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
No comments:
Post a Comment