I Drove President's Car!

Good afternoon everyone! I hope you're all doing well. This week was so awesome. I feel like things are going well in our area and our ward is getting more excited about missionary work which is great. 

On Thursday we had zone council and interviews with president which was really great. I love that man. I told him about how we've really struggled with overscheduling (is that one word or two?) and how I'm not always sure if we are using our time in the best way possible. He told me to always eat the heaviest elephant. Basically, just to prioritize progressing people BUT he also said that it's on a case-by-case basis and we should just follow the Spirit. That all may seem obvious but what he said next really helped me out. 

He told me that we won't get it right every time. We won't optimize every second of every day perfectly. We won't always teach perfectly. Maybe we'll say or do the wrong thing. But missionary work is about faithfulness. He said that as long as we are faithful and try our best, it'll be OK.

That spoke a lot of comfort to me. Sometimes I feel like I'm screwing things up or taking us to the wrong place or saying the wrong thing, and while I definitely do all of those things, I also try my best. And this isn't my work, it's His. So we can't fail. It's incredible. 

Interviews were great, and the rest of the week was also very good. We got recruited for a Malaysian pyramid scheme, which we unfortunately had to decline, crossed paths with a totally naked homeless woman on a very narrow path on the way to visit one of our friends, I drove president's car, and we bought two live chickens which Elder Bukasa butchered for us. Elder Bukasa is a great dude, but I'm a little scared of him now. He has zero qualms about killing the chickens, which was really impressive. He knew how to do everything though and now we have two chickens in the freezer. I plucked both of them and washed the meat so I'm gonna add chicken processing to my resume. 

Things in our ward are going great. Our Bishop personally called every person we were trying to get to church the night before, and we had a very powerful missionary coordination meeting on Saturday. People are still a little hesitant to help us, but things are moving. I love Takoradi so much. We have a lot of really capable people and it's in such a beautiful place. 

And it's true! That's one thing that has been ringing in my ears all week. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the ordinances thereof are the only way back into God's presence. That's a big statement! And the only way we can receive those ordinances is through the priesthood, which was restored by Joseph Smith along with Jesus's church. It's the only way, and there's nothing more important than that. 

On Sunday our whole ward went to visit less actives. Like the entire ward. It was so cool. We went with the Elder's Quorum President and Brother Amonfo and Brother John to see a bunch of people. It was really fun to get to know them better. They're all great guys. We also met some less actives and even lined up a lesson to go and meet with a member's wife who is not a member. So that's awesome. 

The church is true and Jesus Christ died for you! Have a wonderful week. 

Love, 

Elder Johnson

1. Me, Elder Bukasa, and Elder Eke-Udonsi at Shoprite, which is this incredible store that is the most obruni place I've been in Ghana. 

2. Elder Bukasa with my friends the chickens

3. Elder Bukasa with my friends again

4-6. Me and Elder Clemons in President Morrison's car. President was doing interviews but he was running late so he sent us to go get his car from the shop because I was the only person in the zone with an international driver's permit. It was only like a 10 minute drive through a quiet part of town, but I felt like such a celebrity. Got to pull up in president's fancy car in front of the entire zone. 

7. A random guy at church who kept taking pictures of me, then asked for a picture with me. I don't know him at all but it was kinda fun. 

8. One of the pictures he took of me during church. 

9. John, a very good dude we're teaching. And me.  

10. Emmanuel and me. This dude literally listened to our message, then spent like 30 minutes trying to get us to join a Malaysian sales company with him. It was one of the most random things ever.