There is no place like Africa, that much I know!

The "All Africa" Service Day

To tell you the truth, it doesn't feel like I am coming home. There have been a few times I have realized it, but I feel like this week is normal. I feel like I have investigators to help get to sacrament meeting, and other mission stuffs to attend to. Today and yesterday I did almost all of my packing so that I "can give full attention to proselyting for the rest of the week". This week I have been eating banku and kenke, because I know that I wont get to have some for  long time. Yesterday a white man came to church. He served his mission here 9 years ago, and here's the best part, he also served half of his mission in Sierra Leone, and half in Ghana. In his time there was 20 or so missionaries in Sierra Leone, it had two zones, Bo and Freetown. I was surprised at how much he still remembered from both places and the food and languages. I hope I can do the same.

To answer your questions:

1. Yes i do remember that I have to speak this Sunday. Even yesterday I gave a talk in our sacrament meeting, and Elder Peck (a senior couple visiting the ward) told me that I could use it for my home coming talk. I have my ideas.

2. I have no idea about customs anywhere... But I do know that the bag I have can hardly open, only I use pliers... so good luck to the customs people in seeing whats inside...

3. Yes the letter is for me (We received a letter addressed to Cody Beckett from Elder Beckett). It says on the back "the time you go to school" (his translation from - Di tem u de go na skul). I have sent myself some letters to open at different times in my life addressed to Cody and sent be Elder Beckett.

4. The "All Africa Service Project" is a service done by stakes across all of Africa. Each stake organizes what and where they will do the project. It went really well, we even had pass a long cards to give to people who asked us who we were. I did some weeding (cutting the grass with a machete) and now my arm is sore. Its not an easy something to do.

5. MLC means Mission Leadership Council. It is a meeting for all the zone leaders and the sister training leaders. We are instructed on how to be leaders and what the mission is trying to do.

6. (Do you think peanut(our dog) will remember you??)Let's see... I hope that she does!

7. Oh sorry to hear bout grandma's surgery. I hope she will be feeling better soon.

8. All of those things sound okay. At the air port, I only want family there to pick me up please! I can see everyone else at home. That would be great!

I WENT TO THE TEMPLE! The temple was so awesome. After MLC  three other missionaries and I went to the temple. It has almost been two years and I have been waiting to go there. I forgot a lot of stuff about the temple! but the promises of the temple are real and I felt them as I went out working for the rest of the week. I was singing the primary hymn on the way "I love to see the temple", I want to go back soon.

"I love to see the Temple"

Well Mom, this is your last letter from"Elder Becket". Mission has been super good for me, and I know that if I didn't come the lord could not have used me to find some people here in West Africa. I realized that very early in my mission. The truths of the gospel are sunk deep into my heart as I have labored for the right. I have seen and witnessed the atonement in my life and in others, and that full blessing of the atonement  cannot come unless we have faith in Jesus Christ and follow the teachings of the prophets which are Christ's. I have a love for black people and Africans. There is no place like Africa, that much I know. I am scared of some of the stuffs that happen in the US, but I hope coming home will be normal. I like my scriptures a lot, you will see that when I come home. Well I will be home on Friday and will continue in the work of the lord "te te go" 

Me ba sisia, y!

Ar de com jus naw, ya!

Elder Beckett

PS - Dad see you soon, I can't wait to ride at the river (dirt bikes) ...if it's not to hot! Can't wait to talk about life with you soon!

"Elder Beckett, you are going home o!"

Any missionary I talk to, these are the words I hear, "Elder Beckett, you are going home o!" haha everyone has said it, but I don't feel it, I hope I don't feel it, till next week. I feel like I have had my mind in the work, that means my mind is not at home, or the airport hahah. Now that you have said it (I asked him how he feels about coming home), I have really enjoyed Ghana, I have really enjoyed mission and I will enjoy it this week too.

Laundry day!

Making dinner!

Cutting Elder Van's hair!

This week we have a lot of activities and meetings. Today we had a combined activity with another zone, we played football, vollyball and basketball. We had a water balloon fight, and the sisters in the zones made sweet rice for us. To put that thing together killed me hahah I am tired now. Tomorrow we meet with the stake president to talk about missionary work, Thursday we will go to Accra for MLC, and Saturday we have our "All Africa" service project that happens once a year, in fact I never did one in Sierra Leone, I just missed it. So this will be my second in Ghana, we will go clean a hospital. The project last year I had just come from Salone, and we also cleaned a hospital, and I was afraid of it, because I thought ebola had come by then to Ghana.

I have done alot on my mission, and I wish I could do more.

Mama ar de go work, mondai wi go tok ya

love

I can't believe 1 year has passed since I left Sierra Leone

That sounds sweet with that you invited that guy to church and that the elders are going to go teach him! Who is at the river with you people? I saw some of the photos too.

Our week was sweet. This week we had our recent convert confirmed, which doubled as a completed family. Member referrals work! We are still trying to work with members in our area to make things run smooth in the ward. Home teaching is great, we don't even have to put in much effort to arrange home teaching. On Sundays our Elders quorum president organizes everything and tells us who we will go with and what times! Isn't that sweet. Our mission president wants us to help get home teaching going in our units. We have seen some cool stuff. We go on splits with the home teaching companionship's. 

We went on exchanges this week, it was nice to go to another and teach with Elder Bautner!
 
 I can't believe 1 year has passed since I left Sierra Leone. I would love sooo much to go  back to sierra Leone!

Here is a picture memory from last year leaving Sierra Leone:

Packing up to leave Salone.

That big pile of clothes is everything that would make the weight go over the limit in the lugguage. We had weight limits with the evacuation so we had to leave it behind. I have lots of stuffs there!

All of those books are our area books with all of the information of our investigators on it that we left behind for when the mission opens back up.

My evacuation group before heading to the airport (Cody is the short blonde guy under the umbrella whose head is half blocked and he's sandwiched between two others..hehe!)

President and Sister Ostler waving goodbye!

Everything is sweet.

I feel strong and I feel like I should have 6 months left!
Elder Beckett

We knock on doors, stop people in the streets and talk to everyone!

Wow thats sweet, that  makes me want to work with missionaries when I go home. We knock on doors, stop people in the streets, talk to everyone. Thats how we tract. But most effective is member referrals. I like my new companion. I was worried at first, but we have relly been doing well and getting work done, even though we had  busy week. My compion is Elder Mabizela from South Africa, Port Elizebeth. Yes it seems Iwill finish as a zone leader.

Me too, I like family history, I want to do some when I come home.

I would love to do the missionary pannel thing! That sounds sweet!

The talk sounds cool I will put something together. They gave me my flight itinerary this week. That ws weird, I feel like I have been on mission for 6 months.

 I'm glad Elder Van got back okay.  I am sure I will see him again.  The "A" button on this key board is relly hard to press so thats why some of the words are missing the letter a.... 

Elder Weegie from Liberia - one of my favorite guys!

These two are brother and sister and are returned missionaries. They are from Sierra Leone and they moved to Ghana for school. I know where they stay in Kossoh Town in Sierra Leone.

Our place in Tema

Elder VanWangor made it home!

On splits with Elder Bautner

Another great week, I have felt uplifted having looked back at the week.
Well, at the beginning of the week I was in a tri-panionship with Elder Udonsa and Bautner, so to make most use of our time on Tuesday we went on splits. I took a member and we taught and found people. Wednesday was transfer day, I was with Elder Mabizela and Sunders. I did six interviews on Wednesdy for some elders in the zone, it took a long tiime, but I'm glad we got to see so many baptized. We have been doing home teaching with our ward and that is one way we have been finding less activies and prt member fmilies.

Tema Zone

We hd zone meeting this week. We talked about family history, an acceptable offering to god on our missions and our new missionary handbook that we have about rules in our mission, and how the mission runs.. I had a few missionaries share experiences about how they have shown faith, purity nd diligence on their mission. It was motivating.

Everything went well but there is more to do.

I look forward to more weeks like this.
Elder Beckett

Elder Van and I had a sweet time!

Yes I have my drivers license, but its at our mission home in a safe, so I cant tell when it expires. wow thats a lot of news from home! I wont get trunky, just don't tell me too much about home. Right now I feel the weight of the zone on my back, because my new companion is going to be learning the zone leader stuffs so it keeps me awake and on my toes. Elder Van finished very strong, so I will follow him and do the same.

This week Elder Van and I had a sweet time following the spirit. When we were at a point in our day that was not planned for, such as all appointments bounced us, we would pray and after seeking the spirit and paying close attention to its promptings we found two families this week. It would be funny to see ourselves from a third person point of view: sometimes we would pass a street, and I would be prompted to go back, and we would, but we must look a little crazy turning around which must look like for no reason to others. Its not bad, I am willing to look a little crazy to do the lords work. Elder Van Finished hard. Even today while he was traveling to the mission home he contacted someone and sent his information 
to us.

Me and Van!

FM (code for "free meal")

Zone business!

My New companion is from South Africa. He is one of the district leaders in our zone. I haven't been to the temple since I left the MTC, but I will go at the end of my mission, actually in a few weeks I think.

This week we have a baptism and we are happy and our candidate is happy.

We had a zone conference this week with 3 zones, we met at our chapel, so we were scrambling to make sure everything was in order and ready.

Whelp thats all.

Elder Beckett

Oh boy, I cant believe they are home!

Mom I am doing really good! I am so sorry that this is short. This is Elder Vans last week on mission, and his last p-day, so the market kept us long and we are just now coming. 

Oh boy, I cant believe they are home!

Cody's good friends Max Moncur and Zak Morgan gave their return mission talks together 

 Thank you for all your support. This week we have a zone conference, so we have to set all of that up, and last week we had MLC, so we went to Accra for training. This week I had a man ask me about the restriction of black people from the priesthood. That was the first time I have had the question. I am glad that just a day earlier it was discussed about in MLC and I had an answer for him. I don't like that part of history, but I am glad for how things are today.

Mom love you and the family. Next week ya!

Letter from Cody's Mission President to our stake president regarding his return - this is about to get real! :-)

We lit off fireworks this week!

I cant belive the faces that I am seeing in these photos|!!!!! What do you call that orange rice(spanish rice - oh okay, we call it jollof here)? Our home looks unreal sometimes. The pics are nice! Life at home doesn't seem real. BTW: you sent me a letter about what I want to eat when I come home. I was thinking I have missed 4th of july and thanksgiving. So if we could have a bar-b-q for forth of july, and a small thanksgiving dinner that would be so sweet.

I was looking at my Instagram on a members phone who wanted to see my Instagram and boy have I changed. The things I thought were funny and the style I was having are not me again. 

 I was singing our national anthem this week of course, and the second and third verses are my favorite. The third verse talks about how we should praise the power that has preserved us a nation, and our motto in God is our trust.  

Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

It doesn't seem as though we (U.S.) are having too much trust in God for him to preserve us as a nation when I hear about all this gay marriage approval and the white house being lit up in rainbow.

Any ways we light off fireworks this week. Well some of our members did, they were more than happy to do it for us. There was a Chinese store in our area, so we bought them there. There are lots of Chinese people in Tema because of the port but the Chinese really know how to make Roman candles! 8 shots, with mortar power, for 75 cents a stick. 

4th of July fireworks 

We got a new ward mission leader this week and we are so happy to work with him. Almost all our ward mission leaders have been young single adults, so we are happy to work with an older sealed family man. His name is brother Kufualor.

Well God Bless the USA and the Church.

Elder Beckett