Elder Porritt in Ghana: We Basically Toured the Whole Upper Half of Ghana

Well this has been another one of the craziest weeks ever. We have been on the move this week and we have basically toured the whole upper half of Ghana... haha.

Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday we had our last 3 Zone Conferences with the Asouyeboa and Obuasi Zones, then Techiman and Sunyani, and finally Tamale, and those went really well! For the Conferences we have been instructing on how important it is for us while we teach our investigators to really listen to them, and be able to ask questions that are inspired by the Spirit so that we are able to help them to find the answers to their own questions for themselves instead of us just telling them all the answers we think are good and just leaving. But the Conferences really went pretty well! We were able to have every missionary also have time to practice it during the conference and then evaluate how it all went. Hopefully all the missionaries take it and apply what they learned, that is the biggest fear that I have at this point is that what we teach and learn with all the missionaries, i just fear that it wont be applied and it will be forgotten. But that is what we hope for is that all the missionaries will go back and apply it and be able to be more effective as they teach.

Well back to the tour hah, we started Thursday night, we came to Techiman (2 hour drive) and spent the night there in preparation for the conference on Friday, then Friday right after the conference in Techiman ended, we left for Tamale which is about a 3.5-4 hour drive. Saturday was our conference in Tamale, and directly after that Conference we packed the 4 Elders from Bolgatanga into the back of the Corolla and headed up to Bolga which is another 2 hours from Tamale. Bolgatanga is in the Upper East region of Ghana and it is far away from home (Kumasi). It is also hot like no other place i have been to here in Ghana. It is not like the rest of the places i have been, its not quite as humid , but the dry heat is sooooo much there, its hard to bear. And add the fact that this weekend there was no water in the Bolga apartment, they ran out on Thursday and weren't able to receive any, so we had no water to take a normal shower or to drink or cook, so we got to go and buy water sachets which is a little bag of water that is like a half a liter, and you use 3 or 4 to shower... that is 2 liters of water for a shower, now that is using your resources effectively hahah! Man it was a hot weekend but Bolgatanga is probably the sweetest place i have been aside from Wa last month. We got to attend Church in Bolgatanga and there was probably 100 or so people there, which is absolutely amazing considering the fact that the branch in Bolga was only organized under a year ago. The people there are so smart, every single person speaks good English, even the children speak fluent English!! It was so great to be there and see the progress of the Church there.

Anyway, we spent Sunday up there and this morning we went around with the Elders there getting some stuff done, and then we made the journey back down to Tamale this afternoon, and now we are currently in Tamale still. The rest of this week will be full of exchanges and we will make it back home probably Thursday or so! It has been such a great week!!

My thought for this week though, is from John 15:

which says: 18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

Many of you back home in Utah or in the US at all, you may not have had many times where people who were not of our faith really persecute you for your belief, but here, so many people are persecuted and hated for being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. For us missionaries we have daily occurrences of people persecuting us, mocking us, you name it. My thought is that we should be glad to stand for what is the truth. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true Church and I know that I will be blessed for standing up for that amazing truth. I know that people will ridicule us, they will fight against us, but we will come out of this fight on top.

I love you all and i hope you have a great week!!

Love Elder Porritt

Pictures From Zone Conferences E.Porritt & Hill