A Sure Foundation

Dear Family,

As I sat waiting for the Mission Tour Zone Conference to begin, surrounded by great missionaries who are truly ready to work, I didn't know what was about to happen. Elder Gavarret of the Seventy was presiding. We opened the meeting with hymn 5, then had an amazing spiritual thought from one of the sisters in my district, Sis Nkenyane from South Africa. A very intelligent and well read sister. Immediately following that spiritual thought, Elder Adams got up to continue the conference, but Pres cut him off and said he would like to take a few minutes. Pres Shulz proceeded to talk very small about how important Preach My Gospel has become, then said, "I would like to ask Elder Hair, Sis Nagasou, and Elder Brown (Nigeria) to come up and tell us by using the scriptures, how important the Preach My Gospel manual is in the work, and what you have learned from it. Having no idea what I was going to say in front of 60 missionaries, Pres and Sis Shulz, and Elder and Sis Gavarret, I grabbed my scriptures and went up to the front. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I used Helaman 5:12 and shared my testimony of PMG, the foundation of our best teaching. I expressed gratitude for being able to focus on PMG along with my other studies. I know I can learn a lot more from it.

As I listened to Elder Adams in the Zone Conference speak of the love he feels for the people, I too recognized how much I love the Ghanaians as well. I remember my Temple Recommend interview in Rexburg with Pres Henry J. Eyring. He sat me down, and we conversed small, talking about each other's families and where I would be serving, and then he jumped right into the interview which went fast. Then he asked if I had any questions for him. I said, "Pres Eyring, I know you served a mission in Japan and as a mission president there as well. Is there something that you really wanted all of your missionaries to know?" He told me that as a young missionary he was very obedient, sometimes waking up early to study more etc.. However, the one thing that he said he regretted, was not loving the people enough. Surprised by his response, I asked him what he thought I should do in order to love the people enough. He simply responded, "Pray as though everything depended on the Lord, work as though everything depended on you." As I evaluate myself every day, I continue to find flaws and try to work on them. Improving in all areas of life is not an easy task, but it is made easier as you work at it each and every day.

We have been trying to get our investigators to attend church and keep their commitments. I remember counsel we received asking us to make the Book of Mormon more of a focus in our efforts. As I thought about all of our investigators, I realized that none of them had a firm enough testimony in my mind, of the Book of Mormon. They love the New Testament as I do, but as they gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, their love and knowledge of the Bible will only grow stronger.

The family is the smallest unit in the church and the most important. You can not build a house without a foundation and we as a family are that foundation. I would like to make a small request. This week, can everyone in the family re read their Patriarchal Blessings and share their testimonies and inputs as to how we as a family are doing on making our family unit what it needs to be.

I love you all very much. Amanda, I almost broke down in tears as I saw you in a beautiful African dress. I love you all!

Elder Hair

All Good in Ghana

Well Dad, another son leaves the nest. Chandler and Devrey look great! With tears in my eyes I look at them and realize that things for the "Hair Boys," continue to change and will never be the same. I remember the good old days of two-on-two futbol and roller hockey in Spain. Although times together will now be few, I know with all of my heart that after this life it will be forever. I love you Dad, and when I get home we are going to be doing a lot together. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Amanda, I am happy that you got the fabric! I really thought hard about that dress. It is one of the favorite styles the girls wear here. The fabric itself takes a long time to make and if they mess up, it gets spoiled. I'm told you should wash it by hand. Maybe you will have to look on line to see how Ghanaians wash by hand. HAHAHA! I love you, Amanda! Your new school picture looks superb!!! I keep it in my white handbook and show it to everyone!!!

Mom, I love the Ghanaian people very much and can't wait to be able to tell you stories, and cook you foods that you will think came from heaven. I love you and can't believe how you and Amanda are getting more and more beautiful every day.

We took a trotro the other day that had a rusted out hole the size of a CD right below my feet. The typical trotro, is a far cry from the buses back home. Another time, I was sitting in the back seat when they had piled loads of plantain and cassava (fufu ingredients) onto the back of the tro. The rope broke as they were weaving in and out of traffic, and all of the stuff fell out including us almost. As we continued on the incline our seat, not securely bolted, almost went with it. We held on tight and managed to stay inside the tro. Sometimes there can be up to 15 people as well as children on their mother's laps as they travel to and from school. It makes my day when the kids rub my face or the hair on my arm. Most of the time the mate will try to charge us too much because they think we do not know the rates. Once, a mate tried to charge me extra and I told him he was "o-bwa" (not being straight with me) and one of the ladies asked me in Twi how much he was charging me. When I told her, she started yelling at the mate, then others joined in. The woman gave him a few slaps on the back of the head, meanwhile the driver was laughing at the whole thing. We have seen that same guy in his tro again and we just share laughs at how the Obroni knows the rates.

Life is all good in Ghana. We have been going over the former investigator section in PMG to get ideas and inspiration to contact former investigators that were previously not ready to accept the Gospel. We just got another large group of Elders this transfer, many from the US. It is amazing how fast the mission is going. I love the work and each and every day that goes by I look back and ask myself, "Did Elder Hair do everything he could this day to serve the Lord with all of his heart?" More than a year on my mission and I have never regretted a day of service. That doesn't mean I've been perfect, but I don't have any regrets and have learned so much. I love learning new things from my scripture study each and every day. There are so many things I wish I could just write down and talk about. My journal writing has been going well. I haven't missed a day. I know that I will really be grateful for that later in life. I love you all and know this work is divine.

Elder Hair

Patriarch Bondah

Please thank Dale for sharing that story about Emmanuel Bondah. It was big news in our mission when Assin Foso became a stake, and the story of Patriarch Bondah tells you just how great these people are. It must have been very exciting for him to meet and sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

We held our baptismal service this past Saturday, and on Sunday they were all confirmed. It rained hard for an hour before the baptisms, yet Doris Osie Agyemang, Erica Gyasi, Juliana Frimpong, and Evans Agyemang were all able to make it, though they were soaking wet even before they were baptized! haha They all are wonderful and I am so happy for each of them. They were all at Church looking fresh for their confirmations and a brother named Richmond and I performed the ordinance, while E. Saili the day before did the baptisms. Since it was fast and testimony Sunday they all got to get up and bear their testimonies with a little help from the counselor conducting. It was truly powerful. A little primary girl named Whitney, that I really love, got up and bore her testimony and out of character for her, she began to cry and ended her testimony kind of quickly. I didn't catch it all because she was speaking Twi, but I knew she was talking about her father. I later found out she was saying she knew that one day her father would become a member of the Church and get married to her mother so that they could live as a happy family.

Erica, a recent convert told us after her baptism interview, her "miracle story" of how she knew the Church was true. About two weeks ago, we taught her the Plan of Salvation. After we taught pre-earth life, fall, and creation, she felt confused so we tried to help her understand, but still we didn't feel as if she understood it well enough. We then told her that if she believed that all of the things we had taught her so far were true, then it should be easy for her to accept the message of the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation. We testified of the truthfulness of our message, and asked her to pray again to know for herself. She said she would. Three days later, she was in her bedroom that she shares with her sister Jenna. She was just about to pray before going to bed when the power went out. She got down on her knees and began to pray. As she prayed, she asked Heavenly Father, to help her to know if the Church is true. She told us she then felt something that she had never felt before, and so she prayed, "Heavenly Father, if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, please let the power come back on. Not more than 2 minutes after she finished praying, the lights came back on and Erica began to cry.

I am very happy for Chandler and Devrey, and will be thinking about them next Friday!

I love you all!

Elder Hair

A Little Boy in Ghana

The hearts and minds of the West African people were prepared for the day when missionaries would be sent to their lands. Several Protestant ministers in Ghana and Nigeria obtained copies of the Book of Mormon. When they read it, the Spirit witnessed to them that it truly was the word of God. They began preaching to their congregations from the Book of Mormon and seeking more information from Church headquarters in Salt Lake. They knew that the Lord had restored His Church to the earth and they wanted to be part of it. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, Church headquarters received more letters requesting information about the Church from Ghana and Nigeria than from all of the rest of the world combined. Those letters were sent to President Faust, who was then the President of the International Mission. He reported that he would take to his regular meetings with the First Presidency large stacks of those letters that pleaded for missionaries to be sent.

One day, President Faust received a letter from Emmanuel Bondah, a little boy in Ghana, who said that his greatest hope and dream was to hear the great organ and listen to the Tabernacle Choir sing. When he went to his next meeting with the First Presidency, President Faust put that letter on top of his usual stack of letters. At the meeting, President Kimball asked him if he would like to read one of his letters from West Africa. President Faust took Emmanuel’s letter off the top of the stack and read it. When he finished, he looked up and saw a tear trickle down President Romney’s cheek. He later reported, “I knew then that we were going to Africa.” The earnest desires of those faithful people caused President Kimball to spend many hours in the Temple, pleading on their behalf. Eventually, after the Priesthood revelation was received, missionaries were sent to West Africa. Entire congregations, already calling themselves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were eager for baptism. Among those baptized was Emmanuel Bondah.

Emmanuel was a faithful member of the Church. He eventually became the District President of the Assin Foso (pronounced “uh-sin fo-sue”) District in the Ghana Cape Coast Mission. Under his steady and inspired leadership, the District grew and progressed. In the spring of last year, the District he had led for ten years became a Stake and Emmanuel Bondah was called as the first Stake Patriarch.

Tonight, the dream decades ago longed for by a little boy in Ghana will be realized. Emmanuel Bondah will hear, for the first time in person, and will sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! I suspect that President Faust will be watching … and smiling.