I Hope They Call Me On A Mission!

Adorable. 

One of Logan's new favorite foods! (Can you say Miracle?? He hates fish!)

(Written October 7, 2013)

What a crazy week, we worked hard, saw the ups and downs, talked with some solid people, and lived in africa haha.

monday was pretty sweet, email was solid with you all and sav getting her blessing helped me a lot, thinking about my own blessing and my mission call pumped me up. That night our appts. dropped so we ended up spending our time contacting and trying to set times for tomorrow.

Tuesday was october! the start of a new month. we had our district meeting and as we talked about our goal of 4 baptisms I felt overwhelmed.. we don't have more than two people who are moving daily towards baptism. but I trust in God, not my doubts. So hopefully we can work hard enough to reach the goals we set with him. But as we worked that day we did infact have success, we taught about 6 great lessons and had 4 new investigators :) as we went out to meet one, whose name is perpetual, we found our selves in the somehow bush of Cantonments.

This area is in the picture of me with perpetual and obot. It is just a field and broken tiny homes with a couple small shops and no light. but as we taught (or rather my comp did, since they all spoke the same nigerian language) i heard 'it's time' on the radio! it was so weird to hear it out here and to be in that position. I heard some others I didn't know so I guess I am coming to the time when I don't recognize new things now.. sweet! :) That night we got to meet with Akua (a-qee-ah) she is so good and humble.

On wednesday we played water bottle football in the a.m. which we are doing a lot now, i love it. but president judd then texted my comp and I and said he wanted to go teach with us. As we planned for that we found that we are not supposed to contact in military barracks.. which is a problem since most of our area is barracks, it means we have to find more people on the streets, which is too bad because you don't exactly meet families on the street. So president came with us to a lesson with a man named brenya and his nephew afreyia. It was so sweet! he really showed me how to teach and connect with love. I hope I can be more like that man. hey he teaches at BYU so when i go back.. maybe maybe haha we also taught Akua that day and her niece and nephew, so we taught it like a primary lesson, Akua can't read, so we had the small boy read for us and it was actually a pretty great lesson. We also met with bismark, it was way late so it was short but it was really good, that man is prepared and has been to church twice so in a couple weeks he will be baptized! :)

Thursday was tricky because the majority of our lessons fell through but we kept going and had some good ones. we waited for a couple guys at the temple grounds for a while because "they were coming" you can't really trust that saying around here, if they do come after saying that it is like an hour and a half later. but we did get out for a couple more really good lessons. we saw linda and laticia, they got confirmed this sunday, it was great :)

Friday we were in kanda in the morning and some people said "obruni!.. come preach to us o?" so we did but like most times if the lessons start that way they have a tendency to not take you seriously at all. one of them we connected well with but she is moving to tema. We went to teach richard and abuot which were some solid lessons, I can see they feel it is true but they are just struggling to find the will to follow God. most people think any church will do. but we taught abuot about finding an answer through prayer and he was so surprised about the still small voice. he said "i never knew God spoke this way, maybe this is how he is speaking to me" it was great to really see someone be changed. we teach a lot of lessons but it is not so often that you will particularly see change in people. some who are baptazied didn't need much change, but those that we struggle and pray for, I see big differences in them. those are the elect, many people forget that stubborn people can become the strongest, they just need God to convince them.

We went and got food at a place called 'fast food' in this market. it was funny listening to the awful music and thinking, huh i'm on my mission. I started humming the song 'I hope they call me on a mission' and got a big boost, i do everytime i sing that song. (d and c 25: 12) we saw a man named paul who is having a hard time trusting in God, he relies on the arm of the flesh to answer his questions so each time we talk we have to come back to verses like james 5:9 and remind him why we are there, but i really hope he gives God his chance, he just doesn't see what he is missing out on yet. we went to linda and laticia and I got a runny nose starting there. luckily i felt prompted to bring my hankie (for the first time on mission haha thanks Aunt Brenda for doing the embroidery it looks great!)

On saturday I Got worse, we taught a lot but i struggled to focus. finally that night i barely made it through our last three lessons. but with paul I promised if he came to church that he would be able to make it financially, as I felt prompted to do. we made it to linda and laticia and finally to bismark. I really wanted to be done, but i knew he deserved a visit. the next morning I was pretty wasted, my body was aching and I was doing the whole.. shoot I can't see straight thing haha, I laughed and sang I hope they call me on a mission. I flicked the ants out of my pants (literally Ghana has plenty ants) because i felt prompted to check them before I put them on.. good thing haha we had an elder get bit by some after he towled off the other day, so pretty funny. ants are just one of the things you laugh about :) so we went to church and saw the confirmation of linda and laticia! also a man named couch that the AP's had taught (they serve in our ward as well) it was a great testimony meeting, our bishop talked about referrals since linda and laticia where his referrals and he was very gracious. that man is so great! we had brother Kweku and Bismark come and i was so glad to see them. I kept having to say no to hand shakes because I thought I had the flu.

So two hours later we finish church, great meetings but I couldn't stand or sit with out about falling over anymore. so we went to the apartment and I got into shorts and passed our for like 6 hours haha had crazy dreams and woke up thinking.. "huh is this my mission or where am I?" man that was so crazy. so i texted sister judd who is the medical person and she said I was dehydrated and to drink till I couldn't, then drink some more. well I started drinking and felt a bit better. I finished off like 3 liters in a few hours and slept great! this morning I was still pretty out of it, but we got wakye and I drank about 4 more liters of water and started to get a lot better. mom we sang 'i'm dreaming of white christmas' me and elder nelson and a bunch of other old shows like that haha it was great.

but as i got better I realized how much I wanted to go and work, how grateful I was to be healthy. I had been praying all week to adjust to mission life and really love it. oddly enough the sickness somehow helped. I was relying on God more, I wanted to work more and I was able to get out of a sort of mental rut I have been in. weird way to have prayers answered but hey, I trust in him.

I know this week has been tough for everyone but I hope conference helped. I have been praying all week/ my whole mission for you guys and I want you to know that I love you and that Heavenly Father does too.

My advice is a quote I was reminded of "if you don't feel like praying, pray until you feel like praying" solid advice. God is waiting to be answered and he is looking to bless our efforts at every turn.

Although I was sick, I felt lifted, I was not biking alone, I was not trying to walk alone. and don't worry about my being sick, it wasn't like so sick I thought I was going to die, just the sick that keeps you in bed.. which sucks cause that's a day I can't get back. O well, I learned from it and I can help others more now. Mission is so tied to the atonement that it is crazy! 

Elise I got your dear elder and mom yours with it! thanks so much for thinking of me, I know everyone is busy but it means a lot to me :)

keep on keeping on family, remember what mom taught us years ago "and it came to pass" "it didn't come to stay" those words echo with me each day. it is true, the clock doesn't stop for the good or the bad, so soak it all in. learn all you can. take pictures. you'll be glad you did.

I love you all more than words and am eternally grateful to be eternally by your side :)

Elder Van Wagoner