A week full of blessings!

Elder Jones and Elder Baird (Sister Keyes took this and posted it on Facebook)

Well hello everyone! 

This week has been our first real official week of not leaving our area to go somewhere for meetings or anything. SO we got to get some super serious proselyting in. Let me just say, we worked hard! We would plan a lesson for every hour. If it fell through we would call as many people as we could to see if we could meet with them. Since we are opening an area we don't really have any steady investigators which makes things hard. But we have started to find a few people who truly want to learn!

District Counsel (also Sister Keyes pictures)

The first person that has been making some really good progress, his name is James. He is probably around 85 years old. Now you might think that he's a slow moving old man. But NOOO. He moves like he's in his 50's! When we come he's carrying the chairs for us! He is just so warm and welcoming to us. We have finished teaching him the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. And he has told us that he knows everything we are teaching him is true and he wants to learn more and be a part of it. So we are going to give him a baptismal date this week! He has such a strong spirit and my companion and I can feel it!

The next person I want to talk about, her name is Nocblyn. We were riding on our bikes to go home one night, and she just stopped us in the middle of the road. Now this is at about 8:00 and no one is really outside at that time. But she saw us and said "Are you elders for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?" We enthusiastically said "Yes we are!!" She then told us how 5 years ago she was taking missionary lessons in a different town. She moved to Akatsi and since there was no church presence there she stopped going to church. She said she didn't go to any other churches because she knew the LDS church was the one and only true one. Then I asked her how close she was to baptism. and she just told me that she wants to be baptized as soon as she can. I was like WHAT?? So we told her we would have a lesson tomorrow to discuss where she is at. Then we taught her a small lesson and then I asked if she was willing to be baptized. She said yes! Guess what date we gave to her? DECEMBER 31ST..... My Birthday!!!!!!!!!!! Like I can't describe how excited I am because my first baptism is going to be on my birthday in my first area. The Lord is blessing me so much and I can't even explain all the ways he is blessing me.

This meal is Indomei with apple juice, haha. Indomei is pretty much top ramen, but then they add a ton of stuff to it and a street vendor sells it. It is one of my favorite meals here! Sister Nocblyn (the one who is going to be baptized on my birthday) owns the stand:)

The last guy I would like to tell you about, he is Nocblyn's brother. He lives in Accra and was visiting her when we went for another lesson. He asked if he could talk with us so we said we could. He has some very strong opinions on religion but was very open to talk. He is a very respectful man and truly wanted to know more. The part that was so meaningful was when he started talking about how since I am a white man and was raised in the church it has been a part of my life. I have been eating LDS, breathing LDS, drinking LDS. and he was telling me that I have just been raised in the church so of course I think it's true. Well the spirit then overcame me and told me what to say to him. In the shortest way possible this is what I said. "I might have been raised in the church, but that doesn't mean I know it's true because of that. I had a period of time where I didn't think it was true and I was saying that there is no way there is God up there. It was when I read the Book of Mormon and I prayed, and as it stated In Moroni 10:5, If you ask in faith and truly want to know, he will testify to you of it's truthfulness, and he did!!! HE testified that what this gospel teaches is true, and that God is there and this church is the one true church of Jesus Christ." After I said that to him, he just sat there in silence. It was almost 2 minutes he sat there. He then just said "Wow, thank you. Thank you for sharing that with me." Then he had a few questions and that was it. He asked for a Book of Mormon to read. We wrote our names in it and then left. The spirit I felt when I was with him was unlike anything I've felt because I testified to him through the spirit about things that had touched my heart.

Sunburn from a couple weeks ago.

I got sick of cold showers, haha, so now I boil a pot of hot water every morning, put it in a bucket, and use a cup to take my showers. :)

I know this email is long but it is because this week has been amazing. I know we are doing the Lord's work out here in Ghana. It is hard, today my knuckles were bleeding from scrubbing my clothes. But I know the Lord chose this mission for me because he knew I needed to experience the power of this gospel in other countries. I know this gospel is true. I know that the power of the Holy Ghost is what truly converts people. I love you all so much. You have all done so much for me and I'm thankful for that. 

Have a great week everyone! I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Baird:)

 This is us at James's house. He built a little hut outside so we were enjoying sitting and being in the shade:)

SO we were at our branch mission leaders house for dinner. He fed us bonkou which is like fufu just thicker. And this is the stew to go with it. Tomato and pepe (which is super hot by the way) and fried fish. They were the whole fish.

Yes, I ate the whole fish, eyes, guts, and bones. The whole thing. But to be honest it wasn't that bad, just really weird to eat!

Well this is just something I cooked up. We made a bean sauce a few days ago so I used the rest of it, fried up some eggs, and put it all in rice. It was actually pretty dang good. :)