The best week a missionary could ever have. 4-29-2019

Ashaiman Market (No pictures this week so I found this picture of the market online).

Well this past week was just amazing. I will come to that at the end of my email, ha ha. 

I will start off with how my week went. This past week was really devoted to showing me around the area and meeting the people that we are teaching. I want to tell about a family that we are currently teaching right now. The father's name is Richard and he has three kids. He is divorced so we are just working with the four of them. Elder Jones and his former companion started teaching him a little bit and he was taking the lessons really well, but he was never finding the time to come to church. Well, two weeks ago, he finally came for the first time. It was during stake conference where they watched general conference. After church, he came and told us that he is ready to be baptized and that we must begin teaching his kids. So we started teaching them, and they are progressing super-fast! We taught the plan of salvation on Saturday and it was a wonderful and spiritual lesson. We talked a little bit about how Richard can do the temple work for his deceased ancestors and even for his brother who recently passed away. He sat back and just said, "Wow... that is amazing!" So it made us super excited to see that he is really progressing, and it is even better that we will be able to baptize him and his kids. :)

SO I don't know if any of you remember a woman whom I wrote about a while ago named Elizabeth. She was a woman that my former companion contacted with another missionary and she was the lady that came up to us after her second Sunday at church and said, "Elders, I am ready to be baptized now." Well she just passed her interview! She is getting baptized this coming Sunday! When they informed me about that I about lost my mind! I can't believe she is finally going to get baptized. She was progressing kind of slow while I was there but apparently she just started to really understand everything. She really wanted to become a member and she began to really search for the truth and keep her commitments. They said that she has a very firm testimony and she just can't wait to get baptized. I am so happy and excited for her! :)

Now I want to tell you about the best thing that happened. If any of you can remember, the first woman I ever baptized in Ghana was sister Norkplim. Well just this past Friday, she went through the temple to receive her own endowment. She had invited me to be a part of it with her. Well guess what? Another woman from my companions first area, which was in the same branch as my first area, was receiving her endowment as well. So my companion and I got to attend both of our first converts temple endowment. Let me just say this, the Lord did indeed orchestrate that we would become companions and to be able to witness such a wonderful and spiritual experience together. The temple is such a special place. I hope you all know and understand that. If the temple is not a priority in your life, I encourage you to make it a priority. Like seriously, it is one of the greatest blessings the Lord has given to us. We go inside, do the work for the dead and then he blesses us with better wisdom, strength, and protection. Why wouldn't we take advantage of that? I challenge all of you to get out to the temple this week! Go and at least stand outside the temple and you will be blessed. I promise you!

This area is crazy, I just want to say that too you all, ha ha. Like man. It's full of thousands of people because of the market square that they have and also the massive bus station. It is dusty, loud and just insane, ha ha. But I want you to know, that even amidst all the confusion and noise, you can feel the Spirit as you teach. So don't forget that. The Spirit can be found everywhere! So search for it!

Sincerely,

Elder Baird