Saturday, October 17, 2015

A miracle, and Stake Conference Week: Two Posts

Hello Family and Friends!
It's so great to write you all once again, and I hope you are all doing well! This week Elder Montgomery updated our board and it is looking pretty great.
Elder Harward's Planner and Inspiring Scriptural Thought
Okay so as for this week it was really interesting actually. On Monday I actually didn't eat any food at all (not a good idea) because of all  the washing I had to do, and our kitchen just got cleaned, so I thought I could wait until  6:00 PM until FHE with Fred and his family to eat and drink. Throughout the day I start to not feel well, and I started to get a sore throat, then a headache, then a fever and so when I was emailing you guys last week, I wasn't doing too well. So eventually Elder Montgomery and I went to Brother Fred's house to meet with the other Elder's (Elder Kavilata and Elder Wightman). They were serving Kan Kae with Okra stew and it was good, but my fever had increased and I just was feeling really bad, and I couldn’t eat a whole lot. So during dinner we watched Legacy which was good, and afterwards we had a nice FHE and then we started to head home. I still wasn't feeling great and the other elders could tell I wasn't feeling good and eventually they sat me down at this little shop and got me a sprite just so I could try to feel better because I was starting to get dizzy. Eventually I was able to get up and go to the road and get in a taxi to go home to our apartment. The wind actually felt chilly (and for Ghana it is never cold, so that tells you I wasn’t feeling well).  At home Montgomery and I closed our day and I eventually asked for a priesthood blessing. I felt that if I had enough faith that I could be better and not be sick, and guess what? A Miracle happened. I got better! Awesome right? I started to get better within the next two days and now I feel fine. And I KNOW that it is because of the Priesthood power that my fellow elders carried that really helped me that night, and I am so glad that they were worthy to hold that priesthood. It was a testimony builder to me that God does know us and that priesthood power is real.
Elder Harward and Elder Montgomery enjoying the fresh ocean breeze in Cape Coast. 
Tuesday we had District meeting once again and it was great! And I got my packages from my family. Thanks guys. :) So that really made my day! And after district meeting and lunch we met we were able to have a couple of lessons (one with Fredrick one with Teresa, one with the Lawe's and one with this member named Asoman) so it was pretty good. On Wednesday we were supposed to have our pebbling fixed for our shower, so we were waiting for this guy but I guess we got the wrong information and he was coming Thursday morning instead, so we were only able to go to Mutual that night but it was really good!
On Thursday we were able to meet with Johanna! Which was exciting to see her again, and we gave her a lesson 2 pamphlet, but we actually think she is a recent convert in 3rd ward. Ha-ha, so on Thursday we are going to ask her for sure. We looked at the other Elder's area book and it matches her descriptions, so it looks like she might be a member. I am so happy if she is a member of the church, but I am a little sad though that she might not be an investigator anymore) so after we saw Johanna we saw Amy and we reviewed the Plan of Salvation with her and it was really good. We committed her to church and unfortunately she said she couldn't come but we are hoping this week on Friday (because she is traveling to Durkwa until then) that we will meet with her and have her come to Stake Conference. That night we actually met with Sister Belinda (our less active) and we really tried to show our love and concern for her and we committed her to church this Sunday. She said she would come, but she didn't, but we'll keep trying!
On Friday Elder Montgomery and I and the other Elders in our Apartment traveled to Cape Coast for our Follow-up Trainer's Meeting, and we went to the European Store (which is so great!) and we got some little snacks (and do you know they sell actually chocolate? They sell Snickers, pretty cool huh? It's like an American Store, so lots of fun stuff). After that we went to the meeting and we had Jollof which was really good and I learned so much from the meeting, and I hope to really improve. After the meeting all of us went to this little shop in Cape Coast that Elder Wightman knows and we got some sweet Keinkea Ties and they are awesome! So Friday we were in Cape Coast all Day.
On Saturday everything fell through except for our lesson with Fredrick and that was really great to see him. It was sad to see all of our appointments fail, but we will keep trying and working hard, and following up with people. We actually went to a nice chop bar (it's called secret corner) and I got some nice Fu Fu and that was really great!
So Sunday was Fast Sunday! IT was really great, and I loved partaking of the sacrament. My companion and I actually bore our testimonies; unfortunately we only had 2 investigators show up for church (one is 15 and she goes to young women and the other doesn’t speak English well, it's actually Paa Joes's soon to be wife) so we didn’t have any investigator class (or gospel essentials) and that was sad, but we talked with Brother Jude and we discussed what we could to get the work moving forward and that was nice. So after church we were going to break our fast but we had an appointment in Happy home, so we just decided to wait to break our fast and we went and we actually met this woman and a guy named Bright (he was taught before but couldn't be baptized because he traveled). The woman wanted to partake of the sacrament but couldn't because she is tasking care for her mother and it was so great that the Lord put these people in our path for us. Such a miracle! SO after meeting them we go down and we break our fast with Jollof from Sister Gabriella and Hannah and then we have a small lesson with Sister Hannah and that was really great!
Today is Monday and we had a District Activity! Super Fun! We went to the Akwomokrom Chapel and we played Kickball and Dodgeball and it was really great! It was a lot of fun, and today is actually my companion’s birthday and Elder Larse and Elder Brown got him Wet for his birthday, so that was funny ha-ha! And tonight we are having an FHE with Sister Vida and Theolopus so it should be great!
 So the work here is going well, but we also have a LOT of work to do because of church attendance and with people keeping commitments, but it should be well, and it should be okay! And this week is Stake Conference so that should be sweet! I am really excited to learn and grow from that! The Lord truly does know us and our needs, we just need to turn to Him always in prayer and scripture study and he will help us if we are humble and turn to Him. I hope you all enjoyed General Conference, and will continue to apply the talks given into your lives daily. I hope you all have a great week, and I will talk to you later. Love you all!
Love,
Elder Harward

Ma Jo (Good Evening here from Ghana) Hello Family and Friends! I hope you are all are safe and are doing well! This week has been a good week, and it was also inspiring.
So Monday night we had FHE with Sister Vida and Theolopus and that was SO good. I truly love this family. They are so great. We gave a scripture thought and started over with the lessons (For Sister Vida)  starting with Lesson 1 on the Restoration and we really gave our support for the Knocking and the Bride Price, so I REALLY am hoping that it will all work out and that Theolopus can baptize her. Did I mention their 5 month old Baby named Marion? She is so great and she is a great healthy baby. I hope the best for that family!
As for Tuesday, unfortunately it was a slow day, but we did have a lesson with Lord. (Did I mention him?) I believe I did, but he stays right by our apartment and he was taught by Elder Lebaron a while back and we addressed his drinking problem and set some goals with him so that he will be able to overcome his habit, and that was a great lesson! Elder Montgomery and I also had some nice gospel conversations by ADB Bank and it was a nice day!
 On Wednesday I went on an Exchange with Elder Kavilata (I'll get a picture with him soon so you can see him) and we had a good day. We wanted to get our gifts for our companions (because it was their birthday this week and we got Elder Wightman a Football Jersey and I got my Companion a nice Ghanaian shirt (It's pretty cool!) And that was really great, and then after our little shopping, we had our first lesson with Franics. He was a potential investigator that we met and he stays right by Brother Frank, so we found out where he lives and then went to the church to have the lesson with Brother Frank and we gave him Lesson 1. We also gave him a pamphlet and committed him to prayer, so hopefully all will go well with him. So after that lesson we meet with Isaac, who is an older gentleman. Isaac was also a potential investigator and when we met with him, he talked a lot about how he can't go between Pentecost and the LDS church because it's not right, but he said he would go to the LDS church and serve there, and that was really neat. But what was really neat was when Elder Kavilata gave him the Lesson 1 Pamphlet he started to cry and the spirit really testified to him that this is the true church upon the face of the earth; it was so neat!!! After that Lesson we had a small scripture thought with Brother Alex. We just wanted to make sure that he was planning on coming to Stake Conference and to make sure he is doing well, and he told us he is doing well and that he would come to Stake Conference and that was really great!
On Thursday Elder Montgomery and I had another pretty good day. In the morning we met with Lord again and this time talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Lesson 3) and really focused on Repentance and committed him to read Alma 7 in the Book of Mormon and overall it was a great lesson! Then towards the end of the night we met again with Isaac. I was really excited to see him again because of Wednesday and we started with Lesson 1 and we went through that small and he had questions about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and Elder Montgomery and I did our best to answer his questions and to help him progress and we committed him to continue to continue reading the pamphlet and then we set up a time for Friday.
Friday was Elder Wightman’s Birthday so in the morning he opened his package from his parents and Elder Kavilata gave him his Jersey and I gave Elder Montgomery his Ghanaian shirt and he really liked it! So on Friday Elder Montgomery and I met with Fredrick and Isaac again. For Fredrick we addressed his questions and his concerns and really focused on attending church and praying, and he seems to be doing well, but he doesn’t want to keep commitments so hopefully he will start to progress! So that night we met with Isaac and I was excited to see him again and to have another great lesson with him. However when he came to the church he was drunk. We could smell the alcohol on him, and I was pretty sad that he had a drinking problem. I had no idea he drank but Brother Frank told me he is a pretty heavy drinker. We didn't really progress anywhere with him because he asked the same questions as yesterday and he couldn't remember that we answered those questions yesterday, so that was sad, and it was hard to make any progress. I won't deny, I was pretty frustrated after that lesson. However Elder Montgomery and I still think he has great potential and we are trying to meet with him this next week so hopefully it will go well. At the end of the night our apartment went to Secret Corner (The Chop Bar we go to the most, because it's really good and the people are really nice) and we celebrated Elder Wightman and Elder Montgomery's birthdays and that was a lot of fun!
On Saturday we had Stake Conference and that was a neat experience because we had a visit from a member of the Seventy and he actually is the Africa West President, and his name is Elder Curtis.
You could tell he had the spirit with him when he talked.  President Stevenson also spoke and his testimony was really powerful. He was kind of emotional but when he testified about the Savior I could just really feel of his love and the assurity he knew that the Savior lives and that was a great moment for me. After that Session we had some lunch and then we attended the Adult Session (Which I guess was a little weird to me that I am an adult now, but pretty cool) and it was really great and I learned a lot, especially about Member Missionary Work, and from Elder Curtis who talked about the Ward Council and how effective it can be when the members of the ward council serves their fellow brothers and Sisters. He actually role played an actual Ward Council and it was really neat. I honestly didn't know we had this, but it really does help the ward and really allows the ward to focus on the people that need to be rescued not just the agenda items on a list. Anyways it was a great lesson! After Stake Conference Elder Montgomery and I had dinner back at our apartment. We called Lord because we wanted to meet with him again this week but he said he was out of the house, so Elder Montgomery and I went out and finished some shopping we had to do before Sunday's night party and we met up with the other Elder's in our District at our apartment for Transfer News. As for Transfer News (I wasn't nervous at all because I am training Elder Montgomery, so we won't be going anywhere until we finish training at the end of the next transfer) so, nothing too exciting happened. But now we are starting the 8 week transfer and I will be here at least until the beginning of December. YAY!!  We are getting a New Zone Leader (Elder Boamah finished his mission this transfer) and our District is getting split, so now we have 5 districts in our zone so that's pretty cool!
As for Sunday we had the General Session of Stake Conference. Elder Montgomery and I picked up Theolopus and Brother Frank and then we headed off to Winneba. It was a great Stake Conference but it was SO full. It went clear to the back of the chapel and up on the small stage and it was cool to see how many people came to really feel of the spirit and to listen to the speakers. The Stake President Spoke and then two adults spoke from various wards. Then Sister Stevenson spoke. The whole time she spoke all I could think about was Mom, because she looks like mom and is very sweet, and had such a powerful testimony. Then President Stevenson spoke, then Sister Curtis, then Elder Curtis himself and overall it was a great stake conference and I learned a lot. We actually had 3 investigators attend Stake Conference so that was great! (Sister Vida, Stella, and Abina- Paa Joe's soon to be wife). After the conference Elder Montgomery, Brother Frank, and I headed back to Swedru and we dropped of Brother Frank and headed home. Then Elder Montgomery and I got ready and headed to Aboso for our District Activity. So we had a district Sleep over at Aboso and it was a lot of fun. We brought two mattresses over and we roasted some hot dogs, we fried some chicken, and had some sausage and candy that night. I probably ate too much ha-ha, but it was fun and we played some games and it was fun.
President Stevenson, Elder Harward's Mission President

Monday was a great day! In the morning after the activity we made brownies for breakfast and had a wrestling match on the mattresses. Granted I am the weakest person in our District so of course I was out of the "Tournament" right at the beginning but it was a fun activity. So after that we all traveled home and we did our washing and we got ready and then we tried to email. The lights went off so we decided to come back on Tuesday and finish. But that night we had a great FHE with Sister Joyclen, Kelly (her 12 year old son who is really cool) and Brother Frank. We had Jollof and talked. Then we talked about The Gospel of Jesus Christ and did an object lesson with some pencils where you could break one pencil easily and two pencils easily but when you rely upon the Savior then you wouldn't break (so with lots of the pencils and we had a screwdriver duck taped to the pencils and that was just showing that the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless your lives. It won't be easy and there still will be trials, but that we still can do it.)

Anyway that's all for this week. I hope you are all doing well, and I wish the best for you. Stay Strong. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Harward


Friday, October 2, 2015

Hard Work and Getting Caught in the Rain

Hello Family and Friends!
A Pu may? I hope you guys are all doing well! This week has been good for Elder Montgomery and I, and we are learning a lot from each other!

Me, Paa Joe, and Elder Montgomery 

Are you all excited to watch General Conference? Unfortunately we will not have the opportunity to watch it( Due to the fact that they don't rebroadcast it here for like a month or two, but hopefully when the Liahona comes out, I will be able to read it, and then watch it, so it's all good! And it's Fast Sunday, so I am really excited to partake of the sacrament and renew my covenants.

So on Tuesday at District Meeting Elder Montgomery and I brought up Paa Joe and Vida and their situation with the knocking and bride price, and they gave us great ideas! They recommended that we have the bishop speak to Paa Joe and Theolopous (Vida's soon to be husband) and to see how he can help the process.They also recommended since they have been taught everything, we go over there just once a week to encourage them and see how it is going. So we took that idea, and we are also going to start the lessons again (in review) just because both of them (Paa Joe and Vida) were taught a while back, so we just want to review with them and make sure that they are okay with everything so that they both will be ready for that baptismal interview.


Me and Paa Joe 

On Wednesday I really wanted to find Johanna (Johanna was a GREAT potential investigator with lots of questions and she really participated,) but she stopped coming to church the past 4 weeks or so and I was sad because she said the next time she would come to church she would show us to her house because she doesn’t have a phone, and that's when she stopped coming. So Elder Montgomery and I went to Mandela Market (because we know she sells there but not exactly where) so we looked for her and... we found her! It totally made my day. I was really happy to see her, and we committed her to church this week, but she didn't come, but know we know where she sells so we will go see her this week, and I really hope the best for her.


Open Sewer lines 

Okay so Thursday was crazy! Everything was pretty normal, and we visited Fredrick (a guy we dropped my first week). We thought we should try again, and he knows the Bible hard core, so he has lots of questions, and we try our best to answer them. He wasn't able to come to church due to the time conflict because our church changes to 11:30 a.m. this week, so we are going to see how it goes with him. We also saw Amy and later after Amy's lesson we walked out of her house and the clouds were dark, like really dark. I knew it was going to rain soon, but we said goodbye to Amy and started walking to our next appointment. So we are walking by Paa Joe’s shop and he tells us that we could stay there and take shelter because it was going to rain. We told him if we didn't get too far we would come back. Haha we didn't get too far because it soon just started to pour. We ran back to Paa Joe's shop and talked to him about his marriage and stuff and we took pictures in the rain haha! But here is the crazy part, the rain poured down so much that the gutters couldn't flow and the gutters overflowed and then the roads stated to overflow. At one poin the water started to come into Paa Joe's shop!


Heavy Rainstorms and Coming into the Shop 





After a while it stopped though and we were able to walk back towards our apartment. Unfortunately the rain ruined our plans for meeting with potential investigators, so we tried to meet our translator just to meet to see where he was, but he was not home. So were looking around when these 2 guys stopped us and we had a small Gospel conversation with them, and it was pretty good! Eventually we went back to the chapel area and saw Anita (the 15 year old girl who is a teacher in her church chosen race) and we gave her a Book of Mormon and really testified of it. It was really great!!!! I mean for Elder Montgomery and I that was a pretty powerful moment for both of us, and she seemed to enjoy the lesson and The Book of Mormon. In fact we committed her to church and we picked her up Sunday and she came! So that was incredible! We shall see how she goes. 

Sporting a new hair style after the rain
  On Friday we went out to Happy home first, then Mahondrwe to see some recent converts and try to get some referrals. At Happy Home we saw Sister Gabby (She is really sweet and I am her favorite son; well, I told her I was her favorite haha, and she agreed!). So unfortunately Gabby didn't have any referrals but as we were about to leave Happy Home, we saw her neighbor Hannah and we talked to her and she came to church on Sunday and that was so neat! We also talked to Linda who is right next door to Brother Billy and she couldn't come to church due to the time, but she said she would come next week. SO we will follow up and see how it goes! After Happy Home we went to Swesbu to see Martha (which is right next to Happy Home) and we went over lesson 2 and she talked about how she is helping her friend with questions about the gospel and invited her to church and it was really neat! We don’t know a whole lot of information about her friend so we will follow up with Maratha. After Martha we were back to Mahondrwe (near the chapel) and we saw Brother Alex , and brother Lawe! It was really great to see both of them, especially Brother Lawe becase he has been less active for a while now, and we shared some scriptures with him and tried to express our love for him and committed him to church. He said he would definitely come, but... he didn't. That's okay because the Lord never gives up on us so we won't give up on him and his family! So we will be going back there this week.

So Saturday came and we had an okay day. Unfortunately Brother Frank got sick so he couldn't come with us proselyting. (he got a swollen face and had to go to the hospital, but he is doing much better now) so we saw Fredrick again and we went over lesson 2. We also saw Sister Vida and gave her a scripture thought, and the next time we meet we will start reviewing the lessons! After the scripture thought we had Bonku with Palm Nut Soup and it was really good!


Fufu with light soup 

Then Sunday came around! So we got ready and we picked up Brother Frank dropped him off at the church, and then picked up Anita. So at church we had Anita, Hannah, and Sister Vida at church and that was really good! We definitely have some work to do this next week and I think it will be really great. So after church we headed back to our apartment and saw these girls by this MTN shop who sell food (we have been talking to them about the gospel small, but they don't speak English, so we are trying to split them up and try to meet with them one at a time, just to see their commitment level) and I asked one if I was invited to her food, and of course she said yes, but I didn't eat it; I was just joking, but the ladies actually gave us free food! Awesome! After we got the food we ate it at the house and we headed to Happy Home again. We got some FuFu with Gorund Nut Soup from Sister Gabby and some FuFu with Light Soup from Hannah and it was awesome. So we talked and visited and we tried to start a lesson with Hannah, but it didn't work out too well because of the FuFu making, but we did set up a time for this week so it hopefully will go well. After we came home from Happy Home we cleaned our board with the names of people who are not ready for the gospel yet, but hopefully later, and now we have a good idea of who we need to see and how everybody is doing. So that is really great!

Today is Monday! and today we washed and we cleaned the apartment and it looks really nice! Tonight we will be having a FHE with Brother Fred (In 3rd ward) and his family with the 3rd ward Elders. Brother Fred always likes to welcome new missionaries and to see them off haha, so it should be good!

That's about it haha! How is eveything over there? But I really hope you all strive to watch conference because I know that the Lord has things for us to hear and as we watch, listen, and read over the speeches, I know we will be blessed.
Elder Montgomery is doing really well, and it's so exciting to learn and grow from him, and I know that he is going to do great things here in Ghana and Liberia. Alright, take care everybody, and I will talk to you all next week! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Harward