One Month Old!

Logan and his companion, with Miriam

happy birthday to me one and all! I was born on (July 26...as a missionary) and now it is the 26 of August! time flies somehow haha weeks are short some days are long. Being out a month kinda feels surreal, somedays I think that two years is long and right now is a moment where I think... two years? I hope I can get everything I have been foreordained to do done!

The pics i am sending are of our apartment, friends from takaradi and other ghana things. our apartment is for six elders, our room is small and just a bunk bed and a desk for my comp and I. we have a small outdoor area and then our kitchen and living area that we all share is in the other part of the house. the four other elders are the office elders (Elder Nielson who is our district leader and Elder Lloyd) then the assistance elders (Elder Chaffetz and Elder bongomin). All of these guys are great and me and Elder Nielson are really great friends, he has been out seven months and has been a huge support for me, reminding me on tough days that as I keep working all the cliche mission sayings come true. We laugh a lot and I love these Elders!

So this week has been an interesting week, little slower since we spent so much time preparing for a ward fireside on friday in an effort to get more member help in missionary work.

On tuesday we had zone meeting and it was great! Elder ballard (yep the apostles grandson) and another elder whose name escapes me gave us instruction. They spoke on love and also the great responsibilty that we have. I have learned that love is the secret to missionary work. To be effective, to be happy, to want to serve you have to love. Everyone said the people are so great you will just love them. They are right I will Love them but it does take effort. The cultural differences and the sterotypes that accompany being obruni from america kinda got to me for a while. But as I learn to humble myself and open up my mind to the culture then my heart comes along and there are some people here who I genuinely love and care for.

Wednesday and thrusday were just working days but it was tough to get lessons that we felt went well. People hear are natural hearers of the word, problem is finding those who will be doers of the word also. but on thursday and we ran into a bunch of members from a place called takaradi that my companion had taught but had not been baptized while he was there, so it was a pretty special moment to see them coming to do baptisms at the temple! We talked with them and invited them all to the fireside and they came which was great!

Friday we went around inviting people to the fireside and visited our usual investigators. one of them, Lillian, has a family that originally rejected our message and wanted to bible bash with us. great people though and we felt to keep coming back so we did. this time though they were on the way out and invited us to meet with another preacher from some church and showed us this anti doctrine that made  me laugh. 

So we had our fireside and the french people who were at the chapel, sleeping over to go to the temple all week, were using the main hall for a final fireside before they left in the morning, we ended up having to use a smaller room for the high council downstairs but it went well because we filled the seats perfectly down there.

The fireside went well and we got our mission pres and his wife to speak which is awesome! and they did great and we had a bunch of referrals come in not just for our area but for lots of places and we have one new person we can contact from that now!

so saturday we had a really slow day trying to find people to teach and ended up back at 37 and we ran into the kids and played with all of them which is the best! and then we went to Lillians and the pastor was there so we left and came back about 5 hours later.... he was still there!! we asked how long he stayed for and they said he had been there for nearly 8 hours!! this guy was crazy and everyone basically fell asleep. he was loud but the spirit is soft and i think they reconigized that so we will see what happens there.

Sunday I was praying that we would find more people who were prepared and not just saying "o yes i love the word of God! let us talk small small okay?" so in walks a man named desmond and two people we had been inviting everyday for like three weeks! Desmond and i talk and then he goes... well when can i be baptized? 

whoooooooohooooooo! so september 14 is his date for right now and we will be working hard on that. he is such a humble guy and ready to hear the word, he showed up to church on his own, just had a feeling to come today because he was working nearby and got a half day off! at night we had american sunday which was mac and cheese (thanks mom!!) with hotdogs and pineapple (pineapple from mariam!)

and now it is monday and we celebrated my birthday by having fanice (ghanian ice cream that is sold everywhere) and biscuits (little cookies like tollhouse stuff, but everything here is either a bisquit or toffee, toffee is candy regardless of type) we call it african mcflurry haha no mcdonalds in africa except for south africa... so that is a little out of my area and I don't think i will be having mcdonalds for a while, but at least i have fufu, banku, red red, plantain and fruit!

my companion doesn't like fruit very much which is awesome because then he doesn't want any of mine!

There is a member whose name is Mariam and we visit her and she always gives us oranges and she got me two pineapples for 1 cedi! usually pineapple is 2 cedi's for one! but she goes to the market of farmers and dashed it too me... (dashed is to give sorry it means like "hey could you dash me some butter for my bread, I'll pay you back later.")

but Mariam is like the missionaries mom! she always tries to get us food and watch out for us and loves to have us come and talk to her! she wants us to convert her daughter and we love teaching her daughter but she doesn't take it too seriously :/

mom you would love her and be so glad she is here haha I always tell her about you and my family and she always reminds me of just how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family. she is right, i am the luckiest missionary in the world :)

so some follow up on Matilda (our recent convert) she is doing so good and the gospel is changing her even more so now! she was confirmed on sunday and it was such a great feeling, the holy ghost is a gift you receive but you must open it.

love is everything. and even though there are tough times the light is so much brighter and that is what you will remember.

I love you guys so much and hope life is treating you as good as it treats me!

Elder Van Wagoner

p.s. if you hear news about riots in ghana on thursday it is not a big deal. we are staying pretty far away from where anything might happen and it is not even likely that it will happen. but there was a huge court case on wether or not the elections for president were legit and thursday is the day they announance the court ruling. so mom don't worry I live in a compound in the safest place in the country in the safest country in africa. I just don't want you to worry if you hear news about it because really riots here are quote "small and last like an hour" so i will be fine and our president says don't even worry about any of it.

Perpetually happy!

Outside Logan's Apartment

Inside Logan's Kitchen

Logan's bedroom