Mission complete.....

This week was a good week but it sure has been a rainy week.  We were working with the recent converts quite a bit and that was a lot of fun.  But on Saturday we went over to the Zone Leaders and made some fufu for dinner as the zone was receiving transfer news.  Of course we knew mine as I will be finishing my mission on Wednesday but sadly we found out that we are getting whitewashed.  My companion is going to the mission home to be the new financial clerk.  So.... it is fun.  Yesterday was a sad day... it hit me pretty hard that I am going home and will no longer be here in Ghana.  I have come to develop a great love for this place and the people here.  Over the course of my time here there has been many ups and many downs but it sure has been some of the best times of my life.  I am so thankful to have been able to serve my mission here in Ghana.  When I first came I absolutely hated it here... it took awhile but as you take a look around, you can realize all the good that exists around you.  The conditions here in Ghana aren't easy and I started in on of the worst areas in the mission, but it was good for me.  It has helped me learn perseverance, patience, diligence, among others.  I am far from perfect and I have much more room to improve, but I am grateful for how the Lord was able to help mold me here in Ghana.  I know that I have been helped greatly here and that I am probably the most benefited from my mission, but I am so happy to see the change that occurred in the lives of those around me.  Thank you for all the support that I had back home.  I love you all and I am excited to see you all soon.  Have a great week and take care. Yebeshia wai!

Elder Walston

One last Hurrah!

This week has been very good to us.  We have been blessed once again.  The week ended in a bang as we had two baptisms on Saturday for Alexander Kelly and Job Addae.  It was sweet to see both of them enter into the fold even as they were confirmed on Sunday.  Alex is 25 and Job is 32.  Alex I will have to say is probably the smartest investigator that I have taught while I was here in Ghana.  He simply just absorbs what we give him and he was doing personal readings from the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price as well.  He is from Accra but is doing his national service up here in Assin Foso teaching at a Senior High School.  A sweet guy...  He came up to me after the baptism and said "Thank you Elder Walston for everything."  It really touched me.  At first he wasn't a really serious investigator but as we have been seeing him these last four weeks he truly showed genuine interest and he found his answer.  I love that guy.  And Job is someone who we contacted my first Monday here in Assin Foso.  His local name is Kofi which is what I usually refer to him as.  He doesn't speak a lick of English however.  He is a farmer.  He just simply has a genuine desire and wanted to be baptized from the beginning, the only problem was that he traveled away to a farm.  But he is definitely committed. We will be working with these two a bit this week.  But the work is sweet and it continues to go on.  It is sad to think that this will be my last week as a missionary.  The members started to find out yesterday and I already have three people who said that they will be feeding me.  This week will be sweet and one that I am sure to cherish.  I love the people of Assin Foso and the people of Ghana.  Love you all and I hope that you have a great week as well!!!!

Elder Walston

Just keep on tickin'

Hey all!!  This week was a sweet week!  We were blessed by the Lord for sure.  This was our most productive week together here in Assin Foso.  We were blessed to get 18 member present lessons this week.  We have been blessed by the members help and support, especially one, Joyce.  We were working hard this week and the work is finally paying off.  We have been working with three investigators a lot: Kofi, Alex, and Evelyn. This Saturday Evelyn was baptized.  It went very well and she was confirmed on Sunday.  It was really good although she was extremely nervous.  The other two, Kofi and Alex, will be baptized this coming Saturday.  They are doing great.  Alex is a teacher at a senior high school here in Foso and Kofi is a farmer here.  They are great people.  It was cool to see but in investigators class one of the people were saying stuff against our beliefs but Alex was setting him straight.  It is cool to see the conversion some people come to have about the gospel.

Well.... ummm.... this week has been pretty rainny and pretty cold.  I wish that I had brought a jacket or something sometimes but it is okay.  I have been enjoying out here though!  Especially with the fufu!  Well... Love you all!!!!!  Have a great week!

Elder Walston

June has come....scary!

Hey all!!! Hope this last week on May presented you many wonderful surprises.  Our week here in Assin Foso was quite good.  We tried to focus ourselves a little better on the recent converts and less actives this week as we felt that we hadn't been spending enough time with them.  It payed off and was good.  We also have one investigator who is doing great.  Her name is Evelyn and she will be baptized on Saturday.  She is from a part-member family.  I am excited a lot for her.  But other than her, there are a few others that we are working with but they are all having their own issues.  But I think that it will all work out.  Both Kofi and Alex are looking promising as long as Kofi comes back from his travels and Alex becomes less busy.  But we are still doing work.  We were able to proselyte our area for 60 hours this week which is the best I have done since the mission started keeping track. Oh... one other cool thing that I was able to do is that President had all the missionaries who are going home in the next three transfers come to Cape Coast and be instructed on staying strong till we finish.  Which makes me think of a saying that I have hear, "Will I falter, or will I finish?"  But yeah... it was cool to see everyone there.  He had our groups set goals for what we can accomplish in the time before we go home. These next three weeks will end with a bang... I am sure of it.

Well... I love you all!  Hope you have a great week!  Take care!!

Elder Walsto

Heya Guys!

Hey everyone!  This week has been good.  It has started raining a lot more this week.  We also had a zone conference which was pretty good.  We were able to receive a few good instructions there.  It was good.  We were also blessed this week to be able to have one of our investigators, Kofi, who had traveled for the last three weeks return.  It is so nice to be able to see him again.  He is a sweet guy and he is already prepared.  

But the week has been good.  I love you all!  Sorry the email is short.  Love you all though!

Elder Walston

Wait.... It's May?

Hey all!  Hope that all has been well for you all!  This week was rather good for us here in the great Assin Foso.  We have been dealing with no water now for the last few weeks so they were trying to get a poly tank raised for us.  So... we got it up lifted the tank onto the stand and realized that it was too small!!!  That thing was heavy as well... so we took another two days trying to get everything fixed so that hopefully we will get some water soon and we won't have to continue fetching it bucket by bucket from the well.  But that was all good.  The work is going sweet here though.  We have everything picked right back up.  One sad part though is that our most progressing investigator, Kofi, has traveled for work for the last two weeks and we haven't been able to meet him.  But we have been blessed with a handful of others who are doing quite well.  One of them, Alexander, when we were discussing about the Book of Mormon more said that he had gone online and got the Gospel Library app and was reading everything... Pearl of Great Price, Book of Mormon and all!  That was cool.  He told us that he know that this is the truth.  He is just a little hesitant about making a commitment.  He is sweet.  He has been coming to church for the last three weeks now.  

So also on Friday we went on exchanges.  Elder Gyansah came to be with me in our area.  That was a lot of fun.  He is a great elder and a powerful teacher.  He is from Accra so he can speak the Twi and that was so nice to be able to meet the people and use it in the teaching.  I really wish that I could speak the Twi fluently enough to teach and get my point across.  Sadly I can only manage to understand what people are saying most of the time.  But we did get this wonderful fufu from our Bishop's family as we were on the exchange.  It was really good.  You know, this last transfer or so I have only been eating Ghanaian foods as I want to eat it as much as I can while I have the chance.  Fufu is a very heavy food and it can get you fat if you eat it too much.  But sadly... I have eaten it that last six days... and not small portions as well and I am still loosing weight!  Oh well... I guess I will come home very skinny then.  But boy do I love a good fufu... it has been rather enjoyable.

Elder Ripplinger and I are enjoying it up here.  One of our recent converts, Ernest, is in the hospital this week because of Malaria.  Sad to see him ill like that.  One member, Joyce has been helping us teach a ton.  Almost every day she has been helping us teach.  It is always greatly appreciated to have people who are willing to help with the work.

Well... I love you all and I hope that you have all enjoyed this email!  Love you guys!!!!!

Elder Walston

We had an adventure tyring to put up a poly tank.  We haven't had running water in like 4 weeks so they put in a stand to help with things but when we lifted it we realized it was too big for the stand and that thing is very heavy.  We had some welders come and fix the stand and now it is up.... not easy

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey everyone!!!  Hope that you all had an amazing mother's day!  I enjoyed talking to you guys on Mother's Day. :)  It was nice!  But this week has been a very good week.  It was a big improvement from the previous week... it was actually probably our best week since I have been here in Assin Foso.  But yeah... that took up quite a bit of our week... lots of teaching!  But yeah... we have been working with members and bringing them every lesson as well which pays off in many ways.  They usually feed us and it helps our investigators a lot as well!  Win, win situation!  But yeah... yesterday was sweet as we had a ward family home evening at our chapel.  That was a lot of fun and we had a small number of people show up.  We were supposed to watch a film about how the church came to Ghana but the DVD player didn't work.  It was all good though... Bishop Adu-Gyamphi ended up just instructing us instead.  

So.... I am a man of few words right now since I can't really think of anything else to say.  but I love you all and I hope that you have an amazing week!!!  Take care!

Elder Walston

Talk to ya'll this week!!

Hey everyone!!  This week was good but it was a rather bit slow.  But it was all good.  We were still able to get a bit done this week.  We did do some service this week with a lady who makes and sells bread.  We helped her make the loaves.  That was fun.  They had made the dough and she just had big tins of the bread dough, both tea and sugar bread, and then she would cut pieces of dough and then we would roll them out.  That was fun.

This week we were blessed by the members feeding us.  On Wednesday we had the best kontumbre stew that I have ever had with yam.  But we were blessed with food almost every day this week.  One fun thing that we did with one of the members, with Joyce and the Abu family, is that we got some stuff together so that Sunday after church we could make fufu and all break our fast together.  That was fun.  Except the made us eat a TON.  It was sooo god though so no complaints.  On Saturday we had a Stake Meeting with all of the bishoprics.  They want it so that the missionaries and the ward leaders work together more often.  That was good.  The only downside this week was that I was a little bit sick... I had some runny tummy pretty bad on Saturday, but once I got some meds in me I was as good as ever!  Well I love you all!! Have an amazing week!

Elder Walston

Helloooooooo!!!

Hey everyone!!  This week has been sweet!  Lots of hard work and lots of fun.  There has been this member family, the Abu family, who we have been working with a lot and one of the daughters was pregnant.  Well this last Wednesday night she gave birth!  That was sweet!  It was funny to see thought as the tensions at that household were very high on Wednesday evening, but everyone was so happy on Thursday.  They don't stay at the hospital very long here as they were only there for about probably 10 hours... but it was sweet!  They haven't named it yet as it is tradition not to name the baby until it is at least a week old, but its Twi name, as they name according to the day born is Maame Ekua.  It was cool to see.  Another sweet thing that happened on Wednesday was that we had our Ward Council in the presence of an area seventy, Elder Davies.  That was cool although our ward does seem to have some issues.  It was sweet though and it was very good to receive some instruction from him on how to help the ward function better.  Then on Friday was my companion's birthday!  We had fun... we had agreed with this one man to go and help him at his farm but things ended up falling through.  We still had a good time.  It was a long good day as we didn't get back until 9:30 and ECG took power even though it should have been on.  They have a schedule here where they have power for 24 hours and then they take it away for 12 hours but recently it has been more like 24 hours off and 12 hours on... oh well.  It is good though.  So instead of making him brownies of on Friday we ended up making them Saturday night which worked out. Sunday was a sweet day as well.  We had one investigator who came to church, a Brother Kojo.  He is such a sweet man and has a strong desire to join the church.  The only problem is that he is staying with a woman who is very opposed to the church but he is solid.  We have a few other people who are doing very well and I am excited for the upcoming months.  One thing that I enjoyed was the sacrament again this week.  I have seen how as you take more time to think about it that it will help you feel the spirit more.  One thing that stood out to me was in the hymn we sung, number 191, it says "A broken law to satisfy." We have broken the laws of God, but Jesus Christ has satisfied those laws and the demands of justice.  We are saved through him.

Well... I love you all and I hope that you all have an amazing week!  Take care!!!!

Elder Walston

Ghana!!!!!

Hey everyone!  This week was sweet! On Wednesday we had our interviews with President Stevenson and that was sweet.  He tried to advise me on what I should do when I go home, but he somehow confused me a little more.  I think that I will just leave it to when I get home to decide.  But it was good.... we were instructed by the Zone Leader and by the Assistants on working more with members and the recent converts and less actives as that is how the most success will come.  It was really good but the best part was that they let us watch Meet the Mormons.  That was a really good documentary that had some good stories about different members of the church.  It was really weird to see everything from back home though.  It was sweet though.  One of the other cool things that we have been able to do this week is that we have been working with one of the families in the ward quite a bit.  Two of them are very active members but three are less active.  We have been talking to them and trying to get them to strengthen their testimonies.  One of the less active members even came to church this week.  But it has sparked a lot of conversions even just between Elder Ripplinger and I.  We have been talking about some of the things that we want with life... even families.  We see so many families that are disconnected here in Ghana and that completely affects everyone involved.  Family units are one of the most important things in this gospel.  They can hold us together and help us to go forward. 

One thing that I have been able to do a lot this week is to read my patriarchal blessing and that is something that I would recommend everyone to do.  There is such power within and it has been able to help me greatly.

Another thing that I pondered deeply this week was as I partook of the sacrament I felt the spirit deeply.  I pondered "Am I worthy to partake of the sacrament"  So many times we just go on with life and we are just in the swing of things.  Maybe we aren't doing anything bad, but are we striving to do better and on that constant quest of improvement and repentance.  We must make sure that we are on that quest.  I hope that all made sense.

The work here in Assin Foso is going well.  We have one investigator who is doing very, Kofi.  He doesn't speak any English but is a sweet man.  He is a farmer.  It is cool.  We have to have a lot of help up here with translations as only about half of the investigators that we have speak English.  Twi is the language here and since I spent the last 18 months in Fante land it is a little different but at least they are very similar languages so it isn't ridiculously hard to go back and forth.  But it has been fun!  I love the people here!

Well... I love you all and I hope that you all have a great week!  Hope that you enjoy the pictures I sent!  I had to catch up since it had been awhile since I last sent them!  LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Walston

Pictures from Green Hill: