Share Your Testimony

Hello!!!!!

My hope and wish is that you all had a wonderful week :)

This week went by pretty quick even though by Thursday my body wanted to shut down from exhaustion + the heat... the sun has been a killer.

There is nothing that I can remember from Tuesday other than the fact that I got a call from President Stevenson and have been called to TRAIN a new missionary! The call came at 9pm and by that time we had just switched companions from exchanges on Wednesday in my area with our Zone leader Elder Neilson.   Elder Swartbooi and everyone in the apartment has been saying that I will train the next two transfers and they were right.  I am happy and excited to have this opportunity to train :)

New Trainer meeting with President & Sister Stevenson

All the people that were called to train went to Cape Coast on Friday morning to meet with President Stevenson.  I was the only trainer from my zone so I had to travel the 90 minutes by myself  -_-  It was a scary thing to be the only white guy in the tro (jk I'm used to it). There was a man that sat up in the front seats with me that I had the chance to talk to about church.  We were about 20 minutes into the journey and Jackson (the guy that was next to me) asked why I was in Ghana and I explained to him that I am a missionary. The next 20 minutes he told me he did not go to church because most of the church leaders in Ghana preach on Sunday, but then set a bad example the rest of the week. I gave him the message of the "Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" and Jackson was really interested. Sadly where he lives is in the Kumasi mission so hopefully the missionaries there can talk to him!

New Trainer meeting at the mission home in Cape Coast

The meeting was only 2 hours long so I spent more time traveling than being in Cape Coast. The trainers meeting was great though and I re-connected with 3 of the people in my MTC group. Saturday was transfer news and that was interesting. Our Zone is split now, so I am part of Telecom Zone now. The 6 man apartment is now a 4 man, but the people that are coming I hear are pretty sweet. 

Meeting up with some Elders from the MTC at the new Trainer meetings in Cape Coast 

I love all of my investigators in this area!!  One of them is named Comfort. She was invited to church by a family in the ward and she has come every week since. Her baptism is planned for the 31st of January. She really wants her husband to join the church and take lessons with us!! Whenever we come, Comfort has asked if we will talk to her husband. When we see him we talk with him so we can establish a relationship with him. Actually, we had a lesson with Comfort late in the afternoon yesterday. Her husband came and stood near us as we were teaching. The lesson was on Baptism and confirmation.  After he stood there for 5 minutes and asked us, "If we are not baptized, but we are good people, can we still go to heaven?" Answering that question is really hard to do!  It clearly says in the Bible, no, if you are not baptized you won't go to heaven. You won't go to hell either. We had to do a quick Plan of Salvation explanation to him. Hopefully he will join us in future lessons.

The next one is Abduali, he was born in Ghana but lived in Nigeria most of his life. When I came to this area he was a former investigator.  He told us he wants us over every night at 7pm.  So, every night we are over at his compound.  His baptism date is the 14th of February. One new investigator is a 12 yar old boy named Nana Kwame! This kid is a SSSTUDDDD!!! He remembers everything and I hope he will attend church on Sunday with us!

Thought: Actually prepared myself last night for this one..... During my studies this week I found something in the Book of Mormon that I want to share.  In Alma 4:13 and Alma 31:5 it talks about sharing the word of God and the power of our testimonies.  Alma tells us that the only thing he could do to save his brothers, the Zoramites, was a testimony.  In the other it tells us that sharing the word of God is sharper than a two edged sword.  Study those scriptures!  Remember, share your testimony with everyone, it is our duty!!


-- Elder Johnson

Those Few Days Were A Learning Experience

Maaha!

I hope all is well across the world! Especially for those in Colorado taking the snow. FYI totally happy that I do not have to shovel the driveway. Ghana is hot, dry, and hopefully the rainy season will start soon.

As for the past week............

Tuesday-- In the morning we had our district meeting and Elder Swartbooi felt to instruct on extending commitments to those that we teach. It was good to discuss that and why it is soooooooo important to extend commitments. I always love district meeting because it is a good way to start out the week.

Making some biscuits with a recent convert

 At 6 o'clock the sister missionaries needed my companion to do a baptismal interview for them. They asked us to meet them at the stake center, which we did.  Then they called us at 6:15 and asked us to meet them at a store called Melcoms. We were not to happy seeing as it is right by our apartment and the stake center is a 10 minute taxi ride in the opposite direction. When we were walking out, SOMEONE LOCKED THE DOORS. The building entrances are not really the same as in America. They have a jailish looking door on the outside with a keypad lock and a wall with sharp posts (keep people from stealing at night). So the only way to get out was to climb and jump over the sharp posts. It was a 12 foot approx jump down one you get over the posts.

Wall of Awesome -
Thank you for those who sent me the Christmas notes and the pictures!!

Annoying moment-- Our shower shut off was not working so water would keep coming out the shower head. For 2 days I would wake up in the middle of the night and hear water flowing. Finally got it fixed.

Wednesday--- My companion went to Cape Coast for a meeting with the President, Zone Leaders, and District Leaders. Since I had to stay behind, I went on an exchange. I stayed in my area and got Elder Peterson from Utah. It was a GREAT day lesson wise. Annoying part is we had to wait in the apartment for the mail guy to come   -_-

We spent almost 2 hours taking the kernels off of corn for a recent convert. It was pretty legit

As for Thursday- Saturday were really good/terrible days mixed in one. Some lessons had the spirit so strong and others totally terrible. I felt like I did when I first came on mission and could not teach. Things I said did not make sense. Some hours were spent reflecting on myself and why some lessons were good and others weren't. Also, extra time in prayer and scripture study were spent to know why the spirit was not with me some days. I got my answer Saturday night after prayer and reading the Book of Mormon before I went to bed - thankfully,  Elder Swartbooi was really patient with me as this was happening.

Thursday morning was FREEZING.  We did not want to take cold showers. Only way to get hot shower.... boil it and put it in a bucket.

While Elder Swartbooi and I were reflecting together on the week last night, I look back and the bad day's do not matter. Those few days were a real learning experience, ones that I would not have had if I were not on a mission!



-- Elder Chandler Johnson

And "It" Happened.....

Afe nhyia paa!  Happy almost New Year!!!

It is so crazy that 2015 is almost over already. This time last year I was celebrating the fact that I will be graduating soon. Now 2015 is over :( at the same time :)

It is very foggy in the mornings and I love it!!

This past week was pretty good. Not many things that are too interesting for you to know happened...

On Thursday night we attended something the stake does called "Carols night."  We all got together and certain people got up and read scriptures pertaining to Jesus Christ. It was great from the parts that actually were in English. Something here that I am still not used to is the lack of communication. The Elders had to get up and sing 3 different times... it would have been great to know ahead of time but we still all sounded good ( I hope).

After we got back to the apartment we opened our packages from family and friends. A benefit of being away from home on Christmas is we don't have to wait to open gifts. I had a package from my parents that had some comforts from home inside. As well as a soccer jersey that I got to wear on Friday.

On Christmas morning we got together as a zone for a nice game of soccer.  It was Elders vs. men from the stake. The game went well after I figured out what I was supposed to do! They are very serious about their soccer here. Hopefully I can improve in soccer while I am out here. The stake president had 20 of us over for lunch after games. He fed us chicken and rice.

Post soccer game - Elders Johnson and Swatbooi

The soccer squad

That evening I was able to call and talk to my family!!!!  I am surprised at how well the phone call worked from 7,000 miles away.  It was a great phone call :)

When I came on my mission, the last thing I wanted to happen was for me to get sick. I have been out over 5 months and it finally happened to me. An investigator of ours kindly fed us on Christmas day. She fed us fufu with light soup. When we got the soup it was really cold, not a concern to people back home, but to us here it is a very big concern. Well, Saturday at 3 am it hit both my companion and I.  From 3am- 8am I was running to the restroom every 20-30 minutes.  So, Saturday not much happened. We got up pretty late and had to go to a baptism for the sister missionaries. Elder Swartbooi and I both felt like we were about to die. After the baptism we went to sleep around 1 and got up at 7pm. Our stomachs still do not feel fully right. We had a fufu yesterday and again today at the Stake President's house. Fufu is not enjoyable to eat now.

On a positive note, we had a baptism yesterday. His name is Edward and the missionaries have been teaching him for a couple months now. Really funny kid and very smart. He is the only member of the church in his family. And his parents are fully ok with him attending the church with us. Hopefully Edward's mom and dad attend with him at some future time!!!

Elder Johnson