I love the Africans!

Dear Family:

I love the Africans!

And I love being able to work with them so much here in Cincinnati! If I’m allowed to have favorites, they are it!

So a few weeks ago we received a headquarter referral for a man who wanted a missionary visit. His name is Aaron and he is from Ghana. We set up an appointment, went to meet him and quickly realized he has seriously been prepared for the gospel! He told us that he was friends with Brother Apuma who was baptized a few years ago and just moved back to Ghana. When Brother Apuma was taking the lessons he would have them at Aaron’s place sometimes. The way Aaron explained it to us was that he was, “Just too busy then. Just too busy. But now I’m not so busy. So I called you back.” Ha ha. So a few years later we get a call. He explained to us that He really wanted to get to know God and the Bible better, so we shared with him the story of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I will never forget the look on his face when he held up the copy of the Book of Mormon we gave him and asked us, “Do the preachers know about this?” We told him some do, some don’t. He asked us, “Why aren’t the preachers teaching this?” He was really concerned that the rest of the world didn’t know about the Book of Mormon. Really concerned! It was a pretty tender experience. We challenged him to share it with his friends.

And get this! We asked him if he had ever wondered about why there are so many different churches if there is only one God. He gave us a funny look and said, “YEAH! I was just listening to the radio station from back home in Ghana on my computer and some people were asking that same question. I was just wondering that.” Isn’t that sweet! He happened to be listening to this radio station right before we came over and the Lord prepared him for the message of the Restoration! Love it! I don’t know much, but I do know the Lord is “anxiously engaged” in this work just as much as we are! The last lesson we had with Aaron we told him about modern-day prophets and he practically taught us the rest of the lesson. It made complete sense to him that God would have a prophet today because all the other prophets in the scriptures are dead and we obviously need someone today to help us get through our own “Red Seas.” It was pretty neat.

We had another sweet experience with Brian. He’s a single dad with three kids, one of them has severe autism. Have I told you about him before? I can never remember. Brian has a really difficult time with organized religion, specifically the “hierarchies” that are often established. He has some unbelievably sad stories about the churches he participated in when he was young. His fears are definitely legitimate. To help him we got out the chart in the General Conference issue of the Ensign of the prophet and apostles and taught him God’s way of doing things, not mans. He recognized the difference. He finally opened up to us and told us how he was practically ready to give up his Bible and his search for God before Sister Thacker and Sister Howard knocked on his door. He explained to us the positive change and the spirit that he can feel in his home now and how grateful he is. It was a powerful moment.

It reminded me of the devotional Elder Holland gave while I was at the MTC. He said we are responsible for taking those we meet out of the gutters of life and taking them back into the presence of divinity. We are responsible for bringing the Holy Ghost into their lives so they can be cleansed and sanctified just like we have. During that lesson I realized what Elder Holland meant. The Gospel changes lives. It really does.

That was a quick update of two of our investigators Mom. It definitely doesn’t do this week justice but it will have to do. I’m glad you had some beautiful weather in Cali to play at the beach. It’s been raining here all week. :)

Thanks for the pictures!

I sure love you lots!

Sister Painter