah Apartment (Elder Speakman, Elder Woplah, Elder Nygren and Me)

First Email in the Field

Hello friends and family,

This past week has been absolutely amazing. I finally met President and Sister Cosgrave. They are absolutely amazing. My trainer is Elder Speakman from southern Utah. Sadly, he won't be finishing my training because he is going home after this transfer and I will receive a second trainer. My first area is in the outskirts of Kumasi in the Asouyeboa area Asouyeboa ward 2. 

Both my companion and I are brand new in the area so we spent the first day meeting members and our progressing investigators. Our area is huge and we have to hike through the bush to get everywhere. Luckily there is a returned missionary named Sandra in our ward that has been showing us places. At the end of the transfer when Elder Speakman heads home I will be in charge of showing my new trainer around. So, I better learn the place really quickly or we will constantly be lost. 

The people of Ghana are the kindest and coolest people I have ever met. They are super religious and love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Every day while we are walking, we constantly have people walk up to us and ask about our church. In the past three days we already have thirteen new investigators. We have two baptisms scheduled for this month and four for next month. The church here in Ghana is absolutely exploding. It has been amazing. Every day is filled with lessons and talking to new people. I have been really tired from walking everywhere but it has been amazing sharing the gospel with people and bringing them closer to Christ. 

It has been very rainy these past couple of days and only a day in I fulfilled one of my mission dreams of being caught in a thunderstorm. We were out teaching an investigator that is really close to being baptized and it began to pour. We had to run under a roof and were camped there for thrity minutes until we decided that the rain would never stop so we walked to our flat with it pouring and lightning everywhere. It was awesome.  For lunch on the first day I had fried fish and yams. I ate the whole fish including the head. It reminded me of the InsideOut Acapella song "I hope they call me on a mission" when the little kid said that his uncle had to eat a whole fish, eyes bones and all. This week a goat chewed on my pants, I mashed fufu for a lady and washed one of our investigators clothes. What I have learned is that you honestly don't know what kind of things will happen next. It is always an adventure. 

Even though I have been called to preach the gospel in English sometimes it seems like really I'm not. I am doing much better understanding people's accents but everyone speaks Twi. On Saturday we were with our Ward Missionary Leader and we went to see one of our investigators named Juliet. The whole time our investigator and the Ward Missionary Leader were talking in Twi. Every so often the Ward Missionary Leader would translate into English. But even then the lesson was super hard. Yesterday at church all of the lessons and talks were in Twi so the whole time I didn't know what was going on so I just read my scriptures. ;) Luckily though, about three months missionaries usually are able to understand and speak a lot of Twi. 

Today I washed all of my clothes by hand for the first time and took a bucket shower because we ran out of water. Every day there is dumso. Which means that the power goes out for a certain period of time every day. I also played basketball today with my companion, zone leaders and the other two missionaries in my apartment. I am eating very well and keeping myself very healthy.

Missionary life is amazing and very rewarding. I hope all of you have a fantastic week!!

Love,

Elder Ordyna

Kumasi Airport

Asuoyeboah Apartment

Asuoyeboah Chapel

Elder Woplah, Elder Speakman and Me

Sister Christiana's (Investigator) Children

Elder Woplah's Birthday

Lunch First Day

KFC Tradition on Wednesday's After Mid Week

Back of a Tro-Tro

Mission President and Trainer

President and Sister Cosgrave (Mission President and Wife)

Elder Speakman (Trainer)

Missionaries and Trainers that Arrived Same Time as Me (TC's)

       Ghana Kumasi Mission

1)    Asuoyeboah 2 transfers

·      Elder Speakman (1 Cedar City, Utah)

·      Elder Mubenga (1 Democratic Republic of the Congo)

 

2)    Buokrum Kenyasi 3 transfers

·      Elder Buabin (1 Ghana)

·      Elder Bamba (2 Ivory Coast)

 

3)    Vatican City- Techiman 1 transfer

·      Elder Westfall (1 Boise, Idaho)

 

4)    The Office- Daban 4 transfers

·      Elder Moak (2 Provo, Utah)

·      Elder Schmidt (1 California)

·      Elder Dennis (2 Wyoming)

·      Elder Aye (1 Nigeria)

 

5)    Kwamo 3 transfers

·      Elder Smith (1 Rexburg, Idaho)

·      Elder Kamara (2 Liberia)

 

6)    Branch 2- Nkawkaw 2 transfers

·      Elder George (1 Sierra Leone)

·      Elder Etukudo (1 Nigeria)

 

7)    Ahyiem Branch and Freetown Ward- Konongo 2 transfers

·      Elder Skiba (2 Spanish Fork, Utah)