Being in The World but Not of the World

Dear family and friends,
Being on the mission and this past week I have definitely experienced this quote. "As missionaries, we live according to a set of standards that are higher than back home. That is so we can have the spirit to be with us all of the time." It has also been an amazing experience to live the mission standards and feel the impact of doing so. On the mission, you experience everything, like everything. We see the most awesome things but also the weirdest and craziest things.

We had a multi-zone activity this past week in Sunyani. After the activity, we were assigned to sleep in the Fiapre apartment. The apartment is right above Joker's Pub, and they play loud music all night long. All night for hours you have to listen to some crazy African songs half of which are in Twi. It was seriously annoying and obnoxious, but it was classic. On almost every corner Ghana has a pub or "spot" as they are officially called here. And at night they are an absolute party. People are dancing, talking, drinking and playing music super, super loud. If I could pick any of the missionary lessons to go and teach it on TV so that everyone in the county could hear it would definitely be The Word of Wisdom. We meet like two drunk people a day.

Me and Elder Smith making pineapple stew. The absolute best recipe that I ever made on mission so far!!

We are planning to baptism three people this week. Sister Dorkis and Brother Kwabena are two super powerful investigators that have come to church every Sunday for the past three weeks. The other man, his conversion, and baptism is an absolute miracle. He is what I guess missionaries call The Golden Investigator. From the second he started meeting with missionaries, he knew the church was true and that The Book of Mormon is true. The only thing holding him back was his deep anti-religious feelings because he had bad experiences with churches before. Like I have shared before in previous emails many of the churches in Ghana are super Apostate. There is the gift of tongues stuff, and the pastors take all of the members tithes for themselves. Missionaries have been meeting with Sarkodie for the past year. We had a short lesson with him this morning. We were expecting to walk in there and help resolve some of his concerns, but out of nowhere, he said Elders I think it is about time that I baptize. I was so shocked that I didn't even know what to say. We basically just told him that we were super happy for him and that we knew he was making the right choice. We have been praying for him every day since I have come to Techiman. Sunday will be one of my happiest days on the mission with the three baptisms. I have loved Techiman so much and have had such a great experience on my mission so far.
Hope everyone has a great week and I will talk to you next week!!!

Love,
Elder Ordyna