Elder Ordyna - Ghana Kumasi Mission: T-6 Weeks - Get the Work Done

Greetings from Africa!!!

Today I begin my last transfer ever out here in Ghana! Only six more weeks until I am back on American soil! Crazy to think that I have survived almost two years out here. I count myself blessed that I am able to email to all of you today. At this point in my mission, I have probably almost died or gotten seriously hurt like over 10 times by now. The motto that I have been telling myself since I hit 18 months is "It's not over yet! Get the work done!" And every day since then I have been doing all that I can to finish as strong as possible and get the work done!!

We had another fantastic week out here in Konongo. The Sticky Bandits are still killin it and people are coming out of the woodworks to find us. Konongo is just so fertile and rich right now. The Spirit is really working in a lot of people in this place. We can't even walk somewhere without someone asking us who we are or how they can join the church. This last week we probably met at least ten new people that seem super interested in the church. That is the one thing that I love so much about Ghanaians. They are the kindest people in the whole world. You can walk up to one and they will start having a conversation with you on the spot. They love the gospel so much so it isn't really about helping them know that the gospel is true but more about helping them to know which church is true.

When it came to baptisms this week we had a couple of disappointments actually a lot of disappointments. We were planning to baptize five last week. At the last second one traveled to his hometown because his dad died, another one told us that he needed more time and then the other two we were unable to get the permission of their parents to baptize them. But, through all of those disappointments, we were able to rise above and beyond them and baptized the happiest old man alive Godfred Yeboah!! He has come to church now for two or three months. The coolest part is that he is the father of one of my recent converts from Kwamo. He was referred to us after he heard that I was headed to Konongo. It has been absolutely amazing teaching Godfred and seeing him change as he has practiced the gospel in his life. He always tells us that he was one of the drunkards until we shared the gospel with him and it made him change his ways. He is so happy all of the time now and bore a powerful testimony yesterday that he knows the church is true. Definitely one of my favorite recent converts ever!

One of the highlights of the week was getting confronted by the same crazy man three times all in the same place. In Ghana, they just have crazy people running around the streets. They don't take them away to an asylum or anything they just leave them just like that on the streets to find their own way to survive. I always feel so bad whenever I see one but most of the time it can also be super interesting whenever you see them. They are so unpredictable and you have no idea what could happen next. Some just run around naked all day while others stand in the middle of the road pretending to direct traffic and almost getting hit by every car that passes by. But, when they see two white guys coming their way that is when it is basically game over for us. The same guy came to us like three times this last week. The first time we were passing by and he wouldn't let Skiba around him so I yelled at him to go away. The next time the guy followed us for like ten minutes to our investigator's house. When we got to the house a huge "mommy" (an old lady) came to our rescue and yelled at the guy to leave us alone. And then lastly he was waiting for us around a corner and as soon as we rounded the corner he came and clasped as hard as he could to my arm. I tried to release my arm but the guy had like a death grip on it. Our member tried to drag him away but the guy came right back. It took three times for our member to finally drag him away. Just some normal daily stuff.

COOL STORIES-

Saturday we went out to one of our member's houses in the evening for some food and a lesson. She is the branch's relief society president so we also chatted with her about the women and to coordinate the work better. As we were leaving her house to go home we came across a guy that had gotten his tro-tro stuck in a ditch. We came up and helped him to push his car out. Afterwards, he offered to give us a ride to our apartment. It was such a blessing because we were even out of cash and our zone leaders also didn't have any money to reimburse us for the week's travel. So the guy gave us a free drive that would usually cost 6 cedis. We started to talk to him and even gave him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet to read. The very next day we got a call from him saying that he read our books and want us to come to his place this week to answer some of his questions. A pretty sweet miracle. We will see where it leads to. Out here in Ghana, we don't have a problem with teaching lessons or finding new people to teach. Those are no problems. The biggest deal is finding someone that is super serious and willing and ready to leave behind their church and normal lifestyle to change and join the true Chruch of Jesus Christ on the earth. As Elder Skiba and I go out each day and do all that we can to do the work of the Lord we are blessed in all things. We are guided and directed to people that will receive us and even we have people come to us.

About an hour after church yesterday we received a call from a man named Osmond. He was expecting us to call him but we never did. Neither my companion nor myself knew who he was. We set up an appointment to meet with him at the chapel. He was there right at 1:30 pm and was so eager to meet with us. He said that he had met us walking down the street a couple of weeks ago and we gave him a pamphlet but we didn't call him or do anything else with him. My comp and I both felt so bad and apologized to the guy. I had no idea when or where we met him. He started asking questions from what he read in the book and then we even went on and gave him a Book of Mormon. He was super excited about that Book and promised to read it. He says that he wants to do all that he can to join us and be a member of the church.

All in all I can say that this was a fantastic great week. The work is going so well. Our area is beginning to explode with success and we are so busy all day teaching that sometimes we forget about appointments we had planned for (like yesterday). When the time comes for me to go home I will wish that I could have another six weeks here. I am doing all that I can to make every second count and especially to soak in these last six weeks out here!!

Love you all so much,

Elder Ordyna

See you all real soon. Get ready to party!!

Sister Johanna's seamstress shop. Her family is so awesome. We come and visit her and the other workers alot because they are all members. We have been trying to not go there as much these days just because it is a black hole of time everytime we go there. Her family is so much fun that we always lose track of time.

Elder Skiba and I chilling underneath a mango tree waiting for one of our investigators to meet us

View from Johanna's shop of sweet Konongo

Me pointing at a Ghana school. I have taken a lot of pics of the crappy schools out here so I can pull them out whenever my kids say they hate school. I will just show them the pics of the schools in Ghana and then tell them that I can send them to stay there for a couple of weeks with one of my members or recent converts.

Teaching Richard and Esther with Bro Jesse

At church with one of Johanna's kids named Kwame. The guy is a straight crazy dude

Last time we will see Sister Stella because she is going back to school. I will be home before she comes back for summer break. Crazy to think about that.

Skiba and I chilling by a school waiting for our food to digest from one FM right before we were about to go to another members house for some more food. Yesterday we ate at three different members houses back to back to back.