New Adventures Await in Alajo

Elder Shirley and his new companion Elder Chemese (on the right)

With a couple of the members in Alajo

The church in Alajo

View of Accra from the church in Alajo

February 3, 2020

Hey hey hey! 

This week has been great and also a change in things because I am in a new area! I have been transferred to an area called Alajo and I am super happy to be here. I am now back in the deep city which stinks (literally) a little bit! Haha. But anyways all is well. 

So last week Monday we went to the beach with our District and it was so much fun!! We just played around on the sand and ate coconuts, everyone had a lot of fun and the ocean breeze felt nice!! After that I had to pack all my things to prepare to leave the next day. 

Tuesday was the day that I left the area and I was super sad to leave that area because I have also grown so close to the members there in that ward and I know that I will have lasting relationships with them. Anyways left the area and my wonderful companion (Elder Manakofua) and headed out for a new experience. 

Thursday we had a full day of proselyting and I thought the day went really, really well. We met with a husband and wife where the wife has wanted to come to the church but has been waiting for the husband’s permission. This was my first time meeting these people, but as we were talking with the husband, he just started telling us things that basically was the way Joseph Smith described his life. He was talking about how is so much confusion in the world and how at every church people are teaching different doctrines and things in a different way and that he is very confused. But he told us that as we have been coming there he sees us like angels that bring him into the light. He praised us and after we had been there for an hour it was time for us to go but he was like “I just don’t want you guys to leave”. He told us that something in his head just keeps on telling him that he needs to come to the church, so we are really hoping that he starts coming! He has had so many questions about the truth but we always turn him back to the Book of Mormon which has been able to answer all of his questions. Man, that book is so powerful. He is being brought into the light little by little but I know they will come to know the whole truth. 

The other experience I will tell you about is an experience with another person that we are teaching here. Her name is Gifry. She is a single mother who lost her husband awhile back and has one son. The two of them have their church that they attend. The church they attend is called The Assemblies of God. As we have been teaching them they were praying to know the truth and on Tuesday Sister Gifty said that she could still feel nothing. We just tried to help her understand the way the Spirit speaks to us. We went again to her on Friday, this time with her son, and asked her if she had received an answer to her prayer. Both of them said that they had felt peace and knew that the church is true while they prayed, but still did not know if it would be possible to leave their church because of their friends there and how much they love their church. The mother told us that they would come to the first hour of church and then leave to her church for the second hour. Sunday came around and they came to sacrament meeting. Gifty has been to church 4 times now but it was her son’s first time coming. After the first hour as they were leaving to their own church, the boy looked at his mother and said I don’t want to go, I want to stay here. So the mother left and her son stayed with us at church. When we went to talk with them after at their house, the boy (Junior) explained to us that it was not going to be as hard as he thought to change churches. This made me so happy as I knew the Spirit had converted him unto the truth after one visit to the church. 

This example shows a great example how if we are completely open to the Spirit and its prompting then it really is not that hard to follow it. The mother who already has an idea in her mind that she cannot leave her church is pushing away the spiritual factor of being in the truth while her son came with an open heart and open mind and felt the love of the Savior throughout the sacrament meeting so much that he did not want to leave what was so good. This makes me ask the question to each of us. Do we already have ideas so much in our mind that we are not open to the Spirit and its prompting of where he wants us to go rather than where we want to go? The Spirit is there to guide us if we let it but if we push it away than we cannot follow it. Let us always be open to the spiritual promptings that are given to us each day. 

It has been a great week and I am excited for the new adventure coming in a new area!! Love you so much!! 

-Elder Shirley