Gunnar Ghana On A Mission: Bitter and Sweet :)

July 20, 2015

Dear Family and Friends you are invited!(to feast upon the words of Christ that is ;) That is something people say here to let you know you can come eat food with them. People say that in America too, but in Ghana they actually mean it lol.:)

You know this week has really been a roller coaster of emotions and experiences.

Monday: P Day

Tue: Proselyte

Wed: Interviews with President/Instruction from AP's and Sis Stevenson

Thur: Proselyte

Fri: Travel to Cape Coast (2 hr away) for training follow up with President

Sat: Proselyte:)

Sun: Turn to the "Son"

Before this week I didn't realize how Proselyting is so essential to ones overall well-being as a missionary. I say this because the days we did not go out I felt much more anxiety and stress about things. When Saturday came we worked so hard and it felt amazing! It makes the days pass so much faster as well. Not that I want them to, Mission is Great:)

Interviewing with President was such a wonderful experience, far different then what I expected. I wrote down a list of the things I wanted to talk about and the things I wanted to get out of the interview and about zero of those things were accomplished. This is not a bad thing at all though. It was very casual like talking to a dear friend at home. For the first 10 min we just talked about fish and different foods and laughed a lot :) The feeling when I first walked in the room was the first experience this week where I began to gain a testimony that the Mission President is called of God. The spirit was as thick as "Jago" (look it up, yummy yummy:) But in all seriousness, I could not believe a feeling like that could even exist. He truly represents the Lord in this work.

FUN FACT!: Elder Wright (friend and zl in my apartment) his Grandpa was the first mission president in Ghana?! Crazy cool huh! His Grandmother and Grandpa served for 5 years here and are very well known among the church here for the foundation they laid. All of the new missionaries so my Mt's (MTC Missionaries you came with) went with our trainers to Cape Coast to receive further training and check up on how things are going.

It was so sweet to see the American 9! lol and my MTC companion Elder Robert. Man I love those guys so much! It was so fun to talk about all the crazy experiences we are having and to see all of our buzzed heads lol:)

President gave a wonderful Instruction on the Doctrine of Agency and how there is nothing "FREE" about it. The Savior could have ruined the plan of Salvation on 3 occasions: Pre earth life, Garden of Eden, and Atonement/events leading up to.

He didn't have to do anything for us. That is where in the scriptures Satan tells Jesus during his fast (Psalms 91:11- 12) reminding Christ that angels will carry him throughout his life if he wanted. Every time Christ was tempted or could of not taken fall he "stepped up to the plate." I can't quite put all of what I learned how President says it, but I felt so much love for my Savior and for the opportunity to be on the mission. Just remember what the Savior had to do to allow us to have this agency and how there is no way the Plan of Salvation can fail now, the Savior fulfilled all His Father sent him to do. Now it is up to us to Finish strong and accept the Gift our Heavenly Father has given us. His only Begotten Son.

(true) Story TIME!: There was a young missionary serving in Brazil. He wanted more then anything to go to BYU, but he had a problem, he couldn't speak English and that was a requirement! His mission president gave him this counsel that I love. "Before you will become proficient in English you need to make 30,000 mistakes... It is up to you how long it takes you to make those mistakes." I love this counsel because it applies directly to being a new missionary. I could take two years to learn something if I am to afraid to fail or I could learn it today if I am willing. :)

The bitterness of this week as the Email is titled refers to the death of my dear friend Bro. Yaw Ketewa... Sunday morning at church the Branch President told us. He was the most humble man I have ever met. He made Kenkay for a living, and I was going to trade him a tie. There was a funeral on Saturday and funerals are like big parties and not a sad thing. Everyone saw him dancing and having so much fun. They found him the next morning in his bed. You know this pains my heart so much because he was so prepared for the gospel and if all went well that we had planned he was going to baptized the very next week. We sang "Til we meet" in sacrament and I couldn't help shedding more then a few tears thinking about how grateful I am to have met him, how the Lord has a plan and we don't know it, and how one day I will meet him again at "Jesus feet". It was the Lord's will though, and you know I am so happy as well because he lived a hard life, many people here do. Now he is with his Savior and his God, there are no doubts in my mind about it:)

You know it was a wonderful week :) I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you in my life! Until next week:)

I also had snail for the first time this week and it is delicious