January 2, 2012

Dear Family:

Happy New Year!!!!! This is the year that I come home!!!!:) I am so excIted for the new year and too see what this year has in store!!!!!

How was your New Year? It was a pretty normal day here. We went to church and then afterwards our ward had a little get together that we went to. It was pretty good! This whole week since Christmas has been like a giant holiday here. To be honest the people here don't really celebrate Christmas or New Years, but they take work off and no one does anything. Instead they celebrate It the night of by playing music and dancing and lots of word of wisdom breaking. It is crazy, now we have entered into the year that I come home! It is so crazy! I can't even imagine It! Time is just flying by!

So this past week has been kind of a slow week for us due to the holidays! Most of our people have traveled to visIt family and friends so It was a pretty fruItless week. But oh well It happens! You just make do wIth what you can. We had transfers this past week on Wednesday and It went really well. We came up wIth a plan of where everyone needed to be at what times and went off wIthout a hItch. The new missionaries we received seem to be great! There was only North American who came up to our zone, and all of the missionaries seem to be great! We are now the largest zone in the mission. We have 30 elders in our zone and have 10 areas/unIts in our zone. It is great! We have some the best Elders of the mission in our zone and a lot of work is being done. We finished the last 4 months of the year wIth 102 baptisms. That I believe is the highest in the mission, we ended up wIth around 38-40 for the month of December. It is amazing to see how Kumasi is growing. The Lord is really preparing this place for great things! I am just honored that I get to be a part of It. Lately the story of Samuel the prophet in the Old testament keeps coming to my mind, especially of when he was called as a child. The Lord called upon him three times, every time answering and going to Eli. But Eli taught him that It was the Lord and respond "Speak Lord, they servant heareth." This phrase keeps coming to my mind, "Speak Lord thy Servant Heareth!" I realized that this phrase is how we need to pattern our lives! First we need to live worthy to receive a call from the Lord, no matter what the task is. We then need to listen and waIt for the Lords call; tune our ear to hear and understand the language of the Spirit. And last ready to respond and act upon the call. It is not just something we do once, but like I said is a way in which we need to pattern our lives. We never know when He will call, sometimes It will be just like Samuel "in the middle of the night," but we need to be ready and say as did Samuel, "Speak Lord, thy Servant heareth."

As a new year begins it is amazing to look back and see all that has happened in the past year. How much change and growth has occurred! As one chapter closes another begins! I was sItting in sacrament meeting and just started to right down some goals that I had for the coming year. As I sat there and thought to myself, It really hIt me, that this year was the year that I go home. It was a weird feeling and thought to think that I would be home in only 9 months. I started to think of goals that I had for not only mission but life after mission as well. Different ideas and thoughts came to my mind but really only one stuck, "Return wIth Honor!" That really is the only goal that I have for 2012, "Return wIth Honor!" This year I am going to give It my all, do all that I can, use every minute I have, to serve the Lord and "Return wIth Honor!"

I love you all so much and appreciate all that you do for me! 2011 really was the year of sacrifice for everyone and I love you all for all that you have sacrificed on my behalf! Lots will happen in 2012, and It is my prayer that we all will be blessed and receive the help from the Lord!

Love your son and brother

Elder Ryan S. Alba