Hope all of you had a wonderful Easter being with family and celebrating our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My companion and I certainly had an event filled week full of stories, miracles, and other shenanigans. We did some serious teaching and helping people come unto Christ with some crazy things happening on a side. Every day was action filled and super exciting.
On Tuesday we went and met with Brother Dacosta who is now one of our recent converts. He was baptized two weeks ago and we met with him to just see how he is doing and to help prepare him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. He told us an amazing testimony about the church and even his baptism. He was praying before his baptism asking Heavenly Father to help him to have the urge to do any of the bad things that he used to do after he came out of the water. He told us that he knows that this is the true church because he felt something so unique at his baptism. And his prayer that he offered at his baptism was answered. He has completely left behind all of the old stuff he was doing and has no urge to go back to them. It has been seeing not only Dacosta but many of my other converts completely have life-changing moments during their baptisms. This gospel is real and this is truly Jesus Christ's church! That same day we also went and visited with the previous missionaries recent convert named Isaac. He is super cool and really smart and has such a great testimony of the church. But, we were hearing a lot of stories from some of the members that he was a crazy guy and he shouldn't have been baptized, to begin with. We were sick of hearing rumors and things of him so we decided to go out and meet with him to truly see what he is all about. We had a great lesson with him about the priesthood and then at the end of the lesson right after we finished the prayer we got into a conversation about his cardboard that he tapes to his face. On both sides of his face, he has a piece of cardboard taped to his face with packing tape. We asked him about it and we got a full-blown absolutely crazy story one-hour long story about it. He was in the UK army for two years and then got radiation poisoning while he was there. It caused some serious pains in his eyes and the only thing that helps is putting the cardboard there. Seems normal right? Well, there is a lot more to the story. To cut to the chase he believes that he now controls the stars in the sky and bad things are happening to him because of the radiation poisoning in the fact that he can only wear one pair of clothes because if he isn't careful people will come and take it away from him. Because of this, he has everything he owns in his backpack that he always carries with him and he can never wash his clothes or they will disappear as well. It sure was one of the craziest things I have ever witnessed but we did get a referral in the process so everything worked out quite well with that one. Isaac is now one of our best friends and told us that we are the only ones who he trusts with his deepest darkest secrets and basically wants us to come around every day now.
Wednesday we focused on a lot of our progressing investigators and the stories and shenanigans just continued. We headed to one old man named Nana who is really enjoying the church and is preparing to be baptized next week. We got to the part in Lesson 2 Plan of Salvation where we talk about the life on this Earth when he told us a testimony about the things we were teaching him. He said that he knew life was hard but God loves all of us so much and he always blesses us and helps us to have joy and happiness as we do what is right. To illustrate this point he then told us a story about his life. He said that one day when he was younger he and his friend needed some work to do. Then one day his friend came to him and said, 'Nana follow me out into the bush I found some work to do." Nana was so happy that they had found work and didn't think anything of it. Anyways when they get out there my investigator (Nana) found out that he was brought to a straight up JUJU man to be sacrificed to the Gods and then his friend would get a bunch of money from it. He ran as fast as he could through the jungle and then back to his house. The next day he turned his friend into the police and now he is in prison for the rest of his life. Moral of the story from the lips of my investigator is no matter what, God will always bless and save those that love him and obey him. Pretty sweet right? We then visited another one of our progressing investigators named Godfred who is also preparing himself to be baptized next week. He bore his testimony to us as well about the church and how the gospel is changing his life. He said that since he started coming to church he has seen some small small changes in his life. Things are lining up and going more in order. He was a complete drunkard and smoker and would bet all of his money away but now he has no urge to do any of those things ever again. He knows that it is truly God's church and has promised God in his prayers that he will never abandon His church at all no matter what happens.
Thursday and Friday were pretty slow days in the fact that we taught some great lessons and talked with some members. But, it was very crazy in the INBETWEEN LESSON department. Both days we came across the same guy in the same exact place at the same exact time and he had the same exact thing to tell us. He said that he hated us because we were telling lies about Jesus Christ and deceiving the whole people of Ghana. I have had many people tell me things like that out here in Ghana. Many people have terrible false views about the church out here. Many of their pastors and church leaders tell them lies about the church which isn't true at all. The funny thing is many of the pastors and false prophets out here in Ghana have read the Book of Mormon before and even use it to teach and have come to know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the truth but they spread lies and fantasy tales about it to make sure that their church members never leave and join the actual church of Jesus Christ. There sure is a lot of opposition that we have to fight as missionaries out here in the Land of Big Time Apostasy but the truth always prevails and no matter what happens the spirit always tells the truth and people will always be drawn to the truth in one way or another. We also had the wonderful pleasure of seeing crazy drunk people everywhere we went. Every single holiday Ghanaians love to drink to the point where they are so out of it they do not have any idea what is going on and that was definitely the case this Easter Holiday. But, the one highlight of it all was we were walking down the street when this one big old guy walks up to us and said I love you guys a lot. And we were like yeah we love you too man. And then I was completely unprepared for what happened next he then gives both of us a huge bear hug. We came to find out later that he was the son of the chief of Konongo. Now we can say that we hugged the Prince of Konongo and basically have free invitations to the chief's palace whenever we want. Our goal is to be like Ammon and his brethren by converting the whole town of Konongo by converting the chief first. I will update you on our endeavors with that one in the future.
Saturday we were able to proselyte with some members basically the whole day which was pretty sweet. We started the day at a YSA's named Tony. He is preparing for mission himself and called to tell us that he had a referral for us. We went there as fast as we could and met a guy named Oswald. He is super smart and knows a lot about the gospel. He even chastised us small for taking our shoes off before coming into his "PALACE". He likes to talk a lot and ask a lot of questions that is for sure. Not really sure how this guy will progress but at least we will try our best that is for sure. We then headed into the main town of Konongo to teach two kids that have been coming to church for the past three months with a member. We went with two young men and they taught the whole lesson in Twi with me and my companion paying attention to them the best we could. At this point, I can hear Twi very very well but speaking a lot of it is a problem while my companion is lost the whole time which is kind of funny. It was seeing how happy they were that we let them teach a whole lesson themselves. Both are preparing to go on mission pretty soon. In the evening we headed to the chapel for an Easter Activity with all of the youth in the branch and the ward. We watched the movie The Testaments and I had the wonderful privilege of giving a talk about The Atonement and How it relates to doing missionary work. I seriously love the gospel and was so pumped to inspire them to go on mission. I shared some experiences with them and realized how much I have learned and have loved every moment of my mission!
The last day of the week sure was the best day for last. It was Easter Sunday and my companion and I both woke up excited to be able to watch general conference. They had postponed the viewing of General Conference out here in Ghana till Easter Sunday for unknown reasons. So I was so happy to finally be uplifted and inspired by our wonderful church leaders. We left the apartment earlier than usual to get to the chapel to get a nice seat for the viewing. We were pretty early so we spent some time greeting and saying hi to members and our investigators. One of the biggest miracles this week was the fact that Michael came to church. He is one guy that we met a couple of weeks ago at our progressing investigator Godfred's house. He was super interested in our message but would not accept a Book of Mormon no matter how hard we tried. So, I didn't think anything of him. And then out of nowhere, he showed up to watch General Conference!! Everything was going so well until our Bishop announced over the pulpit that General Conference would be shown in TWI!!! I couldn't even believe it. Twi is the local language here in Ghana but isn't the mission language so they don't teach us anything. The only thing we learn is what we find out on our own, I can understand basic stuff but to sit in a full-on Twi meeting for two hours I would fall asleep before I received any great inspiration or anything. So, we basically just sat in the clerk's office watching it in English with it buffering every five seconds until 20 minutes in the internet connection just completely cut out. We then just hung out a little bit until all of the members were finished watching it in Twi and then we went in and watched it in English. While we there the patriarch invited us over to his house in the night and asked how many missionaries were in Konongo. We then walked to the house of a returned missionary named Stella. Before we went into her compound a young boy jumped off of a motorbike and ran to us. He said that he is interested in the church and wants to be a member. We gave him a pamphlet and told him to read it and we would come around later that week. We then went inside Stella's house and ate some sweet fufu with chicken and light soup a Ghana classic that I am really going to miss that is for sure!!! We then received two more new people to teach as well. We got introduced to two of her friends Nate and Mishak and now have plans to teach them tomorrow. Anytime we find a new place we find new people to teach which is sweet. We then received a call to go to another member's house. It is the first counselor in the bishopric and his son is our ward mission leader that just returned from his mission in Nigeria. He knew that we just came from an FM (free meal) and that we were then on our way to the patriarchs for one but he had no mercy on us. He then also made us eat. He locked the door and wouldn't let us out until we finished everything. IT was straight brutal that was for sure. And then after that, we were led to the patriarch's house. The first thing that he asks us is where are your companions? He wanted us to invite the other 7 missionaries in Konongo over to eat as well. We had no idea about that one and our jaws completely dropped. We did the best that we could to call them and get them over there but it was too late. He led us inside to his dining room and there was enough food for nine people!! My companion and I were already stuffed to the brim and didn't want to leave without eating anything so we forced ourselves to eat a mountain of food but we still didn't even take out a dent in all of it. We felt so bad but the patriarch just said don't worry about it next time. HE is such a powerful and spiritual guy. He has been a member of the church since the 1980s which is seriously a long time for a Ghanian. He was one of the pioneers of the church here in Kumasi. He was the first branch president in Konongo a year after he joined the church. He then became a counselor in the first stake presidency in Kumasi and then the second stake president and then he also served as mission president in South Africa with his wife and now he is the only patriarch in this part of Ghana. He is such a great guy. That Easter Sunday the members poured their thanks and appreciation out on us so much. We were stuffed to the point of vomiting as we walked back to our apartment.
It sure was such a great week filled with miracles around every corner and great things happening everywhere. Every day is such a new adventure waiting to be had and on mission every adventure is even sweeter because we are doing the Lord's work and doing all that we can to bring souls unto the Savior and Redeemer of the World.
Love you all,
Elder Ordyna
Elder Skiba and I enjoying a nice pizza at a place out here in Konongo called Gennex Pizza. Would definitely go to it again it was that good.
When general conference is broadcasted in English instead of Twi. Many members hate broadcasts because of the English. There are many people that are not educated and cant speak english that is one reason why they broadcasted general conference in Twi. Which I was actually pretty grateful about because we had some investigators there.
Me on the branch clerk's motobike nicknamed Gary
A glance at the four course meal for nine people my companion and I had to eat from the Patriarch and his family
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