"[We] were sitting at the table...... when we heard a voice from the bathroom, 'Elder Moore... Elder Moore! There's a giant scorpion in the bathroom.'"

With A., who took us in during a downpour

Dear Family and Friends,

            I got a call from the Assistants the other day, informing me that my MTC group will have to fly out on September 28, 2014. My year mark. It's a Sunday, so that's kinda strange. The reason is there will be a big mission president's seminar from October 14-18. They originally wanted to extend the two weeks again,but decided to just ship us early. So that's that.

            Elder Mocke was rudely interrupted in the bathroom this week. Elder Moore, Stoddard, and I were sitting at the table discussing Star Wars when we heard a voice from the bathroom, "Elder Moore... Elder Moore! There's a giant scorpion in the bathroom." Haha!  We ran in excitedly to find Elder Mocke hiding behind the curtain partition in their cramped washroom, with El Scorpio, AKA 'Captain Pinchy' sitting about a foot away from him in the corner. It's like they were having a staring contest. After laughing and taking pictures, we let Elder Mocke finish up. So he gets a Tupperware, catches the thing, and starts chasing Moore and Stoddard around the apartment to get revenge. It was hilarious, Elder Moore was terrified! So we poked it and took pictures of it. If you'd have laid it out claw to stinger it was over 6 inches, I bet. Since we failed to find any insects for it to victimize, we tried feeding it an English Yorkshire toffee. No dice. Elder Moore said he couldn't sleep until it was dead, so Elder Stoddard took Captain Pinchy outside and mutilated him with a shovel. What a champ.               

            In other news, I am pleased to announce that after nearly 19 months of faithful service in the Lord's vineyard, I got my hands on an electric guitar and a drum set. There was some church set up in the futbol park for an Easter celebration, and as we passed by on the way home, I stopped to seize my opportunity. I started some small talk with the guys hanging around the instruments, then asked to play the guitar. I tuned it and played some classics, like Sweet Child O' Mine, Sweet Home Alabama, Purple Haze, Johnny B. Goode, etc. One of the Ghanaians hopped on the drums and layed down a beat for me. Haha! It was so awesome! Then I got on the drums myself and immediately realized how rusty I was. I went to do a drum fill and just utterly stalled. It was incredibly fun though.

            Don't worry, while I dinked around, Elder Ma'afu had a solid gospel conversation with one of the guys watching Obruni play Obruni music, (anything a white man does here is entertaining). We got his phone number and we're planning to meet him tomorrow. Worth it.

            Earlier that same day, was the first time on my mission when one of our investigators actually said she got an answer to her prayer about our message. M. is a sweet lady we met a while ago and have been in and out of contact with. She just moved, so it's been hectic. As we reviewed, she asked us how we should feel when the Holy Ghost answers us. We answered that some people describe it was a warm, full feeling inside... Immediately she cut us off and said, "Oh, ok. I was asking because when I prayed about Joseph Smith, that's what I felt. I felt all warm inside.” We glady testified to her that that was the Holy Ghost. We gave her a BOM to read and pray over again.

            I was very surprised to hear her comment, because Africans in general are desensitized to the Spirit. Partly because this place is constantly filled with noise, chaos, and distractions. Partly because they don't know how to listen for the Spirit, they want to see real, physical evidence. (Ironically, even when we give them that in the form of the Book of Mormon, they don't read it). But no matter who you are, where you're from, or where you are, when you get a quiet moment to sincerely ponder and pray over the missionaries' message, the truth will be opened unto you.

            Elder Ma'afu and I were commenting on how one of our members had just performed a traditional coming-of-age rite for his daughters this weekend. Ma'afu said he was so surpirsed when he read the Law of Moses, because many rites and performances were nearly identical with some of his Tongan traditions. Even some Ghanaian traditions are similar to Mosaic Law. Wedding dowry, coming of age, sacrifices, etc. I know that Ma'afu's people came from Hagoth in the Book of Mormon, a Nephite who sailed away from the mainland around 55 BC. At that time, they were still practicing the Law of Moses. They were a part of the scattering of Israel. I know there were many others who were led away scattered throughout the entire world. That's probably why so many nations have all these similar traditions linking to each other and the Law of Moses. That's so interesting to me.

            In terms of missionary work, we had a down week. Not a lot happened, except we had two investigators come to church for the first time, so that's exciting. Coming to church is the biggest indicator of a sincere investigator in Ghana. 

 

Captain Pinchy