3/13/17, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! "Awo dah paa" (wish you a happy birthday)

First and Foremost,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM. I LOVE YOU, YOU ARE THE BEST MOM EVER! :)))))))))))))

Well. 1 year has come and gone, and I don't know where all the time is going!! It really is running by, and I am learning so much as the days go by. Missionary work is the best! :)

We had a rough start to the week this week. Our week was okay to start, lots of proselyting and teaching preparing our progressing investigators. Thursday, we went to our recent convert's house to continue the lessons with her and she kicked us out of her house, and said she would never come back to church. Somehow, her family says that they won't help her financially because she "is walking with white men" and that we should help her. She then proceeded to talk about how she can't work because she is sick and such, and can't read the Book of Mormon because it gives her headaches. She told us to go, so I bore my testimony to her about the Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith and we left. She threw her Book of Mormon on the street after we left, and others told her if she didn't want it, she should just bring it back to us. So, she followed us and brought us back all her books from the church and left us. So that was a rough start, I was totally crushed the rest of the day, so I fasted for my own strength, and also for her that her heart would be softened and she wouldn't abandon the truth just for money.

Then, Friday, our powerful investigator Adams left to work in Kumasi for some weeks, so we won't be teaching him anymore, and have referred him to missionaries in Kumasi. Also sad, but not the end!

We have gotten a better modem for the chapel, and it is working GREAT! I have had no connection problems yet, and it is working really fast! :))))

WE haven't celebrated my 1 year mark yet, I am not sure what we are going to do yet honestly... Something low key, some really have a big celebration, but I think we will just eat some food, have a good time, and maybe get some more ties! :))))

Our investigator Koffi is doing sooooo well! He is wonderful, he always invites his friends to learn with us, and he really wants to learn the scripture better. We have helped him to find a way to mark his scriptures so that he remembers, and I gave him a complete set of scriptures that I have had for sometime. Maybe someday he will go and serve a mission! That would be sooooo coool! :) So, I hope he can use these scriptures if he chooses to go, that would be AWESOME. He is being baptized this week, so we are excited for him! :))

In light of our experience with out recent convert, i was crushed, and I felt so horrible and let down the rest of the day. I came back home and studied the scriptures to find peace, and as always, God did direct me to where I could find peace. I read about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, as He has suffered all things for us, and i went to Isaiah 53:3-5

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 4 ¶Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

I love this scripture, and it really helped me to understand that Christ has already suffered for all of our sufferings, he knows our griefs and our sorrows, and "with His stripes we are healed". I know that He did suffer for us, and that He can carry us in our times of distress, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,

Elder Wawro