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