The Beginning and the End

Welcome Home Elder Nelson!

Week 106 11/6/17

Dear America,

I won't take much time today, but I'm excited and totally heartbroken to come home. I'll bear my testimony when I get home, but I have loved the opportunity to serve the people around me with full focus for these two years. It has brought me joy that I could never find anywhere else. I know the church is true, but more importantly I know that the gospel that it teaches is so true and so complete and so rich. It makes incredible sense deep deep deep down.

I would appreciate it if you would bring a coat to the airport just in case. I'm excited to eat anything cooked by Mom again (Mexican food and milk have been cravings for two years now, in case there is an empty dinner slot in the next few weeks).

Thanks for the notice on the talk subject. I'll ponder. 

See you all in a little while!

Love,

Elder Nelson

Becoming an Office Elder

​​​​​​​​Dear America,

To add to the list, I haven't been getting Porter's emails either. I love Tad's costume! ***(not sure what the code is)I don't know if I'll be free for all of Thursday night...... Maria has reserved a first date on that night, so I might be open for a while but I can't make promises.***

We had some interesting moments this week. One instance was late one night after we had finished teaching. An investigator we had met that day called us in tears and asked us with broken English to come right away. We were temporarily without a car, so we speed walked over to her house with many worst-case scenarios running through our heads. It turns out that her husband/boyfriend had smoked weed and come back to beat her. He left and she decided that she had taken enough over the years and was going to move out with the children. We felt she was in a dangerous situation, so we paid for a taxi to take her to her family's house. She then proceeded to do her best to fit the refrigerator, all clothing, utensils, children, and cleaning supplies inside the taxi. We weren't sure if she was stealing all of his belongings, so we advised her to take only what she needed and then we had to leave. On our way back we met a man smoking who started a conversation with us by promptly denying that he was crazy......very convincing.

We got the area maps back this week! They're finally finished. Our next big project is to finish compiling a document that outlines all of the responsibilities of the office elders. This is to help future missionaries adjust quickly to this assignment and help the mission as much as possible. Elder Crane and I, along with the current assistants Elder Nygren and Elder Osei-Kuffour have done a lot to standardize things in the mission. Before this, it was mostly missionaries running around doing things the best way they could think of. We're trying to record things so there's a better system. The pictures attached are all from the "Becoming an Office Elder" file that we're creating. We wanted to be in every picture, but quickly realized that it wouldn't be possible. So we pasted ourselves in. Enjoy!

Love, Elder Nelson

Toe Surgery 10/23/17

Dear America,

This week we finished our preparation for the hard copies of the area maps. They are being printed by a better machine at the West Africa Area Office in Accra this week and then we'll finally be done. It was a huge relief to be able to relax small after we finished those.

We met with Jeffrey again this week. He has been coming to church and loving it. We extended a baptismal date to him, and he is on track to be (hopefully) baptized just before I leave. 

Also, I've been fighting the progress of an ingrown toenail for a while now.... they're pretty common here. Well I finally got up the nerve to talk with President Cosgrave and he did some sugery. It hurts like nothing else right now. 

We are trying to help Jessica develop a consistent habit of reading the Book of Mormon. We've made it as far as 1 Nephi 11. When we read chapter 8, we all got paper and drew each object as we read about it. She was not excited for that at all but she enjoyed it after we finished. When we went back we read chapter 11 and labeled all of the things we had drawn with their meaning. It was fun and now she'll never forget about Lehi's dream. So far she's doing great at reading on her own and understands the story very well. She laughed when Nephi's brothers ran away from him after seeing him dressed as Laban. It's little things like that that make us happy with her.

Sorry for the short email. Time is playing weird tricks right now. Monday was just yesterday, but it seems like the things we did this week were forever ago.

Love, 

Elder Nelson

4-a-days 10/16/17

Dear America,

On Monday we went on a fun visit to the cultural center with Sister Cosgrave and Sister Schow. They showed us all of the best places to find culture. This week was a historic round of zone conferences. There are 11 zones in a mission the size of a state, so usually zone conferences take a few weeks to get through. Not this time. We did 8 zones in 2 days at the beginning of the week. It was crazy and awesome and a complete success. We have also entered crunch time for the area maps. Our deadline is to have them done and ready to print by the end of next week, so everything is pushing until then. I won't have time to sleep until I come home. The next three weeks are already booked with things and I'm sure we'll get loaded with more.

All the same, we were able to spread the gospel this week in many different places. When we went to the post office, there was a security woman there named Bernice who wanted us to teach her small. We pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon and told her about it and it ended up being perfect for her. Not too much to lose her attention. She was really happy that we would teach her.

A big highlight of the week was stake conference. It was presided over by Elder M.T. Ben Davis, an area authority. He's from Ghana and has a really passionate personality. If you think that Elder Holland is passionate, then you haven't met very many Ghanaians. Elder Davis is very bold but not overbearing because he shows enough love to back it up. Sometimes I think it would be extremely difficult to be a leader here because everything you teach is taken through the filter of "traditions of their fathers". But he did a wonderful job of adding just enough pepper and just enough substance. One thought I had while he was teaching had to do with a combination of his instruction on the parable of the sower and Elder Bednar's teachings about testimony and conversion. In the parable, there are four categories of seeds: those by the wayside, those in stony places, those among thorns, and those in good ground. I determined that the ones in the wayside are people who refuse understanding and thus never gain a testimony or conversion to the gospel. They choose to be absolute party poopers on their mortal journey. Those in stony places gain some degree of understanding but do it to satisfy curiosity and never let that grow into a testimony, much less conversion. Those among thorns end up gaining a testimony, but that is not enough in this world. Gaining a witness from the Spirit doesn't really do much unless you choose to consistently act on it. Those in good ground have chosen to understand, gain a testimony, and become converted through continuing gospel living. And it can be noted that even they still bring forth differing yields of fruit.

THE biggest highlight of this week was by far was going to pick up Elder Walch and Elder Larson (who are going home) after the conference. On the way there, we stopped in Kronum and visited some of my old peeps from the days of my training. It was so amazing. We were able to see Rebecca (I've emailed about her before), Osei Bonsu (I've emailed about him before), and Sister Ahsar and Sister Owusuaa (I'm pretty sure I've emailed about them before). It made my whole mission worth it. I was so happy to see them and how strong they've grown in the gospel. I guess I have made a difference here! Life is awesome.

Elder Larson is the first of my TC group to go home. We came together from the MTC and he's going back a little early for school or something. It feels so strange.

Have a great week! Love,

Elder Nelson

* I'm pretty nervous to come home these days. I've mostly been happy about the thought on my mission, but now I'm not feeling excited about it at all.

Stuck in the Mud- 10/9/17

Dear America,

Well it sounds like you've got life figured out. It's good to hear about Dad's new calling and career decisions. When we talk about family sayings, I think of Mom's "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." That was my whole childhood.

I've noticed myself becoming less and less shy to share the gospel. At the beginning of my mission, there were some teachings that I felt the need to "ease into" with an investigator so it didn't sound too foreign to them. Now it really doesn't bother me. As long as they understand what we're teaching, it doesn't really matter if they're convinced or not. The Spirit clearly testifies of truth regardless of how well we explain doctrine to appease argument. And I'm feeling more and more joy as I share the gospel. I wish I could have had this hang of missionary work long ago. It's a good thing that I'll have chances to be a missionary for my whole life!

We tried to maximize proselyting time this week in between leadership council, office council, and other meetings. When we got a chance on Wednesday, we took some of the zone leaders out with us. I was with Elder Ridell, who is from Sweden. He is the only European in the mission right now. He. Is. Smart. I enjoy conversations with him a lot.

The assistants got stuck in mud pretty badly late on Friday night. We spent a few hours trying to get them out and finally succeeded. We also helped a member move to their new house that night. On fast Sunday, we pounded fufu for an investigator and it was super easy. Whenever I've pounded while fasting before I've felt like dying. You'll get weak and shaky after a few hits. But this time we beasted through it. I think it has to do with our huge fufu workout last week.

Love, Elder Nelson