Fetch

Good morning everybody! This week was really fun, but also sad. The zone leaders had a surprise addition to their companionship on Wednesday, so Elder Tarpeh has been staying with them all week which was fun. He used to be my trainer's companion, so that was a fun little connection. We learned a lot from him in the short time that he was here. 

The sad part is that both Elder Freeman and Elder Kearsley are getting transferred, along with literally our entire district. Elder Seeley and I are staying though, thank goodness. I don't want to leave the promised land just yet. It's going to be sad to seeing Elder Freeman and Elder Kearsley go though. I've stayed with Elder Kearsley for two transfers and Elder Freeman one, and I really like both of them. They'll go do great things somewhere else though I'm sure. 

As far as the work goes, this week has been blessed! Sunday was awesome. We really wanted to have a lot of people at sacrament meeting, so throughout the week we invited people to church and even offered to pick them up on our way there. A lot of people said yes, but I've learned that in Ghana saying you'll come to church that Sunday is a lot like meeting a friend and saying, "Yeah we should totally do something sometime." It's always well intentioned, but very seldom happens unless someone does something about it. 

We decided to leave the apartment at 9 and go and get people going so they'd come to church. Our church starts at 10:30. First we went to Anthony (who accepted a baptismal invitation yesterday!!!). He was already getting ready and he said he would meet us there, so we went to Prince and Mimi, two kids we are teaching who are 12 and 10. They weren't ready, so we said we would come back after getting Jessica. The only problem is, Jessica stays kinda far from them. We jumped in a pragya and got there quickly. Jessica was ready to go but she had her baby and couldn't walk very fast, so we went pretty slow going back to Prince and Mimi. Her baby (who is so so cute and tiny) also had a little hat that kept falling off, which slowed us down a bit also. 

We finally got to Prince and Mimi, and they were ready to go so we went. By this time we had Jessica and her baby, Prince, Mimi, and Mimi's little sister Precious all in tow. We were quite the parade, and we walked right through the middle of Cape Coast with all these people in tow. It was so awesome. And we made it in time to take the sacrament! We ended up exceeding our goal of 6 people in sacrament. Emmanuel also came, and so did Charles as well as Millicent and Grace. It was so cool. God was with us yesterday big time. 

One thing I've learned in my studies lately is being aware of ourselves. I've been reading the war chapters in Alma, and I've just loved it. In these chapters, there's a lot of instances where the armies of the Nephites act with exceeding faith. Like when the stripling warriors go and take on thousands of Lamanites and win. Or when the armies of Helaman are able to take back so many captured cities despite a lack of provisions and men. They are guided by men of God, and God is on their side, so they can do anything. 

However, that doesn't always mean that they charge blindly into danger. There are also times when they realize that they can't do it. That they're not strong enough to do it right now. For example, in Alma 52:17, it says Teancum made preparations to take the city of Mulek, but "he saw that it was impossible that he could overpower them" so he went and waited for Moroni to come and strengthen their army so he could do what he needed to do. 

I think in life sometimes we rely on ourselves too much. We think that we can do it all on our own. That's just not the case. When we recognize our weaknesses and let others help us become better, things change. Battles are won. 

And missionary work is a battle! Life is a battle. Just don't be afraid to open up. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Don't be afraid to acknowledge your weaknesses and current state of unpreparedness. God blesses those who realize they aren't perfect and want to change. 

Anyway, I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Email me if you want.

Love, 

Elder Johnson

1-2. Pretty city sunsets

3. Us feasting like kings. Cassava fries, egg stew, and some (slightly) burned roasted cauliflower that was actually really nice. 

4. More pretty city

5. A cool lion Elder Seeley drew. I'm mostly adding it cause we didn't take many pictures this week haha. 

Also, if you've made it this far, the title is in honor of Elder Freeman and Elder Kearsley, who both really love the word "fetch" and have gotten us using it.