Growing Pains and the Gathering of Israel

 

Good morning everybody! This week was not the easiest week of my mission, but I learned a lot. And we had a devotional on Tuesday with Elder Klebingat of the 70 that changed my mission. 

I'll start with that. It was such an inspiring meeting. He taught us about finding the elect and about the gathering of Israel. One thing I didn't know is that the house of Israel is an actual group of people that are more likely to receive the gospel and recognize the truth when they hear it. Elder Klebingat taught us that we shouldn't waste time with people who aren't like that. If people won't keep commitments of reading the Book of Mormon, praying, keeping commandments, or coming to church, we should politely tell them that they can find us after church on any given Sunday if they want to continue learning. And that we shouldn't teach people that didn't read the assigned reading. We should just read it with them and go. 

He also taught us that we need to use the Book of Mormon more in our teaching, and that if we baptize someone who doesn't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, we've failed. That hit me hard. It's really easy to not focus on the Book of Mormon here, especially with people that can't read. But that's not how it's supposed to be. We're supposed to baptize converts, not just baptize. Elder Klebingat also taught us that if we want people to join the church and stay active, we need them to be converted to the Book of Mormon and we need them to have friends in the church and relationships with ward leaders. 

After we finished the devotional, I felt more excited to do missionary work than I ever have before. We had some success this week, and applying the stuff at learned worked really well, especially with our friend Portia. 

We've been teaching her for two weeks and she's doing great. She read the pamphlet we gave her and has so many questions about church and God. After the devotional, we've been trying to teach her out of the Book of Mormon more and I think it's been going well. We just answer her questions from there, and she seems satisfied with the answers. 

We've also been trying to find her friends in the ward. We brought Cynthia, a powerful member, to join a lesson on Thursday and it went well! Portia promised to come to church and we arranged for Cynthia to go and pick her up and she did! They were in church together on Sunday. It's like we weren't even that big of a part of it; we just set it into motion and then were there to support. Portia hopefully had a great experience and will continue to progress well and be baptized. 

The reason I share this experience is because I was really happy about it and also because I've never had an experience like that before. Normally, if someone comes to church they sit with us, we try to introduce them to members, and then they leave after church finishes. This time though, because of the wonderful efforts of Sister Cynthia and the inspiration we received from Elder Klebingat, we were able to do things in a better, different way than we ever did before. I'm hoping we can do similar things for other people we teach in the future. 

We're never done learning, and we always need to be ready to change. I've learned that really a lot this week. I made some really stupid mistakes this week that I easily could've avoided if I had just humbled myself a little and listened to my companion. I've learned that maybe the way I do missionary work, which I thought was pretty good, might not be the best way after all. I learned that I'm not always right (shocker). 

But change is possible. When we learn that what we are doing isn't right, we learn the better way and then try to follow it. That's what we do as missionaries and disciples, and that's what we try to teach people to do as well. We help people to see that they need to change, then we direct them to do things (like repent and be baptized) that will bring them closer to Jesus Christ, who is the only source of permanent positive change. Acts 2:36-38 explains this so well. 

So I guess the point of this long-winded email is that life and missions are not easy. Following Christ correctly involves a lot of hard realizations. A lot of self-correction and falling on your face because you let yourself get prideful. However, the door to change is always open, and Christ is always ready to receive us if only we have a desire to change. 

There were some hard things about this week. All the stuff with Yayra went down. It rained almost every day. Our gas to cook ran out yesterday so we're on the brink of starvation (basically). I had to accept some humbling correction from my companion. 

There were some great things too. We went to a village we cover this week called Intiamoah and it was so eye opening. No one spoke any English but everyone was so nice and we had a translator so it was really great. We got to have 2 sleepovers with the Hemang Elders because we did a late baptismal interview for them and then they did one for the sisters and stayed with us after and it was so fun. Most of all, I've felt the love of God so much this week. He's aware of me and wants me to change. And I want to change. 

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I love you all and I hope the next time you get the chance to eat a cheeseburger, you eat it and think of me. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true and God loves you! 

Love, 

Elder Johnson

1. Beautiful Praso. I love this place. 

2-4. We did a baptismal interview for these kids for Elders Smith and Amevor and it was so awesome. Tracy, Jaredine, and Jesse are the future of the church in Ghana. 

5. Pretty sky in Hemang

6. The view from under a roof in Ntiamoah while the rain is pouring. 

7. Me and Elder Fatoma very wet but happy in Hemang