First Week of the New Year

Musah's Baptism (Brother Goodman, Musah, Elder Bamba and Me)

 Zone Conference- Dichemso

Dear Family and Friends!

Happy New Year!!! I hope the first week of the year treated everyone well! Our week didn't start so well. 

On Monday we headed into town to pull our money, email and buy our food for the next two weeks. We only go to town every other week because it is so far. We only go in the first place because everything out here in Kenyasi is $2-3 higher than in town. Well anyways we were pulling our money and the ATM took my companion's card. And of course, the bank was closed because it was on New Year's and Ghana was basically shut down. We had to go back into town the next day. We waited two hours for those guys to get my companion's card. 10 minutes in one of the workers told us that they are working on getting the card and it will be out very soon. Very soon here in Ghana means two hours. Time isn't really a thing here. You tell someone to meet you at 5 pm, they won't get there until 6:30 pm. It is the same thing for the branch members here in Kenyasi. We tell the members that we will have baptism at 4 pm and it won't start till 5:30 pm. As I look back though waiting for 2 hours at the bank wasn't even that bad. I was able to sit on a couch with A/C blowing on my face and a cookie in my mouth. Things that are very rare to find in Ghana. 

This week was pretty disappointing in the fact that only one of the people we were planning was baptized. We visited the other two on Wednesday. They have been seriously powerful and have been coming to church every Sunday for the past 2 months. It is just very hard to teach them because they don't speak any English. So, we need the members to come help but they aren't really motivated to do that kind of stuff. But, at the end of the lesson, they told us that they want to wait for small for baptism. I was shocked because just last Sunday they both came up to us after church and said that they want to be baptized. We will continue to meet with them and hopefully, they will be baptized here very soon. 

On the bright side, we were able to baptize Musah. One of our investigators that we have been working with to be baptized for a seriously long time. We scheduled a baptismal interview but he couldn't make it so the baptism was canceled. The next week he had the interview but couldn't make the baptism. The baptism was canceled once again. Finally, this past Saturday he was baptized! He is such a faithful young man and it makes me so happy to see how happy and glad he is to finally be a member of the church! He is very serious about everything and comes to Midweek, Chapel Cleaning, Church and is already almost halfway done with the Book of Mormon.

On Wednesday we headed to the chapel for the Branch's End of Year Party! There was music, fun, and of course food. Parties here in Ghana are taken very seriously. Let me just say that the branch used their whole budget of 2017 for this one activity. We even received 3 referrals from the members. So in my book as a missionary, the party was an absolute success!!!

We went contacting many times this week for new investigators. Contacting here in Ghana is basically just walking up and down the streets and just talking to whoever you see. You don't really go door to door because most people are outside already. But, whenever I go contacting the craziest stuff happens. We were walking down a street and out of nowhere a drunk man comes out and yells OBRONI!! And tells me that his name is Alexander the Great Opoku and that he wants to join our church. He told us this crazy story about him being lost at sea and then he had a dream that if he promised God that he would devote the rest of his life to living the Gospel then God would save them. So, now that he is alive and saved he wants to join the church. He ended by saying that his brother lives in the US. I asked him which state and he said that he wasn't sure but his brother's name was Barack Obama. I had a good laugh afterward. 

Things continue to go super well here in Kenyasi. I can testify that missionary work is God's work and I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life as a missionary as well as those I teach. I love each of you and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Ordyna