Dear Fam,

Thanks for all the b-day wishes! I did not teach anyone the L. birthday song and it really felt like something was missing. But as you could see I enjoyed the Burger with Elder Orchard,
and most of all the care package! Those are some great looking T-shirts mom! Thanks for all the love and care and the candy really hit the spot. I'm happy to hear the move has gone smoothly and that the knee is getting better, I'm excited for you and dad to go on Choir tour! Eric I was have been meaning to tell you but I would love to get my hands on some classical music! So some time in the future let me know if I can get some?

This week we were blessed to have the baptism of Yevonn Dinsey. We have been working with her for a long time and she has really worked to overcome some obstacles in her way. It did my heart some good to see my comp do the baptism as well. One thing we discussed this week was our families. I feel so blessed to have the family I do! He told me that all of his family are also members... (here's the part that blew me away) I did baptisms for the dead for them when I was in the MTC! I have so much respect for my companion, I think that is one of the sweetest stories I have ever heard! I'll write more about our people next week, I have noticed that I haven't really been doing that lately, but Please keep Vic, Pascal, Daniel and Essie all in your prayers. This week in my scripture study I was amazed how many times I noticed in the scriptures that when we keep the commandments we have true joy! I know that when we keep the commandments we show the Lord our love for him and that he is able to bless us!

Love, Elder L.

Dear Fam, I was happy to hear all the great news! Mom and Dad I so happy about the house! I'm happy that dad kept the rock walls! Nate congrats on the new job, I am so excited for you and your family, I know you will do great! Please congratulate Mathew for his mission call! Also Sherry told me about G.s going to China, is that their new assignment?

This week has been a difficult on for me, lots of ups and downs but a lot of great lessons learned. I'm just trying to always remember "Life by the inch is a sinch, life by the yard is hard." Keep me in your prayers and keep our investigators in your prayers as well. Elder Mlilo is a natural born teacher which makes it come easy to him. Mom he loves the shirt but obviously not as much a me. I got your package! Thank you so much, it means a lot to me that you and Dad would send me the package and the timing could not be more perfect.

I'm going on a split with Elder Orchard today and we are going out for some burgers so i'll count that as my party... you are all welcome as they would say over here!

Love, Elder L.

P.S. I hope the move goes well and you knee continues to recover!

Dear fam, great to hear that you are all doing so well. I am especially excited to hear that Mom and Dad are moving in on Saturday! Nate I'm excited hear what comes of the application and Eric my arms are still sore from the Yellowstone so go ahead without me... where are you guys going? Pascal's baptism did not happen last week but will come on this week. My new comp is Elder Mlilo, he is from Zimbabwe! He is 24 and was a teacher before becoming a missionary. Training is super fun, but super hard. I am learning a ton and i'm excited to keep learning more. I already experienced many lessons and I know they will help me in the rest of my time training and for the rest of my mission. The picture of the smashed bike was Elder Mlilo's bike, i'm just glad he is ok. Its been funny to see how much his first week was like mine and I bet it will continue to be like my first weeks. I'll tell you more about him as the weeks go by. One thing he told me that really moved me this week as we were talking about our families, is that he was able to do baptisms for the dead for his father and mother. I think that is one of the wonderful things I have ever heard. He is hardworking and obedient and I'm really excited to work with
him.

Kind of just a side note, I was had the opportunity to do a baptismal Interview for one of Jamestown Elders candidates. There is nothing to say about it but it was a great experience, and I know that the Lord is really pleased with those that accept the gospel and decide to be baptized. I hope next weeks letter will be longer but hoped you enjoyed the pictures!

Love, Elder L.

Dear Fam, yesterday’s phone call was so wonderful. I was so happy to hear from all of you even though the connection was bad for a little bit. I wish I could just show you all around my mission for a few days you guys could see what it like. Mom, Michelle, Sherry, Brianne, Shalissa and Grandma I hope you all had a wonderful mother’s day. There is not to much other news to share other than what we talked about yesterday. We will have one baptism on Saturday, her name is Pascal and she is very excited to be baptized and I feel like we have some great fellow shippers to help stay active. I’ll take Elder Chamberlain to the mission home tomorrow and then I’ll Start training on Wednesday. In my next letter I’ll tell you about my new Greenie next week. Please keep me in your prayers! This week I forgot the camera at the apartment so next week I’ll send me double the pics!!

Love, Elder L.

Conference...Finally!

Dear Fam,

Great to hear from all of you and that you are all doing well. Happy May day yesterday as well! This week we had the baptisms of Dorah and Cathrine. It was a great baptism and they will both be solid in the church. Dorah is 9 and super smart, we baptized he father and brother last month and we are hoping to working with the mother this month, than the whole family will all be members. Cathrine is very shy, we contacted her about three or four months ago and she didn't seem interested. She called us about 6 weeks ago and told us she wanted to hear more about the Book of Mormon, this built my testimony that every little thing furthers the work! Dad, you were asking me about finding. We usually only plan to do it a few hours in the week and if our appointments fail we will find. We get very few referrals from members, that is something we are working on, to get the members excited about missionary work. Most member referrals come from our recent converts, because their excitement to share it with their friends and family is great.

As you could see from the pictures I sent, It snowed for the first time in Ghana. Ok, not really but it rained super, super hard on Thursday. The church compound turned into one of those collecting ponds we have back home. After we finished our numbers for the day we went and to some pics and played some football. The picture of me next to the whiteboard is how we keep tract of our numbers. It was President Smiths Idea and I love it, we put all the names of our people on the board. Our amount of lessons, contacts, baptisms, member present lessons... everything is on the board! When we finish numbers in our planers and area books we will go to the planner and update it every day. This allows us to see how we are doing in the current week and also our trends over the last 6 weeks as well. I'm interested to hear about what you guys did on your missions, did you use area books planners any thing else? Yesterday I finally had the chance to watch conference. I really enjoyed it and Mom, I was able to see you a few times! I don't have my notes with me so I can't remember many things right now but I enjoyed President Monsen talk on Temples and Elder Oaks talk on Desire. We watched two sessions and we will barrow the DVD's from Bishop and watch the rest later. I am grateful that every six months we have the opportunity to hear from Prophets and Apostles who receive revelation to lead and guide this church. Mom and Dad I will call around 8 or 9 Accra time so that will be around one or two your time. Dad if that won't work i'll call back later but I hope it all works out.

Love, Elder L.