Dec 6: Come to Church

Sam's email from Dec 6:

"Dear Family,

As always thank you so much for the emails that you have sent. I am sorry that Dads cancer levels went up, but i have a good feeling about this nanoo technology, so i think everything will be okay.

This week has been a pretty good week for my companion and I. We worked our butts off and the Lord blessed us. We were able to find some sweet new people that we were able to get to come to church. We found an awesome family named the Ks. We first taught the father " Brother L" first and then we were able to get the family to join us the very next lesson.He is a very sweet guy that is a Taxi driver. We first taught him all about Jesus Christ and what he needs to do to follow him. Then we taught him about Joseph Smith and I don't think he really understood, but we could tell the spirit was there. We invited the whole family to church and they all said they would come. On Sunday though the only one to show up was brother L. Which didn't really surprise me because that is usually how it happens here in Ghana. The father will come first and then the family will follow later. So I am really hoping that next week we will be able to get the whole family to come to church. After church i was talking with brother L, he asked me a bunch of questions and he told me he really loved church. The questions he asked were all about what home teaching and things like that was.

Another great thing that happened to us is Sister G brought her family to church which i was so happy about. She brought her son J. and her daughter Ge. Early in the week Sister G and Ge were fighting really bad, but when they were at church it was like the were best friends. Gs Baptism is coming up next week and i am really excited. This lady has made a complete 180. She had a challenge with several commandments that she was able to overcome. She is so ready to be Baptized and i am so excited. I am praying like crazy that nothing bad is going to happen before that day.

Also we contacted a man named S a couple of weeks ago. He told us that he had been to the church several times in a different place in Ghana called Takradi. He had been taught by missionaries before us, so he already knew a lot. As we teach him i can tell he has a testimony. We were talking with him about baptism with him the other day and we invited him to be baptized, but he said he wasn't sure about it. So we invited him to pray about it and we went back the very next day. He said that God answered his prayer and told him that we were leading him in the right direction. So we again invited him to be baptized, but again he said no. I don't know why he is hesitant to make this step, i think it might be some hidden concern or something. We were able to get him to come to church this week and i really hope that helped him. We are going to go and see him on Tuesday and hopefully church did help.

I am learning on mission that getting someone to come to church is a huge tool. When we get people to come to church they feel the spirit that is there and it can be very powerful. The other day i interviewed a man for Baptism. And just before the interview started the man said to me " elder Beck i just want to say, that if i answer any question wrong, to please just teach me and i will learn. I may not know everything, but please i know this is where i am supposed to be. Every time i come here i feel so happy inside and i know it is true." i stopped him and said "don't worry you have already passed" It was cool to be a part of that.

The last person i want to talk to you about is J. J is very ready to be baptized.On Sunday he walked into church with his tithing envelope, ready to give it to the bishop. After his baptismal interview, the zone leader told me that J is very powerful and very ready. His Baptism is going to come on, on Saturday. We are going to try very hard to get his family to come to his baptism. Hopefully that will spark something with them. We have been trying to teach his wife, but she always makes an excuse when we come around.

My companion is doing a lot better this week. When he first got with me, we would go out and contact and he would have the hard time talking to people, but by the end of this week he was going up and contacting people like a champion.

That is about it for me this week. I am doing really good. My area is doing better everyday. I a super excited to talk to you all on Christmas. I hope you have a great week. I love you all so much. Thank you for all you do.

Sincerely Elder Beck"