Hello Family and Friends! How are you all doing? I hope that all is going well for you and that you had a nice Thanksgiving. We did not have any fun plans for Thanksgiving so it was just the same stuff haha, but maybe we will eat some Fufu or something.

This past week was a really nice week for Elder Yao!

Tuesday- We had our MLC report and we learned some new things from President Stevenson and our other leaders. Specifically no more beach activities (No surprise there). There is just too many problems with us going to the beach so now we aren't allowed to go until next year (that is if we are good) so that was interesting, but I know that this is for our good, so I know it will help us. After that Elder Yao and I helped Sister Millicent (She came back from Upper West!) carry some water back to her place and it was hard, but really good. I am not that strong. Then we sat down with Ruth and conitnuted talking to her, but it we weren't able to go to far with her.

Wednesday- Elder Yao turned 25 years old! :) WOOO Party! So I sang to him Happy Birthday (The one Dad always sings to us like a thousand times), and then I got him wet with some water (tradition), and we popped some Sparkling Cider so that was fun.. (I was hoping I made it nice for him since there weren't many others to celebrate with).

On Thursday we saw Samuel D.'s Older Brother named Daniel (He's a bit stubborn) but we were able to talk to him small, and committed him for the 27th for Church so hopefully we can help him with that. We then saw Brother Ninson and we talked about Tithing and it was really good. He is doing so well. We are SO excited for his baptism! :)

Friday Elder Yao and I got to go on Exchanges with our Zone Leaders! Super fun. Except we had to travel to their apartment and that is a bit hard because we are so far away, but I picked up Elder Edwards (You can see his picture on the Blog from our Zone Conference) and we went back to Ntranoa and we had a good time. I learned some really good things from him, and it was really nice!

On Saturday Elder Yao and I came back together and we were able to see brother Ninson again. We got FuFu with Palm Nut Soup from Sister Vida and it was so nice. I was really happy. Anytime they are pounding FuFu and we are there they ALWAYS feed us, which us, but I feel like I am going get Fat from the FufFu but that's okay. I wish you guys could try this Palm Nut Soup because it's to Die for. SO good, and much better than a chop bar, because the soup is fresh and it doesn't taste just like oil. You will all have to try it sometime. :) We talked some more commandments with Brother Ninson and he understood everything.

Sunday was the Africa West Broadcast Live from Salt Lake City for 72 stakes and I believe 45 Districts in the Africa West. Sister Vida and Patience were able to come and that was nice. Even though the messages were in English I just loved the Faith of the people here in Ghana, because there is a lot of the older generation that don't understand English, so they are just sitting there, but I know that the spirit touched their hearts and they will be blessed for their Efforts. Elder Dube of the Seventy talked about the Bride Price and how we should stop practicing it, and his talk was very interesting, How we need to let go of the "Natural Man" and stay in the Box (The lines of the Gospel) (This was from his story so I am not saying this as well as he did, but it was great, if you can find it online somewhere I would suggest you to listen to it because his talk was nice). After the Conference Elder Yao and I went to Koful to see some young women for the first time and that was nice. Funny Story as we were walking out of Koful there was this graduation going on for Soap Makers or something, and they were pulling fabric off for like 1 cedi or so, and this guy saw us, and said "Obruni give us 1 cedi" I told him Ay aweso mo (That's a problem) my favorite phrase here. and we told him we don't carry money with us on Sunday so  that was that. One of our Members graduated from the soap thing (Sister Sophia) so  that was cool. Then we Saw Brother Ninson and he explained to us why he didn't come to church because he was ready but his wife wasn't  and they were running late so he said I won't go, so we helped both him and his wife, to go on time, and if you are running late still go, because the lord will bless you. We talked about the Prophet and it was really good. His baptism is this Saturday! We are excited, so if you could pray for him that would be great!!!

That's all for this week. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! :)

Love,

Elder Harward

Zone Activity at Kankoom National Park and Baptisms

Hello Family and Friends! How are you all doing? I hope that everything is well with you. This past week was a pretty good week for us, still working with some of our investigators like Brother Ninson. Unfortunately he hasn't been coming to church so if you could pray for him that would be really great. 

So on Monday we had a Zone Activity at Kankoom National Park! It's on the way to Praso, so it was cool to go out that way for the first time. Kankoom is pretty popular so we saw some tourists there, but it was really cool to go on the Canopy Walk and to see the HUGE TREES!  I just loved it. Some of the Sisters were really scared on the rope bridges, but they all safety made it. I really had a good time, and I took some photos so I hope you enjoy them :)

Tuesday we had normal District Meeting and I talked about Using the Scriptures Effectively, how we can use them  to the best of our ability.  I apologize in advance because the rest of the week was pretty slow: we saw Brother Ninson and have been trying to help him out. We are also still seeing if Mary Mensah needs to be Re-baptized and are still working with Mary Eshoun, it is just seeing her that's been a problem. 

On Saturday I had the privilege  of interviewing a Family for the Abura Sisters and that was really great, and we got to go to Incontrado. We had a miracle while we were there. Finding people is really hard here, because there isn't such a thing as addresses, so you have to go off of main places like "Near The Community Center" which is kind of hard, especially when we were trying to find a young women named Hannah (She is a really sweet young woman in our Branch, who is very active but the rest of the family has fallen a less active). But she told us she lives near the Community Center so we decided to try and find her (She doesn't have a phone either which made it really hard to see her) so went and we were trying to find her, but we weren't having any success. 

So I  said "She told us she lives around the Community Center so let's ask around there" So we went there and we talked to a small young women and Guess what? She took us to Hannah's Place! It was exciting, and it turns out that she is Hannah's Cousin and we talked to her and we invited her to come visit us at Church, and she came! It was neat for me to see that when we don't give up the Lord really will help us if we are trying to do what's right. Sister Hannah then gave us a referral of a young man named Joseph who we were able to sit down with for the first time and it was really nice. So that was pretty cool! 

That night we received Transfer News! Elder Gasolo is getting transferred to Kissi (Elmina Zone) to be with Elder Blay! (He was our Assistant but is now getting released his last 2 transfers so, he is going to be a great companion for Elder Gasolo) and Elder Yao and I are staying in Ntranoa! YAY! I am happy, because I really am excited for the work here in Ntranoa, so I know that it's going to be a good transfer. This is my 4th Transfer here, so I might get transferred in December, but we shall see. 

On Sunday our companionship went to Abura and I did the last interview for the Family. The Husband) who actually did not pass (first person I couldn't pass for Baptism) which was really heartbreaking for me, because he was a sweet guy; it's just that he participated in an abortion unknowingly when he was younger and his friend asked him to help her cook some herbs and then she told him later that she lost the baby, so he didn't really know that he was helping her have an abortion, he was just trying to help her out, but I was trying to call President Stevenson to talk to him so we could get the "OK" for him to get baptized on Sunday but unfortunately he was out of town, and the phone wasn't going through so the family got baptized, and his baptism will be later, but he totally understood and told the Sisters "It's better that I do the right thing then to get baptized wrongly". So his baptism will be great when it comes up. After that Elder Gasolo was saying his last goodbyes to the people here in Ntranoa, and they were sad to hear that he is going. Well that is all for this week! I hope that everything is going well for you all. I am thinking about you, and am keeping you all in my prayers, have a great week! :)

Love,

Elder Harward

Typical