A crowning moment

i love moree. i'll get back to that though.

thanks for the bank stuff. that'll be useful later on. thanks again for the marriage updates on my buddies. there droppin like flies... i did get the pictures of you and the johnsons the other day. me and my companion loved it. i got the addresses and everything too, thanks. i havent got the newsletter or anything else. we're starting to get a little anxious cause it sounds like i got a couple of things coming, and i guess elder adams parents have sent like 3 packages. so we'll see what happens this week.

well done kevo... (Jesse's brother-in-law graduated with an MBA two days ago) and thank you jason. i loved the update. (sports update on NBA championship) you done well.

so the world cup begins this week, so does my covenant! holy schneikies. (The GCC missionaries have covenanted NOT to watch any of the world cup soccer games on TV).

so its funny that you ask about that random confusing african phone call you got last month cause i was gunna write about it this week... so last week we were prosolyting with one of our ward missionaries, stephen atta gyan. (he's the one that is is a twin and is albino, but has a totally normal black skinned twin. the twin is in nigeria on his mission and stephen got his call this week and he'll be going to nigeria too. they are both like the tightest africans you'll ever meet). anyways, he's the one that i borrowed his phone to call you guys on christmas and mother's day. so i saved our home number on the phone. i thought that it would save it on my memory chip but it saved it on the actual phone i guess but i had no idea. so this week as we were prosolyting he was like, "is this your's?" and showed me the number saved in the phone (our home number). i just started laughing. it was just really funny to hear him illustrate the story. he said he had thought that it might be mine, and he was like "i saw the number and i called it and an obruni woman answered. and i said, sister mackay? and she said, yes? and i said is your son elder mackay from the ghana cape coast mission? and she said, yes. and then i hung up." mystery solved!

sammy is doing well still. he is just very very smart and really has a desire to learn. he's way humble and is just sweet. we actually havent met anita yet, appearantly there going through some tough times together, but i think it's just some stuff that will smooth itself out over time. he's such a tight guy though. remember that sweet book of mormon you made and gave me to give out to someone?? i've been looking for somone to give that to, and i might give it to him. well see though.

this week was sweet, we did work. we taught more lessons this week than any other week of my mission. we are preparing for a baptism that we hope will come next transfer sometime with some cool people we have. we're also having a baptism a week from saturday, but that is just a couple of people from the ward who the ward has lost their records, a few kids that are over the age of accountability from the ward but were never baptised, and a couple of children of record. so we're working on that too.

plus, we have almost all of our ward missionaries about to go on missions. we want to get some more kids from the ward excited about a mission so we're training some new ward missionaries. so we took a couple of new kids out and taught them alot about missionary work and how to translate for us and stuff. it's pretty refreshing cause they are just young and fresh and excited to learn and be good people i think. we got one, maybe two more that we'll go out with this week, so there's alot of work for us. i think we're really helping the ward though. thats one of our bishop's (bishop otoo) goals is to get as many kids on missions as possible while he's bishop. cause these kids come home from missions so much more intelligent, self controlled, spiritual, better at english, and with a much stronger testimony and they will help the ward progress. right now every single rm in the ward has a big calling in the ward. so we're excited.

so yesterday was an awesome day at church. first i'll tell you about joel and englebert, then i'll tell you about one of the crowning moments in my mission. so rewind back about 8 or 9 months to when i was with elder kalinja. one night, randomly, this kid went up to elder kalinja and told him that he wanted to meet with us. elder kalinja didnt really do much about it though. it was super late, we were tired and he was just kinda "ok we'll meet later". well, we never found out where his house was or anything, so there was nothing we could do. so two weeks ago, me and elder adams were walking by the same area and a kid goes "elder mackay! elder mackay! you and elder kalinja told me that you'd come to my house but you never came." (right off the bat you could tell he was intelligent because he remembered BOTH of our names after all this time. i havent even left the ward yet and i have recent converts that i see every sunday who have forgotten my name i think haha). so i had no idea who he was until later that night i got thinking and the best i can conlude is that its the same kid. so we asked him if he knew any of our church members and found one that he knew that knew his house. so we set an appointment and a couple of days later went to meet with him. he is a quiet kid, maybe 16 or so, and he's smart. from the beginning he just seemed like he enjoyed learning about God. he really enjoyed the teachings and the next time we came his brother, englebert joined us who's about the same age. they both just love learning about God.

so we went through the teachings with them for the rest of the week and they were sweet. fast forward to friday. we taught them about joseph smith and asked them both to pray about him, to sit for a few minutes and think, then to write down how they felt on a piece of paper. so the next day we came back, and were planning on teaching extensively about prayer and how to recognize answers etc. when we arrived, we asked them how their prayers went. joel brought out a full sheet of paper that was totally filled with a sweet summary of prophets, Christ, apostacy, and the joseph smith story where he decided that joseph smith had to be a prophet. he said, simply, that he felt "happy." so we came to englebert, and i was wondering if he'd just make something up to look good like his brother. but he said that after he prayed, as he was thinking he heard a voice "inside of his head" that said "i chose joseph smith to be my prophet because he is kind and respectful to God's children." i hope that gives you an idea of how innocent these kids are.

so right there, we committed them to come and visit us at church the next day (yesterday). they seemed cool with the idea, but were worried about how everyone at our church wears white shirts and ties and black trousers and they dont really have them. we reasurred them that that wasnt important and told them simply to wear the nicest clothes they had. when we got to church the next morning, they were both standing right outside of the chapel! they both wore white shirts, and these matching almost checker board pants, and englebert had a ghetto tie and joel didnt have one. we greeted them and were super happy and went inside to talk to some people. after a few minutes, we noticed that they still hadnt come inside, so we went out for them - but they were gone! so we looked around for them and tried to find them, but we never could. so after church we went to their house. we sat down to have a discussion with them, and asked them what happend. they said something like "we had to give the key back to our mother." elder adams just said "i know there is something more," and we coaxed them a little bit. eventually, joel goes "ok, as for me, when we got outside the doors, i became very afraid." so we turned to englebert and he was like, "when i looked inside and saw all of the people in there, i became very shy." the four of us just laughed our heads off together about it. we told them it was all cool, that we understood, and we talked about the things that made them feel uncomfortable and solved the problems. they talked about the ties, so we gave them the ones we were wearing (it was kinda spur of the moment, considering we went from there to meet with the first counselor in the bishopric and the relief society president along with sammy, our sweet investigator. so we had no ties for that... but whatev). we're gunna pick them up for church next week (don't get too excited, that just means were gunna meet them at their house and walk with them to the chapel) and introduce them to some members and stuff next week.

its just so funny though to think of it from their perspective. imagine them standing outside the chapel - both of them scared, but neither willing to admit it. they see all the people that they dont know and its just a whole new world to them. they just stand there for a while, until eventually, one mentions that they still have the key that there mother will need in a few hours, so they just leave and dont come back hahahhh! love them.

my times pretty much up, but i still gotta tell you about koffie a little bit. i'll try and tell you more about them next week (remind me to). but just imagine this: watching a HUSBAND, WIFE, and FIVE children walking into the chapel TOGETHER in a big long line - an entire family of investigators. i've never had anything like that happen. in any mission in the world i honestly think that might be the best thing that could happen. i can't tell you how happy we were/are. i dont have any time, but i'll just say this. we contacted them a while ago and were finally able to meet with them this week. the first time we talked to koffie (the father), he said "i'm just looking for the true church so i want to come and learn about your church." how prime is that?!?

i love and miss you, don't worry about me here i'm living it up!

love, elder mackay