Farewell Conference for Our Mission President

June 24, 2019

This was a great week with some fun things that happened.

On Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder Bailey from Kansas and he is a really good guy. We had a couple lessons and I was able to learn a lot from him. We prepared a couple of people for baptism and he taught me some ways to contact some people better. On Wednesday I was on an exchange with Elder Oldham from Alaska and he will be going home in just 2 short weeks. He is a super great guy and super humble. Such a great example of a good missionary. We also had some good lessons and it was fun.

On Thursday we had our farewell conference for our mission president who leaves this coming week. I am super sad to see him go because he has been such a great impact on me but I am excited to see the new changes that the new mission president will bring. The farewell conference was really nice and we went over everything that he has taught over the last 3 years that he has been here. On Saturday we were able to have our baptism and it was successful!! I am super excited for all of them that got baptized this week! they are great people.

Anyways it was a great week for me and I am still enjoying my life here in Asuom, Ghana.

~Elder Shirley

Questions & Answers:

Q. How do you study the Come Follow Me program? Do you do it by yourself each week or in your companionship?
A. Ya usually I look over it on Sunday's by myself and a lot of the times I teach from it on Sundays when they need an extra teacher which is often haha 

Q. How did you teaching go this week? Any updates? 

A. This week was a good week of teaching. We will have 2 more baptisms this week and 2 from last week. We also set another school teacher for a baptismal date and he has a lot of questions so it is fun to teach him and answer his questions. It just goes to show that there really are a lot of lost people in the world that do not understand simple truths.

Q. What is the funniest thing that happened to you this week?
A. The funniest thing that I probably saw this last week was probably this little boy named Kwame. He is Benedicta's youngest brother and is 8 years old. He started just running around and acting like a goat and literally sounded just like a goat. You had to be there for it to be funny but he is quite the ball of energy and super funny. There are a lot of goats in Ghana so they see them all of the time.

Q. As you look back on this past 10 months of serving a mission, how has your relationship changed with your Heavenly Father?
A. My relationship has increased so so much and I really do feel his love everyday as I strive to live worthy of the holy Ghost. It is really hard to describe but I definitely have felt an increase of love in my life.

I Would Not Trade This For Anything

June 17, 2019

This week was a great week and the work is going great!!

This last week we were able to progress 4 people to be ready to be baptized this coming Saturday as long as everything goes the way that it is supposed to go. The work right now is really progressing in Asuom. Also, this week at church the attendance of the meeting was a lot higher than it normally is which is awesome because a lot of the less active members came back to church this week and the spirit was strong during the meeting.

After church on Sunday we were able to meet for the first time with 2 school teachers from the same school in a lesson and the lesson was really powerful. You could really feel the Spirit in the lesson and I have high hopes for each of them. They were just explaining how they see so many different churches, "prophets", and things like that around the world that they are just confused so they stopped attending church. In Ghana this is very true, there are so many different types of churches that it confuses a lot of people. Lots of people build their churches and call themselves prophets. It is basically like building a church is a very popular way to get a job. Sad to say but it is true. The good thing though is that everyone believes in God and Jesus Christ we just have to help them understand about how they can find truth.

I am still loving the opportunity that I have to be a missionary and I would not trade it for anything right now. Take time and always make sure to read your scriptures, that is your spiritual comfort, guidance and protection that you can give yourself throughout the week.

Anyways have a great week! Love you!
~Elder Shirley

Questions & Answers:

Q. Did Moses and your comp like listening in yesterday? (Elder Shirley called for Father’s Day) You could sure feel the admiration of your comp towards you!
A. Ya they did like to listen in yesterday. My companion really does love me and respects me so I will miss him a lot. I also have been helping with some things which is good. That is why we are put into companionships. I will also miss him a lot too!

Q. When your mission President leaves, do you have a big meeting or anything? Do all the missionaries come together? I guess what I am asking, what is the day like?
A. We have a farewell conference with him on Thursday this week but it will just be with our zone of 18 missionaries and it is only a 2 hour meeting so it should not be anything too big I do not think but we will see. I am sad to see him go but excited to see what the new mission president brings to this mission.

I Have Seen The Power of God Through Priesthood Blessings

June 10, 2019

Q. What is the hardest physical thing you face each day?
A. I think the hardest physical thing that I face each day is just walking around in the SUPER hot sun every day!!

Q. What is the hardest thing you face each day among the people?
A. The hardest thing among the people is the language but besides that it is just to get the people to develop the faith to come to church. There are so many different churches around here you would not believe it. The place that I am in is probably like the size of Sugar city and there are over 20 different churches here. It is crazy. People make churches as a job here so it is hard for people to really know truth.

Q. I taught a lesson today in YW about the priesthood. Could you please share with me how the priesthood has blessed your life?
A. The priesthood is everything. Without the priesthood there is no difference between us and the rest of the world. If we have the faith of the blessings of the priesthood we literally can unlock the powers of God and he will be able to bless us. I have been able to do a lot of priesthood blessings and I have seen the power of God. So I love to be able to hold the priesthood and to be able to use it to serve other people.

Q. How is the language and the lessons going for your area?
A. The language is coming little by little but I will never be fully fluent. The lessons are coming along too but we are having some problems with some people because of just different life problems like one lady want to come a member but because of traditions of a woman having to go to the husbands church she cannot leave unless she gets permission from the husband and the husband does not like the church so we are praying for the husbands heart to be softened. Also another guy that got arrested a while ago that we are teaching but he got arrested for nothing and now the case has already been solved but they still want to hold a case just to get money. The situation is weird but overall it is just annoying because it is holding this man back. I will just keep praying and putting my faith in the Lord.

Q. What is like being District Leader? What is a typical day or week like for you now with those responsibilities?
A. It has been actually really fun to be a district leader. Like this week I did 4 baptismal interviews for some of the other elders in our district candidates. So that has been super cool. It is not too much more responsibility but it is nice

Q. Last week you mentioned you have not had a hot shower in 9 months. So, how do you take a shower or bath?
A. Like we have a normal shower but there is no water heater so we just take our showers in cold water! Haha sometimes in the morning you really have to talk yourself into showering because it is not fun to jump into a cold shower first thing in the morning hah.

Q. How is your companion doing with his sickness? Have you gotten sick? Hope all is well for both of you?
A. We are all good now, both of us are healthy.

Q. What responsibilities did you do this last week at church?
A. This last week I taught the YSA class, so that was a lot of fun. Just to help out the ward in any way possible.

Q. You mentioned that you can speak Twi? How did it come to you when it is not a written language? How did you study and learn it?
A. I can speak a little bit but the only way that I have learned so far is just by listening to other people speak and I just learn that way. By voice

Q. Any miracles or tender mercies this week that you would like to share?
A. This week the miracle would probably just be that our whole district was able to have baptisms and we had a really spiritual baptism with 8 people. It is not very often that every companionship in a district has a baptism on the same day.

Q. Is there anything we can help pray for? We pray for you always, but are there any specifics?
A. The only request that I would say to pray for is 2 people, their names are Samuel and Regina. One is having problems leaving her church because of traditions here in Ghana where you have to go to the same church as your husband and the other one is just having a problem with a court case that he did not even do anything wrong. Both people are very serious and could be baptized!!