Wading Through Rivers

Well another week down the drain. They are beginning to all run together and now I can’t even keep track of how many weeks I’ve been out, it’s crazy. Well this week we ran into all sorts of adventures, it was an eventful week. Tuesday one of our recent converts called us and was like all depressed and stuff, so we went over there to talk with him about why. It ended up that his girlfriend/wife kinda dumped him or whatever. I don’t know what they would call it here, but they are going through a rough patch. Anyway she is a member and really pushed him to be baptized, so this will tell us if he is really having a testimony of his own, or if he was just following her. We got to play relationship counselors a few times this week before we turned it over to Bishop. I hate that crap!!!!!!!!

On Wednesday we proselyted with young man named Joseph Mensah who is preparing to serve a mission. It is pretty sweet we have like 5 or 6 kids that me and Elder Mackay are focusing on to help go on missions. So we just find them and then turn them into ward missionaries to give them something to do, because otherwise they would be sitting around doing absolutely nothing in Moree. In also helps us because we still can’t speak Fante. On Wednesday I was pounding fufu for a family and I pounded for about 25 min. I was almost finished and the blisters on my hands that formed during that time broke and blood was running down my hand. I didn’t really notice, but once the members saw they all started freaking out and wouldn’t let me finish pounding, it was pretty funny. Whenever we pound fufu they just laugh at us. After we pounded fufu we went over to Brother Pratts house again, and we learned how to cook Jolof rice. It was amazing stuff. They are so cool. They just fight and joke around like just like our family, its fun when we go over there, it reminds me of our house. So today we are making the jolof rice they showed us how to make, so we will see if me and Elder Mackay can cook at all. Then tonight we are going over there to have family home evening with them and Sammy’s family.

On Thursday we had a lesson with two boys named Joel and Anglebert. They are way cool kids and are loving the discussions. I can see them being baptized and serving missions. They are 16 and 17 I think. But we asked them to pray about Joseph Smith and to write down how they felt after they prayed and what came to their minds (we usually won’t do this because most people can’t write). When we returned the next day they both pulled out a piece of paper and read them to us. Holy crap these kids are powerful. Joel wrote like a full page letter on how he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and how he felt. Angleberts was not as long, but it was powerful. He said he heard a small voice whisper in his ear that Joseph Smith was his prophet and that needed to follow him. It was so sweet. So immediately we invited them to church.

Friday was my favorite day of the week. This is when things got fun. It stared off sweet because one of the young boys in our ward received his mission call to Nigeria. We were like the first ones to know. It also rained all day long and the entire village of Moree was practically flooded. The first part of the day we had to climb a hill to get to an investigators house. I swear it took like 20 min to go 100 yards because the mud was so slippery and we were trying not to fall. There were multiple close calls. The first few hours of the day we were trying to avoid the water and running rivers through town, but after a while we got tired of that so are just started walking right through the middle of 6 inches of water the rest of they day. We had an appointment on the other side of town, right near the beach later in the day. We had missed an appointment with this same women the day before because we lost track of time (the first missed appointment on my mission) and so we had to make sure to be there today. On our way we ran into a river of water about 20 or 30 yards wide and about 2 feet deep in some places, and it was the only way we could get to the place unless we wanted to walk around, but we didn’t have time for that. So we went trucking right through this river in our Priesthood Attire and everything. Everyone was looking at us and even some would cheer now and again. It was so tight. I finally felt like I was serving a mission in Africa. This is what I had imagined it to be like, going through rivers just to get to our next lesson. It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had yet. Then after we taught the lesson we went back the same way just so we could walk through it again. The rest of the day we were soaked and my shoes weighed about 10 pounds. Gotta love it!!

Saturday I gave a priesthood blessing to a sick woman in our ward. I always get super nervous when I have to give blessings, but they always turn up being memorable experiences. Saturday we met with a family who we had only met a few times maybe a month or so ago. So we went back to them and invited the entire family to church, normally we won’t do that but we felt they would come. There were 5 kids and then the husband and wife. The next day at church when we arrived we saw Joel and Anglebert standing outside the chapel. This made us very happy. They didn’t feel very comfortable because they were wearing checkered pants and one didn’t have a tie on. But we didn’t care what they looked like. So we sat down in sacrament meeting and realized that Joel and Anglebert were no longer around. We had no clue where they had gone. So we continued with church and decided that we would go visit them later and see what happened, and why they left. About 30 min into sacrament meeting the family we had invited to church (the Oppong Family) showed up. The entire family all 7 of them. It was probably one of the happiest moments on my mission. To see an entire family walk into the chapel together with smiles on their faces, almost brought me to tears. That’s when I realized why families are so important in the sight of God. When a family is united and happy together, there is nothing greater. Now all I want to do is baptize this family. That’s all I want. To see all of them baptized together would be one of the best experiences of my life. I sat there in church the rest of the day and just thought about you guys and how important my family is to me. It was a very spiritual sacrament meeting. Okay, so after church we went to see if Joel and Anglebert were at home to ask them why they left. We met them and the first thing they said was that their mother needed the house key, and they had it with them so they had to go home. Well right off the bat I knew that wasn’t the real reason (its crazy how you can always tell if they are telling the truth or not). Finally we got them to say why. They explained that they both had walked up to the door of the chapel and looked in, and that’s when they got scared and ran away. They were terrified of all the people looking at them and they felt out of place because they didn’t have on ties as well. It was so funny how they said it. Joel was like "well I was... I was.... uhhhhh..... I WAS SO SCARED!!!" It was funny, but at the same time I felt bad that we hadn’t done a better job of making them feel comfortable. Anyway we asked them if they wanted us to give them the ties we were wearing right then, thinking they would say no, and that we could give them one later. But they said yes and so we gave them our ties and me and Elder Mackay didn’t have a tie for the rest of the day. Man did it feel so weird walking around without a tie on. The last appointment we had was with Sammy at Brother Pratt’s house and he gave both of us some ties to wear because he couldn’t stand to look at us without ties.

So that about concludes this weeks events and all that happened. This week was awesome. I really came to see that the experiences and memories you have on you mission couldn’t happen anywhere else. And that they will change my life forever, even the ones that seem small. I’m so grateful to be in Ghana serving the Lord, and I am especially thankful to all of you for helping to get out here and for pushing me to come on my mission. It will be the best thing I’ve ever done. The church is true there is no doubt in my mind.

Well sorry I talked so much this week but I just thought you might enjoy those stories a little bit. Sounds like everything is going awesome back home. I hope everyone is enjoying school being out and having more free time. Mom I need a few things. I could use some SPF 70 OR HIGHER IN SUNSCREEN. I have been talking the doxycycline and I have been getting fried like crazy. Well that’s about all I got, except I can’t believe dad has a flippin blackberry now. What the heck, he is letting Bishop rub off on him? He probably is all about the texting now too. Okay well I love you all and take care. Talk to you next week

Love Elder Adams