October 10, 2011

Dear Family:

Hey everyone! Wow can you believe it, 1 YEAR!!!!!!!! I can't even believe where time has gone! I know that time will only continue to fly on by! Right now I have reached the peak and am about to make the decent down, CRAZY!!!! But performance will always be on the rise don't worry!

This past week we have been really busy with everything that has been going on. Last week we had P-day, Tuesday we had district meeting and then to go to town to buy the STC bus tickets for transfers, then Wednesday was transfers which was all day, and then Thursday Pres. gave our zone the all day to clean the apartments - when he and Sis Shulz came for interviews and apartment checks, and then Friday was a normal day, Saturday was a normal day, and then Sunday we had church, lessons and then interviews. So this week has been a VERY BUSY week. But nothing we can't handle:)

Wednesday as I said was transfers so we spent all day helping move missionaries, waiting at the bus station, and welcoming all the new missionaries to our zone. We have 7 people training in our zone, so next transfer I don't think a whole lot will be happening. Maybe 3 changes but that is all. Then again it is all in the hands of the Almighty so who knows? But it was great to see how to handle transfers since next time I will be in charge of it for our zone since Elder Kouakou is going home this transfer. Next transfer I will be the zone leader who has been in Kumasi the longest. The other zone got a new zone leader last transfer, Elder Briggs who I know really well from Sunyani who is 1 transfer older than me on mission, and his companion will also go home next transfer. But I am excited to be in Kumasi and think that I will be here for a long time which I hope for! I really enjoy Kumasi and the atmosphere here.

This week has been a good week. We have been able to meet with our recent converts and continue to teach them and become their friends. We have a new ward mission goal of 6. The stake pres. changed the whole stakes goals to make them more realistic so we are half way done now. We are trying to get more referrals from the members, but this week we are having a fireside on missionary work that should really help motivate them. I came up with the idea of referral slips that we will hand out to the members and then every Sunday go around and collect them. This should help the work move along and get the members more involved.

Yesterday we had our interviews with Pres. Shulz and everything was great! It was good to be able to meet with him! He is a great leader and I enjoy working with him. He is exactly what the mission needs. He also gave us our DVD player and we are all now starting the new program so that should be interesting. Tomorrow we will be going down to Cape Coast for Zone Council and return on Wednesday evening. It will be good to go and discuss about how the mission and each zone is doing. Elder Gaverret will be coming up to Kumasi on the 24! So it will be great to meet him! It is a good thing that you sent that little Spanish reminder so that this time I will be able to say the right things haha! But it should be great to be with him on the 24!

As for me I am doing great! I am healthy and happy! I am still skinny! I workout every morning trying to get my muscles in tone and everything but yeah I am still skinny and healthy!

I have really enjoyed all the things that I have learned in this past year! I have learned so much about the gospel and my testimony has shot through the roof! Over the past year I have grown so much spiritually and feel so much closer to my Heavenly Father! I continue to strive to do all that I can and all that he asks of me! I have realized that those things that I thought were important really aren't and but the things that matter most are what we need to hold on to and cherish, and that is the gospel! There is so much that we can learn from it, so much that we recognize we need to change as we learn and understand all that our Heavenly Father asks of us. I have realized the potential that we all have as sons and daughters of God. He say himself in our midst and created a Plan for us to become as he is, to reach our full Potential! When I think about all of this, I realize that truly I have existed forever but in order to become who and what I was meant to become, I needed the help of my Heavenly Father. He has blessed me with this chance to come and to learn as I go through life and experience everything it has to offer. Especially this chance I have to be on mission, to grow up and become the man I am meant to be. If I continue to prove myself faithful, I will be entitled to all that the Father has, and then do as He did, and help those disembodied spirits reach their own potential! I have realized that about my myself. That I have the desire to really help and please others! I try and help them in anyway, serve and make sure that they are happy. When they are happy I am happy! But anyway, I have realized that everything happens for a reason and is all according to God's plan, but we are each entitle to exercise our personal agency. We are the determining factor in our own fate and destiny. We decide the future by the decisions that we make today! I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father, our Mediator and Savior. He too recognized from the beginning the potential we had, and the need for him to make and infinite and atoning sacrifice for us. He knew what He would have to endure, the kind of pain, humiliation, torture, and mockery that he would face; but he did not let such thoughts deter Him from what He was to do. He suffered in the Garden for each of us individually, carried is cross to Golgotha every step, not as step towards defeat, but a step towards triumph, a step towards perfection. Before his atonement, the Savior would say, Be ye therefore perfect as my father which is in heaven is perfect. But after, came the responds of "be ye therefore perfect even as I and the Father are perfect." He then laid down his life on the cross, but 3 days later he eliminated death with his Resurrection. Today we worship a living Christ, not a dead Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church upon the face of the earth, and is the only church that our Eternal Father can look upon and be pleased. It is the only church that has his authority, the fulness of the everlasting gospel, and all the ordinances and covenants necessary to salvation! And all of this was made possible because of the humble prayer of a 14 year old boy who only sought to know the truth midst a world of confusion. The Standard works were written by prophets under the spirit of prophecy and contain the teachings we need to have success in this life, and eternal progression in the next. We have a modern day Moses in the prophet Thomas S. Monson, who receives minute by minute communication from God as to the things we, He children on earth need to know. I know that all of this is true, and am grateful for this knowledge and for the motivation, comfort, and guidance it is to me. I am grateful for the experiences I have had this past year, and pray that I am becoming who our Heavenly father wants me to become. I pray that I am becoming like Him. Brigham Young once said, "Where man is, God once was. Where God is, man is yet to be." One day we will all be there, as a family, and experience a fulness of Joy! My new favorite Hymn is #284- If you could Hie to Kolob. That is the meaning behind the JS ring. There is no beginning, there is no end. We are eternal, just as the Father is.

I love you all so much and appreciate all the support you give to me! I know that you too are sacrificing so much for me to be here now, and I know that you will continue to receive those blessing this coming year! Keep praying for me, for the work, and the people of Ghana. They are so great, and unlike anyone in the world! I love you all so much!

Love your son and Brother

Elder Ryan S. Alba