Baptism and Sister Arthur

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for all the wonderful and exciting emails! I'm so grateful for them! This week was a stressful one but in the end everything was awesome! We were trying to prepare our two candidates for baptism. (Daniel and Robert) So at the end of the week on Saturday we were able to have a great baptism for our dear brother Daniel who is an 18 year old and is staying with a member family, plus a child of record that is in the same family! Her name is Mary :D Daniel had such a desire to go to the temple trip that he wanted to be baptized on Saturday so he could be confirmed before this coming Saturday. I got to baptize him! so I'm glad that we had such a wonderful chance to participate in his baptism.

After the baptism we remembered that a member who was sick called and wanted us to give her a blessing and so we made our way there. When we were there, the member (Her name is Sister Arthur) was surprised to see us. We said she had a cold and that she was tired but that she didn't really desire a blessing. We were a little confused but offered to share a scripture with her. She enthusiastically let us in and we had a wonderful lesson. We didn't really prepare anything so it was an impromptu lesson. After the opening prayer Elder Howland opened Amos 3:7 and we learned about latter-day prophets and revelation. Sister Arthur had a wonderful testimony of our prophets and apostles and shared it with us. We both felt the spirit so strong, it was like a warm peaceful blanket fell over all of us. Then me and my companion bore our testimonies as well. As we were about to close the lesson, Sister Arthur then told us: "Thank you so much for coming to my place tonight. Sometimes the spirit is strong but our bodies are tired and sick. But I believe that the word of God is like a medicine to us. (she began to weep) I was not expecting you this evening. But I know that it was the spirit of the Lord that led you to my house and that the word that has come out of your mouths has healed me. I thank you and my Heavenly Father so much, thank you...thank you." :)

It turned out that the person who called us was a totally different member with the same name! God truly works in mysterious ways.

As she bore this witness to us, it was as if the warm blanket that was over us began to glow with even more warmth and truth in our hearts! This is one of those experiences of my mission that I won't ever forget. It humbled me so much and taught me that I sometimes take missionary work for granted and that I need to remember the importance of my calling at all times. I also felt like I wasn't worthy to be an instrument in God's hands at that moment. I am very far away from being perfect, but it was such a testimony to me that God uses the weak and simple to accomplish great things! That's how we all are as members and missionaries alike! We are all weak and simple but through the priesthood and our callings God uses us to accomplish his will. :) I will never view my mission in the same way ever again. I am so grateful to be here and I know this is God's kingdom on the earth. I know God uses the weak and simple to accomplish great things.

Sunday was a wonderful experience as well! Robert who hasn't been confirmed because of exams came as well and so there were 3 confirmations! I really felt the spirit as they were being confirmed and I know that it was recorded in heaven. I love playing the keyboard so much in church! The speakers in my chapel are hooked up to the keyboard which is a pretty rare case in Ghana. So I'll keep enjoying and I am so glad to serve in any way I can. I love you all and I am so grateful to be here! Have a great week!

Twi of the Week:

Wy ar day paa (Why are dey Pah) "You've done well."

Love you most! Have a great week!

-Elder Ballard

Service!

Hello Everyone!!! Elder Ballard here! Thanks for all your wonderful emails and love towards me! This week went by fast I think! I don't get it. Time is always so weird. But this week was really cool! There were lots of cool experiences and activities that happened.

We were able to keep teaching Daniel and baptize him this coming 

week! As well as Michael if he passes the interview! So we're praying that everything will work out like last time!

As far as the highlight of the week, I can definitely say that it was Sunday. On Sunday it was the Primary program and I got to play piano for them! The songs they sang were "Our primary colors." "Listen with all my heart" and "I love to see the Temple." So it was so fun! Also I chose the hymns for sacrament meeting as "Dearest Children God is Near You." and closed with "I am a Child of God." When we closed with that song. The spirit was so strong because all the children knew the hymn and were singing it with the harmony part on the last verse, and I just felt the spirit so strong. Primary has really made an impact on my life.

 When I was a kid I didn't really pay attention much, but as I grew up and understood the words more, It hit me so hard how tender and sacred the words are in those hymns. Simple truths like "Pray, he is there, speak, he is listening." are so important. I encourage all of us to sing our favorite primary songs more, and try to see the message inside them, as well as hymns. I love music so much.

Another highlight of the week was the All Africa service project. Man it freaked me out because I remember doing it last year! So weird. Anyways our whole stake went to a deaf school and swept and weeded their whole grounds! It was super fun and lots of our members were there! Plus our recent converts! I love service so much and I'm so grateful that I get a time set apart just for serve for two years! The feeling after serving someone is one of the most sweet and addicting feelings there is! So I'm so glad I am here!

Anyways, just know that I'm doing fine, I love you, God loves you more, everything will work out, the church is true, the priesthood is real, we're on the right path, and we can't lose as long as we are obedient!

Pics

Children! :D

Me embarking

The service project! With some of my favorite members!

Twi of the Week!

Meh Pe Wo Paa (Meh Peh Woh Pah) "I love you so much"

Midasi Paa! "Thanks so much"

Thanks again!!!

-Elder Ballard

Me in a Beanie

Hello America Hello America Africa Says Hello!

Thanks so much for all of your emails and love I really appreciate it! This week was cool! It went by fast again which is normal. All these days on mission are blurring together, It's crazy! The weather this week was nice and coolish, we still sweated but just not as much so that was nice. :)

A cool thing that happened was that Elder Bednar came to Ghana again! We didn't get to go though, but some of our recent converts did and they were able to tell us their experience and bear their testimonies that he really was an apostle! It made me so happy because Evelyn went and saw the temple for the first time, then since she was a youth leader she got to go again on Sunday! We are also preparing for a temple trip where a really close member family of ours called the Aziatre Family is being sealed while the other youth and recent converts will do baptisms for the first time. So I'm super excited if that will work out to where we can go too. I'm so grateful that the temple is in my mission!

Banku and Groundnut soup with the Aziatre family!

As far as teaching goes, we had a decent week. The Aziatre Family has one of their nephews staying with them until he goes back to school, so he has been doing great and has wanted us to teach him every night this whole week. So the family fed us every day this week! (pictures attached) People here are so generous! But his name is Daniel and is super interested in the church and will be baptized soon. :) It's all because of the members here that we are getting baptisms! That's generally the only way people get converted here is through the testimonies of their neighbor's and friends, not just by us obrunies (white people) So I'm so grateful for the members here. We are trying to find new people to teach this week which will be our focus. 
After church we taught this really awesome guy named Lucas. Lucas is a devoted catholic who has been to Israel and seen all the big sites (like the garden tomb, Jordan river etc.) so it was a little intimidating to teach him. But we were able to teach him about Joseph Smith and as we taught him about that and the apostasy he was totally open about it and totally agreed with it somehow. So I hope as we keep coming that we can help him and his wife come to a knowledge of it. They keep the Sabbath day better than the members here do so that was a cool thing. So the work is going onward!

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary, I can't really describe it. It's hard sometimes but the blessing totally outweigh the other stuff. Plus when I look back on the things I've been through so far, I only remember the great times rather than the bad times. So it's a blessing to be here. I can already tell that I'm going to miss the people and the children here the most. I love how the gospel unites everyone everywhere. I know it's true and that this is God's Gospel and that it is the only way to salvation.

I just want to give a shout out to my dear neighbor Pepe who passed away this week. He was a great dog and we had many great memories together. I know me and my family, especially Bunny will miss him.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! We're on the right path!

Me wearing a beanie of all things. I can't believe people wear those here :)

Rhoda sleeping

Twi of the Week!

Wo Ho Ye Feh Paa (Woh Hoh Yeh Feh Paa) "You look very handsome/pretty"

Love you all!

-Elder Ballard IV

Testimonies and Blessings in Ghana

Hello Everyone!!!

Man, another month has already gone past...I can't believe I have like what...11 months left? What the fetch. This week was cool though! It went by fast as always and we got some great work done! Elder Howland got sick this week which was a bummer but he taught me how to play a fun Ghanaian game that we have. Then we went and found some members places that we didn't know and visited them. One of them is Sister Alice who is an older lady who had a stroke so she's crippled in her right hand and one leg. She is such a loving lady! Her two room house is decorated so nicely like a grandma's home! We were able to sing hymns with her which was a fun experience. :) I love members here, they are such loving people and I've grown so close to them!

The highlight of the week was Sunday though. We had the best fast and testimony meeting I've ever seen in Ghana! Loads of people were running up and looking at the clock so that they could bear their testimony. One of the recent converts who is our best friend (her name is Evelyn) bore her testimony for the first time, and the spirit was so strong! She shared about faith. She talked about how she was sick and how received a priesthood blessing from us. Before she had it she had heard about blessings before but was kind of doubting them. When I asked her if she wanted one she said "Will it work?" Then I told her it all depended on her faith. Then she received the blessing and in a couple days was healed. She then talked about how when she first joined the church tons of people were talking bad about her and the church and how she felt really bad. But as time went on and as we kept teaching her that it got better. Then she powerfully said "I can surely tell you as I am standing here, that this church is true."

It was such a humbling experience to be in the presence of such faithful saints. It was so fun to sit at the keyboard and look out and see people sitting on the edges of their seats and nervously looking at the clock and jumping out of their chairs to bear their testimony. I hope that we can always be like that. I always remember something that Brother Wahlquist quoted that "Our testimonies are found in the bearing of it." And I have seen that to be true as I have born my testimony every day. I love being a missionary. I can see so clearly now how important missions are especially for priesthood holders. It literally makes you more like Heavenly Father. Nothing good comes easy, but it comes for the best. I know that this is true.

There's a scripture I would like to share in Alma 1:25: Now this was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the faith; nevertheless, they were steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God, and they bore with patience the persecution which was heaped upon them.

I know that as we go through trials that it will be for our good. Not only trials but just plain hard things! I know this church is true and that God loves us! Thank you all for all of your love and support.

Video!!!

This is me teaching you how to eat Banku with Groundnut and Okra Soup!

Man I'm hungry just thinking about it! (I'm gonna miss this food!)

Twi of the week!

Mi kwa Ba (Me-qua-bah) "I'll go and come"

Love you all!

-Elder Ballard

Baptisms!

Hello Everyone!!!

Man I can't believe it's the 8th month of the year! Time flies like a potato at an FFA concert! This week was super awesome! It's one of those weeks where you just smile at everyone no matter how they're looking at you! Oh, well I guess that's how it is all the time. Anyways tons of miracles happened this week that strengthened my testimony. I hope I have told you about our investigator Robert.

Baptism of Robert (Guy with glasses) Samuel
 and his twin boys Phillip and James

Robert was the really intelligent 40 year old man who was referred to the church through his eye doctor. When we were teaching him he asked so many good questions that no one else would ask. Once we were teaching him about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. As the discussion kept going we taught him how the bible isn't complete and how it says that "God repented" and stuff so he said. "Well, if it was incomplete, then God would have told Joseph Smith to correct it's errors." So on like the third lesson we taught him about Joseph Smith Translation which was awesome. He is also the only investigator I've ever seen who fills out the questions in the back of the pamphlets. We gave him the Testimony of Joseph Smith pamphlet which was the thing that interested him the most. He told us "Other churches just talk about how God spoke to them once and told them to teach something, but with Joseph Smith, his experience was documented specifically and it wasn't his only experience with heavenly messengers. Therefore his experience with God is unprecedented." (He's very intelligent.) As he was reading the Book of Mormon he was marking it and everything. At that point he told us that he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon has really brought him closer to God. So we asked him if he wanted to be baptized but he didn't understand why he had to be baptized again. So the next lesson I brought my line of authority! (I knew it would come in handy!) So we explained him about it and he finally understood. Then he asked "Okay, so what's the book of Moses?" Then we taught him about the Pearl of Great Price. :) After that he was like "Okay, Joseph Smith couldn't make this up. I want to be baptized." So we said when would be a good day for you? Then he said "Sunday will be fine." After the lesson me and my companion did the cotton eyed joe and smiled for the rest of the day. Robert's testimony made me realize even more how true the church is and that Joseph Smith really was a prophet.

We also were able to prepare a guy named Samuel and his two boys who were prepared from the start. A member told them about the church, they came once and wanted to be baptized. So this week we had 4 baptisms! I was so happy and grateful that everything happened without something going wrong! We had to do 4 records, interviews, and clean and fill the font. But everything worked out and we're so happy! I'm so glad I wasn't transferred yet. My trainer goes home next week which is weird! Anyways I know that God prepares his children for the gospel and that if we try, he can prepare us to answer their questions. Thanks for all of your love and care towards me and all the missionaries! I wanna give a shout out to my sister Natalee for her birthday tomorrow!!! Wooo!

Love you all so much!

Twi of the Week!

Meh Bo! "I'll beat you!"

Thanks again! Have a great week!

-Elder Ballard

Our Chapel! Probably one of
 the nicest chapels in Ghana

Me with a palm leaf hat and a spoon being shoved in my mouth

A typical compound or "Family House"
 a whole family usually stays together along with
 extended family with different houses close to each other.