Diligence

Dear Family,

Well this week was transfers and everything stayed the same here in
Asuom. Still Elder Boateng and I being the mighty Bushnaries. Being in
the bush is pretty awesome. We sent our Ward Mission Leader to the
primary to find out how many of them were over 8 and haven’t been
baptized. He came back with a list of about 8 or so. So we’ll have
some free baptisms in the coming months! Well on top of that we have
some really awesome people that we are working with. October will be a
great month for us. One of the investigators that we are working with
currently is a man named Stephen. He was a referral from our
Branch President who came to church last Sunday. We scheduled to see
him on Wednesday evening and we had some opposition prior to our
appointment. In the morning the sun was scorching like crazy and we
were just walking all over the place trying to meet with some of our
investigators. Since there wasn’t any rain in the morning most of
everyone had gone to farm so we basically had a fruitless morning. We
came back to the apartment for lunch and to my great surprise I got my
first sunburn in a year. I had never felt the sun like that before. It
was ridiculous. Well after our lunch we headed out to see some more of
our people but the clouds were just about to burst. Our appointment
with Brother Stephen was just 30 minutes away and the rain just
started pouring. We could have easily just called it a day,
rescheduled with bro. Stephen and headed back to the apartment. But we
decided to press on and walk the 15 minute trek in the pouring rain.
When we arrived at his house he was really quite surprised that we
bothered to come. He invited us into his one room house to begin our
discussion. We could barely hear due to the noise of the rain hitting
the metal roof and the light went out just as we were about to begin
but we didn’t give up. We start talking about him more and he explains
how he is married and has I think 3 boys. 1 is just finishing
university, the second is in his second year and the third is on his
last year of Secondary School (high school). He moved to Asuom
temporarily to farm and open a small business so that he could pay for
his sons education which is extremely steep. He has had a huge amount
of health problems. He has lost much of his vision and his eyes are
continually paining him, he developed diabetes and high blood pressure
and in the middle of all these complications he contracted prostate
cancer. Prior to all of these problems he was a very faithful
dedicated member of the Presbyterian Church. He explained how the
Pastor loved him so much but the minute he was in need the church
acted like they had never known him. To him he felt was forced to face
all of these challenges utterly alone. Thankfully for him, he was not
alone. He was greatly blessed and now he is doing very good. He is
cured of cancer and the diabetes and high blood pressure are now under
control and his eye’s are recovering. He knew for himself then that
Presbyterianism was not true. God’s true church would not abandon him
in his greatest need. Thus began his search for the truth until he
came into contact with President Preprah and in time to us. Honestly,
at this point in our discussion I was amazed. This is probably one of
the most intelligent, humble men I’ve met, and to make it even better
he opened our first discussion with a question. The question is in my
opinion one of the best questions an investigator could ask. He said,
“I saw that in the church, when we had the Lord’s Supper that young
boys both prayed for and passed it to the congregation. Are they
pastors or who gave them their authority?” Bingo!! We then had an
awesome lesson teaching him about the Priesthood and how only in The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints can we trace our
authority all the way back to who’s authority it is. It was really one
of the most powerful lessons that I’ve had.

Just yesterday we had our return appointment with him and the lesson
was no less inspiring. The light had gone out to prevent us from
seeing inside the house so we went outside to have our discussion by
moonlight. He begins first by talking more about his health problems
and how he believes that all of his problems were due to his love for
coffee early in life. I was again shocked. He had never been taught
the word of wisdom before. So again we had a wonderful opportunity to
teach him this divine law. He accepted everything and even when we
were teaching about tea he explained how is doctor had prescribed some
tea called Chelsea tea. We weren’t sure exactly if it was against the
word of wisdom or not so we had him bring it to us. The box did not
have any list of ingredient but I felt it was basically the same as
lipton tea. So my companion tells him that since the doctor prescribed
it, it’s not our place to tell him he shouldn’t take it. Brother
Stephen says, “No, I know that it is not good for me, if God says it’s
not then I won’t take it and he through the rest that he had away.”
Needless to say I was truly amazed at this man’s faith. He is just an
awesome example of meekness and gratitude. At the end of the lesson he
explained his desire to join the church and to do everything that he
can to bring others as well. He said that ever since he came to church
the first time it has always been on his mind. He has been thinking
about it all day every day since then. He has accepted to be baptized
on October 14th. We are greatly looking forward to that day!

Love,
Elder Smith