Week 35 Nkawkaw

Busy busy busy busy...... This week was freaking busy!

At district council on Tuesday our district leader was showing us our weekly accountability.  He put up our mission standard, which is; 2 Books of Mormon, 2 new investigators, and 2 baptismal dates per day. Then he show us what our accountability is currently!  What we have been thinking as acceptable this whole time is not that acceptable.

Our District

My companion and I decided to take the challenge and do the mission standard. We completely changed our focus! Straight Book of Mormon!  We packed away the Bible and were hoofing around with 5 Books of Mormon each. Hahaha! We had a really successful week, even though we had a ridiculously busy week for the Zone.

We were able to find a man named Kennedy.  Man, that was the most powerful spiritual lesson ever.  The day before we met him my companion and I passed by his house (we both had an impression to speak with him but ignored it.) I literally said at that moment "Its hard to recognize and follow spiritual impressions" then we went about our day. 

The next day we both said to each other “We need to go to a house.”  It turned out we both were thinking of the same house!!! Coincidence? I think not.... Divine design... hahah!  We ended up having a really spiritual lesson and all eyes were watery.  All he could say is he'll come to the church! SWEET!

So yah, the week was busy.  My companion and I spent an entire day trying to make a Powerpoint for Zone Conference this coming week.  We also had District Conference!  2 District Conferences in 3 weeks for me!! haha! 

Me, Elder Johnson, Elder Smith and Elder Morisho

I was reading in The Book of Mormon this week about one of my favorite prophets, Abinadi!  In Mosiah 16 he talks about how we would be in a fallen state without Jesus Christ! 

Verse 6 says; 

"And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption."

To sum it up my dad told me something I'll never forget; 

"We would be nothing but the dust of the earth without Jesus Christ."

I hope everyone will read Mosiah 16.  It’s one of my favorites!

Love you all I hope you have a sweet Conference weekend!

Elder Turner

The view from our apartment

We climb that hill 2 or 3 times a week to get the accountability from the elders that work in that area.  They don't have a phone!

Pineapple!

These little guys share our apartment! They die every day but more show up the next.

Week 34 Nkawkaw

WEEK 34 Already?!  Time is going soooooooo fast. haha!

Well, another successful week here in the GKM.  We had transfers this week, which weren't the best. Hahaha!  All the missionaries being transferred meet at a place called Metro Mass in the middle of Kumasi. So, around 90 people show up there and the Zone Leaders have to run the transfers, call taxis and pay for them and all that crap! It was so stressful!  But everything ended up being cool! 

Personally, I got to my new area Nkawkaw (pronounced Nko-Ko) alright.  Nkawkaw is an hour out of Konongo and it is its own district with 4 branches.  This area is cool!  The Branch President is a stud.  He asked us to focus on less-active members!  The area is a lot like Techiman back in the day!  Our zone is super spread out and one of the companionships doesn’t have a phone so we go over there like every other day to see if they need anything and to collect their accountability!

A view from Nkawkaw. On the top of that mountain is Mpraeso, an area in our zone.

My new Companion is Elder Johnson! He's from southern Utah! He's a sweet guy! No pic this time cause we didn’t have time at church!

We also had Leaders training which was cool! We were asked to look for a leader in the Book of Mormon and see what he did well.  I decided to look at one of my favorite people in the Book of Mormon, Moroni, the first Moroni, Captian Moroni. 

In Alma 48 we get a little description of Moroni;

11  And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery;

12  Yea, a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for the many privileges and the blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people.

13  Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had sworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood.

17  Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, Behold the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.

SO… Moroni was pretty sweet!  Let us all try to be like Moroni!

Well all is well! I hope everyone is doing sweet!

Love you all,

Elder Turner

Week 33 HMMMMM....Wasn't expecting that!

Friday morning I got a call from President Cosgrave. He told me that I'm being transferred out of Obausi! He told me I have an assignment over in the Konongo Zone.  Konongo is 2 hours East of Kumasi.  He called me to be the Zone Leader over in the Konongo Zone! YIKES!  My heart was pumping!! Hahaha! Previously the night before, I had just prayed to be able to submit to the will of the Father more willingly!

Well, since that call came about, I just spent the rest of the week saying goodbye to members. I hate saying goodbye to members... It’s the only bitter part about this work. I'll miss Obuasi!  I didn't even make it to the golf course here!

After the Rain in Obuasi

Twins, Penny and Kakra

I just said goodbye to Elder Effiong today as well! It was crazy! "Killing" a missionary is not an easy task, mentally, out here.  It makes you think about and pray when your day is coming!  I hope and pray that he has success in his post-mission life in his home country of Nigeria.

Saying Good Bye to Elder Effiong

We also had District Conference this week with both Saturday and Sunday sessions.  They had an Area Seventy come!  I would tell you his name, but it’s an African name I'd never heard before!  Anyway, he was super funny and taught very well.  On Saturday we attended the Leadership sessions. I think it was the best advice he could have given the people here... he told them to USE THE HANDBOOKS! Hahaha!!!  That was literally all he talked about. This District Conference was awesome though!

The Obuasi District Center

This week I was doing some studying on prayer.  When Joseph Smith went to pray in the Sacred Grove, he was surrounded by a "thick darkness" that bound his tongue so that he couldn't speak!  Just as he was about to go under, he exerted all his power to call upon the Lord. You know the rest…. (See Joseph Smith-History in the Pearl of Great Price)

What allowed him to overcome the "Thick Darkness"? We can learn from Doctrine and Covenants 10:5.

"Pray Always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work."

Pretty self-explanatory right?

Love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Turner

Fresh Bread Every Day!

Week 32 Obuasi

Well… This week had some Ups and Downs!  A lot of rain and an injured companion doesn't lead to a lot of success in the area. But we had a lot of good times this week.  One thing about having a companion who is going home is you have a lot of members that want you to come eat!  This last Sunday we had 4 members that wanted us to come over.  We had to reschedule some!  When you have a huge bowl of rice, then go straight to a big bowl of FUFU, you're living the Gospel of Missionary work... Enduring to the end...

Also this week we had a lot of focus just on three people.  Like I said, it rained a lot this week, so we had to find time to see those that we really needed to see. When it rains here in Ghana it’s near impossible to see people. The rain is insane!  The roads are all dirt so it’s so hard to walk on them because they all have a huge river down the middle. And SO much lightning!  Those three people we were seeing were Angela, Helena, and Mariam. All three were preparing for Baptism! Luckily, we got all the interviews and all the lessons we needed to teach in before this Saturday. We were able to baptize all three of them right before Elder Effiong goes home. That really made him happy! And me as well!!

Elder Effiong, Sofia, Helena, Miriam, Me, Angela, Shadrack and Isaac

The Asonkore Font

Like I said. This week wasn't that great in our area for finding or anything, other that Saturday. So I did a lot of studying conference talks. One that I loved was by Robert D. Hales. It was his last talk about Discipleship.  My whole life I thought you basically had to be an Apostle to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ... Not at all!  A “disciple” is someone who takes upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ and is baptized.  Elder Hales then talked about TRUE discipleship. He said that it’s someone who tries his or her best to become a Christ-like person. They try to be like Christ with every Fiber of their Being!  I just thought that was amazing!  All of us   can be Disciples of Jesus Christ.  We even sing about it in Primary;

As I have loved you,

Love one another.

This new commandment,

Love one another.

By this shall men know,

Ye are my DISCIPLES. 

If ye have love one to another.

My prayer is that all of us will strive to be more Christ-like and develop charity to become True Disciples of Jesus Christ!

Love you all!

Elder Turner