My Companion is the Keebler Elf. Haha! :)

Well my life is great. I am in a sweet apartment, probably my favorite since I came to Ghana! I have Elder Burdge, my companion, and he is so so so wonderful. We are a little different, but we laugh like all day every day :)  I love him, he is amazing! :) Next is Elder Hepworth, and he is so so funny.  He is pretty blunt, but he is hilarious!  :) His companion is Elder White, who also is awesome, and love to laugh!  Elder Burdge has 3 months left, Elder Hepworth has 30 days left, and Elder White just passed his one year mark. Life is wonderful.

As for the subject of this email, my companion isn't the largest guy around, and turns out, he fits inside his wardrobe with room to spare, and he took it upon himself to sit inside his wardrobe and talk with us. It was so so so funny, and that is just my companion! :) I love the heck out of him, we will have a great time together for sure! :)

Tuesday was kind of a rough day, saying goodbye to all my Obuasi people, some were really not happy that I was going. Sister Michealina was legit mad that I was leaving. She said that she would go and talk to President Cosgrave about it so that I could come back. Love that lady!  :') The others were pretty sad that I wouldn't be there for their baptisms, but that is just part of missionary work!

Wednesday was a  crazy day, we traveled for 2.5 hours to Kumasi for transfers, then I spent most of the day there, then went to my training at 3pm.  It was a pretty good training, and I learned a lot of things about being a good leader for sure.  Then we got food, and headed out. But right as I was leaving, Sister Cosgrave said I had a package. I said ... what?  I have a package??  She brought it all out and it was in a CTMH box. Wow, it has been a long time for that! :) It was full to the brim of candy from the States.  How wonderful. I have been sharing the things around the apartment, and we have been enjoying for sure.  :) Love you Mom, and 'Bribben' for the sweet letter.  :)))))

We have been traveling a TON.  We went to Ashanti Mampong and back in one whole day, then made some stops in the other areas of the zone to drop off some necessary items to our zone members. It is crazy, but the ward here is AWESOME.  There are so many members and they love doing missionary work.  IT is great! :)

I am in the Kwamo area, which is awesome because it is where Griffin Brown served and he opened the area. So turns out, all the members really loved him, and they will be psyched to know that I am from the same place as him!  :)

This week, we prepare to go to MLC on Thursday, my first one.  It is a meeting for the leaders of the mission, and everyone who has been says it is a wonderful meeting. I am excited, but a little nervous being the new guy on the block!  No worries, I have a set companion to help me out, so I am not too worried!  :)

In all of my time as a missionary, I am really enjoying my time in UST.  Everything is so awesome, I am so blessed. I reflect on the scriptures that talk about enduring to the end:


D&C 122:7 "...if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."


And also 2 Nephi 2:2 "...thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain."

The Lord always fulfills His promises to us as we serve faithfully. There is always a plan, and we just have to do our best for God to work with us, and bless us!  :)

Love you guys :)

PICTURES:

July 3rd - 4th "Yesu fre me ko Kumasi bio (Jesus has called me to Kumasi again!)"

July 3rd:

I am only on for about 20 minutes...today will be weird, I will complete my time in the evening, so I just have small time to email back, but feel free to email back, I will check in a few hours. 

Well, I have my transfer news. I am going on Wednesday to go and be a zone leader with Elder Burdge. I am sad to leave Obuasi, and super nervous to go and serve as a zone leader, but I wanted you to know so that I might get some advice from you before the day is over.  :)

Elder Wawro  :)

July 4th:

Sorry, doing like a million things at the moment, but yes I am on for like 1 hour. If we get a call for fufu though, I will let you know and we will come back in the evening to email for the rest of our time!  :)

My new companion will be Elder Burdge. I think he's from Utah, and he was in the same MTC group as Elder Vuakatagane, so he will be going home in November I think, maybe even late October. All I know about him is that he trained my MTC group guy, Elder Yates, and they had a great time together. I know he loves Star Wars, and most everyone likes him, so I think it will be good.  :)  I will be in an apartment with 4 Americans which will be very odd. I will be with Elder Hepworth, Elder White, and Elder Burdge too, so we will see how that goes.  :) I will leave tomorrow for transfers, I will be running the crew going to Kumasi, and then I will run a little of the crew at transfers so that will be weird.  I have training for Zone leaders tomorrow at 3pm with the new zone leaders and President Cosgrave, so I am pumped for that!  :) I will be in KNUST part of Kumasi, it is where the big college is in Kumasi. I heard they have a lot of FM's there, and that sounds good to me! :)  hahaaaa! :)  (FM's = free meals.  LOL!)

(Mission leadership is District Leader, then Zone Leader, then Assistant).  Yeah, I have no idea how it will be with Americans!  Maybe good, definitely different! :)  ha ha ha

Here's how it happened...I just got a call, President told me I was moving to be a zone leader in UST and that was it.  I was sad to go because we have 6 baptisms planned in three weeks, and I feel like I won't be the best zone leader ever and that I am not cut for the job, but over time, I have felt better about it!  :)  Typically, I will be in zone leader training for two transfers, but Elder Burdge has been there for 3 or 4 transfers, so most likely, I will get a new companion after this transfer.  The part of town is just considered UST, I think our house is in a place called Kwamo??  No idea, maybe later I will know.  :)

Weekly Email:

Holy crazy week, and sorry this is on a Tuesday. Yesterday was so crazy. I got my transfer news to go to Kumasi again, and so it was my last week to go to the Obuasi market. When we got to town, literally no ATMs were working, so that was fun. Finally, everybody gathered at the GCB and that one had a working ATM, so we waited in line for an hour and a half to get our money, and right after I pulled, the machine ran out of money. Blessing for me... Sorry for all those who were behind me... :) So, we went from there to the house to drop off our stuff we got at the market, and then ran to the cafe to meet the Zone leaders to take us to the member who called us to come for a birthday for his son.  So we had like zero time because of the ATM deal, so I am sorry.

To start from last week, Monday, we spent the morning with the Dearing's (the new couple in the mission) golfing at the golf course in Obuasi. It was so fun!!! :) I am awful at golfing, but Elder Dearing showed me the ropes, and we played. It was fun!  I was pretty bad, but I had a great time, even if they were laughing at me sometimes!  hahahaha

We had some issues with our water this week too. Our landlord has been connected to our water supply in our poly tank. He has his own pump and his own tank, but he has been using ours for the last 2 months which has been annoying because his pump broke. Then, this week, the city stopped supplying water to us, and he used most of the water, so we bathed with little sachets of water, and I guess I bathed and shaved with 3 liters of water. Heck.  Yes.  Who is the master. ha ha ha ha! We called a few guys at the mission home, and everything has worked out pretty great since then!  :)

My companion and I got these sweet scripture bags made out of some fake leather snake skin looking stuff. They are pretty sweet, they have some...character... but overall they look sweet and work fine for my scriptures!  :)

Also, I am getting transferred to be a zone leader in UST zone with Elder Burdge. He will be my first American, and our apartment will be a house full of Americans! That will be waaay weird! :)  I am excited, but nervous as usual, it is a huge responsibility, and I have some big shoes to fill, so I am praying for help and strength from the Lord.

Lastly, this week, we had a POWERFUL branch activity. It wasn't planned that well, but it turned out to be a hit!  We had a lot of different games there that were played, a movie for the kids, some fun group games, and food at the end!  It was awesome, and we had such a great time. I am bummed that I will be leaving though, I will miss all those times!  :(  But, that is missionary work for ya.  :)

My thought for the week is from 1 Nephi 17:35 about the righteous:

35 Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God.

There is more to the scripture, but this is the part that stuck out to me so much, that I have thought about for this whole week. It is just that simple. God created us all as equals. He loves every single one of his children. The catch is, we just have to be righteous, and we will be favored of God. We will receive more blessings and be closer to God as we are continually righteous. Just like Dad would say, "Faith and Obedience and the Lord will be with you". I guess this would be the scriptural companion to that quote, at least one of many.  Righteousness is the only way!

Love,

Elder Wawro

PICTURES:

06-26-17 "Fufu and Crab??"

Well, I will start with our super sweet zone activity we had last Monday! It was so great, we went to Brahababome to go and hike a mountain to the waterfall. It was so gorgeous. I got a ton of quality time with Elder Banta which was fun, we scaled vines, made some sweet videos, and took some sweet pictures! :) Elder Ajike got a little lost while we were hiking, but all is well, I still have my companion here :)

Then, I went on an exchange with Elder George from Sierra Lione. Man I love that guy. We taught some funny people, had great food, and got to just shoot the breeze as we walked. He is such a great missionary. His accent is so funny too, it is very very clear and crisp, but the way he says some words is pretty funny. To close the day, he got us fufu. AND IT WAS HUGE. Halleujah I finished it, but I felt like laying down to die afterwards! :)

I have had some late nights this week also with Elder Banta. What a sweet guy. Last night, we stayed up for a long time to prepare for our day today by making pancake mix, so that this morning, we only had to cook them. Little did we know, there were maggots in our flour bag, and some other bugs which we named "weevils". Literally, we sifted through the same batter 10000000 times to pull out the little bugs. :) Love it!  We had a long time to just talk about anything and everything, and it was great.  Definitely a stress relief for me and him both. Much needed. Love the heck outta that guy too!

Last night, we were invited to eat fufu at Bro. Peter's house. It was so fun! He put on the Testaments while we waited, then right as the movie finished, they had he fufu ready! I got quite the shock though in my fufu! Hahahahah! As I went to cut a little piece, I saw 2 little eyes pop up out of the soup, and seriously, I jumped!  :) Then I went to touch it, and when I grabbed it and pulled it out, I saw that it was a crab, and proceeded to drop it back into my fufu and jump again! Hahahahah! I was not ready for that one... it was really a mental barrier for me, because I was literally going to eat a crab whole!  They were small, only about the size of a young kid's palm, but it was so weird to just crunch the whole thing, bones, legs, shell, an all. All part of the experience!  :)

My thought for this week is from 1 Nephi 13:40 speaking about the role of the Book of Mormon.  It reads:

40 And the angel spake unto me, saying: These last records, which thou hast seen among the Gentiles, shall establish the truth of the first, which are of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and shall make known the plain and precious things which have been taken away from them; and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world; and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot be saved.

The 3 phrases I love are in bold. The Book of Mormon establishes the truth of the first, the Bible. It also makes known some of the simple pieces of the Bible that were lost through translation or other means. And most importantly, it testifies to the world that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. The Book of Mormon is the word of God, and there are 1,000 ways to prove it. But perhaps the best way, is just to pray to know and read a little. I mean really, if almost 16 million people can testify of its truth and how it changed their lives, why should we not also read it and see how it is?  I can add my testimony to the other 16 million, that the Book of Mormon is true, and it does change our lives as we take time to read and pray about it.  :)

Love,

Elder Wawro

PICTURES:

06-19-17 "Kafra, Twi asaa - My twi is finished... sorry"

This week has been pretty great!  We visited our District Center which is being built near our apartment, and it is going really fast! The only delay is the rain, seriously it rains almost everyday! It is so crazy, but every time it is not raining, there are people there working. Is is so gorgeous, but I think I will be gone before it finishes. They said October, which really means November, so I will be sad to miss that! I also heard rumor that the Anglo Gold Ashanti mines will be opening soon, around August, and I believe it because there are a lot of Oburonis here now. I am pumped! :)

Sister Jane made us nice KoKonte yesterday. I love it when members feed us because I  can't prepare the Ghana food that well. KoKonte is cassava flour that had some added water, and is "driven" in the pot on the fire at a rapid pace. It is pretty soft, and they call it the brother to fufu, but I like KoKonte better ONLY IF it is prepared correctly. That is the only problem, if it isn't done well, it is not good... Yikes! :) 

I got to do some more baptismal interviews this week, one for Elder Crowley and Elder George, and the other for the Zone Leaders investigator. Both were really awesome. It is so interesting interviewing people for baptism. I think of it like me being a guardian for those who are baptized. Super sweet, I love it! :) Both of the interviewees were baptized on Saturday, so that was awesome, and we were able to make it to both baptism services, so blessed :)

Our attendance at Sacrament was pretty great, we had Michealina and her whole family, and also a household of people who came, meaning that they all stay in the same family house. We are surely blessed here. They are all planning to be baptized on July 22nd, I am way excited!  :D

We had a sweet Zone activity this week, we hiked way up to the top of a mountain here, and got to see some sweet waterfalls. WORTH IT.  More about it next week!  (Photo below)

We had a super sweet experience this week. We were on the way to an appointment with one of our investigators, and right before his house, this woman called for us as "Elders!" so she knew us for sure. She then told us she was a member, but had stopped coming to church. We told her we would be back in about 20 minutes because we had to see our investigator. We came back, she grabbed us some chairs, and we got to talking. She had some issue with some members and her Bishop in her last ward, and when she moved to Obuasi, she stopped church because of some of her feelings. So we talked to her about it and invited her to church. She decided to wait until next week because she was traveling. But, we told her if she couldn't go, that she should try to come. We came to church, and she wasn't there.  I really wasn't too surprised, but then at the end of church, SHE WAS THERE AT THE DOOR WAITING FOR US!  :D  We showed her to the Branch President so they could talk about what they could do to help her.  When she came out, she was sooo happy, and relieved, almost like a burden was moved from her. It was such a sweet experience!  :)  I am so happy we were in the right place at the right time, God really is directing us.

I know this is pretty short, but I took a ton of pictures!!!  So maybe someday you will get them!  :)

PICTURES:

In the mountains on our zone activity

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