Dear family and friends,
This week has been another week full of change and went by so fast!
On Wednesday I went to the mission home to pick up my "son" (the new missionary I will be training). There were 21 missionaries that left this transfer, and 24 new elders that came. There were 18 Americans, 5 French missionaries and 1 from Ghana. I was one of the "very lucky" ones and received one of the French missionaries. Which means that I will teach him English! His name is Elder Bamba and he is from Ivory Coast. President Cosgrave really wants to push my limits these next few transfers. I am a brand new district leader and training a French missionary in a difficult area. But, it will be a learning and growing time as well!
These past couple days have been very different for me. I have been the Junior Companion and relied heavily on my companion for guidance in contacting and teaching and followed his lead. But now the roles have completely flipped. Not only am I now the Senior companion but I have been teaching all of the lessons and doing much of the contacting which has helped me to grow but also has been different for me. My companion learned English for only 6 weeks in the MTC. His English is very limited but enough that we are able to communicate with him small. But, it is mostly with gestures and pointing at things. He has been very eager to learn and to participate in the lessons. He bears his testimony and invites our investigators to read the Book of Mormon and pray every lesson which I have been very impressed with. I am looking forward to the time that we have to serve with each other.
My last companion was from Ghana so he could speak Twi very well so many of our investigators only speak Twi no English. So I was really worried that we would lose a lot of our investigators because neither I nor my companion can speak Twi. But, the Lord has blessed us immensely with four new serious investigators that we were able to find this week. All of them came to church yesterday and are already really progressing. This Saturday we are planning for two baptisms which will be sweet.
One of the highlights of the week, I went to my first Ghana funeral last Saturday. A member of the branch died a couple weeks ago so we attended his funeral. Funerals in Ghana are unlike anything back in America. It is an all-out PARTY!! People are dancing all over the place, music was super loud. Usually, missionaries are not allowed to attend funerals because of how crazy they are but we got permission because our Branch President invited us and it was one of our church members. It was definitely a culture learning moment for sure. Let me just say that I will never forget it.
Hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Ordyna
 |
| Father and Son- Elder Bamba and Elder Ordyna |
No comments:
Post a Comment