Sand Storm

Hello America! Africa says hello!

Thank you all for your wonderful emails! I almost cried! Oh never mind that's just sweat. I hope that everyone had a wonderful week! My week was pretty eventful and went fast as always! We were also able to have really nice lessons with investigators this week! I'll start by sharing a short story.

It all started on a clear Wednesday morning. We both had a nice breakfast comprised of Elder Howland's famous scones, which are probably the finest scones on this side of The Nile. After we were satisfied, we set out. I took the lead as we were walking out of our apartment with our bikes. As I came out of the gate I slowly looked to my right. "Holly Hanna" I muttered with a surprised expression. "What?" said my companion who was still buckling his helmet. I then looked at him and said, looking off into the distance, "Dust storm." We then took off our helmets and got on the roof of our compound and saw this huge orange cloud coming towards us. As we watched the dark cloud we could feel the strong wind and the crunchy dust in our teeth. Then my companion looked at me and said. "Well, I guess we'll have to make fries." and so that's what we did.

That was the most intense part of the story so I'll just spoil the rest. After the dust came there was rain so we just fried up some fries for lunch. But it was a fun little time to get to know my companion more and to just laugh.

Later in the week we were able to go and visit an investigator named Issabela. It was a really sweet lesson. We talked about baptism and how it needs to be done correctly, because she was baptized three times at once (which is normal in some churches.) But after we taught her my companion began to ask her if she would be willing to be baptized if she came to know if these things are true. Before he finished she already said yes. It was a really cool lesson and the spirit was so strong. I love so much to invite others to come unto Christ. We also had another investigator named Yoshi who's half Ghanaian and half Japanese! He's a cool kid who was really excited about the Book of Mormon. The final serious investigator is David. He was just a random guy who sat in another lesson we had with three other investigators. So we were just teaching like a small group of people which was really fun. We were able to answer all of their questions with the bible which is always a neat experience. I'm really a witness that the spirit really can put words in your mouth and things to your remembrance.

This week was a sweet one. The reason I couldn't email yesterday was because we had a activity where the Polynesian Elders killed and roasted a pig for us! It was so nice to have meat again. We all just sat around a table with big pieces of paper on it. Then they brought the chunks of meat of rice and just put it on there where we ate it all with our hands! It was super fun.

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me come on this mission. I am so grateful to have this gospel in my life. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! I am so excited to call home next week and see all your faces! Until then!

-Elder Ballard

Martha and Rhoda