Looking Forward to 2020

December 30, 2019 

Well I just sent an email just a couple days ago but I can give you a quick recap of what has happened since then. Honestly, being in Kasoa for the holidays has been really great because they know how to have fun here in this stake and ward! 

On Friday, we had a normal day of proselyting which was really great because before that the week was really busy with doing different things with members and missionaries so I was really excited to get back to work on this day and it was a great day of proselyting. We were able to find 3 new people to teach that day, one of them we have great hope for. He is a Nigerian who was taught by other missionaries before a couple times and then we were able to teach him again. He told us that he had prayed to know if the message was true before but never received an answer. Then we came to him and he said now I know what you guys teach I have to take it seriously because you have come around again. We then asked him if he has specifically asked God if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and he said no. We then invited him to pray and ask specifically if Joseph Smith was truly a prophet of God. We also taught him more about the Book of Mormon and I really feel like he can progress. We are hoping he has the faith to get the answer! 

Saturday we had a stake party all day long from 9:00am - 6:30pm in the evening. It was truly a lot of fun with different games planned like volleyball, soccer, and other different little games that a lot of people got to participate in. There was also a bouncy house and swimming pool for the primary children. We also ate some food and overall it was a great time. The cool thing about it too was that 5 of the people that we are teaching came to the activity and had a lot of fun there and got to see that we know how to have fun too!! 

Sunday was kind of a frustrating day for me when a lot of our people that I was expecting to come to church did not make it and some of the recent converts that we have also did not come to church. As I was pondering on why this was happening and people were not fulfilling their commitments and recent converts not staying strong, I got a firm answer from the Holy Ghost that I just need to do better and re-teach them all of the lessons and then they will become stronger. 

What I know is that if we ask God direct questions he will give us direct answers. Sometimes we go through hard times in our lives and we just ask God to give us relief or to help us. But God wants us to ask him directly what we need help with and then he will help us. As we see in Ether 2:23, the brother of Jared, when he first asked God how he could receive light to travel across the ocean, God did not give him directly but asked him to figure out a way and then come back and ask again. The brother of Jared found a direct way and then asked God to light the stones so they could have light to travel across the ocean. From this he saw a miracle, even to see the finger of the Lord, all of this because he asked directly and had the faith that God would answer and fulfill his way. All of us should have the faith and ask God directly when we need his help. 

I am doing great out here and look forward to the new things to come in the year 2020!! This year is kind of a big year for me because it is the year I finish out my mission, start college, and start on a career path..... not to mention start dating again haha wow this year will be a great year and one to remember! Everyone start the new year right and put God first then everything else will fall into place!! 

Love you! 

-Elder Shirley 

Questions & Answers 

Q. What is the most beautiful gift you have received over Christmas week? 

A. The most beautiful gift that I think I received is the love from members here in this area. I really felt so much love from many of the families here that just take us in and provide for us because they know that what we are doing is so important. We were fed almost every day this week which is not too common in this part of the world. But I think between the 4 of us last week we spent less than 15 dollars on food which is crazy, that is including breakfast lunch and dinner. That was a big miracle that I noticed, as well as a gift. 

Q. Who has been a great example to you on your mission? 

A. There have been many great examples to me on my mission but most of the time the ones that stick out the most are the ones that I work the closest with. Those people being Elder Stapley, Elder Oldham, and Elder Burnett. Each of them really have shown me what dedicated focused missionary work is supposed to be like and I will be forever grateful for the example that they set for me. All of them are home now but they were all great missionaries. 

Q. Do you prefer serving in the bush or close to the city like you are now? 

A. I honestly like both of them, I just don’t like being deep in the city. This place is really nice because I can still buy things and people speak English but the bush was so nice, especially Asuom where I feel like I had a lot of success there. 

Q. What do you do to cope with the heat? 

A. Haha nothing, it is all a mindset, there is no way to run away or hide from it. You just deal with it and go through it. It honestly does not really bother me anymore it's just a normal thing. But I still remember that first day stepping off the airplane thinking oh boy, what have I gotten myself into. Now I soak it in and love every moment of it. I will love the snow though when I get back!! Haha!

Christmas #2 in Ghana

December 26, 2019 

Hey!! 

This last week or so has been great!! But I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas time where we get to reflect on the most important person in the whole world, that being our Savior Jesus Christ!! Wow so where do I even begin, we have had a lot happen since the last time that I emailed!! There still continues to be great success in the area and time still continues to work its way faster and faster as I enter into the last 3rd of my mission(8 months). As I look back on my mission I look back with complete joy and no regrets of what I have done so far. My mission has and will continue to shape me into the person that I hope to become for my future family! 

Last week we had a great week with our people that we are teaching and we were also able to find a good amount of new people to teach, some of which we think could progress. Our wonderful little family of a mother and her two daughters are still progressing towards baptism on January 5th, 2020 and are loving the church. It truly is wonderful how they are progressing because throughout their lives they have never really attended church and you can just see the pure joy of the Savior entering into them as we go to see them throughout the week and as they continue to come to church. We also have another wonderful sister that was baptized last Sunday and she is great. Most of her siblings are already members but now she is being baptized and joining them. She is 16 and her name is Queen. I did get the opportunity to baptize her on her request so I was very happy to do it for her!! 

We also have another man named James who was supposed to be baptized this last Sunday but we found out that he is not properly married and so he cannot be baptized. He then did not come to church on Sunday but we still have high hopes for him because he is a great man and loves the teachings and the church. 

There also is another man who is also progressing towards baptism on the 5th of January whose name is Edward. Edward was a great miracle because he actually contacted us on the road about 3 months ago, he has taken some time because of transitioning from one church to another but we feel like he has finally made the transition. Now he just needs to show the dedication. He also came to church this last Sunday and loves it. He told us that he will be coming again and also coming to the ward party on Saturday! 

This week has also been a great week where we had a mission devotional/party where we read the Christmas story, ate, had a talent show and watched Toy Story 4! We have also been blessed to be invited to member’s houses on Tuesday, Wednesday and today for Christmas activities that have made this Christmas season a lot of fun for us!! 

Last thing I will say is that the Savior is Christmas. Put everything else aside. Without Jesus Christ we don’t even celebrate Christmas. Remember the reason and always honor it because he is the reason that we have these family gatherings and have so much joy at this time of year. Our mission president put it best. We are celebrating his birthday, but yet we are all receiving gifts. Shouldn't we be giving the gifts back to him? So I would just like for all of you to ask yourself, what gift can I give back to the Savior this Christmas and then do it. Maybe that means to serve others more or to learn His gospel more. Whatever it may be find a way to give a gift back to Jesus Christ because it is his birthday!! 

Anyways I am doing great and always will be!! Love you!! 

~Elder Shirley

Opportunity to Teach With Elder Nash of the Seventy

Four of the zones in our mission at our mission tour conference with Elder Nash

My "second mother" in Ghana with my "sister" at a ward temple trip

Elder Shirley with some of the people they are teaching who came to church this week. He says "we surely do love all of them!"

At the Ghana temple

Elder Shirley with Elder Muchonji who is finishing his mission

Elder Shirley and his companion with another missionary who is going home, Elder Hurley

Visiting with some members from his last area

At the Ghana temple

Elder Shirley and his companion with Elder Nash of the Seventy and President Sanders after a day of proselyting

December 16, 2019 

Wow what a spiritual and uplifting week it has been this week! 

This week was so so busy with everything but I had a such a nice week. The first great thing that happened was on Tuesday I was able to go on an exchange with an amazing elder, Elder Evans, and that day was a great day. We were able to help one of our people that we are teaching hopefully prepare for baptism. She is set for date on January 5th. We also were able to find 6 new people to teach that day which is probably almost a record setting day for new people that we are teaching in 1 day. God blesses his servants for sure! 

Wednesday was a really special day where we had our mission tour with Elder Nash and his main focus of the mission tour was about 3 topics. 

1. Centering and rooting ourselves in Jesus Christ through repentance 

2. Loving, serving, teaching members and leaders 

3. Creating refuges of faith 

We talked about how we need to apply these aspects into our mission more so that the whole mission can then change and become better. It was a really inspiring conference that gave me a lot of insight on what I need to better each day. After the conference Elder Nash then asked for a short small meeting with the zone leaders and the assistants. So we stayed after and had a meeting with the 10 of us. He basically showed us what we need to do to help the mission apply these principles. Because so many times we all go to conferences and are spiritually blessed then 1 week later we forget everything that we learned at the conference which is not good. 

After that meeting me and my companion got the wonderful privilege of going to teach an appointment to one of our people with Elder Nash and President Sanders, our mission president. We drove with the 2 of them in president's car to the appointment and when we got there Elder Nash and President chatted with him for a little bit while me and my comp were talking with someone else. Well, we ended up bringing that other person into the lesson with us too so we had a wonderful lesson on the importance of church. The way it went is that me and my companion taught the lesson and President Sanders and Elder Nash both testified of everything. You can really tell when Elder Nash testifies that he truly and deeply knows the church is true. He is so passionate about everything he does in the church. It is really inspiring. President Sanders too is such a powerful and great man. The other guy that we brought into the lesson asked about the Book of Mormon at the end of the lesson because we were using scriptures from that book and he didn’t not know what it was so Elder Nash taught him about the Book of Mormon and then we finished. 

That experience of teaching with a General Authority was such a cool experience that will probably never happen again. Elder Nash told us that in the time he has been a General Authority he had rarely been able to teach with missionaries and that we were very lucky. Haha it truly was a great experience! After the lesson when we got back to the car he looked at me and my companion and said "When I look at the two of you, I see true servants of God". He told us that he was very impressed with our teaching and that because of what he saw he has no worries of us not being able to keep this area strong. 

On Friday we then had a meeting with Elder Nash and all the zone leaders in the mission. He taught us how to apply the things that we learned at the conference and how to help the other missionaries also apply it. That meeting was from 9-1. 

The last special amazing thing that happened to me this week is that on Thursday night before the Friday morning conference I got to stay in my last area and to see some of my recent converts. I learned that one of the people I baptized is now 2nd counselor in the primary presidency and another one of the people that I baptized is also 2nd counselor in the young women's presidency. I could see great growth in the gospel in them from when I left that area 4 months ago. What a special night to see them and talk with them for a little bit. They were very happy to see me and I was happy to see them too! It really showed to me the joy that is in this work!! 

Well sorry for the long email this week but a lot of amazing things have happened and it was a fantastic week!! I cannot believe how close it is to Christmas. Just know that this Christmas will be better for me than it was last year. Transfer news came and me and my companion are staying together again for a 3rd transfer and the members here will really spoil us!! We have Christmas meals/parties planned every day from December 23rd to the 26th and then we have our stake end of year party on the 28th so it will be a fun time!! I am doing great!! Enjoy the last holiday seasons without me being there!! I am loving my mission, like I love this work!! 

Love you so much!! 

-Elder Shirley

Life Is Great When You Are a Missionary

December 9, 2019 

Hey! 

This week was a really great week, just as every other week is!! Haha life is great when you are a missionary! This week on Tuesday I went on an exchange with another missionary named Elder Cornell, from Blackfoot, Idaho, and that day was a super cool experience. As the day started we went to our first appointment and we had planned to extend a baptismal date and as the lesson went on we were prompted to do so, so we did and she accepted. The next lesson we also planned that if by the Spirit we were prompted to extend a baptismal date we would. Well the Spirit prompted us again and we extended again. That made 2 appointments for the day both with baptismal dates set. 

We then went to our next appointment having no intention to extend a baptismal date but when we got there we saw a miracle. The boy that we were going to see is in a part member family where his dad is a member of the church but is less active. Since I have gotten here in August I have never met him because he is always working in Accra and has not been to church. Well that day we met him in the house with his son that we are teaching and we had a wonderful lesson together and the boy asked us if he could be baptized. That made it 3 lessons in a row with baptismal dates set. Following that lesson we met with some other people that also came to church this week and then the last lesson we extended another baptismal date and she told us that she would pray about it to see if it was right for her. All in all it was a day of great success which I was so grateful for!! 

We were able to also extend to 2 other people in the week and we really feel like our area is exploding right now with so many wonderful people that we are teaching. We were busy with different meetings that we had to travel back and forth from Accra and back which took away some of our time but we were still able to see great things happen each day. The last experience I will share is with a couple that we found about 2 months ago. The couple is from Nigeria and are both members but at the time we found them in our area they had both been less active for over a year and had even started going to another church. We found them that day about 2 months ago and set a return appointment with them. We came back and have been teaching them once a week. The woman has been a member since she was around 10 and is now in her late 20s and the man has been a member for 4 years. Anyways this last week we were studying the Come Follow Me lesson for the week and we were going over about how God is light and love and he shared with us that he knows God is love because he said "if it was not for Elder Shirley and Elder Manakofua then we would still be lost. But because of the 2 of you we have found our way back again." Wow! This really hit both of us hard! They are now both active and are coming every week. They are set to do their official marriage with the bishop in January and have invited us to attend. We hope to take them to get sealed soon after.

Missionary work is so wonderful and the miracles are endless with those who serve God! 

Thank you for all the prayers! I love you! 

-Elder Shirley