The Great Nkawkaw Dust - Jan. 15-21, 2019

Jan. 15-21, 2019

Brethren of Nkawkaw (my apartment) Elder Ordyna, Elder Sanoa, Elder Mbamara and Elder George

Hey all! 

This week sure has been dusty and dirty. It reminded me a lot of the days when I went to scout camp and came back filthy and covered in dirt (my mom can testify about those days). But the week was seriously amazing and a lot of fun as well. These past few weeks I have probably been out and about doing zone business more than actually proselyting in my area which was a lot of fun but also very frustrating because our area right now is not fruitful at all. But we are really working and know that through our prayers and faith we will be guided and directed to those that are ready to receive us. 

Nkawkaw Mountains

I started out the week with an exchange in Mpraeso with Elder Elkington our District Leader serving up there. Mpraeso is on top of the Nkawkaw Mountains. We had a nice drive through the canyon and up the mountain. It reminded me a lot of the mountains we would visit in Utah. We went out to a small village called Asakraka to do some baptismal interviews. We met some seriously crazy people. One was a fetish priest that wanted us to come join him for some rituals, we told him that we were ok and gave him a Restoration pamphlet. We also met a juju guy that was selling monkey skulls. Villages always have the craziest people. On another note, we had some great lessons with some of their most progressing people. We are even led to the house of one by a five-year-old girl that walked us through bush trails for a good 15 minutes. That was a first. We ended the day by doing the baptismal interviews (we were only able to do 2 of the 4) and got the "best" FM I have ever gotten so far. It was FUFU with Groundnut Soup and Fish. It was amazing until we lifted up the FUFU and four were mystery meats waiting for us. They looked like an intestine of a cow, a pig's ear, hoof, and testicle. Let me just say that was an experience. Anyways, we had a great exchange and made some great memories. 

 

Konogo Zone

Hike to the top of Nkawkaw Mountain

The next day Wednesday we called the whole zone together (all 10 companionships) and had an amazing zone council. Everyone really contributed and the spirit was so strong. My companion and I gave a powerful instruction on Repentance and Obedience and Relying on the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our works as missionaries. We were able to successfully motivate and encourage them to continue to do the Lord's work to the best of their abilities. Right now, Konongo Zone is on fire and we are trying to do all that we can to keep the moral and spirit of our troops up. The past two months our zone has had the highest baptisms in the mission (22 and then 25).

Elder Sanao and me at the Holy Family Hospital. This place has become my second home this transfer.

On Thursday I woke up and was seriously ready to have a great day of hard work in our area. The whole week up to this point we hadn't done a lot of work in our area because of zone business. So, I totally thought today was going to be the day. That all changed when during personal study we received a call from the sisters in Branch 1 saying that they were sick and needed to go to the hospital. And then right after that one of the elders in our apartment came in and said that even for him, he still wasn't feeling any better and Sister Webster also said that he needed to be at the hospital. So, once again we sat at the hospital for basically the entire day helping our zone members. Hospitals here are like black holes once you go in you never come back out till hours later. But we were able to leave around 3 pm and headed back up the mountain to Mpraeso to finish the last 2 baptismal interviews and then headed an hour and a half out to Konongo for exchanges the following day. 

Exchanges with the Konongo Elders 

Cleaning the baptismal font on exchanges with Elder Bennett in Konongo

Friday morning, I woke up and I felt like my body was broken into a million pieces. The night before we had traveled to Konongo and they didn't have any mats or extra beds, so my companion and I slept on the floor. It was the worst night of my life but anything for Konongo Zone. We woke up and had an amazing day of working and teaching lessons. It reminded me of my last area in Kwamo. This transfer we have been seriously busy with so many things that it has flown by. We are already halfway done. 

Road Trip

Scouting out the Akoasi area

 Saturday is where I get the title for my letter today. In the morning President Webster surprised us by coming to our apartment in the morning. He was passing by to go to Mpraeso and decided to come and say hi. That was the first time that my mission president has come to visit us in the apartment. But it was such an amazing visit. I am so blessed to have such a loving and wonderful mission president. We studied a talk together and shared a lot of laughs and memories together it was great. While we were talking with him, he wanted all four of us to go out to a village that they want to make into a group so we can scout out the area and see how everything is out there. So, after lunch all four of us embarked on our journey into the unknown. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. All we knew was the place's name Akoasi. We asked plenty of taxi drivers but none of them would take us there. We didn't know why but finally we found one that had the dirtiest oldest taxi I had ever seen in my life. We sat down and he instantly rolled up all of the windows except for my companion's (passenger side window) and said this place is seriously dusty we need to take precautions. For 45 minutes we traveled down the dustiest road I have ever seen. It was seriously like the Sahara Desert. There were sand dunes around the road, and we were driving over like 5 inches of dust. Whenever a car would come at us from the other direction the dust spray would be so thick that we couldn't even see anything in front of us. It was seriously ridiculous. By the time we got to the town my companion's black hair was completely orange and all of us were covered in dust. You couldn't even tell what color our shirts were. I could tap my shirt and dust would come from it. We spent like two hours taking a tour of the town. There were no paved roads in the whole place, and we were just walking on piles of dust. That was seriously an experience. All I can say is I feel super bad for the missionaries who will be going there every single day. They will seriously have to buy new white shirts every other day it's that bad. 

I am not kidding! It was the dustiest place I have ever visited.

Sunday we once again had zero at sacrament, but we have faith and are hoping that this next week will be better off for us. Every third Sunday we have missionary Sunday where we conduct, give talks and bless and pass the sacrament. We basically do everything. All four of us gave talks where we really tried to get the members energetic and pumped to do missionary work. We tried strengthening them to the best of our abilities but for a lot of them, they are just tired of seeing us. The branch doesn't care about doing missionary work let alone missionaries themselves. It is very rough, but we are doing all that we can to really excited them. I am already seeing this to be my hardest area yet, but it will also be the area that I will learn most. I am grateful to be out here.

The apartment eating at a member's house (Brother Abdulahi Young Men's President)

The best thing about my apartment....The A.C.! 

The week was seriously fast, and the work was a lot, but it was seriously inspirational and amazing. It feels great to help others especially our missionaries out here in Konongo Zone. I hope that all of us can look beyond our selves and look at those around us. To find those that are struggling, tired or discouraged. We can be the ones to lift them up and help them in this life and bring them to the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I love every single one of you!

Elder Ordyna