Nkra ne nkremang - "Dogs and cats"

IT IS SERIOUSLY THE RAINY SEASON. It is raining cat and dogs here, hence the little in Twi I learned this week.  hahaha :)

Well. A rough start to the week.... my voice recorder has a virus of some sort.  It says the memory is full so I can't record my voice, but I can still add music.  Not sure about that, but I will try to fix it today so I can record again.  :(

We had a "fry night" this week between Elder Banta and I.  It was pretty good bonding for us because we haven't been that close because of stress and us just being new to each other, but Wednesday night was sweet! We fried a lot of different things:

donut holes - the best!
onions
green pepper
bread
potatoes
peanut butter
Something else I am sure.

It was all fun and games until 4am the next morning when I threw it all up! hahahahaaa! Guess I learned my lesson, probably should not have eaten as much as I did. Oh well, you live and you learn.  Shortly after the Malaria Prevention guys came unexpectedly, so we hurried and tore down our rooms so they could spray the walls and such which left our house dirty. So, I felt awful, Elder Austin had some serious runny tummy, so we stayed home and cleaned for most of the day, and then went out in the afternoon.  Interesting day, but really great!

We followed up with our investigator, Prince, this week, and as we taught him, he just LOVED it.  Through the whole message, he was saying, "wow, that makes sense" and "it is just common sense."  He is kind of a big fish around here. He has a job providing lubricants to the mining companies, has a car, his wife also has a job, so he could really be a miracle here.  :)

We had a district conference this week with Elder Daniel Yirenya-Tawiah of the Seventy (Luke 10:1). Super cool guy, he is really spiritual. One day he will get to talk in conference I am sure, and then you guys can hear what Ghanians sound like and talk like! :)

While at the conference, I was able to get some letters from Grandma and Mom!! AWESOME AS USUAL! :)  Love you guys! :)

Well, I would like to end my letter with a wonderful and simple scripture from 1 Nephi 10:6...

6 Wherefore, all mankind were in a lost and in a fallen state, and ever would be save they should rely on this Redeemer.

Have you ever thought about that? All of us would be lost if it weren't for the Redeemer. The word "rely" is key to this statement. We can be saved as we RELY on him. Not just learn of him and that is the end. Not just to go through the motions. But really RELY on him to help us, to provide for us, to lift us when we are down.  Without Him, we can do nothing. We must RELY on him. I will leave you guys with this scripture in 2 Nephi 2:8, one of my favorites:

8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

The only way is through the Redeemer.

Love,

Elder Wawro

PICTURES:

6/5/17 "Fufuo!"

What an intense week!

Rain has been beating us here in Obuasi!!! Every single day it has rained this week! It is nice for the weather, but man, it throws a wrench into our plans. The Lord is always there providing a way for us though, we have been able to stay dry and teach every time it has rained, so we are blessed!

We had the chance to meet this less-active guy this week, Bro. William. He has been a member of the church for 4 years, and now has fallen away from the church.  Sad to see, he has made some serious covenants with God, and he has forsaken them. It really is sad to see how much his life and happiness have changed since he left, and we are trying to help him come back to activity, but he is a little stubborn...sad to see for sure.

On a happier note, we have been having a lot of issues with our water pump these past few weeks, and finally it shut off for good.  So we got it repaired, and hallelujah, we have running water again!  :)

I had the chance to go on exchanges with Elder Crowley this week, and it as really fun!  I love going on exchanges with other missionaries, just to learn from them and see how they do things. He is a really smart guy. I think 90% of what he says goes over my head because he is really smart, but he is a great missionary, and I have loved working with him!  :)

We have had a lot of FM's this week. holy. awesome. Bro Obeng, fed us 2 times while it rained, and Sister Michealina fed us a TON of fufu!!!! It was wonderful! I never thought I would love fufu as much as I do now. I honestly feared Ghana food for my first 6 months here. All is well now, I am loving it!!!!

Happy birthday to Sam, I saw some of your pictures man, you are waaaaay tall! Miss ya brother!  :)

We went to farm this morning with one of our members. It was in the middle of nowhere, but we went. Turns out, they had finished all the work so we played some soccer with the school kids close by for an hour or so, then ate fufu, AGAIN.  :)  It took up most of our day today, but it was pretty fun!

Our week was pretty normal I guess, nothing too exciting, maybe next week!

My thought for the week is one scripture I have shared before, and I will share again I am sure.

1 Nephi 2:20 - And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.

What a sweet promise. I always love to share this scripture when we talk of missionary work, and obedience. How crucial it is to be obedient in missionary work and how it can really change your assigned area around. But even more-so, for our own lives outside of actual missionary service. If we keep the commandments, we are being led to a land that God has prepared for us. A land that is "CHOICE ABOVE ALL OTHER LANDS". What a sweet promise! THE ROAD WILL NOT BE EASY. I promise you that, but really, who wouldn't want to be in a better place in life. How do we get there?? Follow the commandments of the Lord. All of them. And the Lord will lead us on the path to a better place in life. Obedience is really a re-occurrinmg theme of the Book of Mormon, and we can learn so so so much from it.

Elder Wawro

5/29/17 "Maburay (I am tired)"

What an interesting week, seriously!!

Well, I made no-bake-cookies for Elder Morford's last day in Obuasi, complete with real Peanut butter and hot chocolate powder.  It was pretty sweet. hahahaaa, punny right? :)  It has been a long long time since I have made no-bakes, and who better to make them for than my buddy.  :)

I found some sweet gum this week that has those stick on tattoos inside, kinda reminds me of the Fruit Stripes gum and Sister Foster from my childhood!  Good memories, and how funny I found some stick-on tattoos in Ghana!  :)

Hallelujah we had transfers this week. Elder Kanu has gone to Techiman, and I have received my companion, Elder Ajike. He is from Abia State in Nigeria. He is really sweet, he has a stutter, but it doesn't affect him too much when we are teaching which is a miracle I would say.  :) We have a 2.5 hour Metro Mass ride (barely an upgrade from tro-tros) to Obuasi from Kumasi, and about 1 hour into it, he leaned over and slept on my lap for sometime because he was tired. He is a touchy-feely kinda guy, someone who talks with connection I guess, which is a little different for me, but I have many things to learn! :) Hahahahaaa

We have been teaching this lady, Sister Michealina. She was an investigator for a long time taught by other missionaries, and she just came to church 2 weeks ago after she felt like she needed to come. We taught her and asked her to pray about what we shared, and told her we would follow up later. We came a few days later, and she told us about her dream. It was pretty personal, so I wont share it now, but maybe at a later date, but it was a pretty powerful testimony of which church she needed to join. We have been teaching her, and she is awesome!

Our Sacrament attendance this week was also sweet! We had 5 investigators at church, and 3 of them were brand new investigators which was so sweet!  :) A few sisters that live near one our our members.  So that was awesome to see them at church.  We visited them after church and they said they loved the teaching at church, how everything was, the hymn (which is a normal comment because almost every church here plays music, dances and sings at church), and they said it is now their church!  :) Life is sweet here!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE BROTHER DEREK! LOVE YOU MAN, AND I MISS YOU A TON!!!

I was reading about the faith of Nephi this week in the Book of Mormon. What a powerful testimony he has of keeping the commandments. I read in the beginning about when Nephi and his brothers are commanded to go to Jerusalem to retrieve the plates of brass (the scriptures) from the wicked King Laban. I love the faith Nephi had going into the whole adventure (1 Nephi 3:7). He was definitely the leader among his brothers, even if they didn't respect him. Then, after they tried once (1Nephi 3:13), a little faith was lost by his brothers, but they still continued on after a little faith-boost by Nephi. The second time, they have a pretty solid plan to go and trade their precious belongings for the plates, but that also fails (1Nephi 3:24-25). The brothers loose their marbles and beat Nephi and his righteous brother Sam with a rod. An angel comes, chastises his older brothers, and yet they continued to murmur. Through all of this, Nephi is still able to keep peace with his brothers, give them another faith-booster, and finally, they stop at the walls of Jerusalem, and Nephi continues on not knowing beforehand where he should go. But putting his faith in the Lord, he went, not really sure where or how it was going to be possible, but he went. And in the end, everything worked out according to the Lord's timing. We also must keep the commandments, even if they seem impossible, or too difficult to do. The Lord has a plan for us to succeed always.

Elder Wawro

PICTURES

5/22/17 "Yen Hyeasee - Let's Begin"

An eventful week here in Obuasi!

I was able to go on Exchanges with the zone leaders this week, and it was great. First was Elder Austin, we had an eventful day of fallen through appointments and a chance to find some new people. It was great to get to walk around and work with him that day, I learned a lot from him!  :) The next day, I went with Elder Morford. I love that guy, he is such a great missionary. We were in my area this time, so I got to show him some of our investigators who are really progressing! It was a great day, and I learned tons from Elder Morford as he is preparing to go home pretty soon. Priceless moments, iI will miss that guy when he goes.  :/

I heard the church wasn't supporting Scouting anymore past the age of 14... Sad to hear, but it makes sense as I read the article from the Church website about it. Excited to hear about what the church has in store for the youth!  :)

We had a great meal at the Ahenkorah family this week. Our whole apartment was invited to come and eat Fufu! :)  It. was. so. good. wow. I think Elder Morford comes out with the crown for the most food eaten, but seriously, there was so much! YIKES. SO delicious. God bless that Family.

I got to do a baptismal interview for one of the district members this week, and his name is Melvin. He was so so sweet. He really had a great testimony of the church and told me some of the things he used to do and said he was ready to change his life. His desire to follow the truth really strengthens me and refreshes me as I reflect on his experience coming into the church. Truly it is a blessing to meet such great and wonderful people. :)

My shoes are DYING. seriously. I had a huge rock get stuck in the bottom of my shoes that physically was impairing!  :)  hahahaha! Missionary work is so sweet, and I will have to get some new shoes soon, so I am excited for that day, but I will miss these bad boys. God bless you Brian Stewart for these precious darlings, they have done me well in the service of the Lord.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CARINA. I HOPE YOU LOVE THE RIDICULOUS RECORDING I SENT TO YOU.  :)

I had a wonderful interview with President Cosgrave this week. I was able to just talk about some things I was struggling with and some questions I had. He is such a wonderful man to serve with, he really helps me see the brighter side of things even in the hard times.  Mission Presidents are wonderful men, I am blessed to have one who is so loving. :)

For transfers, and somehow unexpectedly, I am getting a new companion. Elder Kanu is going to Techiman, and I am getting Elder Ajike from Nigeria. I don't know him very well, he was in the MTC with my 'son', Elder Oshilaja, so they know each other. I am excited for the change, definitely will bring some relief in to my life, but sad to know that Elder Morford was given a special assignment to a missionary who is struggling with some things. He wont be a zone leader anymore, but will now be like a big brother to another missionary. Man, I will miss that guy.

On a spiritual note, since the prophet has said we should read from the Book of Mormon every day, I have begun. It has been great to start again for sure. There is a scripture in 1 Nephi 10 that talks about the nature of God, and has been a re-occcurring thought for me in these past few days.

18 For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him.

19 For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.

God is the same always. He doesn't change because that would mean he is selective in His own rules and that is simply not the case and cannot be. We can come unto Him, but it requires a change of our heart and our whole self to do so. As we seek Him and to live with Him someday, we will find our pathway as we humbly  accept His will and are really willing to search for it. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, we can know this through the Holy Ghost just as people knew in times of old. God is not there to confuse us, but men are. We must find the truth, for if we are not built on the truth, what are we built on?

I will just leave that question to chew on for a little bit.

Love you guys, thank you for all your support and birthday wishes last week!

Elder Wawro

PICTURES

5/15/17 "Ye Bompaye (Ye are Praying)

Alrighty, time for another weekly wrap up from Ghana!

We had a great District Council this week, everyone seemed to be awake, and all were participating which makes life so much easier! :)

 I went on exchanges with Elder George from Sierra Lione on Wednesday, and wow, he is a powerful missionary. Love the heck out of that guy. He is pretty quiet, but he is such a great teacher. He is just a few weeks into his mission, and he has a bright future ahead of him. He has done a lot of missionary work in the past, and it is all working out great for him so far!  We finished our exchanges by having fufu with Palm Nut Soup. Wow it was delicious!! :)  He was really surprised he finished it all because the last experience he had with fufu was not that great.  God bless the Ahenkorah family! :)

We taught a lot of our members this week too. The Area finance secretary came to Obuasi and we happened to run into him. He said that we should focus a lot more on our members and help the less-active members come to church again. So we have been applying that seriously, and so far it is rough! But, that is what I signed up for, and we are hoping for some great experiences this week.  :)

Friday was our Zone Conference. That was a long day. We were up at 5am, out the door by 5:45 and heading to Kumasi at 6:30 or so. We traveled for 2.5 hours or so and arrived an hour early for the conference. It was a fantastic conference though, lots of great insights and teachings. Great fried rice also!  :) We focused a lot on developing Christlike attributes and how repentance is worked into that also. We had some instruction from our zone leaders and President Cosgrave himself, and it was wonderful. I have plenty to work on! Yikes!  :) Hahahaha

Saturday was the highlight of May! MOTHERS DAY SKYPE CALL. We called Saturday night as not to break the Sabbath. It was a little interesting to start, which is normal, but in the end, it all worked out! :)  Definitely the best part of my week, and a great booster to my spirits as usual. I think I have to be the worst kid ever,  forgot to wish my mother a Happy Mother' Day. So here it goes...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM, you are the best mother in the whole world. Nobody else could do what you can, and I hope to someday become even 3% of the person you are. I love you so much, and thank my Heavenly Father every day for you.  :)

We met an "apostle" this week too. He had no idea what he was saying though. He would bring out a doctrine as we were teaching someone else, and then we would show the scripture that taught the doctrine clearly, and then he would change his mind, agree with us, and try teaching the doctrine over again. The Savior knew what he was saying when he prophesied that false prophets and teachers will arise and deceive many. 

Matthew 24:11 - 'And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.'

Anyways, always a good learning experience, keeps you on your toes for sure!  :)

To close, we had a miracle happen in our area. Almost every single investigator that said they would come to church, either traveled or didn't pick our calls on Saturday night. So, we got together as an apartment and prayed together, pleading with the Lord that someone could come to church tomorrow, as the Zone leaders who stay with us also had nobody planned to come. We called again Sunday morning, and nobody picked our call again. So we went to church, and there was a woman there who had learned with missionaries before a long time ago and decided she would come to church with her friends, one of our members. It was so so so awesome. We taught her after church and she said she has been looking for the right church, and said she feels like this the right one! God is good, and always answers our prayers. I can testify of that whole heartedly. Prayer is such a blessing to us. I mean really, how could we really survive if it weren't for our Father always watching out for us? God bless you all, hope you have a great week! :)

Elder Wawro

PICTURES

Sat. 5/13 Mothers' Day Call

Mom:  Gabe Skyped us on Saturday instead of Sunday since they have to use a local internet cafe for it, so we all juggled our Saturday to make it work...Bill took a break from work, I left an all-day crop I was hosting, picked up kids and drove to Lewisville and we talked with him in one of the police conference rooms.  LOL!  Wonderful to see and hear from our wonderful boy!  :)  Perfect start to Mothers' Day weekend!

5/8/17 Nuaberma = Brother (Wish I knew the plural form...)

This has been a good week!

We started with a district activity Monday night. Nothing too crazy, something chill, we watched a movie and ate some small food. Nothing too exciting, but soon we will go hiking! :D

We have begun our rainy season! It has rained almost everyday for the past week, today we haven't had any, but at night we got TONS. I love the rainy season, it is wonderful and sometime I get cold.  Hahahaha! :)

I went on an exchanges with Elder Crowley this week which was great, I loved my time with him. We took a lot of pictures, but this computer isn't accepting my camera so we will take it like that. It was a good Day to celebrate Star Wars Day though, Elder Austin wore the Yoda socks he got from me that day which was was also pretty sweet! :)

Made taco soup this week with fajita seasoning, a little different, but it was SUCH A GREAT TASTE OF HOME SERIOUSLY. Hahahaaa! :) We ate it with bread a few days and finished it with rice. Nothing better than mom's taco soup in Ghana!

We met this sweet guy Evans this week . He has potential to be really powerful, so we will see him tomorrow! :) He is really funny and owns an MTN Mobile Money shop, so he is usually free. When we met he kept saying "wow, my Spirit is going deep today" as we answered a few of his questions.  :)

I have gotten pretty close to the Zone Leaders in the apartment these past few weeks, they have really been a stress relief for me, and it is a priceless gift to have them there when I am stressed. I am gaining more and more brothers as I serve here, there is nothing better. They got me a pizza for my birthday with a sweet note on the front and we stayed up and talked for a while last night which was a good stress relief. I love those guys. :)

I had the chance to give a priesthood blessing this week, which is always a wonderful experience. That is the focus of this email today and one of the highlights of my week. We have a less active guy who asked for a blessing from us, and as I was giving the blessing, I really felt the Lord was speaking through me to him. Always a great reminder to be worthy at all times to give blessings to those in need, I feel no greater joy then to know I was an instrument in the Lord's hand to carry out His blessing. There is no better service than the service of the Lord.

Love you guys, and a shoutout to G-Pops for a happy happy birthday! :)

p.s.  Because Mother's Day is a Sunday, we can't Skype.  I can call Sunday evening or we can Skype Saturday at 6pm so we don't break the Sabbath.

Love you all! :)

Elder Wawro

Mom:  Yesterday was Gabe's birthday, so to celebrate him we got a bunch of quarters and $1 bills, typed the note below and attached money to it in a ziploc bag, and spread a little Gabe love all around Denton...Dollar Tree, Sonic, Kroger, Target, and quarters at Aldi for the shopping carts.  It was fun leaving and watching people's reactions as we saw them pick it up and read it.  :)  Gabe loved it and said, "This is the best gift ever!  I love it!"  So proud of our young man - happy birthday, sweet boy!

5/1/17 Odifoo - A prophet

Alrighty, another interesting weekly letter for you guys! :)

To start, this Tuesday, the painters came and repainted our house because our paint as a little cray-cray. They came like 3 hours late, so that pushed our proselyting time back 3 hours which cancelled some appointments, but that is okay, at least the work was done correctly and paint looks great! :)

My scriptures broke this week, that was interesting. The heat here is serious! :)  The glue in the binding just broke. So I found the strongest glue I could get my hands on and applied some to see if it would work. If you see the picture, basically, the actual scriptures fell out, but after I put the glue on, and let it sit overnight, they are as good as new! Hahahaa!

We ate at one of our sweet members houses for food this Saturday. They gave us meat and said for us to go and cook! We had some ideas of what to cook, but those failed, we cooked the meat (pork and cow) and ended up putting it on rice. It wasn't that great though, but hopefully next week or the week after we can use her oven and I can make cookies!  >:)

I have an interesting bed situation here. We are a bunk bed because our room is too small, I sleep on the bottom. The mattress I sleep on though, is REALLY OLD. It has the dip in the middle from all the other missionaries that have slept there. I slept there for a few nights and after day 3, it felt like I had gotten absolutely no sleep and my back was killing me. ugh. So I grabbed some of the latex foam mats we have (similar to the pink ones I had in Mpraeso) and put them on the top of my mattress over the dip, and I have been sleeping like a king! :D It is odd though, I cant roll to the other side or I will roll off the mat, but I am loving my sleep now! :)

We had our baptism this week, it was great. We baptized  mother, Chila (Sheila), her daughter, and one of her sons, and her neighbor Prince. It was a wonderful baptism. I was privileged to be the one to perfom the baptism as they didn't have clothes for us at the church, but I had my own set. What a blessing. They are so great. On Sunday, they called for us to go up and do the confirmations also. I haven't done confirmation before, but it went really well! I confirmed my buddy Prince, who reminds me of Derek as they are close to the same age. Wonderful experiences for sure.

To close, I have a funny story.

Here in Ghana, it is all about prophets. There are people who say they are prophets everywhere, it is crazy. One of our investigators, Paul, goes to one of these prophets, and as we sat with Paul to teach him, Prophet Emmanuel came in. Ugh, the prophets here don't know their scriptures that well, they just know how to scream and shout and do all this funny funny stuff. So he comes to debate, and after I listen to him for about 20 minutes rambling on, we continue teaching. At every moment, he would cut in and give his "prophetic view" on what we were teaching. Then he tried to turn it on us to teach us, and I was not having any of that. He is the kind of guy who says that"people don't want your preaching and teaching, what they want is miracles, they want proof, show me how powerful your God is" kind of guy. That also bothers me because he always directed his ministry to himself and not to Christ, which was another reason I was getting frustrated with him, it was more of "they will all come to me, and I will do miracles for them and they will come to my church, blah blah blah. So, I just say it flat, like "here's the deal, I am not here to contend on your doctrine or anything like that. We are just here to share our message. So this is how it is going to work. I am gonna talk for the next 5 minutes, you are going to listen and you can ask your questions afterwards. He agreed and I began to teach and testify of the prophet Joseph Smith. I recounted his searching for the truth and how he knelt in prayed. I recited for him the First Vision:

I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!

If you have a few minutes, this is found on LDS.org under Joseph Smith History in the scriptures. As I was bearing my testimony of Joseph Smith, the Spirit was so strong, a stillness was in the air and it seemed as if for a moment, that the prophet's heart was opening. But, he then stood up, snuffed his nose at us, made a sound like "pfft nonsense", stood up and walked out. He chose not to accept the message, but I bore my testimony to Paul that no matter what others may do or say about Joseph Smith, the truth is just a knee on the floor and a heartfelt prayer away from his answer. Joseph Smith did see our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. It is just logical, and it just makes sense that God would speak again to us by a prophet just as Moses and Noah. It is just as simple as that. God called prophets before, and he has called a prophet Joseph Smith again, and even to today, we have a prophet. It is just logical. If you have questions, call your local missionaries to explain more bout the simple truths of the Gospel.

Love you all,

Elder Wawro

PICTURES