Dear Family,
This week went well! We had
interviews with President Judd and that was nice to talk with him.
Usually he has things to suggest that I should do, but this time around
he pretty much just told me I was doing good job and that I should keep
it up. I think that's probably what I needed most. It's nice to feel
like I'm appreciated. Ha, it was funny because the first thing he said
to me when I sat down with him was, "Well Elder, you're an experienced
missionary now...". That's the last thing I would think of myself as, so
that makes me feel good that he thinks that. I told him about the
statistics that Uncle Shane gave about numbers tripling and 250 in every
mission, and he just kind of laughed and said, "I don't think I could
handle 250 missionaries right now". But he has mentioned in his last
few letters to all of us that a lot of new things will be happening
these next few transfers and that new areas will be opened up. He
mentioned to me in the interview also that there was a lot more area in
the east (Volta Region) and in the North (Eastern Region...Kind of
backwards huh?!) that still need to be opened up. I would love to open
up a new area. Because that also means a brand new apartment ;).
We've been talking about Mitt Romney a bit in our
apartment lately. I hope he wins. The people here always talk about
Obama, and I'm sure if Mitt Romney became president it would give the
church A TON of publicity here in Ghana and throughout the world.
Dad, you talked about being grateful for your own
testimony. Isn't a testimony the most valuable thing we can have? It's a
sense of identity and purpose, and if it's strong, there's no worry
even when challenges come. It seems that all challenges are mentally
solved, even working physically. If we have a solid testimony, we, in
a way, have solid faith. We just have to keep in remembrance. It seems
that most people reach a point in their testimony where they "know".
After that point, it's mostly a matter of remembrance. Of course we'll
strengthen it, but that one time really should be suffice for most
challenges that come our way. At least that's the way I see it.
I got the package with the ties (I love both of them),
candy, rubber band gun, socks (thank goodness, I have like two or three
pairs with holes in them) and the armpit farting card. that was great.
I'll continue the rest of my letter in response to mom's e-mail..............
Questions. We have been teaching at least 15-20 lessons each week, so
we're doing fine now. But as for baptisms and people progressing, I have
no idea what's happening. It gets frustrating at times, but I feel like
we're trying our hardest, and then some. But yes, I feel like I learn
huge lessons every week. I write down spiritual impressions in my
journal about doctrines and experiences, so hopefully they'll come in
handy later. One that I've found lately is about the sacrament. I was
reading somewhere in 3rd Nephi and I was thinking about the sacrament
and why it even matters. I feel like I remember Christ and my covenants
every day anyway, so why do we have to do it on Sunday by eating a little
piece of bread and water, right? But in 3rd Nephi and in the sacrament
prayer, it mentions that the sacrament is the way that we "witness" unto
God that we will always remember him. Just like we can learn about the
church and read the Book of Mormon every day, God has put in place
baptism as a commandment to officially witness to Him that we take upon
ourselves the name of Christ and keep His commandments. Same with the
sacrament. It's a commandment. We do it and God accepts it as our
official witness to remember Christ and keep our baptismal covenants. We
can do and say all we want during the week to witness to Him that we
remember Christ, but God has His way, and he has a purpose in it.
Whether nor not we will ever "fully" understand that purpose is beyond
me, but God has made his way, and there's no other way that will work
once His way is commanded and set in place.
Another thing I finally understood was about the state of mind
Adam and Eve were in before they took of the fruit. Of course we know
they were innocent, but it sure boggled my mind how someone can make a
choice without having previous experience to base that choice off of.
But it makes sense now and I'll explain how I came to know. We were
teaching this guy named King. We told him, "So Adam and Eve partook of
the fruit and they fell, becoming subject to sin". So he asked, "Subject
to sin?! Didn't they just sin when they took of the fruit?" I told him
no, and that sin and transgression are different. I said that sin is
when we knowingly do wrong, and transgression is when we don't know.
Then he rebutted, "But they knew! God told them not to take of the
fruit!" ..........That stumped me. I thought, "yeah...he's right? what
the heck?!" And then somehow it just all clicked in my mind and I said,
"Yes God told them not to take of the fruit, but they didn't know it was
wrong." It kind of blew my mind as the words came out of my mouth. I
think it did the same for our investigator because he then gave a
perfect analogy to correlate with it all. He said, "So for example. God
said, don't touch that fire, but then Satan came and told them to touch
it so they did. Then they realized what they didn't know before -- that
it burned them, and it hurt! And now they knew!" I just said, "YES,
PERFECT!!!" Needless to say, that night was great. That actually
happened last Monday night.
So I'll explain our visit to the mall. Well, I
bought shoe polish (the brand name [Kiwi]) peanut butter, and some
potato chips. It was all delicious. It felt really awkward in the mall
there though. It was like being at home. The mall is just like one back
home. They even had an Apple store. We had some french fries in a little
fast food restaurant and really, I just wanted to get out of there
because it felt so weird. I'm definitely going to feel out of place when
I get home. I prefer gutters filled with gray goop with goats and
chickens running around on dirt roads.
It rained really hard this last Friday. The
streets outside our apartment were just covered in two or three inches
of rain. The sisters in our district called us and asked us to bring
them umbrellas because they were cold and couldn't get back to their
apartment. So Elder Bladen and I made a trek there through all the
water. I'll send the pictures.
Love you guys, I'll talk to you next week. Thanks for the letter again!
Love, Elder Littlefield
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