2fers

Greetings friends! what a blessing it is to be alive and well today! all is well here in the coasts of ghana. Im alive and kicking, the church is true and the electricity is on, what else matters?! Life is good!

I received my new companion on Wednesday, Elder Azalwa from Uganda. He and I make a pretty old companionship, perhaps the oldest in the mission. he is preparing to return home the beginning of April and is very excited about that! He is the 9th of 10 children. some of his senior brothers are members of the church but no one else in his family are members. He also supports Arsenal and enjoys Ghanaian food (unlike Elder Kiwanuka who would literally run away from a plate of banku haha) I have enjoyed showing him our area and introducing him to our teaching pool. We have a lot of great work ahead of us in Latrebiokoshie! I look forward to serving with him!

On Thursday we attended Mission Leadership Council at the Temple site which was fun. I said goodbye to my Liberian mate, Elder Tolar, who returns home this week. I was really missing my liberian friends and the fact that i dont get to see all of them finish their missions strong... but all is well. Elder Bowering and I represent Monrovia well, too easy! The meeting was a great success, we discussed a mission focus for the months of Jan and Feb which we call "2fers". We are trying to remind ourselves why we as missionaries emphasis so many different tactics in spreading the gospel and boil it down to the main focus... that would be for each companionship to baptize 2 investigators, rescue 2 less active members and help 2 recent converts attend the temple for the months of both Jan and Feb. All in all, we should be helping 12 different people progress in making and keeping covenants- fulfilling our purpose as missionaries!  

It is definitely a stretch goal for us as an entire mission, particularly for my personal companionship, but with a bit of pep talk from our mission president, my companion and i were able to develop the faith needed to get started on finding these people. We actually are starting to see our seeds grow! This saturday our ward mission leader is planning to accompany 2 Rc's to do some baptisms in the Accra temple! we are so pumped about that! We have been having FHE's with some less active members in addition to teaching them lessons and so far, we have had 2 different individuals from these families come to church!!! woot!! just working on the remainder of the family members now! :) and as far as baptisms go, we are preparing sister Felicia for this Sunday to baptize. She witnessed a baptism service yesterday and seems to be confident and certain about her own this coming Sunday! woot again! :) where our second baptism will come from i dont know yet, but time is still there! miracles happen!

So that is the main topic of discussion amidst us missionaries in our meetings and whatnot... how each companionship is going to achieve this goal for these first two months of the year. Tomorrow is my first Zone Training Meeting here in kanaeshie zone and this will be the main topic of discussion. im excited!

Hmm, what else... Ghana is experiencing a pretty intense Harmattan season this year. We are feeling the full brunt of it this week. The Harmattan is a time of year when it becomes extremely dry and dusty from winds that blow dust from the neighboring deserts through the air which causes intense dust and haze to fill the atmosphere. It means that our clothes get dirty within about 1 minute of wearing them... haha especially our white shirts. Our apartment is completely open with nothing but screens to keep out the gusts of dirt coming into the room. My desk and bed and even ME are covered with dirt every morning/ afternoon/ evening. Its not a big deal until it starts affecting your eyes and you have huge chunks of dirt coming out in your eye bugars... haha and of course, it even finds its way into your lungs and makes for some nice coughing now and again. Its cool! not...

I would say the coolest part about the Harmattan is that the dust is so thick that you can sometimes look strait at the sun and not feel a thing. the temperature is also much cooler this time of year, especially at night. its probably cooled down all the way into the 80's during the day and low 70's sometimes at night. Im actually using my airplane blanket at night sometimes! life is good!

Well, I finished the BOM this week. I took time to thoroughly study the entire book this round through, taking all of december and much of Jan and Nov. to go into depth. I loved it! I wonder if perhaps many times i have neglected the meaty portions of Mormon and Moroni because i am so eager to finish. It was fun to see so many great and new scriptures to share with investigators this round through. I began my study of the NT today. I am really loving my time to study the gospel so much as a missionary!

I dont have any incredibly exciting stories this week unfortunately... life in the city as a missionary is a bit more dull i guess. A small boy called me Obama this week which gave my comp and i a pretty good laugh. that was the first time for that! haha :) thanks for the love and support! i couldnt serve without it!

till next week,

Elder Fairwell