4 April 2011

How is everyone? I hope you guys enjoyed general conference. Well this week was transfers so that was the main thing that kept us busy. On tuesday Elder Asiedu left for the mission home, and we went round with Elder Hunsaker for the day. Then on Wednesday we had the transfer. So first of all I'm excited to be staying in Alajo for the next six weeks. They transferred Elder Moses to Teshie and he's back to being senior companion (he was one before coming to me). I hope he has a smooth transfer with his new companion. Elder Titus (from Nigeria) came to be our district leader and Elder Hunsaker's new companion. He has 12 weeks til he goes home. My new companion is Elder Nielsen from Highland Utah. He's been out like 9 months I think. The interesting thing is that we had the same trainer, Elder Ewudzie! Elder Ewudzie has now been home for about 5 days. I got to see him last wednesday at the mission home as he was waiting for his ride home. The rest of the district saw elder quinn leave for medina to be replaced by elder kalou from ivory coast and elder berry be the new ap. replacing him was elder chimoka from zimbabwe. The the rest of the week we had a lot of failed appointments, the usual blazing sun, and finding that make missionary work so fun. We actually had a great day of proselyting on saturday. Everything went smooth, according to plan, we had the spirit, and we had a free meal at night. Then on saturday night I was sick all night and sunday, too, I felt miserable. Sister Smith said it was probably malaria and since I started the medicine I feel a lot better and had a great night's sleep last night so I guess it probably was. Malaria just feels like getting the flu. You have a fever, stomach problems, body aches, and headache. Well I love you guys a lot. I'm doing great and praying you are too. I love serving as a missionary and I love alajo ward. Love, Elder Chambers

28 March 2011

This week was pretty hot for us. The sun was nearly burning me through my shirt. I hope you guys are doing great. This week was pretty nice for us. We did the usual teaching and finding. We had a baptism for Gideon and Bernice on Saturday and they were confirmed yesterday. The baptism was a little disappointing because the members didn't come much including the ward mission leader and auxiliary leaders. I'm grateful the Bishop came even if he was a little late. One of Elder Asiedu's and Elder Hunsaker's candidates also decided she wouldn't be baptized because of all the pressure her family was giving her to quit the church so that was also sad. This was Elder Asiedu's last week so he was the baptist for us. He'll be leaving tomorrow for the mission home. Transfers will be this week. I've spent 5 transfers here in Alajo and I have 5 transfers left before I go home. I'm not sure whether I'm hoping to go or stay. I'll really miss the people in this area if I go and it looks like we can have a lot of success in the next 6 weeks. If I stay though I'll be feeling like I've already contacted every person in the area. So I guess I'll be happy whatever happens. Or else sad whatever happens. In our district their will a least be some changes since Elder Asiedu is going home and Elder Berry is going to be the new AP. That means Elder Hunsaker will have a new companion and we'll all have a new zone leader and a new district leader. Well love you guys. Take care and stay cool. Love, Elder Chambers

21 March 2011

Hey everyone. How are you guys doing? I love you guys and hope you had a great week. For Elder Moses and I things went smoothly. We had a good week and worked hard. The sun was a bit too bright though. Our investigators are really progressing. A lot came to church and a lot have a baptismal date. Two were interviewed on Sunday, Bernice and Gideon. Bernice is a really nice lady who has separated from her husband and is raising five kids. When we contacted her last month she had been praying that God would help her to find a new church. I've really like teaching her. This morning Elder Moses and I went into Accra to the big market (Makola) to buy some new shirts. The last time I was there was with Elder Ewudzie back when I was in New Legon. By the way, Elder Ewudzie is going home next week. I bought three shirts for 10 cedis. Well I love you guys a lot. Hope you have a good week. Love, Elder Chambers

14 March 2011

How's everybody doing? I was thinking about how the week was today and I think the best word for it was old. This week we didn't get many new investigators, and no new baptismal dates, and no new people at church. It was still a good week though. We had a lot of good lessons and not too much in the way of discouragement. We did splits on Thursday with Elder Asiedu and Elder Hunsaker and on Friday we had a zone conference. The zone conference was really good. We had instruction on doing companionship inventory and on having faith in our areas. President Smith said he's been getting too many calls for transfers because of people complaining about their companions or their areas. We also learned about asking inspired questions. Well I love you guys a ton. Love, Elder Chambers

7 March 2011

Hey everyone how are you guys doing? I hope everything is well with you. This week was just the normal activities. Tuesday to Thursday it seemed like every single teaching appointment we had failed so on Friday and Saturday we worked like crazy to try and achieve all of the goals we'd set for the week. Our next meeting that we'll have is our zone conference this week. We'll have that on Friday. We are preparing about five people for baptism at the end of this month so your prayers will be very welcome. The first one is named Barbara and she's preparing for the 19th. It's been a bit of a struggle teaching her because she'll interrupt the lessons with all sorts of weird questions and not waiting for any answers. It's funny sometimes, but she really feels like she's found the true church so she's very enthusiastic. Well I love you guys a lot, sorry I didn't write much today, but not much has happened this week. Love, Elder Chambers

28 February 2011

How is everyone doing? This week was pretty good. On tuesday we had our mission tour with Elder Dallin H. Oaks. It was nice. We heard testimonies from Pres. and Sis. Smith. Following them we had testimonies from Sis and Elder Cardon of the seventy. Then Sis. Oaks and Elder Oaks. They all gave nice testimonies about missionary work. Elder Cardon shared some scriptures and insights about the spirit of prophecy. Sis. Oaks gave us the advice to be praying for Elder Oaks that as he would speak to us he'd be able to share more with us. Elder Oaks gave us some good instruction on doing things in the Lord's way and connected that with teaching for commitment and preparing our investigators to make covenants. Then on wednesday we had a stake fireside with Elder Oaks and co. The reason they had come to Africa was to do meetings in Nigeria with the Stake Presidents and Bishops on the weekends. First we heard from Bishop Macmullan. He gave a message on how we as god's covenant people find peace while peace has been taken from the earth. We also heard from Elder Gonzalez of the presidents of the seventy. He spoke on how we can have gospel traditions to supercede all incorrect traditions. Then Elder Oaks spoke to us about how he was called to be an apostle and how he is a special witness of the name of christ. He focused on the meaning of "the name of christ". One of the meanings in the scriptures is the priesthood authority. Another meaning is the work and mission of christ. He also spoke on why ours is the only true church. He gave two premises of our faith: 1. Our unique true belief of the nature of god and 2. our relationship to god. The rest of the week went by normally. On saturday we had a baptism for Vinolia. She is the wife to a very strong member of the church and everyone was very happy for her on sunday as she was finally confirmed a member of the church. She has so many friends at the church and family members. We didn't have to do anything special to help her to be baptized the time was just finally right for her and she humbled herself teaching her was great. She feeds us just about every teaching appointment so we really love her a lot too ;). Well I hope you guys are doing great. Enjoy the end of winter. It's started raining a little now. I guess the rainy season will start in june. Love you all. Love, Elder Chambers

21 February 2011

Hey everybody. I hope you guys are all doing great. This week we had our transfers, but in the whole zone no one was transferred except one of the zone leaders. That means everyone in our apartment is still the same. It also means Elder Quinn and Elder Darko have broken the record for companion unity as they are now going to be SIX transfers together. That seems like forever to me. Coincidentally that's how many transfers I have left before coming home. This week we tried to focus on finding and extending baptismal dates, but we struggled to do both. Most of the dates we extended were turned down, and we struggled to find new people to teach as well. It was pretty discouraging. Other than that the week was ok. On Saturday we had a baptism for Koku Mensah. He's 20 years old and comes from Togo, so the only languages he speaks is French, Ewe, and English. We contacted him last month and he's really progressed fast. On sunday his little sisters followed him to the church. On saturday we also received a cool announcement. That we'll be having a mission tour with Elder Dallin H. Oaks tomorrow! I'll let you know all about it next week. Love you guys. Enjoy the winter weather. Love, Elder Chambers