The End of The Office GKM

Elvis and his powerful family

I don't have much time tonight. We still have to go out and finish weighing bags and things for the missionaries going home tomorrow. I just wanted to get on real quick and talk about this next transfer because I know I won't have time the rest of this week. My reign here in the great and powerful GKM Office is coming to an end this week. This Wednesday is another round of transfers. At this point on mission, transfers seem like they come and go now. This will be my fifth area and 11th companion in 11 transfers. I will be going to Kwamo as a zone leader to be with Elder Smith. He is a powerful guy from Rexburg, Idaho. We served with each other in the same apartment in Techiman when he was my zone leader, and he also trained one of the missionaries that came on mission at the same time I did.

 

Bishop Bonsu and the First Counselor and his wife the Brobbey's

Investigators Morfrid, Benjamin and Prince

Michael and Martin

Cosmos and Edward

Francis Archer

Roland, Jennifer, and Francis Archer

                                       

Brother and Sister Brobbey

Farewell FM at Ma Konadu's

Members, Members, Members

Family Home Evening at the Schow's (senior couple serving here in GKM)

Hey everyone!!

This week was certainly focused on members and how we as missionaries can better work with members to bring even more souls unto Christ. Members are key to success in missionary work. I love working with members because they make the work fun and enjoyable and also a lot easier. 
We started with an amazing zone conference centered on teaching skills and finding. It was my first zone conference with President Webster instead of President Cosgrave. It certainly had a different feel, but President Webster was great, and the spirit was strong.  I definitely learned a lot. He showed a video of President Ballard's talk during the Mission President Training this year. He talked about the different ways of finding. The one that really hit me was the one on members. He stated that the two main reasons why members don't do missionary work are because they are scared, or they don't fully understand the importance of missionary work. It was really interesting to hear. Through this zone conference, my companionship and I have made goals this week to involve more members in the work.

 Eating fufu at the Gyamfi's (family in the ward)

We continued to go out with Brother Elvis, a member in the Ward and of course that brought a lot of wondering blessings in the proselyting section. He was able to show us one of his family friends. It was a mother with two of her sons. They are so ready for the gospel. They told us about how they were bouncing from one church to another and couldn't find one that they truly loved and wanted to stay. During the first lesson, we talked about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ they were really touched at what we were saying. They even came to church this past Sunday and said that they absolutely love the church and they felt something there and knew that it was the church for which they were looking. Through the use of a member, we were able to find a family that is ready for the gospel and are progressing very well because of the fellowshipping and friendship the member is showing to them.

All Africa Service Project was pulling weeds and chopping down bush at Bantama Stake chapel.

Another experience we had this week with members is attending an All-Africa service project at Bantama Stake Center. We split up into groups and went out to weed places along the Bantam overpass leading to Sofoline. It was an amazing activity. We were able to spend time with members while having a lot of fun serving and helping people. Spending time with members and getting to know members is a great first step to building great relationships with members. 
Lastly, this last Monday we planned a Ward football activity where we invited members to invite their friends and to come and play a fun football match. It was seriously very enjoyable, and three members invited their non-member friends to play. And we received a lot more people to teach. Activities like these provide a great and easy way for members to invite friends and to introduce them to other members and the church. 
This week was seriously so productive and effective. Working with members was absolutely amazing and so fruitful. We added like five new people to our teaching pool that already have the foundation and support in their member friend that will help them to come to church and continue to support and strengthen them. This week was great, and I invite all of you to work with your ward missionaries and help your friends and family to come unto Christ!! Love you all! Elder Ordyna

Kumasi Traffic

The Mini Chair

Teaching Investigators with Brother Elvis

Investigators at Church

Internet Failure

Zone Conference With President and Sister Webster 

Long time my guys!!

I know it is surprising, but even here in the office, we have an internet failure. The internet has been out for the past week here in the mission home, and it has just come back. So, now I can email. It was another seriously busy week here in the office. As we get nearer and nearer to the end of the transfer, it seems like things are getting busier and busier and time is going faster and faster. My reign here in the office is about to close, and a new chapter will open in my mission. I am getting to the point where everything I do is my last here. 

This week was another great week. We didn't have much time to proselyte. Only were able to see our progressing investigators. But, we did meet a new powerful investigator named Junior who was able to come to church this past week and said that he loved it. He was one of Elvis's smoking buddies a couple of years ago. Junior has told us how Elvis and another one of his friends Michael have been such great examples and role models for him through the years and especially recently as they both baptized. Junior told us that he knows the gospel of Jesus Christ can change lives and he wants to have the same happiness and joy Elvis and Michael have had. He is keeping all of his commitments and even comes to Elvis's house every night to read the Book of Mormon with him. It has been amazing to see the real effects of members in missionary work. They can really help and motivate investigators so much! 

This week we continued to enjoy here in Daban. On Monday we had a zone activity where we played games and had a district talent show. Later that night, we went over to the Schow's for Family Home Evening. They are the senior couple working in the office. I had my first hot dog in over a year there which was seriously amazing. Elder Schow was a professor of religion at BYU for years and has so much gospel knowledge. He gave us a great discussion/lesson on the importance of symbolism in the scriptures. Lastly, we were invited again to the Brobbey's house this week for another party. This time it was for Brother Brobbey's birthday. We had a water fight and a cake fight which was a lot of fun. Here in Ghana if it is your birthday every one around you tries to spray you with water. It is basically a lot like smingus dingus (Polish holiday). 

A mission is filled with a lot of depressing moments and hard times, but the majority is so much fun and absolutely amazing!!

Elder Ordyna

Getting Brother Brobbey wet on his Birthday

Elder Momotimi, Elder Banta, Elder Blanchard and I at Abode's

Getting the Mail

Teaching under a Mango Tree

Anything for GKM

July 31-Aug. 9, 2018

Album cover- ANYTHING FOR GKM

Hey people!

Hope everyone has had a great and exciting week. My week sure was a mixture of exciting and busy. I have learned many wonderful things and have experienced so many great memories while I have been here in the office. In three weeks will be my six-month mark here. I have officially come up with the catchphrase "Anything for GKM!!" When we have to go and do something hard or super time consuming here in the office, we just say anything for GKM, and it helps us to go and do. It is going around the whole mission now which is pretty sweet. 

Elder Aye and I are eating enchiladas made by Sister Webster. Her and President Webster were away for the weekend at Sunyani District Conference, and we received a text that they needed us to go in and eat the food or it would spoil by the time they got there. They are the nicest people. And it wasn't just enchiladas it was an array of items that I hadn't had for over a year. It was amazing.

How many missionaries can you fit inside the mission van? You can't see them all, but we managed to fit 15 of us in there!

I am proud to say that this week was my last MLC in the office. MLC is when all of the zone leaders around the mission come to the mission home for a meeting with the assistants and President Webster. And we office elders are in charge of getting all of the supplies and distribution items ready for them. So beginning even the day before we are rushing to get all of the supplies prepared and separated out to their various zones. It is a madhouse after MLC as well. Basically, a bunch of zone leaders with their heads cut off. We are always relieved and grateful when it is all said and done. 

Typical evening Kumasi traffic

On Saturday I had the opportunity to leave my area and head out to Bantama for an exchange with my zone leader Elder Dhlamini. He is a great guy from South Africa. The day was a lot of fun. We got along very well, and it was great getting to know him better. But, overall the day was pretty hard. We had a bunch of lessons planned, but all of them fell through. So, our backup was to contact basically all day. I really do not like contacting at all, but it was very enjoyable this time because we were also with a great member. Bantama is the heart of Kumasi. The area has the huge market called Kejetia. Before we knew it, we had contacted all the way down into the deep market. That place is basically like a black hole. Once you go in it is seriously hard to come back out. 

Kejetia Market

We were in heavy people traffic and then we were finally able to find a "yellow-yellow" or "praggia." Type auto rickshaw into Google to see a picture. That was an ultimate mistake. I would honestly have to say it was one of the scariest drives of my life. We were in a small tricycle basically with huge trucks and cars everywhere. 

We finally made it out and continued on our way. We then got a call from Nkoransa one of the areas in the zone, and the missionaries there were asking for reimbursement and some supplies. So we had to take an hour tro ride out there and then give them the supplies and then another hour back to Bantama. We didn't get home from the exchange till 10 pm. It sure was one of my more memorable and adventure filled exchanges. 

We went to the Brobbey's house after church on Sunday to celebrate their one year wedding anniversary. He is the 1st counselor in the Bishopric, and she served her mission here in Kumasi.

Sunday was absolutely amazing as well. It was fast, and testimony Sunday and the room was absolutely packed full of chairs. We will need to get a new chapel because Daban Ward is growing so much! The members are full of energy and spirit to do missionary work and to bring their friends to church which is amazing. Very soon we will have more than one ward here in Daban! One of our investigators went up and bore his testimony about how he was driving his "motoking" (also look this one up on google to see what it looks like) and transporting a huge fridge in the back of it when he hit a pothole and the whole bike tipped over and the fridge landed on his leg. At that very moment, he prayed to God and asked Him to help heal his leg and make sure everything would be ok because he really wanted to make it out to church the next day. And God heard his prayer, and his leg was healed, and some men came over and helped get the fridge off of him and the next day he was up bearing his testimony about it at church. His name is Morfrid, and he is progressing super well. He doesn't do well with English, but he says that when he reads the Book of Mormon the Spirit really helps him to understand what he is reading about and because of that he now has a testimony of this gospel and the Book of Mormon. We have even received another referral from one of our members named Felix. He is 18 years old and said that he wanted to find another church because every time he went to his old church, he had a bad feeling. The member invited him to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and then we asked him how he felt afterward and he said amazing and knew it to be the church of God. He is also progressing very well and has gained a testimony for himself that the Book of Mormon is true.

Us with Brother Elvis and his family at KFC. His wife Eunice just recently graduated from Teacher's Training University, so we took her and the family to KFC to celebrate.

I know the Lord is blessing us for our diligence in trying to proselyte despite all of the many office tasks that we have. There have been so many miracles occur in this area even though we only have limited time to go out and see our investigators. We are planning to have five baptisms my last week in this area which would be absolutely incredible. I know this is God's work and he is mindful of our efforts and knows the sacrifice and desire we make to serve Him.

Picture of Daban (my proselyting area). At the time of this picture, we were teaching a man named Jonah on the top of his house.

For all of you going back to school hope it is a great first week!!

Elder Ordyna