Yeahhh last week what happened was that the internet had gone down while I was writing, so it never even saved a draft. So when I clicked send, it just came up with an error screen. When the connection returned, it was just totally gone. Oh well. I didn't get any e-mails except yours this week so I can spend more time writing stuff to you!
We do have a new investigator who accepted a baptismal date for Dec. 29th! We are very excited about that. He's a really young guy who is extremely laid back and not too active in any church. But upon first visiting him we told him our message would bring him closer to God and he was just like, "Sweet. No problem." Haha it would only be funny if you knew this guy. WAYYYY too relaxed. Hopefully he's actually serious.
You know the very popular portrait of Jesus Christ in a red robe? Have you ever noticed that his face displays both Justice and Mercy? Cover the right half of the face, you will see justice. Cover the left half, you will see mercy. I'm in love with the whole idea of justice and mercy right now. So cool to me.
Glad to hear Jen's concert went great! Can't wait to hear it when I come back. Sorry you (mom) had to leave the concert hall! And tell Jen I'm very proud of her for sharing the Gospel standards with those she roomed with. It's not easy, but she's very outgoing. She would make a GREAT missionary *wink wink nudge nudge*. So nice to hear those types of songs (religious songs) are allowed at concerts. We probably won't have that privilege much longer :\
It's killing me that I can't see the Hobbit. But it's alright because I'll be able to see part 2 and 3 in theaters when I come back!
This fiscal cliff thing sounds badddddd. Hopefully they figure SOMETHING out. The government budget should have been cut A LONGGGGGG TIME ago..... I've been studying Helaman when Nephi the son of Helaman is preaching from his garden tower and is telling them how the sword of justice is hanging over their heads if they don't repent....and it's scary because the situation of wickedness they were in back then is the same we are in right now....going DOWNHILL FAST. These laws being passed are eerily similar to what is said in Helaman 6:31....
Items from my week:
-President and Sister Holmes came to Kronum to proselyte with us on friday. I learned A LOT. So he came in the morning to go with my companion and I to our first 2 appointments. When he arrived we were just finishing up companion study. We then went in his car and on to our first appointment. We arrived 13 minutes early to the appointment and so President said, "alright. 13 minutes early. That's 13 minutes you have to contact. Start contacting." We were just like, ".....WHAT." So then at exactly 12 President said, "alright looks like she's not coming. Who's next?" We were like, "President, most people in Ghana are not punctual one bit. So maybe we can wait just a little bit." So we waited like 5 minutes then we finally had to leave..... So then we went to our second appointment and we had planned to teach this one woman we had been teaching along with her new friend that we were just going to fill in quickly and then continue the lesson we were planning on teaching. But the MAIN woman we had been teaching wasn't there, only the friend. So we had to teach her from the beginning instead of filling her in quickly. So it was unplanned. President just asked, "so what are we teaching this woman?" And I said, "Oh we'll probably do a short introduction and then teach the Covenant Training Pattern (something President Shulz had us make into a whole lesson we ALWAYS have taught as the first meeting)." Then he said, "No. I don't want you to teach the C.T.P. anymore. Go right into the first lesson (which is the Restoration and includes a lot of things before building up to the actual explanation of the Restoration.)." So we taught her the first few principles of lesson 1 (God is our Loving Heavenly Father, The Gospel Blesses Families, and God Reveals His Gospel in Every Dispensation). Which is what we normally do since the people here take longer to understand us. After the lesson he basically told us that he enjoyed our splits together but that we need to teach a WHOLEEEE lesson (lesson 1 has 9 Principles, and we had taught 3 of them and it took 30 minutes) in one sitting. There is difficulty of teaching the people here with the slight language barrier. But it's true, we should shorten everything and just teach the whole thing and then when they have concerns, just go back after all the lessons and re-teach certain principles. Anyway, it was a great learning experience and it was nice to be with President like that. He's definitely called by God to this calling.
-Can you send taco bell packets? Mild sauces? Like a BUNCH of them? Thanks :D
That's all for the week! I'll just send a whole bunch of pictures (see pictures on left). Love you guys!
-Elder Gagne
