The work of the Lord

The following is the weekly report sent by Elder Schmeltzer:

We didn't have much success that day <day when he was sick>  but as we were walking back for dinner we saw a very old woman get out of a trotro <bus?> and she was struggling to pick up her slightly heavy bags. 

She had insane back problems and so we walked past and then I was like "Elder Fairbourn, we should go help her" so we walked back and helped her walk to her house which was probably 200 yards away. 

It took us almost half an hour to walk that short distance. We got there and there were 4 REALLLLLLLY old women sitting down and they had the biggest smiles when they saw us walking through the hall with their friend. They were so excited saying "God bless you! God bless you! God bless you!" 

It was a good experience. I learned a few things from it. 1 - Ghanaians don't really respect women very much which I really don't like. 2 - Many people walked by, in fact we even walked by until we decided to turn around. 3 - You never know who's watching, but we both know that at least one person was and He was proud of us. 4 - These simple acts of kindness bring the Spirit so heavily into our lives.

Friday we talked to an investigator's father who stayed in UK for about 7 years and we talked about how important families are in Ghana and how it's almost like one big family. We talked about the differences between the big developed countries and the less developed ones. While he was in UK he saw a good example from the church and the things they did there. I hope we can work with him and his whole family.

Sunday my companion and I talked small about Faith. We had a nice chat. In my understanding everything about mission comes down to faith. We have faith that we will have baptisms, we have faith that we are learning, we have faith that there will be miracles, we have faith that our families will be ok, we have faith that we will find the prepared people ect.

On Sunday sacrament meeting was really empty but then about halfway through a bunch of people walked in, it was the 1 month celebration of someone who had been buried there or something like that. They left RIGHT after sacrament meeting and to me (even though it's a tradition) it almost seemed like a mock to come late and leave and just be there to be there. There are many things I wish Ghana didn't do but I still love Ghana more than anything. 

I was really glad that you <President Judd's wife> called on Saturday. It let me know that you actually take care with me and my companion and the area. I feel like there aren't many options that we can do uless it gets put under the mission somehow. We are trying to work with what we have though, as one of my teachers in High School once said: "rock what you got."  We are trying to start having coordination meeting weekly and get fellowshippers. I want to get the household report and start going to see the less actives and invite them back to church.

 
It was a very eventful week and I look forward to this week being even better.

We have a mission tour this Thursday with Elder Dickson. I look forward to getting to see President Judd.
Anyway it was a very crazy week, I learned a lot, I grew a lot too.