Machetes in the Lord's Vineyard

 

Good morning everybody. This has been the most eventful week I've had in awhile. I've learned a lot and learned that I've still got a lot to learn. 

Tuesday was my last day in Takoradi. That feels like it was a long time ago, but we're still enjoying. We said bye to a ton of people and took some fun pictures, which I'll hopefully get by the end of the day. They're on the phone in my last area. 

The transfer meeting was good. It was so nice to see people around the mission that I haven't seen in a while. And seeing President and Sister Morrison was also good. 

I was also called to be a zone leader, which was a surprise. Usually, President tells you before the transfer meeting but he just told me day of. I've heard that the Lord qualifies those that he calls, but this will definitely put that to the test. 

My new area and companion are good though. I'm with Elder Fatoma in a place called Praso. It's a smaller town kind of in the middle of nowhere and so far I really love it. It's really quiet and there's a lot less English than Takoradi. Most the people we are teaching are younger kids and teenagers because they speak the most English. We've been working hard since we came, and I know we're going to see good things happen. This zone has been kind of slow in terms of baptisms lately and we're hoping to turn that around. 

Elder Fatoma, my new companion, is really cool as well. He's been out for a long time and he can WORK. It's been a fun time. Right when I got here, I put my bags down, then we grabbed machetes and went to help a neighbour cut her grass. I still have blisters that testify that we worked hard doing that. 

The next day we taught some good lessons and also helped a lady redo the railing at the front of her hair shop. It was fun. We've been teaching a lot of lessons here and the teaching environments are incredible. It's super quiet here and it's a lot easier to have the Spirit in lessons. 

On Friday we went to our mission leadership conference. It was my first time going, but I loved it. The zone leaders and STL's in this mission are such awesome missionaries, and it felt good to be a part of such a good group. We reported the numbers in each zone and discussed challenges and stuff in the mission and how we can fix them. 

The main takeaway I felt is that I need to do better. Like it's time to step things up in every part of the work. I feel like that's what the Lord expects. I can't just float where I am; I need to continue to improve. 

Sunday was super cool. We went to a big boarding school and had church with all the member kids there. They were so cool! They planned the whole meeting and gave us assignments and stuff. There's some powerful youth around. 

Our branch was also awesome. We had 4 people we are teaching come to church, including a Muslim girl named Ramat who we taught for the first time on Saturday. It was her first time going to a Christian church and she liked it. Belinda, who is randomly really rich and has a big mansion where we teach her, also came. 

It's been super good. We played soccer this morning as a zone (minus the sisters) and now we're going to eat at a member's house. 

I've been enjoying the work so much, and I had some thoughts that I want to write here. My first day here we went to help Sister Tecla weed with machetes, like I said earlier. We were four: Elders Fatoma (from Sierra Leone), Tarpeh (from Liberia), and Elder Donko (from Ghana). We had three machetes and we were clearing a huge garden of grass and weeds. We took turns whacking the weeds and got it done. Even though we were all different, with different levels of skill and strength, we were all useful. Elder Donkoh knew how to sharpen the machetes. Elder Fatoma and Elder Tarpeh were really good at it. I was excited. We all worked till the weeds were clear. 

It reminded me of missionary work. We're all from different places, with different skills and abilities, but the Lord can meet us where we are and take us to where we want to be as we do his work. It's incredible

Love, 

Elder Johnson

1-2. Me and Elder Fatoma doing the work and looking fine

3. MLC crowd

4. Not sure what's happening here