Week 22 Techiman A-FEE-SHE-A-PA!! (Merry Christmas)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  I hope all is well everyone!!  I just want to write a small message and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and share a quick message.  I'm just in a small hurry to write this, we've been busy all day doing what missionaries do on Christmas, talk to their family and serve people.

Talking With the Family on Christmas Morning

Christmas was very cool and a different experience here in Ghana!  It didn't feel like Christmas physically but spiritually it was there!  We had the opportunity to go to an Orphanage on Christmas Eve and Mt Olives Hospital today and carol a little.  What an experience! It was so cool to put a smile on the faces of the people in the hospital and Orphanage! 

Sorry this message is so short, but Christmas here is cool and it’s really all about the Birth of Jesus Christ out here!  I hope I never forget what this Christmas was like to purely focus on our Savior, because that really is our purpose out here! 

A little Spiritual Thought, something hit me this week while I was reading in the Book of Alma chapter 37 verses 6 and 7.  It talks about how BY SMALL AND SIMPLE THINGs ARE GREAT THINGS BROUGHT TO PASS.  You never know how far your small and simple act can go!  Even if you’re not a missionary BY VERY SMALL MEANS THE LORD DOTH CONFOUND THE WISE AND BRINGETH ABOUT THE SALVATION OF MANY SOULS! 

So sorry for the small letter! I hope you focus on Jesus Christ's birth all Christmas. This Christmas will be something I will never forget!!!

LOVE YOU ALL! MERRY CHRISTMAS 

Elder Turner

A Zone Soccer Game

Week 21 Techiman

Well, transfer #3 has come to a close and yet I still find myself in Dwumoh hahahaha! Gotta love Dwumoh. No, really this place is cool. This week was a good week. I found myself in Sunyani this week for our Christmas Zone Conference. It was sweet! We had some good fun and also some very spiritual moments. We had a nativity scene and to be honest I've never in my life watched people preform a nativity. So it was a very spiritual thing! So ya, zone conference was cool, I even got to see my father Elder Mbithi. I sent our family picture!! 

My Father and My Son!

Around here in Techiman, it definitely doesn't look like Christmas.  It's only like 95-100 degrees everyday, and the dust will make your lungs and white shirts BROWN hahah!  But we are doing a lot of activities with all 4 branches here in Techiman.  This Saturday we had a huge multi-branch carols night.  We basically just sang every Christmas song in the Hymn book.  It was so cool to see all the members in one chapel!  So the moral of this paragraph is it doesn't look like Christmas, but we are doing everything we can to make it feel like it!

Elder Dago is doing well, my only son born in the wilderness. His English is coming along great! He also has a great view for this area which is all you need. Usually they send missionaries to this area to die (go home) or missionaries that are already dead hahah! Serious! So all you need is just a little drive in this area and you'll be ok!

Elder Dago and I at Zone Conference

This week I had some cool spiritual thoughts come to mind.  Especially now that it is the Christmas holiday!  I love being able to share about Christ’s birth as a route to a nice lesson.  Something that really stood out to me is a Quote by Elder Bednar. "We should be doers of the word, not hearers only.''  I put that quote right on the front page of my triple combination!  It is a good reminder to always follow the gospel and the Words of Christ and Heavenly Father.  I invite all you to do the same!

WELL I hope you guys are enjoying your Christmas holidays wherever you are in the world!

Elder Turner

The primary class I taught on Sunday (notice the kid in the middle who is totally asleep)

Week 20 Techiman

HMMMM! Kinda a cool week. Everything here in Dwumoh is cool. There's a lot happening in the Ghana Kumasi Mission right now. First, the Ashanti queen passed and they just had her funeral.  Don't joke with Ghanaian funerals. They were doing human sacrifices (beheadings) hahaha!  Also, an outbreak of swine flu is going around Kumasi as well, so I'm praying it doesn't hit Techiman. It killed some people in Kumasi this past week.  Not just some, but A LOT, so we are trying to stay extra healthy and sanitary out here right now. 

Anyway, my son, Elder Dago is doing ok.  He's having some small mission culture shock.  He served some small time in Ivory Coast while waiting for his visa and there they enjoy and get referrals and don't contact at all. Here in GKM it's not like that, especially Techiman. No referrals just contacting and finding your own investigators. I mean we are trying to change that right now. But his English is doing very well. He studies very hard, so that’s good. 

Speaking of investigators... We are planning to have some baptisms very soon. It's all because of the Book of Mormon. There’s a 17 year old girl named Ernestina and a man named Patrick. Ernestina was someone who stayed at the house of a former investigator named Asante.  You might remember him.  Also its kinda cool how it worked out, cause we were about to drop Asante because he wasn't interested, but we found Ernestina at the last second. So she just needs an interview from our mission president because she is a minor. And also Patrick, he has always been interested, but not convinced.  He can't really understand when he reads English so I found a Twi Book of Mormon and gave it to him and told him to read 3 Nephi 11.  He came to mid-week and watched a cartoon about Christ coming to the Americas. He absolutely loves the Book of Mormon now! He is also preparing to be baptized.

So anyway this week was a cool week. I just want everyone to realize how important the Atonement of Jesus Christ is. Think about it and ask yourself what would happen without it? Could we go back to heaven? Would we have heavenly fathers plan? I hope you know the answer, but think about it. Also go to Mosiah 27 and the Beginning of Mosiah 28. See what the Atonement does to the Sons of Mosiah and Alma. It changes them and makes them want EVERYONE to be saved. 

That’s how you find missionary purpose, understanding TRUE COLD HARD DOCTRINE hahaha! Serious though.  To any potential missionaries, study the DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 

Also another thought, there's doctrine behind every single thing we do out here in the mission and in life. Think about that as well.

I love you all.  I hope the holidays are sweet! 

ELDER TURNER

Cooking Chicken (notice the grill is part of the fan)

A Ghanaian Bakery

Week 19 Techiman BIRTH!

MY SON! ELDER DAGO! YE YE YE! Hahaha! This week was sweet! I went to Kumasi on Tuesday to pick up Elder Dago at the mission home! He's from Ivory Coast, and speaks “small small” English! haha! He’s doing great though. Oh ya, he’s been out on his mission longer than I have as well. He served 3 transfers in his home country waiting for his visa and then finally came over to Ghana! I feel bad cause he can teach the lessons so well in French but the English just forces him to have to restart. Anyway… he’s sweet and doing well.

 As for the Dwumoh Branch, it’s doing ok. We still need the members to take action and go out and visit the members and all that stuff.  As much as I love to help the branch, they are expecting the missionaries to do everything. So we are up for it, but we are just gonna teach them that they are the ones who should be helping with the less-active members. I think we should be able to get everything up and running here, and the branch will be bumping soon. 

Anyway, I can't believe its DECEMBER! I can remember last year’s New Years Eve party like it was yesterday!  Well Christmas is almost coming up and I just would like to tell everyone that they should just always remember Jesus Christ!  I know that He is the Savior of the world, and as much as I want to be in Utah for the Christmas season, Ghana is pretty freakin' cool!

OH YA, update on the food, it’s actually tasting normal now, like I can eat it no problem (except cow skin hahahaha). 

Anyway I hope everyone is having some good times these holidays! Love you all!

Elder Turner

KFC!!

AHHH! Chicken Strips!

A local named "Papa J"

New Haircut!