It's Not Easy But It's Rewarding

Elder Shirley with Elder Landu

Another view of Asuom

Time to wake up to go to the multi-zone conference

Traveling to the multi-zone conference with all of the missionaries in the zone. As you can tell, we are all tired.

February 11, 2019

Abrea is 17 years old now?? I remember just like it was yesterday when she turned 16 and was super happy to start dating!! haha. She is growing up and getting too old!! Can you believe that next month I turn 19?? That is crazy to me! I still feel really young and I am not saying that 19 is old it is just crazy!

I cannot believe that snow is still falling back home!! So I am guessing that there is still a lot of snow outside on the ground then?? Snow snow snow for you guys back home and sun sun sun for me out here in Ghana!! Are you still loving the snow or are you ready for it to move on?? I am sure that mom is totally ready for the sun to come back but I remember that dad loves the snow and always wants more.

Anyway, this week was a pretty good week, nothing too exciting happened out here this week except we had our multi-zone this week and man that day was rough!! In order to get to the place that they were having our conference at on time we had to leave the apartment by 4 in the morning so when my alarm went off at 3:15 in the morning I was a little not happy!! Haha that day was super rough but the conference was super good!! We also found out that Sister Jean B. Bingham, General Relief Society President and Sister Bonnie H. Cordon, General Young Women’s President are coming to speak to us on March 3rd so that will be pretty cool to see and hear from them!

I love you all and I miss you a lot! I hope all is going well back home!!
~Elder Shirley

Questions and Answers

Q. Please tell us about your new area: vegetation, the ward, the members, where you buy groceries, water, food, your living conditions, etc.
A. The new area is just like my last area just bigger and a little more urbanized. It is still nothing like the way things were back home but there are just some more places that I can buy things from. The area is very dusty because the roads are mostly just dirt roads out here. The branch out here is very less active but it gives us work to do. The branch presidency is super awesome and the 1st counselor is actually doing pathway right now through BYU-I and he plans to go to BYU-I like end of next year so you might actually get to meet him someday which would be super cool. Our living conditions are perfectly fine and you do not need to worry about that.

Q. About how many miles do you track a day?
A. Every day we walk a lot!! Some days it depends on how many lessons we have but there is definitely a lot of sweat coming every day because it is so hot and a lot of walking so it is not easy but it is rewarding. It was not easy for our Savior so it should not be easy for us as his servants.

Q. What is your contacting like? Just walking around your new area? Contacts from members? knocking on doors?
A. A lot of our contacting just comes from us walking around the area and talking to people that look like they are not doing anything at that moment in time. Almost never knocking on doors because most people do not sit inside their houses, they find a shady place so it is a little cooler than sitting inside.

Q. Do you work with a lot of other companionship's? Who is one of the elders that you really like to be around?
A. I do work some with other companionships and there are some really cool elders around here, some of them being Elder Villa from my first area, Elder Stapley who is in my apartment right now and he is the zone leader, There are many more that I feel close to as well.

Q. What did you do in the ward this past Sunday to serve?
A. Each Sunday we try to help teach in the classes as well as I gave a talk yesterday and I talked about ministry and how we can minister. I did not write anything down because they told me to only speak for 5 minutes and 5 minutes now is super easy so I shared a couple scriptures and talked, my talk ended up being about 7 to 8 minutes and I think I did a pretty good job.

Q. Do you get very many opportunities to do service projects? If so, what?
A. We do not really do service projects rather just find ways to serve people while we are out. Small examples are we help people fetch their water from wells, or help with their farms during the day, small things like that. Or help them pound fufu.

Q. Please share your growing testimony with us.
A. My testimony to keep it short and simple is just that I know that through my Savior Jesus Christ everything is possible, no matter how hard things may get sometimes if I rely on my Savior then I can make it through any situation!