Dear Family,
I have had another busy, busy week. We went on companionship exchanges
with the District Leader in Oda, and another exchange on Thursday with
the District Leader in Abomosu so that he could come and do a couple
baptismal interviews for us. Saturday we had one baptismal service and
another one again on Sunday. The good news about all of this running
around and business is that the week went by super-fast. Then again
this entire month has gone by ridiculously fast. It’s already November
which means Thanksgiving! Elder and Sister Dalton promised me a
Thanksgiving Dinner this year so I’m holding them to it. I’m really
praying for a turkey and mashed potato dinner. If not I will have to
settle on a Pancakes and Bacon (jerky) dinner. That one sounds pretty
delicious anyways. I may save it for Christmas morning. J
The first splits this week I was able to spend in Oda with the
District Leader, Elder Reed. It was an awesome time to be with Elder
Reed. He was in the same MTC group as me. We were both talking about
how fast time has been going for us both. He is a really great
missionary. Seeing as I’m getting a new companion I would love for it
to be him. We had one experience that most people would think as being
quite trivial but for some reason it really affected me. We were
teaching a referral from a recent convert of theirs named Gifty. She
couldn’t speak much English so we had the member there to translate
for us if we needed. As we began we realized that we would definitely
need the member. She couldn’t understand much of anything. We were
talking a bit about her experience at church, opposition from her
friends and finally a bit about the apostasy. As the member was
translating I noticed that the translation was far from perfect. I
know very little Twi but you can tell when we say 5 or 6 sentences in
English and the translator only says one or 2, you know there is a
problem. Well I was a bit reluctant to teach a huge lesson because of
it but as we began to teach about Joseph Smith everything changed.
Usually every time each one of us would talk, Gifty would look to the
member for the translation. Once we began talking about Joseph Smith
she sat intently looking directly at us and when the member began to
translate Gifty would immediately say, “Mati, mati.” Meaning I hear, I
hear. She understood us completely as we were teaching her the
important message about the Restoration. When we closed the lesson
down we again had to go back to some few translations. During the
lesson I really didn’t notice this but after as I was thinking back
about what had happened in the lesson I realized how important that
was. As missionaries we are not here just to share another message
that people have already heard. We have the glorious new message that
people here have never heard before. It is good to teach about Jesus
Christ’s church in the former times but it is better to teach of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That was what Gifty
needed to know and our loving Heavenly Father made it possible that
she would be able to understand it as clear as possible.
On the opposite end of the spectrum on Thursday Elder Henderson and I
had a not so great experience. We had finished our interviews and we
needed to meet up with our companions in Abomosu. It was getting late
and we knew getting a car would be difficult. As we got to the station
they were loading a tro tro. So, on the way from Asuom to Abomosu
there are several small villages that people are frequently going to.
First after Asuom is Tweapease, Bomsu, Nkurakan. Sankubenase, and
finally Abomosu. So is a tiny little village about in the middle. Well
as we were getting on the tro tro they told me 1 cedi to Tweapease,
1.5 cedi’s to Bomsu and 2 cedi’s to Abomosu. That was a steep price
but it was probably the last car out so we accepted, paid and got in
the car. Unfortunately everyone else in the car was dropping in
Tweapease and Bomsu. Once we got to Bomsu there was many people that
wanted to be taken to Asuom so instead of honoring their deal, the driver
and the mate pretended they didn’t speak English and told us that they
are only going this far and we had to get off. Leaving us stranded
about half way to our destination late in the evening. Getting a car
in the evening is nigh impossible especially when you’re in a random
village where there is no station. I was really worried that all the
cars passing would be full and we would be stuck there. Luckily after
about 30 minutes of waiting by the side of the road a taxi came that
only had five people so we hurriedly joined the car and we stuffed 8
people in a tiny taxi that was hardly meant for only 5. Despite that,
we made it to Abomosu in one piece and Elder Boateng and I spent the
night at the Daltons before returning to our area the next morning. It
was a bit of a stressful day.
The baptism this week went really well. We had a baptism for Portia
Obeng and Frank Afrifa on Saturday. Portia is 9 and Frank is 14.
Portia’s is a part of a Part-Member family and Frank has just been
coming to church for the past year and we found out he wasn’t baptized
so we have been teaching him these last few weeks to prepare him. On
Sunday we had a baptism for Emma. She is a really awesome lady that
was referred to us by the former Branch President. She is about 45 and
lives with her step mom. Her husband divorced her about 15 years ago
and she has been taking care of herself and her family. It is really
sad because she really struggles to make ends meet but she is one of
the most educated women I have met here in Asuom. She is a really
sweet lady. I have loved teaching her and I was really happy to be
able to baptize her on Sunday.
I love you all so much and I miss you as well. I cannot wait for
Christmas to talk to you all. It’s less than two months away!! J
Love,
Elder Smith
I have had another busy, busy week. We went on companionship exchanges
with the District Leader in Oda, and another exchange on Thursday with
the District Leader in Abomosu so that he could come and do a couple
baptismal interviews for us. Saturday we had one baptismal service and
another one again on Sunday. The good news about all of this running
around and business is that the week went by super-fast. Then again
this entire month has gone by ridiculously fast. It’s already November
which means Thanksgiving! Elder and Sister Dalton promised me a
Thanksgiving Dinner this year so I’m holding them to it. I’m really
praying for a turkey and mashed potato dinner. If not I will have to
settle on a Pancakes and Bacon (jerky) dinner. That one sounds pretty
delicious anyways. I may save it for Christmas morning. J
The first splits this week I was able to spend in Oda with the
District Leader, Elder Reed. It was an awesome time to be with Elder
Reed. He was in the same MTC group as me. We were both talking about
how fast time has been going for us both. He is a really great
missionary. Seeing as I’m getting a new companion I would love for it
to be him. We had one experience that most people would think as being
quite trivial but for some reason it really affected me. We were
teaching a referral from a recent convert of theirs named Gifty. She
couldn’t speak much English so we had the member there to translate
for us if we needed. As we began we realized that we would definitely
need the member. She couldn’t understand much of anything. We were
talking a bit about her experience at church, opposition from her
friends and finally a bit about the apostasy. As the member was
translating I noticed that the translation was far from perfect. I
know very little Twi but you can tell when we say 5 or 6 sentences in
English and the translator only says one or 2, you know there is a
problem. Well I was a bit reluctant to teach a huge lesson because of
it but as we began to teach about Joseph Smith everything changed.
Usually every time each one of us would talk, Gifty would look to the
member for the translation. Once we began talking about Joseph Smith
she sat intently looking directly at us and when the member began to
translate Gifty would immediately say, “Mati, mati.” Meaning I hear, I
hear. She understood us completely as we were teaching her the
important message about the Restoration. When we closed the lesson
down we again had to go back to some few translations. During the
lesson I really didn’t notice this but after as I was thinking back
about what had happened in the lesson I realized how important that
was. As missionaries we are not here just to share another message
that people have already heard. We have the glorious new message that
people here have never heard before. It is good to teach about Jesus
Christ’s church in the former times but it is better to teach of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That was what Gifty
needed to know and our loving Heavenly Father made it possible that
she would be able to understand it as clear as possible.
On the opposite end of the spectrum on Thursday Elder Henderson and I
had a not so great experience. We had finished our interviews and we
needed to meet up with our companions in Abomosu. It was getting late
and we knew getting a car would be difficult. As we got to the station
they were loading a tro tro. So, on the way from Asuom to Abomosu
there are several small villages that people are frequently going to.
First after Asuom is Tweapease, Bomsu, Nkurakan. Sankubenase, and
finally Abomosu. So is a tiny little village about in the middle. Well
as we were getting on the tro tro they told me 1 cedi to Tweapease,
1.5 cedi’s to Bomsu and 2 cedi’s to Abomosu. That was a steep price
but it was probably the last car out so we accepted, paid and got in
the car. Unfortunately everyone else in the car was dropping in
Tweapease and Bomsu. Once we got to Bomsu there was many people that
wanted to be taken to Asuom so instead of honoring their deal, the driver
and the mate pretended they didn’t speak English and told us that they
are only going this far and we had to get off. Leaving us stranded
about half way to our destination late in the evening. Getting a car
in the evening is nigh impossible especially when you’re in a random
village where there is no station. I was really worried that all the
cars passing would be full and we would be stuck there. Luckily after
about 30 minutes of waiting by the side of the road a taxi came that
only had five people so we hurriedly joined the car and we stuffed 8
people in a tiny taxi that was hardly meant for only 5. Despite that,
we made it to Abomosu in one piece and Elder Boateng and I spent the
night at the Daltons before returning to our area the next morning. It
was a bit of a stressful day.
The baptism this week went really well. We had a baptism for Portia
Obeng and Frank Afrifa on Saturday. Portia is 9 and Frank is 14.
Portia’s is a part of a Part-Member family and Frank has just been
coming to church for the past year and we found out he wasn’t baptized
so we have been teaching him these last few weeks to prepare him. On
Sunday we had a baptism for Emma. She is a really awesome lady that
was referred to us by the former Branch President. She is about 45 and
lives with her step mom. Her husband divorced her about 15 years ago
and she has been taking care of herself and her family. It is really
sad because she really struggles to make ends meet but she is one of
the most educated women I have met here in Asuom. She is a really
sweet lady. I have loved teaching her and I was really happy to be
able to baptize her on Sunday.
I love you all so much and I miss you as well. I cannot wait for
Christmas to talk to you all. It’s less than two months away!! J
Love,
Elder Smith
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