Eight Baptisms

Life is so great right now! This Saturday we had our first baptisms since being in Nyenasi. Our zone had an accompanying 4 making 8 in all. It was an amazing experience. Eight people all making that step! Not only that but I had the blessed opportunity to be the baptist for all of them. Eight people. God is so great. 

This week we had a crazy adventure! We have a progressing investigator who started a work that prevents him from coming to church for 6 weeks. Unfortunately it is about 45 minutes walk on a road going to the middle nowhere and.... he is making alcohol... Who ever found out you could make super strong alcohol from a palm tree is not a friend. It is not his fault. He agreed to do it before he heard the Word of Wisdom and he can't back out. So he is out there! And we really missed him so we went on faith to look for him. We walked. for a long time. We finally found him at his distillery. There was a sweet reunion and then he grabbed his locally made shotgun and said he would come in a little bit. He walked 20 feet away in to the bush and within 5 seconds he was out of view. 5 minutes later  we heard a shot and he came walking out with the biggest squirrel I have ever seen. Seriously the size of a rabbit!! And... It tasted real good. After we went to a tiny village another 15 minute walk away. Probably some of the first white guys to have ever gone there. What an honor.

This week, we found an amazing investigator out of no where!! Within this week, we met him, taught him, gave him a baptismal date and he is coming with in us proselyting. In just 5 days! Definitely the fastest I have seen! His name is Solomon and he is so great! He even is from my old area at Kojokrom! It is so great!

I forgot to add last week that the tortoise was pregnant! And 3 eggs were inside. We ate them too. 

Additionally Dad received the following letter today:

One thing mission has taught me is just to get things done! I am so blessed. I have the opportunity to be handing out baptismal dates and some of them working out! I have learned that it is better just to give them a date and have them reject it than to wait. 

Dad. Life is so. good. right now. We just baptized 4 people and 4more from the rest of the zone. so all together it was a 8 person baptism- the biggest I have seen. Not only that- I got to baptize them all. I got to stand in the water and use my authority to provide salvation for 8 souls. How great is that? "Ewiase eye de" The world is sweet!

Duck, Bird, Tortise, Dog, Squirrel

What do all of those animals have in common? All are things that I have eaten this week!

Duck- In a stew when I went on splits.

Bird- I... brought out my redneck side and joined some small boys and went slingshot hunting. One shot landed. And we cooked and chopped. It was about sparrow size. Or... Bite size.

Tortoise- We found it when we were weeding at the farm in the bush.

Dog- Sweet zone Activity.

Squirrel- An unwanted neighbor in our roof. I saw it Sunday morning and chased it down with a broom handle.

Bush animals be on your gaurd. The Nyenasi Boys are in town. D&C 49:19-All beasts are for man to eat. Its doctrine, people.

Last week, I got to go to the SMALLEST area in the mission. (My last area, Eshiem, being second) It took a 45 minute bike ride just to get there. A ride which has proven many a missionary Heros or Zeros. Many have fallen on the way. But Elder Riehle can be added on the Heros List. I am not afraid! We were there and I saw all the blessings that the Lord has provided in my small village now. Nyenasi is a Metropolis compared to that place! It was quite an adventure.

We went to farm not once, not twice but THRICE! I am becoming a professional farmer small small. I have weeded so much now my hands are becoming wood. Along with all the strange bush meats, we got a huge bag of Cassava, a full bunch of Plantain and a giant bag of corn. We are not suffering right now. Even, I have put on a few pounds here! I can testify that when you put your all into the work, the Lord provides. For the 3 months I have been here there has been little success when it comes to numbers but we have progressed lightyears in missionary relationship with members. The members are really trusting us now. With out members, the work is nothing.

We got to meet our New mission President this week. President Stevenson from Oregon. We got to hear a great instruction and have interviews. After, Elder Larsen and I were lucky enough to get a free

ride with him and Sister Stevenson back! They came and visited our apartment and I gave them my famous chocolate cake made in the bush. (With the Carmel from the package. Thanks Mom.) When he was looking around our apartment, he said, "Wow. Its like you guys are pretty much camping out here." Well. I couldn't have put it better myself. All my years in Boy Scouts and working at camp have taught me how to live in Ghana! Who would have thought?

The Assistants came the same time and taught us about setting goals, not just for mission but for life. I have been pondering so much this week on how we can choose who we are going to be in 30 years by how we act today. In the world today, there are so many traps Satan lays to snare people and steal their agency. Alcohol, drugs, pornography, TV, Cell phones. What ever it is Satan wants to tear us down. We have to put ourselves above and set goals to make barriers for temptations coming our way.

Obediah 1:13- We can be a saviours on Mount Zion.

Elder Riehle

Thank you all for sending letters. I received them all and I very much enjoyed! I will write back but I cannot send them till I am transferred away from here.... There is no where to send letters. Love

it.

Reflections on Scout Camp

I love seeing the upcoming generation! I have never realized, but Boy Scouts has taught me so many necessary skills that I have had to use here. The people here are basically camping everyday. i.e. living in mud huts, cooking on fires. I have been able to use fire building, knot tieing and whittling to help people! Who would have thought? But on a broader level, going out for camp weeks and months at a time rally taught me how to live on my own, or at least with out my parents. I truly believe the summers at camp prepared me physically, temporally and spiritually enough that I could hit the ground running as soon as I came to mission. Scouting truly is an inspired program. Feel free to tell this to the boys! Tell them to suck in everything! Every little knowledge and skills they can. The principles from those skills is what will rise with us to the next life!

(This email was sent to Trevor Rosenberg in response to High Adventure.)

Life is sweet. Like Alaguntigue

Alaguntigue is a tropical fruit like a big softer and more juicier apple.. With little thorns around it. Life is sweet like that!

Life is going by so fast! I am enjoying every moment! We had some serious miracles this week that are unforgettable. As of right now we are preparing at least 10 people for baptism for the end of July or

shortly after. We have gotten some great referrals from members and the Lord has placed some great people in our path.

We have a man from the Volta region named Christian. We ran into him and invited him to church. He came and has kept coming for the past month or so. For one reason or another we had not seen him for about a week and a half so there was a day that we hadn't planned to see him but we decided to drop by. We came and he was in his house lying on the couch. His wife said he was sick. When we greeted him, a look of sheer terror was on his face. In his broken English he said, 'Why you come here! You no tell me you dey come! It not be good!' As we continued to talk to him the story came out. He has really been changing his life but his friend got him to drink some beer and he felt terrible about it. It just so happened it was the day we went to visit him. He told us that now he knows that God is always watching and he promises never to do anything bad again!!

We have so many investigators we have been teaching who are praying to know if the church is true but just aren't getting a witness of it. We pray specifically about it for a few days and then it all happened! We have a great investigator named Dorcas who is very smart and speaks perfect English. We have been teaching her and she says that she has her church. Then just  the other day, she had a marvelous dream where she walked into her church and everything around her started to crumble and fall to the ground. She said, "it meant that my church doesn't have a foundation of Prophets, Apostles and Jesus Christ, So it all fell." She has a date for the end of July.

We are teaching a man named Eric who has not been very serious. We have prayed specifically for him and out of the blue, as we were helping him carry some water, he stopped and said, "I have come to

know that Joseph Smith is not just a prophet, but a prophet of God." He also will be baptized at the end of the month.

We have been teaching to teenage boys named Sam and Godfreid for a few months. They have been living in Nyenasi but not completed school and have to stay at a TINY village about a 40 minute walk away. Now, coming to church is a real problem. But they truly want to be members and be baptized. So now they will be walking 40 minutes every Sunday. We told them that if they could get 4 more people to come to church we could start a group out there. Now they are running around their village telling anyone and everyone about the Restoration so we can start a group.

There are more stories but you get the idea. It is the Lords work and he is directly involved. The church is so true. I love the Gospel.