Beach days and faraway Baptisms!

  

(2/9/15)

Hey not a lot of time, we have plenty cafe time, but the cafe we went to was closed and so we are going to have to rush to get out and proselyte! Went to the beach today with the zone, got the sisters to help prepare some wonderful rice and stew! Ended up being a good time, I felt like Jack Johnson, playing guitar at the beach haha, got very sunburned, so that will feel nice around the collar hahaha :) good times good times :)

Well great news! Sister Barbara, the one in Kwabenya whose husband was giving so many problems to the family, got baptized there!!!!!!!!!!!! I got word late last night as we were doing the weekly reports! Ghanaians were sad that they lost the AFCON but I was stoked about the baptism! Haven't been able to talk to her, called a couple times, she has like 4 numbers though haha Elder Grissignon said the service was nice, his new trainee is enjoying! I'm still super happy that though, wish I could've seen it, but still Barbara got baptized! :)

Couple highlights from the week, lot of meetings, but still we did get to meet some great people. We taught one lady, Gloria, who was really attacking us at first since missionaries didn't come and visit her church before (missionaries are not allowed to 'proselyte at or near the houses of worship of other faiths' WHB rule). It was sweet as we patiently waited and let her ask us the questions. I really felt the Spirit encouraging me and a greater measure of patience (I've been praying a lot for patience), ended up being a powerful lesson as we taught her that God was reaching out to her and the Book of Mormon is evidence. Prayers are wonderful, they are answered. Patience opens the heart and allows love to come. There is a lot of apathy that comes when people/pastors say that God loves them. Yet there is a difference in missionaries saying it, and I feel that people do see that, I know that she did, you could see it! One of my favorite things is explaining restored doctrines and the restored Christ and then letting them know how it's all because God loves each of his children. Funny how much your teaching evolves over the course of your mission, really grateful though.

Another sweet guy is Daniel. He lives in the sisters side of the area (yes we have 8 sisters in tema zone... they call us relief society presidents... true when you have to go and get medicine for a sister at like 10 pm, story for another day though) but he wants elders to teach him, not sure why yet. He is really gaining a testimony and I think he might get baptized!!! Praying for it and really hoping that he can have the blessings, I think he can be so strong for the church! Be praying for him to continue having the courage to progress! :)

In the zone, the new missionaries are all at different levels, interesting to see. From my own experience though the beginnings do not have control on the endings. Sister Nofuma, a great south african (who speaks the click language, so does sister Ntombana. Yes I am trying to learn haha, not easy at all! haha :)) was requesting a Priesthood blessing after a meeting we had in Accra. The blessing was so sweet, I got to be the voice. I caught just a glimpse of the understanding of God, like he was telling me to tell her that he had been in such a situation before. Now email is not a place to talk about all the Sacred impressions, but ask me about it when I come home. It was so sweet, He really cares, He really doesn't give up. I wish you could have been there to feel the love He has for her. For each of us, it's so personal. The work of the Father is all about the one.

I hope that each of us will make the effort to experience God reaching out to the one. Be the one he uses to reach out to another, and reach out to Him, seek to have that one on one moment with him. We were having a meeting and I was praying about what to do to magnify my callling. As we sang Be thou Humble, the Spirit pointed out some specifics. Like that movie moment of the character having the story changing moment, just from praying and singing a hymn. He Cares.

Heard a story of a man serving a mission in Southern Africa. He went out into the night, not far from his room, and knelt in prayer. He had been struggling with his testimony and unsure of what he knew. Away from all the pretensions and eyes of others, he knelt, alone. As he prayed he simply said 'God... are you there?' In the quiet, he felt 'as if someone had placed his hands on his shoulders and it went all throughout, filled with goodness.' He kept praying to ask about Jesus Christ, about the restored Gospel and Joseph Smith and felt the experience again and again. Even to ask if he had been forgiven of mistakes he made before he came. The man had tears as he told me he knew he had been forgiven.

All of us can have our own one on one time with our Heavenly Father.

Love you forever, from Ghana and Back and to Eternity!

Elder Van Wagoner