Another Baptism and Proselyting in the Hills of Nkanfoa

Hello Family and Friends! It is great to be writing to you all once again, and now we are in the great month of February! I hope you are all still enjoying the weather (Snow) and are all doing well!

 

Okay so as for this past week it was good! Monday night we were able to see A-Boss (A security guard for the mission home) and we read some of the Book of Mormon with him and that was good, and then we saw Christiana and we talked about the temple and she is doing well.

 On Tuesday I was nervous, really nervous. I instructed for the first time at District Meeting and it was a combined District Meeting, so it was in front of the whole zone and that was kind of scary. But it seemed okay, and the Elders and Sisters seemed to enjoy it. I talked about truly being converted to the gospel and used the Anti-Nephi-Lehis for examples (They are just really great, and are one of my favorite people in the Book of Mormon) and it was nice. I definitely am not the most adequate speaker but I felt good afterword. After that Elder Hodson and I did supplies and then I got to do my first Baptismal Interview for a young girl named Riah (Green Hill Sisters) and it was so sweet! She really was prepared for the gospel and I was so excited for her to make that covenant with our heavenly father. It was a good day!

Wednesday was a nice day of proselyting. We met this new guy named Evans and we taught him small, and he seemed really excited about the gospel. That night I got to go on my first exchange, and I went with Elder Stucle! (He is a cool guy) and is our Finance Secretary and I can only go for 3 hours at night (due to their duties and all) but it was sweet. We saw Abigail, and a guy named Albert (he was a very serious investigator but one or two things came up and he really stopped with the church) (Oh and I used one of the public toilets (For peeing; they have different ones for pooing, but we don't go in those; we use the nice toilets at the mission home or the church, or are apartment.

 

Thursday was Weekly Planning! I was feeling a little down so I was like let's make POPCORN! And we did and we sat on a mattress and did our Weekly Planning and it was great! The popcorn made me really happy :) but after that we had a slower day but we did teach Victor and Christiana and that was very sweet, and they are doing really well. We also saw our less active young man named Francis and he is a cool guy; he just doesn't like coming to church, but small small he will get there!

Friday- Elder Hodson and I just did supplies and got them ready for the apartments: we separated the packages by zone and we have all the supplies into two piles in different rooms, Central Region and Western Region and then we organized it by zone and apartment and it was fun!

Saturday was a nice day, and I got to walk up some crazy hills. Nkanfoa is so hilly. It's like you are hiking one minute, walking the next minute, up and down and its fun! Definitely different from Swedru where it was just flat, but I got some nice pictures of the view so hopefully you will all get to see them! Elder Hodson and I got the chance to go out with Elder Kalanga (Elder Adams my MT's companion. Elder Adams had to get his appendix out so they are just resting here for a little bit until he gets better) and that was nice! Elder Hodson and I also got to see how Ghanaians fetch their water and they all wait at this pump and they all take turns for this water and they get buckets and buckets of water for cooking and bathing and sometimes they have to fetch water every day and that is crazy! Plumbing truly is a blessing.

Sunday- Was good! Victor and Christiana showed up and we got to watch a video from the Africa West Presidency on their goals for 2016, and apparently the Second Counselor in the primary and the First Counselor in the Relief Society for the church came and stopped by but Elder Hodson and I were with Victor reviewing baptismal questions and President got to interview him and he passed!!!!! So his baptism is this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. so hopefully it will go well! We also saw Hannah and Agnes (Two other investigators who haven't come to church yet) and we saw Francis again, and I gave him a pen to motivate him for church. So we shall see ha-ha!

But the work here is great. We are just trying to look for referrals and use the members as much as possible! I hope everything is going well for you guys at home. And don't be afraid to call the missionaries in your home ward: they totally need you. I just saw that the 4th ward has some, and I know they could use all the help they can get. It doesn’t have to be big, but I am sure they would appreciate it :) I love you guys so much and I hope the best for you all. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Harward

Hello Family and Friends! How are you all doing? I hope you are all doing well, and that you are enjoying life, and having lots of fun adventures!!

Okay so as for this week it was a great week!

Monday of course was P- Day.

Tuesday was District Meeting, and my second time at instructing. This time I chose Charity. I don't know why but I just felt like that west the right one to choose and personally I learned a lot about it, and what I need to do to have charity more in my life. At the end of my instruction I gave the district the Christ like Attribute Activity so they personally can find out what they should work one. Then Elder Hodson and I did supplies: Pick up the mail/packages, organize the mail/packages/ pamphlets shop for more supplies fun stuff like that. :) That night I went on my second exchange with Elder Day, and I wanted to see what the other Elder's proselyting night was like and it was interesting. They visit members and less active, and it was a good night!

 

Wednesday was a good day! Elder Kalanga and I went on an exchange because he wanted to proselyte, but Elder Adams can't go out until the next transfer so my companion stayed with him. We actually went past the mission home small (The place is called New Cite) and we saw a potential investigator named Emmanuel. He attends the Methodist church, and works in Cape Coast, and seems like a nice guy. It was a pretty good first lesson and he invited us back, so hopefully all will go well for him. While Elder Kalanga and I were out we saw a pipe broken and all the people were going for free water from the pipe, so I took some pictures. It really is interesting how people here in Ghana collect their water. (Did I ever tell you how interesting Nkanfoa is? During the day Nkanfoa is pretty quiet, because a lot of people just travel 10 or so minutes to Cape Coast and work there) and then at night it's pretty busy because people usually come back from Cape Coast and it gets very interesting ha-ha.) Anyways Elder Kalanga and I saw Abigail that night. She is a member of the Pentecost church and she is very active there. She has a date in Swedru who she is dating who is a member, so she is interested in the church, but has lots of questions on life after death, which are very deep and doctrinal. We saw here and we gave her a lesson from the Doctrine and Covenants to help her with the three kingdoms of glory and we read small passages from section 76 and it was pretty good! It's very interesting because most people we teach this, it's very simple but for her it's very complex and doctrinal, so it's quite a challenge ha-ha, but it was good!

Thursday was a good day but a little bit slower. Elder Hodson and I were able to see Cecilia/Phillip (Both Recent Converts Mother and son) and we reviewed Lesson 2 with them and it was nice, and then we saw Christiana and we just talked about Missionary Work and Service and that was good!

Okay so Friday was interesting! We normally see Victor on Thursday, but he asked us for Friday right before we do supplies so we said it was cool. The other Elders had to leave early for a service project in Mankessim so they took the van, and left us the truck but they locked us in. Ha-ha so Elder Hodson and I are stuck in our compound and we can't see Victor, but luckily he calls us and shows up to our compound and opens it for us ha-ha! We had a good lesson with him! He asked if he could choose some hymns for his baptism and we told him of course! We then just reviewed small the end of Lesson 5 and then we asked him who he would like to baptize him, and he said he didn't care who did it. So Elder Hodson and I decided we would talk about it later. So then we just did supplies for the rest of the day which was fun! I think I am doing better at driving but I am not sure ha-ha! That night Elder Hodson said that I should do it (because I told him I never baptized someone) and that it would be neat for me to have my first one.

Saturday rolled around and it was a great day! We saw Francis and encouraged he to come to the service and to church tomorrow and it was sweet! Then we had Victor's Baptism at 4:00 P.M. We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer, Love at Home, Oh My Father and a couple others but it was really neat to see how much he loved the gospel and the hymns. Then we had the service, and I was really nervous to baptize him, but everything went well, and I was happy for Victor and the step he was taking to follow Jesus Christ. Even some of his friends came to support him and that was very nice of them. After the baptism we were supposed to have a movie night, but it got changed to Sunday evening so Elder Hodson and I decided to go and see Abigail. We got there and we started talking small, and we got on to the subject of Food, and my Companion said "Palm Nut Soup is my favorite" and she said "oh really, I just made some, so you have to stay and have some" so of course we said yes. Then we got to go in and have Delicious FuFu with Palm Nut soup aka Abenkyen. I included a picture :) She put beans in the soup and it was SO SO good!! The fish, and chicken were also nice! Afterwards we had a nice discussion about service and trying to resolve any of her concerns. But She told us flat out that she would come to church (we didn't remind her) and that was so sweet! SO it was a great lesson!

On Sunday a miracle happened- Abigail came to church! Man it was so sweet!! That was a big step for her, and I am SO excited for her, so hopefully it will go well for her. And it was fast Sunday and Victor got confirmed and he bore his testimony! He also got the Aaronic Priesthood and it was a nice day. Afterwards we just talked to Victor small and then we saw Christiana at her place which is up a hill.... So it’s pretty tiring but it’s keeping me in shape. We just reviewed the baptismal questions and she is doing well! We then walked up around Nkanfoa up some more hill’s (its very hilly) and we got to see Edward our Youth Member and that was cool. We then met up with the other missionaries at the Quartsons (Sweet Members) to learn how to make Cabbage Stew/ Bean Stew. It looked very nice although I am not sure if I remembered all the steps ha-ha! After that we had movie night and we watched Free Town! Hey it was so good! I really enjoyed. Okay the last part of the movie when they are about to go on the freighter and you see a bus called Metro Mass and they go and they start talking to people with stuff on their head? That bus is just a Ghana thing. Metro Mas is a bus company in Ghana and the other elders decided that they probably filmed that part in Ghana, and it wouldn't surprise me because people sell stuff on their head all the time, so it's very common. Anyways I loved the missionaries desire to preach the gospel even when their lives were in danger. It was a great movie!

Well that's all for this week! I am excited to see how the work goes, and Christiana’s Baptism is this Saturday so it should go well!!! I hope you are all doing well and that you all keep having lots of fun adventures! Have a great week :)

Love,

Elder Harward

Moving, Working, and Driving

Hello Family and Friends!

What a crazy week it has been. How are you all doing!? I hope you all doing well.

 This week I said goodbye to Swedru and that was really hard. I love the people there so much, and I really loved serving there. I had a hard time saying goodbye to Brother Frank especially because I met him since day one. I know that the Lord has great things in store for him and I know that the Lord needed me to go and serve some other wonderful people. 

Saying goodbye to my Swedru acquaintances

So I left Swedru and headed to Cape Coast, but on the way we stopped in Winneba to have our MLC report as a zone. Funny story: When we first arrived in Winneba, the mission van pulled up and it was the new missionaries (The new missionaries always stop at Winneba for a bathroom break).  And guess who I found... Toa! I guess I should say Elder Muawau, and it was so cool to see him and to say hi. Maybe I will see him around sometime!

 

We arrived in Cape Coast at what’s called "the Castle Apartment" (it's where an old mission couple used to stay) and my actual apartment was right next door! I stayed in the Castle Apartment for the night with the Halos (a mission couple in our mission) and we had a small testimony meeting and then we had some small snacks and then we all headed off to bed).

The next morning I just walked downstairs because my apartment was just right there, so I put my bags in and said hi to everyone. So now I am with Elder Hodson who is from Pleasant Grove Utah and is 19 years old. He wants to be a Police Officer when he goes home and wants to go to UVU. So Elder Hodson and I went with the other office elders and to drop off Elder Jones at the station and pick up Elder Ryes (He is going to be replacing Elder Day) so he is the new Mission Secretary and Elder Day is for sure leaving next Transfer; it will be interesting to see where he goes.

 Later Elder Hodson spent all of the day in the office sorting through mail and packages and getting everything ready for the entire mission (It’s definitely lot of work). Normally we wouldn't be in the office on Wednesday, but Elder Hodson and Elder Jones got behind because of transfers, so we just needed to get caught up, and it also gave me an idea of what a Supply Elder is like:  we deal with the mail, letters/pouch, packages, and supplies to missionaries’ apartments. We get the supplies and get them all ready and a guy named Jesse drives out to the missionaries and brings it to them. So we proselyte every day, but on Tuesdays and Fridays we are in the office from 12:00 to 6:00 getting the mail/packages, and doing the supplies and then we proselyte from 6 going. The other Elders (The mission secretary Elder Reyes/Elder Day and The Finance Secretary are in the office every day and only proselyte from 6 to 9, so Elder Hodson and I are the full time missionaries in Nkanfoa, and then the other Elders work with less- actives and members when they can, but we are all in the same ward together, so that's pretty cool! Later that night we got to sit in on FuFu for the missionaries going home and we got ice cream and it was really nice.

 

The area where I am currently serving

Thursday was my first day proselyting in Nkanfoa (I would say it like this in-con-fwa). It took me some time to get the name right. But we saw two of our powerful investigators, Victor and Christiana,  who have come to church 5 times and are very consistent. They both are super sweet and they both have baptismal dates for February. Victor February 5^th, and Christia February 13th. I also met a nice woman named Abigail who is also very sweet.

Friday was a little intense. So Elder Hodson and I go back to the Office and I had to watch the driving videos so I could drive in Cape Coast for the packages/mail and stuff like that (Elder Hodson doesn't have his international license, so I am the only one who can drive out of the two of us) so I watched the videos and then President Stevenson approved me to drive, and that was nice. So I got to drive in Africa! Sweet right! I got to do some practice around some loops and Nkanfoa. It's a pretty big truck, but it was nice and scary at the same time. Africa driving is different than America. But Sister Stevenson actually needed some stuff in Cape Coast and we had to take her. She made us some lunch before we headed out and then she sat up in from with me and we headed to cape coast. Now I was just driving around in the neighborhoods, but the distance to Cape Coast is similar to West Valley to Salt Lake City. Because I am driving Sister Stevenson and it's my first time going there... I was SO nervous! I have never been that stressed out in my life, but everything was okay. Ghanaian drivers are very aggressive it's a very “my way” type of system so you have to be very cautious and patient at times. But everything was good and Sister Stevenson said it was all good, although she said I need to put on sunscreen Haha :)

 After we took Sister Stevenson we had to go back to Cape Coast and we went to the mail place and picked up the mail/packages and that was fun! I am getting better at driving small small, so it will be okay. I also got Grandma's Package and it was SO SO SO great!!!!! I loved it, so thank you grandma :) Later that night we went to PEC with all the Elders and Bishop Iwuzuse. !

Saturday was a great day: We had 6 lessons and I got to meet some more members:  A woman named Agness, and Gloria and a man named Albert. We got some fired rice at the end of the night and that was fun. Also I met this woman named Gifty, who is a member kind of less active and she actually got me wet small because she was pretending to be an investigator but she is very funny.

Onion Rings

 On Sunday I bore my testimony and Sister Stevenson came to ward (she comes sometimes) and she also bore her testimony and it was very good). I don't remember all of the members’ names and the investigators, but the work here is sweet so I am very excited to learn to grow here.

This next week I get to instruct and give a baptismal interview. Yay! Haha I am pretty nervous and stressed, but it's good. I have never been this stressed out in my life, but I am taking it one day a time and everything is going well. :) I know that as we turn to the Savior all things are possible, and as we rely upon his atonement we can start to become who God wants us to be. I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Harward

P.S. Office life is sweet because I get to know immediately if a package or letter arrives for me because we are in charge of that, so that's pretty cool :)

Change to a District Leader, Supply Elder, and New City, Nkonfa.

Hello Family and Friends! I am sorry that I missed last week’s general email but I hope everything is going well for all of you guys.

Here in my last week in Swedru, some great things happened: We got a referral from Brother Charles about a woman named Dora and we saw her that week, and she is really sweet. Her husband is actually a member in Accra! We also met a woman named Pat and she has been taught in the past by the missionaries and we saw her twice and she is doing really well. We also had a member named Kofi (Martha's older brother) bring a friend to church and we had a good lesson with on Sunday. So a lot of things were happening and the Lord was working on the people.

We found this tropical stream where we took some pics. These are the only ones for this week. Sorry. 

Okay so as for this week, since the Accra Mission is taking over the city, many missionaries have been arriving: So 7 people in one apartment has been fun ha-ha! We saw a woman named Oliva who is friends with Pat and she read the book we gave her! But it kind of seemed like she just wanted to argue with us so it was just an okay lesson. On Thursday we saw Pat again and taught her the Book of Mormon and she seemed to like it and that was very exciting to see. Friday was a great day! We saw Mustahpa and talked about the Word of Wisdom and what he needs to do keep that commandment. We then saw Olivia and we really tried to answer her concerns but she really just wanted to Bible bash us, so that was disappointing, but maybe with some time she will be ready.

Finally Saturday came... The big day! So we had chapel cleaning in the morning and then we came back and did our studies, and right as I was finishing lunch, our phone rang and Elder Barfuss said it was the Assistants, so he answered it for me and Elder Jones and (Because we had our hands full at the time) and then he gave the phone to me. SO I thought this was a little weird, but Elder Mocke says hi and we talk small and then he says, "On behalf of President Stevenson we would like to call you to be a District Leader. Wow. Ha-ha I wasn't expecting that. So that was shocking and that got me nervous because I don't even know where I am going. Elder Jones, Elder Barfuss, and I then attended 3rd wards baptism (Edward, and Frank), and that was really neat! We then went to Ryan’s restaurant and I had some hamburgers and I actually found a Snickers Bar!!!! It was SO GOOD! Then we all headed home and that’s when we got the call and I am going to......Nkonfa! Which is in the Cape Coast zone and actually that's where the mission home is because I am going to be a Supply Elder! Wow! That was a surprise too. So  I deal with packages, distribution forms, and supplies (as you can tell) so I believe we go to the mission home 2 times a week and do the supply stuff and then proselyte the other days, but I will keep you updated on that. I am going to see my trainer Elder day again, and I believe we are in the same apartment, so that should be exciting. I won't lie and say that I am not nervous because I am, but I know that as I rely upon the Lord and have faith everything is going to be okay.

Sunday was my last day in Church and I just said goodbye to people and it was hard. I won’t see them again for a long time, if ever, but I love them all so much! An inspiring moment of the week was from the Ensign conference (My parents send me the Ensign each month) from Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk. It was just powerful and I loved Elder Foster’s talk as well. It just really hit me how much I love and respect my parents. I am so grateful that I get to have their counsel and advice for the rest of my life and I know that they are always there for me, and it was neat to me to see how families really are together forever, and how much I want to be like my parents and live as they do. Well that's all for this week. I will let you know how being a Supply Elder Goes! I love you all, and how you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Harward