Sunday, April 24, 2016

New Words and Fruit Carrying Experiment

Hello Family and Friends! How are you all doing? I hope that you are all doing well and that you are having lots of fun adventures! SO I apologize for not doing my word of the week thing but I have been learning some new words, so I hope that you will all try them out some time. Gedi- Faith Insunu- Repentance Esu Bow- Baptism Sum Sum Konkon- Gift Of The Holy Ghost, N Kwa O Yiewia Ye- Endure to the End and Finally Ewiye- Sun, Bosum- Moon, Nroraba- Stars (I will explain why I learned these words)

Okay so this week Elder Hodson was feeling much better and we were able to go out and see some people this week! :)

 
During the first half of the week Elder Hodson and I  saw Sylvester and we talked with him about the Temple and explained a little about it. He is doing okay, it's just getting him to come to church and keep his commitments that are a problem. Then we saw Phillip and his siblings and they are sweet (I included pictures of them and of Cecilia). 



Also there is this girl we know who always carries fruit on her head, so I asked her if I could carry it and she said yes and I tried it; but I had to hold onto it with my hands, and it's not very easy at all. Carrying stuff on your head is definitely a talent for sure. 



Okay after we saw Phillip we went to see our member Sister Teresa and she is so great! She is a single mom (I included pictures) of two sweet girls one named patience and the young one named Teresa and she is really great. She is a sweet member, and we met her sister who is deaf, and it was nice to sit down and talk with them. At the end of the night we saw Christiana and we talked to her about the Word of Wisdom and had a nice lesson with her.







Then one day we met this guy named Godfred  and he just stops us as we are walking and wants a book, so we give a Restoration Pamphlet and we start talking and we want to meet with him, so he shows us his house and it's in a new site, really nice. (So I guess he lives with his aunt because his mom died and he had nowhere to go, so she took him in when he was young). The house is really nice and even the dog they have is really an American Dog, it truly was SO BIG!!!! Anyways we met his sister and everyone and it was really sweet.





On Sunday I got to speak in Sacrament Meeting, but I speak too much Brofo, so I am sure some of the members didn't understand what I said, but they seemed to enjoy it. We saw Victor after Church and just answered his questions then had lunch rice and stew :) After that we saw Francis (Our less active who actually came to church YES! ) and just talked to him and it was sweet, Then we saw Agness and talked to her about Prayer and Studying the Scriptures and she is doing well, it's just getting her to church. Then we saw Albert passing by and talked to him small and encouraged him to remember what he was taught and what he has felt. It was nice. Then we saw the Quartsons and then we saw Edward and we finished Lesson 2. That's where I got the words because we have taught lesson 3 a lot lately and as we were teaching Edward, I wanted to know what sun moon and stars were and Anita (His Aunt/mother) helped me out and it was fun. I said Nroraba Na Kraaa (The Stars are not nice at all) haha. Then we saw Christina and we just talked to her small and it was a great lesson.

Anyways that was our week! IT was sweet. Our Prayer list. Edward: He is doing so well, and he wants to be baptized, he just hasn't prayed yet at all, and that's a problem so PLEASE keep him in your prayers so that he will pray and get baptized because he really wants to; in fact when we told him we might push it back, he wasn't too happy, so we told him that he just needs to find out for himself if it's true then everything else will be okay for his baptism on the30th. And for the Members- So we can have translators come with us. :) That is all. I love you and I hope that you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Harward

Below: Pics from our apartment


























Friday, April 15, 2016

Sick Comp.

Hello Family and Friends! How are you all doing? I hope that you are all enjoying the wonderful spring weather going on in Utah! I hope that you are all doing well.

As for this week it was not a good week, so this probably won't be the most fun email to read but anyways here we go!

Monday was a nice P-Day.
Tuesday we had District Meeting (Where Sister Namutebi instructed) and Sister Fasu from Liberia gave a beautiful welcome testimony into the district, and then of course Elder Hodson and I did supplies. I love going to this Ghanaian woman's shop to get some supplies. She is so sweet! I'll have to get a picture with her and send it for you guys to see. Later we saw Christiana that night and we talked about her family history and the principle of patience. It was a good lesson.

Wednesday Elder Hodson and I did Weekly Planning a day early because Elder Hodson was going to Takoradi on Thursday. Later as we headed out to proselyte, everything fell through :( but Elder Hodson did talk to this nice woman as we were heading back to the mission home named A-hin-ewa and she actually called us back (Which was really cool) so she seems like she has some good potential.

On Thursday Elder Hodson went to Takoradi to get his Non-Citizen Card Renewed. (Every group goes right before they hit their one year mark, so they can stay for another year in the country and you get to meet up with all of your MTC's and have lunch. It's supposed to be really fun. I get to go this next transfer so that's cool!) Elder Griffin got to go as well because he lost his card, so he had to go get a new one as well, so Elder Reyes and I were together and it was great. I got to do some supplies in the office and organize our supplies and it was really nice. Elder Hodson came back that night and said he had a good time.
On Friday Elder Hodson and I did our supplies and afterward we had PEC where we talked about our Missionary Sunday which is coming up this next Sunday. It should be exciting, and we also talked about some other activities that we could do for the ward. We then saw Phillip and then we saw Edward and talked about the Restoration again (This time with a good translator, and it was much better).

Saturday/Sunday- Elder Hodson got really sick oooo. It started Friday evening. Elder Hodson just started getting a really bad migraine and it didn't stop. So we weren't allowed to go out. He then started to throw up and got really dizzy. He got some medicine from Sister Stevenson and I gave him a priesthood blessing, but he still wasn't getting better. Finally he was just sitting by the toilet and couldn't talk, and I called Sister Stevenson and she told me to get him to DIS so I did. They put him on an IV and gave him a shot and told him it was something to do with his throat, but he eventually was able to go home and they gave him some medicine. And we weren't able to go out Sunday either because Elder Hodson needed to rest. I am glad that he was able to get some rest, but it was sad to miss the sacrament. (It was my first time missing church and that was sad). BUT I was able to really think about how important going to church is, and how I really need to make sure that when the time comes when I am not on a mission, I need to make sure that going to church is a priority in my life.





But that's all for this week! This next week should be good so I am excited! I actually also got to print Elder Dieter F. Uchtodorf's talk and it's SO good! I hope that you all enjoyed General Conference. And I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Harward


Sunday, April 10, 2016

Hello Family and Friends! I hope that you are all doing well, and that you enjoyed General Conference last weekend. I know that the messages that were presented at this time are what Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ need us to do, and help us become better.


Okay so as for this week, it was pretty nice!

Monday was a nice P-Day, and we had planned to see A-Boss for FHE but he was traveling back from Winneba so we couldn't have it, but that's okay.

Tuesday we had Combined District Meeting for the missionaries who are leaving the zone to say goodbye, I then did supplies, and then that night we had Final FuFu for the missionaries going home and we got to meet the new missionaries coming in. (The Final FuFu is usually Wednesday but because of the missionaries going home earlier than expected President Stevenson changed the date). I also got to watch President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk again to the new mission presidents in 2014 (all new missionaries watch it) and it was great to listen to it again. It was also great to hear the departing missionaries give their final testimonies.

Wednesday was a pretty good day! Elder Hodson and I saw Sylvester and we went over Faith and Repentance. Then we saw Agness and went over Baptism again to make sure she didn't have any questions, and it was really nice! Then we saw Beverleyn and then Hannah which both were really great lessons.

These are just pictures of how the funeral looks like in Ghana. It's actually quite different than America. They post the obituary on the walls  and they don't bury the person for some months. When they do it's like a celebration of life. Even some of the Chiefs of the villages were there. The one holding the big stick is one of the chiefs and the chiefs are the ones over the villages. I guess the Nkanfoa chief wasn't there.

Thursday was another pretty good day. Elder Hodson and I saw Sylvester again and we went over Baptism and we tried to give him a Baptism Date, but he feels like his baptism into his Church was right. (I guess the guy that did it is an "Apostle" of his church so he feels it's good) We tried to explain about Authority connecting it back with Joseph Smith, so we left him to commit to Prayer about it. We then Francis (Our less active) and he has a Doctrine and Covenants Student Book and he wanted to talk about Prophets so we went over all the prophets from Joseph Smith, and I even sang the Primary Song because it helped ha-ha. Then we saw Cecilia/Phillip and we talked about Charity and that was a really nice lesson, and they are both doing really well! We then saw Christiana and went over Charity as well, and it was nice. She is doing really well, and her small daughter Emaculate is so sweet, although she is scared of me ha-ha. Oh there was also this Funeral Going on and I Took some pictures of it, and It was really interesting because funerals are different hear in Ghana.


Friday Elder Hodson and I had Supplies and that was nice. :) After Supplies we had PEC and we talked about ideas for the ward, like a missionary Sunday, and activities for the ward so they can get excited about missionary work and that was really nice. After PEC Elder Hodson and I were planning on seeing Agness but she wasn't feeling up for it, but her neighbor Juliet wanted us to teach her (She has sat in on our lessons a few times) and we got to know her and went over The Restoration, and it was nice.

Saturday was a really nice day. I guess that General Conference is now live to the whole Continent of Africa but we weren’t able to watch it, so it was just a normal day.  We started out by seeing Sylvester and we went into Acts Chapter 2: 2-5 about the people getting re baptized because it was in the name of John and it needed to be correct, and so we explained that to him. Unfortunately he wasn't able to pray about it, so he wasn't able to get an answer. So we didn't give him a Baptism date but we just moved on (He also has not come to church yet so it's a little frustrating right now, but hopefully  small small things will improve. Then Elder Hodson and I saw Phillip passing by and we asked if we could teach him small and he said okay and we talked to him, and it was really nice. Then Dorothy passed by (A Young Women we had a Gospel Conversation passed by) and she said Hi, and she agreed to sit down and have a lesson and it was really nice. Turns out she goes to SHS with Gifty but is just two grades lower. But we had a good lesson .Then we saw Agness and talked about the Holy Ghost, and it was nice, she promised us she would be at church on Sunday. Finally we saw Beverlyn's Sister Mame Akoua (I guess she has been coming to church for some time with Beverlyn) So Beverlyn said her mom was okay with us teaching her. She is only 8 years old and English is not all that well, so we tried to break it down really small small so she could understand so it seemed like it was okay, but hopefully we can get a translator for her.

Sunday was a great day! So we had Church and during Church they announced that they would be showing the Sunday Morning Session of General Conference Live at 4:00 P.M at the Cape Coast Stake Center! So we asked our Zone Leaders and they said we could go!!!! We didn't have anybody of our investigators come to church so, But after Church we saw Victor and just reviewed some commandments and talked to him about General Conference and he said he would come (And he did :) ) We then saw Sylvester and we just talked to him about the Law of Chastity. (Elder Hodson and I are hoping that somehow he will start to progress after we go through almost all of the lessons but we are just seeing if he is going to come to church, and if he is going to pray) but it was a nice lesson. After that we tried to see some other people but it didn't happened but finally it came to the time to go watch General Conference!!!!! It was SO cool to see just one session live and it made my week. I almost felt like I was watching it live back home. I really loved the session. Christopher W. Waddell’s talk was really good and I like it A LOT, as well as Christofferson's talk on Fathers, but the talk that hit me home was Dieter F. Uchtdorf's Talk. It was SO good, and I really need to hear what he said. I absolutely loved the idea of being rebuilt and that we are known and loved, and the savior is willing to help us, we just got to take the steps and be obedient. I have never had a talk hit me like that before and it was incredible. It truly was an answer to my pleading heart to my Heavenly Father for help. I hope to get a hard copy of it soon. Anyways I just want you all to know that our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ love you and that as you listen to General Conference you will find things that you need personally in your life and it will bless you. Anyways After the Meeting I met Brother Anderkson and his family and that was nice ha-ha. :)


Hopefully I will get to read the rest of Conference Soon, and heed the words that they are saying. I hope you all have a good week. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Harward