Oct 3, 2016

Well hello everyone!

I hope that everyone had a good week, my week was pretty good. It was good because we found some new investigators and because it was general conference weekend!! It was so wonderful to hear the word of the Lord from our Prophets, Seers, and Revelators. To hear all of the different things they spoke on was awesome. One of my favorites was President Monson's talk, "The Perfetct Path to Happiness." I loved it so much. I love the ideas he gave us,  Do more than just believe in Jesus Christ and His mission. Work to learn of Him in the scriptures, come to know Him through prayer, and continually use His power to repent and improve. Know God’s laws and live them. It’s the only way to obtain true happiness. Live the truth. Share the truth. Care for our bodies and our minds by observing principles set forth in the Word of Wisdom. Great counsel from a great man. This week we found an investigator, his name is Frank. He came to one of the lessons we were teaching to some of our other investigators. He seems very interested, and I really believe that we will have much success with him. Other than that it was a pretty quiet week. We still see Bro. Adam and Bro. Andrew occasionally, but they haven't made much progress lately. Also I have a new favorite hymn. It is Hymn 13, An Angel From On High. The mens chior version is even better. It was really inspiring to hear it at General Conference.

 

 I also had some fun with Elder Ballard as well this week. :-)

I hope that you all have a good week. Love you!

--

Elder Travis J. Roberts

Ghana Accra Mission

Sep 19 & 26, 2016

Hello everyone!!

I hope that you are all doing well, I am great here in Suhum. We have had a pretty good 2 weeks, a lot has happened. My new companion, Elder Ignatious and I, are enjoying working together. He has been out for 14 months and grew up as a member of the church. We get along great and he seems like a really good guy. 

Second, we got to see Elder Gary E. Stevenson from the Quorum of the Twelve. It was an amazing experience to hear and learn from another Apostle of the Lord and shake his hand. One of the things that stuck out to me in his talk is that he called all spots of our mission the "sweet spot". He reminded us about the advantages and excitement of every situation, whether it be a new missionary, a twelve month missionary, or a finishing missionary. Another thing he emphasized is that a lesson without a commitment is a waste of time. That was something that really hit home to me. He also talked a lot about preach my gospel. Over all it was really humbling to see and meet him. The whole mission gathered for it, so I was able to see all of my TC's and friends! They also fed all of us chicken and rice with Shito (black pepper sauce), it tasted really good.

The weather has been really rainy lately. They even had some flooding over in Koforidua and unfortunately some of the members homes had significant damage. The elders there will be doing some service projects to help with the clean up, but fortunately we were unaffected here in Suhum. 

This week was my birthday so that was really fun! I cannot believe that I am now 19 years old! I had Eba and Egusi soup on my birthday, two of my favorite foods here in Ghana. I also got one of my packages but sadly, the other one has not gotten here yet. I still pray that it will. It means that I only got some of the birthday wishes from everyone that wrote. I thank you all for the good messages. I am thankful for the ones that got here and for the ones that didn't, your love is still felt. Every week seems to go a little quicker; time is really starting to fly by! I love serving my mission and I love all of you.

--

Elder Travis J. Roberts

Ghana Accra Mission

Sep 5 & 12, 2016

Hey everyone!!!!

How are you all doing? I am doing well. The last 2 weeks have been really good. I didn't have much time on the computer last week, so I am doing two weeks worth in this letter. There is a lot that happened, so I'll try and cover the highlights. Last week for a zone activity we hiked into Boti Falls. It is a twin waterfall located between Koforidua and Kpong. It was green and cool, and really beautiful. You can see from the picture below how amazing they look. It was really nice to be out away from civilization for a little while. We also had zone conference last week on Tuesday, so that was nice to be together and see everyone. 

Last week was good. Things are going well with our teaching pool. We were able to meet with the family that we found during Suhum week and teach them a lesson. We are really hoping that they keep progressing towards baptism, but we will have to wait and see.  We have been able to do some good work in finding so that was nice as well. Also we had our branch conference last week.

One of the big changes is transfers are happening this week. We also will be going into Accra on Wednesday and we get to see Elder Stevenson from the Quorum of the Twelve! I'm really excited to see and hear from another Apostle of the Lord. I also found out I am getting a new companion. His name is Elder Ignatious, he is from Zimbabwe. I am sorry to see Elder Kallon go, but I am excited to meet my new companion. 

 Another crazy thing, 10 MONTHS ALREADY!!!! Crazy to think that it has been that long. It really doesn't even feel like it. I also can't believe that we are most of the way through the year. It really has flown by. I have been so lucky to serve a mission and am so thankful for it, I really love it. I can't wait for the rest of it. Time really does fly by. Well, that is about it for now, hope that you all have a good week!! Love all of you.

Love,

--

Elder Travis J. Roberts

Ghana Accra Mission

Aug 29, 2016

Hey everyone!!

How was your week? I hope that it was good. Our week was great, we had our open house and dedication of the new Suhum building on Sunday. Not only was it a beautiful service, it was so nice to get it done, because now we dont have any distractions. During the dedication I realized something; I realized just how sacred chapels really are. The prayer that is given for chapels is just as beautiful and sacred as the prayer for the dedication of a temple. In all honesty, it showed me just how sacred chapels really are in the eyes of the Lord. We should hold them in as high esteem as temples. Even though meetinghouses are used for different reasons than the temple, they are extremely sacred none the less. I think that most of us just see meetinghouses as places of gathering. They are much more special and deserve much more respect and reverence. This is just something small that I was reminded of by Pres. Heid who came and spoke at the building dedication. All this week all of the missionaries in the Koforidua zone helped get the word out about the building dedication here in Suhum. I saw a lot of my friends, including Elder Kohler, so that was nice. We were able to add 7 people to our teaching pool this week, so that was awesome! Overall it was a productive and fulfilling week. I hope that you all have a great week! I love all of you.

                  

Love,

--

Elder Travis J. Roberts

Ghana Accra Mission

August 22, 2016

Hey everyone!! How are you doing? I hope that your week went well. Our week went pretty good. We were very excited because we had the baptism of Joshua, so that was very nice. We had it at the new building here in Suhum and it went really well. We also had the All Africa Service Project (its like Mormon Helping Hands in the US) on the same day as the baptism. Here in Suhum the missionaries and members went to the hospital and trimmed some trees and just cleaned up in general. 

This week we are preparing for the open house of the new church building here in Suhum, so there is a lot to do before this coming Saturday. Overall things are going pretty well here. We are still working with Bro. Adam and Bro. Andrew. Its slow going, but we are hoping that they will be able to be baptized soon. We had a big rainstorm here yesterday, but its kind of hilly here in Suhum so it didn't flood or anything. 

I can't believe come September it will already have been 3 months since I got here! It really is a nice place. Also 9 MONTHS BABY!!!! We are movin right along! It is so weird because it doesn't feel that long and I see so many of my friends turning a year already. The time really does fly! I love my mission so much. I love the gospel and know it is true! I love all of you!

Love,

-- 

Elder Travis J. Roberts

Ghana Accra Mission

This is a picture from my last zone conference, one of the other missionaries put it together.

Aug 15, 2016

Hey everyone!

How was your week? I hope that it went well for you all. Our week went good. We had some decent success this week.We were able to see most of our investigators. The real exciting news is that we will be having a baptism on Saturday! It is Joshua, the boy I mentioned last week. He is 15 and is related to the branch president. He has been coming to church for a while now and said that he wanted to get baptized, so we were not going to hesitate on that! That was the real highlight of the week. 

We had some fun today as a zone. We met together and played some soccer and b-ball. It was a really fun activity, I was able to see a lot of my friends. Next Saturday all the missionaries will be doing service projects. The zone leaders decide what we will be doing, I will tell you next week what we end up doing for our area. I really am so thankful to be serving a mission. It has really blessed my life and I have seen blessings in other peoples lives as well. If you are thinking about going on a mission, do it! You will not regret it. It is the best experience ever. I love you all so much. Have a great week! Below are some pics from today by my bud, Elder Koronikalu.

-- 

Elder Travis J. Roberts

Ghana Accra Mission

Aug 1 & 8, 2016

Hey there everyone!!

I hope that you all have had a good 2 weeks! Sorry this is late, but I had a lot going on! The last couple weeks have gone good! We have really just been getting our investigators ready for baptism and helping them understand the doctrine. 

I have been really happy here in Suhum. I do have an idea as to when I will leave though, so I am sad about that even though its a while from now (probably December or January). I love the work up here. Saturday went well, even though Bro. Adam and Bro. Andrew didn't get baptized. Fortunately there was someone from the other area that got baptized and we were able to enjoy seeing that. We have been able to extend a baptismal date to Joshua, a 15 year old boy who has been coming to church for a while. A lot of the people we wanted to set baptismal dates for weren't around so we didnt get to do that, but all is good. We will hopefully do it this week. We have been helping a lot getting the new church building here in Suhum ready to go. Its a really nice building and I know the members will be blessed by having it here. Today for P-day we had meat pies (basically empanadas) and Fanice (ice cream) for our meal here in Kof town, it was really good.

I had an interesting experience this past week. For about a week and a half I had been looking for my razor cord. I had misplaced it and couldn't find it. I never had any time to look for it until a few days ago. Then as I really started searching for it I became more and more upset and frustrated that I could not find it. After looking everywhere I got upset and felt angry and defeated. I gave a tap to my bed frame and sat down on the floor in defeat. All of a sudden a voice in my head said "check the drawer you are sitting next to". I was going to say no, but then I thought, sure, why not. I've got nothing to lose. To my complete suprise as I pulled the drawer out I saw the cord. I was stunned and then went very silent and still for a while. I knew at that point what the Lord had just done, I had been humbled. I was so determined that I could find it by MYSELF that I didn't think I needed the Lord's help. I was once again reminded that even in the small things we need the Lord's help. We should never forget to call on His name. Even when we don't think we need to. I am so thankful for this experience because it reinforced to me that I need to always remember the Lord no matter what. I give this same charge to all of you as well. Never forget the Lord and His almighty power. It is a real thing. I love you all and hope that you have a good week.

Sincerely,

--

Elder Travis J. Roberts

Ghana Accra Mission