Zone Leader Calling

Well Hello from my side of the World. 

Love you all so much!

GHANA STUFF:

1. When people love one another here they show it through food (and you accept it and eat it even if it is hard to swallow).

2. It is hard to say goodbye to people in an area. (no emotion is shown here, so when they get tears in their eyes you know it is serious).  I have seen lots of teary eyes this week as I bid goodbye to my friends and the families I have become close to in Faso.  I am headed to the mission home on Wednesday morning to be trained as a Zone Leader and moved to a new area, new companion and new assignment!!  The work load will increase, the traveling will increase, my responsibilities will increase and thankfully, since I have been asked to do this, my desire to be obedient and give it my best has also increased. Another new adventure.  I hope I am up for it and I will do my best.

3. We have so many poisons animals here!  Uncle Roger was right when he told me about all the snakes, spiders, rodents and other animals that could kill me if I wasn't careful.  Ha!  I bet my mom will like that statement!

4. Washing all the clothes you own by hand takes a few hours at a time!!!  Serious, I get Matthew Tufts' letters and he is doing the same thing I am over in Zimbabwe.  His hands are bleeding and sore just like mine.......for the rest of my life, I will volunteer to do the laundry for my family....I can totally handle pushing a button on a washing machine and walking away.  Oh joy of joys!!!!

And now for a bit of spiritual thinking:

Lift where you stand. We have all been placed in this world with gifts that allow us to lift where God needs us to. We have to be willing to refine our own gifts so we can lift effectively. I know a lot of people that have skills and abilities that go wasted.... It is sad to see. It is sad to see so much that God has blessed us with go to waste when he gave it to us to help so many more.   I plan to do my best to Life Where I Stand as zone leader in the coming weeks. I do not know where I am going but I have been doing lots of thinking about how to behave once I am there. I hope you will work with me this week and in the coming months to Life where you stand as well.

I want to challenge all of you to find the gifts that God has given you and all the gifts that he wants you to develop. I know all of you that read my letters are close to your Father in Heaven, follow the plan he has made for you. In many ways we are sent to this life to Grow and change. We are here to prepare to meet God one day. Learn how he wants you to prepare. Just as President Nelson said, in the coming days we will not be able to survive without the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and the direction it provides. We find the path we are suppose to be on in our personal growth. We walk the path that God has sent for us, sometimes he asks you to take the road less traveled, trust him and walk no matter what happens. He is there for you and will never leave you alone .

I love you!

Elder Edison

Short and Sweet - Really Busy!

1. Ate Banku this week, (think wet concrete) with some amazing stew. Only wish the recipe for Abankwine stew were available back home for me to make.

2. When you trust the recipie for French toast given by another Elder, You end up getting sick..... Not a fun day

3. When Baptsms get postponed because of Stake buisness to a time where you may not be around to see it is somewhat streessful. (though it is not about who is there to see it) 

Not really sure what to talk about today... Much of this week was just rying to get everything we needed done in the right amount of time. Lots of walking and talking involved. 

I hope all of you have been doing well. Love you lots. Keep being amazing and work hard to reach whatever God tells you to.

Love

-Elder Butters

Mission Tour - Elder Nash!

MIssion tour was amazing. We got to meet Elder Nash and were able to greet him individually! It was so powerful to hear him speak and really motivate us to become better. Many times in his instruction to the missionaries he talked about how we need to be teaching with more power. Now this is something that i have been trying to do for a long time. Far too often I found myself saying the same things consistantly and never really being able to really feel the power  in the words i said. I often truied to change this but it never seemed to work. After the mission tour I decided enough was enough, I would no longer try, I would do. Just as a wiose man once said "Do or do not there is no try". I just startted speaking and told myself i was going to be different and really open their minds. To my astonishment, it worked, i just talked and the words were powerful and different for each person. It now is a lot mnore fun to teach becasue i have no idea what will heppen. Elder Nash put it this way "I know where i want the conversation to end but i let the Spirit lead it there" (Not an exact quote sorry) I Am so happy that I now have a chance to really teach peope not just lessons. 

Following what our leaders say really does bless us. I have seen un-serious people realize the importance of our message faster and with more efficiency. I have watched people as they have come to the knowledge of the Restoration and I know that when they see uit they are no longer hearing the words i am speaking but feeling the Spirit speaking through my compaion and I.

Following leaders is what will help us understand our duty and role on the path back to the Saviour. As we listen intently to their words and allow nothing to hinder our obedience to them that is when we can recieve great blessings from God. 

“22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?”

Now the words that are spoken to us by God chosen servants are the same as his own spoken word. These are all commandments that we have to follow, but as we do that is when we get the great promise that the Lord will prosper us in the land. Saty storng to what leaderers tell us evben when you have no idea how to follow. Try your best, open your mouth, minister aned you will be blessed with the assurance that Youy can do what is needed. Guidence from God has not stopped in our day, if it had then none of us could expect to get rto Heaven. The WOrld is changing and God (though he does not change) Has to clarify his stance on the ever changing aspects in our lives. Look to your leaders, Follow the |Saviour and be saved.

Facts of Ghana,

Snakes are everywhere

Spiders are huge

Jumping over rivers is normal for all of our proselyting days

Any questions: I would love to know anything you would want to know

Whistle While You Work

Hello there.

1. Cool fact: if you whistle at night here, people believe that you are calling ghosts!!!!

2. When you do not invite people to eat food you buy you are seen as terrible and disrespectful. 

3. All cars here are dead or dying where they drive. When a car dies they leave it on the side of the road. There are so many forgotten cars littering Ghana.

Yesterday, I was reading in a Liahona magazine and saw a quote, and now that I have come to write about it I can no longer remember the person these words belong to, but that will not stop me from using it and sharing it with you. The quote was simply this: "Follow the first impression", I loved this line so much because it talked to me. 

Many of us find ourselves searching for direction but when it comes to us, we often second guess it or don't recognize it as an answer at all. Along with this quote, there was a talk about smoke jumpers waiting as a fire raged below them, they were hesitant because they had not received orders from the coordinator on where or when to jump. Hours past and finally a lower ranking fire fighter came up and saw this elite group sitting around. He asked why they were not acting and fighting the fire and they explained that direction has not yet been received. 

The Fire fighter took their radio and walked around awhile and got perfect telephone signal which immediately provided their fire fighting instructions to them over the telephone waves. The group had been in a dead spot and had wasted precious time. These two situations match with each other: when we feel like no direction has been given, we waste time halting our own progression, and, in the alternative, when we begin to act relying only on ourselves (leaving our dead spots) and correction does come from on-high we sometimes ignore it all!!!  

Why, as humans, do we wish for divine knowledge and then receive it with a grudge or with doubt or inaction. Revelation comes when we put ourselves out there following our knowledge and acting on agency, when we do this we show God our desire to act now and in turn He then shows us the path. Make a decision but then when a course change is set in your path by Godly power, take it, we do not always know the best way. We have to know that revelation is a two step thing. As a missionary We are promised to be able to have words put into our mouths if we prepare ourselves but no amount of preparation will be able to bring added revelation when your words remain behind closed lips. We must open our mouths - we have to talk. Not all of you are full-time missionaries (remember every member a missionary) but action must be taken to then turn to God and ask what's next. I have come this far, where to now? 

Look for guidance at all times but do not let what you believe to be the windows of heaven shutting on you cause you to falter. The Windows of revelation are opened today and will continue to be that way. We must take the first step, show our true colors and our intent to obey and then call the Greatest King and Father to help us.

Love you all so much 

Elder Edison