tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054050466479491672024-02-07T13:26:41.100-08:00Elder Dallin LittlefieldUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-10145298025155829622013-06-23T11:59:00.000-07:002013-06-23T11:59:14.088-07:00Dear Fambly,<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
"Ching-chong-ching-chong", as the Ghanaian children would say to an Asian person as they walk by (or us, because I guess sometimes we look Asian :-S). This week was pretty great! We confirmed Florence this Sunday and we're baptizing another woman named Helen next week! (I'll send a picture of Florence). Fun story, there's a crazy man who stands near the main road at our house every day who wears a hat over a long piece of neon fabric over is head. He has a two-foot long stick in his hand which it looks like he's trying to direct traffic with as he points it at the cars that go by. I think he thinks that it's his job to go out there and do what he does. Sometimes we find him around the community standing in the middle of the roads pointing his stick at cars and yelling stuff. If he's in the way of the cars, they just honk at him until he moves while angrily pointing his stick at them as they pass. I told Elder Southwick that he's probably a wizard and is just casting spells. </div>
<br />
<div>
We also taught a man named "Connor" this week. Sorry to say Connor, but the man rejected the Book of Mormon completely. He let us in, but wasn't very open to receive anything we had for him. He was in his 30's and had a house all to himself. By the time we got to the Book of Mormon, he just started shutting us down and telling us that there can't be anything else besides the bible. We begged to ask him why there couldn't, and the just said, "there can't!". We didn't continue to ask. I think he had heard something about the church, and even when we tried to explain the Book of Mormon, he said that he already knew what it was and that Joseph Smith wrote it. So we just stopped pushing, had a closing prayer, and said goodbye! </div>
<br />
<div>
Well, next week the mission is receiving 28 new missionaries, and then five days later the mission is splitting into two! Trainers will be called tomorrow. I really can't say what will happen this last transfer. I may stay or go, maybe my companion will go, or we'll both stay; who knows! Mom asked whether or not we've been teaching referrals. We're trying, and we wish we could teach all referrals, but there's only a few a referrals right now. It's hard to get someone to church without a member bringing them and being their friend. I would like some taco seasoning or gravy packets! Maybe one or two of those Idahoan instant potatoes! :) </div>
<br />
<div>
That's my week! I'm still trying to be strong and finish to the end. I know how I end my mission is how I'll be when I come home, and I don't want to come home a lazy junk. I got McCall's letter this week! Thanks 'Call! I'll write back as soon as I can! Happy Father's Day Dad! Love you guys, and talk to ya next week.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3QAvpYET4TcnlT3HfgJcH5W9dLaOo7AM2zyJQKAFPfRAg1KDVT2zCXgbN0rXGzYa6TX9O8lx-5QaP5mbWYxPEJIEiDJ-j6ndM6Iao2Mxm88iOuDkVXTLD3c_MJawdGrEj50mf1HiJD2g/s1600/SAM_1075%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3QAvpYET4TcnlT3HfgJcH5W9dLaOo7AM2zyJQKAFPfRAg1KDVT2zCXgbN0rXGzYa6TX9O8lx-5QaP5mbWYxPEJIEiDJ-j6ndM6Iao2Mxm88iOuDkVXTLD3c_MJawdGrEj50mf1HiJD2g/s320/SAM_1075%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7kR5tpeByLW_9s1H0fgdxaW5g_7QQli4sRzdmQPbwiUoVDaS2EZgLEGV72XT0ZbyYq1pVKEfafuplbwOfBpgfGgabQu02-bZrpkA60pKnhkvx7uc4OzQpnowMIcPYBiztSnqGTEYhWXK5/s1600/SAM_1079%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7kR5tpeByLW_9s1H0fgdxaW5g_7QQli4sRzdmQPbwiUoVDaS2EZgLEGV72XT0ZbyYq1pVKEfafuplbwOfBpgfGgabQu02-bZrpkA60pKnhkvx7uc4OzQpnowMIcPYBiztSnqGTEYhWXK5/s320/SAM_1079%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-33311218736963707462013-02-10T08:51:00.001-08:002013-02-10T08:51:51.654-08:00<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_2549">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_2548">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_2547">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_2546">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_2545">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_2544">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_2543">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_2542">
<div>
Dear Family,<br /></div>
This week was nice! I'll be singing this next week on Wednesday! I'm the only musical number too. I thought there would be others, but they said I'm the only one! I'll be singing "Be Still My Soul" A Capella, and it's going to go really well I think! I wish I could just sing as my mission, but there's not too many opportunities, and the style of music that people like here is nothing that I would sing. I asked the bishop <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1360514376_0">on Saturday</span> if I could sing in sacrament meeting the next day, and he said that the choir was singing a number, but we're having a ward family home evening at the church tonight and he said I could sing for that. I feel like singing is a contribution I should be making more to do missionary work and support the ward. </div>
This last week we all went out for pizza again one night this last week with a few other missionaries, and we even found probably the only miniature golf course in Ghana, and we're going to go play this afternoon for a p-day activity!</div>
We taught a lot of lessons this week, and they were good lessons too! In all we taught 31! Crazy huh?! I don't think I've been able to do this much teaching for like 8 months! It's been nice and the ward had a missionary open-house that turned out to be a lot more successful than I thought. People walked in, they met some members, watched a small video clip, and then we sat down with them and taught them. </div>
Some more mission news! Transfers will be <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1360514376_1">this Thursday</span>. There were only about 8 missionaries called to train this transfer, but I heard that the next group of missionaries to come in after this will be one sister missionary, one African, and 18 Americans! There are also rumors going around that there will be a change in the way transfers happen now, like maybe the transfer length will be shortened or lengthened. But that's just rumor right now. We do know, however, that because of whatever the change is with transfers, the dates of those going home are being changed, just like you said. I don't know what the dates are going to be changed to, but I imagine it ought to work out for me. If I go home a few weeks early, I"ll make it in time just fine for school. But if it's a few weeks later, I'll just choose to go home some few weeks early to make it in time. Either way, that's still like 8 months away. Elder C. Scott Grow is supposed to expound on it all a little more during our conference with him <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1360514376_2">this Wednesday</span>.</div>
We're still working with an old man named Tetteh who was the one who was a co-founder of a church. He's afraid to be baptized we think. He's so funny. When he comes to church, he sits down and leans back in his chair and closes his eyes like he just came there to sleep. Then every once and a while he'll speak up in the middle of the lesson and bring up a really good point, and sometimes it stirs quite the argument among members. We'll both (Elder Henderson and I) just kind of look over at Tetteh and think, "Wasn't he just asleep?!". He fed us some potato soup yesterday which tasted more like home than any Ghanaian dish I've ever had here. It was pretty good and he even made it himself. His wife kept calling him "chef" the whole time he was serving us, ha ha.....I should probably write more about things like this huh? There's just so many unusual things that happen every day that it just doesn't hit me that it's unusual anymore. We also went with a recent convert who had come off of smoking marijuana to go and teach some members' 25-year-old son who has been smoking it for some time now. Both the recent convert (William) and the members' son (Mathias) are big guys. William pretty much took over the lesson and we're pretty sure Mathias was high while we were teaching him the whole time, ha, but it still went well. The way of teaching and counseling people here (at least amongst themselves) is so different from how you'd think it should work. They sweet talk each other as if it's a business offer sometimes. William started out by saying things like, "You know, your parents, they love you so much. Every time I see your father he tells me how much he loves his son. He wants you to be a gentleman and to be successful. And can you do that if you've got your hair like it is and you're becoming a Rastaman? No." (A Rastaman is pretty much someone who like to grow their hair out long in dreads, listen to reggae music, act relaxed, and smoke weed. Bob Marley is a perfect example of a "Rastaman") William even convinced Mathias to at least trim up his hair and his big beard promising him that if he did, he would be able to ask his father for 1,000 cedis and his father would surely give it to him, ha ha. It was a good lesson, but it's so different from what we would do. They're very straight forward with each other and they don't take offense at things that we normally would, so they say some pretty bold, sometimes funny, things. Oh, and to dad: I've been keeping a pretty good track of names and areas because I've kept all of my planners from past areas and they have all the people's names I taught and what I taught them. I think I should be able to remember a lot just from those. I've got every day's plan in missionary planners since the beginning of my mission inside my suitcase. </div>
I haven't been able to receive any mail for the last 2 weeks, but I'll make sure to send McCall's letter off. I did hear though that I have a package waiting for me in the mission home, so I think your Christmas package to me arrived! I'll find out this Wednesday. </div>
One last thing, I went to the temple this last week with our ward and some recent converts and the temple workers gave us the papers with names on them, showed us how to do it all, and then left us missionaries with the ward members in the confirmation room to do about 120 or more confirmations. So that was fun. I felt pretty official ;) </div>
Thanks for your e-mails! That sucks that everyone is so sick. I'll be praying for Aunt Linda especially! Tell her I say she should just eat some jelly beans. I think that ought to take care of it :) I'll talk to you guys next week! <br /></div>
Lot's of Lutchin' love, Elder Dallin LittlefieldUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-49749992066295189892013-02-10T08:38:00.000-08:002013-02-10T08:38:11.764-08:00<li><span class="lozengeContainer"><span class="btn lozenge small left right " data-action="contact-card-menu" data-address="cheekamobeek@yahoo.com" data-name="Chad Littlefield"><a dir="" href="http://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=6o32dln579jqv#" role="button" tabindex="0" title="cheekamobeek@yahoo.com">Chad Littlefield</a></span> </span> </li>
<br />
<div aria-label="Message body" class="msg-body inner undoreset" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_1970" role="main">
<div style="position: absolute; z-index: -5;">
</div>
<div id="yiv544262552">
<div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_1969">
Dear Family,<div>
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_1968">
Another really good week! We had SEVEN investigators at church <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1360513774_0">this Sunday</span>. They all came on their own except for one of them that we picked up, and they're all people we've been teaching and have accepted baptismal dates! It's been so nice. We taught about 30 lessons this last week and I'm loving it. Elder Henderson is so nice to work with. He can hold his own and is humble enough to adapt to me while I adapt to him. We're working really well together. OH! before I forget. I have a funny story to tell. There's a man named Francis that we're teaching. He's a little slow. But we were teaching him about baptism and how we need to do it by immersion, and Elder Henderson said to him, "You, when you you bathe, do you just wash one part of your body and your done, or do you wash your whole body?". He has used this example tons of times, but this time Francis said, "Well, sometimes I just wash part and sometimes I wash all.". Ha Ha! Oh man, it was so funny. We both just laughed and were like, "Wait....what?!". </div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_1982">
We also taught a man this week that has been really prepared. He's had the influence of members throughout his life and when we went to see him we found out that he owns two houses that he doesn't live in and just rents them out to people. He's extremely smart, even compared to someone back home, and he's so enlightened. He even brought up in our lesson that there must be something true about the church because of all the hatred towards it. He accepted a baptismal date, didn't quite come to church, but has already been once to another ward in the recent past. He was a referral from the elders whose ward he went to. There's a member fireside with Elder Quentin L. Cook <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1360513774_1">next Wednesday</span> and we're going to try and make it a goal to get him there. </div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_1981">
We baptized a woman yesterday after church who we believe is really converted. Her name is Charlotte. We had been teaching her mother for over a month when one day she happened to be sitting in on the lesson and was very curious about our doctrines and where we go after we die. From that point she's come to church every week for 5 weeks in a row and now is baptized. </div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_1978">
I think we're the only church with so much detail and certainty about where we actually go after we die and where we were and what happened before we were born. Out here in Ghana, there's a ton of churches and influence of churches everywhere, so you get to learn about a lot of the other churches doctrine. It's really interesting to find out how solid our religion is. A lot of other religions are speculative and presuming. Ours isn't a bunch of guesses, but instead we "know". I'd much rather hope that our church is true than settle for a guess or a "We can only assume" answer. Our church's doctrine is solid. Members teaching lessons or giving talks don't teach what they think, they teach doctrine that has already been established. It's just a matter of having everyone else understand that doctrine. Because really, Christ's gospel is to be understood by the spirit. Words can only "tell", but the spirit "shows" (2nd Nephi 32:3-5). Together, like it states in D&C 11:21, the spirit and the word are "the power of God unto the convincing of men". </div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_1979">
Well, chances are I won't be able to send any letters off this week or receive any. Next week I will though. Sorry, no picturers this week, I didn't take any....I did, however, record my "be still my soul" song, so I'll send that with this e-mail. :)</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1360513673534_1980">
For all of the things that I'm learning while I'm here on my mission, I keep being reminded that I need to remember these things and make them a habit and part of me especially when I'm finished with my mission. It seems like every time I learn something new, something reminds me to not forget it when I go home and to not go back to how I was before my mission. I plan on being a very different person as far as my commitment to the church and my own standards. I have some huge experiences that have changed how I see things since I've been here and I never want to fall back into any old ruts. This church and these doctrines are incredible! I love them so much! I understand more what people mean when they say they feel blessed to be on the earth during the fullness of times. We really do have a lot of truth, and I don't think nearly as many of us search it out and use it as we could. You can live such a near-perfect life if you're diligent and willing.</div>
<div>
Anyway, thanks for the letters! Everything is going well here and I hope it continues. Thanks for your prayers. I pray for you guys too.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Love, Dallin (Elder Littlefield)</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-68391862161667337972012-11-12T13:29:00.000-08:002012-11-12T13:43:43.068-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
Dear Family,<br />
<br />
Transfers are <span class="ycalshortcuts" data-action="calevent" id="lw_1352753345_0" title="Add an event at this date">this Wednesday</span>.
More than likely I'll at least get a new companion. Let me answer Mom's
questions first this time. Proselyting this week went pretty well. We
can't manage to get anyone to come to church to save our lives.
Although, we can get them to say they will come to church, ha ha. I
think we had about 5 or 6 investigators all tell us <span class="ycalshortcuts" data-action="calevent" id="lw_1352753345_1" title="Add an event at this date">Saturday night</span>
that they'd be there Sunday morning, and then no one showed up. I've
lately been at a loss of what to do, but we're just going to keep trying
new things to help. They keep all of their other commitments to read
and pray and things like that, but coming to church is apparently a real
struggle. We were teaching one man, and when we asked him if he had any
questions during one lesson, he just turned to the back of the pamphlet
and started reading the "additional study" questions to us as if they
were his own. Later in the lesson he got up to go talk to someone, told
us he'd come back, and then never did. I went on three splits this week.
One with the zone leaders, and then one each with two of the
companionships in our district. It was a pretty crazy week of traveling
and being all over the place. We taught another man who claimed that we
definitely worshiped whatever gold man that was on top of our temples.
There are some pretty interesting rumors that go around about the church
here. One's like we drink blood or we have secret underground
worshiping places that only members who "have gotten so far" in the
church can see. Some say that we do chants and call spirits because to
most here the word "saints" has to do with calling back from the dead
the spirits of people like Peter, Mary, Judas, etc. from the new
testament. It's a lot of fun sometimes to hear what they come up with.<br />
I get my haircut just about every month and a half, I like keeping it pretty short. I'll get it cut again today. <br />
Oh! I've got a fun story to share about when I was on splits with Elder
Russell from my MTC group. He's my zone leader. Anyways, we met this
hardcore "Rastafarian" guy. Rastafarians are pretty much like Bob Marley
lifestyle type of people. Most smoke marijuana and have dreadlocks.
He's probably from Jamaica because he had the accent, but we never know
because there's quite the handful of Ghanaians that like to act like
they're Jamaican. Anyways, he called us into his shop that was selling
all different kinds of Bob Marley and Lucky Dube stuff. He had
researched our church on the internet and was baffled to find out that
his research was not correct....go figure. The story he had was somehow
close, but a lot of the details were exaggerated or not correct. He
wouldn't let us talk much but went on to tell us his theory about how
Jesus Christ got down from the cross three hours after they tried to
crucify him and that he actually never was crucified. It smelled like
Marijuana in his shop and although this guy talked like he was pretty
intelligent, I think he was a little off his rocker. It was worse
because he was starting to brainwash one of the investigators they had
that had come with us to his shop. Elder Russell directly told the man
that everything he said was false and that nothing he said was in the
bible. That started a little contention and we ended up just walking out
with the guy saying, "oh come <span class="ycalshortcuts" data-action="calevent" id="lw_1352753345_2" title="Add an event at this date">on mon</span>, don't be like that!". It was quite the exciting time, ha :)<br />
We finally got to listen to conference yesterday. It was so
nice, especially Elder Holland's talk about the account of Peter and
Christ saying "Peter, do you love me?". That was pretty darn powerful. <br />
Well, I don't have much else to say. I love you guys! Talk to you guys next week!<br />
<br />
Love, Dallin (Elder Littlefield)</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://thumbp10-gq1.thumb.mail.yahoo.com/tn?sid=1109998953&mid=ABK3iGIAAYOqUJfOZQBGwFQ1qVQ&midoffset=2_0_0_30_1549&partid=3&f=1144&fid=Dallin%20Letters&w=637&h=480&httperr=1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="pp_img" height="300" id="yui_3_3_0_2_1352754501214261" src="http://thumbp10-gq1.thumb.mail.yahoo.com/tn?sid=1109998953&mid=ABK3iGIAAYOqUJfOZQBGwFQ1qVQ&midoffset=2_0_0_30_1549&partid=3&f=1144&fid=Dallin%20Letters&w=637&h=480&httperr=1" style="left: 50%; margin-top: -239px; top: 50%; visibility: visible;" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://thumbp10-gq1.thumb.mail.yahoo.com/tn?sid=1109998953&mid=ABK3iGIAAYOqUJfOZQBGwFQ1qVQ&midoffset=2_0_0_30_1549&partid=2&f=1144&fid=Dallin%20Letters&w=637&h=480&httperr=1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="pp_img" height="150" id="yui_3_3_0_2_1352754501214308" src="http://thumbp10-gq1.thumb.mail.yahoo.com/tn?sid=1109998953&mid=ABK3iGIAAYOqUJfOZQBGwFQ1qVQ&midoffset=2_0_0_30_1549&partid=2&f=1144&fid=Dallin%20Letters&w=637&h=480&httperr=1" style="height: 478px; left: 50%; margin-top: -239px; top: 50%; visibility: visible; width: 637px;" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://thumbp10-gq1.thumb.mail.yahoo.com/tn?sid=1109998953&mid=ABK3iGIAAYOqUJfOZQBGwFQ1qVQ&midoffset=2_0_0_30_1549&partid=5&f=1144&fid=Dallin%20Letters&w=637&h=480&httperr=1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="pp_img" height="150" id="yui_3_3_0_2_1352754501214367" src="http://thumbp10-gq1.thumb.mail.yahoo.com/tn?sid=1109998953&mid=ABK3iGIAAYOqUJfOZQBGwFQ1qVQ&midoffset=2_0_0_30_1549&partid=5&f=1144&fid=Dallin%20Letters&w=637&h=480&httperr=1" style="height: 478px; left: 50%; margin-top: -239px; top: 50%; visibility: visible; width: 637px;" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-27982118035648912712012-10-24T13:48:00.000-07:002012-10-24T13:48:29.619-07:00Oct 22nd 2012Dear Family,<br />
<br />
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 ;). <br />
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.<br />
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. <br />
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..............<br />
<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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. <br />
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.<br />
Love you guys, I'll talk to you next week. Thanks for the letter again! <br />
Love, Elder LittlefieldUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-12417401269426645372012-10-11T09:35:00.001-07:002012-10-11T09:35:30.880-07:00Ok! Family,<br /><br /> I've only got 11 minutes because I went
to buy all new white shirts in Accra. I bought 7 for 43 cedis (20 U.S.
Dollars)! Pretty sweet huh?! Well, this week went really well. This
missionary work is becoming extra serious now. President Judd's letter
to us about the new announcement about 18-year-old elders had him talk
to us about the importance of being a very well trusted missionary that
is "righteous in the dark". I'm so glad I don't feel guilty when he says
that. I didn't really notice too much, but I did make it my goal some
several months back to always do the right thing when no one is around
and just to have charity and good character at the times when I could
definitely do bad. It gives me so much confidence, and I don't feel any
guilt. It's the best feeling. Before my mission I never realized how
much doing the right thing when no one's looking means so much to your
confidence. You can't tell someone else with all your conviction to do
something that you feel you could do better at or don't do as well. But
if you aren't guilty of being lazy or doing bad things, then you have so
much more the power and right to help teach those with love the correct
way back onto the right path and it makes all the difference for that
person.<br />
I won't comment much on your e-mails because of time, but
know I did read them. I didn't hear about the age change for
missionaries until I read President Judd's E-mail today! It sounds
pretty awesome though.<br />
The work is going so great! I made my own philosophy that I'm
going to live by for the rest of my mission. I decided that "I don't
have to want to try to try". It changes everything when you do what's
right even when it doesn't make any sense and you feel so much like
doing the easier thing. God blesses you. I've also learned the
importance of relying on the savior and literally "building" myself on
the atonement. It doesn't fall. Everything else will fail, but Christ
will not. He never does, and I've seen it first hand. Sometimes I wonder
if I really have much of a testimony. I do, but it's often difficult to
really determine where it came from. All I can say most of the time is
that "I know" and I'm positive that I know. There really is no doubt!
Jesus Christ is the One that we really all need to build ourselves on.
If we build on other things, it will destroy our confidence and trust
hoping for what is right. But I know that if we build ourselves relying
on Christ for everything, we NEVER fail. I've heard this my whole life,
but it really changes when I have to do something hard that is
impossible without HIS help. I love you guys. I'll write a longer letter
next week, but I'm almost out of time. <br />
<br /> Love, Elder LittlefieldUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-9398659932320858832012-09-11T07:06:00.000-07:002012-09-11T07:06:15.733-07:00<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF5j8Srf8Wq3GN6vV-Xo4pG5ocK5lvhs5PHN76no7O-CO2MOqfRYZYX-7O0cG6T7_XqLXcCNTqPleO8NrUvdUpMV07FwbwWggYJoT9wrx1aaET8XuP7Cxwbr_8362nJF-i9yMXQVbYKp7S/s1600/SAM_0606%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF5j8Srf8Wq3GN6vV-Xo4pG5ocK5lvhs5PHN76no7O-CO2MOqfRYZYX-7O0cG6T7_XqLXcCNTqPleO8NrUvdUpMV07FwbwWggYJoT9wrx1aaET8XuP7Cxwbr_8362nJF-i9yMXQVbYKp7S/s640/SAM_0606%5B1%5D.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
This week has been pretty good. It just seemed kind of average. It had
it's ups and downs. Being more in the city areas brings a lot of
different personalities and ideas. People back in the bush (Nsawam) are
all pretty like one another. Some people are really confused when it
comes to doctrine and you find more of those "Oh, the Mormons! You drink
blood and call spirits!" kind of people. You just have to think
sometimes, "What in the world?! Who told you that?" and they always
answer back, "Oh, I heard it from my sister or friend, or whoever!" and
then when you tell them it's not true they act as if the person they heard the
rumor from knows more about the church than a missionary who represents
the church. It's silly. I think a strong person is someone who doesn't
believe what people tell them, but instead finds out what is true for
themselves. I believe that in everything. You can't really take
someone's word for anything really. Sometimes we use it to lean on until
we find out for ourselves, but to make conclusions based of what
someone has said is worth nothing. Even to hear Apostles and Prophets
constantly testify that this church is God's true church cannot benefit
you anything unless you learn to receive your answers from the spirit.
And if someone wants to call that a brainwashing mind game, then they
can. We get to choose for ourselves whether or not we're feeling the
spirit or whether we're just making things up in our minds. Even in
Doctrine and Covenants 50:13-16 it says (now I think this scripture was
meant more for the teacher than the learner, but it works just the same)
"Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question -- unto what were ye
ordained?"<br />
"To preach my gospel by the Spirit, even the Comforter which was sent forth to teach the truth."<br />
"And then received ye spirits which ye could not understand, and
received them to be of God; and in this are ye justified?" <br />
"Behold ye shall answer this question yourselves (this is
where our agency comes in); nevertheless, I will be merciful unto you;
he that is weak among you hereafter shall be made strong."<br />
We can, at times, receive spirits we cannot understand. People are so
anxious and impatient that sometimes they think those feelings or
whatever are the spirit, and so they stop there. But it asks if we are
justified or satisfied with those feelings we received as being from
God. If we are, then fine, we all have agency. But if we aren't, we
shouldn't settle or assume God won't answer us. It comes by faith, and
if we don't first "cast it out by our unbelief" (Alma 32:28) and we give
it a chance, we'll receive an answer to our prayers. But we can't give
up our faith. That is number one. We must always try, even if, at times,
we seem to be getting no where. There's always a reason for every
challenge and trial, and the impatient receive nothing. Something
doesn't come of nothing. And most things worth while don't come from
minimal efforts. It seems that our efforts of faith are always at least
equally matched with blessings. Anyways, that's my sermon, ha ha. I
could go on forever and ever. Well, I'll talk to you guys next week! Hopefully I'll get one of those
packages this week. We have a mission conference this Thursday with
Elder Dixon, our area president. It should be good, he's going to call
on 3 or 4 people to give 3-4 minute talks on the importance and
testimony of tithing, so we all have to be prepared. I love my family,
talk to you guys next week! <br />
Love, Dallin (Elder Littlefield)<br />
<br />
<br />
The third one is of some little kids whose family we taught back in
Owuraku, Nsawam. The little girl is named Delah, and the boy is named
achu (just like you sneeze, ha ha.) I have videos of them, and she's way
cute. She reminds me of Oakley when she was little.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIf8uyYCmbBAQF3X8sLQ9LLiIOzcwgQRRdz5vmwR-3_quZCyHrZzw8Cefdci1sI6hlsYpkeAwP7QWm2aWN-0U35loLdrI7vzlwjknTb0LsWlvgZQ1tFGUypeGiD6VPX79SHOo-pRho3mST/s1600/SAM_5972%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIf8uyYCmbBAQF3X8sLQ9LLiIOzcwgQRRdz5vmwR-3_quZCyHrZzw8Cefdci1sI6hlsYpkeAwP7QWm2aWN-0U35loLdrI7vzlwjknTb0LsWlvgZQ1tFGUypeGiD6VPX79SHOo-pRho3mST/s640/SAM_5972%5B1%5D.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-4004803210028010952012-08-27T11:21:00.000-07:002012-08-27T15:02:11.151-07:00Family,<br />
<br />
I might be kind of brief today, but we'll see.
This week was pretty darn tough. It got better the last few days, but
sometimes I felt like I was completely on my own and that I had no
support. I didn't know what to do with this area and I didn't want our
numbers to be low, but everyone was failing us and no one seemed
interested. It's different here. Everything is more fast-paced. It's
good and it's definitely a challenge I'm not going to half-way attempt
to overcome, but it sure is a different ballgame. President Le'Grand
Curtis' wife called us and gave us a referral which we had a very
interesting lesson with. We walked a way to get to her house, and when
we met her it was 8:00 at night. she lives in like the most compacted
area I've seen here. Everyone's houses, the roads, and everything is
just wall to wall and there's not much room. The sewage (bathwater and
possibly urine) runs down the little hallways in between the houses and
it reminds me of some kind of "black-ops" level on the X-box. We finally
found this woman. Her name is Hannah. We sat down and another man which
lived next door sat down and started listening too. To say the least,
he was pretty uneducated and unreasonable. The lesson went fine until he
started quoting scriptures from the bible saying things like "God is
three in one" and "No one has ever seen God". We told him what we
believed and tried to move on, but he kept interrupting us telling us
that the bible says otherwise. The branch missionary we were with wanted
to argue bible scripture with him, and he did that for a while until I
told him we'll take it from there. To be honest, I think Satan was there
and he really wanted to just break us down. It was hard to have
patience and not just say to this guy, "Man, keep your mouth shut and
let us explain!". He really wasn't someone to contend with because he
just wanted to contend, he wasn't so much interested in getting to the
bottom of the truth. I finally stopped him and told him and sister
Hannah that they need to pray tonight and ask God if Joseph Smith really
did see God. Because, I told them, if he did, then God is not "three in
one" and people can and have "seen God", and more importantly that the
only true church that is God's on earth is The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. As soon as I started saying this, the mood changed
rapidly. It actually even seemed to get lighter in the area we were in.
Everyone quieted down, and this guy sat and listened quietly. I just
about broke and told the guy off, but I held out a little longer and
everything worked out great. We ended the lesson on a spiritual high,
and everything felt really good.<br />
I didn't
get a package, but that's because they didn't bring packages. We had a
zone activity today and played soccer and basketball at the MTC, which
is actually only a 30 minute ride from where I'm at. I saw the ocean
again, it was awesome.<br />
We walk mostly in Nungua. Still send the deodorant, things
are the same price no matter where you go in Ghana, with the exception
of fruit or other produce. I got mail more often in the bush because Elder
Barney was the 2nd counselor in our branch back in Nsawam. But there's a
ton of areas and missionaries in the Greater Accra Region, we only get
mail if we ever come in contact with the office elders or assistants to
the president which happened today because they came to our zone
activity. That zone activity was great, I haven't played basketball in
so long, it was so much fun!<br />
Thanks for those pictures. Man, McCall is cute! As grandma
Hatch would say, "You're gonna have to keep away all those boys away from
her!" or something like that. I think she said that to me every time one
of my siblings were born. Really though, she's really pretty! Connor
looks a little bigger in that hunting picture too like he's working out
or something. I'm gonna have to step it up a notch if I want to dominate
him when I get back. Football sounds awesome! That's way cool they're
blowing out every team and even more cool that I get to be there when he
plays full-on varsity his Junior and Senior year! I bet Kade is
enjoying Junior High, I'd keep the laffy taffies too if I were him,
those are good! We don't cook together here. Everyone manages their own
subsistence money, which is actually a little more difficult than you'd
think if you want to eat something that tastes somewhat good. So we just
eat individually. The area here is different. It's more like the wards
back home than the branches I've been in before. It's a good thing, but
the branch in Nsawam was especially good. Maybe it's just because
I spent so long there, but I really think that branch is great. <br />
I've got some time left actually, so I'll talk about more. We
have a woman and her two children coming to church 2 weeks in a row now.
Hopefully they'll be baptized on the 15th of September. I love the kids
here. I don't want to be an elementary school teacher or anything, but I
wouldn't mind working with something with little kids when I get back,
they're just fun!<br />
Well, that's about it, I'll talk to you guys later. Thanks for
the letters and especially the pictures, I loved it all! I love my
family, it's so great to always hear everything is going so well. I love
you guys. :)<br />
<br />
Love, Dallin (Elder Littlefield)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-45202074357745989562012-07-16T09:59:00.001-07:002012-07-16T09:59:18.970-07:00<br />
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
This last week was great! 22 lessons, 3 investigators at church, and
then one baptism next week! It's going great! It was pretty strange, but
things just took a turn on Wednesday this last week. We had 6 lessons
that one day when we had just experienced a day with one lesson the day
before. President Judd even called us Wednesday to make sure everything
was going alright in our area, because of our numbers. I told him we
have been doing our best to turn things around, and that finally today
(Wednesday) we were having immense success! He said he wasn't worried
and that he had confidence in me, and that made me feel a lot better. We
had three investigators at church, and they were welcomed well by the
branch. We probably would have had as much as six or seven investigators
at church, but it rained Sunday morning, and that just shuts down
almost all activity for some reason. But the three faithful came! :) <br />
It was cool to hear about the trek. When you guys
mentioned the "flour" dust that was everywhere, it reminded me of here.
During the dry season, sometimes it just piles up dust, especially on
the sides of the highways. Sometimes it builds like snow up to like 3 or
4 inches on the sides of the highways. But it's not like that now, it's
been raining pretty off and on this whole week. I like to hear that
about my brothers and sister. I'm excited to see Kade when I get home,
he does sounds like me. I remember the first few times when I first gave
talks in sacrament meeting. One of them I told about how we had our
Thanksgiving dinner in a Denny's in Idaho. At first I was pretty nervous
and I wasn't sure how it would go, but after a while I always liked the
challenge of writing a good talk that people would be interested in and
listened to. Even today, I always love to give talks and I'll jump on
every opportunity. Maybe I just like to talk, I don't know. Connor and
Kade both sound like the trek was a good experience. It seems just like
any youth conference at first, but when you're put in a family of people
you've maybe never met or seen before and you have to stay with them,
things get a little uncomfortable and you have to learn how to deal with
it and still have a good time. I love you guys, thanks for the support and the letters, it means more than I really notice sometimes.<br />
<br />
Love, Elder Littlefield </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-6407066781865376372012-07-02T14:37:00.000-07:002012-07-02T14:37:42.774-07:00Dad and Family,<br /><br /> That's pretty crazy about
all the forest fires and stuff. It's been just about the opposite here.
It's been raining every day here lately. It's not continual, but it's
always cloudy. It's been nice as far as the cool weather, but it's kind
of depressing to wake up every day and have it be a little dreary and
damp outside. But I'd really rather have that than hot sunny death. This
week, to be honest, was pretty junky. Almost no one wanted to listen to
us. If we caught them for the first time just contacting, then they
would sit down with us, but when we scheduled a return appointment, they
were never there and they avoided us from there on out. So most of our
week this week was spent riding miles back and forth to failed
appointments. It was really a lot of fun..... not really. Towards the
end of the week I just thought, "I'm done, there's no point anyway,
we're just going to get to the appointment only to find that they've
left to Accra and won't be back for a week". That's pretty frustrating.
We're changing the way we do things. We're just going to go have fun
with people. Get to know people and be more personable. Because whatever
we were doing before made our investigators never want to see us again.
<br />
This evening we're going to host a Family Home
Evening at a member's house with one of our missionary training DVDs.
We're going to buy and pop some popcorn and just invite people in the
compound to come watch. We'll see how it goes. discouragement has just
been huge this week, and I can't handle too much more, so we're doing
things different as to avoid to much of that. We just need to have fun
and not be the two obruni's that come into people house and teach them
"the word of God". The people here seem a little desensitized to someone
sharing the gospel with them. No one will reject us because they've
been told never to reject "the word of God", but at the same time, no
one keeps commitments because they listen to us almost against their own
will sometimes. It's weird. We actually get a lot of people who say
"oh, won't you sit down and preach us small?". And I can tell they
aren't really interested, they just have that instinct to say that or
something so I just say, "No, like we're just passing by right now".
That sounds wrong, but believe me, it's right. <br />
Transfers are this Wednesday, but I won't be
transferred because I'm training still. Unless something strange
happens. It's crazy to think it's already July. Next month I'll be a
year out. I think I gave up on counting the months a while ago and just
decided I should just get used to living here. I saw a monkey leashed to
the back of someone's car yesterday. Good thing too, because I don't
think I could have gone to Africa for two years without coming back and
saying I saw a monkey. It's just part of the whole stereotypical
experience. <br />
I've got a lot of time left, so I'm just gonna keep
writing. No pictures this week. I probably should just take some random
pictures that I don't think are all that great, because you guys will
probably like them. The power has gone out like 4 times while I've been
trying to write this letter. I really hope it doesn't go off again. If
it does, I'm going to die. Every time it rains the light goes off. So
since it's been raining a lot this week, we've been having a lot of
light off. That means a lot of mud too. There's a lot of pot holes in
the roads, so they fill with water and you have to time your walking
right or else a taxi comes flying by and hits one of those potholes and
just sends the mud puddle flying everywhere. Because everywhere is so
muddy lately, I always seem to end the day with mud on the bottom of my
slacks. We've even been taking our umbrellas around a lot because of the
rain. If it rains, it cancels any appointments. That really doesn't
make it easy for us. We're all ready to go, but when we call them or
show up at their house and it's raining, they just say "oh, it's
raining, let's make it next time". Ha ha, it's great. I'm glad I get to
be with Elder Strong for another 6 weeks because it's so nice with him.
Everything is just great! Things get hard, but it could be so much worse
when you don't get along with your companion.<br />
I've really been loving the Banku here lately. I
don't think I liked it at the beginning of my mission, but I really like
it now. I'll even buy it at a shop and take it home and eat it. Eating
with your hands is the best. I think secretly Connor knew better than
the rest of us. It's so much more convenient to eat with a spoon or
fork, but it's just fun to eat with your hands. There's not too many
rules to eating with your hands, and you just kind of suck everything
off the best you can and swallow it whole, especially with Banku and
Fufu. I'm actually just really hungry right now.<br />
I hope you guys know how true this church is. To go
anywhere else is just a joke to me now. This church is just complete, or
"restored". It has everything. It's definitely from God. It's one thing
for a church to teach something, but it's another thing for you to find
out that that thing is really true from God. The church is like that.
It's not a scam, it's up to you. But I can tell anyone that it's
definitely God's chosen church on earth. I really don't like the idea of
people saying that we brainwash people into the church. I think that's a
load of junk. You can choose for yourself. You can't be brainwashed
past your own control, that's ridiculous. We have agency, and although
other churches may not emphasize or teach that as much, it doesn't take
away from the fact that we can choose. And we can choose to know the
truth even. It seems that it's all about diligence and faith. Those
people who keep "trudging" (like dad said") hoping for something better,
always find it. But those that don't put their faith in anything and
just criticize things around them hoping for something to just magically
happen, never get anything. I really started thinking more about the
scripture in D&C that says "...ye receive no witness until after the
trial of your faith". That's absolutely true. I think so many people
give up faith right before they receive a witness. After they give up,
it takes some time again for their faith to be tested, and if they give
up right before the witness part again, they could do that over and over
again their whole lives and never get anywhere. Things won't be hard
just one time, and then one day it all clicks and it's never hard again.
That wouldn't make any sense. If you work out a muscle and the muscle
gains some strength, that doesn't mean you can lift anything you want
now. There's always room to grow, always room for improvement and
greater happiness. There's always a bigger "mountain to climb" (from a
talk in the last general conference). <br />
Well, I could go on and on, but I'm hungry, so I'm
going to go get something to eat. I'll answer Mom's questions in her
e-mail before I go, but know I love you guys. The thing that gives me
the most security on my mission is knowing my brothers and sister and
doing well. It's so nice to hear they're succeeding and stuff like that.
It would really take a toll on me if something bad happened to them. I
love you all.<br />
Love, Dallin (Elder Littlefield)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-58261031679296173612012-05-28T12:10:00.000-07:002012-05-28T12:10:16.986-07:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGUKDG3aw8KV2arzAMzYLJ2ghDuyaPVqV3BFH8opST6Ixg7XonAsTuoNIWh8PwZ3NtS0KuFd3QaBqfQfD1PkJubBgFUKSk0J7qk5vbvpalUgxhDe3Y5YFjn51IctqLMZEh6OWGXZ0zYOwd/s1600/dallin+and+elder+stong2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGUKDG3aw8KV2arzAMzYLJ2ghDuyaPVqV3BFH8opST6Ixg7XonAsTuoNIWh8PwZ3NtS0KuFd3QaBqfQfD1PkJubBgFUKSk0J7qk5vbvpalUgxhDe3Y5YFjn51IctqLMZEh6OWGXZ0zYOwd/s320/dallin+and+elder+stong2.JPG" width="320" /></a>So a lot has happened since I last e-mailed. Like I said before, I got malaria
on Thursday, not last week, but the week before. It was pretty much hell again.
I had a headache that just throbbed and throbbed for like two days straight.
Pain medication didn't really take it away, even 800 mg of Ibuprofen wouldn't do
anything. I am being really careful now about taking my doxycycline every day
and making sure my mosquito net is covering my bed really well. <br />
So two Tuesdays ago President Judd called me to be a trainer. So this last
Wednesday I said goodbye to Elder Ikoro and went to pick up my new companion
from the MTC. His name is Elder Strong, and he's from West Jordan! I'll be
training him until August 15th! So that means I'll stay in Nsawam for another
three months! That'll make it 9 months in this same area by the time I finish
training. Elder Strong is a little taller than me, I'll send a picture. He's
really cool though. Humble, doesn't feel homesick, and is a hard worker. I feel
like I can relate to a lot of what he's going through right now and I'm trying
to help him out as much as I can. I'm taking every companion I like as a huge
blessing now and never for granted. It's been fun to help him out and explain
the really different culture to him. In the end though, it's just really drained
my energy for the day and by the time we finish at night, my brain just feels
fried. We're kind of starting new as far as the work goes. Me and Elder Ikoro
had been working with the same investigators for a long time and they just
didn't quite progress and keep commitments like I had hoped they would, so we
dropped a lot of them. But the Stake President has been out to preside at our
branch every Sunday since we became part of a stake and he's really focusing on
reactivation of less active members as well as giving us missionaries member
referrals, so that's really nice. We even met with one of the referrals
yesterday. Hopefully through all these referrals we'll keep the missionary work
flowing. <br /> Those pictures from the Grand Canyon are pretty sweet.
Connor's muscles are...... kind of big...... ;) just let him know that his are
weak compared to mine now......no big deal though....... It looks like you guys
had fun! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Dad! I know it's like a week late, but 45 just
about puts him over the "old" line. I'll give him until 50 though until he's
officially "old". <br /> Everything is going pretty well with training.
I'll admit that it's not easy to lead around someone who comes from the same
culture as me, it takes a little more confidence and surety in myself. Sometimes
I just get really scared and discouraged of whether or not I can do all this.
Because it really is a big responsibility. I usually just find somewhere quiet
at those times and just pray. I don't pray like I'm hopeless, because I've found
nothing really goes well when I don't feel like I can do it, but I do pray for
strength and blessings as I continue. Often times when I do that, the fear is
just swept away and it feels so good. That's when I know for sure that Heavenly
Father hears my prayers. I think I went through a lot of the hard times on my
mission so far so that I would learn to depend on my Heavenly Father more.
Honestly, I think I was pretty prideful before I left. I think I thought a lot
of myself and that I could do it all on my own. Ha, boy was I WRONG! It's really
not an easy thing, especially to take the lead as senior companion in a culture
that I just don't quite fully understand. I'm glad I'm in the area I'm in and
I've made really good relationships with the members here. It makes it really
comforting when they're so helpful to me. <br /> President Judd told us
all, as we went to a trainers council meeting the Thursday after the Tuesday he
called us, that Jeffery R. Holland said that the most important decision a
mission president would make would be choosing the trainers who would train his
missionaries. He told each of us (there were only 6 of us this transfer) that he
trusted us all very much to train. That made me feel pretty good, and I've been
able to draw confidence from that when I'm feeling down. Elder Strong kind of
reminds me of Jake Kartchner in a way, ha, and not just because he's tall. He's
pretty humble, and he's trying his best to adapt to the culture and to learn
more about how to teach the people here. I'm glad I got him as a
missionary.<br /> Well, I don't have too much else to say. If you guys
have any questions, let me know. I think I could use a bed sheet with elastic on
the corners, I can't seem to find one here, so if you get the chance, and it
fits in a package, please send one :) I also ran out of black pepper, which you
guys send me, If you can send that again, that would be nice. I use it a lot for
my stews :) Thanks, I love you guys and I really am just enjoying my mission.
I'm already 9 months out now! Can you believe it! It almost feels like I'm on
the downwards slope now, but I'll try not to think like that, ha ha :) Mom, I
know I promised President Morris before I left that I wouldn't miss a week
sending you a letter, and I felt bad that I missed last week! I hope everything
is going well back home! I love you Mom! I love you Dad! I love my brothers and
sister too, I think I'll always be a little bit homesick for my siblings.
Anyways, talk to you next
week!<br /><br />
Love, Dallin (Elder Littlefield)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-47873617317045864232012-04-29T16:21:00.001-07:002012-04-29T16:21:15.783-07:00April 23, 2012Mom,<br /><br /> Thanks for your letter! It was a really good one. It
helps<br />to hear things like how people are asking about me. I think I
probably<br />thrived on those compliments and feelings of acceptance from
others<br />more than I should have when I was at home. Everything I was good
at<br />back home is difficult to apply here, so sometimes I feel like I'm<br />just
like any other missionary on a mission. But I know there's<br />strengths I have
that make me a special instrument as a missionary, as<br />compared to just an
instrument. Right now I'm trying to figure out how<br />best I can use the talents
and strengths I have in missionary work. I<br />can't really just sing for people
every lesson we have, or play a<br />piano. Service is hard because if you do
service for people without<br />asking, some get offended like you think they
can't manage their own.<br />Elder Ikoro and I are starting to find more ways we
can serve people.<br />One of our goals this week is to stop what we're doing and
go help<br />someone if we see an opportunity to serve. We'll see how it
goes.<br /> Rugby sounds sweet for Connor. I don't exactly remember
the<br />crocheting thing at conference being a tradition, but I think I
did<br />that because I can listen to people better when I'm doing
something<br />simple to occupy my attention span, ha ha. That bed looks way nice
to<br />sleep in too, ha ha. Sometimes I wish I think back to home and wish
I<br />was sleeping in those kind of covers. When I sleep here, I'm on the<br />top
bunk, and I just sleep with 2 sheets (one for the mattress, and<br />one for
myself if my fan makes me cold at night).<br /> This last week has been
pretty good. We got to go see Tad R.<br />Callister in a huge national conference
hall that the church rented in<br />Ghana for the Conference. They invited 4
stakes and some other areas<br />that were all going to be reorganized into 6
stakes in Ghana now. Our<br />branch is one of the new stakes they created. Elder
Callister's talk<br />was nice. He talked about his wife not knowing how to talk
to their<br />son because all he would talk about was sports and she grew up in
a<br />family with no sports talk or anything of that kind. Whenever she<br />asked
how school was, he just said "fine", or how football practice<br />was he just
said "fine". She finally decided to pick up a sports<br />magazine and read
through some of the articles. Then when he came home<br />she talked to him about
some of the things she read. They eventually<br />started talking more and he
became more open to talking with her. She<br />continued to read more and more
sports magazines, and Elder Callister<br />said, as we was taking his son to a
sports practice in the car, his<br />son said to him "Dad, mom knows a lot about
sports.". I really like<br />stories like that. They always make me feel really
good.<br /> We were able to teach a little more lessons this week.
But<br />I decided that's not what it's about. That's why we've decided to
find<br />more service we can do. The church has a huge name here and people
all<br />around town always know what's going on with the church. The
news<br />about us missionaries (good or bad) spreads incredibly fast.
Elder<br />Ikoro accidentally hit a woman riding his bike at night and
knocked<br />her down one night. The news was all over in another town we work
is<br />that's at least 4 miles away. Gossip is a problem here, but
we've<br />decided to use it to our advantage. We're going to do more
service.<br />We're going to take every advantage of every opportunity. Now, as
a<br />disclaimer, we're not doing our "alms to be seen of men". But we
know<br />that whether in secret or not, the news will spread and we'll
have<br />more people to teach the more service we render. We'll do our acts
of<br />service in secret the best we can, and I've already discussed that<br />with
Elder Ikoro that we're not there to show off or look good. Mom's<br />questions:
We're about an hour away form the temple. If you can just<br />keep money in my
account just in case I need anything like shirts, i<br />should be good. i can
just buy white shirts here, they're a little<br />less thick and bulky like the
missionary mall ones, and they only cost<br />maybe 2 dollars a shirt. I just took
out a hundred cedis (66 dollars)<br />just yesterday just in cast I need anything
for the next few months,<br />so I should be good.<br /> Well, I've got a few
pictures to send, so I'll send those after<br />this. Thanks for the letters. By
the way, The office couple don't come<br />from Accra anymore because they've been
assigned to a different<br />branch, so I won't get letters or packages on a
weekly basis anymore.<br />I love you guys! I don't remember much from home, but I
do remember my<br />family!<br /><br />
---Elder Littlefield<br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-4541926727877382622012-04-17T09:07:00.000-07:002012-04-17T09:07:12.435-07:00April 16th, 2012<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt 0.8in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Family,<br />
<br />
This last week was a little rough. We worked all day and just walked from house to house with failed appointments. I'm not sure why it's that way, we aren't doing anything crucially different, but people have just been very hard to meet with. All of our 9 Recent Converts from last month are awesome and they all are strong members in the church, but as for new people to find and teach, it's not been so easy. That has made these last week's days very stressful. Some days I wake up and don't feel like working at all. I imagine that's just part of missionary work though. It's not easy, and I don't think it should be. I'm gaining a great respect for every missionary who even FINISHES his mission, let alone have been the best missionary he could have been. Being honest, two years is a long time to do this work every day! But I won't quit, partly because I've always planned my life with a full-time mission in it, so coming home early kind of devastates any of my other future plans. This next week we're going to a Stake Conference and "Tad R. Callister" of the seventy will be there to organize some 2 new stakes. There probably will be a ton of people there because 4 stakes from Accra will be attending. That's interesting about Mitt Romney, keep me updated on that stuff, because sometimes I hear things about him here too. So the City Creek Mall is church owned? that's sweet! <br />
The missionary work really is going well, and I'm always learning something new, EVERY DAY. The Ghanaian people are so different from what I'm used to, and I'm always trying to figure out how to best relate to them so I can teach them better. We had a really nice lesson that was filled with the spirit where we taught a woman and her two daughters about families. I wish I could just teach about families only, I feel like I have more experience with that than anything else. The woman even said that she liked the teachings we brought and how they were so focused on love. She could feel the spirit and it was real neat to see her bear her testimony. I'm noticing that our recent converts can bear their testimony better than the members of the church. It's always neat to hear them say things that they've come to know are true. Next week we'll have 5 of our recent converts be ordained to the Aaronic priesthood, it's pretty sweet! Anyways, I love you guys! Thanks mom and dad for your letters, they're always nice to read. </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 0pt 0.8in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <br />
---Elder Littlefield</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-18245264283325476422012-04-11T07:32:00.000-07:002012-04-11T07:32:41.723-07:00April 9th, 2012Family,<br />
Man, that Kayaking sounds like a ton of fun. We hiked up a HUGE mountain this morning and it really reminded me of all the times we would do stuff outdoors and up in the mountains. It was an awesome experience. The whole mountain is just covered in jungle and some parts look like Tarzan where all the vines hang down. No animals though. I took a ton of pictures, but I'll just send a few of my favorites. We probably walked a good 8 miles to get there and then maybe 1.5 miles up the mountain on a very steep incline. They didn't have the back and forth trails like we do back in Utah, so we just hiked straight up the mountain. We talked with the chief of the small village at the bottom of the mountain and he insisted that he pray for us before we go up. So he took a shot glass, poured some alcohol into it, and said a prayer while he shook the glass a little bit at a time until he had thrown all the alcohol out onto the ground. It was pretty dramatic and I had to get a picture with him. After he did the little ritual he poured his glass full again and started drinking. One of the members hiked up the mountain with us and he gave this chief guy 2 cedis for praying for us. The member tried to say we were fine and that we didn't need the prayer, but the chief insisted. The chief (Ohene [oh-hee-nee] in Twi) assigned two 10-year-old boys to take us up the mountain. When we got so far up the mountain we found a man who had a corn field up in the mountain. He had a machete and offered to take us to the top because the little boys led us the wrong way. Turns out he didn't know the way and just forged his own path by chopping everything down with his machete as we followed behind. Eventually we came to some huge rock wall that we couldn't get past. By that time we were all tired so we just went back down the hill and finished. It was a lot of fun and I probably sweated my weight's worth in water. <br />
So I got the packages from home; two from you guys and the one from Goo and her mom. I wore the shirt that they sent me in the package, it's nice! Tell them thanks! I'll send pictures. The chocolate was and still is awesome! I appreciate the cookie dough mixes too. We have oil that I can put small in the mix to help it be better. i even found out they make margarine here too. You have to buy it in huge bucket quantities, but it's here. Pretty much anything they make here can be set out in the sun for months and you can still eat it; like their fried fish....gross. Those pencils were great, just the kind I needed! Thanks! <br />
This last week proselyting was a little hard. We went from 11:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night going from place to place, from appointment to appointment, and no one would sit down with us. Mondays and Thursdays here are what they call "market days". On market days, every one lines the streets with things to sell. You can usually buy things for cheaper on market days too. But amongst all this, NO ONE IS AT HOME. It makes it very difficult to try and go around and teach lessons. Even after they all finish around 6 or 7, no one will meet with you because they say they're tired. So we went the whole day with no lessons. That was hard, but I imagine other missions have it worse, so I'll be grateful for what I got. The sun is difficult to work with here, It's just always so hot and it makes you tired, so sometimes I'm sure other people think we look like we're about to drop dead as we ride our bikes down the streets with our helmets on while the sun beats down on us. My companion is awesome though, I hope they keep us together next transfer. We find out tomorrow. Elder Thom, our district leader is training a new missionary, so at least one person from our apartment is leaving. <br />
Mom mentioned something about rain causing depression. It doesn't rain nearly enough here to do that, but it does have it's occasional heavy, but brief, rainstorms. Almost all the time everything is bright and sunny. My companion says it's not that way in Nigeria. He says it's usually cloudy and cool during the rainy season and he says Ghana is even more hot than his place in Nigeria (Aba State). <br />
Well, that's what's been happening this last week. The work is starting to slow a little bit and we're having to work harder because people aren't just flowing into the church like they were last month, but it's all good. I can't tell you how much the Book of Mormon is loaded with brilliant patterns that solve life's problems. Captain Moroni is the bomb. Just to re-tell a story in the Book of Mormon: Captain Moroni leaves Zarahemla (the main city) and goes out with his armies to re-capture some Nephite cities that had been lost to Lamanite armies. So while he's working hard and fighting with everything he and his armies have, he sends an "epistle", or a letter, back to Zarahemla to Pahoran (the chief judge) and pretty much tells them off for not sending provisions to the soldiers that were defending their freedom. Then Pahoran sends a letter back explaining that we had been kicked out the judgement seat because of some political up-rises and that's why he hasn't been able to send any provisions to Moroni's armies. So Moroni sends his armies back up to take over Zarahemla again, and ultimately kill everyone who is causing trouble. Moroni then makes a law that anyone fighting against/ preventing the cause of freedom in the land would be put to death immediately. Just to quote a couple verses, it says, "...he was exceedingly wroth because of the stubborness of those people whom he had labored with so much diligence to preserve; yea, he was exceedingly wroth; his soul was filled with anger against them." (Verse 14) Then after he kills and imprisons all the people causing these up-rises against their freedom it says "for there was no time for their trials at this period". He just gets things done! He doesn't have time for those people who are being stupid. ha, anyways, I really love the Book of Mormon. <br />
I hope everything is going well at home, everything is going well here! I'll send the pictures now. I love my family! Thanks mom and dad for the way you raised me, I really could have ended up different if my parents were weird. ha<br />
<br />
Love, Dallin (Elder Littlefield)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-10032043974450349782012-04-03T14:44:00.000-07:002012-04-03T14:44:13.751-07:00Monday April 2nd, 2012Family,<br />
 <br />
           Man, I'm excited to listen to that audio clip! I don't have any speakers here so I just downloaded it onto my mp3 player and I'll listen to it when we get back to the apartment. Well, we had two baptisms this last Saturday and they are a couple of funny old guys. Oh man, one of the guys makes us laugh really hard. He's just a goof. He always is happy and happy to see us, and he just says the funniest things. He and his uncle joined the church, they're 60 and 73 years old. George is the funny guy, and Martins is his uncle. George can't read, but he's intelligent. Martins can read very well and is intelligent as well. Martins had a word of wisdom problem, and George was always complaining to us about him. We asked him at one point that maybe Martins might not be able to overcome his word of wisdom problem in time and if he didn't would he still wanted to be baptized, even if it might possibly be without his uncle. He looked as us like "duh, of course!" He told us, "These things can't wait! I have to move forward, and Martins....Well Martins can perish in Hell!" Oh man, it was so funny the way he said it. He was serious when he said it, but we all just burst out laughiIng. George and Martins both really know how true the church is, and they just want to learn more and more. <br />
        A week from this Wednesday (April 11th) is transfers, there is a good chance I could be called to train because there are 21 new missionaries coming from the MTC. If so, I'll find out tomorrow. Thanks for the Talks from conference, I'm going to listen to them as soon as I get home. The missionary work has been so much less stressful when I am not having problems with my companion. I've been able to be a little bit more natural with the way I talk with people, which makes teaching a ton easier. Teaching is like when I started golfing back home. After going out one day and teaching a bunch of lessons, the next day I just crave teaching lessons. It's so nice to teach a lesson and so many people are willing to sit down and listen. We've been having lots and lots of people come up to us lately and want to know more about the church. We've been able to keep our schedule pretty busy and one day we even taught "8" lessons! It was a nice day! Well, I don't really have much else to say besides I know the church is true and everything is going well on my mission. I'm learning a lot EVERY DAY and I'm feeling a bit more at ease to find humor in a lot of things. <br />
           So questions: 1. I"m still deciding if I want to talk on the phone as long as last time. If it doesn't distract me, then I'm good with it. 2.Haven't got any packages yet, maybe next week. the envelopes arrive is good shape, you can send them, just remember to put anything like candy or chocolate in a plastic bag, because the humidity here just makes everything go sticky. 3. no, we don't get Conference broadcasted. The branches usually get a DVD of conference like a month later. I told my companion last night at 5:00 "My family are all in their pajamas sitting on big couches and a bean bag and eating cereal while they watch conference on a big tv at home" ha. 3. Elder Ikoro and I sang "nearer my God to thee" acapella last week during sacrament meeting, it went well. 4. Still wash my clothes by hand every monday for 2 hours or so, and we've only been on one hike. Really we're always busy, even on P-days, so there's not much time to plan an activity any more like hiking or stuff like that. I'm not disappointed though, really I'd rather be doing missionary work. P-days consist of waking up, washing, going to internet cafe, buying anything we need, cooking a stew for the week, study, and then by 6 o'clock we're back out teaching until 9. Dad said "don't you ever want a break?" I do sometimes, but what he said was also true. There's no joy in resting when you are capable of continuing in doing something good. I'm very strict with myself to go to sleep and wake up on time, because without sleep my day sucks, so I always have enough rest. The work gets hard and the sun makes us tired just about every day, but we just kind of get a in a mode that we just "keep going" even if we're suffering a little. Work is really ALL mental. If I just keep going everything works out alright. I usually have a lot more will and energy that I sometimes limit myself to have. But those times when I just sit around and....I don't know...."rest" or just sit there, I just feel like I'm digging myself in a hole that will be a little difficult to get out of later. Plus Satan loves to work on my mind when I'm not keeping myself busy. I get discouraged and start feeling depressed with stupid thoughts if I sit around for too long without doing anything constructive. It's not me, but I know Satan loves to get me when I'm being Idle. So I love to keep busy. Busy doesn't always mean working really hard, but just continuing in something good, even if it's easy work. I've been trying to follow that scripture more than says "Never be weary of good works". It's a blessing to follow that one.<br />
             Anyways, I'm trying to be the best missionary I can so that I can be used to bring people to Christ more. After a while of being out here, I just decided that 1. I'm not going home any time soon. 2. The nature of the work is going to change. and then 3. I'm here for one purpose only, so I might as well give everything I have to that purpose, because giving myself to any other reason is waste of my time. <br />
              I love you guys, thanks again for the letters. <br />
<br />
---Elder Littlefield <br />
 <br />
 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-20184662548982423122012-03-28T17:17:00.001-07:002012-03-28T18:45:25.823-07:00March 26, 2012Yeah. Sorry, i thought i had already told about it. He talked about<br />
how he wanted this mission to become a Book of Mormon mission. He also<br />
told us that we are not free to compromise our missionary work. He<br />
said it very boldly, like Elder Holland likes to do. The whole time he<br />
talked to us, I felt like my heart was going to explode. The spirit<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx4oxO8DP7RQ-e4SFxI6HSSpZkZkMCwcYDerzSFJoesUAkuz8_ne5kVavedCo0FBMv78bTRu30GFPXHcbMTbENsIcLLO6AccHqwOuRKKH1Y830FvivMpwtQ8HQcMeP6qMm33ffs8q42z9x/s1600/ELDERHOLLAND&ELDERSGHANA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx4oxO8DP7RQ-e4SFxI6HSSpZkZkMCwcYDerzSFJoesUAkuz8_ne5kVavedCo0FBMv78bTRu30GFPXHcbMTbENsIcLLO6AccHqwOuRKKH1Y830FvivMpwtQ8HQcMeP6qMm33ffs8q42z9x/s320/ELDERHOLLAND&ELDERSGHANA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>was unbelievably strong. I kept having to wipe my eyes because I<br />
couldn't help but cry. He told us that we should listen to President<br />
Judd more and that he is a great teacher. He also emphasized that our<br />
missions are "real life". That when we return home that things won't<br />
change, and that we shouldn't settle back into our old lives. He told<br />
us that we shouldn't forget our missions and everything we learned and<br />
all the strengths we've been given.<br />
This reminds me of some things I've been thinking about too.<br />
I hope you guys are having scriptures and prayer almost every day if not every day. I can't say<br />
how important that is. It's a defense that will save us from<br />
temptations that Satan can throw at us to literally destroy us. Satan<br />
never stops working to destroy us, even at a young age like McCall. He<br />
wants to change our paths, especially early in life, so that by the<br />
time we reach the age to make the especially important decisions,<br />
we'll be too far away from the right path to make the right choice.<br />
It's all so real, and the devil is EXTREMELY subtle. But it's also so<br />
simple to defend ourselves. We've been told to read the scriptures and<br />
pray every day. That's not a suggestion, but instead a commandment<br />
that is absolutely necessary if we plan on staying afloat. The Book of<br />
Mormon is so powerful. I love that book more than I love a lot of<br />
things. This last week we read the Book of Mormon with one of our<br />
investigators and he can't even read. He didn't understand very well<br />
either, but we helped explain to him. He got so happy during the<br />
lesson and started telling us how much what the book was saying was<br />
true! He started acting like a little kid he was so excited. He's 60<br />
years old. I know the Book of Mormon has so much power in it that we<br />
need every day of our lives. We may think we're doing fine and that<br />
nothing seems to be going wrong, but when it comes to those times when<br />
Satan attacks, we'll be destroyed if we haven't been constantly<br />
building up our defenses by reading the Book of Mormon. Recently<br />
President Judd gave us a book called "A Witness & a Warning" by Ezra<br />
Taft Benson. He said in the book "The whole church is under<br />
condemnation because they are not using the Book of Mormon as they<br />
should be. They will remain under this condemnation until they<br />
repent....". It really is a powerful tool to keep us safe today. Even<br />
if we don't fully understand it, we should read it, and not just a<br />
little bit, but feast from it.<br />
Anyways, that's my sermon. I hope you know I believe those<br />
things will all my heart. I'm not just blowing smoke. This last<br />
weekend we had 3 baptisms! It was the Ayitey (eye--ee--tay) Family.<br />
We've been working with them for like 3 months now, but they finally<br />
came to church and the father is so converted to everything. It's so<br />
neat to see them after their baptism. We even have 2 more baptism this<br />
next week which will make it "9" for just me and my companion this<br />
month! It's hard every week, but I know it's helping me grow. I'm<br />
trying to follow the rules as closely as I can, which includes only<br />
using computers for e-mailing family and sending a e-mail to<br />
president. So I would love it if you could send me the conference<br />
talks when they come, especially the ones from Priesthood Session.<br />
Thanks! Well, I've only got a little time left so I'll finish by<br />
sending a few pictures. Thanks for being my family! I couldn't ask for<br />
a better one!<br />
<br />
---Elder LittlefieldUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-1667752273439253712012-03-28T17:12:00.001-07:002012-03-28T23:25:48.723-07:00March 19, 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Family,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyWoNODU1y1Chdh8NA9jEv7oJg_XDj_WnJsxAIfJW0xySP-jLTvUL_MAH1hCQ1-4d0Letn8c6SbAJLGAU68NFa_eb0iI46P_jMgwbKtYgWdyZy-rx51pDl9ew-abDvVqRMVn-MrJwyVSmL/s1600/CHICH.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyWoNODU1y1Chdh8NA9jEv7oJg_XDj_WnJsxAIfJW0xySP-jLTvUL_MAH1hCQ1-4d0Letn8c6SbAJLGAU68NFa_eb0iI46P_jMgwbKtYgWdyZy-rx51pDl9ew-abDvVqRMVn-MrJwyVSmL/s320/CHICH.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTY2tNELY-apqDdZblW-YpfwfEPOy3Lp4xXgmF2rIMN_OA7H3FiNxboaS6KjVgygaoYSI5jZy-qQ3-ZRbAUYTiS5lpF6QW51cG6nbv5JQUkcYzFAQ21KMpsUNqQzNJScqHrZt3m2unQPZS/s1600/SHADES.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTY2tNELY-apqDdZblW-YpfwfEPOy3Lp4xXgmF2rIMN_OA7H3FiNxboaS6KjVgygaoYSI5jZy-qQ3-ZRbAUYTiS5lpF6QW51cG6nbv5JQUkcYzFAQ21KMpsUNqQzNJScqHrZt3m2unQPZS/s320/SHADES.JPG" width="240" /></a>Everything is going so well! Elder Ikoro and I are like best friends. He's really helped me to get back on my feet after struggling with Elder Sankah, and I love him for it. The work is going great here! We had Zone Interviews/ Zone Conference this last week in "Adenta", which is like a one-and-a-half to two hour drive from where we are in Nsawam. President Judd gave us some instructions as well as his assistants and Sister Judd. We all got interviewed by him and it was nice to talk to him again, he really reassures me that I'm not the only one who has thought what I've been thinking. We saw him again this last Sunday because we needed a "special interview" that can only be done by certain authorities for one of our baptismal candidate. We didn't have any baptisms this week, but we're planning on three baptisms next week. They're a family that loves the church a lot. we've been working with them for almost 3 months now, but it's all working out now and they're really putting in the effort towards baptism. They're a younger couple and their oldest child is only nine. I bought him a tie because he said he didn't have one and I might say he was looking very nice Sunday at church, ha. So we have been teaching another man who is an elder in the Pentecostal Church (I may have mentioned him before). His name is Samuel Ayisi (eye--ee--see). I know he's felt the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and those things we've taught, but he's having a hard time with the idea of leaving his church. The last time we talked to him was 2 weeks ago or so and we've been having difficulty meeting with him since because he's always being called to help in his church. He's a very humble man and he's probably over 50 years. We finally sat down and met with him Saturday and the first thing he said to us after the opening prayer was that he wanted us to keep coming and teaching him because he likes what we teach him, but that he couldn't leave his church. I felt a little discouraged when he said that, but we let him talk it out and we only talked a little bit and after reading some scriptures with him and explaining some things, he told us on his own that he would keep trying to find out if the church was true, and he said that although it would be very difficult, he would leave his church and be baptized. It was a heavily spirit filled lesson, and I'm glad we didn't lose him. He knows it's true. He says that right now there are a lot of priests and others that follow him, so it's hard for him to just get up and leave, but he told us that he would do it when he found the truth. I know he already knows it's true, it's just a matter of helping him to recognize it now. It's a gentle process and we're not going to force him to do anything, but I know that it's undeniable the feeling of the Holy Ghost people receive. You can think you're being tricked into it, but I think that's you're own deranged mind. This church is all about agency. You can choose, no one can brainwash you. It takes faith, but once you've received a witness, you can't deny it. It's not a witness from men in the church, but instead a witness from God. We can all deny what prophets and apostles say because they're not God. But when God gives you an answer after you've "diligently" searched for it, you can't deny that.<br />
You asked about Nigeria or Ivory Coast. There has actually been missionaries in Ivory Coast since I got here and probably before too, I don't know when exactly there wasn't for a time. The ones that had planned possibly come to Ghana instead of Nigeria ended up in Nigeria, and everything is going smoothly. My piano playing seems to be falling apart because they only like to hear the organ setting on the keyboards, so I have to play like I'm playing the organ, ha. As for my singing, I just hope I don't sound silly, because no one sings here like they do back home (I say that it that way to be polite, haha). <br />
All in all, I'm loving teaching and I wish we could have perfect appointments the whole day and we could teach 8 lessons a day, that would be awesome and I'd be so happy all the time. I love teaching lessons. Anyways, everything is going well on my end, I hope everything is going well back home. I think about my family and I am so glad I have all the siblings and parents that I do. I love my family. Right now you all seem perfect to me. Everything just seems like it's perfect back home. <br />
<br />
--Elder Littlefield<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqPidxboJZWZycIxrHFUQ4EGb_AfqSzYaN9IQo0UuasxpkimE4yMI2yrSnWwNWiPCmuhEpfKfMVsBs17yDhZx2_ADQkszw5DnHQ5MUL5rFNQJxdCZp-arss5l3zLaM6SIbs5HgckH6yAR-/s1600/MISSIONARY+MAN.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqPidxboJZWZycIxrHFUQ4EGb_AfqSzYaN9IQo0UuasxpkimE4yMI2yrSnWwNWiPCmuhEpfKfMVsBs17yDhZx2_ADQkszw5DnHQ5MUL5rFNQJxdCZp-arss5l3zLaM6SIbs5HgckH6yAR-/s320/MISSIONARY+MAN.JPG" width="240" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-39337677292763062942012-03-28T17:06:00.001-07:002012-03-28T23:06:55.389-07:00March 12, 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Family,<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxen0m3tb5dpeYvxbZtz5W9dCwt3ZIK7VQ9WIbTI81jFR-fZmKXpY4AxGCj4mrpOn7oJk4rJ6UosUVNmCrGdMNCx0slb_5k2Qn31GN0J_QDmwuw4KeRzgYjIhNFKd3SIDe8X10M_A_rjNa/s1600/COOL+ELDER+LITTLEFIELD.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxen0m3tb5dpeYvxbZtz5W9dCwt3ZIK7VQ9WIbTI81jFR-fZmKXpY4AxGCj4mrpOn7oJk4rJ6UosUVNmCrGdMNCx0slb_5k2Qn31GN0J_QDmwuw4KeRzgYjIhNFKd3SIDe8X10M_A_rjNa/s320/COOL+ELDER+LITTLEFIELD.JPG" width="320" /></a>Everything is going really well! I love my new companion and I'm really learning to immerse myself in the work and forget about everything else. Really it's the only way for me to be happy. I'm not on a mission to learn things and help myself grow, in fact I'm not here for myself the least bit. I'm only here to be the best instrument I can be for Heavenly Father to use to bring his children to the truth. I don't care if I don't gain anything from my mission. I really love teaching people and seeing them come into the church. We had four baptisms on Saturday, and then we have three more this coming Saturday. We're working harder (me and Elder Ikoro). Dad, thanks for that letter. Even though I didn't read it till this week, I decided to do what you said in it during this last week anyways. My patriarchal blessing assures me that if I make missionary work the central focus of everything I do that everything else that is good will fall into place. Even if that wasn't true, I'd still rather give myself to this work. I decided to be as obedient as I can. I'd rather follow instruction that is bound to work rather than my own ideas. I'm trying to apply everything Preach My Gospel says so that I can better help the people while I'm here. We've worked hard this week, Me and Elder Ikoro, and I've never been more at peace. I feel more confident and less guilty when I know I'm doing everything I possibly can. Tomorrow we have Zone interviews and I get to sit down and talk with President Judd for a good 10 to 15 minutes. I'm excited for that. I wish I could go over all the people we are teaching, but it would take too long. Just in short, We're teaching two old men who came to church this last Sunday and are already reading the Book of Mormon and have a baptismal date for the 31st of March. One of these men we baptized with his two children this last Saturday is apparently a very well known person in the Nsawam community here. One of the district Counselors told us before sacrament meeting started that he's impressed that we were able to baptize him and bring him to the church. I didn't feel like it was us who did much, because really he accepted everything we said and he even contacted us in the beginning, but I'm glad he'll be such a contribution to the branch here. I don't know what else to say. I think things have really taken a turn for the better on my mission now, and I'm just losing myself (seriously losing myself) in the work. I'm starting to talk like my companion even, and I find myself not pronouncing my "R's" anymore, like "church". It's like McCall used to say it when she was little "Chich". Everything is just going great! I'll send a voice recording of me and my companion singing some hymns as well as a pictures of me and some little girls that live near a member. There's also a picture of me and just one little girl named "Jessica" Then there's another <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJhIu7Z5SvveJn1MwwLJ53e4wy6iKGi02IpXBqX3JSgt-GSKUllcGi3yE26E85BfKhuTc2uB3KBO_TPSRnCdH8BWnzHgppP-9LgvZXWSJQeKusidaIBVr0nykZOifH8PM_JAQjy0j07w83/s1600/DALL+&+JESSICA.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJhIu7Z5SvveJn1MwwLJ53e4wy6iKGi02IpXBqX3JSgt-GSKUllcGi3yE26E85BfKhuTc2uB3KBO_TPSRnCdH8BWnzHgppP-9LgvZXWSJQeKusidaIBVr0nykZOifH8PM_JAQjy0j07w83/s320/DALL+&+JESSICA.JPG" width="320" /></a>picture of me and my companion and our baptismal candidates this last Saturday. My companion wants to make sure you know that it's him on the far left of the picture, just so you know he's not an investigator. Then the next one is of a little boy whose mom gave us a free meal last night after church. The last one is of us and the two old men that we taught this week and came to church and have a baptismal date of the 31st of March. Also, I love chocolate in my packages, so any chocolate is awesome, ha ha. Thanks! I love you all and it's so nice to know everything is going well back home. I love you mom, and thank you dad so much for all the advice you give, I hang on to every last word of it, anything helps! I also love my brothers and sisters so much, I think of them every time I start playing with the little kids here. Like those little girls I sent pictures of. Connor just sounds awesome. I'm excited to see him when I get home. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbT0YiUjIiU4rjc0bnrszwBcXqKr_oJj2OwkW0Nu5BDIIwZ-GCBbdNuEf8vu0Iio2lAfLCb6dJGeItK4mgDlu7P0TdxOdRxGeoyC-T01Uj13cRiUT1HNN1Kot57xptCkKrWD6ErmVhux-/s1600/BAPTISM-ELDER+IKORO+ON+END.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbT0YiUjIiU4rjc0bnrszwBcXqKr_oJj2OwkW0Nu5BDIIwZ-GCBbdNuEf8vu0Iio2lAfLCb6dJGeItK4mgDlu7P0TdxOdRxGeoyC-T01Uj13cRiUT1HNN1Kot57xptCkKrWD6ErmVhux-/s320/BAPTISM-ELDER+IKORO+ON+END.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDhf7NOmmw06_LmBMOEKTsQ_zwvt9nffmTuXyVCBzd427SfTBg_ADcKdco81SgHGh_Ed751DELQFwvBKJSDSAbL9CP5RNV0oc13HnnQXc6-PcMKzuyqlLhHszBVuiYEdBH4WENqaMI3iYJ/s1600/BELLY+BABY.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDhf7NOmmw06_LmBMOEKTsQ_zwvt9nffmTuXyVCBzd427SfTBg_ADcKdco81SgHGh_Ed751DELQFwvBKJSDSAbL9CP5RNV0oc13HnnQXc6-PcMKzuyqlLhHszBVuiYEdBH4WENqaMI3iYJ/s320/BELLY+BABY.JPG" width="240" /></a>Love, Elder Littlefield<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4hW2sa-GuS6DNgq8C0TXyPfw7EzpOUciBR2le1XL4hPj4aZNkmqxAvhsa3JOwr7vXAi3z7iDGCSyD8U0-Vc6kqnTETzWkFov_eOczfYvjrgDv5QKAyIV-skGwISLo672c8AtWMyslbo66/s1600/OLDER+INVESTIGATORS.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4hW2sa-GuS6DNgq8C0TXyPfw7EzpOUciBR2le1XL4hPj4aZNkmqxAvhsa3JOwr7vXAi3z7iDGCSyD8U0-Vc6kqnTETzWkFov_eOczfYvjrgDv5QKAyIV-skGwISLo672c8AtWMyslbo66/s320/OLDER+INVESTIGATORS.JPG" width="320" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-82614627006682966032012-03-28T16:36:00.001-07:002012-03-28T21:35:12.737-07:00March 5, 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2E5kICBXDrmlKFrE373fuD4vsJh39FQRFavfTdWTXvje9Kwir4kU83-IsUoc1JQV85vc3iPWYPol65j-4akhpBAQwOaTgS0mIJdkAKu7PWq7oIAIEca2HJtv4J9kzcezz_fOwoZVRBOE/s1600/ME+&+ELDER+IKORO.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2E5kICBXDrmlKFrE373fuD4vsJh39FQRFavfTdWTXvje9Kwir4kU83-IsUoc1JQV85vc3iPWYPol65j-4akhpBAQwOaTgS0mIJdkAKu7PWq7oIAIEca2HJtv4J9kzcezz_fOwoZVRBOE/s320/ME+&+ELDER+IKORO.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>Family,<br />
<br />
First, I want to tell you all how much I know this church is true and how much I KNOW it's God's true organization on the earth today. It's a hard church, it's not easy. But I know it's not a brainwashing church. The church is all about agency, you'll never be made to believe. You can choose what you want, the church is just there to offer you everything you could want to be happy. This last week, starting Tuesday morning, We got the call that there would be no transfers in our district. That meant I would stay with Elder Sankah. I prepared myself mentally just in case that happened and I was ready to make things work for another transfer, but that's where my thinking was wrong. It's not about just making things work, there's more to it. Thursday morning our district leader needed to go do some baptismal interviews in an area that was an hour away from the apartment. I suggested that I go with him so that his companion and my companion could work in both areas. I also was just stressed out because my companion was very hard on me. Our district leader is sometimes indecisive, so he didn't give a direct answer, but Elder Sankah put it in his mind that because I suggested it, that it would happen. So when it turned out that Elder Thom (District Leader) said no, Elder Sankah went into a state of self pity. I tried have companionship study with him and he was just negative about everything. We got in a little argument and I had just had it by then. I was stressed out and to be honest I had gone a little insane. A lot happened in between that time and the transfer, and i don't really want to re-live it, so I'll just end by saying that I went on a split Friday night until the zone leaders could figure out what to do. President Judd called me Thursday night and really helped me. He told me a lot of neat things about my mission in the future and told me that I should expect and very successful and outstanding mission. He told me that he knew that I could be a District Leader, Zone Leader, or whatever I needed to be. He made me feel really good. But before he told me all that he told me, he said to me that I had had problems/struggles with all of three of my companions now, and that although he wasn't pin pointing me, he suggested to me that statistically, I was the common variable. He said that I needed to learn to understand and work with anyone, no matter if they were from Liberia, or anywhere else. That took me down to the depths of humility and by that point I felt like I didn't know anything. But it was all good. He helped build me back up and gave me advice and small story that helped me realize that it's not only about making things work, but it's also about loving people and building them up. I had been probably been less considerate of Elder Sankah, and I needed to focus on him, "even more than maybe some of [my] investigators" he said. He said that's counsel he would only tell a few missionaries on the mission, but I understood him. Since then I've really thought about how dad is really good at this. There had been those times where I felt like I HAD to do something or else I was a failure. But dad, you know how to keep a calm mind, and you know that it's no use pushing forward when you're breaking down. In scriptural terms, "It is not requisite that a man should run faster than he hath strength" Moroni 7: ? . I'm getting better at my references, ha ha. Do you see what I mean now?!!?! This church is where happiness lies! that teaching can change a persons life by helping them realize that there is more to life than working themselves until they break down. There's hope, and there's hope because Christ was the ransom for us. I always teach the "Gospel of Jesus Christ" to people by telling them that God has a law. That law has to be carried out no matter what. There's no exceptions. If you mess up, you're punished. This is the way it has to work in order for us to progress. No other "easy" way is going to make us progress. But God loves us. He sent his "only begotten" son to pay the price that is required for us to pay when we sin. We sometimes take it for granted, but think what it would be like if Jesus Christ didn't come to the earth. We'd all be in hell, and we would be damned because we couldn't take on all the consequence of what our sins really entail. IT'S SO AWESOME! Anyways, just know that I know it's all true, and for me to stray from the path or leave the church would be the stupidest and honestly the most pathetic thing I could do. You can use this one me if I ever think about it in the future, ha ha. I've talked to investigators who have said when they read the bible they have this heavy feeling in their heart. Then we asked them to read the Book of Mormon, and they <b>exclaim </b>to us that they have that exact same feeling when they read the Book of Mormon. I've been thinking about Cody and what dad was saying, and I just wish he'd come back. So a lot of what I just said was kind of with him in mind. I bore my testimony yesterday and told everyone in sacrament meeting that if they have ever felt that good feeling in this church from the Holy Ghost, to never deny that feeling, and to follow after it. I said I knew everything in this church was true whether it be the Liahona, Institute, or the Book of Mormon. So anyways, I could go on and on, but just know that there's no way on earth that I can deny the truthfulness of this church now, I've received too much. <br />
So this Sunday I got a lot of letters from home. I got one from Connor, McCall, The Activity Days Girls, Goo's mom, and 2 letters from Goo. So my mission is awesome now, I love my companion, and he told me to ask grandpa and grandma some of the people they knew in their mission. He's from Aba, Nigeria, where the temple is. He was converted when he was 18 in 2005, so he's 25 now. He was trained by probably the best missionary in this mission I think (Elder Edwards). He wanted to ask if Grandma and Grandpa knew the senior couple the "Scrantons" or the "Palmers", and if they knew the two Port Harcourt mission presidents President Cake or President Stone. I think they knew president Cake. I have something like 15 or 16 baptisms, I'm not really sure, and I haven't really had the care to sit down and count. BUT, we do have 5 baptisms this saturday, and they are all awesome people, I'm excited. What's it like in our apartment? The apartment is fine, nothing special. We've got a fridge, stovetop, and fans to keep us cool. All is well in the apartment. This is the end of my letter, I promise I'm done. I'll send a picture of me and my new companion. Man I love him. He's so cool and a huge example to me. He's only been on mission for 3 months, but he's already off to a great start. I love you all, thanks for your letters, I'll check over them again real quick just to see if I missed any questions. <br />
<br />
Love, Elder Littlefield<br />
<br />
P.S. Just a spiritual thought that I don't think my Missionary friends would understand like my family would: If a persons bowels are filled with mercy, does that mean that every time we have a bowel movement, it's like an act of kindness? If so, I do good deeds every day....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-30793951344288723512012-03-28T16:28:00.002-07:002012-03-28T23:14:09.507-07:00February 27, 2012<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm0bdfFq0rxPQlabl9Au7aiPjnf6HATW54LfSJgyV8qL9IznGNQAkD46KJJqtjDvnr8Y0nqGl1nGRal1zirl7tz0JO1krM2kmFe6MGmWpAKeJpTM4pjekfoLCdOVAolbmkGikd5aCmIusa/s1600/ME.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm0bdfFq0rxPQlabl9Au7aiPjnf6HATW54LfSJgyV8qL9IznGNQAkD46KJJqtjDvnr8Y0nqGl1nGRal1zirl7tz0JO1krM2kmFe6MGmWpAKeJpTM4pjekfoLCdOVAolbmkGikd5aCmIusa/s320/ME.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
Momma,<br />
<br />
This last week was hard. My companion requires every ounce<br />
of patience I have left in me every second of the day. I'm not trying<br />
to be negative, but he really is like working with an eight-year-old<br />
sometimes. It can be embarrassing especially when we're teaching a<br />
lesson and he does something immature. I have to support him and it<br />
takes a lot of humility, not to mention humiliation sometimes. he<br />
talks a lot, very fast, and comments on everything possible thing he<br />
sees. and he always goes "HEY!" as loud as he can when something just<br />
the slightest out of normality surprises him. The "HEY!" is<br />
embarrassing when we're in the middle of a lesson and he just shouts<br />
because of something he sees. But in a way I'm training him and I'm<br />
trying to be patient with him. But who knows, maybe him or myself will<br />
be transferred tomorrow and I'll be finished. But I am a little afraid<br />
of going another transfer with him, I might lose it. Whatever happens,<br />
I'll do what I'm supposed to and deal with everything the way I should<br />
deal with them.<br />
We had 3 baptisms this weekend! The baptism went through after a lot of trial, and we<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHrMERXa7hbgL5_5f_f9D559tErbYRJXkO2UfKT6znsEatExj58ViseUWuh33jgcnRnt3XTyZgco5CJjPGiyGpGBf5uMcG2ERWKpQgrOtlLTCRRUYthqnF89koKWBkJ5EaQHWUbFtgbLtI/s1600/4+OF+US+IN+APTMNT.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHrMERXa7hbgL5_5f_f9D559tErbYRJXkO2UfKT6znsEatExj58ViseUWuh33jgcnRnt3XTyZgco5CJjPGiyGpGBf5uMcG2ERWKpQgrOtlLTCRRUYthqnF89koKWBkJ5EaQHWUbFtgbLtI/s320/4+OF+US+IN+APTMNT.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
completed a family into the church by baptizing the mother and her two<br />
children (the father was already a member).<br />
This week has been interesting. To try to explain every<br />
detail about what happens during the day is difficult because you just<br />
won't be able to understand unless you experience it and understand<br />
the culture here. But my Twi is at the top of it's game. I can<br />
understand more than I can speak. We talked with that Claudia's<br />
grandson about Ghana and he told me to learn the Twi because the<br />
people will trust you more if you can speak some Twi to them. It's so<br />
true. I have such an easier time talking to anyone because I can speak<br />
some Twi. About half of the people we talk to won't talk with us<br />
unless we show we know at least a little bit of Twi. After we show we<br />
can speak some Twi they will open up and speak english to us too. It<br />
sounds silly, and at first I thought everyone was immature for acting<br />
like that, but that's just how they work and I have to work with them<br />
so I adapted. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em', eh? I've found that to<br />
be crucial in missionary work. I'd rather compromise and adapt to<br />
others than wait too long to see if they'll compromise and adapt to<br />
me. Maybe I'm just afraid to face them and tell them to change. But<br />
I've found that as I give everything up and let them beat on me a<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbUDbxLNhIwggDKBY5Lr7-UG9DR0SwfVLpGxK7UmwSSk39Aye-N03WE77FRECZS7jqgy8qCbMh6BY_50WxaJqDYqDM1swQiCht0wMF-9gCIHwd0pjc37M1KfsOTX3x80RvUUYjd15XLyns/s1600/ME+&+CACTUS.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbUDbxLNhIwggDKBY5Lr7-UG9DR0SwfVLpGxK7UmwSSk39Aye-N03WE77FRECZS7jqgy8qCbMh6BY_50WxaJqDYqDM1swQiCht0wMF-9gCIHwd0pjc37M1KfsOTX3x80RvUUYjd15XLyns/s320/ME+&+CACTUS.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
little bit. They find that they're just beating on someone who won't<br />
fight back and eventually they stop and question their purpose. It's<br />
like the spongebob episode with "Flats". I'm sure at least Connor<br />
remembers this one. Flats always says to spongebob "I'm gonna kick<br />
your butt". Spongebob tries to run from him everywhere he goes, but<br />
finally he just has to face him and let him "kick his butt". When<br />
Flats starts to punch him, it just tickles Spongebob and he starts<br />
laughing. But Flats doesn't give up, he keep punching hoping it to<br />
affect Spongebob. But finally he wears himself out and gets tired and<br />
realizes what he's doing isn't accomplishing anything. So that's<br />
probably too deep that anyone should look into a spongebob episode, ha<br />
ha, but I thought it applied :)<br />
Anyways, everything is going well here. I'm eating well, and<br />
I'm enjoying the fruits. Especially the Mangos. I love Mangos. You can<br />
buy oranges for just 10 pesewes here. which is like 5 cents. So I buy<br />
some oranges occasionally. I took out 100 cedis a couple weeks ago,<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq6TcFuiwjWSrb2OtV1UcK-zCAL6MJcpnAwNvfzvwT97TQv0VdXNBb0sCcoZyVvVfId4pQQCwXOc2WKbvEjItLybE4BobwTGl2ahGiy2AZ9U61PYlf1m6morV4HZIthxjU7P51a5qV50Lp/s1600/PILLAR+IN+COTTAGE.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq6TcFuiwjWSrb2OtV1UcK-zCAL6MJcpnAwNvfzvwT97TQv0VdXNBb0sCcoZyVvVfId4pQQCwXOc2WKbvEjItLybE4BobwTGl2ahGiy2AZ9U61PYlf1m6morV4HZIthxjU7P51a5qV50Lp/s320/PILLAR+IN+COTTAGE.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
just so you know. It's just emergency or in case I really need<br />
something. So I don't know what happened, but the hair clippers won't<br />
charge and last for longer than 30 seconds, sorry :-S I think it had<br />
something to do with having it plugged in during a power outage and<br />
then the power came back on and surged into the plug too much and<br />
burnt it out...... or something, I don't know. Speaking of cutting<br />
hair, i cut Elder Thom's hair for him all with just a pair of<br />
scisscors. and It looked.....not bad, ha ha. He said I did a really<br />
good job, so that's all that mattered. I tried to do what the woman<br />
who cut my hair do and use my fingers to measure the length to cut. It<br />
really did work out well and Elder Thom didn't look half bad.<br />
So some questions to answer and some to ask. I'm following the rules, and I think the main purpose of<br />
them asking me not to e-mail anyone else besides my family is to not<br />
distract me. Dad asked some<br />
questions so I want to answer them before I go. I loved the pictures<br />
you guys sent, I always download them onto my mp3 player to look at<br />
later and to show other people. I love you guys and everything there<br />
sounds practically perfect! Thanks for the letters too, I love my<br />
family.<br />
---Elder Littlefield<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOm29NihYEuLS2SHTupmQEVHmGocbqqHaLCPQwQib-B_WrLY-AoT9TugJ6zPd2v1nlC2m2LlHz9Fnjxdwv0epq7UcboXb9OdHZGJwj005BB3ZQ05U01YE5bd9Pvzw1aeLpxlnpN9ioH28E/s1600/ELDER+THOM.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; height: 245px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 377px;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOm29NihYEuLS2SHTupmQEVHmGocbqqHaLCPQwQib-B_WrLY-AoT9TugJ6zPd2v1nlC2m2LlHz9Fnjxdwv0epq7UcboXb9OdHZGJwj005BB3ZQ05U01YE5bd9Pvzw1aeLpxlnpN9ioH28E/s320/ELDER+THOM.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
Dad,<br />
<br />
So I guess I answered most of your concerns in the last<br />
e-mail, but either way, I'll let you know if I really need anything<br />
sent to me! It's been pretty awesome lately, I've been getting a<br />
package a week so I can't thank you enough. Not many other missionaries get letters and packages<br />
like that, so I feel lucky. Mostly I'll just need some small money<br />
here and there to buy things here. The 100 cedis ($66.66 U.S. dollars)<br />
i took out ought to last me a good while though. I don't cook with any<br />
recipes and I'm everything tastes good. I'm glad I experimented a lot<br />
before my mission so I don't end up ruining anything now. I've made<br />
some nice bean stews to put over rice. I add beans, chicken, green<br />
peppers, ...... I think I've already said this. Anyways, it tasted<br />
really good. Those spices sure come in handy, I might need some more<br />
of those soon. I've used at least half of each one. Anyways, Thanks<br />
for everything, I love you guys!<br />
<br />
--Elder Littlefield<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpYFlOOJGGDsAPWnL6-oEtdePXWMVvSW82hmyNq02rjzohKHRIZDZKmP9uJWJ9uGDgGsntoLMwV4SusJzQoyUqFlIdDhyphenhyphen9xLHavT-mQFhEUs5hvVWMOvNAGYMaOcbK2JVffmSz4bgqTg-Y/s1600/4+OF+US.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpYFlOOJGGDsAPWnL6-oEtdePXWMVvSW82hmyNq02rjzohKHRIZDZKmP9uJWJ9uGDgGsntoLMwV4SusJzQoyUqFlIdDhyphenhyphen9xLHavT-mQFhEUs5hvVWMOvNAGYMaOcbK2JVffmSz4bgqTg-Y/s320/4+OF+US.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-17524110793816402842012-03-28T16:19:00.000-07:002012-03-28T16:19:04.812-07:00February 20, 2012Dad + Family,<br />
<br />
Everything is just going so great lately. We had a baptism Saturday, we have three men over the age of forty who are looking very serious about joining the church with their families, and on top of all that I'm just having fun! I sent a letter to President Judd right before this and I told him that sometimes I just wake up in the morning and can't wait to go tell "new" people that I haven't met before about the gospel. We've had so many powerful lessons lately and we've got so many hopeful baptisms on the way. I am loving the missionary work SOOOOO much! It's weird, because I never thought I'd actually be excited to tell people about all this, but over time I've really gained my own testimony of it all. It's all true. To doubt it or to discount the feelings of the Holy Ghost is simply stupid. This church is where true happiness lies. But one thing that most people have hard time with is that this church isn't based off facts and logic, but instead having faith in something that you only know feels right. I think that's why so many people say "listen to your heart". No one says "listen to your mind" or "follow your thoughts". We all have the Holy Ghost, and some of us only the Light of Christ. But either way we can receive an undeniable feeling that something is true. But faith seems to be something that the world says only stupid people have. "Blind Faith" is what so many people think having faith is. For me, I know by feeling from the Holy Ghost that I'm secure in whatever my Heavenly Father asks me to do and shows me who to be. It doesn't make sense sometimes how in the world what he tells me to do will work, but I have never had one time in my life where if I followed it, it didn't work. I wish people could all just look past logic and trust the feelings they have from the Holy Ghost more than they trusted the logic of the world. Because the Holy Ghost reveals things "as they really are" (2 nephi maybe? not sure.). If you want real knowledge, it all comes from the Holy Ghost. And if it comes not from the Holy Ghost, it's not of God (D&C 50....I'll get better at my references in time, ha ha). I feel like I've been trying to figure out so many lessons my whole life, and in the end it was all there in the Book of Mormon and other scriptures. I am positive that this church is God's true church with all the answers to everything. But it's not free. It can't be free. Only through faith and hard work towards something we may know little about, but trust, is it revealed. There's an answer to every question we have about anything. But it all depends on how much we want it. Just like the story I've said about Dad taking me out to get my 30 dollar prize for good grades. I saw something 30 dollars, but then I saw something for 50 dollars that was better, but the fact was, I didn't have any money, and Dad would only let me have 30 dollars. He told me I could wait and save 20 dollars, but instead I just said I'd get the 30 dollar prize. Then he told me that I didn't "really" want the 50 dollar something. I told him I did, but he told me I didn't. It frustrated me that he thought he knew what I wanted. But he said "If you <b>really </b>wanted it, I would save up for it and make the effort." This church, or God, works the same way. It takes some effort. No one every gained anything by doing nothing. It's a change, and it's a little scary to be honest. To give your trust to only a feeling that you had from the Holy Ghost. But "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always have what you've already got". Dad told me that once. It's pretty darn true though. It's all about change, if you don't want to change, you'll never have anything better. "Happy is the man that God correcteth." Once again I don't know where that's at, but it's an accurate quote and it's from the Old Testament (I think Psalms). <br />
I loved your letters. I got the package with the Deodorant and the shaving sticks and stuff. Thanks a ton! The smell of the deodorant reminds me of home, ha. I'll send Kade's recording. It's a little long, I like to talk too much, ha ha. I think it's like 14 or 15 minutes long. I hope it's good. Everything is going so well, I can't really complain about too much. Things still aren't easy all the time, but there's so many rewards that it's too easy to look past those small things that might get me down. President Judd asked me to read Moroni 7 and 1st Corinthians 13, and told me to study, learn, and embody those scriptures and I would be a great (not just good) man. He told me to do that about a month and a half ago, and since then I've just loved those chapters so much. I've prayed for the things they talk about, and more than anything I'm learning the mysterious, but never failing power of prayer. Since the time he told me I've really become a better person, someone who's easier to get along with and less judgmental. The two chapters focus mostly on charity. Charity is awesome. I also found Mosiah 4 (27) which also ties in with those scriptures. I'm using these letters as sort of a journal for my mission, but I'm still writing in my journal every few days. It's just that it takes so much longer to write than it does to type, so I hope you enjoy the long letters, ha ha :) Everything with my companion is going well, I'm learning more about him, and I'm understanding him more. That's where conflict comes, when understanding is wrong, and people don't want to be patient enough to try to understand so they get angry and problems arise. But if you're patient, it's always easy to look past those things in the end. Well, I've written a ton, but just know that I feel like I have a perfect life right now. I hope everything just gets better and better back home. I can't really complain about too much right now. I'll send another e-mail with the recording and answers to mom's questions. i also received Sister Treadway's letter to me, just so she knows.<br />
<br />
--Elder LittlefieldUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-51243945701453574182012-03-28T16:07:00.000-07:002012-03-28T16:07:33.867-07:00February 13, 2012Momma! <br />
<br />
Happy Valentine's! I have a lot to say and a short time to type it all because my companion is getting impatient, so I'm rushing a bit, ha ha. This last week we were supposed to have a baptism, but a long story happened instead, and now we have some problems to work out. The long story is that the place where this boy lives, another pastor of another church also lives. This pastor doesn't like the Latter-day Saint church at all, and he keeps encouraging our baptismal candidate to stop listening to us. He doesn't listen, so the pastor somehow got a hold of his mother's phone number and called her (she lives in my old area actually; Koforidua) and told her all these bad things about the church and how her son was involved in it all. So she called her son and told him that if he keeps going to the church or gets baptized that she'll stop giving him money to live and go to school out here in Nsawam. The boy is very adamant that he will get baptized one way or another, so we're working with him. I'm going to meet with him and call his mother this week and talk to her about everything, and probably dispel some rumors that this pastor told her. Hopefully it all works out and this boy can be baptized. He's 18 years old. He said if it doesn't work out that as soon as he's out of his mother's care, that he'll find the church and be baptized, no matter where he goes. He has a strong testimony, and I know Satan knows it too, so he's trying to stop the work. <br />
Another neat story. We went to Adoagyiri, which is an area that's a little bit farther away from where we live. We've been teaching a mother and daughter who live alone with the grandmother to take care of. The mother knows the church is true, and her only child, the 11-year old girl is brilliantly smart and reads the book of mormon and can tell us everything that happened and even sometimes what lesson we can learn from it. The mother (Grace) has been very sick and she's been having stomach and chest pains. It got so bad that she couldn't get up from her bed. She even mentioned to us that she just wanted to die because of how much pain she was in. We had given her a priesthood blessing before when it wasn't so critical, but I offered that we give her another priesthood blessing and bore what I know was a powerful testimony of the healing power of the Atonement of Christ, if we only ask for it. She and her daughter had also run out of money and didn't have much food left, so I told them to pray for health, and even for a way to have money to eat. We fetched 6 buckets of water for her and then gave her the blessing and left. The next day we came back and she told us that after we gave her the blessing the day before that she vomited for an hour and a half. I first thought, "oh, how terrible, I'm sorry". But as it turns out, she was trying to vomit the whole day, but couldn't seem to, so it was a miracle for her, and us too. She also mentioned that someone came by the same day and gave them 30 cedis so they could buy food. IT WAS A MIRACLE! I knew God answered her prayer, and I knew she knew too. She reads the Book of Mormon everyday now because she says when she reads it, good things happen to her. We even had another investigator that said that since we've been visiting her, she's been praying for her small shop to get more business, and then when we started to visit her, her shop's business increased dramatically, and so she's very intent on being baptized and learning more. On top of all that, we gave a pamphlet about the Restoration, and then one on the Word of Wisdom to a drunk guy that approached us. I thought, "He's drunk now, but maybe later when he's not drunk he'll read the pamphlet and call". He Did! He called us, we went and visited him and his 2 children, and now they all have baptismal dates for the 3rd of march! Pretty sweet huh?! He said he used to be pastor of a church, but stopped for some time and he said that he feels that he should join us. So he told us very firmly that he's bringing himself, some friends and his children to church this Sunday. Normally you can't believe someone until they actually show up to church, but I know this guy will :) Anyways, I love you all! I'll try and get Kade's report done this next week, Thanks for the letters. I'm glad everyone is doing so well and mom said the spirit is more in our home, that just makes me want to cry I'm so happy! <br />
<br />
--Elder LittlefieldUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-20174457224401094822012-02-11T12:32:00.000-08:002012-02-11T12:32:19.149-08:00<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> Here's some more pictures, they're uploading really fast this time so I'll try to get a lot in! Thanks! The girl in the blue dress next to the chalkboard is Joyce Gaati. She's the one that mom talked to when i called you guys at Christmas. The old Woman is "Mama Frimpong". She's not a member, but she insists that we come to her house every Sunday after church for a FM (Free meal). The group of little kids are the some of the "Ayitey" family. They don't have money to travel to church now, but they all are very eager to get baptized. The father told us they would have money to travel to church next month, but we may baptize them before that if I feel that they are ready and committed. So the computer just suddenly got slow, so these 5 and the other 2 I sent on my <a href="mailto:dal_lit@yahoo.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" ymailto="mailto:dal_lit@yahoo.com">dal_lit@yahoo.com</a> e-mail might just have to do for now....we'll see.<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQnEW_18ddvH7XLUnCoONib-LORSaDthzgkUQUmZJqv9d9yPX4GU_h1WzbKEfoBkUPXZPRNKqy-ITiT7_UeSayd8CMd9IjOdEPNv_cuLwuCqh5RV_cBQYl_wT05jjpDA14bDcPAyxbiOsZ/s1600/SAM_0561%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2IP8vAzzk8b9hReEcYVIe8wvQ8uROueuQe4GOra4qcZhA9nYMHOurOTqhWvewQ_QMEPKDGBiOHp8T0JX4iFVjbSbE7bBT6GdGVDk5jIwVD4S5uyeK0AAyokKVBRRC3ASxXRAujJOUL7o/s1600/SAM_0554%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2IP8vAzzk8b9hReEcYVIe8wvQ8uROueuQe4GOra4qcZhA9nYMHOurOTqhWvewQ_QMEPKDGBiOHp8T0JX4iFVjbSbE7bBT6GdGVDk5jIwVD4S5uyeK0AAyokKVBRRC3ASxXRAujJOUL7o/s320/SAM_0554%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" /></a> This week has been a little hard. I'm really being challenged<br />
in a different way. Being senior companion is not hard as far as<br />
organization and working hard goes, but with my companion, it takes on<br />
a whole new level and expectation of maturity. My companion isn't too<br />
proactive and he just finished being trained. In many ways, I feel<br />
like his second trainer. He gets offended easily, and sometimes thinks<br />
that the only way to do missionary work is the way that his trainer<br />
taught him. He makes jokes a lot and likes to laugh, but he talks<br />
really fast and most of the time I can't understand what he even said,<br />
but I laugh anyways just to make him feel better. I don't think he has<br />
a lot of confidence and is always looking for others approval. If I<br />
make him work harder than he wants to or can, he often gets stressed<br />
out and gets angry at me. It's taken a lot of patience to cater to his<br />
needs in order for the work to go forward. I asked Elder Thom (our<br />
district leader) for help, and we sat down and talked for a good hour.<br />
He gave me a blessing, which was really long (because he likes to<br />
talk). ha. But it really helped and since then I've been able to<br />
understand Elder Sankah (my companion) and help him in the way that he<br />
learns and understands things. I know it's not by my own knowledge<br />
that I've been able to cooperate with him, but I've been praying<br />
FREQUENTLY through out the day that I might be able to understand him<br />
more and that he might have patience with me when there is some<br />
misunderstanding. I don't know how it happened, but as I've continued<br />
to pray and not let up, things have just miraculously gotten better<br />
and today he even said, "I gotta watch out for my guy", meaning me.<br />
That made me feel so good that he trusted me and even likes me,<br />
because when he's against me, it's very hard and stressful to keep<br />
doing missionary work. But we've been teaching well together and we've<br />
had some very spirit-filled lessons, which I feel like is a miracle<br />
compared to the way things were looking when we first became<br />
companions. I still continue to do all I can every day to understand<br />
him and make him feel good, even if it does mean going the extra 10<br />
miles! But I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. It's making<br />
me a lot more humble and a lot more mature when it comes to dealing<br />
with people. I'm pretty sure I felt like I was brought to the "depths<img border="0" height="240" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQnEW_18ddvH7XLUnCoONib-LORSaDthzgkUQUmZJqv9d9yPX4GU_h1WzbKEfoBkUPXZPRNKqy-ITiT7_UeSayd8CMd9IjOdEPNv_cuLwuCqh5RV_cBQYl_wT05jjpDA14bDcPAyxbiOsZ/s320/SAM_0561%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" /><br />
of humility" this last week. It really could have torn down my<br />
confidence if I let it, but I really did feel like I couldn't do it on<br />
my own. Good thing our Heavenly Father doesn't expect us to do this on<br />
our own, or else I'd be begging to come home right now. I know he<br />
answered my prayer and I know it wasn't by my own strength or patience<br />
that I was able to overcome this. I was so happy yesterday at some<br />
points! Things that seemed dismal and doomed just turned completely<br />
around this week, and I can't say I exactly know how. Right now I feel<br />
like I'm ready to take on any calling or assignment! Not because I'm<br />
prepared to take it on, but that I know that if I pray and wait<br />
faithfully for Heavenly Father to help me as I work, that I can pretty<br />
much do anything. OH! IT'S SO SWEET! I don't know why, but I'm really<br />
happy right now, which is another miracle, because when I came into<br />
the internet cafe today I really didn't want to say anything positive<br />
about this last week, especially my companion. But things have just<br />
changed. Satan loves getting at my faith, especially in the mornings<br />
when I wake up. I always feel a little less confident when I first<br />
wake up, but when I try to have faith and wait it out however long it<br />
takes, things just always get better. I don't think there's ever been<br />
a time when I honestly and faithfully endured and things didn't go<br />
well. It's a promise from God, and I know it's true!<br />
So anyways, some stories this week. I made a nice bean<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjao7__RkL11lu_mtxFqVFqY8p6Yr5JeVWckOUrWECjZUKRIKqt6NdmMfZzj_QcnNa_JL6rPkII7xPVLhzqwUYuBgYgbHHFMWyXkA_J5pNL3XusY4-y9ahbzKQo_9r8bFs19vCzX105JXoy/s1600/SAM_0581%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjao7__RkL11lu_mtxFqVFqY8p6Yr5JeVWckOUrWECjZUKRIKqt6NdmMfZzj_QcnNa_JL6rPkII7xPVLhzqwUYuBgYgbHHFMWyXkA_J5pNL3XusY4-y9ahbzKQo_9r8bFs19vCzX105JXoy/s320/SAM_0581%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
stew with green pepper, onion, pepper, salt, some seasoning packets<br />
they sell here, and a big thigh leg of chicken. I did good! It tastes<br />
sooo good, and now I get to enjoy it the rest of the week. Let's see,<br />
maybe I'll just mention some things that you guys might find<br />
interesting. So that bag of crap on the side of the street, i guess<br />
that's pretty normal for little kids to grab a plastic bag, walk out<br />
in front of their house and just take a dump it it. Although I'm still<br />
not sure how common it is to leave that bag of crap on the street.<br />
Gotta love Ghana! Speaking of Ghana, the "Africa Cup of Nations" is<br />
going on right now for soccer, and Ghana has won 3 games and tied one!<br />
They're on fire! They play for the semi-finals either tonight or<br />
tomorrow. Whenever Ghana is playing everyone is in their house or at a<br />
Spot (drinking bar) watching the game. Whenever Ghana scores, you can<br />
hear everyone yell "GOOOOOAAAALLLL" as they drive their cars down the<br />
street and play drums! It's exciting! So it finally rained really hard<br />
yesterday! I think the dry season is coming to an end! The power keeps<br />
going out at our apartment though, which really sucks if it happens at<br />
night because your fan shuts off and you start to sweat in your bed. I<br />
pray hard at those times, ha ha. I love talking with the Ghanaians,<br />
they've all got a similar sense of humor, and it's pretty funny. Just<br />
a fun fact, whenever we tell people we're the Church of Jesus Christ<br />
of Latter-day "Saints", they get skeptical. The word "saints" here,<br />
means to many people, people who call evil spirits and worship<br />
spirits. So they always ask if we actually do that. We just pull out<br />
some scriptures like Ephesians 2:19 and I think Corinthians 1:1 (I<br />
think) and explain that saints aren't that and that they're just<br />
"followers of Christ" just like St. Mark, St. Matthew, etc. In many<br />
ways, every day is different, but it's also the same too. Different,<br />
and truly surprising things happen here every day, but I've kind of<br />
just accepted the fact that anything can happen here, so not much is<br />
"too" surprising anymore, ha. Well, I'm going to spend the rest of the<br />
time attaching pictures, but thanks for your letters. I love<br />
you guys, and everything is going well here! It's hard, and it<br />
probably will continue to be, but I just kind of expect that now! :)<br />
<br />
--Elder Littlefield<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGlwLapGRSzDnHRP7_v6r0OgUd6ex5HzZi7LpR4KYGnFE_b4SMd_AWsQyKwZhRIptdOTMzR6XAVKCjjqVAHbR5zQB_soGJOYYTKUtNuRgECWC-OO08gTYVPUNkQZLhLc3Ll5mbgd6bgq-E/s1600/SAM_0539%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGlwLapGRSzDnHRP7_v6r0OgUd6ex5HzZi7LpR4KYGnFE_b4SMd_AWsQyKwZhRIptdOTMzR6XAVKCjjqVAHbR5zQB_soGJOYYTKUtNuRgECWC-OO08gTYVPUNkQZLhLc3Ll5mbgd6bgq-E/s320/SAM_0539%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-53696071158589575792012-01-23T18:04:00.000-08:002012-01-23T18:04:17.084-08:00So first things first, I'll tell you about transfers and what things are like now. Elder Speirs left to an area called Adweso which was in my district when I was with Elder Nembaware. He's with an elder who was with me in the MTC, Elder Russell. I'm now senior companion with "Elder Sanka" from Liberia, who just finished being trained. I was pretty scared at first. I thought about all the responsibilities that hung on my shoulders now and all the new duties I had. I really got myself worked up for a bit. But I'm realizing that's how Satan gets a lot of people. Worry, doubt, and fear are all things Satan wants us to feel. He knows if he can make us think too much about a new challenge, if he can get in our minds and try to make us think what lies before us is so much bigger than it is, or if he can just scare us and cause us to fear, we'll eventually break down and quit. Maybe we get a new calling, or a new duty is assigned to us. We have a choice right then and there. Jesus Christ always said to everyone that saw him perform miracles "Marvel not". Many of the prophets in the Book of Mormon have said the same thing. I've found that to be so important on my mission. When different challenges have come to me during my mission, I can choose in the beginning if I will marvel at the enormity of the duty or calling, or if I will relax and just have faith that as long as I'm doing everything I know how the best I can that things will come along and Heavenly Father will mold me to fit my new duty or calling. Its kinda like what my public speaking teacher (Dan Clark) at BYU said "No one is going to ask you to speak on a topic that you don't know anything about". I know Heavenly Father is not going to give us a calling or a duty that we have not been prepared to accomplish. So knowing that, it's up to us to have the faith. Will we worry ourselves and start to go askew, or will we stay calm, happy, and have that "fun" that McCall talks about in her prayers when she prays for me. (When I read that mom said she said that, I felt the spirit very strong.) That has been a real struggle for me, to feel at peace and not be worried, and I'm finding a lot more "fun" in my mission now, so thanks Call!) Anyways, so my first few days with Elder Sanka were a little testing. The first day I had with him, we went through the whole day looking for people to teach and trying to get a lesson, but we ended up working the whole day and only having one lesson. I know that some days will just not work out like you think, even if you're trying hard, so I shrugged it off. The next day we taught a few lessons in the morning and then a few at night and I started to feel a little better. I had to adjust to my new companion. He's a little weird when he talks to people, but I know that's because he's still new and he'll get used to it. He struggled the first few days as well, so that put a little stress on me because I wasn't sure what I should do. I prayed to know what to do and I felt like the answer I got was not to worry myself. I told him that if he had any kind of suggestions on what I could do better and how I could help him that he could tell me and I'd definitely and humbly consider what he had to say. I wanted to make sure he didn't feel like he didn't have any choice in the matter of our work. At the same time, I know the rules, I know what's expected, and I'm not just going to compromise with anything. Ha, maybe I've already thought about it too much. Anyways, I just worked through the day, and I felt that as long as we're doing the work the best we could, we didn't have any reason to fear. That's another thing Satan gets at us with, discouragment. We'll work hard every day, and some days will seem less successful. Those times are God's testing times. He wants to see if he holds back the reward for a little longer the next time if we will still keep the faith and remember his promises. Friday last week was like that. Saturday was a different experience. I actually made a voice recording Saturday night to send because I couldn't express how happy I was that day through e-mail. There's another Elder from Australia in our apartment named Elder Thom. He's with Elder Kyeremateng (chair-mah-tang). Elder Kyeremateng was in the apartment with me last transfer. He's from Ghana and even though he's Ghanaian, we both have the same sense of humor and connect really well, so I'm glad I have him to talk to. Elder Thom is just strange, there's no better way to put it really. He's a good guy, but he just tries to do more than needs to be done and.....well he's just weird, ha ha. <br />
So being Senior companion is another ball game. I wasn't sure how this week would go, and I was afraid about investigators coming to church. But when Sunday came, OH MAN, I probably got teary eyed like 10 times that day. I was so happy! Usually we have three, maybe four investigators come to church on Sunday. That's usually been the maximum. But this Sunday, we had 9!!!!! I mentioned this in my voice recording, but it was such a huge blessing for me. With Elder Speirs I always felt like we were working underneath our potential. But now I'm committed to doing all I can for our investigators. It's a lot of work, and it's a lot of organization and people to keep up with, especially when 9 came to church, but I'm being blessed as I do it and I know that in the future weeks and months of my mission, it can't be too hard, it'll always just be a test, and all it really takes to make it through is to continue with patience and have faith. It really can be just that simple.<br />
Thanks for the package by the way, it really will help. Kade! Thanks for all the candy, and the letter! I love the letters! And thanks for that peanut butter! You can find some jelly sometimes around here, but it's expensive. But mango's aren't expensive so I got one of those and mashed it up into jelly for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! It was way good!<br />
<br />
So I have a few funny things to write about that I wrote down in my planner during the week. So Thursday morning this last week, there was a woman just outside our bedroom window yelling and preaching as she paced back and forth at like 4:30 a.m. I just thought "what the heck is she doing?! People are sleeping!!" I hoped she would stop soon, but she didn't, so I yelled out the window in Twi "You! Go home!" She didn't stop preaching, but she did hesitate when I yelled out the window and then she continued preaching as she walked away. Ay! the people here huh? As far as the Twi goes, I can speak it probably just as well as I can speak Spanish. I know a lot of it now and can speak with most people here as far as small talk goes. Elder Speirs could speak it well and I was scared how it would turn out if he left. But I do remember when Pres. Morris set me apart as an Elder that he said I would have the "gift of tongues". I think it's very true. I found that I could talk with them very easily in Twi and it was such a help in contacting and teaching people. They trust you a TON more if you can speak some Twi with them. They're kind of all stubborn like that, so you just have to work with them. I hope you know I'm happy, but I'm still adjusting. I just need to remember to keep normal and not go weird. Dad, you said in that letter you sent to me that I should find the humor in things and that my sense of humor is what makes me such an influence on people around me, it's so true. Having a sense of humor and not being stiff or weird has kept me sane and relaxed. It's hard in our apartment aside from Elder Kyeremateng, but I'm making it work. I love you mom, I hope you know how grateful I am and how much I love my family! Thanks for everything my whole life, it has just prepared me for a mission and made my life so much more happy!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2105405046647949167.post-62676380950967945602012-01-14T20:32:00.000-08:002012-01-14T20:32:01.961-08:00This last week we just sat in the house most of the time<br />
because Elder Speirs was sick Monday through Friday. It was really<br />
boring sometimes, and I'm way glad I got those two President Monson<br />
books from you guys, they really helped pass the time. We don't<br />
exactly know what Elder Speirs was sick with, but it was bad enough to<br />
not go out. The ward has a New Year's Eve party that they celebrated<br />
Saturday night, and it was really neat! They did some native African<br />
culture dances with grass skirts and everything. They even hired a DJ<br />
and a group of guys to play some bongo drums for the whole thing! It<br />
was pretty neat! They don't celebrate Christmas nearly as much as they<br />
do New Years! People were up all night long making noise!<br />
Fun story, so there's a crazy naked man that walks around<br />
town in the most public of places. We're pretty sure he's mentally<br />
retarded, but he just walks around with it all hanging out, it's<br />
pretty gross. Elder Speirs says so far he's seen the naked man, he<br />
just needs to find the rest of the naked family so he can baptize them<br />
all. Then we found another boy, his face looks like he's maybe 14, but<br />
the people around say he's 24 or so. Anyways, he's what they call<br />
"mad", and he walks around naked too. The woman we talked with that<br />
lives where this boy stays around says that he doesn't like it when<br />
people wear white and that everyone thinks he possessed by devils and<br />
that's why he doesn't like the color white, because it's pure. We<br />
watched him go over and hit another guy that was wearing a white shirt<br />
and then run off. He tried to come near us, but the woman grabbed a<br />
stick and threatened him and he ran off. It was so funny. Things like<br />
this happen in Ghana, and after a while, you just have to come to<br />
reality and accept that anything can happen. I didn't step in any bags<br />
of crap this week, although we did see a few. I don't know who in the<br />
world puts crap in a bag and then just puts it on the streets, maybe<br />
it's a prank and someone was laughing when i stepped in it, who knows.<br />
We had some more fufu from some members this week! It was really good,<br />
I love fufu.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0