A Story of Hanna

Hello family and friends,
I'm sure that you will all be pleased to hear that our baptism on Sunday was successful! It was probably one of the best baptisms I've had. Not only because were we baptizing a whole heap of people, but it really was one of the most spiritual baptisms I've been able to attend. Before I get to the baptism, I'll talk more about our week. Well, basically it was busy and we traveled way too much. We went to Asamankese for that District Council Meeting on Tuesday which was about a 2 to 3 hour drive. Then on Thursday we went back again to do some interviews for them. On Friday, I traveled to Abomosu (about an hour drive) to do some interviews for the Elders there, while the the District Leader Elder Henderson came to do our interviews for us. Then on Saturday we went back to Abomosu again to give some instruction at the District's Branch missionary training. It was a pretty good meeting. Elder Boateng, Elder Henderson, and I gave some instruction to the branches about the specific roles that they play in the missionary effort. The Abomosu District really needs some help. They're really trying hard to make it a stake. I've heard that the Abomosu District is the oldest in the world. They just don't have what it needs to become a stake, even though they have a ton of members. Surprisingly despite all of the traveling and time away from our area we were still able to spend some time proselyting in our own area.

Now, we come to the baptism on Sunday, we baptized 7 candidates. Emmanuel and Herbert two brothers, Adwoa Rose and her son Prince, Alice and her daughter Hannah, and Phillipa our Branch Mission Leaders younger sister. So I promised in the last email to talk about one of those candidates named Hanna. Well she is basically the sweetest girl I've ever met. About five years ago when she was about 14 she got a tumor near her stomach. She began to have pains and it began to grow so they visited a doctor. Well the inept doctor inspected her and told the mother to give her "baby aspirin" everyday and eventually the tumor would go away. Her mother doesn't even understand English so she didn't even think to question the doctors advice. Well the tumor increasingly grew and Hannah shrank. She is now about the size of a ten year old. Then she came into contact with the missionaries. The missionaries soon asked Elder Fife the Area Doctor for West Africa to come and see her. When he came, he was absolutely heartbroken. After looking at her, he found that even with normal Ghanaian medicine five years ago, she could have been cured from the tumor. But now it has gotten so bad that not even the best medicine in the world can do anything for her. She has lung failure, heart failure, and now liver failure. He had to tell them that she has less than a year to live. So, I've had the blessing to teach her about the Gospel and help her to be baptized. It's been a really powerful experience. She really has nothing. The place she lives is just terrible, she has heart, lung, and liver failure, she can't do any real physical activities, but she is happy. She has nothing, but she feels she has everything. She is always smiling and is always happy. At her baptism I was nearly brought to tears. We were walking together into the room to the baptismal font and she held my hand into the room. It was so cute. We invited Elder Fife to come from Accra to do the baptism and he was very happy to come. We had a special dress made for her and the Fife's purchased a brand new set of scriptures for her. She was so very happy to baptized. It's amazing how people like this are brought into our lives. I know so many people that Hannah has helped. So many people she has cheered up and she has truly changed the way I look at life. I love being a missionary in Ghana. Nothing beats it.

Love,

Elder Smith