SUCCESS!!!

The Branch was created!!! Which means this upcoming Sunday will be the first ever Sacrament meeting to be held in Juapong!!
We are super happy over here in our little town. Challenges will surely come our way. When the Branch was created only 6 members from Juapong were actually at church and present for the organization of the newly formed Branch. We are really happy to moving forward. Right now we will be worshiping in a temporary building-while our official church building is going under renovations.
I am now entering 11 months since I came to this area and it has been the fastest moving 11 months I've experienced.
Well I'll keep my email short for today. I love you all and I wish the best for everyone
Elder Green

Good news!

Yesterday, I gave a talk in our District Conference where it was made known that we have approval for the Creation of the Juapong Branch! All we are waiting on is the renovations of a meeting house and our new Branch President has been called! SO within a few weeks we'll have our Branch opened up!
This past week has consisted of a lot of highs and lows. Solving family issues and comforting new members who had been offended by other members of the Church and all the stress involved in preparing for the Conference.

We are now entering the rainy Season and Elder Ojaide and I had planned that we would ride our bikes early Sunday morning to a village called Nnudu to pick up one of our Recent Converts to help come the District Conference in Kpong (about an hour and a half travel). Well the alarm sounded at 5 Sunday morning and 10 minutes later one of the most violent rain storms hit. within moments the roads were turned into rivers and were impassable because of the mud. What were we to do? She likely wouldn't come without us, but we had told her that we'd be there. So we prepared ourselves and set out on our bicycles in the rain. When we arrived soaking wet, we found her Uncle huddled around a small fire cooking some yam and looking rather destitute (he was really looking forward to the conference but didn't believe he could still attend because of the rain) and Abigail was in the house. When he saw us he broke out in a smile and began to laugh, knowing now that he could still attend the conference. We waited with them for a little over and hour while they prepared and we all traveled to the conference together. I am so glad that we still decided to travel through the pouring rain to visit them and help them to the conference.

Well everything here is going well. I feel super busy these days which is great. I love you all and hope you all have a great week.

Elder Green

Easter 2015

Hey everybody! How is everything? I hope you all had a Happy Easter.
Yesterday, we were able to have a wonderful baptismal service for two of our dear sisters. I was given the wonderful opportunity to perform the Baptism for them. This has been our second baptism in Juapong, and President Heid has told me that after our District Conference we'll probably create the new branch! I am really excited for it.
Everything here is going well. I hope I can stay in Juapong and watch this new branch grow, but, if the Lord wants me to go and serve in another area I am happy to do that as well.
I know that the Lord lives. As long as we are trying our best to become the masters of ourselves and to follow the Lords commandments He will bless us and will help us to overcome our challenges. He is ready to comfort us and guide us, if we are only willing to heed His call.
I love you all and wish a great week


Love,
Elder Green

Amazing Experiences

Hello everybody!
So this past Sunday Abigail Boadu was confirmed a member of the Church!! Wahoo! She is our very first convert to come from Juapong (actually she lives in a village past juapong) and we are now planning for a few more this upcoming month.
I am told that we have received the approval for the creation of the Juapong Branch. We are now just waiting for a few more things to get taken care of then we'll be operational!!
At Church we were really excited because we had 4 investigators with us.One of them, the 18 year old son of Theresa Henordzi (she'll be baptized on Easter) this was his first time at Church and he really loved it. We are really happy to see him progressing like this.
Thank you everybody for the birthday wishes, the week has been great and I am loving serving in such a small, but tightly knit group of saints.
Love you all,


Elder Green

The Lord's hand is in His work

Hey Hey everybody! How was the week? So exciting news coming from this side of the Volta--Forms have been submitted to the First Presidency for the creation of Juapong Branch!! Whooo!! We are so excited for this. Once we get the approval we'll start renovations on the building.
Also on the 22 of this month we'll be having at least 2 baptisms! these will be the first baptisms from Juapong! They are two wonderful sisters who will more or less be among the pioneers of Juapong.
Well everything is moving along here so I'll talk to you all next week!
Elder Green

He is moving steadily foward

On Thursday I was able to go to the Temple with Emmanuel for him to receive his endowment. It was such a wonderful and spiritual event. I am so grateful that we were able to meet him and that he has been willing enough to take this bold new step into his life ahead.
Internet is even slower than ever today. It's taken me over 25 minutes just to load the page enough to the point where I can start typing I love you mom and I hope that you have a great week.
I've had a few rough spots but I'm trying my best to stay on top.

The Lord works in mysterious ways

Hey everybody!
This past week has been great! I've been proselyting in Juapong since September and now that I live here I really do feel like I'm becoming a part of the town. There are so many people that I know and love in the town and I really feel like I can make a difference in some of their lives.

The strangest things have been happening these past few weeks, but all of these really old, former investigators (people we stopped seeing way back in October or November) have suddenly been popping up again. It's like we'll run into them on the streets and they'll want us to come and see them again, or they'll just bring themselves to the Church. It has been so wonderful, and very very interesting. I only hope that now is the time for them to come to the Gospel of Christ.

I have been able to witness a silver lining in a very sad event that took place a few weeks ago. The death of Richard Awunor came very suddenly and was quite a set back at the onset of establishing the Church in Juapong. It Ghana it is almost like a cultural duty to attend funerals, especially those that are relatively close by. That being said most funerals are very big. At the late Mr. Awunor's funeral, there was a very large attendance, as custom holds it. Now, the way the Church conducts its funerals is very different than traditional burials--thus people take notice of it. Everything is done in a very neat, and modest manner. Church members gave talks, and short sermons, concerning the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation and our purpose on Earth. Since the day of the funeral there has been such a buzz about the 'Latter Days Church" and constantly when people see us they call out to us and want to know more about us as a church, and often times they have questions for us concerning the messages that we shared and especially the Book of Mormon. Now, more than ever, I would say the whole town has a buzz about the Church and the very elect people, whom God has prepared, are finding their way towards the Truth. I love you all and wish the best of a week.
Elder Green

The Lord gives us just enough

Feb 9, 2015

Check it out! SO we were able to move into our new apartment this last week and it has been such a blast. Unfortunately we had to spend our whole Tuesday waiting to be picked up with our luggage and then I got some serious food poisoning which grounded me for all of Wednesday so our proselyting week didn't even begin until Thursday (which was a huge bummer because we had a ton of people to see).
So no baptism. Abigail traveled with her family to Kumasi and she hopefully is returning today. We'll have to work with her a little bit more to prepare her well.
Juapong is a sweet place. I honestly hope that I can stay in this lovely city for the rest of my mission--
So This upcoming week we'll be working really hard to make up for lost time and we've been very blessed to have many investigators from Juapong travelling all the way to visit the Church. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Faith brings blessings

Feb 2, 2015

Well the news is, as usual, up and down. This week it's up and I'm super excited. Tomorrow we'll be moving to Juapong into a super nice apartment and probably by March we'll have our group established. Super excited for all the developments that have taken place thus far.
On Saturday we had the funeral for the late Richard Awunor of Juapong. The silver linings to this very sad event is that there has been a lot of interest in the Church expressed in the past few days and many people have asked us where the Church is located and after the main service we had so many people come up and talk to us and request tracts that we actually ran out of all the pamphlets and tracts that we had. Anyways it was a very bittersweet event.
Letter is short for this week. Internet keeps crashing so no pics this week. Maybe next week. Maybe. Hahah love you alll,
love Elder Green

Finally hearing from him again!

Hello everybody!

Sorry for the 'leave of absence' I've been a bit lazy lately and haven't made time to write my weekly letter... don't worry, repentance is real :)
So update on the whole Branch in Juapong and apartment there and all that stuff---SO hopefully within like 2 weeks we'll be able to move into our apartment (which according to our mission office, is the nicest apartment in the whole mission) and yesterday after Church we identified all of our members who live in Juapong and the leadership there--now that list will go with our Mission President to the Area Office on Wednesday, and there they will decide when we'll be able to open up either a group or a branch. Needless to say, we're super excited and can't wait to be established there.
My new companion is named Elder Ojaide and he is from Delta State, Nigeria, but he lives in Lagos. Super cool guy. We get along really really well, we both listened to the same kind of music and well anyways its been really fun lately.
We've been really blessed to find a lot of new people in a city called Atimpoku. For the past few months this city has been a place I've always wanted to avoid just because it has always felt 'dead'. Well thanks to 'new eyes' in the area we've started contacting in many different places than before.
We don't have any baptisms planned in the immediate future, we were working with a young couple who have had the chance of visiting the Church for the past few weeks, but because of difficulty in schedules and myself always going down to Accra (transfers, doctors appts.. etc.) we haven't had the time to see them unfortunately. I hope that we'll be able to pick them back up again, seeing as they are very interested in the Church.
Well that's all for today folks, love you all and have a great week.
Elder Green

Elder Obiarinze

Getting my Christmas Fufu on

Merry Christmas

Getting on the Ferry Lake Volta

Elder Abioye

Elder Ojaide

My favorite family in Juapong, The Affianu's