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