December 31, 2014

December 29, 2014

Hello. How are you? How is Christmas going on over there? For me it was wonderful time. I called home. We had wonderful time with members here inviting all the missionaries in our zone for dinner. Family fun day in our Stake was nice. We perfomed song in local language from our branch. It was so nice. We did sing our  Christmas carols at West Hills Mall. We are in West Africa church news..today we had zone activity we had nice time with other missionaries.  We went men golf and black star square. We had nice time.  I will send picture next week.

Elder Birresa

Much love

December 22, 2014

Hello! How are you? I like all the things that you are doing with others to make others happy in this special time. All the things that you are doing remind me of the thought in the Book Of Mormon when King Benjamin taught his people a great thing in the book of Mosiah 2:17. I am grateful for your great example. Yeah, today my Branch President sent me an e-mail and he told me one of sister she called to serve in London England Mission. It is good to have missionary from your country or branch. Now we are 3 from my branch; 2 sisters and me, but we have young man who are planing to serve mission, even Abdi. Do you know anything about Jason? Long time since I heard from him. I am doing good. Everyone is preparing themselves for Christmas.  Last week we contacted a young man, his name is Bismark.  We taught him and we invited him to visit the church, but he said anther time, not this week.  On Sunday I just saw him at the sacrament meeting and I ask my companion is that Bismark? Yes it is! Then I just sit next to him.  They welcome him very well and he's happy for the thing that he learned at church.  Saturday we heard from members there are less-active members in our area so we are planing to see them later on the day. But when we are passing to the appointment with Florence, the less-active lady stopped us and talked to us.  We told her we will come to her house, then we went to her house after our lesson and  talked to her to get to know her. We committed her to come to church tomorrow and the next morning she was there with her 2 kids! That was nice. We had Christmas Carols on the street with other district in our zone.  We are planing to sing again Wednesday night and New Year's Eve at one of the biggest malls in West Africa. Today the members invited all the missionaries from our zone for dinner at 4pm.  Thursday another family invited all the missionaries in our stake for lunch. I am happy I am going to call home Sunday b/c our Christmas is after 3 weeks. If I call on Thursday I will just talk only with my aunt. She will be at work place b/c it is not off but on Sunday I will talk with other family too. So am going to call on Sunday. Thank you so much for your great example and love.
Much Love
Elder Birresa  

December 15, 2014

Hello! How are you? Christmas is coming! We had nice conference around the area office and they showed us Meet the Mormons. I liked it. It was nice. I don't  feel that many people in U.S know our beliefs.  Know they are saying funny funny things. Anyways, I love it and I heard it is in Top 10 box office. Wow! That is good thing, I think. They will know who the Mormons are. I am thinking to send some letters very soon. I am thinking for Christmas.  I know you will like it. I  got some nice stuff for you and my all sisters. I am looking for something nice for dad and for my in laws and I don't want to tell you what it is. It is an African thing, so you will love it.  I already bought for you and my sisters, but am looking for them if I get it very soon I will send it together.  Otherwise I will send for them later.  For me, I  am having a wonderful time here in my new area. We had 3 investigators in sacrament on  Sunday.  We are working with them. I got my lost package and I love it! It makes me happy! Thank you so much for all things that you have done for me. I  wish you Merry Christmas.

Elder Birresa

much Love 

December 8, 2014

Hi! How are you all? For me, I am doing good. I wish to have snow here but we don't. It is so hot even when you are sitting you will sweat. So most of the time there is no light and sleeping without light is so hard here in Ghana. Now it's very dry and sunny so I really need a few things; sunscreen and an ipod for music.  If you are having one if you send it for me I will be happy with church music and conference talks. My new apartment is boring. Everyone is doing his own thing. I start reading Book Of Mormon.  My goal is to finish before New Year. The same time I start reading the Bible. At least I went to finish reading the Bible. One time in my mission we had good week searching for new people to teach. You know the area is new area, there were only two missionaries before me. Me and my companion are working hard. We had 3 investigators in sacrament meeting, but we are not going to have baptism for long time. We are starting with new people to teach. Tomorrow we are going to have Christmas Conference at the temple. Hopeful it will be good experience for all of the missionaries. So here is my mission address:       
Elder Birresa
Ghana Accra west mission
PMBCT 209 Accra Ghana
West Africa

I am sorry for the lost package. Thank you so much for all things that you all are doing for me .

Elder Birresa

Love 

December 1, 2014

It was good to  see the pictures from your trip to India. You all look happy, I can see from your face. My week has been good. I am in my new area, we meet in other ward building yesterday, but next week  we are going to move to our building. Me and  my companion  have been called to serve us Primary teachers. We really had wonderful week. Mostly we are finding new people to teach. There is a lot of things to do with my new area.  Thank you so much for your love and support. They transferred me from my area to new area so am going to my new area on Wednesday. My companion his from Utah, his name is Elder Allen. I hope I will have good time with him as i did in past with my companions. In my new area for first time to serve in small District, only 4 missionaries and we are in a branch. I hope we will change to ward soon .  Sunday was Stake Conference and it was really great because it was a broadcast from Salt Lake to all the stakes in Africa. Elder Gay of the 70 was a mission president here a few years ago and so he knows what is going on here. He talked about how so many people put themselves down and don't help themselves to reach their full potential because they will not work for themselves. Some feel that because they served a mission the church owes them a job or other financial help.  But there are a few who really can't help themselves. Don't justify. Then it was Sister Stephens from the Primary and she made a complete fool of herself. She probably said Africa 20 times in the first two minutes. She, like most everyone else outside of Africa, believes that it is just one big country full of super happy poor people who love their lives despite their crippling challenges and are just so humble and adorable and everyone in all of Africa is exactly the same. AFRICA is a continent not a country. You can't talk about South Africa or Ghana or Ethiopia or Uganda in the same breath............     I don't even think the office couples understand. She did do well at talking about daily scripture study and prayer. Elder Bednar had a really good talk about keeping pace with The Lord's work. Leave behind the false traditions of your fathers, especially Bride Price.(I was really happy they hit hard on that one) Expensive funerals and weddings. It is stopping temple marriages and law of chastity living. They all quoted from a recent talk by Dallin H Oaks. Sacrifice only pertains to mortality.   Dieter F. Uchtdorf  gave a story about young men in a village who were taking dirty water from a pool of water and Elder Uchtdorf's friend told the boys that soon the pump would be fixed in the village and they could have clean, fresh, good water. Their reply to him was that their father had drank from that small stream and his father before him and so one. Utchdof's friend could do nothing for them. That is how I feel all the time. The people we teach can have clean, pure, everlasting water but instead they simply choose to take the filthy unclean water that so many other church's, religions, and pasters provide. I can only tell them about the clean water and watch helplessly as they reject and take the dirty water. He also talked about how he was a fighter pilot and he was sometimes tempted to feel he was better than others, but when he went to the temple it always reminded him that we are all equal in God's eyes. We are all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He also talked about how we should appreciate praise but never inhale it. He also said that we should not have to wait to do something until a priesthood leader tells us, but if we see something that needs to be done, just do it.  I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot and it was just what a lot of people here in Ghana needed.     Also, "I am BUSY" is the most used excuse in Ghana and Elder Gay said it stands for Being Under Satan's Yoke. So, don't give the excuse of "I'm busy".  I hope you understand all that I am trying to say. My grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure and such is not at its best. Looking forward for Christmas to call home. The time is flying am almost a year in the field, so am thinking to call for you too, if I get your contact before Christmas. I heard about Wal-Mart a lot, it sounds good. I want to shop in Wal-Mart  one day  to see. Last night we had good dinner.  I also got some ground beef at the Shoprite  and yesterday we made an awesome meal of spaghetti and corn on the cob and garlic. Last week light is off here. That  is why there is no e-mail from me last week. I am sad,  but I can't change anything, so better to forget ..............

Much love

Elder Birresa

November 17, 2014

Ellen is good, and yes, Harold went back.  He is not a member and not too interested.  His English is not good enough to read the BOM we gave him.  His main concern is religion.  It is not good because it is the cause of so many wars.  Amanda didn't come but she didn't go to her church either.  She knows the truth, she just need to act.  This week was pretty good.  My bike did have a lot of trouble, but it all worked out.  We went to the new mall that has shop-rite into it and it is really nice and feels unreal to be in.  I plan to go there to get some things for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.  I might spend small personal money.  The two main stores have pretty much everything and life could be completely normal here.  The light just went out and we are running on generator so I don't know how long we have but I will write something small.  I don't  know if I'm going to move transfer this Saturday.  Will be transfer news.  We will see.  Hope all is well with all of you.
Elder Birresa
Love

November 10, 2014

Wow! I hope you enjoyed your time at India for doing good. This week was pretty good, but it rained Tuesday and Wednesday. We tried to go out and meet with people while it was raining and every single appointment and back up failed. In short, Ghanaians don't like the rain. Ellen was baptized on Tuesday and her husband, Harold, was there from Austria. They were actually married on Saturday. On Sunday this investigator named Amanda came, even though she had not seemed sure the night before. We were so happy because it is her second time at church and she is actually progressing. I hope we will do good to help our investigators to progress more, and to help themselves.  Thank you so much, I got the first package! You know what? All things that you sent is what I my needed, especially the shaver. I have been wanting to buy for a long time, going form shop to shop to get shaver. I got the bad one, but now I get the good one from you. It is really good for skin. Thank you for that.  Ellen is good, and yes, Harold went back. He is not a member and not too interested. His English is not good enough to read the Book Of Mormon we gave him. His main concern is religion is not good because it is the cause of so many wars. Amanda didn't come, but she didn't go to her church either. She knows the truth, she just needs to act. This week was pretty good. My bike did have a lot of troubles, but they are worked out. We went to the new mall that has shop-rite in it. It is really nice and feels unreal to be in. I plan to go there to get some things for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. I might spend small personal money. The two main stores have pretty much everything and life could be completely normal here. So light just went out and we are running on generator, so I don't know how long we have, but I will write something small. I don't know if am going to move this transfer. This Saturday will be transfer news, we will see. Hope all is well with all of you.

Love

Elder Birresa

November 3, 2014

Brother Phillip, he come last Sunday with his white shirt and tie. That is so good to see, from someone who doesn't care about religion and now he cares about religion. Yesterday we are listening to  General Conference Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.  It was so good to learn from conference, but for me I had chance to learn from all the talks form this conference. All is good talk, especially by Elder Jeffrey R.Holland. I just learn a lot of things from the conference. I can't wait for the next General Conference. This week is not good at all for me. Since Friday  I have been sick.  Saturday all the day am sick. Friday after we come from the field to the apartment I was so hungry I went to eat. I have food I cooked last Monday, because  of time am not eating fresh food. Going out  in the field every day on time, come back to the apartment on time. Because it is far we don't come home for lunch, so we don't take lunch at all. But on Friday I was so hungry and tired, so I went to eat and sleep. So I take my food from refrigerator and put it microwave and I eat  and am full.  I sleep,  getting to the morning and my stomach is paining me too much. I went to the bathroom and start vomiting out all thing that I eat that evening.  I have never been sick like Saturday in my life. It was bad day for me. I was sitting in the apartment all the day listening to  conference. Then  I ask missionaries for blessing and I pray that  I will be ready for Sunday sacrament meeting. God heard my prayer. I had hard night, but in the morning I pray and get up from my bed and am okay and am thinking to fast because it is fast and testimony Sunday. My companion told me that  today it not fast and testimony Sunday, because we are going to watch the General Conference. So I eat small and start our way to the chapel, my stomach started paining me because I ate.  I have to  survive after I reached the chapel. I sit next to my investigator, Ellen. We start watching the general conference for the next 4 hours after we finish the Conference we have interview for Sister Ellen. After we finish that, I went back to the apartment.  I wanted to eat food so bad. One of the missionaries was cooking. I asked him to give me small, but he give me a lot.  I eat too much, my stomach start paining me more that Friday  night. I thought  I would die. I have never been sick like this time in my life.  I don't want to be sick anymore. I called to Mission Mom. She told me to not take too much  food, and she told me to drink water and small amount of food. I am doing that. I want to eat so bad, but I can't, because I don't want to suffer again. So since yesterday I only drink water. It is not easy when the other missionary's are eating. I want to eat but.............. So tomorrow our Mission President will come to our apartment and I will ask him to transfer me. I am not really a strong person physically. We are looking forward for Sister Ellen's baptism  tomorrow evening. She is ready to be a member. Then she is going to be married on Saturday at our Stake Center. She talked with Bishop about it. I am happy that she is my investigator. She is reading the Book Of Mormon since we met her. She told us that she have hard time to forgive. She have problem with her father and she will never forget the pain. We start reading the Book Of Mormon with her, now she is ready to forgive her father and to forget all things. I am happy to hear that from her and she have strong testimony. She is looking forward to go to Temple to seal her marriage, so she is talking about the church with her husband. Hopefully we will meet him soon, start talking about the church. But for her she is ready 100% and we plan to find new people this week. We dropped three of our investigators. They are not progressing and last Sunday we baptized a part family member. She lives with her aunt. She is 8 years old. Her name is Emmanuella. I am not feeling well, but we are planing to have FHE with one of our ward member at 3:30.  That is small about my week. Thank you for all things. Hopefully I will have good week. Another good week is waiting for me because am having best companion ever. I hope you are enjoying your trip. Please say hello to all.
Love more
Elder Birresa  

October 27, 2014

It is good to hear that from America to Asia it is far. So they worship on Saturday there?  Hopefully one day I will watch. Wow! Sounds like a good bike ride. Three days?! Wow. It is not easy, yeah, it is too hard for both of you. Try small, but not too much. Mt Everest is a big mountain. It sounds like a nice trip. We had somehow good week. Just trying to find new people to teach. One of our investigators is looking forward to her baptism, but she sells alcohol and because her husband doesn't want to stop selling, so for her she said I don't want to get baptized. Now because I will baptize if she stops selling alcohol, she is talking with her husband about that. We will follow up, but we are praying that he will understand her.  I want to share a lot but because of time I am going out. We have zone activity. We are going to have FME with our Bishop and his family. Thank you so much for all things. Say hello to all.  Please enjoy your time in India. 

Love much

Elder Birresa  

October 20, 2014

I understand sometimes you will be busy. Don't worry. I will keep sending my weekly letter. Wow! It is so good to travel. I hope you will love India. For me, I love their music. No package yet, but I know I will get it soon.  You know what? My last companion just received a package and he said God bless my family! You don't know how much it makes us happy to have something special from our family.  Now it is my turn to say GOD BLESS MY FAMILY! Thank you so much for everything. You are so special to me. We are trying to take members with us to our investigators. We will continue to do that with the members in our ward. We are having a wonderful time in our area finding new people to teach. There are many who are waiting for us. We really had wonderful week. We baptized Brother Philip and we are looking forward to baptize others us well.  We did contact with the Book of Mormon this past week. It was nice. Many people went to know more about the Book of Mormon. It is chance for us to share our message at the same time using church materials, like DVD. One of our investigators is looking forward for her marriage, but she wants to be baptized first, then to be married. Her marriage day is  6 of November. She talked to Bishop about that. We talked with her and hold baptismal date in the 4th of November. Her husband is coming from Austria. She and we want him to be there in the baptismal program so he will be witness. He is not a member but she is working on him to help him to understand about the Gospel. I hope things will be okay for him. We have other investigators as well, as we are working on them, and we have one family. They really like our teaching and understand but, you know, sometimes many people, they know it is true but they don't want. Except I really don't like dropping people when they know it is true. They went to join the church but the husband, he doesn't want to be baptized. He is telling us that this church is not the only true church in this earth. I don't want to drop them, but they are dropping themselves. We are planning to see them for the last time, then to drop them. We are praying that they may understand why we need them, but  I know they will get baptized one day. We met another new family, a mother and her 2 children. We visited them yesterday after church. They provide there local food for us, we enjoyed it. We had good Sunday today. We went to shop food.  I met my next companion, he is nice guy, good missionary. It is good to do that. She is going to school at BYU? That is good. Wow! So good to run. I like running. I am not really that much good. You know we have great run 2 times every year in Ethiopia. More than 35000 people will run Ethiopia. It's a  great run. I hope you will come there and run with me one day. You will love it. It was so nice.  I did last year, and it is so fun. Yeah, I  am looking forward to take care of myself and my family. It is not easy to do that in Ethiopia because life is so hard. To get a job the payment is not really good. You know in U.S. at least $7.5 an hour. In Ethiopia to get this you have to get your degree.  But I will never give up. I will do my best to overcome all things with my GOD. You and your whole family are so special for me. Always you will be my mom, my family and grandmother to my future children. Thank you so much for being good for me. Please give my love to all.

Love more

Elder Birresa 

October 13, 2014

Hello!  I hope all is well with all of you. I am  still waiting for my  package but hopefully  I will get it this coming week. For me it was very good week finding new people to teach. We are blessed always with new investigators to teach. We find family, they are very interested about the Gospel. We contact the husband on Thursday and talk with him small and meet him again on Friday. We spend small time with him  and we invited him to worship with us. I just invited him because  I have to. I was surprises when he come to church with his wife and children. They enjoyed it. We are going to see them again on Wednesday. Even we had other investigators. She is so nice. She is looking for the truth. She has a baptismal date on 16 of November. Hopefully we will help her to be baptized. Even she is keeping the commitment.  We have five people in sacrament meeting, even our mission president attend with us. All the meeting that was nice to see him in our ward. He is nice mission president, we have baptism next Saturday. His name is Philip. He is 19 years old. We had lesson with since July, now he is ready to be baptized.  We lose Joseph because of his family, his wife and his mom against the church even he wants to be baptized. But it is not good, so we talk with him so  we will see  for the future. He will be baptized one day, maybe in this life or next life. For Eric we try to help him but he is not helping himself.  He know that he have to be baptized and leave his church but he don't want to do that. So for last time we are planing to see him this week. We had zone conference last Tuesday. It was nice meeting talking about the Book Of Mormon. We have to use the Book Of Mormon when we teach. I really like teaching from the Book Of Mormon. It is nice and simple to understand. Even  we are teaching from Doctrine &Covenants. It was nice. No one is going to stop us to testify about the truth. I got athletes foot .  It is not  easy thing, too much walking.  I change my socks every day and wish  my foot every night and morning, but it will be okay. I hope so. We are working with this people for now, but we  keeping looking for those who are ready but the world is getting bad every day. I saw some news talk about the new  Marburg, a virus similar to Ebola, has hit the radar in the African country of Uganda. I don't now what that means. It is very close to Ethiopia. Sound like we are in the latter days. We pray that all will be okay.

LOVE

Elder Birresa  

October 6, 2014

Wow! Sound good. Not yet, but maybe we will watch soon. I remember we watch the last conference after three weeks, but I love watching the conference. Sometimes even missionaries in our apartment  have  ipod  downloaded with the past conference.  We enjoyed watching together.  That was nice for me, I just listen because it new for me. When I was home I will just watch conference from 2010. Gone before. Not much. I have long way to go. It always new for me, but I love watching general conference. That is good. So what is his name?  How old is he? I am sorry. It is not easy to lose anyone. But it is good to be ready all the time for everything. Is that every year or just sometimes? It is good to talk and help them to save each other that is good. That is good to do that. I have been there one time with Jason, it was nice. So are you planing to go back there again?  What are you thinking? How do you want to help them? Maybe small about my week, we had transfers on Wednesday, so we went at the office on Tuesday. My formal companion used the time to visit the members and investigators. We try to find new people after Wednesday. We had nice lesson with Emmanuel and his wife. We watched the restoration DVD. They are really happy about all things. After, we asked them if they believe in the Book Of Mormon as scripture and another testament of Jesus Christ. They believe on it and they said yes, they received their answer. For they pray and then he visited us yesterday. For her, she somehow busy, but she will come next week and we are going take them with us to the members house. Today for family home evening we will go at 6pm.  We had 3 investigators at the sacrament meeting yesterday. That is small about my week. I did not get my package yet.   I hope  I will get soon. It takes more than two weeks to reach here from there. Thank you so much for your love and care as family.   I really want share with you about my week but the connection is soon bad. It takes three hours  to write this letter. Say hello to all.  I can't wait to hear the general conference. Wow, sounds good. Thank you so much.

Love

Elder Birresa (Jote)

September 29, 2014

Hello how are you ? i hope you are doing okay it is good to hear from you every week you dont now how it makes me happy to read your email every week thanks for being good for me of course we are family last time i received Message from Lindsey here it is  My girls just had their cousins comes stay with us who are on my husband's side of the family. They were asking the girls a bunch of questions, one was "Would you ever want a brother?" The BOTH said "We already have a brother." that is nice you dont now how i fill just love the great gift I love them they are to special for me  anyways let me tell you small about my week my companion was transferred to other place and i got new companion from U.S i will go to the office to take him to our area on Wednesday almost gating to 7 month on mission 8 days left and i become senior on mission his 2 Mtc after me we are finding people to teach every day to have baptism my area is nice if you work hard the missionary they killed the area somehow there is no baptism for long time but now everything is going very well we are preparing 3 people for the October there name is Eric have been church 1x,Philip have been church 3x and Florence she have been church more than 5x but she speak local language and small small English it makes hard for us to teach we are trying to teach her with members but she is busy to and we are hoping to baptize brother Joseph to for him his ready we are planing to baptize him next week but his wife she is nit happy with that so she is forcing him to do not join we try to teach her about our message but she is not ready to lesson but now am planing to build relationship with us new thing then every thing will be okay we looking forward for his baptism  and his wife we are working very hard even with out lunch you know our area is far from apartment so we will go out in the morning at 10am to 8pm if we come back to apartment it takes more-than 2 hours to eat and back to our area so what we do is we just eat our breakfast then we will eat some snacks on the street to make the area fruitful like other area, we found LA family his name is brother Stephen  we are contacting he called us he tolled us hes a member he was baptized 2004 LA for 8 years they are 7 in his family he and his wife are a member but his children are not he have 5 children we visited him this week  2x he told us some-off his problem with the church leaders i dont now if it is true or not but if it true of course that is bad thing they have done to him he show us the pictures when get married at church for there baptism b/c they have married legally to be baptized so they have done at church 10 years ago in that picture we saw one man his worshiping with us in our ward am excited to see him in that picture we talk we talk with him yesterday at church and we told him all thing we take him to his house his riding his motorcycle and we are riding our cycle we went there they now each other very well they just give hug each other start taking in there native language fir long time then he told us dont worry about him I will take care of him he invited him to church the coming Sunday he said i will come i went different church for 8 years they all are useless i have to come i have to repaint and he cried i just cried with him it is nice filling that i had about Holy Ghost this week b/c off him we get new investigator to teach how is progressing very well even we found one new family husband and wife they dont have children yet they married recently they are really interested in our teaching we talk with them about internal marriage and other thing they are smart they believe in apostasy we give them baptismal date they told us they have done there baptism 1 time we explain to them why they need to be baptize again they except there baptismal date  for the 16th of November  they told us they will be at church this Sunday and we are going to see them again on tomorrow it really nice week finding new people always i like finding new people to teach my area will be good area again I will do my best to make it fruitful area sound good India that is good i hope all will be okay for all of you Griffin I hope his lucking forward to serve mission am praying that he will serve in Ethiopia like Elder Fuller(Braden) I hope I will get soon  I always fill your Love mom and remember that I love all of you please say hello to all my English is not good but am trying my best    Love you all

Elder Birresa       

September 22, 2014

wow that is so good i just see the pictures wetting for her at airport  that is good thing to be there to welcome her  i just imagine how it is the moment at the airport ....anyways i wish to have someone to welcome me when i go home but now sometimes i fill lonely.........standing alone in this world....anyways say welcome to her for me tell her that am proud of her too  wow that is great she will stay with you for few months then she will go to school? oh that is good thanks for being good for me you are great and true mother there is a reason for us to meet i remember when you come to visit us with dad  I know you both are good  but you both are more-than good for me thanks for the things that you and your family share with specially for your Love  I know that will love will change my life GOD is great!! b/c of you and you family Moroni chapter 7 from 37 gone become my favorite i have seen all thing in you and your family what i read in that chapter i wish to have personality like that  I know I will be thanks for being good example for me and for others .................i will let you know if i need anything

they all are doing good my mom last 3 weeks she somehow seek and she come to addis for medical and she is still in addis with her sisters but now she is okay i know she will be okay she thought me to be good she is great mother you know i dont now there here if you are the oldest you have big responsibly to taker of your family which not easy I safer a lot in this age i dont when to safer for ever i will keep doing the right thing no matter where i am where i from for my uncle i hope his doing okay long time i didnt heard anything from him but i now he will be survive  I love my village it is beautiful Place but you know the church is not big In Ethiopia there is only 5 branch in that big land if i go to my village there is no chance for me to partake the sacrament so I will never dream to go back to there to live....let me share small about the thing that my mom thought when my father is past-way things getting very bad to survive all her family my fathers friend all they left us a lone for first time I wish to do not born on this earth and i ask my mom there is no God and he dont love us he dont care about us she told me something she said every thing that we all are facing is a blessing i that time i dont understand the word blessing I thought the blessing is gating every thing that you need to live but now always when i think that is true it is blessing everything that we are facing no matter it is bad or good it is blessing to learn something from it and it makes me strong makes me to care for others anyways late me tell you small about my week we had somehow bad week running everyday we really try to find new people to teach the area is somehow dead area they missionary killed it and it takes time to help the ward to progress but we are planting the seed fro the future missionary and for our self to for i had personal goal to baptize 50 people in my mission I achieve 11 so far left with 39 it is not about the number it is about the soul but it is a goal for me to achieve i hope i will achieve my goal we found 2 family us new investigators who are very interested with the church teaching and one of our investigator her husband past-way 7 years ago and she become christian form Muslim we talk with her about baptism for the dead and about family for eternity she sound interested with the teaching she ask a lot of questions this week are planing to focus  on her and her need it takes time things going well for now really my first area is so nice there is people always to teach and they are smart to it is not easy to fight against devil for others but the victor will for us for me am building my own testimony every day buy sharing with others truly i know that the Gospel is true and God restore-ted once again to the earth for all of us   if we lesson for our filling we will no it us Alma say if we planted it will grow if we cost it out b/c our belief never we will lose for me I will never denied the trues so thank you so much for being good for me for you Love and care all thing that you have done for me you are a great mother I love you a lot more and more ever day please say hello to all for me have good week ..................

Elder Birresa                 

September 22, 2014

wow that is so good i just see the pictures wetting for her at airport  that is good thing to be there to welcome her  i just imagine how it is the moment at the airport ....anyways i wish to have someone to welcome me when i go home but now sometimes i fill lonely.........standing alone in this world....anyways say welcome to her for me tell her that am proud of her too  wow that is great she will stay with you for few months then she will go to school? oh that is good thanks for being good for me you are great and true mother there is a reason for us to meet i remember when you come to visit us with dad  I know you both are good  but you both are more-than good for me thanks for the things that you and your family share with specially for your Love  I know that will love will change my life GOD is great!! b/c of you and you family Moroni chapter 7 from 37 gone become my favorite i have seen all thing in you and your family what i read in that chapter i wish to have personality like that  I know I will be thanks for being good example for me and for others .................i will let you know if i need anything

they all are doing good my mom last 3 weeks she somehow seek and she come to addis for medical and she is still in addis with her sisters but now she is okay i know she will be okay she thought me to be good she is great mother you know i dont now there here if you are the oldest you have big responsibly to taker of your family which not easy I safer a lot in this age i dont when to safer for ever i will keep doing the right thing no matter where i am where i from for my uncle i hope his doing okay long time i didnt heard anything from him but i now he will be survive  I love my village it is beautiful Place but you know the church is not big In Ethiopia there is only 5 branch in that big land if i go to my village there is no chance for me to partake the sacrament so I will never dream to go back to there to live....let me share small about the thing that my mom thought when my father is past-way things getting very bad to survive all her family my fathers friend all they left us a lone for first time I wish to do not born on this earth and i ask my mom there is no God and he dont love us he dont care about us she told me something she said every thing that we all are facing is a blessing i that time i dont understand the word blessing I thought the blessing is gating every thing that you need to live but now always when i think that is true it is blessing everything that we are facing no matter it is bad or good it is blessing to learn something from it and it makes me strong makes me to care for others anyways late me tell you small about my week we had somehow bad week running everyday we really try to find new people to teach the area is somehow dead area they missionary killed it and it takes time to help the ward to progress but we are planting the seed fro the future missionary and for our self to for i had personal goal to baptize 50 people in my mission I achieve 11 so far left with 39 it is not about the number it is about the soul but it is a goal for me to achieve i hope i will achieve my goal we found 2 family us new investigators who are very interested with the church teaching and one of our investigator her husband past-way 7 years ago and she become christian form Muslim we talk with her about baptism for the dead and about family for eternity she sound interested with the teaching she ask a lot of questions this week are planing to focus  on her and her need it takes time things going well for now really my first area is so nice there is people always to teach and they are smart to it is not easy to fight against devil for others but the victor will for us for me am building my own testimony every day buy sharing with others truly i know that the Gospel is true and God restore-ted once again to the earth for all of us   if we lesson for our filling we will no it us Alma say if we planted it will grow if we cost it out b/c our belief never we will lose for me I will never denied the trues so thank you so much for being good for me for you Love and care all thing that you have done for me you are a great mother I love you a lot more and more ever day please say hello to all for me have good week ..................

Elder Birresa                 

September 15, 2014

hi hello how are you I hope you are okay and all your family we dont do Camping in my country b/c it is very bad for wield animal they will attack you if you are sleeping out side even they will try to attack you   when you are sleeping inside the house. so we dont try but some times in group they will but I have not done yet in the western part of my country they will do  somehow ...............about my family I have 1 brother and 1 sister they both are younger than me for my parents for my mom she 43 years old now not to old for my father he past away 6 years ago his 1 years older than my mom they are really good family I love them they taught me to be good person for me I really dont get chance to stay with them for long time my father was past away when I was 16 then I come to live in addis with Jason b/c I have to even for my brother no chance for him at all he come when he was 8 sometime I do care about him b/c he dont miss my mom like me so fill that b/c he left when he was small just forget about her so always I will take him to  visit her every year for 2 months but his good brother I love him for him hes planing to serve mission too when hi finish his high-school then he will serve so for us our family live in small town it somehow difficult we have school at there but 5 years ago we dont have high-school at there so many people will go far for school maybe they will walk 2 hours for school each day life is not easy but my did all the best for us by sending all of us to school and giving us our need  but when my father past-way it become difficult for my mom to take care off all us and they send me and my brother to Jason organization to live with them at there and finish our school you know but am still trying to taker off my self and my family and I know God will help me to do that so for 6 years I live in addis ababa our capital city I love addis just beautiful city with beautiful people ask mom and dad they will tell you about it please one day just come and see life in Ethiopia you will like it I just to write you back last week but the light is off here and I stop here that is good to hear form you about Rachel she will be home very soon that is good mission is so cool here some question from to here how is mission in  Brazil? how is your mission life?any experience that is good for me to learn from it?welcome to home great job that for here you know what is good to serve through that you will grow spiritual King Benjamen say in the BOM when you are serving your follow brothers or sisters you are serving your GOD it is good that like you are having wonderful time with all family how is your all children are doing even how is your husband?thank you so much for being good for me am proud of you you are so wonderful say hello to all please

Elder Birresa      

September 8, 2014

oh yea you know what for us in my country we dont have family name we just use our first name but i just use my grandpas name us sir-name that is why even when we get married we dont give our family name to our wife she will take her fathers name they husband take his fathers name i dont now if you know about Ethiopian calendar we have different calendar  it is 2007 this Thursday is our new year then it will be 2007 we have 13 months happy new year!!! she is okay yea I write for her every week through Facebook she sick last 2 weeks but now she okay she is in Addis now with her sister  but now she is okay for abdi he spend his break time with my mom but now he come back to addis for school yea his with Jason for my sister i have 1 sister she is doing good i really dont here anything from her since i come but i hope she is okay ...........

oh yea I have been transferred to my new area it is nice area we live in the small city but we proselyte out side of the city we have to ride our buy-sickle for 30 minutes always it somehow boring to do every day but it is nice area many people are ready to receive the gospel  but i had wonderful time so far in my new area finding and teaching enjoying with nature many people spik local language it is somehow difficult but we are managing for me am still learning English and our chapel is to small we are 6 missionary's in our area 3 from U.S 1 from Congo and 1 from Australia we live in the same apartment it was so nice so for for now am new so am locking forward to now all the members in my area to work with them i will do that in this coming 2 weeks...last Wednesday when i live my old area and come to new area am so sad i love the members at my old area in Tuesday night  7 members invited me for dinner i cant eat 7 time if i did not eat they will be sad at me so I decided to eat form all of them small small and I eat am so full I cant eat but still they will asked me to eat am sick that night b/c I eat to much but the elders qua-rem president his nice man he live in U.S for long time for him hi but Burger for me and bring it for me you now what first he call I told him 1 place the members house then he told me he will be there soon but for me I have to go and see other members to use my time and I left that place later he called for sure I forget about him at all and I fill bad I told him am not there and he say tell me where are you am far from the place where I told him first no choose I told him again and he say Okay I will be there soon he drive more than 5KM to meet me from that place his nice man finally I meet him he give to me the gift that he have for me and we had picture together and give me big hug left me am so happy for his love for me and I forget to tell you last week I went to Temple I love temple  I wish to be there always but we dont have temple  I my country that is sad but it is nice to have temple anyways my new companion hes name is Elder Murray hes from Utah wellsville cache valley hes nice young man  i really dont now  to much about him he sound like good ....for me Monday is great day you now why I will read my emails then I will be happy I hate washing b/c it is white but we will wish us we can Monday all the time special for all of us b/c we do same ting from Tuesday to Sunday but Monday cocking last time I cocked German pancake in microwave I will send the the picture next week I forget in the other memory card but we will cock and having fun with other missionary's and life is the same always in for all the missionary's finding and teaching and that is good  stay good mom I always remember all of you in my thought and prayer am happy the thing that you and your family done for me for the you all share with me that is great thing for me in my life we can bless other in our love and being good for them keep being good for me please give my love to all................Happy new year ........................

Elder Birresa much love your son                        

September 1, 2014

oh yea I see sound busy that is good to move to where you have to be we had good time finally am transferred to other zone it is not really far but somehow that is good to change the area and it is bad  to live my friends in my old area but I have to go and serve others in there to and get new friends yesterday I fill sad at church I bear my testimony on the sacrament meeting and I see members they are so sad and ward elders qua-rem  asked me how many month i have been there I told  6 month wow  he fill like 3 month they time is flying only for me it is my first area and first transfer in my mission i had nice time in my zone I set goal to baptized 50 people in all my mission I had 11 in 6 month I went to achieve my goal i have to work hard but my District is best District us mission and I will see the next zone and District my new companion his from Utah I dont now much about him but I will be good companion for him so yesterday after church I visit my RC they cocked for us we had nice time with them and we snap pictures together they are so good I love them when we inter to the car to drive us to apartment the other boy his name is Victor hi start running with car more than 500m I fill sad that is so good I love them and am just somehow busy visiting members before i go away from them this evening we are going to have FHE with big family in our ward they are so nice family we are taking refreshment to the program that we be cool and we had many investigators yesterday at church I know the will baptized.....they all are happy and learn new thing about Family History l so all members bring there family's name those who are past away those who are new we just help them to understand about it they fill the form and one of my   investigators say he want to bring all his family name for there baptism I just told him do for you first us you can soon then you will take there name to Temple i hope that wed be okay....and for first time I give the Gift of the holy ghost and conform Us member of the church am  somehow nerves but that is good experiences.......   so are you planing to go back to Ethiopia soon that is good  I hope you will have good time at there for Jeson I got Latter through him from Abdi I think now his in Kenya with Oprah anyways there is no Ebola In Ghana so far but it is going bad all the time but nothing new here..........Fourth, still no Ebola in Ghana: nada, none, zilch, nothing. As I have said previously, controlling this disease will not happen quickly in the affected countries which have fragile health care infrastructures. It will likely be some months before Ebola is under control in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Please do not let this be a distraction to you.

The church has recently authorized the purchase of supplies for the Saints in Sierra Leone and Liberia that will significantly help the Saints in these countries. In addition, President Mahama in Ghana has allowed the UN and other International Organizations to use Accra as a Centre for airlifting supplies and personnel to the most affected countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Following the outbreak of the Ebola virus, most of the regular commercial flights into the affected areas have been suspended, making it difficult for equipment, logistics and personnel to reach the affected nations.....that about Ebola new from President in our weekly latter sound good  probably I will continue with my school after I finish my mission I have few pictures from yesterday with members and investigators and have picture with one of my investigator his old man he really like the Book  of Mormon he pray about it even about Joseph Smith he had vision about it but the bad thing is he cant walk he will stay home all the time and he dont have car to drive there he dont have really anyone to help him but me and my companion talk about him with members to pick him to church with there car i hope they will do it one day i know God will help him thank you so much for being good for me if any thing new let me now about your trip and other say good job to Rachel ...........say hello to all give my Love to all ................

Love you lot Elder Birresa        

August 26, 2014

hi selam new that is in my language it means how are you i hope all is okay there wow for us we had nice week like past weeks hearing nice testimony from my RC about Book of Mormon  so nice am proud on him wow his name is Richard we baptized him in the 2nd of August let me start from the time how we contacted him  we contacted his wife and start having lesson with here my companion and other missionary taught her about  book of Mormon after the finish and left her friend come to her shop and when she saw the Book of Mormon she said to Richard wife take out this book form your shop it is not good B/c the Book of Mormon have bad image here so many people think the word Mormon like evil thing they understand with the word Mammon from Bible in Matthew so she say all bad image about Book of Mormon so she believe her and take out Book of Mormon that time Richard is there and he say to his wife let me read the Book he start reading the Book he like it he read more than 1 hour to now at night when she cloth the shop he take the book with him to his house so for his wife she plan to do not take the Book to her house but he take it and she asked him to live the and he say no I will  read it i need it and she no she will never aloud to take the book to her house now the become 2 people and he told her she can go to her fathers house he will never live the Book out side the house continue reading the Book but that night they did not sleep she is not happy at all for him he dont when to live the Book out side of his house he continue reading and he have our contact number in the Book he call he want to me us and he visit the Church the next Sunday he love it he continue progressing by reading and praying and coming to church he ask to be baptized and become a member of the church then we baptize him last 3 weeks then after he always binge example for his family he really love the church finally he say to him self like Joshua in old testament I and my house we worship GOD hi start thinking how his going to help his family  they are 5.3 children and Brother Richard and his wife he now that being good for here be good he continue doing and sharing everything what he learn at church about the members and the teaching about family finally she agree with him to have lesson with us we start teaching her and give baptismal date she is doing good I love hearing testimony form other people B/c am building my faith strongly  In Jesus Christ and  I love sharing my testimony to and the other bad news is 2 off my investigators moving from our area to other area even other ward we thought them all the lesson and we are planing to have baptism on 30th August but before the day the move so we have to give them to other missionary out side of our ward am sad but I fill Baptized them but the are nice family but i Know I will serve in there ward one day before  i finish my mission and I will see them I cant wet to hear from them about selling in the Temple that is small about my week this week is transfer week maybe I will hear from President soon then I will now if I will go or stay for other months we will see the next week thank you so much for being good for me ...........say hello to all  and give my Love to all ..............

Love you more

Elder Birresa

August 26, 2014

 

 

August 18, 2014

It is good to hear from you, mom. You are always awesome. Thank you so much for being awesome, mom. For me you are the best. For sure I don't know what am going to do after my mission but I   like to continue with my school after mission.  I want to be camera man and editor. I start attending  the class 2 years ago but I finish 1 year, then I graduated. It is somehow hard to get job on it so after I finish, no job. To start my own business I don't have money, and I stop there and start accounting school again. I have done 1 year but am in mission now. I will be happy if start my school again in camera and editing.  I don't want go back to my village, it will be hard for me, no opportunity at all. So I will stay in Addis but if I had chance to come to there and work and schooling I will be more happy. It is good for me and for my all family if you can try to help me with that. Find out the way for me to get visa. Girl, not really, I don't have any relationship with anyone yet. With Jason I try to send him email every week but he don't respond my email and I stop sending for him.  Even I don't know where he is now, Kenya or U.S or Ethiopia. No idea. Anyways, we had wonderful week, like other week, finding new people and preparing other for baptism. It was good. Am so grateful for everything. We had 1 baptism last Saturday. We baptized young boy, 17 years old.  He want to serve mission 1 day. I know he will do that, he will serve 1 day. We got big family, even they are sharing their testimony with their family back in Nigeria. Their family asked them if the church is in Nigeria, we told them the church is in Nigeria too, they will find it soon.  We baptized his uncle last two weeks, and there are 4 in a family and they are from Nigeria. 2 left, but we are helping them by sharing the restored Gospel so both they will be ready for 30th August. I love teaching the Plan of Salvation. They are so excited and so happy and makes me happy too. Last Friday 1 of our ward member he invited us for his birthday party. He is 74 years old, his name is Brother Menson. He is nice man, we had wonderful time with him and his family. Other thing is yesterday Temple President ask me to translate Temple talks. I did from English to my language. It is Mormon helping hand weeks too. It is wonderful. The members they come in the morning and clean the clinic in our area. That is good. That is small about my week, we always having same week and same time but am so grateful for the experience. Am gaining from sharing the gospel to others, it is blessing for me and my family. Thank you so much for being good for me. Say hello to all, give my love for all.

Love more take care ..........So which city are you planing to move or already moved? I got email form my best friend today after long time. He is in Portland. He is doing good. Am happy for that too. I  love him, he is my best friend, we grow up together when he was here. Thanks again.

Elder Birresa                              

August 11, 2014

Thank you so much for making my book, you are so sweet. Mom told me about it. It is so good idea. I love it. I have seen it, is so good, I love it. We had wonderful week. We contact few good people, totally they are ready to receive the Gospel. They welcome us with smiling face. We had wonderful time with them.  We share small about our message, the mother, she follow JW, her children Protestant. We had good time, they provided food, we enjoyed with them and we having baptism next week. His name is William, we baptize his brother last week. We are teaching his all family, they are Nigerian. William is 17 years old and he want to serve mission future like us, he is ready to be baptized. Yeah, 5 month now in mission. So far mission is so cool. I love sharing my testimony with others each day. I will learn something, before when I was home I don't know if my testimony is important  for others. Now I have seen, now I know our testimony, it is good for others. We had wonderful week like past other week with my companion by sharing the gospel. We contact new people this week, they are interested to know more about the gospel. We have 1 baptism this coming week, we baptize his brother last week. Now his younger brother is ready. We will get that all family. They are 4, we start sharing the teaching with all his family. They like church a lot, am happy for that.

Last week mom asked me this question,  I wonder how you came to be a Mormon. Tell me about how you were converted? For me I just come to live with Jason 6 Years ago from my town to Addis to live with him. For me when I was small I will go church with my family which Ethiopian Orthodox church. I don't now for some reason I stop going to church, for long time I stop going to church, but I know how church is important so when I come to Addis I heard about a church at home from Jason and others. I don't now much about the church for a first time when visited the church I feel happy and I say to myself I will be a member off this church. I contacted sister missionaries, I start having lesson with them, they always ask me to pray and ask about the lesson. At that time I did not pray to know but I will read the Book Of Mormon every time but always I feel joy and happiness after lesson all time when I think about it and read Book Of Mormon. Then  I was baptized in June 21 2009. Start going to church every Sunday and I start passing the sacrament every Sunday and I become friends with members and all missionaries. My first call in church is branch missionary  and I start working with missionaries. After school I learn  a lot from missionaries. Then my second calling in the church is the Branch  young single adult representative. I had wonderful time with young single adult in my branch almost for 2 year. That was good experience for me to serve at church, it makes me so active at church I become so friendly with everyone at church. First our home is little far from church, always walking 4 or 3  time is in week, it help me to grow. Then 3rd calling is Branch mission leader, having meeting with missionaries and branch missionaries, it help to learn about mission. I told myself to serve mission. You know for me it is very hard to go and serve mission. I have to finish my school  to use my chance and  I want go and serve mission so am thinking more than 1 year to decide about my mission. Finally I decide to do not serve mission because of my family. Am the oldest for my family, I have big responsibility about them. I can't live alone and go. I have to help my mom, she don't have anyone to help her. This point I decided to  not go. In that night in my dream am passing the chapel and my President is calling me by name and he say Come, we are waiting   for you.  I told him I will come and I passed the chapel. Then I think small time and I decided to go back to chapel and see. So when I go back I have seen many people waiting for me, sitting on the ground, and I passed them and ask my President why he need me? He say go open the room all thing which is there is for you and it is all food, that is small part my dream. That night for me  all the time  I will forget my dream, but that morning never, I remember each action in my dream. I think too much to understand. I understand that that is my call, I understand that way and I say to myself I don't need to think too much about tomorrow.  Then I decided to serve mission.  Then after few month's I meet mom (Ann) and Dad (Trace) that is small about my life. With church I like to share with you face to face. I know I will do that one day. Am so grateful for everything that God has blessed me with,  with my family, with all of you, and with my friends and with love for others. Now am missionary who represent Jesus Christ and his church in Ghana. I love sharing my testimony all the time.

About Ebola, it is bad, but it is not big in Ghana. This is massage from Mission President:   This past week we received 3 Elders that were previously assigned to the Liberia Mission, one Edler previously assigned to the Sierra Leone Mission, and one missionary from the MTC previously assigned to Sierra Leone. As you have an opportunity, please welcome these 5 wonderful, new missionaries to our mission. They are already assigned to proselyting areas and doing great work. We continue to monitor the Ebola outbreak which is continuing in Liberia, Sierra Leone,and Guinea. Unfortunately, the number of cases continues to rise (1779) as well as the death toll (961). The government in those countries are taking various actions including travel restrictions in order to prevent the spread of the disease. It appears a traveler who went to Lagos and later died had Ebola and may have infected 11 others in Nigeria. In Ghana, 21 people have been tested for Ebola based on various symptoms  but they were all negative and there are no confirmed cases in Ghana at all at this date. I hope this will help reassure your parents as well as help you to know that you can serve without worry or concern about this disease.

Thank you so much for being good family for me and Love you a lot.

Elder Birresa                    

August 10, 2014

Hello. That is good to read you message. I don't know anything, am sorry. I wish to serve you in there when you are sick, but I know you will be okay. Am sorry, but I will keep praying for you that you will be okay.  It hard time, it is blessing, I know you learn from it a lot and we have to show him our faith. Then he will bless us more and more in our life and in your family's life. Am so grateful to have all of you for me. The time is flying. Next Friday I will be 5 month in mission. People here in Ghana they are humble nice people, they like to share what they have. They welcome you. I love Ghana, it is not difficult to proselyte in here. There is no off day except Monday. In here you can talk with everyone about the church, but one thing everyone have bad image about the church. Last week we found 1 smart man we share our  message with him, even we give him Baptismal date and we invited him to visit our church on Sunday. He promise to come and we leave him, but he did not come so we have to follow up. After church we went his house and he say he is ready to come to church, in the morning his brother called for him and ask him are you coming to church. They are Pentecost and he say I will go to LDS and his brother say don't go there, they dont believe Jesus Christ, they believe in Joseph Smith, they have different  book. We see him and have spiritual lesson with him, help him to understand, you know just having bad image about the church, that is all. But they are so good. I love them. For my companion he is is nice and good man. He is from Utah, my first companion he is from Idaho. He is not good.  He don't like me at all, he don't like African Elders. I had hard time with him, 3 month.  I feel it like a year. You know sometime some missionaries are bad. For now am having nice time with my companion. We had 3 baptism last Saturday. It was so cool and next we are working on the family to baptize them. That is cool, but we are having hard time now. I don't know if you heard about Ebola. It is killing people in here, West Africa. The church take missionaries from  Liberia and Sierra Leone so you can say all West Africa, except Ghana. So we are praying. We don't  know tomorrow, for today am okay. Those missionary from those country, they are in MTC Ghana. Maybe they will come to our mission. That is the problem for now. Ghana is different from Ethiopia. There is too much church in Ghana, more than Ethiopia. So it is business in here, there is a lot of pastors and false prophets in every corner. I don't know if you know about Ethiopia, but we have 2 big religion, Muslim and Ethiopian Orthodox. Those are very big churches in Ethiopia, but something which I like about Ghana, it is easy to talk with people about your message. They are cool. I love them, but I miss home. I will go after 19 month, long way to go.  I hope Daniel is looking forward to serve mission. Am so happy to hear from you. Thank you so much for sending email for me. For Rachel: Wow, you are done. Am so proud on you. I hope you had wonderful time on mission. Mission is good, help us to understand our self, keep doing the right thing in the right time and with the right people for the right reason.  I want visit   Brazil  one day. World cup, I love foot ball, finally my team  is champion. Am happy for that. For me, am enjoying my mission so far, hope to read you letter soon. Have good time and take care .

Much love

Elder Birresa(Jote )   

       

August 2, 2014

That is was cool, Mom. I wish to be there. Super cool for me. My week is somehow bad. It raining for 2 days. We proselyte  under the rain. That is my first time when I feel cold in here. It was rain and evening, only short slave white shirt, I start shaking because I went out under the rain all day. That is why we found one old man, he have the old Book of Mormon he got from missionary when he was in South Africa 20 years ago. Long time he have until today. That was cool, even you can go our mission website Accra West Mission, you will see our picture. It was cool. I know you will enjoy by watching pictures, but my mission is flying. I passed 3 month on mission. Mom, oh the time, am so glad  to see all of you. That was good for me. I do feel the Spirit in each my day. Am so grateful to be missionary. It is blessing for me. I found myself here in great place, nothing like mission. I hope Griffin is preparing himself for mission. Give my hug for all of them. Love you all

Wow, Emma, you are so sweet. It is true when we do bad thing it hurts us inside. I love the way  that your teacher help you to understand. It is painful, right, Emma? So you knew what we have to do. We have to pray all the time and read our scriptures, then the Holy Ghost is there to help us keep doing what is right in the right time, okay Emma. Even I attend Primary on Sunday. I love Primary and I have pictures with them. I will send it for you next week. Okay, Love you, Emma and I really want to meet you one day. I know I will see you one day!!!!!!!

Hi, Dad, how are you? You are super busy man. That is cool. 100, that is a lot. I wish to be there. We had wonderful time. I get new companion, my 3rd companion. Everyone is coming and left me there. I am old in my area now since I come until today long time. But it is okay. My new companion is from Provo, Utah. He is nice man and we had 1 Baptism last Saturday and we are going to have 3 baptism next Saturday.  That was cool and my recent convert passed sacrament during sacrament program yesterday. That is so wonderful to see someone which you found  on street passing sacrament and having a strong testimony about Jesus Christ. Totally we had wonderful week by helping them to be ready for their baptismal day. That was good. I love being missionary. Nothing is like missionary. Give my love to all  have good week !!

Love you lot         

  

August 1, 2014

July 14, 2014

It was cool to be busy all the time. That is why the time is flying, even for us. This coming Sunday one of football player, he played for Ghana national team, he play for Ghana since 2010 until now, even he play for world cup. He is a member of our church. After they back from world cup he is here in Ghana and we try to have open venue to invited others to church this Sunday in missionary farewell and he will come and give his testimony. It was good. He is good player, he played in Italy. I can't wait to see him on Sunday. Mission is wonderful. We contacted in his poster, we invited others, they can come and meet him at church with us. That was cool and we are going to sing in that meeting,  Sisters missionary  and my district. Today we had activity, us zone. It was fun, we enjoyed very much. I try to send for you the video of our zone activity and my Book of Mormon in different language and my district members picture during zone meeting, when we sing hymn 26 and personally  I love hymn 27. So maybe you can sing during FHE in home that is my choose for you. I love being a missionary. Every time am learning new thing which makes happy. Reading D&C, Pearl of Great Price,  help me to understand a lot, even  special. In Bible when you read revelation just makes me confused but after  I pray for understanding and compare with D&C I just understand very well so great the Plan of Salvation. It is so cool to understand the Plan which  our Father plan for us. And world cup when they start  it tell my companion Germany will be champion because Germany is my team in this world cup they are champion. So good. I love football. Say hello to all, give my love for all and I love you Mom and have good week.

Your son, Elder Birresa (Jote)           

July 14, 2014

Thank you so much Mom.  I will continue doing what I'm doing now.  We had a wonderful week, like other weeks.  Just busy all the day.  It is cool to be busy all the time.  That is why the time is flying even for us.  This coming Sunday one football player, he played for Ghana national time, since 2010.  Until now even he plays for world cup.  He's a member of our church.  After they are back from World Cup he's here in Ghana and we try to have open venue to invite others to church.  This Sunday in missionary farewell and he's coming to give his testimony.  He's a good player.  He played in Italy.  I can't wait to see him on Sunday.  The mission is wonderful.  We contacted with his poster.  We invited others so they can come and meet him at church with us.  We are going to sing in that meeting, with Sister missionaries and my District.  Today we had activity as zone.  It was fun.  We enjoyed it very much.  I try to send for you the video of our zone activity and my Book of Mormon in different language and my district member's picture.  During zone meeting we sing hymn 26 and personally I love hymn 27 so maybe you can sing it during FHE in your home.  That is my choice for you.  I love missionary every time.  I'm learning new things which makes me happy.  Reading D&C and Pearl of Great Price helps me to understand a lot.  Even special in Bible when you read Revelation it just makes me confused but after I pray for understanding and compare with D&C I just understand very well.  So great the Plan of Salvation.  It is so cool to understand the Plan which our Father planned for us.  And World Cup, when they start I tell my companion Germany will be champion because Germany is my team in this World Cup.  They are champion so good.  I love football.  Say hello to all.  Give my love for all and I love you Mom.  Have a good week.
Your son, Elder Birresa (Jote)

July 7, 2014

Thank you so much.  Give my hug for all of them and tell Stacey it is great choice.  I'm happy for that.  Oh yeah.  4th of July is Independence Day.  Happy Independence day for all of you.  Wow.  Happy birthday mom. I'm sure you had a wonderful time.  I know you are a great mom and great example for all of us.  I'm so happy to have you.  Love you a lot.  It is a great month even for me.  4 months in mission today.  The time is flying too much.  March 7 to July 7.  Wow, he's 8 years old now.  Wow that is good.  Say congratulations to him and his mom, Sara.  They are so sad about loosing in U.S. in World cup.  This is for 3rd time.  Ghana 2 times and U.S. one time.  They are so sad.  They said next time we will meet.  That is cool young adults are resource for tomorrow for church.  I'm proud of you and dad.  You are doing a good thing and right thing.  For me I'm enjoying my mission.  We had 2 baptisms on Saturday that was cool.  Both of them have strong testimony about the church and they know the church is true.  I love them.  They are super cool and smart.  I had a visitor from home from my branch.  They came to Ghana for endowment then they contact with my mission president to ask permission to meet me.  I just talked to them on the phone because president said I would miss home too much.  That is good.  I know he's right.  I will miss home.  I just had exchange this week with two different missionaries.  It was good to have experience from other missionaries.  One is my MTC.  It was wonderful time with him.  We had good lesson with spirit.  On Wednesday we visited one of our RC and we start talking with him from BOM baptism for children and always he talks more than us.  He likes to talk.  I'm tired and the weather is super hot.  I just sleep in my lessons.  I will never forget this moment.  I just started reading my BOM.  I just read for myself but am sleeping.  Here is the picture in this week.  It's when we play football, before baptism.  Yesterday night we had district dinner.  Picture with members and missionary.  Thank you so much for all things.  Give my love for all.  Love you a lot.
Elder Birresa (Jote) your son