Photos from Christmas Week and Farming

The decor in the mission apartment - LIGHT THE WORLD!

Handsome?  Yes!

From Dunkwa On Christmas Day

Hello everybody! It is Christmas. I know none of you will read this day of but that's alright. I will still write it just to make sure there is something to read.

So i actually want to concentrate on a line from Gandalf that i had in my talk right before i left. "Some say it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keeps evil at bay. small acts of kindness and love" This is a very powerful line if you let it sink in. The small things we do each day have power beyond our understanding. It is the small sins that end up dragging us down because we end up justifying them. It is also true on the opposite sense, the small deeds that we do can build up so much strength and power over time. Waving to someone having a bad day, smiling at your sibling, singing in the shower, making people laugh, all of this and so much more can make so many amazing things happen. 

Use those small acts and change a life, use them to change the world. Don't let the world change you get off your chair stand up tall and change it yourself. Only you can change your world. Keep going, keep working and keep moving. I love you all I know you are all doing amazing things. I want to be able to see just how much you have changed the world when I get back. 

You have all been powerful influences in my life, be that influence in another's life. You may not change their world, you may not change their whole day, but even a smile changes a second. Sometimes a second is all that matters, make a light shine for a second and anyone can go to where it had shined.

I miss you all.

Oh I got to go farming!!! I love farming here, it was pretty much the same as always but that doesn't change my response. Farming just makes time vanish I still have no idea why though.  

Love you all talk soon. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! 

More from Around Dunkwa at Christmas Time

The apartment at Dunkwa, decorated and ready for Christmas!

The streets of Dunkwa walked on by these amazing missionaries in their sandal-clad feet, trying to be like Jesus!

A jungle sunset caught perfectly!

Carrying water for laundry on his head.....look at the sweat on his arms.....oh my goodness!

An evening lesson that turned out to be quite fun for everyone!

Photos from Week 14 and This Crazy Ghana Life!

A little one waiting for Primary to start - precious little boy listening to Edison teach a primary lesson!

This is my favorite.....Edison teaching primary a world away from home and changing lives of these sweet little ones.  I look at the sandals on his feet and the children around him and I can't help but think about the song, I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus.....

The wall decor in the apartment keeping things on track and progressing.

More scriptures to keep the boys pointing in the right direction.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas! Even in Ghana!  Those lights on the brim actually light up and blink!

Week 14 Letter!

Hey Guys!!! 

I have missed you all so much. I cannot believe all the growth I have seen all of us go through in our emails to and from each other.  I love that!  I look forward to Mondays when I learn so much from the letters you send to me. Thank you for taking the time to do that and for boosting me up. I will make sure you are all in my prayers. I am thinking of you (someone on the other side of the world is thinking of you, isn't that weird).

Today's topic of conversation has been one that I have had plenty of time to practice lately.  I want to talk about disappointment and failure. This is a weird topic, I know, but it is something that has been going on with me and my companions and our whole mission really. So, I want to talk about it. 

Many times on my mission, lessons fall through, things don't work out, and people don't always do what is needed to feel the spirit or really understand a gospel principle (this includes the missionaries, not just the investigators). But there is an Elder in my district that talked to me about it on an exchange we had last week. His name is Elder Abel and he is a super nice guy and just a transfer ahead of me on our missions. He mentioned that if we are trying our best to do what the Lord needs us to do then all the failures and all the disappointments and difficulties and planned by him or used by him to make us stretch. 

Do your best and anything that happens is His plan. Sometimes it is to test you, make sure you really will work your best no matter what happens. Sometimes it will be to lead you to what is really necessary. Life is hard - it has ups and downs (especially on a mission, I think) but if we are doing our best to follow our Savior, we can know that He is always in control. No matter how dark the shadows seem to get. No matter the climb we have to take He will always be there if we are trying to get to Him. 

Miracles can happen even when we seem to be in a gutter, they don't happen when we are above it all. We get lifted up because we fall, so reach out and start climbing again. Sometimes those gutters are the only things that move us forward, so don't be afraid. If you ever need a little help I am always here to talk. You are all people I care about and that will never change.  I am developing a great love for the people of Cape Coast and especially of Dunkwa.  I would do anything to help them be happy.

I love you all. Keep moving and don't ever stop. If we stop that's when we fail.  I have learned that any movement in my mission, is better than no movement.  So every morning we keep getting up and walking and walking and walking.  I didn't get to farm this week so that made me sad but maybe next week.

Merry Christmas!

Elder Edison Butters

The Baptism of Famous and Kingsley

FROM GHANA THIS WEEK:

I miss you all so much, I really hope you are doing well. I am praying for you.

Ghana is really weird and strange. I thought it would get used to it faster than this but everyday seems to bring a new strangeness with it.  Another car fell into the gutters this week.  When we went to help it out it was obviously in bad shape and the owner could not get it moving at all. Another truck came and they hooked up a tow cable to pull the other car out. What me and my companion didn't notice is that they used the handle of the tow bar to attach it not the actual hook up.......that did not go so well. My dad and my brother will recognize that this was a very bad idea. The car did not get pulled out that way, so everyone decided to wait for a bigger truck. It was at this time that me and my companion decided to just go back to the apartment and find a more effective way to serve. It was a cool experience to watch the people of Dunkwa work together even when things didn't go well.  They expected a larger truck to come along and solve the problem. Life doesn't move very fast around here so everyone has time to help each other in times of need. I like that.

These past weeks have gone by quickly. honestly I think I have found a secret to it. My secret it that if I am involved in farming during the week, my time flies by. It is a very good thing I love farming because if I didn't the weeks and days we do it would drag by. I am farming later this week and I love it.  God knew I would do well with a sword in my hand and it probably wouldn't have looked too good to walk the streets of lots of places with my cutlass on my back. So, that is how I have gotten my testimony that I am where I am supposed to be!.

Oh we had two baptisms this week!!! Not sure how I forgot about that. I cannot wait to see how the two brothers we brought in really change because they are now members. Their names are Famous and Kingsly. They are really amazing guys. I cannot wait to see what they do.  Elder Stephens and i will keep a close watch on them over the next several weeks. Watching God in their lives has been wonderful.

This week I want you and me to think of our families a bit more. We don't always understand how important a family can be. We believe in a God that has planned out a path to get us back to him. We believe that God's actions all have a purpose. So why don't we pay more attention to the family he has placed us in.We all have a work to do, for most of us that work doesn't need to leave the walls of your home. We all need to make sure that all our family members know and understand how much we love and care for them. 

Family is the most important social group of God's plan. He placed us all in a family to grow and learn together. He also made sure that in this situation we could learn to love, we could become the person we need to be. This week I want to challenge all of us to see if we can find something we need to learn or to teach each and every family member. Just keep in your mind that none of us are perfect, so learning may be the path to take.

I miss you all so much, I wish i could just send letters everyday with everything that i have done. I am sorry I can't do that but a good read of my journal should be entertaining someday.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Elder Butters

Photos from the Ghana Cape Coast Mission Facebook Page!

Edison performed the role of "a shepherd" with his Zone at the mission president's home for their nativity celebration.  These photos were placed on the mission facebook page tonight and I could not be happier to have found them.

Photos aren't easy to come by from so far away so when they come, I steal from whomever has posted something.  So grateful for technology, social media and a mission president willing to share. So grateful for that fantastic smile from so many miles away.  Doing good things for God's children is a very good thing to be doing at Christmas time.  I will repent for feeling a sprinkling of sadness that he will not be around us this year.

12th Letter From Ghana - Swords and Chopping Trees!

Hey everybody!!! Guess who?

Today I want to quickly mention something I have been taught and studied about. We know a lot about prayer; we all understand how it works and why it is important, but something that I have discovered recently is how it allows us to really progress. One of my district members showed me that when we pray we are able to align our will with God's. We all know that God is unchanging and Eternal and we know he understands the full picture then we ever could. When we pray we may ask for things and really go to him with an open heart and a contrite spirit, but if we do not let His will become ours nothing can really change. His plan is perfect even the parts where we are told we have to grow through challenges. Everything He does is perfect, so when we ask for things we must always understand we need to be hand in hand with him, not trying to rush along the path. Even Jesus Christ said "not my will but thine be done". He knew what He was about to go through was going to be difficult He knew it would be hard but he also understood that God has his plan, and that's the plan that we must follow.  

We must also understand that when we have aligned our will with His, it is now on His timetable. He isn't going to change his plan to fit us, we have to change to fit his plan. Patience is something that I have always struggled with, but as I have begun to look at it this way I have been able to more fully accept my trials and times for growth. It isn't easy but then nothing that means anything is really easy.

This week has been insane, we have been so busy lately. This past week me and my companion have been trying to say hello and check in with all our investigators which is an awesome plan, the only issue is we don't have enough time in a week to do that. We have ended up cutting into our days even more finding every available second to proselyte and teach. We have also been attempting to say hello to a few members and show our support. This week we ended up going farming and weeding twice!! I was so happy, next week I should be able to send photos.  

I use a sword to cut down trees that are so tall. This lets the farmers farm their land. It was so awesome! I loved every minute of it and every sweat drop was worth it.  I can't believe Heavenly Father found a mission for me where I use a sword!!!

I love you and appreciate your letters and prayers.

Elder Butters