MIA Mission President


 Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a great week and got a chance to watch general conference. We were able to watch, and our friend Mary came and watched a session with us as well. It was great. We invited a lot of other people to come and watch with us, but no one else could. Godfred said he watched a session at his house on TV though so hopefully that was a good experience for him. He's been very skeptical of a modern-day prophet since we told him about President Nelson, but I think seeing him in action would allay some of his concerns. We'll see how it goes. 

Big bombshell surprise though: my mission president, who is Isaac K. Morrison who you undoubtedly saw at conference, up and went to Utah without telling us and got called as General Authority Seventy the other day! We were all shocked but also happy for him. Idk if they'll release him or he'll finish here or what, but either way he's a general authority. It was cool to see. 

We ended up just watching at the stake center along with almost all the missionaries in the zone and about 5 members, which was nice. We also got fed twice on Sunday, once by the Ankumah family and once by our Bishop and his wife, and it was awesome. It was also coincidently the same food both times. However, me and Elder Bukasa both like fufu and palm nut soup, so it was no problem. The meals were only like 3 hours apart though, so God helped us to finish that second round. It was nice though. And our bishop's wife gave us another 2 referrals! That lady is powerful. 

We also had some miraculous finding this week. We were walking down a street we've walked down hundreds of times, passing a shop we've passed hundreds of times. As we were approaching the shop, I was feeling like we should stop and talk with the owner. Before we even did so he called out to us! We started talking and it turns out he was taught by the sisters like 6 months ago and had been waiting for them to come back but they hadn't yet. We got his number and set an appointment, then came back and taught him. He seems pretty ready and we're hoping he'll progress well. 

We also had a great lesson with Godred. He's had so, so many hard questions from the beginning, and we've been answering them, but he's still not convinced. We normally teach him and his friend Kwame together which doesn't go that well. However, we taught Godfred alone on Wednesday and we were able to explain that he'll never know the Book of Mormon is true unless he prays and asks. We've asked him to do that before but he hasn't. We thought that he just didn't want to, but after some questions, we realized that he isn't sure how an answer will come. He's never recognized God answering his prayer before, even though he's very religious and knows the Bible well. He doesn't know how God talks to him yet.
 
And that's so important. Without that knowledge, it's so hard to know God. Without knowing that He'll talk back to us when we talk to Him, it's hard to even see why we talk to Him. 

And so many people are moving away from prayer because of that. They don't see a reason why. A few months ago Godfred's friend joined a lesson with us and with Godfred. He threw Bible verses at us for about an hour, then told us he wasn't interested in any of our pamphlets or books because he wouldn't read them. We agreed that if he wouldn't read it, we didn't need to give him some. As we prepared to leave, we told him we wanted to pray before we closed. And he disagreed! He said there was no need to pray. He said that we had closed with a Bible verse and that's all we needed. He said in his church, they open and close meetings with a Bible verse, not a prayer. They don't need to pray often because they have the Bible. 

I'm not saying he doesn't pray: we closed with a prayer upon our insisting that we do so, but I think that helped me to see why Godfred was confused about receiving answers. It reminds me of 2 Nephi 28, talking about false churches in the last days: 
"And they shall contend one with another; and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance." 

In order to receive direction, we have to humble ourselves and learn through the Spirit. Knowing the Bible and following it to the letter doesn't lead to salvation. The pharisees and scribes in the New Testament knew the law, which came from God, perfectly and technically followed it to the letter, but there's no one that Christ bashed on more than them. If we want direction, wisdom, or really anything from God, we have to put aside our learning and knowledge and whatever else and listen to the Spirit. We have to hear it from God Himself. 

So pray for Godfred. Pray that we will be able to help him understand how the Holy Ghost works and recognize it when it comes. And pray that we all will be able to do the same! As Godfred says in almost every lesson, it's a matter of salvation. 

I sure love you all! Have a great week. 

Love, 
Elder Johnson

1. Us, Bishop, Francisca, and Christus at the baptism. It was so wonderful. 
2. A friend of mine asked about Ghanaian sunsets so I started paying attention to them. This is just the afterglow (I was too late for the sunset) but I thought it was nice. This is in Kwesimintim, on the way to Christus' house. 



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