The Town is Heating Up - Feb. 19-25, 2019

Hey all!!

You get to hear from me once more today. After today you only get to hear from me 15 more times which I know is so sad for all of you.

I don't even know where to begin. This week was seriously indescribable. We are making things happen out here in The Town and things seem to be happening all at once.

The beginning of the week was really somehow though. Elder Musudi and I proselyted and had some pretty rough days. Lessons falling through, members cancelling at the last second to come translate for us and a lot of other things happened. But, on Thursday the great things started as President Webster drove all the way from the Mission Home to Nkawkaw to drop off Elder Etukudo after a week of resting in the mission home. From the second he stepped foot in this place miracles started to happen.

The first day we were together we were able to meet with two new investigators that I had to tried to get a hold of but were never around. I called them and called them but they would never pick or would tell us that they were too busy to have us come by. But, when I called them with Elder Etukudo they instantly agreed for us to come by and teach them. It was a man named Reuben and his boss Chico. They own and take care of a huge chicken farm. I have never seen so many chickens running around in my life. We were able to teach them a pretty sweet lesson one and they asked us some really great questions. I have to be honest, the smell of the chickens was pretty distracting but, throughout my mission I have really learned how to stay focused and teach no matter what is going on around us. It is a forced skill to learn out here that is for sure. One of our other investigators also shared with us that she has received an answer to her prayers and knows 100% that The Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Lord's true church. She said that one night she had a dream. In the dream fire balls were falling from the sky. She was trying to find a place to hide to protect her from the fire when she saw three kids in the distance tell her to come. The children led her to a big house for protection. She didn't understand the dream at all until she came to church for the first time. She said that our chapel was the house that she saw in her dream and that the three little kids are members in the branch!!

On Saturday we headed out to chapel cleaning. I told my new companion a lot about the branch and how nobody shows up for cleaning it is just the four missionaries. I let him know that he should prepare for some serious work because we would most likely be the only ones that will come. We will have to clean the whole chapel ourselves. Before we went we discussed it and made up the agreement that if we go and we are the only ones we won't go again but if we go and there are plenty of members there then we will continue to attend. When we arrived at the chapel I couldn't believe my eyes. For the first time ever we were not the ones to open the chapel for chapel cleaning right at 8 am. There were 6 members that were already there cleaning the place. It was seriously awesome! The branch and the members are really changing small small in the right direction. We were also able to have some seriously great lessons with two new investigators Esther and a boy named Felix. We also headed up the mountain to Mpraeso for a baptismal interview. The man that we went interview wasn't around so we walked around the town and talked to people small about the gospel and then about an hour later we went back to the house and he still wasn't around. So, basically we spent three hours up there for no apparent reason or so I thought. Until we received the PHONE CALL from a MEMBER!! He said that he had two referrals for us that will come to church the next day and then also that another member also had a referral for us that second. It was the first time I have received a referral from any of the members out here. It was right at the right time too because we were just coming down the mountain and was able to go straight to the members house and teach a powerful lesson. After many prayers and efforts we are starting to see a big change in the branch and in the members!! Their hearts are softening towards us and they are starting to have a serious spirit to go out and do missionary work. 

The best day of the week was Sunday. Five of our progressing investigators came to church. They are all doing well and love the church but they each have their own problems. We found out last week that the family we found out in the bush hasn't married yet which is a huge problem. In Ghana marriages take months to happen so I probably won't be here for when they are baptized but I am at least paving the way and setting their foundation in the church. Our others have word of wisdom problems and other concerns that we are doing all that we can to help them overcome. But, the great news is that we also had two men that Brother Joe brought to church with him as promised. They were very interested and loved everything that they experienced at church. Our teaching pool has more than doubled this past week and we will hopefully be having some baptisms in the coming weeks. In the evening we were able to have a seriously spiritual and powerful lesson with one of the referrals that came to church named Brother Collins. He is super soft heartened and really open to the gospel. He told us that for the past 2.5 years one of his friends has been talking to him about the church and inviting him to come but he never came. He heard a lot of bad things about the church like most Ghanaians. About how we are a cult and worship Satan and a whole lot of other stuff. All of the pastors out here spread false rumors about the church that make many people scared to come. But, Collins decided that Sunday was going to be the day that he came to see for himself if what they were saying were true. He told us that he more than happy with what he saw at the church. He felt total joy and happiness while he was there and said that he wants to come join us every single day!! 

This week was definitely one to never forget. It was full of miracles and amazing blessings. We have been able to see our efforts and hard work out here in The Town come to fruition and has resulted in amazing things!!

Love you all!!!

Elder Ordyna

P.S- I know I have promised you many pictures but for now I just have a couple. Hopefully they will be able to hold all of you over until next week.

Here are some selfies and some pictures of the scenery for your viewing pleasure.

Scenery of Nkawkaw

Elder Westfall (previous companion) and I at MLC in the mission home

Selfie of me in the Nkawkaw Zone Leader Apartment

THE TOWN aka Nkawkaw - Feb. 12-18, 2019

Feb. 12-18, 2019

Family and Friends!!!

Hey all! Hope everything is going well for each one of you. Hope you are especially enjoying this long weekend.

 The work continues out here in The Town (aka Nkawkaw). I wanted a cool nickname for my area and instantly thought about the Warriors slogan The City and thought it would be perfect for Nkawkaw. But then I realized that this place is more like a town than a city so I had to settle with The Town. Haha sorry, I am really missing basketball right now. All they watch and play out here is soccer. Anyways things have been really progressing out here and my area is getting a lot better. We are finding people to teach and are even seeing some small progress with the members. 

The week started off with the one and only transfer day. We got the tro all ready to go and embarked on the great journey through the wild bush of Eastern Region to Kumasi. I said goodbye to my old companion Elder George and was ready to receive my new companion when President Webster said that I would be staying at the mission home that night and would be going with my new companion to the hospital the next day. I was completely not expecting that news. I had to send off the new missionaries to the zone with their companions in the tro without us. That night I was able to chill and enjoy in the mission home as well as eat nice American food at Aboude's. The next day I found out that my companion had a sprained ACL and had to stay off his feet for 7-10 days. So, I headed back to The Town with a temporary companion (Elder Musudi from DR Congo) until my assigned companion is cleared and able to get back to work. Last night President Webster called me and said that hopefully this Thursday we will be traveling to the mission home to pick up my assigned companion. 

A lot of surprises and unexpected events occurred this last week but did not hinder the Lord's work at all out here. We have been seriously working on the members so much these days with barely any progress. A lot of the members don't want anything to do with us or missionary work. With the help of the Branch President and the Elders Quorum President, we have been able to implement a program where we meet with a family from the branch every Monday night for FHE where we train them in missionary work. Tonight is our first visit. We will see how it goes. Hopefully little by little we are able to get these members pumped up and excited about missionary work. It is like waking up an elephant. A lot of hard work but very doable.

Now that the other Elder's area is shut down and the areas are merged, we are starting to see a lot of progress. We currently have about three investigators that are preparing to be baptized in the coming weeks. But each one has their own problems and concerns that we are trying our best to help them overcome. The first is Doris, she is coming to church off and on. She won't read the Book of Mormon or pray about it. She doesn't have a testimony of these things but is just coming to church because her brother is. She has told us many times that she wants to be baptized and join the church, but we are continuing to help her increase her faith in Jesus Christ and build her testimony of the Restored Gospel. Secondly, we have Charles who has a very big drinking problem. I have been working with him since I have been serving here, and we are seeing some serious improvements. He is drinking less and I am praying for him every day. He is really willing and committed to stopping. It is just a matter of time. Lastly, we have Sister Owusuwa. Right now, she is cohabitating with her husband who is a member. That is one of the biggest problems we see out here. In order to get married here in Ghana the man has to pay a "bride price" to the family of the bride. Most of the time it is really big and basically impossible to pay so instead of paying many couples just stay together without ever actually marrying. The branch president and the other leaders are doing all that they can to help the couple to pay the bride price and be legally married so she can be baptized. 

This week we also had a super amazing and special miracle. A couple of weeks ago in my letters, I wrote about the story of the man we found sharpening his cutlass. Well, we have been able to go over to his house and teach him a couple of times. He has really been loving what we are sharing and has really felt the spirit during our discussions. And yesterday he brought his whole family to church! Him, his wife and his three little children. After church, he met with the branch president and some other branch leaders and told them that he really loved the church and wants his whole family to be members of such a wonderful church. We will continue to go and share with him and help him to prepare for his baptism! It was such a wonderful day and an absolutely amazing end to such a crazy week! I know that God directed and guided us to Kofi 100%. Trust me we would never have found him otherwise, we walked a long time and plus we were out in the middle of nowhere. I also know that we found Kofi at the time best for him. He was prepared by God to receive us and the Gospel of Jesus Christ right now. He had a lot of questions about churches in the world and didn't have any church to go. It was at this time of confusion in his life that we, the missionaries, came and helped him to understand and feel the right way to go. I love this work so much and am so grateful to be a missionary especially out here in The Town.

Love you all so much! Enjoy the week!

Elder Ordyna

Sadly, I don't have any pictures this week. I promise I wlll have plenty next time!

More Travel and FM's - Feb. 5-11, 2019

Feb. 5-11, 2019

The Powerful Nkawkaw District before transfers

Hey All!

Another great week has come and gone. Things have been a little busy and hectic over here on my side but as usual, everything has also been amazing.

The zone kept us busy as usual this past week with business, but it was the best business possible! 2 Baptismal Interviews for our district leader in Mpraeso. We sacrificed a lot to go up there twice, but it always makes me so happy to see the other missionaries in my zone having success! And of course, going out to Asakraka and Tafo (two villages in their area where the baptismal interviews took place) never disappoints. There is always crazy stuff going on out there. Let me just say that Tafo is the juju capital of Eastern Region. 

On Wednesday we embarked on our long journey to Kumasi for Mission Leadership Council. The trip usually takes three hours but this one took FIVE hours. In order to get to Kumasi, we have to take a sprinter (basically a big 22 seater van) where they pack everyone in. You have to make sure that you are in a comfortable position before the journey begins because once everyone is inside you basically can't move even an inch. "LUCKY" for me I got pinned in between two huge old ladies and one even slept on my shoulder. We stopped at basically every single station and village in between Nkawkaw and Kumasi to let people out and in. Plus, we got into a really, really old car that didn't have enough speed to even pass a super slow lumber truck. So, for most of the journey, we were just chilling behind super slow trucks going super slow as well. The plus side of all of this was that I was able to stop in Kwamo (one of my previous areas) to get a haircut and see some members. It was amazing to see the Promised Land of Kwamo once again and my beloved members and recent converts there!! 

FM at Sister Jennifer's house

 FM with the district at the Relief Society President's house in branch 1

 Thursday, I sat in the mission home all day during MLC. It gave me a lot of encouragement and spirit to go out and help my zone members this upcoming transfer. It was a really inspiring meeting. It is always a blessing to receive counsel and advice from President Webster! On a great note, the Sweet Konongo Zone is once again the highest baptizing zone in the mission which is pretty awesome! We left the mission home at 7 pm to head back to Nkawkaw. We didn't get back home until after 10 pm and then we also had to carry boxes of pamphlets and Books of Mormon to the apartment. I am always relieved when MLC is finished. Got another month till the next one.

Branch 2 Missionaries with the Branch president Adwoeni and Young Men's President Abdulahi

FM at Brother Abdulahi's house

The last couple of days of the week were spent saying good-bye to members and investigators and chopping great food from them. We received word last Saturday that I am the only one staying here in Nkawkaw Branch 2. All of the other three elders will be going on transfer. Plus, there is a shortage of missionaries in the mission right now so they decided to shut down the other elders' area out here. Which means that my companion and I will be the only missionaries in the entire branch which will be great and should really help us with the work. I will receive my new companion on Wednesday at transfers.

This next transfer should be another great one of doing the Lord's work! I hope that we will be able to have more success than we did last transfer and that the zone will be able to continue to work hard! We have been really trying to coordinate efforts with the District President as well as the members to really get the work moving. We have come up with some great ideas and programs to help unify members and missionaries in the work. We are planning to have a District-wide Missionary Fireside to get members pumped up for missionary work as well as a program where we will meet with members Monday nights for FHE and teach them from the Preach My Gospel how to teach their friends and neighbors the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am excited to see the results!

IT IS TIME FOR MEMBERS AND MISSIONARIES TO WORK TOGETHER IN NKAWKAW!!!

Love,

Elder Ordyna

P.S- My 20th-month mark is on Friday. See you all in four months!!!

 Fufu and groundnut soup (the favorite dish in Ghana) 

The Week of Finding and Progress - Jan. 29-Feb. 4, 2019

Jan. 29-Feb. 4, 2019

Another week out here finished just like that. 2019 is going by super-fast.

My week was super busy and pretty awesome. The area is still suffering small small but we also had some miracles that are adding to the progress of the area.

 

Travel to Kumasi for Zone Conference

The week started with the whole zone heading out to Kumasi Tuesday morning for zone conference. We had to wake up at 5 am and leave Nkawkaw at 6 am to get there on time. There was some serious traffic on the road but luckily, we were able to make it on time. I had the "pleasure" of instructing at the zone conference on how to be an effective missionary. It was a great and uplifting conference.  We talked a lot about improving the mission culture and striving every single day to be better than we were yesterday. Afterward, I had my interview with President Webster. It was a seriously crazy one because he talked about his plans for me for the rest of my mission. I only have three more transfers (18 weeks) which is super crazy. It looks like I will be zone leader for one more transfer and then end my mission training a new missionary!!! It should be awesome!

Wednesday and Thursday were days full of just straight contacting and walking the dusty roads of Nkawkaw trying to find people to teach. As we exercised faith and relied on the Spirit we were guided and directed to people that were ready to receive us. The first was a young girl named Dora. She told us that missionaries had come to her house numerous times and taught with her, but she didn't have any desire to do anything they told her. She was comfortable at her church and what she was doing in life. I guess she has seriously softened her heart a lot because she was willing to listen to us and even read the Book of Mormon. We even gave her a baptismal date. At the end of the lesson, she told us that she now feels something different with us than other missionaries in the past and wants us to continue to visit her! Sadly, she wasn't able to come to church, but we will hopefully make progress with her this time around! As we were finding on Thursday it got to the point where we would stop for a second at each intersection and ask each other what direction do you think we should go? And then would walk down the path that we felt was right. We did this for 20 minutes or so and at this point, we were out in the middle of nowhere. We were walking on a straight bush trail that eventually led to some houses and then split into two. I thought we were completely lost at this point and just wasted time by coming all the way out here, but then we were inspired to go down the path on the right which led to more bush. About one minute down the trail we ran into a guy that was just sharpening his cutlass on a rock. We introduced ourselves to him and then told him that we were missionaries like we always do. We then found out that he has been searching for a church to attend for a while now. As soon as we heard that we were both super excited. (Everyone goes to church here in Ghana and it is super hard for people to stop going to their church and come to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints even for just a one day visit.) We set up an appointment to meet with him and we gave him a Book of Mormon. The next day we headed out to his house and met the whole family! We had an amazing lesson with him and his wife and the spirit was so strong. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but he said that this next Sunday he will bring his whole family to church. Lastly, while we were just walking around a random man called to us named Sampson and said that he was investigating the church in Kumasi and he just recently moved to Nkawkaw and wanted to know where the church is. We gave him directions and then even set up an appointment with him this coming week. 

With the help of the Lord, we were able to find a lot of sweet people that I hope as we meet with them and they feel the spirit and even come to church they will progress and come to know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and even prepare themselves to be baptized. Every day we are seeing more and more progress in the area. The hand of God is in this work and preparing people every day for us to find and bring unto Him.

Even on Saturday and Sunday, we had two successful meetings that I hope will also bring blessings and progression to the area. On Saturday my companion and I met with the District Presidency to discuss missionary work in the district. We came up with a lot of powerful ideas to get the work moving around here and hopefully as they are put into place, we will see some great results. Yesterday after church we also had our branch council meeting. The meeting was themed on missionary work. We were able to talk about each one of our investigators and their needs and even able to set up appointments with members to come with us and teach them this week. 

This week we made many steps in the right direction and hopefully we will see some results in the coming weeks!!

TILL NEXT WEEK!!!!

Elder Ordyna