Week 94 Kumasi

This week was a loooong week! We put in long hours this week with transfers and all! 

Well, week one of the last transfer is gone! We had some super long hours, but overall it just went by fast! Just the norm out here I guess! We did have transfers this week, so we just had to do a bunch of stuff for that! Monday-Thursday I'd say we totaled up for like 20 hours of sleep!  Our Mission President wouldn't allow us to wake up at 6:30 on Friday.  I little gift of sleep!  Everything went well though. My new companion, Elder Etukudo, is getting settled in to the new routine.

This week we were planning some Baptisms.  The power was still having a problem at the chapel.  So we had to call for a water truck to come and fill our font!  Kinda funny!  They came and filled it in like 2 minutes Hahaha!  Saturday was a great day though.  We were able to baptize Evans and Boga.  The other companionship was able to baptize three kids!  Not a bad day! They were all confirmed and everything went well! No complaints. 

Evans is the far left and Boga is standing next to me

Our area is still progressing! Our referral machine of a member, Brother Martin is still pounded them out!  We just got some seriously sad news that he is moving for a job on the 8th of June! He is trying to give us as many people as he can before he leaves!  Everyday he calls us to tell us, "Yeah, I just talked to one guy that seemed interested." God will bless Martin! 

This week we were able to bring in the new missionaries from the airport. I just reflected on what was ahead of them! Hahaha!  President Webster read them this amazing story!  The comparisons are amazing! So I'll just copy it down here! 

 “Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities. 

Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, "Light, bearing on the starboard bow."

 "Is it steady or moving astern?" The captain called out.

 Lookout replied, "Steady, captain," which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship. The captain then called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: We are on a collision course, advise you to change course 20 degrees."

Back came a signal, "Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees."

The captain said, "Send, I'm a captain, change course 20 degrees."

"I'm a seaman second class," came the reply. "You had better change course 20 degrees." By that time, the captain was furious. He spat out, "Send; I'm a battleship. Change course 20 degrees."

Back came the flashing light, "I'm a lighthouse." 

We changed course.  

There is really a couple of ways to look at the story! I just think of who my "lighthouses" are! Think about it! We have a perfect lighthouse that is always looking out for us! I think we should always follow his counsel! 

Things are just moving along you know? Love you all! Happy Mothers day to all the Mothers out there!

Elder Turner

Week 93 Kumasi

Well, Another week bites the dust! Time just keeps clipping along. So wild! 

This week was one of Elder Garrett’s and my most productive week as far as missionary work but the end of it was quite sad!  We were able to find a lot of time to proselyte this week! We also had Brother Boga to prepare for baptism, so we spent some more time with him!  We have also been teaching this young 14 year old boy, named Evans, who has been coming to church for quite a while.  He told us that he wanted to be baptized this week!  So, That was our main focus this week! 

We have a member named Brother Martin who has been giving us tons of referrals! So we worked with him a lot during week! It was great! He had us teach a bunch of his friends.  It was the best! 

The week of proselyting was great! We had two baptismal interviews done for Boga and Evans who were to be baptized on Sunday.  Everything was working out well…not so fast.  When we got to the chapel there was NO POWER!  To fill up our font, we use a water pump.  If we don’t have power the water pump doesn't work and you can't fill up the font!  So no baptism this week:(  It was sad because it was Elder Garrett’s last week in the area and he wouldn’t be there to see the baptism! 

Speaking of… Elder Garrett is going on Transfer!  Elder Etukudo, from Nigeria, is going to be my new companion! Such a sweet guy! He's like 6'4" hahaha!  Just a stud!  So it should be awesome! My last companion! I'm excited! 

Well, this week I was just thinking of the Prophet Joseph Smith!  Isn't his life and what he went through a testimony of the Truthfulness of the Restored Church!? He went through tooooo much for it not to be true! Read the Book of Mormon!

Love you people! LAST transfer!!! 

Elder Turner

Elder Smith departing missionary

My Greenie, Elder Dago going home to Ivory Coast

Week 92 Kumasi

It was a busy week here in the GKM.  We had Elder Dube from Zimbabwe come to our mission! What a cool experience it was! He is such an amazing guy, full of energy and so much love for the gospel. 

Elder Garrett and I with Elder Dube of the Seventy

Well we started off our mission tour in Tamale and worked our way down to Kumasi.  The meetings in Tamale were awesome!  We had 20 missionaries there for a mission meeting, so it was a small group.  We also had a big devotional for the members of the Tamale District (a district is similar to a stake). It was great to see all the members in my old area.  Things are going well for Tamale!  I miss that place! 

After Tamale, we moved south to Sunyani and then on to Kumasi. There were three zone conferences in this mission tour but all of them were soooooo different!  Elder Dube hit the same points each time but in different ways, using different scriptures tailored to each group!  Elder Dube knows the scriptures like the back of his hand! This motivates me to be just like that! hahah! 

The things are Elder Dube taught were very basic. He focused on the little things that aren't really being applied out here in our mission.  He talked a lot about contacting. He reminded us how easy it actually is to contact someone and talk to them about the gospel here in Ghana. He helped the members and missionaries alike to understand that missionary work is natural and comes from the heart.  It shouldn't be something that you aren't familiar with doing, just natural. 

He also talked a little bit about being ONE PEOPLE!  UNITY! If we are not one, we are not of God. A plain and simple scripture!  Christ prayed that we could all be one! So please, love your neighbor! 

This week was just a crazy week. We are glad it all went well! 

The teaching pool is still there! People are still progressing and coming to church! Just a matter of time now! 

Remember to read the Book of Mormon everyday! It’s the easiest way to draw closer to your Father in Heaven! 

Elder Turner

Elder Moak! We leave our missions at the same time.

Matthews, Garrett, Smith and Me

This is Coach (AKA Francis Appiah) He is our Elder's Quorum President and the maintenance guy at the mission home. 

Two Jazz fans

Week 91 Kumasi

Week 91 was just crazy. Elder Garrett and I were basically living out of our car and this upcoming week doesn't sound like it is gonna be any different!

The week did go by a little slow if you want me to be honest.  Nothing too noteworthy went down.  Elder Garrett and I have been planning everything for a mission tour that is happening throughout the next week. Elder Dube from Zimbabwe is coming to our mission so we are excited for that! I hope he really touches the hearts of all our missionaries.  Planning for the mission tour was a joy.  We delivered mats to different apartments for people to sleep on when they come to Kumasi. There will be a lot of zones coming in, so we just had to drive around running errands.  Doesn't sound too bad......... But this is Kumasi.......... Driving is not fun in this city.  

Here is a little description of driving in Ghana.  Driving is a combination of “bumper cars on a highway”, “dodge ball in vehicles” and a “medieval joust” while playing chicken with every other vehicle on the road.  Ghanaian roads add to this challenge because they are a mixture of vehicle eating potholes, mountain sized speed bumps and DIY vehicle repair shops in the middle of the roadway.  There are no consistent road rules for unregulated intersections, non-functioning stoplights and oversized truckloads.  Now adding to this obstacle course you have 10 million kiddie car sized taxis, over-stuffed tro-tros, motorized scooters and motorcycles all mixing with millions of pedestrians darting in and out of the roadway. It is an adventure to simply get behind the wheel.  So yeah, the time it takes to drive just 15 kilometers is like driving 150 back home! Hahahaha! Just crazy. 

We also got a small amount of proselyting in!  Man was it a rough week for missionary working our area!  The investigators we have in our teaching pool were all on their Easter breaks.  They leave to go back home to see their families and all that. Not that it’s a bad thing but it leaves us with some contacting to do!  We managed though! 

Boga is still progressing along with the other people in our pool. It’s not that bad! It just comes down to finding time this week. 

This next week we have Elder Dube around so it should be a great week! I’m sure we will be learning a lot and feeling the spirit! 

Thanks everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Easter! 

Elder Turner

Week 90 Kumasi

This was the craziest week on my mission yet... Hands down!

To start off, let me just get the good stuff out of the way.  On Tuesday we were rolling around Kumasi transporting sleeping mats to certain apartments so people could come and sleep for a conference the next day.  While I was driving, I pulled up to a semi-truck broken down diagonal in the middle of the road.  There was no room to pass so I just followed the flow of traffic through the parking lot of a gas station. The cars were passing the actual fuel pumps and a guy on his phone stepped on the pedal right when I passed him and side swiped the passenger side of our car. He hit the panel just behind our back door.  I hit our brakes and got out.  This guy just started to LIGHT US UP! Probably 200 F-bombs came out of his mouth!  I actually got a little into it. I just had lay out the facts for him.  I was following traffic, I had already passed him, he was on his phone and he hit ME in the back.  The guy just kept going off and off and off.  Telling lies to all the people around, so he had a little posse of about 8 Ghanaians against us as "eye witnesses!"  Hahaha!  Not the best guy to have an accident with. He called the Police and was threatening to have us sent to court and all this crap. 

Now..... In a normal country that’s what SHOULD happen..... This is Ghana and it just doesn't work like that. The Police are inexperienced and will let anything go with a bribe.  So if they had shown up WE KNOW that they would've just asked us for a RIDCULOUS amount of money and let us go.  You gotta love corruption.  So we just said, “Look man, we'll give you money and we can go.”  We set on an amount (400 Cedis, around $100) and away we went.  No police, no insurance, no way of that dude paying for our car, just get him off our case!

Our "friend's" car

The Mission Van

 We also had a Black Mamba in our apartment this week.  Not that long, about 2.5 feet. I killed it with a broomstick. Job done. 

Now to some other topics hahah! This week we were teaching a woman that was referred by a member. We got talking about Prophets. We showed her a picture of President Russell M. Nelson and she said, "That’s the great Prophet that was at the Vatican!" Ha!  Yeah I guess so!  She was a Catholic. It was interesting telling her that the true Prophet of God was on her turf. Hahaha! Just kidding. But not really..... 

Things are going great out here! Our teaching pool is just staying steady right now!  Our investigator Boga is doing great! The work is moving along with the time we have in our area! We got a group of friends that just keep creeping their way into our teaching pool. It’s sweet! 

This week I was reading in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 26

24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.

Just great verses you know?? I love these verses. Anyway, Hope everything is going well out in the world! 

Elder Turner

I had to wear my Masters stuff in honor of Tiger's win!