A fun week with an amazing end! 11-19-2018

This past week was pretty interesting in a few different ways, ha ha. First off, my companion was sick for a few days so it slowed down the work a bit, but in the end things were able to work out!

Hike up to the water falls in Aburi.

Let's start off with some funny stories shall we? First we went to go visit a women named Patience. She sells drinks and crackers and other things by a school so when they close from school all the kids come and buy a small snack from her. Well we were at her place right before school ended, so a huge swarm of about thirty kids came over and it was insane! First, they saw these two white guys and were so surprised, ha ha. Then they starting speaking in Twi so my companion started using all the Twi we know to talk to them. They were freaking out! Then one kid asked if we can speak Ewe, well I had to think back really hard to the Ewe I knew and they freaked out even more! They kept asking all these ridiculous questions like, "Were you born this color?" or, "Is your hair real?". One of the Ewe kids was asking some ridiculous question and one of the girls there told him to stop talking and than said to me, "Their villagers don't mind them!" I laughed my head off so hard! I lived in a village for seven months and I can't tell the difference between villagers and city people, ha ha. So I told the girl that it was fine and that I prefer the village anyways. :)

Okay for my second funny story we went over to the the first counselor in the stake presidencies house. They are called the Dansu's. While there we had dinner and then had a scripture thought with them. They have two kids and let me tell you they are the funnies children i have ever seen! Sister Dansu asked who would like to pray and her youngest said, "I want too!" So she let him. He waddled to the front of the room, closed his eyes, pointed to his mom and said, "God, bless mommy, and bless me, AMEN!" And he went back to his seat and we just started laughing. He then kept doing it over and over and over again! Sometimes he would add the missionaries in and other people ha ha. Then, we were all invited to share our favorite scriptures. Sister Dansu's next son said he wanted to share one in Chapter 5 verse 17. He didn't say any book just the chapter and verse. HE opened his book and started making up a verse and it was so funny and adorable. So what we decided to do was to go to a few books and we read chapter 5 verse 17 in a few books and it turned out to be really cool!

 Alright now let's talk about some spiritual stuff. So we went to go and teach a sister named Isata to prepare her for her baptism for this coming Sunday. While we were over there two members came and joined us and it turned out to be a beautiful lesson. The whole time I was super inspired to just ask the two sisters to help teach sister Isata. Their testimonies and knowledge about the restoration was just amazing. The spirit was there, and you could just see it in sister Isata's face as the spirit was working inside her and helping her to know that this is true. That was definitely one of my favorite lessons since I have been in Ghana. :) Oh, and the lights weren't working so we were using the small light on one of their phones to light the room, ha ha. Gotta love Ghana! :)

Then yesterday at church, we were blessed with an amazing experience. They had a special broadcast for the Africa West area and we were able to hear messages from Elder Eyring, Elder Stevenson, Elder Owens and Sister Jones. It was a powerful broadcast that talked about the blessings of tithing, why we need to have integrity and what we can do to ensure that no matter the opposition, we must not fall from the faith. It was powerful and it was a wonderful experience. The best part though, was that I got to go to the Tema stake center because of a missionary choir so I got to see my old ward there! It was such a great experience to see all the members from the Batsonaa ward. They all were so happy to see me and kept on expressing their love for me. And to make it better, some of my old investigators came! They were Quinstar, Ritalord, Blessilia, Vanessa, Emmanuel and Gooroo. :) I cannot express to you all my joy when I saw them there. I felt I had put my all into those six people but they never progressed like they needed to. Well now they are. I want to share with you my testimony that the Lord uses us for his plans. It's not our plans. I wasn't the person to baptize them. I was the missionary to prepare those six people for future missionaries to come. It wasn't easy at first. I felt I had failed at my purpose and that the other missionaries were doing better. But I felt an overwhelming feeling that told me that I did do my best. I was just there to plant the seed and nourish it until it was their season to grow. :)

I love you all, have a wonderful week and find a person to share this wonderful message of the restored gospel to. :)

Sincerely, 

Elder Baird

Mom's notes:

1. Elder Baird thought that our family turkey bowl looked like a lot of fun from the pictures that I sent him. He said that next year when he is home, "no one will even stand a chance!" (He hasn't changed to much. ;))

2. He couldn't think of much that he wanted for Christmas. He wants a surprise. His exact words were, "Me I dey like surprise ooooo. :) That's my pigeon English. :)"

3. Best emailing moment: "Man I love it here mom! Writing the weekly email today made me really happy. :)"

4. They don't celebrate any type of Thanksgiving.

5. He says that, "The ward is good. The YSA are super fun and the members are great."