Yellow!
Weeks just keep going on and on and on and on. P-days are coming by in the blink of an eye as of late. Maybe because I have been out long enough that emailing is just not as exciting as it used to be.
We have been focusing on the investigators that have a baptismal date a lot to get them prepared for their hopeful baptism in a month. The most progressing one is still Odalee. She comes to church every week and is happy when we come around (some people run away). Odalee is a really slow learner though so we are being basic and using pictures. Elder Robert and I struggle with the 2 members that we use to translate and to help us with Odalee. They say part of what we say then will explain things in another way and tell us " I am putting it in a way to help her understand." Funny part is when Elder Robert and I teach her again a couple days later she remembers nothing of what they said. She only remembers the small parts Elder Robert and I had a teaching influence. #Spiritfordays. Lisa is progressing more then she was some time ago. Hard to be able to see her the last couple weeks. Elizabeth just straight avoids us most of the time..... one part of me says just forget about her but the other part says to keep trying.
A cool thing that happened during the week is we found someone that used to be a buddhist! Why is this cool Elder Johnson? Well let me explain! There has not been a buddhist that I have met since being here since it is not common. His name is Daniel, works at the gym Elder Robert and I go to. I have met some sweet people at the gym and had some nice conversations. Was not anything that I forced for it to go in a gospel direction but when they ask " How long have you been in Ghana" or " what are you doing in Ghana?" the gospel just comes up. :)
Last week's family home evening the refreshments were pizza and vanilla ice cream waffle cones! Do you all know how long it has been since I have had a waffle cone? LONG TIME! Need to get one of the chocolate dipped ones with sprinkles from Cold Stone.. :) The FHE was with _____ family. I know them as Brother Rodney and Sister Sarah, they own a nice hotel close to our apartment. Brother Rodney lived in New York for 12 years so I asked him how the pizza is here compared to New York pizza. He said Ghana pizza does not even come close :P
I love you all. Have a great week!
- - Elder Johnson
Elder and Kids
Monday, March 27, 2017
Monday, March 20, 2017
The Most Important Reason
Good afternoon!
Another week has gone by fairly quickly for me and what a good week it was. A awesome district meeting on Tuesday started things off really great. Elder Taleni, our District leader, led a discussion to us in the district. 1) What did we do physically to prepare for mission 2) What did we do spiritually to prepare for our mission 3) What motivated us to come on mission 4) What are things that are nice to do on mission but are not to important, what should we do on mission, what do we need to do on mission. I loved the discussion because I remembered things that happened before my mission and sacrifices on my part and also on my families part. President Stevenson on our first day he drew a x,y graph on a board and asked us our reasons for coming on our mission and put them from least important reason to most important on the x axis and on the y axis put our level of dedication of obedience. At the end he told us he does not care so much why we came but only cares that it goes from whatever reason to the most important reason which is that we love Heavenly father and Jesus Christ.
Wednesday we spent another day in New Takoradi planting seeds and trying to follow up with people we have met previous. We had a member with us and he showed us to friends of his throughout the day. Elder Robert and I gained 2 new investigators in that day. For sure a really good day. To end the day we went to the Tanokrom Sisters missionary devotional. It always seems like we beg and beg and beg members to do what they should be doing without us begging them, missionary work. Talk to your friends about the gospel. Invite them to church. Thats all we ask. Thursday was just bounced appointments all day.
Friday I had my annual interview with President Stevenson. He mentioned about my face being on a mug back home.. I started laughing and said " How did you know about that?"... Guess President is friends with my parents on Facebook. We talked a little about the zone and some problems I am facing. I love my mission president so much and will really miss him when I go home. I also put it in there about how much I would love to stay in my area until the end of my mission. Would send Elder Robert home next transfer and then have 3 weeks with a new companion. My odds are fairly good to stay here :) Friday night was really really good!!!! My companion went to Kweikuma to go with the Sekondi district leader and I stayed to be with Elder Taylor. He is from Lehi, Utah and is 6 weeks younger then me on mission. We went to Paragon for dinner with Elder Taleni and Elder Riding. We each bought a cheeseburger with fries then shared a pizza (2 slices each). Although it was good food it will never come close to tasting as nice as American burgers/ fries/ and pizza.
Saturday was a really short day because we had the adult session of stake conference to attend from 12-2. It was a really sweet session! President Stevenson laid it down like usual, dropped the mic and then sat down haha. Elder Nash also attended this weekend! He is the 1st counselor of the Africa west area presidency. After the session I organized some of the Elders to go to lunch at "God is love" chop bar. It ended up being way to overpriced so we left and went to bocadillos instead. Had more pizza and a milkshake (tasted like garbage). At the end of the exchange Elder Robert and I went to the gym and I ran on the treadmill to burn off the junk food.
Sunday was a great session of conference. I failed to bring my notebook to church so my memory of what was spoken on is good now but I know later it may dim. Elder Nash spoke on faith and added the 2,000 stripling warriors and their mothers. The talk was ssswweeeettttttttttttt. Just so happened today that was the spot I was left at in my Book of Mormon reading.
Everything in summary is going well. I have not had a baptism in 3 months which is not normal from the others months of my mission. We do have 2 people that are being prepared for the 22nd of April.
Have a great week,
Elder Johnson
Another week has gone by fairly quickly for me and what a good week it was. A awesome district meeting on Tuesday started things off really great. Elder Taleni, our District leader, led a discussion to us in the district. 1) What did we do physically to prepare for mission 2) What did we do spiritually to prepare for our mission 3) What motivated us to come on mission 4) What are things that are nice to do on mission but are not to important, what should we do on mission, what do we need to do on mission. I loved the discussion because I remembered things that happened before my mission and sacrifices on my part and also on my families part. President Stevenson on our first day he drew a x,y graph on a board and asked us our reasons for coming on our mission and put them from least important reason to most important on the x axis and on the y axis put our level of dedication of obedience. At the end he told us he does not care so much why we came but only cares that it goes from whatever reason to the most important reason which is that we love Heavenly father and Jesus Christ.
Wednesday we spent another day in New Takoradi planting seeds and trying to follow up with people we have met previous. We had a member with us and he showed us to friends of his throughout the day. Elder Robert and I gained 2 new investigators in that day. For sure a really good day. To end the day we went to the Tanokrom Sisters missionary devotional. It always seems like we beg and beg and beg members to do what they should be doing without us begging them, missionary work. Talk to your friends about the gospel. Invite them to church. Thats all we ask. Thursday was just bounced appointments all day.
Friday I had my annual interview with President Stevenson. He mentioned about my face being on a mug back home.. I started laughing and said " How did you know about that?"... Guess President is friends with my parents on Facebook. We talked a little about the zone and some problems I am facing. I love my mission president so much and will really miss him when I go home. I also put it in there about how much I would love to stay in my area until the end of my mission. Would send Elder Robert home next transfer and then have 3 weeks with a new companion. My odds are fairly good to stay here :) Friday night was really really good!!!! My companion went to Kweikuma to go with the Sekondi district leader and I stayed to be with Elder Taylor. He is from Lehi, Utah and is 6 weeks younger then me on mission. We went to Paragon for dinner with Elder Taleni and Elder Riding. We each bought a cheeseburger with fries then shared a pizza (2 slices each). Although it was good food it will never come close to tasting as nice as American burgers/ fries/ and pizza.
Saturday was a really short day because we had the adult session of stake conference to attend from 12-2. It was a really sweet session! President Stevenson laid it down like usual, dropped the mic and then sat down haha. Elder Nash also attended this weekend! He is the 1st counselor of the Africa west area presidency. After the session I organized some of the Elders to go to lunch at "God is love" chop bar. It ended up being way to overpriced so we left and went to bocadillos instead. Had more pizza and a milkshake (tasted like garbage). At the end of the exchange Elder Robert and I went to the gym and I ran on the treadmill to burn off the junk food.
 |
| Stake Conference |
Sunday was a great session of conference. I failed to bring my notebook to church so my memory of what was spoken on is good now but I know later it may dim. Elder Nash spoke on faith and added the 2,000 stripling warriors and their mothers. The talk was ssswweeeettttttttttttt. Just so happened today that was the spot I was left at in my Book of Mormon reading.
 |
| Stake Patriarch, Stake Presidency 2nd Counselor, Elder Nash, Stake President, Stake Presidency 1st Counselor |
Everything in summary is going well. I have not had a baptism in 3 months which is not normal from the others months of my mission. We do have 2 people that are being prepared for the 22nd of April.
Have a great week,
Elder Johnson
Monday, March 6, 2017
New Takoradi
Hello friends and family!
Everything is going well over here in good ol Ghana. I am having 2 problems right now.. 1.. The sun is really hot right now which makes the hours of 11 am-3pm pretty difficult. Second, my companion likes to remind everyone around him "I am going home!" March to May is not that long but still he has 3 months... his bags are even packed. Makes it worse when I go home 3 weeks after him (trying to keep focused over here my friend). Rant over.
On Tuesday we held a zone meeting because of the missionaries getting transferred. There was 8 out of the 27 that were getting transferred out of the zone. Since we were doing well on time I opened it up for the other missionaries to bear their testimony. You would think they would all be happy to share their testimony but nooooooo. After I told them why they did it they stopped their conversations and we had some that got up to bear their testimonies. Ended up being a decent meeting.
First main event last week was our transfers that happened on Wednesday. Everything went smooth other then our little problem with the tro driver that was supposed to be taking the missionaries. He decided it would be a good idea to go and take a couple drinks that morning just before he came. Not calling him to drive us ever again :).
Elder Robert and I decided it was time for us to start going to another part of our area that we have not been going to, New Takoradi. It is a 10 minute or so tro ride to get their. It is not in the city where we usually are which is really nice. It is a quiet community close to the ocean. We got off the tro on Thursday to a place neither of us have been to and had no idea where to go. So we decided to start walking and talking to people. There was a shop we stopped at to talk to a older women that was the owner and she seemed interested. At the end Elder Robert asked if she knew anyone that would be interested in our message and she took us behind the shop to a seamstress shop to a lady named Martha. We taught her on Saturday and it went pretty well so we will see what happens!
We have 4 people with the 25th of March as a baptism date. From the looks of how they are progressing only one will make that date. Its weird going a transfer without any baptisms for me because there is usually someone. Elder Robert and I are working and hope that we are able to do some good in the Takoradi ward. Speaking of baptisms we did attend a baptism service for the East Tanokrom ward sisters ( Sister Tembo, Muyengwa, Kundundu, and Sekgetho). The baptism service was a nice way to prepare for the sabbath day!
I had a really good day yesterday being fast Sunday. It is usually difficult to fast as well as walk in the sun and do what we do on Sunday's. Turned out to be a really spiritually refreshing day for me which I enjoyed a lot. Good I had that refresh because this week... MLC tomorrow with Elder Stanfill of the seventy... Member of the area presidency is coming for a combined zone conference on Thursday.. and back to Cape coast on Friday for our finish strong meeting. Yipeee!
Have a great week!
Elder Johnson
had pictures... forgot my camera. Sorry mom!
Everything is going well over here in good ol Ghana. I am having 2 problems right now.. 1.. The sun is really hot right now which makes the hours of 11 am-3pm pretty difficult. Second, my companion likes to remind everyone around him "I am going home!" March to May is not that long but still he has 3 months... his bags are even packed. Makes it worse when I go home 3 weeks after him (trying to keep focused over here my friend). Rant over.
On Tuesday we held a zone meeting because of the missionaries getting transferred. There was 8 out of the 27 that were getting transferred out of the zone. Since we were doing well on time I opened it up for the other missionaries to bear their testimony. You would think they would all be happy to share their testimony but nooooooo. After I told them why they did it they stopped their conversations and we had some that got up to bear their testimonies. Ended up being a decent meeting.
First main event last week was our transfers that happened on Wednesday. Everything went smooth other then our little problem with the tro driver that was supposed to be taking the missionaries. He decided it would be a good idea to go and take a couple drinks that morning just before he came. Not calling him to drive us ever again :).
Elder Robert and I decided it was time for us to start going to another part of our area that we have not been going to, New Takoradi. It is a 10 minute or so tro ride to get their. It is not in the city where we usually are which is really nice. It is a quiet community close to the ocean. We got off the tro on Thursday to a place neither of us have been to and had no idea where to go. So we decided to start walking and talking to people. There was a shop we stopped at to talk to a older women that was the owner and she seemed interested. At the end Elder Robert asked if she knew anyone that would be interested in our message and she took us behind the shop to a seamstress shop to a lady named Martha. We taught her on Saturday and it went pretty well so we will see what happens!
We have 4 people with the 25th of March as a baptism date. From the looks of how they are progressing only one will make that date. Its weird going a transfer without any baptisms for me because there is usually someone. Elder Robert and I are working and hope that we are able to do some good in the Takoradi ward. Speaking of baptisms we did attend a baptism service for the East Tanokrom ward sisters ( Sister Tembo, Muyengwa, Kundundu, and Sekgetho). The baptism service was a nice way to prepare for the sabbath day!
I had a really good day yesterday being fast Sunday. It is usually difficult to fast as well as walk in the sun and do what we do on Sunday's. Turned out to be a really spiritually refreshing day for me which I enjoyed a lot. Good I had that refresh because this week... MLC tomorrow with Elder Stanfill of the seventy... Member of the area presidency is coming for a combined zone conference on Thursday.. and back to Cape coast on Friday for our finish strong meeting. Yipeee!
Have a great week!
Elder Johnson
had pictures... forgot my camera. Sorry mom!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)