Joel is currently serving in Mankessim Ghana. His companion is a brand new missionary from Sierra Leone. This week's letter home was particularly enjoyable, humorous and uplifting. Dale Peterson Body Shop has worked on two of our crashed cars. Marie put a tiny gift flashlight from the shop in Joel's suitcase at the last minute. It came in handy this week.
🇬🇠Happy Ghanaian Independence Day 🇬ðŸ‡
On Sunday night we had a zoom meeting for all the missionaries under training at 6:30 PM.
On paper it sounded like a good idea because the sun sets at 6 and almost everyone is asleep soon after but then we ran into a little problem...
To paraphrase the notable poet Aubrey Graham, last night the power in Mankessim was "out like a light (eh), like a light." 💡🚫
The meeting went on and we participated via flashlight. We had a great meeting but throughout it all I couldn't help but laugh as I looked at our picture on the screen barely illuminated by our tiny flashlight from "Dale Peterson Body Shop, Quality Collision Repair, 801-489-7787."
"Light out" as the Ghanaians call it is a fairly typical occurrence here and the silence that always follows is deafening compared to the usual hum of speakers on every corner blasting the latest hits from notable artists of the day such as Shatta Wale, Stone Bwoy, Kuami Eugene and Sarkodie. (If you want a sample look up any of them on YouTube and enjoy real music) 🔥🇬ðŸ‡
Sometimes in life we may feel like we are in spiritual "light out" and all we have to provide light is a tiny flashlight from "Dale Peterson Body Shop, Quality Collision Repair, 801-489-7787."
I think all of us have experienced this or will at some point in our life. There will be times of darkness, confusion and sadness. There will be times where we don't even have a flashlight from ""Dale Peterson Body Shop, Qualtiy Collision Repair, 801-489-7787" to light the way. It can be a scary time.
So what do we do when our own light is out and we're stuck watching a metaphorical Zoom meeting by flashlight?
On Thursday I finished reading the Book of Mormon again and also listened to Safety for the Soul by Elder Holland. Later that day after lesson after lesson falling through we passed by a man named Clement. He's being taught by the sister missionaries but said that he wanted to ask us some questions so we sat down behind his shop on a half broken bench and began to talk.
His question was "How do I know if The Book of Mormon is good or bad?"
Normally in that situation we'd drop Moroni 10:4-5 on him and it would be powerful but instead I felt prompted to read from 2 Nephi 33:10. 👀
10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good.
After reading that all 3 of us sat in silence for a solid 30 seconds as the spirit spoke to each of us that The Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ and teaches us all to do good.
In that moment the answer to the question what do we do when we find ourselves in the dark became simple: we turn to Jesus Christ, the light of the world to help bring us out of the darkness and we can find him in the pages of The Book of Mormon. ❤
One of the many things I love about being in Ghana is when the "light out" finishes and the power finally comes back on. In that moment you can hear cheers and celebration for miles. Once again the city returns to life and the classic banger "Freedom" by Shatta Wale begins playing from every barbershop and speaker. 🔥
It can be the same for us! After our darkness, our trials and our sadness when Christ brings light back to our life we can feel the same joy and happiness felt by Ghanains when the light finally does come.
So look to Christ and look to the Book of Mormon that testifies of him.
The "light out" in each of our lives will end someday soon and Christ, the light greater than the flashlight from "Dale Peterson Body Shop, Quality Collision Repair, 801-489-7787" will be there for you in your darkness.
Tbh just looked back and this email got Obolo (fat) and went on a minute too long. Sorry about that and apologies for the analogy, hope it helped one of you ❤
I love you!
Jesus loves you!
Dale Peterson of "Dale Peterson Body Shop, Quality Collision Repair, 801-489-7787" loves you!
Elder Emmett
More small kids who wouldn't leave me alone ❤
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