July 4, 2017 Email

Happy 4th of July from GHANA everyone!!!!!!

Well, this week has been pretty boring to say the lease.  Lambson and I caught a bug and we haven't been feeling too good, and hopefully nothing too bad will pop up while we are serving.  We haven't been outside the apartment much due to this, bu we have made some efforts in seeing people.

We have some people really struggling with coming to church and keeping commitments, but on the other hand, they are very cool and good to go and see!  WE haven't had much luck with visiting some of the people mainly because they always aren't there when we come by to stay.  I swear that people here give us a time and day only to avoid us!!!!!

We met the new mission president!!!!  President Simpson!!!!!  He's way cool!!!!!!  His wife is from a small island near Hawaii and she's super sweet!!!!!  So this will be my third mission president through the course of 7 months haha!!!  So in the meeting we had, we talked about repentance and addiction recovery.  True, these tings sounded very odd to study for the meeting, but they gave me a new insight on what I need to do to become a better missionary. . .and a better person.  I really enjoyed talkinga bout those things and hope to apply them in my life.  We were able to see a lot of other missionaries when we went and met with President.  I met Elder Roberts, my first companion and trainer, and Elder Desta haha!!!!!!!  Those two were in my first apartment back in Buduburam!!!!!!  It was amazing to see them again!!!  We also saw Elder McFarland and a few other missionaries that we know haha so that day was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Friday)

We had a pretty busy Sunday though, and it being fast Sunday, we needed to fill the day so we didn't starve to death right away haha!!!  We were able to visit a lot of members and see who they wanted us to visit with.  We also went to the Stake President's house and they gave us fufu!!!!!!!  For those of you who don't know what fufu is:  fufu is like a big ball of bread dough, but its not bread.  It's made up of something called casava, it's a plant that grows in humid places, so i think there's only a few places that it can grow in the US if we ever wanted to have fufu haha!!!  We were able to have a very cool experience with Kellli, she's a ward missionary getting ready to go on her own mission soon.  WE talked about how burdens we have can become lighter and how we need to rely on the Lord for help.  True family and friends are amazing, but only the Lord truly knows what we are going through, and I know that the spirit led us to teach her that, because now, she's pumped for doing missionary work with us haha!!!!!!!!!!

Well happy 4th of July everyone!!!!! I know for a fact that all of you are probably going to be busy today and won't email me back haha!!!!  But, I look forward to when I can read all the emails and see all the cool pictures you all take while I'm gong!!!  Hope you all are doing amazing, and I really hoipe that you all are enjoying today haha!!!!!!

Hope you all are being safe, and I know that you all will be enjoying today haha!!!!!!  I love you all!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Elder Stockton Smith