Tuesday, October 13, 2015

A Gift in My Inbox

Today, this letter arrived in my inbox, completely unexpectedly!  What a wonderful thing for this sister to do!  She is a mom of eight married children and knows EXACTLY what a treasure this kind of thing is!  Thank you, Sister Brink!

Dear Sister Morford,

Hello,  we are senior MLS (member/leader support) missionaries in Tamale. We had the great pleasure today to visit with your son Elder Morford. He is doing well, and is adjusting to missionary life. Today was zone meeting and we cooked a lunch for the 16 missionaries that serve in Tamale,  after lunch we visited with your son and got acquainted with him. He expressed his love for his large family and you his mother and of course his father. We can tell you have trained him well.

Also, We wish to thank you for your generous humanitarian gifts you sent. The district president and my husband elder Brink are prayerfully identifying youth who could use these items. Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Your goodness is reflected in your son.

The picture included, is of his fellow missionary roommates and his companion.  I know you will enjoy seeing your son, even if it is just a picture.

Please email at ant time and for any reason. We will watch over your son while he is in tamellay

Sinserely,
Sister Brink




We ended up emailing back and forth a bit today.  What a joy.  She is a wonderful person.  I wanted to share some of what she wrote after her initial email and the pictures she sent:  

You had some questions about Tamale.  We are very happy  being in Tamale, and feel very safe.   It is a difficult area because it is 85-90% muslims.  We have found the muslims are very peaceful people and have good friendships with many of them.  However, missionaries do not approach to teach muslims, unless permission from the interested person has written permission from their family.  Then, it must be approved through the Mission President. The reason for this is the strict muslim belief and we wish no harm or ill will toward them personally.  So that leaves 10-15 % of the people the Missionaries search for, or I should say, the Lord directs the 10-15 %  to the missionaries

When we arrived in Tamale a year ago, it consisted of 3 groups and 1 branch.  I am going to forward a letter to you, I wrote yesterday to Sister Cosgrave, the mission presidents wife , as it expresses the wonderful feelings of the growth and the great work the missionaries are doing.We now have 4 branches and we are growing.  Elder Brink and I are also opening up Bolgatanga which is 2 hours further north.  It is wonderful to see the gospel spread.  It is an honor to be involved.

Your sons companion is a wonderful young man. They will keep very busy teaching and finding new people to teach.  I believe they have just found a new person to teach, and I know of a couple that they are working with.  They will be kept very busy.  The missionaries in Tamale are each good and obedient  missionaries.  I am proud of them, as if I am there mother. They work very hard, and they are blest and strengthened as they walk in obedience.  Elder Morford will do well and set the standard for the rest of your children.

Thank you so much for encouraging your son to serve a mission.  He is suppose to be here in Tamale!!!!!

From another letter:

I thought you might like to get a feel for Tamale, Ghana, Africa and the food!  This morning I picked up some chips for the meal I cooked for the missionaries. They are plantain chips (plantains look like really big bananas)
This sister and her family are investigating the church.  She makes "chips" and sells them daily.

This is the mother making the chips!
 





This is her daughter who is 16 who helps her mom.  They each have a baptism date set.  She is filling a little bag with the chips.  Your son ate these today, it will be fun to know if he liked them.



One last bit of information, in the last 6 months Tamale has gone to the Accra temple 2 times.  14 hours on a bus.  The first trip 13 saints went. A family was sealed. This last week 21 saints attended the temple another family was sealed!

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