Elder Ordyna - Ghana Kumasi Mission: Two Weeks All, Two Weeks!!

Hey All,

Crazy to think that in a matter of just 14 short days my time as a full-time missionary for the Savior Jesus Christ will end. It sure will be sad to leave Ghana a place I have called home for two great years and all of the amazing people I have come to love over that time. But, I am super excited to get back home and to see all of your sweet faces!! And especially to share all of my wonderful experiences and stories that I have had. I can assure you that we will be talking about them for months to come!

This week definitely was another great chapter in the book of Elder Ordyna's mission. Nothing too exotic or out of the ordinary happened this week at least on the Ghana scale of things. Goats were running everywhere, a cow kicked a guy and almost killed him and the crazy guy is back bothering us every day. Everything is exactly how it should be out here!!

I hope everyone is cherishing this email more than any other I have written because to get it in front of your faces was not an easy task. My companion and I had a great time yesterday to email at the chapel because there are two computers both with a webcam. We got the keys to both clerk offices and our plan was fitting in perfectly. One potential problem was that there was only one internet modem at the chapel which meant that only one computer could get internet at a time. My companion wanted to buy a modem that he could keep for the rest of his mission the next day which would fix that problem. But, this morning when we went into town to buy it all of them were sold out so we had to settle for a crappy China made third party one. So we have one amazing modem and the other one requires a lot of patience. I gave the nice one to my companion to use and I got the bad one. And then one second after I got on to my email the power cut like five times. I am now barely able to pop this email out and then I am sure the power will then cut out again.

As for the week, there were a lot of great moments but also a lot of sad and disappointing ones as well. I will start with the sad ones and then work my way up to the greatest one of all.

The work this week was a little slow. We had a lot of setbacks with the rain and a lot of our usual people were traveled or doing something that made it very difficult to see them. We haven't been having a lot of success in the finding department that is for sure. We are slowly baptizing all of our people but at the same time not adding any new ones to our teaching pool. To counteract that we just unveiled our great companionship idea of a missionary fireside. I did some in my last areas and it worked super well in finding a lot of serious people. Yesterday after church we let our branch president and bishop know about it. We got their approval about it and now we are running with it. It will be a branch and ward combined activity which should yield maximum results for sure. Sadly I will be back home during it. I will definitely have to ask Elder Skiba how it goes. It should be a great boost to the area's teaching pool that is for sure.

Throughout the week there was also a bunch of people that bailed out on us. We were teaching them for a while and now they are avoiding us and won't even pick our calls when we call them. Some of them have even blocked our calls. Many of them have heard bad, false things about the church and aren't interested anymore which is super common out here in Ghana. Many of the pastors of the many churches rip the church apart and say super bad things about. There is always opposition in all things especially against the true church of Jesus Christ. There are even pastors out here that even teach from the Book of Mormon!! We had one investigator named Osmond that called us randomly one day asking to meet with us. He read the first 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon and even came to church. He was always telling us that we were giving him the truth and he was so happy because of it. After his first visit to the church, we met with him on Tuesday after. And he told us that right after he left church one of his friends offered him a job, something he had been looking for for a long time. He finally got it and then he had no more use for the gospel so he stopped seeing us. He sure was super promising and we were sure we were going to baptize him before I left. It is always sad seeing someone progress so far on the covenant path and then, in the end, they fall away and want nothing to do with the gospel again. All we have been trying to do is encourage him to come back to church and to meet with us again but we will see what will happen.

By far the best thing that happened this last week was the fact that had a baptism!! We were able to baptize Ernestina the woman that is coming to marry this Saturday. We prepared her for baptism in one week and now she is on her way to marriage and sealing in a year. It sure was a very special day for the couple. The husband was able to baptize and confirm her as well!! Saturday sure will be an adventure. My first wedding in Ghana!!!

Can't believe that I only have one more Monday to mail all of you guys until I am home and can see you in person!! Have a great week and remember to invite all to come unto Christ!! Be an example to everyone and light the world everywhere you go.

I love you all!!!

Elder Ordyna