Well, this week has been really good and at the same time its kinda gone by slow. A lot of appointments failed this week, because all of the churches went crazy here for the Easter week. The good news is that because of that we had a lot of time to contact and a lot of people were home because of the vacation so we were able to find some cool new people. As you remember, we are in the process of finishing a mission goal of baptizing a husband and wife, and family. For all of Sunyani it is a really hard goal and honestly I dont know how we are going to finish it as a district here. Anyways, with all of the contacting that we have done we still only have two families that we have to work with right now. Both of the families were not really progressing very well and we were getting worried. The first family had a problem with coming to church, because the husband is always at work. This last week we were able to sit down with him and teach about the plan of salvation. As we were teaching him he got really interested in the resurrection, because we had him read Alma 40 which talks of the first and second resurrection. He had never heard of that before and got really interested. After teaching it to him we asked him which resurrection he wanted to be a part of, and he said the first. As he said that the scripture Mosiah 18:10 to 13 came into my mind and we had him read it. after he read it he just sat there for a few seconds and let it soak in. I then asked him again which resurrection he wanted to be part of and he said that his answer was still the same, he wanted to be part of the first. We then extended a baptismal commitment to him for the 28th of May, which he accepted very happily. When he had committed to be baptized I told him that if he wanted to be baptized that he needed to understand that he would be making a covenant with God that he would keep all of the commandments including coming to church and taking of the sacrament. We then gave him a commitment to come to churchevery Sunday. He told us that his boss had already scheduled him doing something that he could not get out of for that Sunday, but that he would be coming after that. It was a really cool lesson and the spirit was really strong there. On Sunday we were also able to get the wife for the other family that we are working on to come to church and she seemed to really like it. God has blessed us and at this point we have a good idea of how we can accomplish our goal for our area. We just need to figure out how to do it for the rest of the district. We only have nine weeks left and not one of the missionaries in the district have been able to get a whole family to go to church together once. We had a district fast this last Sunday for it and I know that God will answer our prayers. I'm really happy to be here and have had amazing experiences that I could never of had anywhere else. We had the baptism just a week ago and already those that were baptized are teaching priesthood class and passing the sacrament and leading the Unit. The people are so amazing and happy to do whatever we ask them to, because they have such great faith. We still occasionally have problems, just like everywhere else with people not accepting callings, but as soon as we sit down with them and explain that they have a duty to do so they most of the time change. I'm grateful for the chance that God has given me to be here. Thanks for all that you do for me and remember that you are in my prayers. Love Ty

4/18

Well, once again, I had a great e-mail in the process, and the power
went out. Thankfully it just came back on, but unfortunatly my time is
now up. My thoughts this week go as follows. Liam is way cute. I hope
all is going well for everyone. Im nervouse about getting transfered
and I find out any second if I am or not. I hope that that does not
happen, because I love Sunyani and hope that I can finish my mission
here. We were able to call a unit leader and now are in the process of
training him so that he knows what to do. He is a way cool guy, is
humble and a good leader, which is exactly what we need right now. We
also had a baptism yesterday which went really well. We baptized two
children who either have family members that are members, or family
that whants to be members, but for family reasons has to wait for a
little longer. There is also a man who was baptized who lives in our
area on the weekends with is family, but on the weekdays goes to
school in the area next to ours. We contacted him on the christmas
vacation and didnt even know that he was a student and taught him a
lot until school started. He left and teaching became really hard so
we refered him over to the other elders. He was baptized this sat.
with the rest of them, and he is now in our unit also, because on the
weekends he comes back to see his family. Other good news is that
since the temple trip a lot of the members have been getting really
excited about missionary work. We have gotten 5 refferals this last
week that all seem to be somehow serious and have been able to teach
them almost every day of the week. Please pray that they will all
progress, because if they do that means that we would have enough
people to have a branch here and they all would have friends in the
church which would help them to stay. We are still working really hard
to find families to finish the family goal, but it seems that in
Sunyani either they cant speak english, which means that they are
immposible to teach because neither Elder Mapanje or myself can speak
Twi, or else the parents do not live together. Either way it makes it
really hard to find them here. Please continue to pray that all will
go well for us so that we can accomplish the goal in time. Im greatful
to be here and am so happy that I have been able to help so many
people in this area. Thanks for all that you do and remember that you
are in my prayers. Love ELder Russell

4/11 "Temple Trip"

Well, I hope that you are able to see the picture and that you didnt
get some African virus on you computer. First off, happy birthday to
Lexy and to Kirsten this week.This week has been really hard, and at
the same time one of the best weeks of the mission for me. The part
that made it really hard was that we didn't have very much success
this week with our proselyting. we had a lot of people who we thought
we were going to baptize this next Saturday that fell and now we are
starting at square one. We have had a lot of disappointments this last
week. The part that makes it amazing was that we sent down 15 people
to the temple and that they got back safely and had a great time. This
is a trip that has been planned by Elder Mapanje and myself for about
3 months now. On Tuesday I called down to the temple to make sure that
they were still planning on us coming, and they scared us by telling
us that they didnt have it on the calender, and that they would be
full on that day. We were able to work things out, because we called
and made reservations about 2 1/2 months ago and so we thought that
there would be no more problems. On Saturday the station manager told
us that the bus would be leaving at 6 am and so the people needed to
be there at 5:30. Everyone showed up at five thirty, but the bus didnt
come until 7:20. We talked with the manager and he assured us that
there would be no more problems and that on Saturday when we were
ready to have the bus come to pick them from the temple that we should
just call them. They went to the temple and were able to do sessions
on Friday and Saturday morning.I was really cute, because they kept
calling us in between sessions and telling us how amazing it was and
how happy they felt. On Saturday we called about 2 hours before they
were ready to come to tell the driver to come to pick them from the
temple, but the guy didnt pick up the phone. We kept calling and
calling, but he was not picking. Finally we went to the station to see
the man and he was sitting there playing a board game. Needless to say
I was not very happy, but we were able to get the man to call the
driver for us while we were there with him. They told us that they
would be there right at one which was the time that we needed to have
them be there. At one ten we got a call from one of the members at the
temple and he told us that the bus had not come and to call to make
sure everything was ok. I did and I was told that the driver was
coming, and that the man had already talked to the member at the
temple and given him the phone number for the station down in Accra.
Almost as soon as I had hung up with him the member called ant told me
that he had talked with the station and that they didnt know that they
were at the temple and that there was no bus coming and that they were
short on buses and that they could not be able to send one for about 5
hours. Accra is about an 8 hour bus ride from here and so if they were
going to get home at a decent hour they would have to leave earlier
than that. The member told me that he knew the station and that they
would all go to the station and try to get on an earlier bus. When
they got to the station they were still short on buses, but there was
one there that was filling to go to Sunyani. They called and told me
that and I talked with the man in Sunyani who told me he would talk to
the driver and let them  to get onto that bus. When they tried to
board the bus the driver tried to make them pay him again, and we had
a lot of problems, but finally they were able to get on. Because of
all of the delays they were not able to get home until about 1:30 am
which is about 6 hours after they had planned on. Honestly I thought
that because of all of the problems with the transportation that they
would be really unhappy with the trip, but on Sunday we opened the
floor for testimonies of all who had gone to the temple and we had one
of the sweetest testimony meetings of my life. At the end we were all
crying and a lot of people who befor had always been to shy to bear
their testimonies got up and shared with the people. Everyone was
really excited about it and they all want to go back and help others
to go back also. This temple trip brought a great change to all of the
members in our unit and now they are so much stronger in the gospel. I
feel so happy right now. Even though there were a lot of problems, 15
people went to the temple and now they are in the church to stay. I
think if I was to end my mission right now I would go home the
happiest missionary on the earth, but I still get to stay here for six
more months to do the same thing over again. The unit is growing and
this week we are calling a unit leader who is the man that we just
baptized about 3 weeks ago. I guess that Im out of time now, but just
remember that you are in my prayers and that I love you all. Please
remember to pray for me, cause I need all the help I can get. Love Ty

"Today While the Sun Shines, Work with a Will"-- 4/4

Hey guys, I hope everything is going OK for you all. I got to see one
picture of the wedding and it looked like it was beautiful. I sure
wish that I could have been there for that. It also sounds like you
guys are all struggling to survive with all of the things going on
back there. Just remember that I'm praying for you and that I love you
and that I get about 8 hours of sleep every night as compared to your
meager minutes. :-)  Things here are going really well, but honestly I
have been seeing the devil try really hard lately to tear down
everything that we are trying to do. With that I have also seen the
Lord work extra hard to bless us and things are working out OK, but
not the way that we are expecting. I don't know if I have really
talked to much about this, but Pres. Sabey has somehow put me in
charge of planning the temple trip for all of the people here in
Sunyani. At first we had about 33 people say that they would go and
even when we talked about the money they all said that it would not be
a problem and everyone was getting excited. This week is the week that
we are sending them down to Accra and in the last few days we have had
over half of them cancel and say for one reason or another that they
cant go. I guess if they cant even keep the commitment to go to the
temple they would never be able to keep the covenants that they make
inside. Anyways, its really helping us to see who the really solid
members are and everything which is great, because we are trying to
set up branches right now and we need those people to be in charge,
and not the kind that will flake out. We have also had another
blessing in disguise this last week. Elder Mapanje and myself both
feel that our unit is now ready to be run by the members. We have
permission to call a unit leader, which is basically the same thing as
a branch Pres., but its over a unit instead of a branch. There is one
Melchizedek Priesthood holder in our unit and we both thought that he
would be the natural one to fill that position, along with Bro Owusu
(the man we baptized two weeks ago) as his counselor. Anyways, the day
before we were going to ask this brother to accept this responsibility
he came to us and told us that he is going back to school, so every
weekend for the next two years he is going to be at Kumasi for
schooling and so he will go to church there instead of up here unless
he is on vacation. We both still for some reason feel that we are
ready for a unit leader instead of the missionaries to take the lead
of everything, which means that the only one who could possibly fill
the position of unit leader is Bro Owusu who is again the guy that we
just baptized. I talked to Pres. Sabey about it at interviews this
last Sunday and he told me that he trusts us to make the right
decision and if we feel that that is the right thing to do, then we
should do it. Please pray for us to know what to do and to make the
right decision at this time. I know God will help us to know the right
thing, its not like its just our lives that we are effecting, but all
of the lives of the members in this area and he cant let us to go
astray. There is a young woman that we have been teaching for the last
few weeks that has really brought to my mind idea of the battle of
good and evil. We taught her about everything and she had a lot of
questions that we thought that we had resolved, and she came to church
a few times and has been keeping all of her promises, and we thought
that she was ready to have a baptismal date. The day that we came to
give her the date, she told us that her good friend told her that we
were a cult and that she should get on the internet and look up all of
the bad things about us. We spent the next two visits trying to clear
up all of the problems form that and when we were finally ready to
give her the date, we showed up to find that her godmother had come
and given her a lot of bad ideas about us also. Again we spent a few
days clearing up all of the bad ideas and covering the same questions
that she had had the first two times. We again were prepared to give
her a baptismal date, when we showed up to find that a pastor from
another church had seen her visiting with us and waited until we left
and came and gave her anti-Mormon literature to read about so that
another christian would not be lost to our evil ways. We again had to
take a few days to clear things up and finally had the opportunity to
give her a baptismal date and when we asked her to be baptized she
told us that she liked her church and didn't want to change. The good
thing is that because all of the other people came to try to get her
not to listen to us we had here read a lot from the Book of Mormon and
now she has a strong testimony of its truthfulness. Because she knows
that the Book of Mormon is true she also knows that what we are saying
is true. We are going back and we feel that she will make the correct
decision to follow the truth. We had to teach her that there is a
difference between being a good church and the true church and her
church that she used to go to was a good church, but that the church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on the
Earth. I feel that everything will be ok, but its just kinda
frustrating to see it take so long to come about. I guess that this is
just strengthening her to fill a great roll in the church here in
Sunyani. Other than that things are going really well here. Im really
blessed to get to see so many miracles from the Lord and I daily see
of those blessings that come from above. Thanks for all that you do. I
love you and pray for you and wish you all the best.
Love Ty

"All Kinds of Fun"-- 3/22/2011

To Start with I guess that I just say congrats to all with special
events in the next few weeks and call it good at that. I hope that all
goes well and just remember that you are in my prayers. For Natalie I
have a suggestion for names. Here in Ghana they have a male and female
version of the same name for each day of the week. Each name simply
means "born on ....." . My name is Kofi, because I am a male born on
Friday. If I was a female I would be Effia. Other names include Yaw
and Yaa, Kwaku and Abbina, and all kinds of fun stuff like that. You
could simply tell me the day that he is born and Ill just let you know
what his name is. There is no need to fuss and all the work and worry
is taken care of in the system of Ghanaian naming.
This week has been a really good one. We had what we called a
lumberjack party for St. Patrick's day this last week. We were talking
about what we should do to celebrate the holiday at district meeting
and I suggested that we get together and buy some flour to make
pancakes and put food coloring in it make them green. One of the
Elders said that that would be great if we were lumberjacks and so we
instead of calling it a St. Patrick's day party called it a lumberjack
party.  I guess that to you guys that sounds kinda weird, but  after
about 18 months of not having pancakes they tasted delicious and I was
able to buy some flour and have been making them myself for breakfast.
They are not real pancakes, because we have no milk, and we are
missing some other ingredients and we have no syrup for them, but they
are pretty good. The Bennett's (the senior couple) were able to get
some maple stuff in Accra or else they brought it with them from U.S.,
and we were able to have syrup for the party, and it made me really
sick for the rest of the day because it had so much sugar. This last
week we also started to do a march madness here in Sunyani. Some of
the Elders are really into basketball, and so every Monday they have
their families e-mail them the results and statistics and stuff like
that. So far Im in second place, and I hope that I do better. The
thing is that none of the missionaries know anything, and are just
guessing, because they cannot get online to do any research. I chose
Ohio St to win it all and from what Ive heard I think I have a good
shot. I think that the winner gets a soda or something like that.
On Saturday we were able to baptize Bro Owusu. It was really cool and
he seems to be really happy. We are also planning to call one of the
members to be the unit leader and are hoping that Bro Owusu will be
called to be his counselor this next week. In preparation for the
temple trip in a few weeks, Sis Agartha the one who had the leg
problem and was healed in time to be baptized has given us five names
and we got to go onto the computer and help her to enter them and
submit them to the temple. Ive been able to do that a few times since
Ive been here and every time it makes me feel really good that not
only am I able to help to convert the people here in Ghana, but I also
get to help those that are serving in the Spirit World to do their
work also. If those numbers count we had six baptisms here this last
week. I cant wait to get home so that I can do a little more family
history work and help out some more. I know that most of it has been
done, but I just want to get to know them a little bit better and
learn some of their amazing stories. I also cant wait to go to the
temple again and hope to be able to spend quite some time there for at
least the first few weekends that Im home. We are having the unit
conference this next Sunday and Pres. Sabey is coming up and all of
the units will come together and have a conference. I have been asked
to conduct for one of the sessions and also come up with the basic
schedule. that is always a lot of fun and kinda stressful. Well, I
guess that Im out of time. I love you all and hope that everything is
fine for all of you guys. Love you lots, Ty

March 14th, 2011

First things first, what happened in Japan that is so crazy? I hope
that Jeff is OK. Tell the family I said hi and that they are in my
prayers. I hope that all is going well with the prep for the wedding
and all and that everyone else is doing fine and all. Everything here
is going well and we have had a very productive week. With this week
we have a lot of stories, but some of them may be considered negative.
Just a note for before I write, I love my area and the people here,
and have enjoyed every second of it here in Sunyani. The first thing
to write about is that the girl that I write about a few weeks ago
named Sherry had her father come home and spoil everything. She is 24
years old, but she still lives with him and because of that she has to
follow what he says until she leaves, which will hopefully be later
this year. Anyways, her father told her that she could still listen to
us, but that she is not allowed to go to church, because she and her
mother had a run in with a false prophet who took all of their money
to go and sleep with girls. He is now really against small churches
and thinks that because we are new to Sunyani and only have a few
members that we are small and worries that we will be the same way. He
also refuses to meet with us which makes it almost impossible for us
the solve the problems unless we use Sherry and her mom who wants to
be a member and Aunt who is a member. Please remember that family in
your prayers for us. Another similar situation is that we are teaching
the mother and younger brother and sister of one of our members and
they have been coming to church for some time now, but the father will
not let them become members and is himself a member of a cult. We try
to meet with him and ever time that we have an appointment he is not
there. We also need prayers with that family also. This last Monday we
went to Kumasi for a Zone activity. Usually we will leave at about
6:30 in the morning and after the activity come back and be home by
9:00 at night. We got to the bus station at 4:30 to come home and were
hoping that we would be able to be home early, but there was a crazy
line and so we had to wait for about five hours before we even got to
buy our tickets. When we started to stand in line it was really hot
and sunny, but about half way through, it started to pour on  us. The
place where the line ran through had a little bit of a tent set up for
those waiting, and as soon as it started to rain, the people in the
line turned into a mob trying to get into the tent and to buy a ticket
so that they could get on the bus. Because of this, it turned out that
the missionaries were some of the last to buy tickets and get on the
bus. We were drenched from head to toe, and then there were not enough
seats on the bus for everyone, so the missionaries gave their seats up
so some of the ladies standing so that they could sit, and then we had
to stand for about three hours while we drove back to Sunyani.
Needless to say it was not the greatest trip to Kumasi this week, but
on the scale of hot wives my wife just jumped a couple of points.
Another story this week is that we started to teach a man who can only
speak twi so we had to get a member to come and translate for us. We
took a member who is not the strongest of members hopping to
strengthen him, and when we got there the man started to tell this
ridiculous story about how he has been blessed with great powers from
God and how we either need to help him build his own church,or else
give him a position in ours so that he can use his powers and help
people. Honestly he made me really mad, because he took two hours to
explain this story and would not let us speak and confused the member
so we had to go back and explain things to the member again so that he
is strong. He called us today while we were cleaning our apartment and
asked us again if we would help him. Honestly he is not on my list of
favorite investigators, and we need to explain to him a little bit
better about some of the basic truths that we believe so that he
either stops bothering us and our members, or else he becomes a member
himself. Another story this week is that we were ridding our bikes up
the hill to go home one night and as we were going we saw for the
first time in my life what they call a "deliverance". Basically there
was a young girl that was thrashing around on the ground outside of
this church with all of the elders of the church yelling for the demon
to come out of her. It made me feel really sad, not only because they
were so confuse, but because they were confusing his small girl into
following them and doing those stupid things. So I just rode my bike
over to them and started to beat up all of the priest and then I
raised my arm and cast out the devil for real. Just kidding, but it
did make me really sad. I guess that the last thing that I can think
of the write about is that Bro Owusu's baptism was changed to this
week so that we could teach him a little bit more. So this Saturday he
should be soaked, which is something that I am really excited for. He
also asked if he could go on the temple trip that we are planning so
that he can do baptisms for the dead, which also made me happy.
Everything here is going really well. We are getting ready to call a
unit leader (basically the last step before becoming a branch). We are
hopping that we will become a branch before july so that we can give
that to Pres. Sabey for a going away present. That is one month before
we had talked about before, but I think that with the help of the Lord
we can do it. Anyways Im out of time. I love you all and cant wait to
here from you again this next week. Love you all lots, Ty