A busy week!

Dear Mom, 

 

What A Big Week!

 

First of all we had our Multi-zone conference on Tuesday. Elder Cottle and I performed our song. The next day we got a really big invite!  We were invited to sing the same song for Elder Dale G. Renlund when he comes to Ghana on the 8th! We were so shocked. We are practicing like crazy! Hopefully we will do OK!

 

We had our Mission President here with us on Saturday and Sunday. What a spiritual giant! We had a couple wonderful lessons on Saturday and Sunday was a record turn out for Sacrament meeting, including 5 investigators. It was another Missionary Sunday, So we gave talks. It was a great Sunday!! 

 

Happy Birthday!!! I can't believe it's gone this fast!!

I love you guys so much!!!!

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington 

Working Hard to the End

From July 17th

Dear Mom, 

 

We were able to have our baptism! Richmond's baptism went very well. The branch had a big turn out for the event. It was very nice to see them all come out for his support. He was confirmed yesterday. We are so excited for him.

 

We have postponed the temple trip to the 13th of August. It will be a last outing with the branch before I go home. Me and my companion are really looking forward to it.

I am so happy Connors almost ready to go. Everything is here to make us stronger.

Elder Cottle and I are still doing very well with each other. We are staying busy and strong. He is an amazing companion! We are planning on singing Hymn 112 ( Savior Redeemer of my Soul) for our upcoming zone conference. It will be my last one. I am probably going to get emotional. Mission goes by so quickly.

 

I love you guys so much! I cant believe how fast its going.

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington

 

 

From July 24th

Dear Mom, 

 

We had another wonderful week out here. The work is moving along well. We are having President Simpson come to Asikuma for the first time so we can show him the Area. We are nervous-ited. Hopefully he loves the area.

We are excited for the multi-zone conference, we will be grateful to sing in it.  Not much else to report this week!

Have another great week! Love you guys so much!!
Love,Elder Seanshine Keddington

 

 

Celebrating the 4th

Dear Mom, 

 

We had another amazing week here in Asikuma. We have been planning a temple trip with the branch which will be taking place on the 22nd. We are excited to have our recent converts going.  We are progressing towards a baptism that will take place on the 15th. It is for a young man named Richmond. He is very excited about the gospel. 

 

We celebrated the 4th of July this last Tuesday. I read about Captain Moroni and how valiant he was in defending his country. Made me very grateful for all those who have died in the name of freedom.

 

Have a great week!

 

I love you guys so much!

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington

 

Celebrating the 4th of July

When he gets home, I'm going to strap him to a chair and make him tell me about all the pictures he sent

 

Still has his eye on the ball!

From June 26th:

Dear Mom, 

We had another great week! We were finally able to confirm our baptism. He is very excited to be in the church and to be with the Saints. We are now expecting a baptism on the 15th of July, he is a young boy named Richmond. He is a very intelligent young man who is loving the gospel.

I just received an email from an elder who is coming to the mission. He said that he has been reading the blog and is really excited to come! It was so cool. He is from the Philippines!

Elder Cottle was ill on Friday and Saturday, but is feeling better now. This transfer has flown by!  We had our zone activity today! We went to the beach and played American football! We also got zone polo shirts.

We will continue to work hard! I love you guys so much!

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington

In the "mission" polo shirt

 
From July 3rd:

Dear Mom, 

We had another great week here in Asikuma. The work is moving along, we are extending Baptismal dates to a lot of our investigators. We will be having baptism on the 15th for a boy named Richmond. He is 9 years old and is progressing very well. We have a couple of Investigators, named Christine and Alberta, who have very strong testimonies of the gospel, but both of their parents do not want them to be baptized. We are praying that the Lord will soften their hearts. Besides that not much else to report. Emmanuel was ordained to the priesthood and the office of a Priest. It was a nice Sunday service.

Elder Cottle and I are very happy to be staying together. He is an amazing missionary, and is a very good friend. 
Have an awesome week! I love you guys so much!
 
Love Elder Seanshine Keddington

Love this boy so much, but those pants need to stay in Ghana!!  Haha!!

One big reason I'm glad I'm not there!

 

8 Weeks left

Dear Mom, 

Sorry it took so long to write to you. On Monday, all of Swedru was in a black out, so we were not able to email at the Cafe. 
We had a really good week. We have been doing a lot of contacting lately to try and increase our teaching pool. We have been able to return to a few of those prospects, so the pool is increasing. 
 
Elder Cottle and I are getting a long really well, We have been practicing the role plays in our companionship studies, and it is really making a difference. When you and your companion are united, we all things can do. (I love his Yoda speak here)
 
This Week we will confirm our baptism candidate Emmanuel. He was not able to come to church because he traveled to his home village. Hopefully he will come this week.
 
Have a great week Mom.  I love you guys so much!
 
Elder Seanshine Keddington


He said it rained for 24 hours straight on Friday and everything is just a muddy mess.  Needless to say, I don't think many of his missionary clothes will make it home with him.  Haha!

I could NEVER have gotten him to eat something like this before!  Yay for a mission!

Amazing Amazing!

Dear Mom, 

 

We had a wonderful week! Elder Cottle and I are getting along really well, He reminds me of my best friend back home. We are doing well together.  We had another Baptism this week! The candidate was a man named Emmanuel. He was super excited to learn and be baptized, we taught him in one week! We had is baptism in a nearby river because the water in the font wasn't flowing. It was a really cool service. 

 

Sent some more pictures, the motorcycle is like the one from HOT ROD, so it was pretty awesome.  We are having our zone conference tomorrow, Elder Cottle and I are singing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief".

 

You guys are having so much fun Its amazing!  I love you guys so much Another week down!

 

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington

 

Working Hard

Elders Cottle and Keddington

I didn't get last week's email up due to the holiday, but he sounds great!  Working hard until the end!

 

May 29, 2017

 

What a wonderful week! Elder Cottle and I are doing awesome together! He is an awesome guy! He is from Meridian Idaho. He is almost a year on mission. Such a sweet and spiritual guy, I am so excited to work with him.

 We have been contacting very much in the area.  We had some amazing experiences. First, on Thursday, our appointments were falling through, so we said a prayer for direction.  We were prompted to talk to a man sitting on the side of the street. We saw he was bleeding from a cut on his nose. He was intoxicated. We helped him home, and found out that he had been taught by Elder Randal and Harrison. We added him to our teaching pool. His name is Samuel.

Also we finally had our Baptism. It was supposed to happen at 5:00 in the afternoon, but the candidate disappeared. At around 7:00 we received a call that he was running to the chapel!  We filled the font back up, and called everyone back and had his baptism. 

I am so excited for the transfer!  I love you guys so very much! Happy Memorial Day!

 

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington


June 5, 2017

Dear Mom,

Another Great week here in Asikuma! My companion and I are doing well. We are doing a lot of finding right now to build our teaching pool. We are having another baptism this week on Sunday, so we are excited for that. 

 

Today is my companions birthday he is 19!  It's weird to be so old. 

 

This week we were being hassled by a lot of drunk guys - thats always fun!  I guess I'm just training for Officer duty. Not much else to report this week I love you guys so much!

 

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington 

 

Elder Cottle with Asikuma in the background

 

Several Weeks of catch up!

Mother's Day skype visit

 I kept waiting to post letters to the blog in hopes that my son would send some pictures.  I haven't ever gotten him to understand how much I look forward to seeing him and the people and the places.  He says that the internet connections aren't very strong, so uploading takes a long time and that's why he doesn't send many.  Hmmm.  We're ticking down!  Here are the last 4 weeks of letters:

 

May 1, 2017

 

Hi Mom! 

 

Another Week down!  This week was pretty busy, We had to do a lot of running around and traveling in the bush is not easy! It's been really rainy all week. Elder Burt and I both got sick, I got a really bad head cold. Elder Burt caught another kind of bug. Not Fun!  But we finally had some investigators come to Sacrament meeting, So this week was successful. 

 

This morning the Elders from the neighboring village Odoben brought a team of members and recent converts, Elder Burt and I put together our own team and we played a game of Football (Soccer). We won in the Penalty shootout after the game was tied 4-4. It was a blast!

Well mom Nothing much else to report. I love you guys so much!

 

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington


May 8, 2017

Dear Mom, 

 

We got our Itinerary! It's insane how much we will be traveling. I am going to skype around 8:00 my time, so 2:00 your time. I cant wait!

 

We had a pretty good week this week. The water company shut off our water for the past 3 days, so we have been showering using bought drinking water. We had 2 investigators at Sacrament meeting, and we are having a baptism this Saturday. We were supposed to have two, but the investigator didn't come to church yesterday.

 

I cant wait to see you guys! I love you soo much!

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington 

We had a really great Mother's Day skype visit with him on the 14th.  The connection was a little rough, but it was much better than Christmas.  He was very anxious for us to ask him questions about the church and Ghana.  He's definitely in missionary mode!  We were a little surprised to hear the accent, or speech pattern, that he has picked up.  It's really something to hear him talk.  Can't wait to spend more time hearing it in a little less than 3 months!  Our skype visit made the email exchange the next day much shorter.

May 15, 2017

Dear Mom, Take note that Timberland sandals are essential mission shoes. They are soldiers! They are the only shoes that are still functional at this point.  We are doing well for the last week of the transfer, So we will see what happens!

Love you so much! 

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington


May 22, 2017

Dear Mom, 

 

We got transfer news, I'm finishing in Asikuma and Elder Burt is going to Gbawe to be ZL, My new companion will be Elder Cottle. He is a hard worker. I am excited to work with him.

We are having our baptism this week! His name is Jacob, He is super cool, we are excited to baptize him.

I am excited to tell you about Elder Cottle as I get to know him. I love you guys so much!

Love Elder Seanshine Keddington

More pics from the end of school party!

I probably need to check on his supply of razors!  Haha!

This was his most recent Zone Conference