Baptisms and Learning to Cook

Hi everyone!

It has been a great past couple weeks! Every single day goes by way to fast. I'll share some highlights 

We had our baptism on Saturday! We were able to baptize Cynthia and her kids, and their friend comfort. It was such a great service and the next day we had the chance to confirm all of them. It is so neat to see a whole family come into the gospel. They are such a wonderful family and will do so well in the church. After sacrament meeting our Branch President took Ma Cynthia aside and called her to be the 2nd counselor in the relief society presidency. She is nervous but really excited. I can't wait to see how they will all grow in the Church.

We are teaching lots and are meeting some really good people. We are teaching a family of five right now. Bright, Rosie, Collins and their parents. Their dad is a taxi driver and works every day, and their mom travels to Tamale to sell kasava on the weekends. Their kids are great, and the parents are super supportive. Their baptism is going to be on 11th June. I am really gonna miss all of these wonderful families, and especially the kids.

I sent a picture with our typical lunch that my comp and I eat. I usually buy fried yam, plantian and peppe. My comp usually gets gobbe which is beans with ghari and red oil with plantian. It's an easy and cheap thing to buy on the road. We enjoy it.

The branch President's daughter has been teaching me how to cook Ghanaian food. This past week she taught me how to make ockro stew. I now know how to make egg stew, Kontombre stew, and ockro stew. She has taught me how to make fufuo, and banku as well. I'm not sure how useful it will be when I get home, but out here it has been super helpful. All of the Africans are surprised that I can cook Ghanaian food. They said they have never seen an American cook. Even the missionaries in my apartment, they are all African and they are surprised I can cook. They say that Americans (missionaries) don't even know how to fry egg. Which sadly is true, a lot of the Americans serving out here can't cook.

This past week we helped three of our recent converts. We helped one with his testimony, one with a talk on sacrifice and the other on blessing the Sacrament. On Sunday Richmond  bore his testimony for the first time on Jesus Christ, Ella gave her first talk in sacrament meeting and did a great job, she also invited her friend to come and watch, and Emmanuel blessed the Sacrament for the first time! It is so neat to see the growth of new converts, and to be apart of it. I love seeing new converts grow and learn and really become part of the church. Sunday was really good.

Well I have two weeks left in my area, so my comp and I are going to make it count! There is still lots of work to do so we are staying busy. 

I hope everyone is doing well, and has a great week this week! Love you lots 

Elder Morgan 

Baptism and Learning English Again

Hi everyone!

I had another great week this week. Elder Abakah and I are really putting the work in. There are some great things happening in Techiman.

On Wednesday we traveled 4 hours back to Kumasi, because we had mlc the next day. We got to the mission office and spent the night there. The next day we had a wonderful meeting with all of the zone leaders in the mission. After the meeting was finished we had some time so the Assistants took us into their area. It was so fun to go back to my old area and see so many familiar faces. Elder Yeboah and I went out and saw everyone again. I was able to see Rose and her family, Brother Kwesi, Stephanie and so many more. I really love that place and the people will always have a place in my heart. We left on Friday to come back to Techiman.

After a long tro ride, we made it back to our area. That same day we met with Cynthia and her family and put them on date to be baptized this Saturday. We then met with Christabel and put her on date to be baptized. Friday was a good day.

Our Branch President asked for my help on Saturday. We had a branch conference coming up on Sunday and he wanted to say the first part of his talk in English. The problem is, he doesn't know how to read or write English, but he can speak very well. Our mission President was coming to this conference and so he wanted to impress him by having his talk all written out. He had his daughter type up a rough draft and then on Saturday wanted me to come and fix the English. For those who know me back home, English and I don't get along the greatest. Especially having been out here in Ghana for the past year and a half, my English has gotten even worse. But everyone pictures the American to have perfect English. So I got his talk and started to type it up. Man I think this is God helping me get ready for when I return home. Because I struggled typing up that talk with correct English lol. This is God slowly helping me get back to life in America, I'm gonna have to learn American English again lol

Yesterday we had conference and it went so well. The spirit was strong, and all of our investigators were there. Our Branch President also gave a great talk. 

This week we have zone conference on Thursday, my last interview with Pres Kunz on Wednesday! And our baptismal service on Saturday. It will be another great week.

I'm excited to be able to see all of you soon, I sure do love you guys.

Love Elder Morgan.

The Last Transfer

Hi everyone!

Sorry I didn't write an email last week, things were crazy with transfers. 

Well it's crazy to say I have 6 weeks left! So crazy that I'm coming down to the final stretch of the mission. Before I forget I will share a cool experience I had in my last area right before I left.

A couple days before I left Kwanwoma, Elder Yaboah and  I visited with Rose and her family again. We had been meeting with then a lot, and we have really come to love their family. Rose and her siblings had been coming to Church about 4 times, and they were enjoying the lessons. We had talked to Rose about baptism and asked her to pray about the decision to be baptized on May 1st. She kept saying she was praying and we honestly thought she was just saying that. But this last day together Elder Yaboah was teaching some of the family about the Plan of Salvation in twi, and we had already taught Rose about it. So I pulled her to the side and we sat down and just had a heart to heart talk about the gospel and how she felt about the church. It was one of the simplest but one of the more powerful conversations I have had with an investigator. The spirit was definitely there. We started to talk about her experiences coming to Church compared to her other experiences with other churches. We talked about her life and her journey with God. She told me that her old pastor pulled her to church last Wednesday. She told me what happened. She told me that she got there and she just didn't feel comfortable. They were doing their prayers, and had loud music playing, and they were all dancing. She told me that she went and sat down, crossed her legs and started to read the Book of Mormon. She also told me she is starting to teach her kids at school about the church (she is a school teacher) and that she wants to teach the teachers as well. After hearing these wonderful experiences, I knew that she knew it was true. So I asked her what would be stopping her from being baptized. She said Elder Morgan I have been praying to God, I asked him about May 1st like you said and he said ok, I can go ahead. But then you decided to push the baptism back to the 8th of May so now I have to go tell God that the Elders pushed my baptism back! I have to ask him if it is okay for me to get baptized the 8th. She was just baptized yesterday. I will miss Rose so much and meeting her really has helped grow my testimony.

We had transfers! On Wednesday I got on a tro tro and headed to Techiman which is about 4 hours outside Kumasi. Its the first time I have been outside Kumasi and I am so excited! I have a new companion, Elder Abakah, he is a Ghanaian. He goes home the transfer after me. I love him, he is super chill. I am a zone leader out here, and our zone is our district. We have 8 Elders and 4 sisters. It is a lot smaller which I am loving. It is so weird not having President call me, or missionaries call me with problems, or me having to plan for mlc or zone conferences. It's weird not having any stress, but I am definitely not complaining. It is so nice to just worry about me, my companion, my area and my zone.

I got to the area on Wednesday and we have been working hard ever since. Right before I got here my companion and his previous companion met a wonderful family. Ma Cynthia is the mom and she is so good. The first time I met them, you could just feel how good they were. There are about 10 in the family and we have started teaching them all! They all came to church last week, and loved it. We are in the Bush, and everyone out here is just very humble and the nicest people you will meet. I will miss the people the most when I go home. I have really come to love them. 

Our area has a lot of potential this transfer! I'm excited for what these next 6 weeks will bring and the experiences I will have. They are going to fly by! But I will surely make the most of them.

I love you all and I am so grateful for the love and support. I hope you all had a great mother's day. Have a great week!

Love Elder Morgan