From November 15th (Tuesday)

What a stressful week this has been.  Sorry I didn't get on yesterday...schedule change.

For our area, it is pretty tough. Most people are farmers here so they work early in the morning to about 6 when they come home to eat and sleep. The few members we had in our area moved out for school, so we are left with one older woman who only speaks Twi. It is really tough when we are closing our week and calculating our accountability for the week and have zero members taught, zero member present lessons, zero referrals, zero less active lesson, etc... I think we had in total 5 lessons in the course of 3.5 days.  It has really been stressful. Training gets a little tough when you don't have lessons to apply what you are learning, and it has become really stressful for me.  But we are working hard to find some people to teach.

We had a zone council today (Tuesday) and it was all on faith-based goals and about the Book of Mormon. That really hit me hard because it feels like our area is the dead weight of the zone numbers because we don't have much to bring to the table, and since we don't have the help of the members, it makes things worse, but it was a really sweet zone council. There were some powerful testimonies given and the Spirit was really strong. We had a quick "white board Decoration" while the zone leaders left, mainly Elder Stirling and I drawing a ton of Christmas stuff all over the board because hey, Christmas is right around the corner!

We had a little bit of a crazy week this week with our district conference Saturday and Sunday, but everything seemed to work out fine. The conference was sweet, we had 3 branches there and President Cosgrave came to preside over the meeting which was really sweet! They gave us food halfway through on Saturday, and we loved that for sure! I got to meet a bunch of sweet people and enjoyed getting to see some new faces.

We had a zone activity yesterday where we (not really we) cooked food and put on a movie. It wasn't the best planned activity and there was some contention about who was gonna cook the food, so it ended up being 4 people who cooked a bunch of chicken and rice and such for us, but at least they let me wash the dishes at the end.  It was fun to see a few from my MTC group there as well.  We have a ton of sister missionaries in our zone, so it was good to get to know them.  I think we have 4 companion-ships of sisters, in my last zones, we had 1 companionship in Sunyani and none in AsuoYeboah, so I got to know them a little better which was fun!

This week, I have been studying the Sermon on the Mount. It has been 3 days and I haven't finished just because there is so much to mark and so many scriptures that link together. I don't think I ever really studied the Sermon on the Mount in depth like I have this week. The one part that stuck out to me this week at least was about how Christ was teaching the higher law, or teaching some things that transcended the Law of Moses. Simply, the Law of Moses is a very strict law to live and is a little brutal, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. But the law that Christ taught requires love, even to those who wrong you, patience with those that look to accuse you, and to pray for those who seek your downfall constantly.  It reminds me of a scripture in Jacob 3:1 (Book of Mormon) that talks about God sending justice upon those who seek your destruction, and how God will not let those who fight against you win. I can imagine the huge change they would have to make in their life. They had been raised under a somehow harsh law, and then had to change into a loving and patient people.  What a change they had to make. It really is impressive what the words of the Lord can do to someone's heart.  :)

So the weather here...I don't know about really cold, but it is MUCH cooler than Nkawkaw and MUCH MUCH cooler than Kumasi!  I sleep with a blanket at night, which seems weird, but I sleep great with it.  :) It probably gets to around 75 degrees at night, and it isn't as humid here. The weather is fantastic!  The dust still hits us, but it isn't a huge deal.  I have stuffy nose a lot and do plenty of sneezing, but as they say, "tis the season".  :)

I am taking tons of pictures and videos.  :)  We go to Kumasi this week for trainers and trainees, so that will be sweet!  I will give my camera to the office elders so they can upload pictures for me.  :)  If not, we go at the first of December I think, but we will have zone council, so it is not a huge issue.  They will drive the package up to me if it comes late, so I have something to open on Christmas.  :)

Well, my time is up!  I am going to get my first haircut from a Muslim guy down the road.  Wish me luck!  Hahahahaa! :)

Love all of you,

Elder Wawro