Greetings and Salutations!
To start things off, we went to the temple today. Many of the Africans hadn't been through the temple yet, so it was an amazing experience for us all as we, the NA's (North Americans as we're referred to by the MTC President) got to escort those who hadn't been through yet. It was great, I got to escort my companion, Elder Kiiza. It was truly a spiritual experience for everyone. I love that we have a temple here to enjoy!
Another awesome thing that happened was we got to watch a talk given by Elder Bednar (at the Provo MTC last summer). The main point of his talk was to answer the question, "How do I know if a thought/feeling is me or the Spirit?" The answer he gave was basically - don't worry about it. If we're being good boys, good girls, keeping our covenants, and keeping the commandments, then our thoughts, minds, and wills are aligned to the Lord's, and they become guided as if the Spirit's promptings were our own. He then gave examples to further point out that while some are direct promptings from the Spirit, most promptings indirect and aren't even recognized as promptings until a period of time later when viewed from hindsight. He then said that if we just "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ" then the Lord will trust us to make the right choices, our thoughts will align to what He's thinking. It's great, because it shows that when we think we should do something - so long as it's not a sin, but good - we need not worry if we came up with it, or if the Spirit did. Just do it, and stop worrying about it. After his talk, the first thing that popped into my head was "Just getting the opportunity to hear this talk is well worth these next two years of service to the Lord." The talk was such an epiphany for me! I'm amazed at how unbelievably blessed I have been already, and I've only been here 5 days! There truly is no other place I would rather be. This Work is the Lord's Work; I am so grateful to be given the opportunity to work in it an I will do all that is within my mortal capabilities and powers to serve the Lord and bring His wonderful children here in Ghana until Him.
BTW, on Monday we had a "Milestone," where we practiced greeting investigators. All the other groups got members role playing, but Elder Kiiza and I got an actual non-member. Of course initially, we didn't know who was actual investigators (or potential) and who was role playing so we just acted like he was in investigator and met with him, chatted, connected, learned about his family and then mentioned our message. He knew the Bible and the prophets of old, so we showed him how God still has prophets today and why we need t hem (Amos 3:7, D&C 136,37) and connected it to the prophet Joseph Smith and the Restoration. He said he'd never heard that before, but would like to hear it again. We made an appointment for Tuesday (after committing him to pray and ask if it's true). Turns out, Isaac (this guy) was an actual non-member (as mentioned) so Elder Kiiza and I are working on teaching him the Restoration. Unfortunately it rained Tuesday, so he couldn't make it to the chapel (where he studies the Bible) so we hope to meet him on Thursday. He doesn't have a phone, so we just have to hope to catch up with him when he comes to study.
I hope all is well with you! I love you all, take care and God bless!
(then he asked to send him a Book of Mormon in Twi (Asante) - whatever that is :-)
That was a great talk; I interpreted it at the time. When a sitting stake president, he launched a stake Saturday night meeting, then took off with one of his elders' quorum presidents to attend a basketball game their sons were playing in another city--something that didn't sit well with him intellectually. However, the elders' quorum president's son was killed shortly afterward.
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