Week 9! Transfer #2 Baby!!

HAHA! I can't believe that transfer one is already over.  This week flew by! Everything is going good out here in the GKM!!  Elder Mbithi, my mission father, is doing well!  The food is still coming along. HAHA!  Its purely a mental thing at this point!  They eat fish a ton here. If you know my eating habits fish wasn’t even an option!  haha! Anyway… I'm doing good!

The Dwumoh branch is coming along!  My first week here we had 30 people show up to church, so Elder Mbithi and I made a goal for 60 by the end of training.  This week we had 48!!!  YOOOOOO, count the bucket, AND 1!  5 investigators and 6 Less-active members at church this week!  We were so happy. 

Elder Mbithi and I with Kwame

We have an investigator named Kwame Gyan. He's a 13 year old boy and his mother hates our church.  We found out that she left the house for a long time so we decided to keep coming back to teach him, but we weren’t gonna teach him if it was gonna cause him problems!  During the first lesson he asked when he could be baptized!  His mom was keeping him from coming to church though, but she finally left town. This Sunday he knocked on our door at our apartment at 7:30AM ready to go to church!  I felt bad cause he had to wait outside!  But he loved church!!  It’s hard to explain this boy’s faith!!  It amazes me. I look up to this kid. When I was 13 I probably told my friends at school that I hated church, trying to be cool! JK I love church! Anyway… his faith is amazing. I hope that his mom with soften her heart! 

I love and miss everyone! Ghana is sweet! I love the mission life! 

Elder Turner

For the missionaries reading this and I guess everyone! 

"As we live in tune with the Spirit and seek the Lord's help, He will bless our efforts to bring His lost sheep back to the Fold" -Elder Terence M. Vinson

Found a hoop!

Week 8 Techiman

HEY ALL! This week was a good week!  A lot went on this week!  On Thursday we had Zone Conference! For our Zone Conference, we combine with other zones cause we have so many little zones.  My zone only has 14 missionaries in it! But Zone Conference was way sick!  We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon!  Some of the things that were said were truly amazing.  An elder said "The Book of Mormon is a testimony of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints, when we share or read from it, we are sharing and reading the testimony of the church!"  We also talked about how some of these people in Ghana are literally one book away from salvation! I loved zone conference!

We also had a multi branch soccer game! hahaha!  The Ghanaians go “game 7” when it comes to anything relating to soccer! hahha!  It was super fun.  The Ghanaians love to watch white people play soccer!  I think after my two years, I’m going to try out for Chelsea! haha! 

Me with Mayfia

A lot of people love hearing about the food! I ate a few meals of fufu this week! haha!  Seriously, I pray to just be able to get it down!  The Ghanaians love watching white people eat fufu!  Literally the whole time I just get kids laughing at me! haha!  Hopefully I can get used to fufu in a couple transfers, seriously!  I need to get used to it! 

 Fufu and ground nut stew

This week, the work was good!  Elder Mbithi and I have three investigators that we feel have a great chance at being baptized which is nice! Their names are Asonte, Angela, and Kwame!  They are all amazing people!  We ended up having 41 people at our church this week, which is always nice!  We are meeting with less-active members everyday, trying to get them to come to church, or do anything to build their faith in Jesus Christ!  Like have them read the Book of Mormon, or something small like that!  So we work a lot with less-active members! 

Well, I hope everything is going well with everyone reading this! And… if you do read it, remember that your Father in Heaven loves you beyond anything you can comprehend!

Love you all! 

Elder Turner!

Week 7 Techiman

This week was full of ups and downs! I had a little sickness yesterday all day, but I’m fine now! This week it rained a lot and we can’t really do much in the rain out here! I also had the chance to go to Kumasi for a mid-transfer training, which was super nice! Kumasi is a nice place.  The missionaries in Kumasi are living the life! They pay like 3 Ghanaian cedi for 10 oranges!! Thats under 1 US dollar!! Like whaaaaat??? 

Street contacting in Techiman

This week was hard work! We went to Kumasi, and got rained out a few times. The days we had the chance to go out, they were some fuuuulllll days. Days full of disappointment as well! It seems like we kept hearing the same thing over and over! In Ghana a “saint” is someone who has juju powers, or like black magic powers, so everyone was scared of us. We explained to so many people about what a “Latter Day Saint” is!  This week we only had 37 people come to church as well, little bummed about that! The nice thing is we can only move up! This week wasn”t the best, so next week is going to be better!!

The biggest tree I've ever seen!

With this week being hard, and having another batch of fufu and fish stew, I read a nice scripture, Alma 36:3, look it up. It’s about putting your trust in the lord and he'll deliver you out of bondage! I love that scripture! I know it is true! This week is going to be a great week I can feel it! 

I hope everyone is doing well! Remember that the lord loves all of you!!

Elder Turner

Week 6 Techiman

WOW! This was the fastest week of my life.  I'm serious!!  We had a lot of full days.  This place is sweet.  The snacks here are all new to me, so I've developed a Ghanaian sweet tooth. Perk crackers!  They are a better version of Nila Waffers! YUUUUM. Now, all the snacks are good, but fufu,on the other hand, with fish stew makes me absolutely cringe.  People always ask us to eat fufu with them, cause they want to watch a white man eat it!! hahaha! Our answer is always that we just came from the apartment. Ha! I think about what I’m gonna be saying about fufu 5 transfers in, I’ll probably love it. Its not that it tastes bad, it’s just how much food you swallow without chewing.

Everything in Ghana is cool though! My companion is so funny and always has some sort of joke or prank going on! haha! He teaches me all the crazy Kenyan ways! Love Elder Mbithi! 

The work out here is progressing! Week one, we had 30 people at our branch, this week we had 42!  We have investigators commit to come all the time, but they never show up.  It’s all about patience though! I love teaching lessons! We have a lot of investigators, a lot that we feel very good about!  Hopefully by the end of this month they can be fully converted by the spirit, and be baptized. It’s not us that are converting, its the spirit. As a missionary that means you have to be in tune with the spirit at all times! 

I've been focusing a lot on Christ like attributes out here. It’s amazing to try to become like Christ everyday. Everyone should study the attributes of the Savior! Anyway… this place is sweet! Pray for our investigators, that the spirit can convert them!  Love you all!  Remember that the Lord will answer all your prayers if you have faith!!  Alma 31!!!

Elder Turner

Dwumoh Chapel

A Ghanaian School

Techiman

My Zone Leader, Elder Dudley and I