August 15, 2011

Dear Family:

You know that old saying, “its just like riding a bicycle, you never forget.” Well the person must have never golfed because golf comes back faster than riding a bicycle. GOLF WAS AMAZING!!!!! I LOVED IT!!!! I actually played really well too all things considering. I shot 3 over and birdied the very first hole! I chipped in for birdie and had another chip in for par! It was so much fun and was truly as though I was in Heaven! There was about 12 Elders that went and Elder Zoll, the senior couple Elder, came with us and paid for part of it for everyone which was really nice! We are actually on splits today because my companion and the others didn’t want to go so we got permission for splits. But it was so much fun! I played with a Nike Ignite Driver, the old Nike Pro combo irons, a Scotty Cameron putter and Titleist wedges! It was awesome! I even saw the new R11 and it looks awesome!

So this week Elder Akpan got sick and so did Elder Hernandez so I worked with Elder Omini pretty much every day so that our companions could get better. So we went to their appointments and our own appointments. We had a lot of little cool/sweet experiences this week. They are all short but sweet.

We met with our investigator and she bore a very powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. She said that the day that her father died and even after she felt so alone! She said that she had really no one to turn to so she began to read the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and that brought a lot of comfort to her! She said that she knows both are true and that she will see her father again! It was a really sweet experience! Now she just needs to come to church!

We have a new investigator. He is a really cool guy and has just love our teachings from day one. He said that he loves how simple and true our teachings are. He said that he hopes that one day I will be like "Pastor Chris" (a huge pastor here in Africa) and that he keeps praying that I become like him. I laughed and thanked him and continued on with the lesson. At the end of the lesson he expressed that as he has been learning from us and that as he reads the pamphlets he has been really tempted to just leave everything behind and his church, just drop everything and come and join with us. Hopefully that is one ‘temptation” that he yields to.

Another one of our great investigators came to church on Sunday for the first time and said he really enjoyed it! Hopefully he continues to come! He is a security guard for about 3 homes. We went to go see him this week and it was raining. He had left his Book of Mormon at one of the other houses and so he went in the rain to get it. When he came back he was carrying a radio in one hand the box for the radio in the other. He pulled out of the box his Book of Mormon! He had taken the radio out of its box so that the Book of Mormon would be protected from the rain! It was really neat to see that he understands the importance of the book. He also told us that he was looking at the picture of Christ in the plan of salvation pamphlet were Christ is in the Garden and he said that he loves too look at that picture. He said that every time he looks at it he feels pity for Christ, but gratitude for what He did for all of us!

Elder Speechly is in Mankessim now, I don’t know if I told you that! After he was in Sunyani he went down to Mankessim. But anyway he sent me a text the other day and told me that Bro. Davies is now the Branch Mission Leader! It was great to hear that and I am sure that he is doing a great job.

We met with our investigator who is a 'preacher'. He has been kind taking one step forward and two steps back. But anyway the other time when we went to go see him he was getting after us for why he hasn’t been baptized yet. He has come to church about 4 times, but he just isn’t ready. He still has his preaching mind frame on things and always falls back on that. Anyway another reason is because he has this fellowship thing that he does on the weekends where he preaches. The four missionaries in our area all went to go see what exactly he does so we can better prepare him for baptism. We went and it was evident that we will need to wait on his baptism for just a little bit and try and ask him to stop his fellowship. He is trying to do the right thing, but just doesn’t have the authority to preach and all those things. So that will be this week that we tell him that. We will see what happens, I will let you know.

Today I reach 10 months on mission and am now 20 years old. Neither one seems real! I don’t even feel like I am 20! In some ways I feel like I should still be 18-19, but in other ways I feel a lot older than 20. Either way it is crazy that I am 20!

I have only reached this point thanks to all of you! Thank you for all that you do for me! I love all of you so much and am grateful for what you do for me! I love you all so much! Even though we are not here together on my Birthday, I know that we are all celebrating together! I love you!

Love your son and brother,

Elder Ryan S. Alba