Stake Conference Wisdom

Hello Everyone! Thanks for all of your birthday wishes! I can't believe I'm gonna be a legit 20 year old! Everyone here thinks I'm 25 or sometimes 34. But whenever I tell them I'm 19 they always say, "oh... You're a small boy!" So I'm excited not to be a "small boy" anymore. :)

This week went by super fast yet again! I'm just sitting here amazed that time can feel this fast. Anyways, this week was cool! We got to see Prince and help Ivy to read English again which is always a great experience. Ivy is really improving! I'm sure God pours out the gift of tongues on those faithful saints who have been confirmed with the Gift of the Holy Ghost and are trying their best to learn. English will open so many doors for her.

Prince wasn't able to come to Stake Conference :/ because he's a taxi driver and apparently drives all night and sometimes even until the afternoon time. So by the time we called in the morning he was still driving. So that was a bummer. Stake Conference was wonderful! The Adenta Stake Choir was so amazing! The songs that gave me goosebumps were " If you could Hie to Kolob, Carry On, and Come Come ye saints." MAN I'll miss these people. Our mission president spoke with his wife and talked about how much the Book of Mormon is True. He told a story of how the church invited some clergy students from a bible collage to come to the area office, and my mission president was assigned to speak to them. At the end he offered them a Book of Mormon at their own choice, but he also gave them a warning if they would take it. He said: "If you read this book, the Spirit of God will prompt you to preach its teachings to your congregations. The Spirit will tell you and convince you that these are the words of Christ." He said that he felt that there was someone with a "heart of Alma" in the room. So that was really powerful to me, to feel more of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I'm still striving to fully commit to read it every day till I die. I'll add my witness that it is true. Therefore this church is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet.

Another teaching was on patience which was super interesting to me. The speaker said that "Almost every sin we commit comes because we lack enough patience." As I thought about it, I realized how true it was! If we break the law of chastity it's because of lack of patience. If we steal it's because we don't have enough patience till we can afford that specific thing. If we have a contentious argument, it's because we can't wait until the problem is solved. So that's a thought that really encouraged me to be more patient. I know if we are patient we will receive experience, and through our experience we will receive godliness.

This week we also found three guys from Togo who are laborers in building houses out of cement blocks. Only one of them knows English well enough to talk. But we have members from Togo who will help us speak French or Ewe to them. I always love Togolese people :) So we'll see how that goes this week!

Anyways, I'm kinda just lazy to send pictures because the internet is slow and I'll be able to hug you all in three weeks anyway. Plus I don't want my card to be corrupted right before I come home :) I hope that's okay. I'll agree with Mom that it's crazy I only have two more emails after this one! So I'll try and fill them with good things :)

Thanks for everything everyone! Thanks for the birthday wishes! I'll try and enjoy myself somehow ;) I love you all so much. It's my witness that God lives and loves us. I know if we follow his commandments with patience, we will be happy. It's that simple. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Elder Keaton Ballard IV