No Computer; Mom Changed the Password!

Edison had no time on the computer today because Mom messed up during the week and changed his LDS password while working on his BYU application.  UGH!!  This meant that when he attempted to get into his account, it was locked to his password and he couldn't find out the new password until he accessed his email (a bit of irony there).  So, all the time passed and no time to communicate with home.  That would be a big "MESS UP" courtesy of Mom. 

Super Hot (Even Hotter Than Normal) and Super Heroes

Well Hello my wonderful friends and family.  I am still enjoying the amazing suitcase filled with "America" that so many of you worked on with my parents.  Thank you!  We have hardly made a dent into the contents but everything is wonderful and we appreciate it all so so so much!. It is good to be back to talk to you all again.

1. Ghana has been very disruptively hot this past week. To some extent when it gets too hot, people run into their houses and hide, which makes teaching people very difficult.

2. Fufu is a concoction of alot of plantains and Kasava, boiled then pounded together. When eating fufu, it is placed in a big bowl with lava-hot stew and you then have to cut it with bare fingers. (you get burned not from the heat alone but also the amount of spice in the stew.)

3. People here like focusing on the Gospel but when placed up against a wall of faith or when asked to ACT on what they have been learning or put it to the test, that is where issues come in because of a lot of family things. The people here will not challenge their family and more often than not, other family members do not approve of the baptism and so those we are teaching are left with knowledge that they are not able to act on or they are not willing to act on. I am grateful that my family supports me in my decisions related to the gospel and the church.

4. Fufu makes your stomach huge but you are not actually gaining weight; it will just sit inside you for a long time.....not fun

5. You can be sun burned in less then five minutes while out here so it allows you to find awesome ways to get from shade to shade!!!!!

This is a game we often play while walking from appointment to appointment.

I want to talk about super heroes!!! If anyone really knows me, you know that from my first breath I wanted to be a superhero. When I was young my parents actually had to sit me down and tell me that being a super hero was not a possible occupation to have in my future. (Now I do not remember this day but my mother tells me that I was crushed.  I am sure I have locked the moment into my subconscious as a nightmare that I do not want to live over again). I have spent years trying to find my place in this world to be as close as I can be to a superhero. I wanted to be jumping out of burning buildings, rescuing people at the brink of death, but it never seemed possible. I have discovered a new thing way to think about being a super hero:  in Matthew 5 it reads: "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candle stick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven". 

The way I have decided to look at it is that we are all lights - that means we all have an awesome super power, but just as lights are found everywhere and even come in different shapes and sizes, we too are different. God has placed us where we need to be to be the hero that He has called us to be. We are all lights (and examples and heroes) and can all shine through darkness. We may not be able to fly or control elements or teleport or a hundred other cool powers, but we are different. This world is like a puzzle of everyone fitting together and working together the best way we can. We cannot complete the puzzle without all of our individual pieces., We control our own piece and we can build off of others and with other, or we can try everything on our own. But we each have a part that only we can play. Each of you has your own super power and your quirks and strange behaviors make you valuable to the world and to God. Be awesome, find your super power, each and everyone of you has one that no one else has, something that is completely yours. Find it and use it. Change the lives of those around you. Be the puzzle piece that goes and shines forth out of the dark. You are not just one in 7 billion, you are the only one of  seven billion that can do what you can do. I promise each of you that if you search for your power you will find it  and if you do not find it, ask those you love to help you. Be the super hero that you know you can be. I may not be able to fly or lift a building or have a healing factor but I can run to someone's rescue and I can lift someone's burden and I can heal others scars. With great power comes great responsibility. you have a super power so you better use it to help those in your path.  And I promise that I will try to do the same thing.  That is what God is needing us to do for His sons and daughters at home, in Ghana, in San Francisco, everywhere.

I love you all and I am grateful for your letters, your cards and your prayers.

Love, Elder Edison

A Cancelled Baptism, A Suitcase Arrives and Life Is Good

Hello people!

As always, here are some great facts about Ghana.

1. Families are very tightly knit here, especially with obedience. This makes things difficult because when teaching, there are always one or two who do not want change to come into their home or their family.  (In fact, this week, a baptism was cancelled because a young man of 18 years of age, was not allowed to go through with it when his parents expressed their displeasure with his choice. That was hard for all of us. We will follow up with the parents this week and make sure to stay friends with the young man for as long as we are allowed to do so.)

2.  Fufu is a regular dish for all people here because it is so cheap and is usually what they give to people who visit. (Lucky me!)

3. Drinking water has to be very specific or you could get a lot of different sicknesses. So we boil, or buy bagged water or drink something else.

4. Taxi's are our main source of transportation but we mostly walk. 

Today I wanted to talk about a really cool talk that I found this week. It had been ripped out of a Liahona magazine, so I cannot point you to the location where you can read this, but the message that is shares was something that stood out to me with power. It talked a lot about how weaknesses and sins are extremely different. "While sins eventually lead us away from God, weaknesses actually lead us to him". 

I thought is was a really cool preface. It went on to explain that even Jesus Christ had weaknesses and was even tempted by Satan himself. We have to understand the difference so that what we judge to be a weakness is not a sin and what we judge to be a sin is not simply a  weakness. 

As we go through our lives, we are all faced with weaknesses because of our fallen state, even Jesus Christ had to face the weaknesses of mortality, he could get sick and hungry and even die. We cannot let the thought that our weaknesses are sins overpower us. We all go through temptations and have weak moments because of our mortal frame but we must realize that this does not make us unworthy. As we go through life, there are things that happen to all people. Weaknesses are things that happen but we do not sin because of our weakness.  We sin because of choice - our weaknesses can be overcome and we should not allow them to lead us to sin.

"I give unto men weakness that they may be humble" (or something like that). Weaknesses are given to us from God so that we can be drawn unto Him, they are not something that goes against God's plan but they fulfill it. Weaknesses can become strengths not because they can become our greatest attribute but because they can bring us closer to God, much more then our pride and our excellent skills in one area or another can. We are told to give all of what we are to God, weaknesses included. Embrace your weakness and Go to God and ask him to make it a way you can see His hand in your life, and then your weakness will become a strength that cannot be matched by any skill you may have.

Love you all -

Elder Edison

*Thank you all for the help you gave in the giant suitcase that arrived this week! I love everything inside and my whole apartment is excited to share with me.  Thank you!

More on Nkanfoa, Staying through Transfers and General Conference Comes to Ghana

So today I will give some more information about Nkanfoa because I will be staying through another transfer and my companion will be staying with me! Those are both good pieces of news for me.

1. Many people here close their days at 7 pm or so because many get up at 5 am or earlier because they do not want to be working in the hot sun. This makes evening and night missionary work almost impossible because no one is available to talk or visit.

2. Because there are so many different cultures and regions in Ghana, the languages vary wildly which causes great confusion.

3. Missionary work is a far bigger part of the wards here. It takes precedence and missionaries can even have missionary Sundays where they talk about missionary work and attempt to get people involved.

4. The food I can get here is "special"........FUFU is not all that amazing and I can hardly wait for the chicken we sometimes get.

5. Humidity is a killer, i am slowly becoming water; I sweat constantly and drip everywhere.

6. Not really sure what else to add, oh, we have our own personal fans as missionaries to sleep with because otherwise it is too hot to not get dehydrated under the mosquito net.

Now onto the topics I really want to share. To start,I want to talk about the importance of Conference. The first conferences that I had on mission were not available to me at all. I missed the October 2017 and the April 2018 chances to listen to men chosen by God, to speak to the world. Yes, I got to read it but this past Sunday I was able to see three sessions and even the Sunday morning session live!! I cannot express the importance of being able to hear their voice and see their love. Each and every speaker is important. While watching, because of a tech error, the women's seesion was played across Ghana rather then the Saturday normal session. This was rough but while I heard what was happening I saw many men allow themselves to become distracted. Luckily, i was able to focus and many of my questions were answered even though I wasn't technically supposed to be involved in the session. I am grateful that the technical error was sent to me as a tender mercy from my Heavenly Father and that I was allowed to hear things that answered my own questions. I wish to quote the Book of Mormon but I do not know it off the top of my head and I do not have my scriptures beside me at this computer location. There is a time that Nephi talks about how he helps his family apply the Gospel into their lives. This works even when a message is not directed at us in particular (e.g. all the wars in the Book of Mormon); we can still apply it to our lives. There is always a lesson to be learned in every line and verse of scriptures and in all of Conference. Find how the talk relates to you, maybe not directly but listen to your thoughts because they will change and lead you to the answer if you are willing. To all who do not know what conference is, this is a time when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints gather and listen to leaders in this Church. It is a time where we receive direction and I would prompt all of you to listen to it. It can be found online and even at LDS.ORG.

Now to talk about a specific talk, i wish to draw from Elder Holland. He talked about letting go of old wounds and finding direction. I want to specifically mention a line that he stated that I had written down the previous week (not word for word but in my own words and a similar idea). He said, "Do what you can before you never have the chance again." Let's talk about asking for forgiveness before it is too late. I have had to learn the hard way about asking for forgiveness both on mission and off. It is hard but it allows your conscious to be clear and allows you to again feel God's love for you. Asking for forgiveness even when you believe you are still right is important, asking is not a sign of weakness or a sign of defeat (a lesson that has taken me a long time to learn). Having the knowledge that you have done all you can to fix what you have caused to happen brings release and tranquility. I have even written about this topic before but i feel a need to re-emphasize it for myself. Many times in my mission I have asked people to forgive me for things that I believe and felt did not need to cause anger or a feeling of offense, but I promise that the feeling you get after asking is good enough to outweigh all the challenges about it. Apologize and feel that comfort that you have now made all the restitution you can (for smaller sins). Restitution is an important part of repentance that we teach often around here. To fix it as best you can is not easy but it is at this time that you show God and others that you do not wish to dwell in the mistake. Elder Holland asked us to do all of this with faith. Go forth and fix the issues we all have because you will not want it to be on your plate when you stand in front of God in the last day. Love you all.

Off I go to another week of working in Nkanfoa and doing my best to love those around me as the Savior does.  Work hard on your end, too.

Love, Elder Edison

Trip to Cape Coast Castle and Other Important Things

Hello People of the world! I have no idea who this letter is going to so I cannot specify people of America only. 

I am happy for this chance to come and talk to you. There is a lot that has happened this week, but first, my Grandmother has informed my that I have not shared enough about my new area so here are a list of things that will help you envision where I am. (thanks, Grandma, I love you)

1. This apartment is not infested with mice or spiders but with lizards.....(the poop is now on the walls not just the ground)

2. This is one of the only apartments with a washing machine and that machine stays in the apartment permanently!

3. I still bathe with cold water

4. We are closer to the ocean then I have ever been in Ghana, but can only see it when we go to the city on P-days

5. The ward I am in has a few people who are considered the pioneers of the church in Ghana - several are related to a man in my home ward, Thomas Appiah!

6. Most people in my area boundaries have received the lessons and do not want to listen to missionaries again (it is one of the oldest and most worked areas) 

7. There is a nice rice and stew place that I like to go to but there are times when my companion wants to eat fufu so I eat that quite a bit now.

8. Without the language, I can hardly teach in this area.  This is another reason why I wish I could have learned Fante or Twi in the MTC but, whatever. 

I hope this is enough for now more will come.

Today I wanted to make sure I mention something I noticed about my prayers and my faith this past week. I came to the understanding that when I prayed I was praying knowing or having faith that something should happen. This is a good thing that I have been blessed with many answers to prayers so I believe answers will continue to come. But I realized that even this was a lack of faith, as well. Though we need to pray knowing that everything is in God's timing, we have to pray with faith in all things. For example, when I pray for an answer to something, I can have the faith that something should happen but that is not the same as having faith that it will happen. When we say something should happen, we open the doors of doubt and let in the idea that God might not do it for us. We need to realize that at all times we receive answers. As one missionary described it, God answers in three ways: Yes, No, Ask me later (be patient). Though this is not 100% accurate, is covers most every answer. 

Now when you pray with faith that is when things happen. In PMG and the introduction to the Book of Mormon we are taught that the prayer of faithful brings answers and can work miracles in the lives of others and ourselves. However, we must use this faith correctly because no matter how much faith you have, if it is against the will of God it cannot happen. I would challenge all of us to attempt to align our will with God's just as Book of Mormon Prophets did of old. Some were even told that whatever they would say would happen because God knew they would not go against his will. Now I understand that none of us are at that level yet. But when we pray we can ask to be guided in our words to know His will so that at all times we are following it.

As we move forward with the right time of faith, nothing doubting, and following the Will of God all things become possible even when we ask for a mountain to be moved into the sea. We will quickly be led to a shovel and told to begin. Sometimes the Miracle has to start with a shovel full or with someone who is far less the perfect or even adaquate. Do not be afraid to be who God needs you to be even if that just means you are used to say powerful prayers that no one will ever hear.

Love you all. I hope my ideas make sense. 

Bye

Elder Butters

I also got to visit Cape Coast Castle today and I bought souvenirs to bring home!  This was the first "fun" thing I have done in a very long time.  Pictures will follow next week.