Three months down!

Last night on our way back to the apartment there was a nice big fire burning about 30 yards from our apartment. Apparently, out here in Ghana, they just light the bush on fire to get rid of it. Slightly scary when biking home and the fire is in our way of going home, ha ha!

Well everyone! I am now 3 months in! 21 To go!!

It is really crazy to look back at the past 3 months and think of all of the many things that have happened. There have been so many trials and hardships, I have felt lonely, homesick, but at the same time I am strengthened to know that I have had so much success. I know the Lord is here with me and He is helping me. This area is going to grow very fast! I probably won't be here when that happens, but I'm happy that I got the chance to plant the seeds. :)

Some of the stuff that happened this week was kind of on the crazy side. We had a man on Saturday that we were teaching. His name is John. He was really accepting and he was loving what we were teaching him. We showed him the Book of Mormon and he was genuinely interested and he wanted a copy. Just as we were handing it to him we had a man come up and say, "Don't listen to these men and don't touch that book! It is a demonic book that talks of Satan and it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Whatever these men teach is wrong!" 

The girl we helped in the library made me some pancakes with honey and bananas cooked into it. :) Man that made me happy! It reminded me of home. :)

Immediately after he said that, I asked him, "Have you read the book?" He said no because he won't even look at it. I just laughed at him. I told him that this book is only about Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. He still wouldn't listen to me. But it was a really interesting experience for me because it showed me that we all have to stand firm in our faith. He started to talk bad again and I told him to stop. I asked him to please not speak like that to us because we are here to spread the word of Jesus Christ and not argue. I told him that if he wants to learn that we can teach him. If not, he can leave us alone because it was useless to argue. I wanted to sit there and convince him that he was wrong, but a very strong feeling told me not to. I listened to the spirit and I left it alone. After we left, I felt really calm and good with what I had done. Satan uses other people to get us down, but we must hold strong to our beliefs and don't let anyone push us down. At the same time we can't argue with them because the spirit of contention invites the adversary. From that experience I actually got to learn a lot, ha ha.

I walked out of my room last night and this cockroach ran right in front of me. I put my foot in front of it to stop it and it just rolled over on it's back and pretended to be dead. I see these daily, ha ha. There's even a corner in our apartment where I find a dead one there every 2 days ha ha.

SO kind of on the spiritual side of things, I was given a talk to read by my Zone Leader. One part in it struck me really hard and I wanted to share it with you all. In this part it said, "We are so used to fighting temptations and negative things that for us it is now a habit to fight those negative things." I'm sorry that those aren't the exact words because I forgot to bring the talk with me, but it's the basic idea of it. We are so used to fighting the bad that it's now a habit to fight against it. Right at that moment the spirit told me to stop reading and ponder on what it was saying. So I got up and walked around and thought about it. After about 10 minutes, I felt prompted to start reading again. The next part said this, (well this is what I remember ha ha so don't quote me on it). "You see, now the negative and bad things are becoming a springboard for us to enter into the presence of God." When bad things happen or bad thoughts or feeling come to us, we usually will try to make them better and we call on the help of God and use him to help us. Well if you look at it this way, Satan is giving you that opportunity to enter into the presence of God by us asking Him for help and turning away from bad things. This experience touched me and I felt impressed to share it with all of you.  When we are being tempted with sin, I encourage you to use it as an opportunity to turn to our Heavenly Father and with his help, and by doing as he instructs us, we will be able to enter into his presence.

I'm getting really dark on my arms now, ha ha. Too bad everything else is still as white as ever. :p

I know that God loves us all. HE will never leave you. He knows us all personally and wants to help us. Call on him for help and guidance in all things that you do. He wants to direct us. We just  have to let him. This is my short and humble testimony. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Sincerely,

Elder Baird