An Opportunity to Work Together and Grow Together

Good ____ everyone!

As usual I am short on time to write my group email because we had to drive my mission President to go and get his car from the shop.  Just a quick note.. it was the scariest 10 minutes driving of my life.

As you may remember from my last week's group e-mail, my former companion, Elder Harward, has now been transferred out and Elder Simpson has been made a supply Elder!

Not much went on between Monday-Wednesday morning other then going to visit members and non members before Elder Harward left the area. It was pretty sad to see how sad Elder Harward and others were that he was being transferred. He has a great love for the people and the area ( maybe me.. ;) ) but I know he is doing great in his new area. While pulling away in the truck with Elder Simpson, I told Elder Harward that we are going to enjoy the AC and having a mission vehicle.. leaving the office will not be so fun because no more vehicle.

On Wednesday we were tasked with transporting suitcases and missionaries from the two stations in Cape Coast. All missionaries coming to Cape Coast from the Western region or going to the Western region come to Pedu station. And all missionaries in Central region or coming to Central region come to Tantri station. The station's are 10 or so minutes apart. We drove back and forth a million times.. pretty stressful. But eating fufu and ice cream with the departing missionaries made it all better.

Thursday turned into an office day because there was a lot that needed to be done for transfers. So we spent the day going to get things and editing different documents. Elder Simpson was thrown into supply duties right away. Friday was also a office day so we continued our duties. Elder Simpson made his first post office stop. He was lucky that a lot of packages did not come in...

Saturday and Sunday were the best days of the week because we actually got to be in the sun and be in our area. We had some great lessons both of those days. One of them was with our soon to be member Francis. Sadly he was expressing his feelings on his marriage, little to say that it is not going well.  What we did at that moment was bear our testimonies on the importance of marriage. Marriage is much more then some think it is. It isn't to run away from when things get bad.  It is an opportunity to grow together and work together and raise the children that have been entrusted to us. Other than our testimonies we could not give advice.. one reason is because we have not been married sooooo ya.

Things are going great. I am alive. I have a headache right now because I have not eaten much today. But still alive.

Have a great week!

Elder Johnson

Great Companionships

Hello!!!

Well another P-day has come. And what a good preparation day it was today. The zone planned a activity a couple weeks ago to come to the mission home and play some games and chop some food. Our day started early because Elder Harward and I were in charge of picking up the sister missionaries in the mission van. Sadly our companionship gets stuck with transportation since I am the only one that can drive manual out of the office elders. So too much driving today.. I would rather stick to walking from now on. We grilled chicken and had some delicious food that the sister missionaries prepared for the zone along with sodas provided by my companion and I.

The sister missionaries prepared some delicious food for a zone activity

This past week was a good week! What placed the cherry on top of the sundae is we got to stay in the big house next to us due to electrical problems. Each night we had to call President Stevenson and ask for permission because everyday we were told things would come and get fixed but they did not until Friday. Monday we started staying at the big house.  We enjoyed hot water and A/C, but we are all happy to be back in our flat and in our regular routines.

The Nkanfoa area is doing really good. We have a baptism coming up the second Saturday of July and then 2 more hopefully at the end of July or beginning of August. Francis, the older shoemaker, is progressing very well at this point. He is very kind with his time and is awesome to teach because he asks questions and give contributions to the lesson. A lady we started teaching recently is Mary, whom is 17 years old. She was a contact on the street. Somehow a referral from a member.  She has come to church for the past month now. We are also teaching her friend Regina but Regina has not come to church yet. 

Saturday was my favorite day out of the week. We had office work to do and also needed to finish our weekly planning that we started on Thursday.  For lunch the 4 of us office Elders and the 3 Assistants went to a late lunch and chopped some good fufu. The assistants gave us our transfer news while eating. Elder Harward is getting transferred :/  I love him and we have done good work together. He was a sweet companion to have. Very easy to get a long with and worked hard.   My new companion is Elder Simpson.  I know him already and know this will be another great companionship. Especially because he likes to run and workout :)

Elders Johnson & Harward

Peace until next week!

Elder Johnson

Birthday & Car Accident

Aygoo!!!

Good morning, afternoon, or evening everyone!!

Elder Johnson for the win!!

Really not much to report on from this past week because it mostly consisted of office work which is not much to talk about.  Just people calling and complaining about different things. We did get some more shelves installed in the supply room.. really nice haha. 

Birthday Soak 

There have been crazy rainstorms this past week. Crazy winds.  This is Thursday night when we were all sprinting back to the truck when it down poured on us

Elder Harward and I are very happy with the progress we have seen in the area the past few days. Yesterday we had 7 investigators that came to church! It was normal in my last area but since I have been here we would have 2 or so that come to church. There are 3 new people whom we have taught a couple times last week named Mary, Regina, and Mercy. Mary and Regina are 17 or so and Mercy is more like 30. Mary has come to church for a couple weeks with one of the members. Mary was a contact on the street.  Usually those do not go anywhere but Mary is making progression which makes me very happy. 

A security guard went to Accra and we asked him to pick us up some pizza from the Pizza Hut that just opened. But he had to go to Frankies.. good enough!!!

I got in my first car accident EVER on Friday. We got rear ended. Was not my fault, not much damage but I am proud of my first car accident :)

Our apartment is the smaller building. The castle belongs to the senior couples that will be coming

View from top of the compound

A scripture that I would like to share this week comes from Alma 39:18

" Is it not necessary that the plan of redemption should be made known unto this people as well as well as unto their children?"

When I read that scripture I stopped to think about the question that Alma asked Corianton. My thought was "YES IT TOTALLY IS."  I do not know how my life would be without the knowledge of the true restored gospel.  Share the message with your friends.  They do not know fully what Heavenly Father wants all of us to know. Its not all the full time missionaries job :)

Love you all,

Elder Johnson

Commitments

Hello!!

First, thank you to all that wished me a happy birthday and even to those that had the desire to wish me a happy birthday but didn't :P

It was a pretty decent week. On Tuesday we had our annual district meeting which was also my birthday.  Elder Jager was nice enough to cook me breakfast for my birthday in the morning so it started out really good. After our district meeting all the district members decided to soak me with a whole bunch of water! It's a mission/ culture thing.  Missionaries even did that to President Stevenson on his birthday last year. Thankfully since it was an office day, I just rolled the windows down while driving to get dried off.

The work in our assigned area is improving every single week!  It would improve more if we were not in the office two days a week and get random phone calls to come to the mission office while out teaching. We met with President Stevenson on Friday to speak with him about a couple things. One of them was if we could change our time to go out and teach. Usually on Tuesday and Friday we are in the office then go out to the area from 6-8, but no wants to meet us so late at night :) So we have permission to go out from 3-5 to teach and then stay until 8 or so at the office .

Francis is progressing towards baptism really well at this point. He is continuing to come to church and keep his commitments. This past week we extended a commitment to him to hold family home evening with his family on Mondays. For him it is really hard because he works as a shoemaker during the day then goes to his security job at night. But we asked him to sacrifice one hour of his shoe making job and promised him if he made the sacrifice to go home and have some time with his family that our Heavenly father and Jesus Christ will help him. All I envision right now is a temple sealing to his family! :)

We also had one of our less actives come to church after meeting with him a couple times. His name is John Aggrey, he is 17, and was baptized 2 years ago by my first district leader Elder 'Atu' Ake. When we met with him we reminded him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Enduring to the End) and the next time we spoke about his baptismal covenants. We are very happy he attended church again yesterday. As for the other less active, Helina, she did not come. I can not wait to hear the excuse this time.  People will lie here just because they do not want to disappoint us, but she did feed us earlier this week :P

All is well with me! I hope everything for each of you is going well :)


Elder Johnson


“We do not strive for conversion to the Church but to Christ and His gospel.” —Elder D. Todd Christofferson