3/27/17

I looked up “Conversion” in the bible dictionary.  I’m staying here as long as the Lord needs me here because I am converted. 

And that’s pretty much all I have to say about that. 

This Sunday we had a BIG FAT 0 (zero) investigators at Sacrament meeting.  It is okay because we were able to visit the literacy class where they don’t understand English perfectly so we teach them at church :) We have a sister there (we call her MA because she’s our Ghana mom) But the question to the class was “what do you want to teach your family?”, and sister Oppong said “Nothing... missionaries will come and teach them”.  Now that’s funny because we go there a lot and this woman doesn't speak English very well, but well enough to make that joke and the class just died laughing.

This week was somehow hard. We were supposed to have a baptism, but because of some miscommunication we didn't send him through to an interview when he was completely ready.  So he planned to be baptized and we didn’t tell him different.  All his family was down for the baptism, so he was really mad at us.  Luckily he is truly converted and will still be baptized, but we went through a lot of drama we didn’t need to and that was not fun.  Somehow that depressed me but it’s not complexly bad.  I just don’t like messing up. Overall we had a good week I just wish I could have been smarter.

I’m doing well and surviving we played volleyball today so that relived some stress :) 

Love you all have a good week!

If you give a kid a camera

He will want to take some pictures 

And when he takes the picture

Others want to too

Then your companion falls

And you just shake your head

So you make a grill on Monday 

Well dang this doesn’t fit the story

Who took that picture?? Well my back looks good

Also no bakes are awesome
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-- 

-Elder Ellsworth

3/20/17

In a basic sense, both knowledge and belief require action to make them Wisdom and Faith. Without such action, well then you don’t really have Wisdom and you don’t really have Faith, you just have Knowledge and Belief.

This week was really eventful.  Meaning my companion and I took a lot of pictures!  Meaning I remember a lot of what happened this week.

First is that I’m starting to count how many free meal photos we take right now we are on 4 :). We also finally were able to give service.  To describe it, I basically took a sword and tried to cut the earth in half. It was super fun to swing a sword for a reason. They call it weeding here.

We also went on a march with the Relief Society.  Ghanaians love to party so we took a 3 mile walk and the whole time all of the stake women danced the whole way. Even the less actives came, but then didn't come to church the next day.  We gave out about 500 pamphlets in about 10 minutes.  They love missionary work and partying.

On Sunday We were able to have 7 convert Baptisms. They were all small children under 13 years old.  Really awesome experience and I love all those kids.  They are Lewis Daniel (Emmanuel is his real name) Joe (abubeka) Joshua Princess, Ester and Sam. 

I’m doing well surviving and working how I should.  Reading the scriptures and writing down promptings I receive so I don’t forget them later and its really cool to see.

Love you all! 

Elder Ellsworth

so lots of pictures this week

I learned a new game :) that is Lewis

Free Meal picture....and so the counting begins

see we walked with the Relief Society

the baptism

The Baptists and the people being baptized

I fell asleep today don’t worry I’m still flexible.

Old picture of Scott but reminded me of Africa :) 

​

Love ya

-- 

-Elder Ellsworth

3/13/17

This week we had rain!.  I should have taken a picture of my shirt after the rain but there is a reason Elders don’t proselyte when it rains.  But since I’m leading and my companion is good and it was the second day wearing the shirts we decided to go all the way to the farthest part of our area in the hardest rain ever--Best experience of my life!!.... also the most painful.  Since every road here is just dirt you're just throwing mud on your shirt if you bike in the rain and it’s really hard to clean and nobody wants to see you because (just like back home) people are scared of the rain.  Luckily when we got to our scheduled appointment the man let us in and we had a really good lesson.  He will be baptized 2 Saturdays from now.  His name is Edmond and he is a really good friend.

I’m gaining a ton of weight here in Kasoa and it’s really sad and not motivating, but it’s good because I need to know how to stop eating. 

On Friday we saw the Bishop in the morning.  While travelling there the phone we use (we call it a yam here-- and it’s a bad phone but it does have snake, but don’t worry I haven't played it and wont). Anyway, the phone fell out of my pocket on our way there and I was like “awwwww dang (awdang in twi means why?) I’m sad!”  But, my district leader had his one year celebration that day so we were going to see them.  Well in the mean time, one of our investigators called us and immediately knew it wasn't us on the phone and then called our zone leaders (she is an eternal investigator who loves to feed the missionaries in the district) so she called them and they went and picked up the phone.  You can really see that God loves his children even if it’s a little thing like losing a yam and he does answer prayers.

The work is good here and we’re trying to be better in all we do and hopefully we succeed continually.

Love you all,

Elder Ellsworth

A few pictures to enjoy:

3/6/17

Funny story--my new companion, Elder Lundquist (Elder Thomas) (he uses his first name because Ghanaian can’t pronounce Lundquist very well) but anyhow, we played leapfrog for our investigators (try playing leap frog with Scott and Andy!) that was fun and something very different.  I have changed a lot-- even just today I wore crocs and a fanny pack.  So yes a mission does change you!

This week was good.  I made a very silly mistake of turning on our water valve (our tank was empty) and also turning on another valve that connects straight to the city water.  There is no stop for it so there was just water running for about 10 hours so that is going to be a lot of money I will have to pay--sorry mom.

We had some really good adventures on our bikes this week.  We were riding our bikes and we took roads I never took before and we crashed a lot it was funny but probably not good for our health.

I was reading in The Book of Mormon and I just love Alma 24.   I love the Anti Nephi Lehi’s (meaning face towards Nephi and Lehi (thanks dad)) and how they buried their weapons (the things they used to commit sin).  They buried them!  They didn’t just hang them up.  They were in the mind of "I never want to sin like this again", so they got rid of them, right at that moment and then they were not tempted anymore. So like them, we can not only face towards Nephi and Lehi, but we can bury our “swords” or what we use for our sins.

Love you all miss you but I’m glad we’re here.

-- 

-Elder Ellsworth

we ate food

These are the kids we taught how to play leap frog.

I didn’t have sugar so I had to use the syrup I made to make a happy face.

4 bikes and 4 locks but only one is needed.  This is my zone leader-he’s funny

These are the kids we teach.  They are rowdy but we love them

My companion and me (not the best picture) on a Sunday.  I know because my tie :)

-Elder Ellsworth