A wonderful week for the West Africa area!

 Asumta's baptism

So this last week was a super cool experience! 

On Tuesday, we had my first baptism in this ward and it was a wonderful experience. Her name is Asumta, she progressed super-fast and just couldn't wait to be baptized. We actually asked if we could postpone it so more people could come and she just said, "I don't care if anyone is there, I just want to be baptized." So we had it on Tuesday! The only ones there were her sister, her brother in law, the four missionaries in this area, our ward mission leader, and two sisters who came to support. 

Me helping in the program, ha ha.

It was still wonderful though. The spirit was just amazing and you could see the joy on her face as she was waiting to be baptized. Her brother in law baptized her and immediately after Asumta was just in tears. She was so happy to be baptized and it was such a beautiful moment to witness. After she was baptized, her brother in law wanted to share a few words. He started off by saying how happy he was to be able to perform this ordinance for her. He then looked right at me and my companion and said, "Elder Baird and Elder Blanchard, the Lord foreordained you to be the missionaries to come and to help teach her and to help her to become converted to the truth." Man, after he said that, I just felt the spirit confirm so strongly to me that yes, this is why I am here. I am here because the Lord has chosen people for me to teach and to help them learn the truth. If I hadn't  come, maybe these people would not have been able to see the church for what it truly is. The Lord is amazing. He truly is. 

Messing around on the piano after church with some of the kids. :)

Okay, so here is a super funny story for you guys. I have talked about one of our investigators Sister Linda in my past emails. Anyways, we went to teach her on Wednesday and we couldn't find her. We did find her friend Agnes though and she looked super sick. She said that her and Linda weren't feeling well so they took some medicine to make it better and it's making them super tired so they wanted to sleep. We left to go see someone else nearby. After that lesson, my companion said that maybe we should go back and check on them, so we did.  While we rounded a corner to get to her house, I made eye contact with Linda. She turned and ran, ha ha ha. I was so confused. We went and knocked on her door and she looked super out of it when she answered. She asked if it was her day to learn and we said, "yes." She said give her a second and she will be ready to learn. So we sat down and chatted with Agnes for a minute. Linda sat down and just looked dead, ha ha. Well, we started with a prayer and then asked if they had any questions and then Linda raises her hand and says, "Is alcohol bad?" She pulled out a small bag of gin that she had drank. She looked so sad asking us this and that is why it was so funny. She felt so bad that she drank it. Agnes had her try it and apparently it made Linda super drunk, ha ha. SO that day we taught the word of wisdom and Linda was in a bit of a hangover, ha ha ha. It was just so funny to see her like that, ha ha. 

Just thought that this was a cool picture to send. :)

At the end of the week, Ghana had a big celebration. On Saturday and Sunday they were celebrating two things, the first one being the 100th stake was formed in West Africa and second it was the 40th anniversary since the priesthood was given to all worthy aged men in the church. It was a super cool celebration. They had a big stake conference on Saturday where they told the whole story of the church in West Africa. They did performances that were super cool. They even asked me to help in one of them, ha ha. I just walked on stage and left, ha ha but it was still fun! Then they also had all the missionaries in the stake come and sing called to serve. IT was really fun and was a wonderful experience to be a part of. 

The church is truly growing out here. It is amazing to witness it. There was a woman that I met who was part of one of the first groups in Ghana to be baptized. To see her joy from seeing how big the church has grown in 40 years is amazing. The church is growing so fast here because the lord is hastening his work. This work will reach all ends of the earth very soon and I am so proud to be a missionary who is part of spreading this wonderful gospel. Love you all! 

Sincerely,

Elder Baird

Mom's notes:

1. Elder Baird is excited because he will start training an Elder who is coming from the MTC. He doesn't know anything about him yet. Elder Blanchard is going to Tema New Town.

2. I sent him a short video of Brendon. He can't believe how his voice has changed.

3. He is focusing his work on Linda and Agnes. He said, "We have had a lot of new investigators that we need to follow up with. Things are going good though. Reviving and area is not easy, ha ha but we are getting there."

4. I asked him if he still speaks much Ewe (the tribal language he spoke in Akasi). He said that he just speaks English now but, "the area where Agnes and Linda line in is a pretty poor area and most the people there are migrants from the Volta area who are trying to get jobs in the factories nearby.  I can speak some Ewe with a good amount of people there. :) Whenever we go there, I hear so many people yelling for me. They yell Yevoo, Yevoo Efoa, ha ha! They all know the white man who can speak a little Ewe, ha ha

5. I told him that his love of the Ghanaian people is what carries him day to day. He said, "It truly is. I just love the people here. :) I was talking to Elder Wilcox last night and he was telling me that he isn't ready to go home yet. He just loves the people too much to leave them. " Elder Wilcox goes home on August 10th.

6. He has to wash his clothes by hand again. He said that he is getting pretty good at it. He is happy that we packed a lot of white shirts because he just switched to fresh ones. We got him 12 so he is using 4 for 8 months.