11-20-17 "Osofodee tumi - the Priesthood"

Well, not a lot to write about this week, a pretty normal week for us.

Our guy Emmanuel who was baptized last week ended up staying another week, so that has been awesome for us, he is a great missionary in his house and helps us a lot! He will be going soon, so that will be sad, we're just waiting for his mom to call him to go to Accra and then he will go.  :/

I was able to meet some of the new missionaries in our zone, Elder Mbambu from DR-Congo, Elder Carlson from California, and Elder Andreasen from Texas (like an hour away from Denton or so - Mesquite area?- HECK YES). We visited them after they had someone break into their house, they had a rough week, but they were all in good spirits! Great missionaries.

Found someone this week who had a Book of Mormon signed by Elder Brown and Elder Nathan, that was sweet! What are the odds!

We have been getting to know Elder Zoh this past week and he is so cool! A lot less stressful than the other missionaries who have come and gone from our apartment, he has a great desire to work and we are seriously blessed to have him with us.  HE is a French man from the Ivory Coast, so he is adjusting to the English, and he is doing really well!!

There as some crazy rain this week also, we didn’t get beat by it too bad, so we are grateful! Reminds me of Texas or sure!

We are hoping to have 4 baptisms this coming week. One is Sammy, and his parents aren’t very on board with him following his sister to be baptized, so we have some work to do there. Then we have Maakwia who has come to church tons, and Nana Ama and Junior who are a member's children. We should have another, but his landlord also is not happy with him attending church with us. Life is good and the work is going great!  :)

We had a powerful experience this week. We were going to an appointment and on the way, a man stopped us. We talked a bit and he said he had a friend that lived in Euless, Texas and invited us over on Sunday. We came to see him, and he warmly welcomed us in. We had a great lesson to start, he was really understanding what we had to share. Then, he got a call from his brother who is a pastor here, and then his brother popped into the lesson. Well, that was where it got interesting. He was not a fan of Joseph Smith and believed that he saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but not in the words that Jesus Christ said about none of the churches being correct. We began to explain about the apostasy and he wasn’t letting us get our message across. I said a quick prayer so that I could be in tune with the Spirit, and began. As I explained the priesthood and the loss thereof because of the death of the Apostles, I felt the Spirit so strongly as I bore my testimony of its loss and Restoration many hundreds of years later.  This is where we read to help explain (Acts 8:14-20):

14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:

15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:

16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)

17 Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

18 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,

19 Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.

20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.

Simply, the Apostles had authority given them directly from the Savior to do His work, His way. That authority was lost after the death of the Apostles and has been restored to the Prophet Joseph Smith in our time. As I bore my testimony of the priesthood being restored, I was filled with the Spirit and truly felt the strength of the Lord as we left his house. His brother never accepted our message, but we left on a good note and have another appointment to see him this week. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Lord's kingdom on the earth today because God has chosen His prophet and given him the priesthood authority to act in His name.

Elder Wawro