Third time is a CHARM!

Alright!! what’s up everyone?! Here are some details: we are in Lartebiokorshie I don't really know where that is haha but it's near the coast. My companion is Elder Jessee (from Sandy, Utah) he's been out for 22 months and goes home in 3 weeks. He's cool! The other elders in the house stay with us in the apartment but Lartebiokorshie is split up into 3 areas so there's not a trio companionship, we all have our own area to cover. 

Here goes my weekly update: This week we planned to have a baptism for this young girl, Dorinda. It was scheduled to happen on Thursday night. We called the guy who fills up the tank and he said he'd get it done. When we showed up to the church on Thursday the font wasn't filled... so we called him and he told us the water isn't working for the whole church, sinks and everything. (By the way... there are no water fountains in the building:( ) so we talked to bishop about getting it filled for Saturday night. He said if the water still didn't work we’d get a truck to bring water so we can fill it up. Saturday goes by and the water still doesn't work. We call a truck to bring in water and they filled up the Polly tank which holds the water but it doesn't move it through the pipes into the font. Then they said they couldn't just fill it up manually. So we ended up postponing it again until Sunday after church. We had to move it to the stake center. In the end we ended up having our baptism after postponing it twice. That’s the highlight of the week. 

During personal study I've been reading "teachings of the prophets" , the Ezra Taft Benson one. He was talking about the Book of Mormon. He said " the Book of Mormon has not been, nor is it yet, the center of our personal study, family teachings, preaching’s and missionary work. Of this WE must repent!"  he goes on to say "we have not been using the Book Of Mormon as we should. Our homes are not as strong unless we are using it to bring our children to Christ... Our missionaries are not as effective unless they are [teaching] with it" 

I'd like to testify the truth of this. I believe we must use the Book Of Mormon more in our lives. It is the key-stone of our life, our family! I've began reading with the intent to get a greater knowledge of that truth! I'd like to repent and begin using the words from the Book of Mormon more in my teaching, even when going to member's homes and sharing messages with them.

President Benson goes on to say "I bless you with an increased understanding of the Book of Mormon. I promise you that from this moment forward, IF we will daily sup from its pages and abide by its precepts, God will pour out upon each child of Zion and the church a blessing hitherto unknown..." (here is a link to the manual Garrett is referring to if you would like to learn more about the Book of Mormon)   

https://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-of-presidents-of-the-church-ezra-taft-benson/chapter-9-the-book-of-mormon-keystone-of-our-religion?lang=eng

I'd like to change the style of my teaching/studying because of the promise from a prophet of God! These promises are scriptures from prophets in our day and age. As conference is coming up, I challenge all who watch it to take notes, find the Doctrines they share, the principles they teach and then listen for the blessings that will follow as we abide to the teachings of God through his living Prophet. As for us here in Africa, we won't get to see conference until a month after you all and even then the missionaries are only allowed to watch 2 sessions. :(  that's sad but I will look forward to reading the Ensign when it is printed.

Some answers to mom's questions: yes, when we eat it is usually out of one bowl...which is really gross. yes, the toilet paper is really rough. They have a lot of spicy rice here which is really good but the side effects aren't so fun the next morning :(  I'm going to send a list of things I may need soon and describe the pics I send today.

Love and miss y'all!

Love ELDER MORRIS the second

 We brought our new investigator (who is 12) to church today...he brought his baby brother along as well. I ended up being mother to the baby. 

He slept like this for the last 2 hours of church.

 These twin brothers are my buddies at church and always want me to give them a hug.

We have beautiful sunsets here

No matter the distance...we're looking at the same moon

Allen Ties

Brother and Sister Morris -

My wife and I are from the Allen First Ward and are serving a mission in the Africa West Area. We met Elder Morris a couple of times in the stake mission prep class.

Doug and Michelle Clark

Today, we were on an outing in a botanical garden above Accra and met President and Sister Robision of the Ghana MTC (left) and Sister and President and Hill of the Ghana West Mission. Both of them said your son is doing great.

President Hill said that Elder Morris has one of his best Zone Leaders for his trainer and is in a very good apartment and is working hard. The work is going great here and your son is part of the most amazing group of young people anywhere in the world.

Pres. & Sis. Robison (MTC) Pres. & Sis. Hill (Ghana Accra West) 

What a great report from a personal email from Brother Doug Clark! It's great knowing that someone else we know is in Ghana and enjoying the adventures 

right along with Elder Morris! 

Random pix day!

Found several new pix today in my inbox! So fun to see the sights of Ghana 

and to see some of what Elder Morris is experiencing. 

(I'm dying over this cuteness!~Nikki)

 Maybe he's a biking missionary in this area? What area? I have no idea? ha ha

 Oops! Scripture tote didn't hold up long!

 Before he left we learned that in Ghana you eat everything with your hands, no utensils, but only the right hand. It's culturally offensive to eat with your left hand. 

Looks like fish to me?? Any guesses? 

 mall on Pday means he must be near the city!

I'm assuming this was his mall purchase? 

 foo-foo must be a staple in Ghana!

 Yup! This is the way we wash our clothes, wash our clothes, 

wash our clothes all on Pday mornings!

Still don't know where he is!

Hello-

My preparation day is on Monday! and the picture of us in the masks was just because people came to spray the apartment we live in with bug spray! ha ha! (pest control) Yes I live with 5 other elders. They are all really cool guys! 

That's so awesome that porter is 12 now! I wish I could've gone with him to the temple once! I'm glad Elle went to the dance tho! After this week I've become more comfortable here! I pray every day that I can feel that comfort and it always comes! 

I'm going to throw some highlights of this week in the email but I don't have much time. 

We had 3 up coming baptisms for this week which I thought was cool. One of the girls being baptized wasn't really ready after the interview so she's going to wait a few weeks but it's still a go. I was able to invite a investigator to baptism myself this week!!! It was really cool. And guess what?...Lately I've had the urge to just read read read! I very much enjoy my personal study time in the morning. I've started the over reading the Book of Mormon and I am finally understanding so much more than I did at home!

It seems that I'm so much better at teaching the lessons to little kids more than the adults here. ha ha I guess I feel as if I can relate to them easier! 

We had a hot dog roast yesterday which was very good! Everyday to have to wake up and buy food for breakfast lunch and dinner because the power goes so much so the fridges won't always be on. Today we went to the shopping mall and we were able to get a lot of American food so we're very happy about that. The money here is called cedis. The exchange is American $1 is about 3.8 cedis so everything seems very cheep here. It's true they don't have fresh milk so you have to buy powdered milk packs to mix with water. OH AND I absolutely loveeeeeeeeee their pineapple here! It's so juicy and amazing!

We went contacting this week and we stopped and talked with this guy Michael. As we were talking to him I felt this impression that he'd be a member someday! I hope that he progresses with us as we teach him. 

This is about as much time as I have today. We have FHE tonight so we gotta go. 

I'll send pics later this week from today! 

LOVE AND MISS EVERYONE!

Ghana! Love it!

Random Inbox Photos 2

Saturday brought a nice surprise...12 more photos in my inbox! So fun to try to imagine what all these great photos represent or where in Ghana Elder Morris is?!  Can't wait for P-day to find out! I'm thinking we will hear from him on Monday!

 baby goat (we have a family joke about the goats because of the film we watched before Garrett left called "Freetown").

Church house

 Handcrafted Elephant

Making ties

 microwave banana bread at the church

 This is where most Ghanaians urinate

Ahhh! Love this, his own created wall hanging

Making ties

My desk

Random Inbox Photos TODAY 9/17/2015

From Nikki:
Look what I found this afternoon in my inbox!  So fun to just get these random photos with no explanations! ha ha. Porter and I are starting to make up our own captions for these and then will hope to sometime hear what they really are from Elder Morris!

my new bed

 my new room/living quarters

princess net...AKA stop Malaria

my closet

 first field meal

tin-foil dinners Ghana style

(not sure I wanna know?! ha ha)

 our front yard

backyard

 room with a view

first baby picture...for Mom!