My New Companion, Elder Adegboyega

Oh boy, its good to be a missionary right now!! This week has been AWESOME!!! Well as i said last week, i am training a new missionary and so I found him on Tuesday haha. Tuesday morning, we sent off the departing missionaries from the airport, and then Tuesday afternoon we picked up the new missionaries also from the airport. There was two Elders that came and so i had a 50/50 chance. Tuesday evening we had in-field orientation with all the new missionaries which is where we basically just introduce ourselves and they do the same, and then there is dinner and then testimony meeting.

On Wednesday i went to the mission home and waited all morning until President called the trainers in to announce who we would be companions with, and my new companion is.... (ha mom, i know you wont be able to pronounce it) Elder Adegboyega!! He is from Nigeria. Born in Ogbomoso and currently living in Lagos. He is a convert, he was actually baptized a few months after I was in 2005 hah, he was 13 when he was baptized and he is now 25! He is the sweetest and most humble missionary I've met and this morning he bought ketchup to put in his stew, thinking it was oil... got to the apartment and well, it wasn't oil... that is him, its been probably my favorite week of mission so far, I am seriously enjoying with him!! 

And if Elder Adegboyega doesn't make this week great already, it adds to the greatness to see the new ward where we are serving. We are in the Nkoransa Ward here in Kumasi, and I am so thankful to be here. We actually have a legit ward, with a SWEET Bishop who is always ready to work with us, whether he comes with us to teach or calls someone else to help. The Stake Patriarch is in our Ward, along with like 3 high councilmen from the Stake, and plenty of returned missionaries. Oh man its like being in paradise right now for me after serving in 4 small branches that rely very heavily on the missionaries... It is also the first time that i have been in a place that had over 100 people at Sacrament meeting. That was really nice for once ha! We are seriously enjoying the area and the people here. Although there is so much Twi here cause we are somehow getting towards the bush, we have some small villages in our area, but the members are working with us so much, so its not even a problem to have Twi, things are great here!!

The Spirit is strong right now being with and training Elder Adegboyega. Yesterday after Church, we were contacting and just trying to find anyone who would let us sit down and talk with them. We had like 6 or 7 straight people who said they were either Twi, or they were too busy or that "they had had enough religion today when they went to Church." and i was just getting tired and annoyed.. And we turned and went one road more, and there was a couple sitting outside their house, and from the far distance we were, it looked like an old lady, and if you know old ladies in the bush, none of them know English haha... so i was thinking 'oh great another mente...' But when we got up there we stopped and i realized that the man and woman were both really quite young, and there was 4 kids around them. We stopped, introduced ourselves and they stood up and got us chairs right away without us asking to sit. We realized that the woman (Ca) and the children spoke great English, but the father's (Sml) English was very small so the young son, Eh, who was probably only 10 years old translated and read from the English and twi bible. That is very rare for a boy like that. But we taught them about how their family could be sealed together for eternity if they were able to enter into a temple and be sealed by someone who holds the Priesthood Authority of God. They were so happy to hear that, and they said they want to be sealed, they want to come to church, and want their family to be together in the Church. So we are way excited for them and so thankful for Heavenly Father leading us to their family!!

Well I am enjoying mission. Can't believe how fast its going, and these two transfers are gonna be quick ones cause of the fun we are having together and the work we are doing!! But we are going to make the most of it all!!

I love you all!! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Porritt

Me with the Assistants haha... 

Found Mr. Prince sporting this classic T shirt!

Chopping TZ

My Boy!!

Nkoransa and A New Companion

Another week gone and not sure where it actually went, it feels like i just emailed yesterday. But its been a crazy week preparing for transfers which are coming up on Wednesday. And for me, I have some pretty exciting news! I am actually leaving Daban, and I am going to Nkoransa. Nkoransa is also here in Kumasi, so its just close to where I am at, and there I will be training a new missionary!! I am so excited!  I don't know who my new missionary will be yet, I will find out who he is on Wednesday and then we will go to our new area! The other cool news is the new assistant replacing me is my former companion, Elder Motloung from South Africa!! He is a sweet Elder and he will do awesome here with Elder Lindley!

Throughout the week, we have been working to get everything ready for the transfer, that includes all the travel plans and preparing for the training of new mission leaders.

A few highlights for the week, yesterday at Church, Sister Bernice was confirmed! That was a sweet moment as well! And yesterday I bore my testimony in church as well. I am really sad to leave the awesome people in Daban, but still I'm also excited to go to another new place, another new companion, and meet new people. That is why mission is such a great experience!!

Well that is about it for the week! I'll get more information next week about my new companion and new area! 

I love you all!

Elder Porritt

After Church on Sunday!

Our apartment had a gigantic pile of old torn up clothes cause a lot of missionaries end their missions here... well got rid of that!

The Miracle of Sight

Kwame  Amanfoh is from Ghana and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.  He works for Charlotte Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat as an ophthalmologist technologist.   Twice a year he travels back to Ghana for three months and runs Victory Vision Care.

He does not charge for eye examinations and only a tiny fee for glasses.  On some occasions I have seen him give glasses free to people.

He is incredibly generous and kind,  and many people who would not be able to afford glasses now have improved vision because of his  charity clinic.

Seven years ago Gifty Andoh was using drops in her eyes for the condition glaucoma.  She would buy her drops every two weeks from a local hospital.  She had reasonably good sight and could see everything.  One Friday she went and bought her drops.  The senior eye nurse said they were from a different supplier but the same as her old ones.  After using the prescribed drops three times over a twenty four hours period she was blind.  She had twin daughters who were twelve when this happened.  She went to several doctors in different towns and the prognosis was the same each time. Her eyes were ruined. In Ghana there is no compensation in anyway for such an occurrence, or government help.  For seven years she has had to depend on her husband or children.

Yesterday I told Kwame about Gifty and he said bring her in to see me.  He discovered she had a very small tunnel of sight in her right eye.  The left eye was sightless. He tried several prescription lenses on her and then the miracle occurred.  After seven sightless years Gifty could read letters on the wall chart.  When we first arrived and he asked her about herself she told Kwame I would just like to see my girls.  Her wish was granted today.  In bright sunlight she described what Zenita her daughter was wearing in detail and then she hugged her.  It was a very heartwarming moment for Elder Wood and I, Kwame and Zenita.

Kwame has arranged for Gifty to have prescription glasses made and Zenita and I chose pretty red ones for her.  A small miracle today in Techiman and some very happy people. 

Zenita, Gifty Andoh with her gorgeous new glasses provided by Kwame, and Kwame on the right. 

A Miracle Happened

Hello everyone,

Well this week was pretty crazy, and awesome at the same time!! Last Monday we were in Tamale, and starting Tuesday and from Tuesday to Friday, we had a Zone Conference each day. On Tuesday we had the Tamale Zone Conference, then Wednesday we had one for Techiman and Sunyani Zones, and then Thursday and Friday were split between the 4 Kumasi Zones and the 2 other South Zones.  While we were in the North, I got the chance to visit with some of my favorite people in Techiman where I served my first 6 months, and got the chance to see Sister Andoh, one of my converts, the one who is blind, and it was just great to get the chance to visit with her. Her twin daughters just graduated from high school and they are planning on going to the Temple in Accra to be sealed together with the family in July or August!! I am so happy about that!!

This week, a miracle also occurred for Andoh. She has been sightless for around 7 years and on Thursday (so the day after I left Techiman) she went into an eye doctor who was able to see out of one of her eyes for the first time in 7 years!!! I will also attach a small story that was written about it by one of the senior couple missionaries here!! I am so happy, and I just am praying that I will have the opportunity to see her again before I go home so that I can see her now that she can see small!!

The hardest but also sweet part of this week was telling Elder and Sister Wardle goodbye. They left on Saturday.  At the Zone Conference on Thursday, they had the opportunity to bare their final testimonies, and they left most of us missionaries teary eyed. The Spirit was so strong and the love that all the missionaries have for the Wardles is unbelievable, they are really going to be missed. We also got to attend their departure devotional at the mission home on Friday night. That one, there wasn’t quite as many tears, but it was also a great meeting and the Spirit was so strong!! We also got to meet Elder Wardles Sisters and their husbands, and among those were Brother and Sister Olsen, which is the parents of Brother Olsen who was my seminary teacher in high school. That was such a great experience to meet them and get to talk to them for a while!

The other highlight of the week was yesterday. Yesterday was such a great Sunday for me!! First of all it was Mother’s day and it was so great to get to talk to mom!! I am so thankful for my momma and all she has done for me! But the other great part of the day was the fact that both Yw and Brn were on time to Church, and Sister Brn was baptized by Elder Lindley after church!! The Baptism was great and Yw also witnessed it and is excited, he wants to be baptized, but we are still really struggling to help him overcome his addictions so we are still trying and still praying!!

Well the work is going on good, its been a great week, and its just crazy that time is going the way its going. The Church is true. I know that Thomas S. Monson speaks with God and knows His will for us, if we follow his teachings, we will always be holding tight to the iron rod.

I love you all and hope you have a good week!!

Elder Porritt

Sister Andoh

Sister Bernice is the one on the left, and Elder Speakman and Elder Ayim also baptized a lady called Vida the same day!!

Bernice and her niece Lydia!

This morning we whooped the Abuakwa district at home our court!!

The Wardle's last night...

Mission is the Greatest Experience!

Hello all, just Checking in from Tamale!!! We are on another road trip!! We have Zone Conferences this week and tomorrow is the first one up here in the heat of Tamale. Anyway...Another week gone... It was quite a good one though. This week we had a few meetings that went really well. It seems like the weeks where we have meetings, that week just flies by..

This week, on Wednesday, we had a training for the new missionaries who just came this transfer and their trainers, so that was great to get to see all of them again after a few weeks and hear some of their successes and funny stories that they have to tell. During that training, at the end, we always play the video "Missionary Work and the Atonement" That Video is one that I could watch over and over and over again and never get sick of it, and I would continue to feel the Spirit each time I watch it. It helps me so much as a missionary, to face the trials that I face each day, and to press forward even when times get tough, or when I feel I am so exhausted that I can't go on. I love a quote that President Eyring has in that video, he says 'when I find myself drawn away from my Priesthood duties by other interests, and when my body begs for rest, I give to myself this rallying cry: Remember Him!'  This has also been one thing that I try and do whenever I feel those same things, when I am drawn away to other things in my mind, or when I am tired, when I focus on the Savior, I have always found a strength that I couldn't find anywhere else. I would encourage everyone to go and watch that video, it is great, not just for missionaries, but for anyone and everyone!

Thursday, we had Mission Leadership Council. It is always one of my favorite things to gather with all the other leaders in the Mission and talk about how things are going throughout the mission. During the Leadership Council, we reviewed Elder Bednar's recent talk in General Conference about being called to the work, and there was also one quote that stuck out to me during his talk that I think applies to all members of the Church, he said 'as you love being worthy, you will become a mighty instrument in the hands of the Lord' and I know that is true because when we are worthy, we will have the Spirit with us and we will be led by the Lord to do what He may need us to do at any time.

The remainder of the week consisted of teaching Yw and Brn a few times, and preparing for the upcoming Zone Conferences that we have next week. We also had Stake Conference yesterday, and Brn was able to make it, and she really really enjoyed that meeting!! She was so bright and happy after the meeting, she is always making such great progress and we are looking forward to her baptism, which will probably be this coming Sunday, we hope!!!

Well, I love this work, my testimony grows each day and my love for my Father in Heaven and the Savior Jesus Christ grow with my testimony. I am so thankful for the love that our Father and His Son have for us, to bless us with so many things. The people of Ghana are so blessed and so faithful, and I am thankful to be here among the most amazing people there is!! Mission is the greatest experience one could possibly have!! I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!!

Love Elder Porritt

Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself

Hello everyone!! Time is FLYING!!! I can't believe it is already May... that is a scary thought!! It is hard for me to comprehend where time is going, cause it still feels like i just left a few weeks ago.. This week has been a week full of sweet surprises I guess, the first one is huge and I am way pumped for it, that Levi got his call to Trinidad, I know that is going to be such a sweet experience down there!!

Anyway, its been a good week, definitely better than last week being sick all week!! Even though i'm not over everything, we were able to go out and have a somewhat normal week. We got to go on exchanges with 2 zone leader companionships, and we got to spend some time in our area this week which is like precious time for us!

On Wednesday, I got to go on exchange with Elder Austin who is from Henderson, NV, and that was a blast, Elder Austin is a GENIUS, and he knows the scriptures better than most missionaries that i have ever met, he is such a sweet Elder and we had an awesome day together. That day, we got to see Yw, and he opened up to us again about some addictions that he is really struggling with at the moment, and that are really holding him back from being baptized. We helped him with some ideas and he committed to change. Before, he didn't really even have the desire to change, he was just content with living a somehow crappy life cause he has lots of money. Yw's parents live in the U.S. and so he is basically living here and just sitting at home all day every day and there is money coming in to him... So that is why he has been so content with everything in his life up to this point, but now he has realized that he cannot be content with sin and addiction. He knows that he has to overcome it and be baptized so that he can live a good life.  Elder Lindley and I also went to visit and follow up with Yw on Friday and had another sweet lesson with him. Every time we go there, we come away feeling so amazing and edified because Yw is always so glad to see us and so willing to learn and change. We are just trying to do anything and everything we can to help him to overcome his addictions so that he can be baptized here in a few weeks. He has been on date for baptism for such a long time but it always gets pushed back because he is not ready, but we are hoping and praying that he will be ready in the next few weeks!!

The other exchange this week was with Elder Burdge who is my TC which means we came on mission at the same time. Elder Burdge and I are great friends and it was awesome to go into his area in Kwamo and see some sweet people who they have been teaching there. That morning, they had a primary missionary activity that we got to help with as well where the primary children went around and gave out missionary pamphlets and invited people to come to church, it was one of the sweetest activities I have been a part of for a long time!! Saturday was a great day!

On another note, we have Sister Brn, who was a miracle sent from the Lord!! She is the one who just showed up to Church 3 weeks ago and has been coming ever since. She reads the Book of Mormon, she reads all the assignments we give to her and she has such great questions and thoughts to share when we meet with her to teach her. For her, she has been coming now for 4 weeks and she is ready and willing to be baptized, we are just trying to get the time to finish teaching her all the things that she needs to learn so that she can be baptized. We are really hoping that Brn and Yw can be baptized on the 13th or the 20th of May! We are so excited for them both!

In my personal study this week, I had one thing stand out that keeps ringing in my head, and it comes from Mark 12:28-34, I love how the Savior answers the question that the scribe asked him, he said 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.  It keeps ringing in my mind that "there is none other commandment greater than these." If we can do our best to love God and neighbor, then we are having charity, which Paul and Moroni both said is the greatest of all attributes that we can have.

I love you all, I hope you all can continue to develop your love for God and neighbor each day and fulfill those two great commandments!!

Love Elder Porritt

Primary activity in Kwamo

 Future Missionaries!!

This was one gigantic fufu...