Just another week. 3-18-2019

Eating breakfast at Starbites.

This past week was quite a normal week. Not too much happened, ha ha. My companion and I did enjoy ourselves a bit! One morning we had to go help open the chapel for an activity and we had some extra time so we said, "Let's go get an American breakfast!" So we went and got some pancakes, eggs and bacon at a restaurant, ha ha ha. Surprisingly, it was super good! It's been a long time since I have had that so it was a good opportunity to think of home. :)

A good old American breakfast.

Well, let me tell you about a pretty cool experience that happened last night while we were on our way home. We had taught a lesson and then afterwards we went over to visit some members that are quite far from our apartment. When we got there, they were gone so we just decided to head back because it was late. On the way back, I passed a road that I had never seen or used before.  After we had passed it, I slammed on my breaks and said, "Klinglesmith I think we can use this way!" So we turned around, and started to ride up a road that I have never been down in the dark. My companion looked a little confused, but he is getting used to my random stopping and turning, ha ha ha. After riding up the road for a bit, I kept thinking to myself, "Where am I going and I am completely lost, ha ha!" Well right after I had said that to myself,  I heard this guy yell from the side of the road saying "Hey you come!" This happens all the time and usually it's people who just want to bother us by asking for money or asking if we can take them to America or something. But this time, something told me to stop. So I did. The first thing the man said was this, "Please, I don't know where your church is located but I want to come. Where is it at and can you take my number so you can call me on Sunday to remind me to come?" 

View from the balcony at our chapel.

I was completely shocked by that! Honestly I haven't had that happen like...ever. I talked to the guy for a minute and asked him to read the pamphlet we had given him. I asked if we can come and see him during the week. He then responded, "Wait you will come and teach me in my house?? That is so awesome! Please come on Wednesday!" The guy was so excited that we would take time out of our day to come and teach him! I was quite surprised by the whole thing but when I was biking away I wasn't surprised anymore, because I realized how I was indeed guided by the spirit to bike down an unknown road in the dark to find that one person the Lord wants me to meet. 

I'm sorry my letter is so short this week. I want to encourage all of you to look for opportunities to follow the guidance of the Spirit. Pray for opportunities to help someone and than listen for that chance to serve other people. You never know what miracles the Lord will do through you. 

Sincerely,

Elder Baird 

Mom's notes:

I received this letter from Elder Klinglesmith's mom. I asked her if I could share it on Elder Baird's blog because I loved hearing a different point of view about their mission. He is a great writer and I could feel his testimony as I read his letter. So grateful that he is serving with my son. :)

This is the letter:

This week has been quite a bit nicer than the previous weeks. We were feeling good, and weren't sick at all. On Tuesday we had our district counsel and we played a game of liar's dice at the end of it. Everyone who lost the game was given a word that they had to bring up in our interviews with President Keyes. My word that I was given to say was play-doh. So in my interview with President Keyes on Wednesday, I asked if there was anywhere I could buy play-doh ice cream around here, and he looked at me confused and said I have no idea what that even is, let alone where you could get any. We also had a emergency exchange this week with the Madina Elders, because one of them was feeling kinda depressed, and his companion was yelling at him to get out and teach people, so Elder Baird went and helped the one that was feeling depressed, and the other missionary came with me to Ashalley Botwe where I could try to talk with him and make sure he was aware of everything that is going on with his companion. I took him to an Checkers and got a nice American hamburger and fries, with a smoothie. I helped him to understand what was going on and then the next morning we went out and worked hard. We visited a member named George, and he is a older man who is starting to lose his eye sight. He asked us, "Do you believe that God works miracles today like he did in the old testament times?" We told him that we do, and then he said , " I have one more question for you then, can you give me a blessing to heal my eyesight?" Both of us are fairly new on mission and a bit nervous about giving blessings, but we did, and basically said that if he had enough faith that God could heal him, and if it was Gods will, he would be healed. We then went and contacted near Galaxy international school, and most of the houses 

are compounds and most people were not answering, but we didn't give up, and we ended up finding 7 people who seemed interested in learning more about the message we have, so it ended up going pretty well.

Elder Baird and I ended up finding out about a lunch deal at Starbites, where you could buy a burger and fries, or a chicken wrap and fries a pizza and fries for 20 cedi's every Monday through Friday, so we went there and had a nice meal this week. We ran out of power this week in our apartment, and the power company is right next to Starbites, so we went and got a nice American breakfast there on Saturday. They also finally opened up a new Citydia near the Starbites, so now we can go and buy from there instead of the one we have to take a tro tro to get to. And the lady who owns a shop near our apartment had her son fix Elder Baird's bike for cheap, and she even made us some nice fufu with light soup, but she put way too much peppers in it, and it was burning our mouths to eat. We also got invited over to the Dansu families house, and they fed us some nice rice and chicken, and I think the other meat was lamb, but we weren't quite sure. And they told us that the reason our quorum president doesn't like the bishop, is because bishop called  him into his office and tried to tell him how to run his family, and now he will never set foot in our ward again. However his kids came to our ward this week, and when we asked them about it, they said that this is there ward, and they aren't going to let their dad make them go to another ward. So that family is still having issues, but at least the kids are coming back to church again. This last week went well except that on Friday morning we woke up to a loud noise, and just ignored it. When we woke up in the morning, all of our windows in our apartment were wide open, and the curtains were all pulled to the side. Nothing that we know of was stolen, but because all of the windows were open for awhile, there were a lot of mosquito's in our apartment and they were biting us like crazy. In the morning we went to alert our neighbors, and they said they were the ones who heard him and scared him off. We then called the mission office and told them, and they said they are going to talk to the landlord about increasing the security of the compound, or if he refuses, we might have to move apartments again.

I feel like I am ready to be done with training, and like I am ready for almost any situation I may come across. After this transfer, Elder Baird will leave, and I will get to see how well I can run the area, and how well I was paying attention, so that will be interesting to see. Everyone keeps telling me rainy season is about to come, but to me it still seems really hot and humid with very little rain, so I'm not sure what they are all talking about. Our area started to suffer a bit when we were sick, and a few people dropped us, but now that we are feeling healthy again, we will build up the area nice and strong again. I know that the Lord is looking out for us all, and providing the help we all need. And I know that as we put our faith in him, anything is possible. That's all for now, I hope everyone has a fantastic week.