April 23, 2012

Mom,

Thanks for your letter! It was a really good one. It helps
to hear things like how people are asking about me. I think I probably
thrived on those compliments and feelings of acceptance from others
more than I should have when I was at home. Everything I was good at
back home is difficult to apply here, so sometimes I feel like I'm
just like any other missionary on a mission. But I know there's
strengths I have that make me a special instrument as a missionary, as
compared to just an instrument. Right now I'm trying to figure out how
best I can use the talents and strengths I have in missionary work. I
can't really just sing for people every lesson we have, or play a
piano. Service is hard because if you do service for people without
asking, some get offended like you think they can't manage their own.
Elder Ikoro and I are starting to find more ways we can serve people.
One of our goals this week is to stop what we're doing and go help
someone if we see an opportunity to serve. We'll see how it goes.
Rugby sounds sweet for Connor. I don't exactly remember the
crocheting thing at conference being a tradition, but I think I did
that because I can listen to people better when I'm doing something
simple to occupy my attention span, ha ha. That bed looks way nice to
sleep in too, ha ha. Sometimes I wish I think back to home and wish I
was sleeping in those kind of covers. When I sleep here, I'm on the
top bunk, and I just sleep with 2 sheets (one for the mattress, and
one for myself if my fan makes me cold at night).
This last week has been pretty good. We got to go see Tad R.
Callister in a huge national conference hall that the church rented in
Ghana for the Conference. They invited 4 stakes and some other areas
that were all going to be reorganized into 6 stakes in Ghana now. Our
branch is one of the new stakes they created. Elder Callister's talk
was nice. He talked about his wife not knowing how to talk to their
son because all he would talk about was sports and she grew up in a
family with no sports talk or anything of that kind. Whenever she
asked how school was, he just said "fine", or how football practice
was he just said "fine". She finally decided to pick up a sports
magazine and read through some of the articles. Then when he came home
she talked to him about some of the things she read. They eventually
started talking more and he became more open to talking with her. She
continued to read more and more sports magazines, and Elder Callister
said, as we was taking his son to a sports practice in the car, his
son said to him "Dad, mom knows a lot about sports.". I really like
stories like that. They always make me feel really good.
We were able to teach a little more lessons this week. But
I decided that's not what it's about. That's why we've decided to find
more service we can do. The church has a huge name here and people all
around town always know what's going on with the church. The news
about us missionaries (good or bad) spreads incredibly fast. Elder
Ikoro accidentally hit a woman riding his bike at night and knocked
her down one night. The news was all over in another town we work is
that's at least 4 miles away. Gossip is a problem here, but we've
decided to use it to our advantage. We're going to do more service.
We're going to take every advantage of every opportunity. Now, as a
disclaimer, we're not doing our "alms to be seen of men". But we know
that whether in secret or not, the news will spread and we'll have
more people to teach the more service we render. We'll do our acts of
service in secret the best we can, and I've already discussed that
with Elder Ikoro that we're not there to show off or look good. Mom's
questions: We're about an hour away form the temple. If you can just
keep money in my account just in case I need anything like shirts, i
should be good. i can just buy white shirts here, they're a little
less thick and bulky like the missionary mall ones, and they only cost
maybe 2 dollars a shirt. I just took out a hundred cedis (66 dollars)
just yesterday just in cast I need anything for the next few months,
so I should be good.
Well, I've got a few pictures to send, so I'll send those after
this. Thanks for the letters. By the way, The office couple don't come
from Accra anymore because they've been assigned to a different
branch, so I won't get letters or packages on a weekly basis anymore.
I love you guys! I don't remember much from home, but I do remember my
family!

---Elder Littlefield