Stake Conference Bus Trip

Tuesday- In the morning we went to an area we haven't really gone to much and we tried to find more people serious people. But I ended up getting a door slammed in my face for the very first time in my whole mission career! And then the next door... Same thing happened!! But we kept our faith strong and found 2 sweet ladies. They are fun to talk to and to teach. We also saw Isaac and he'll be baptized really soon. He has progressed so much and now we feel like he is finally ready. We had a sweet fhe with a lady from the branch down the road small. Chaii she can cook papa! We had yam with spinach stew. (The yams are completely different than the ones back home). This was the last day our district would be together because of transfers. So we had to be together that night and it was good to be at that fhe together. 

Wednesday- we saw Esther and she accepted a baptismal date and we are trying to meet with her husband too but he always gets home too late. The new missionary that is living with us is from South Africa. Elder thaleli. He's cool. So now it's Idaho, Pittsburg, Arkansas, South Africa. It'll be a fun transfer. I love my ward mission leader. He helps a lot (as much as he can) and does great. We had coordination and got some new plans for us to improve members and help us missionaries be more affective. 

Thursday- We had zone training meeting. (Where the whole zone meets together and learn how to be more effective and how to improve. It was really cool. I learned that using recent converts is the most effective way to get member present lessons. Because they are the most excited to share the gospel and it will strengthen them and keep them active. As missionaries, we are always striving to use members as often as we can. My district made a goal to help with home teaching this month. Last week we went with the elders quorum pres. and found out where members stay and who they need to teach and everything. So now we can pick people up and drag them to do their home teaching. 

Friday- We contacted a BUNCH of people in the morning. I don't know how many are serious but now we have people to go back to and visit. I got chased by a dog a little bit but then I just turned around and tried to kick it and it got more scared than me and ran off. We taught a great less active lesson and he wants us to pick him up for church. 

Sunday- Today was stake conference in Kasoa. We all met at the church at 7 am and then a big bus took the members who were there to the stake center. I was really impressed with how many people showed up from the ward! It was great the whole bus was full and we had to have people standing up. The best thing about it was me and elder Carson had 5 investigators there and a less active. I was so happy!!! They said they loved it and everything. They all woke up super early to make it in time. One of them really liked president and sister hills talks and she wanted me to take a picture of her and them. It was sweet. 

Everything is going good. Me and my companion are trying new things to see what works best. We are tryin to improve every day and to do what is right. This past week was super difficult because we had light off for four days in a row and we only slept with a fan one time because of no power. Having no sleep and sweating all day and night makes me exhausted but The Lord always makes it possible to do his work. 

Love you all. 

Elder Green (like the color)

A few pics from Accra

Sharing supper with fellow missionaries

Cameron and companion with some young adults they are teaching

Teaching Families, working hard, and no electricity at the house

Week of April 27-May 3

Tuesday- We are preparing Enoch and George for baptism on the third. Today we taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end). It was sweet papaa. As I taught the lesson, 

Wednesday- I woke up at 5 and we went to the temple site for a big mission conference thing. Elder Evans came to speak to all of the Ghana Accra mission and Accra West mission combined. Elder Curtis and Elder Vincent were there also. Three general authorities. Evans came to talk to us about following the rules and how the church in Ghana can improve. The mtc is being built right next to the temple so it was kind of noisy but you could feel the spirit so strong. I don't know why but the hymn that makes me feel the spirit the strongest is Called to Serve. When both missions sang it together, it light up everything.  

Before we received instruction from elder Evans, my mission watched a movie called Freetown. It's about missionaries in Liberia during the civil war. I encourage all to watch it. Because it was filmed in Ghana and everything is exactly like my areas. You can see how the houses are, what it's like to travel, how the people dress, and learn more about the culture. The acting isn't that great though. 

Thursday- I woke up and I made me my first japotty. It's a popular Ugandan food. It turned out okay for my first time. When It was time to go out, we went out and first went to Grandma Kristy. This was the second time teaching her. Her concern was about baptism. She was baptized by sprinkling when she was a baby. And she believes it is okay. It was hard to teach her because she told us exactly how Christ was baptized and how that's the right way. But she still felt like her baptism is okay. I showed her a scripture in Ephesians about how there should be one baptism. We'll work on her more during the week. Then we met with Godwin(recent convert). He'll be goin to the temple on the 9th. It's sweet to see him progress and get into the temple. He's solid and is doing great. Has the priesthood and everything. Then we saw Balinda and talked about the Book of Mormon. During the lesson my companion asked me if I had my Book of Mormon with the mustache on it (I stuck a mustache on my personal bom just so you know). I cracked up during the most spiritual part because i just had the thought, "what would it be like if all book of Mormons had mustaches?" Ugh it was bad so I prayed and asked for strength to stop laughing. I then stopped laughing. It ended up being a great lesson and she'll read it. After lunch, we saw Isaac. Baptism will be the 3rd. He is so ready and we just answered his questions. He had a lot about how God blesses us and if he loves everyone. Then a scripture just popped into my mind. It was 3rd nephi chapter 10 I think. About how Christ will gather us like a hen gathers her chicks. Then he told us he was thinking about how hens do that just recently. After Isaac, we say Joyce and kingsford. They have a sweet family. They'll be going to the temple for the second time on the 9th. We also saw Enoch and George. They are so ready for their baptism. We talked about the commandments. Chastity, word of wisdom, tithes and offerings, and sabbath day. I realized that by paying your tithing is the best way to show God that you are thankful and that you appreciate Him. Light off at home again.  

     

Friday- In the morning me and Elder Carson played catch with the baseball. I'm helping him get back in shape for college ball. It was hard for me though. My eyes can barely see the ball. The only time I can see it is right when it leaves his hand. So I just have that to know where to put the glove. When we went out we went to David. He wasn't there again. We haven't seen him in about 2 weeks now. It's really frustrating. But we did see Charles. We read Moroni 6:4-6 with him and told him why we are baptized and go to church. I don't think he will ever come. Then the last part was very frustrating. He just was asking some questions that are unanswerable and didn't like anything we said after that. After I chopped fried rice and chicken for lunch, we went and saw some sweet French speakers. They are from Ivory Coast and Gabon but are here to learn English. They are doing very well! But I love them because they are so nice and they understand me and I know more twi than them. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and the restoration. They really enjoyed it and now they have a desire to know what church is true. We had our baptism interviews with George and Enoch. The zone leaders came to interview them. George is going to have to wait till next week and so Enoch was so sweet and decided to wait for George to clear some things up so they can be baptized together. They are so prepared and ready for baptism though. Light off again so that means no sleep for the 4th night in a row... 

Saturday- I love it when whole families gather around when we come and visit them. I don't really get to teach a whole family very often. Today we saw Marvis and her family again. They were all so nice and listened very well. We taught about the Book of Mormon and now they are willing to read and pray as a family. We then went to see some women named Unis and Angila. Angila went to church a long time ago but she wants to come again we found out. And Unis is her friend. They also have a nice family. Later in the afternoon we saw Isaac. He's so ready for his baptism and so excited. But he was kinda feeling down today. We were able to make him feel better and while doing so, I got really happy. By the end of the lesson, I couldn't stop smiling! Then we went over and saw Esther. She's sweet and is doing good. We didn't teach her. Just said hello and checked up on her. Hopefully she shows up to church. 

Sunday- Bishop invited the missionaries to pec meeting at 7:30. It was good to talk about things to help the ward. 4 investigators showed up to church. Isaac was supposed to be baptized right after church but he didn't show up. :(.  I went to the perspective elders class today and learned how to baptize. I like going in there because all the recent converts who are getting ready to receive the melchezedick priesthood go there. It's fun to help them. Later that night bishop invited us over for dinner. He's so awesome and a really good bishop. He's only been a member for about four years but he's great. We had yam and contombre. My favorite!!! Then we suffered because of light off again... Cameron Green  

Week of April 20-26

Week of April 20-26

Tuesday- I woke up early in the morning and found out that the zone leaders called and they wanted me to go on a 24 hour exchange with one of them. So I packed my bags and got ready for it. I went with Elder Beacom to his area and I stayed the night in his apartment. It was a really cool experience and helped me a lot. It was just nice to get out and do something new for the day. One thing that I learned from him was that speaking twi can help in the lessons. We convinced two girls that he was from Kumasi and that he is black. As we make friends with our investigators, they will begin to trust us and will start to be more open. 

Wednesday- It was a pretty good day. We met a cool lady with a Mohawk so we taught her. She had some good questions that we were able to answer. One of the questions was "what does the word 'saint' mean"? The word saint means Sanctification through Jesus Christ. As we follow Christ, we are cleansed and become saints. Most people here think that saint means that we drink blood or call demons. Later in the day we had a very powerful lesson. We took Isaac (the person who we baptized last Sunday) with us to teach another guy named Isaac (who should've been baptized last week but had to travel so he will be baptized on the 3rd). We found out that Isaac has been drinking and smoking a little bit so we taught him about a lot of good stuff to help him stop but we pretended like we didn't know about his problem because he never told us about it. The Isaac that was baptized helped a lot and it would not have been a successful lesson without him. Teaching with members is necessary and needs to happen more often but sadly, it's pretty hard to get them to come out with us. 

Thursday- We did finding and contacting first thing in the morning. We met a girl named Latishia. She let us sit down and talk with her. She had some cute puppies so I held one while I taught. We talked about why there are so many churches in the world today and what we need to do to find Christ's church- The same church that He established while he was on the earth. She wants us to come back and learn more with her. 

       I have been trying to follow the promptings of the spirit more often. Especially during lessons. When we taught my recent convert Godwin, I was able to do that. We planned to teach one thing but then I ended up only talking about the priesthood and I know that it was what he needed. Later that day we saw another recent convert named Joyce. The whole family is a member and lately we've been teaching about family prayer and then family scripture study. My companion and I were trying to think of something else to teach to strengthen the family. Both of us thought about service. It was perfect. 

Friday- The morning was really rough for me. We were out all morning and all of our people weren't being serious so they told us to come another day -.-   That means a full morning of finding and contacting. In the hot sun. So we found some people that might be serious. We met and sat down with this 19 year old that is learning English. He's teaching himself and is doing very well. Then later in the day we read Enos 1:2-8 with Isaac and it helped him understand forgiveness and repentance and faith. He told us that we can read his mind because that's what he needed help on.  We then went to see my recent convert Jessica. She turned 11 today. Before we got to her house we bought her a big fanta. But then we found out that she travelled and won't be back home until late next week! So we drank half of the fanta. Then we let a little kid have a sip but she slobbered all over that thing so we just gave it to her. Then we taught Enoch and George. They should be baptized on the 3rd. They are sweet and have good questions and really want to know the truth. I explained the bom to them and now they have one. Now they can know that Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer, Joseph smith is a true prophet of God, and that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the one and only true church on the earth. 

Saturday- Another hard day trying to find more serious people. We met this old lady and she let us sit down with her. She is a catholic and has been all her life. We talked about following Christ and then about how the Godhead is three separate beings. She tried to argue and then ended up proving herself wrong. Because of that, she is willing to pray and have us come back again. Then we met a lady named savina. She's really really cool and had her whole family gather around us to listen. I don't get many opportunities to teach whole families so it was way cool. She had a nice house and has been to the US many times. She was receptive and loved what our purpose is. We'll visit her again soon. Then we taught McCarthy. He comes to church a lot but has a lot of issues with things. His best friend is Chris and Chris is a member but he is iffy on coming to church. Us teaching McCarthy is helping Chris come to church more often. For dinner, a member fed us fufu and it was absolutely delicious. We ate it too fast. I'm getting to love fufu. It's not as spicy anymore and I can swallow big huge chunks of it now. 

Sunday- I went to church and four of our investigators showed up. They all are progressing very well. Three of them should be baptized next week and the other one I just met today and found out he just moved here from another ward close by. He's been taught all the lessons and well see If he's ready for baptism or not. We are being blessed right now. New people are finding us and are prepared. It's really cool to see how The Lord works. Right when we think we have no more serious people, someone is placed right in our path. I hope everyone had a nice Sunday and that you learned a lot. I sure did. 

Today- I am at the temple site and it is so beautiful.

 Elder Green