Christmas in Ghana

"Ye who do God's work receive God's pay"

Dear America,

It's getting close to Christmas. We've gotten free meals several times this week, including the ward party on Friday and two (huge) meals on Sunday evening. This week's fun foods include goat intestine at the bishop's house. It's good meat, with a nice flavor. I enjoyed it. But it looks like and has the surface texture of a towel. In fact, the Fante call it "towel". It's all bumpy like that. I also got to have part of a goat heart at the ward party, which wasn't too bad. I'm getting used to eating anything without question. Probably the hardest one this week was the fish head that was looking back at me while I ate it. And it was big. And it was good, if not creepy. I can honestly say that it tasted better than the rest of the fish. There are less little bones to chew.

Starting on that great note, I'm enjoying myself. Being a missionary isn't easy, but it is divine. I've really seen the Lord helping us this week. It reminds me that "Ye who do God's work receive God's pay". I've been using strength all week that is not my own. It's fun to work hard, even though the blessings I've been seeing aren't really direct results of my work. I try really hard to do my best, and something amazing happens that I have no responsibility for. So it makes my work feel useless but my faith all the more important.

Investigators here suck at progressing. The ones that are moving towards baptism come to us already prepared. Let me tell you a little about Kwasi, a man that we met with just this morning. He had avoided and avoided the missionaries while he lived in Accra. All of his family is SDA (I strongly strongly dislike this church). He kind of became less active SDA when he moved to Kumasi and his wife let the missionaries into the house. He came home to them teaching her. He was interested, and became a powerful investigator. He's smart and asks very good questions. Like questions that a long-time church member still wonders about. This morning, we explained about the Abrahamic covenant, patriarchal blessings, and that LDS doesn't stand for the Church of America. Which is something that is hard, because it pretty much is. Haha I'm joking. But he wants to learn everything about the church that he can before he joins because when his family finds out, they're going to attack him for it. And he wants to be able to defend himself and teach them. They already want their oldest son to serve a mission. He is about 16 years old.

A lot of investigators showed up at the ward party (where I ate the goat heart). Everyone loves a good party at the end of the year here, even though a lot of people don't actually celebrate Christmas (refer to where I said I dislike the SDA church). So we were able to get the ball of member friendshipping rolling. Happy day. I really enjoy working with young men, because I feel like I understand them a little better.

Thanks to everyone for their emails! You're all doing great, including Pace for giving the talk on Sunday.

Best Christmas wishes,

Elder Nelson

Read. Your. Scriptures. Every. Day.

I'm going to apologize right from the beginning because I won't be able to write a lot this week. I've spent a lot of my time sending Christmas letters home. So be looking for that in a couple of weeks.

What can I write about really quickly? I had the opportunity to give a talk on Sunday. They assigned us to speak on Christmas in relation to missionary week, so Elder Antwi talked about John the Baptist as a missionary and I talked about the wise men and how we can help others come unto Christ. It went decently. It's interesting to go to church because not everyone here is as sound in the gospel as I have been raised. There are some doctrinal misunderstandings that would never happen in the US. If anything, it's just helped me have a more solid testimony of basic doctrines.

Read. Your. Scriptures. Every. Day. Book of Mormon, specifically. It's painfully easy to tell who does and who doesn't. If you do, you're a solid, humble person who is not easily swayed by every wind of doctrine. If you don't, you often don't even know when you're a really stupid, arrogant fool. So do it. Start it when you're a teenager. I want personal letters from every member of my family telling me that they've had personal scripture study every day this week.

So that's all I can write for now, but thanks for the letters. This week has been great for me. Elder Antwi made me the temporary senior companion this week. So that was interesting. And we didn't get a lot done because we had a lot of meetings in Bantama and Offinso. But he's really preparing me for life beyond training. I'm really grateful for him.

Love,

Elder Nelson

P.S. One of the pictures is of the sketchiest bridges I've ever walked across. Ever.

Hammer Time

Dear America,

They call it "hammer time" here in Ghana. The (relatively) cold, (relatively) dry season. For me that pretty much means that it's slightly less hot and wet. A great dusty haze has come across the valley. Elder Antwi refers to it as African snow. The weather will be this way for three months.

(From Wikipedia The Harmattan is a cold-dry^[1] and dusty trade wind, blowing over the West African subcontinent. This northeasterly wind blows from the Sahara Desert into the Gulf of Guinea between the end of November and the middle of March (winter).^[2] The name comes from or is related to an Akan cognate.^[3]

The Harmattan blows during the dry season, which occurs during the lowest-sun months, when the subtropical ridge of high pressure stays over the central Sahara Desert and when the low-pressure Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) stays over the Gulf of Guinea. On its passage over the Sahara, it picks up fine dust and sand particles (between 0.5 and 10 microns).)

This transfer, Elder Antwi and I will take charge of the entire Kronum area because we simply do not have enough missionaries to keep two sets here. So we'll have plenty of work to do. This week I've really made a special effort in discerning the needs of our investigators/ ward members. The Holy Ghost is a special resource available to missionaries to discern others' thoughts when needed, like Ammon did. I saw it really guide us this week. The sword of the spirit is on of the most useful tools any of us has.

I finally found baking powder here, so I made cobbler. It was pineapple banana cobbler because that is what we had. The pineapple made it super sweet. Baking powder is hard to come by, so I bought a big tin to use for my whole mission. I don't know how much I'll actually use it, but I didn't want to have to search for it again.

There's always music on the streets here. I think it's pretty neat. And you can almost always see a child dancing to the music. They love to show off their skills. You'll find big groups of them dancing on the street. But it's really funny how they don't care and they just want to show the whole world.

Missionary work here is a lot different than it is in the States. Sometimes I just watch "The District" (missionary training videos) and laugh and laugh because it's so inaccurate. As I think about it, though, missionary work represents in a lot of ways our mortal life here. Alma 34:32 and D&C 4:2 are directly related. With regards to the rest of our life, missionary service is very short. It is the time given to us to prepare ourselves and to perform our labors. Jeffery R. Holland said that there is not one aspect of his life that has not been affected by his service as a full-time missionary. Just like mortality, it is a time of great testing and great reward. Our dedication on a mission cannot be replaced later in life without tremendous effort.

This week I learned not to take doxy on fast Sunday. Seriously. The only thing worse than the malaria medication is malaria.

Sorry my emails haven't been super super super long. I'm using all the time I can. I'm glad to hear about each member of the family every once in a while. Your letters have been great.

Love,

Elder Nelson

Caution on Mailing Packages

Dear Parents of Missionaries;

Sending boxes or envelopes (other than the one included in this email) results in Customs charges that are prohibitively expensive. Your missionary may not be able to afford the customs fees, which can range as high as two weeks of a missionaries subsistence.

Many times these packages sit for weeks while the missionary saves up a few extra Cedi’s to pay for them. In addition customs opens every single package that they quarantine, and any wrapped packages inside as well.

The preferred packages are flat rate padded white USPS plastic padded envelopes that you can stuff as full as you can for a flat rate and the bonus…. they are not stopped and opened in customs and charged horrendous fees, (and your missionary gets ALL the goodies immediately).

Click on the following link, or copy this link to your browser address bar and you will see exactly how to get these envelopes. Please click on the attached picture as well.

https://store.usps.com/store/browse/uspsProductDetailMultiSkuDropDown.jsp?productId=P_EP14PE&categoryId=mailing-envelopes

Thank you for sending us your Missionaries!

Elder Halladay

Financial Secretary

Ghana Kumasi Mission

1802429-FIN@ldschurch.org

michael@mhalladay.com

0243-500-262

FM stands for Free Meals

Dear America,

Although the request was made for longer letters, I only have an hour. Trust me, I'm typing as fast as I can.

I'm glad to hear all the fun things! I've made it through week 3, which is one of the 'humps', according to dad.

The power was finally on for long enough for me to cut my hair on Saturday night. I've been waiting for WEEKS. Another thing I've been doing is gathering ingredients to make kind of an apple cobbler...thing.... for Elder Opio's farewell and late Thanksgiving hurrah at Elder Opio's request. In fact, I totally forgot that Thanksgiving was a thing until Elder Gibson reminded me. We were on a companionship exchange. Yes, I'm in the same zone as Elder Gibson. He's one of the zone leaders. He's from Sugar-Salem, Idaho. We have quite a bit in common. He says that he played football with Zack Bennett a lot in high school. So I guess he's cool. Haha it was neat to be with another white companion. Pretty much everyone assumed that we had no idea what we were doing, even though Elder Gibson has been here for a long time.

Here in Kronum, people love to feed the obroni and see what he thinks of the dishes. I've really enjoyed everything that they've given me. Except for some of the drinks, I've had to muscle through a few of those with a smile. Some of the foods I've had so far: fufu, a rice ball version of fufu, banku, some fish bones, some chicken bones, rice with soup, ga beans (gari+beans), plantains, moldy bread (my fault, and I got pretty sick), and last but not least, sobolo. Sobolo is a very special drink. I've had it twice so far, and depending on who makes it it can be wonderful or it takes some getting used to. Sobolo is made from several different fruit juices, mostly pineapple and orange. But. It has ginger in it as well. So much ginger. So much ginger that it burns your throat and your eyes on the way down. This is probably the closest thing I've ever had to fire whiskey. But it's really good if you can get some with a little less kick. The ginger kind of acts like carbonation, making your mouth tingle a bit. It's definitely something I'm making in America.

Here's my astute realization for the week: A lot of people wouldn't be happy in the Celestial Kingdom. They don't want to work that hard. Especially around here; people assure us that they have faith and they know that everything we say is true, but they can't muster the effort to keep any commitments. It reminds me that the same spirit that possesses you in this life will have power over you in the next as well. And here's what gets me: They'll be perfectly content in the Telestial Kingdom or whatever. They will get exactly what they wanted. A place to chill and relax forever, never really understanding what joy and happiness they could have. Because that joy comes with responsibility, and they don't want to have to deal with it. Whatever. They have agency. 

And they'll be totally content not to have to worry about being perfect.

The weirdest moment this week happened as we were having a discussion with a woman about the Restoration. Her five-year-old son kept interrupting and complaining, so she started breastfeeding him. So........eye contact.

I'm still learning more about my companion.
Elder Antwi: Cape Coast

Elder Opio: Uganda

Elder Ilunga: DR Congo

Love,

Elder Nelson

Like Noah and the Ark Kind of Hard

Dear America,

I WANNA KNOOOW.........HAVE YOU EVER. SEEN. THE RAIN?

Rain comes down hard here. Like Noah and the Ark kind of hard.

I really enjoy teaching our progressing investigators. But my favorite to teach are the young men ages 18-25. These guys are almost always the most humble, accepting, inquisitive investigators. They have questions about life, they are friendly, they are maturing, they speak English (!!), and they're so much fun to teach. I love being able to share truth with people and see it make sense to them as the Spirit connects the dots.

It turns out that Elder Antwi's favorite type of music is country music. I'm still learning Twi from him and he is learning music theory from me. I'm teaching him how to read music and play simplified hymns. So we're both learning a new language.

One thing I've realized is that I'm in Africa to prepare the future leaders of the church here, not just anyone. I'm seeing how true this is. And it would suck to be in America right now. I'm sympathetic to you. My information is probably outdated, but I heard the news of the church policy change two days before I left the MTC. And our first real investigator here walked up to us on the street and asked about the church's stance on gay marriage. I was able to give him The Family: A Proclamation to the World and explain the change that he had heard about. None of the other missionaries even knew about it. The communication chain out here isn't super fantastic. But I knew it and the man invited us to teach him more. He's turned out to be very powerful (powerful means good or high-quality). I'm just so glad that everyone here believes in God and wants to hear more. 

I ate fish bones just after I emailed last week. They aren't terrible if they're cooked really thoroughly. And served with fufu. Also, water sachets are really convenient. I'll try not to get parasites. All fruit here is heavenly. Mango season is just around the corner, which I can't wait for. They sell everything you could have a craving for on the side of the street. I like the oranges. They peel off the zest, the outermost layer of the peel, and then cut off a small circle off the top. You squeeze the orange and suck the juice from the top. Also, I learned that banana chips are made from plantains. At least I'm 95% sure that they are. They taste just like banana chips.

I've already had a marriage proposal and three girls request for me to take them to America, which is basically the same thing as a marriage proposal. Nope. I tell people how to get to heaven, not America. Also people keep thinking that I am 13-16 years old. Which is annoying. But I don't mind too much. I need a haircut.

I love being here. Elder Opio, a missionary in my apartment that is leaving for home this transfer, said: "Time really flies if you use it wisely." That meant a lot to me. I'm learning and growing every day. It's so much fun to be in this district, especially with Elder Opio about to die (go home). I'm getting a lot of advice and wisdom and missionary humor thrown at me.

Elder Bradley wants me to say hi to my family from his family. He said some of you will know his younger siblings.(This is the Grant 1st Ward's Bro. Bradley's brother)

I love serving!

Love,

Elder Nelson

P.S. We haven't had light (electricity) for the entire. week. straight. So I'm pretty used to it by now. But the cell phones we have are running out of battery. Whatever. It's part of life here.

Dear America,

It's been a great week in the life of Elder Nelson. I'm having such a great time here in Kronum 2 Area. 

I have close to no time to email. Limit it to just a couple emails that I have to read, then I would have infinitely more time to write.

The children here love me. I have not seen any other white people here except for the other missionaries at zone conference. The children call me "obroni", which means white man in Fante. On Sunday I had a group of them run up around me, hugging me and grabbing my arms and asking me if I was dead. I laughed and laughed and told them that I was not dead. The older people love it when the obroni plays with their children. And the obroni loves playing with the children while his African companion teaches their parents in Twi. So it all works out great. Shouts of "obroni!" follow me constantly.

I'm getting better at speaking without a terrible American accent. I'm also trying to learn some Twi from Elder Antwi. It's slow going, but it'll happen.

I'm having such a great time here in the field. I love being able to answer questions for people and show them truth. The hard part is when they don't keep commitments or when they are so stuck in their own ways that they refuse to change. They don't think they need anything more. I just tell myself that we need to find the people that the Lord has prepared for us. They are the ones who are humble and seek earnestly for the truth. A lot of people here don't even know very much about Christianity even though they are Christians. So they will believe pretty much anything we tell them. But they feel no need to change or become better. On the other hand, they're always willing to listen to a message about Jesus Christ, no matter which church you're from. Always. So that's good, I guess. They just don't know what the phrase "long-term commitment" means. Oh well. That's why we have the Spirit to guide us.

I'll tell you a little more about my companion, Elder Antwi. He is a lot like me, and doctrinally sound, friendly but not crazily outgoing, and fluent in Twi. So he's like me but a much better missionary. He's great at contacting, but would always rather work through the ward. He's smart and fun and obedient. I'm so glad I have him. Our area is interesting. We are both new here and we're basically re-opening the area. There are no records, no contacts, and no white men. Elder Antwi has only ever been in brand-new areas, and he is almost 8 months old on the mission. He says that the mission president has a lot of trust in us, which is interesting because I've only talked to the mission president for like a minute and a half maximum. Whatever. I'm Elder Antwi's first son and he is my father. There are four missionaries in our apartment, and they all know what they're doing. Except me. It's a great apartment to be in, so I'm learning lots. Our apartment is pretty nice. Not by US standards, of course, but I wasn't expecting US standards anyway so I'm fine. Sometimes we even have power. Occasionally. Whenever we're out contacting. Haha not really, but that's the way it seems. We've had power one night this week. The rest are in the dark. We proselyte until 7:30 every day because it gets dark at 6:00 and we don't want to waste daylight eating. I like it this way. I'm more focused. Elder Antwi is a great Ghanaian cook. He made soup with rice this week. I've eaten rice every day here, and it's really good.

I sleep spread-eagle on the mattress with no covers. It gets to be a rather pleasant temperature at night when the sun goes down. But we're going into the hot, dry season, so that might change.

Welllllll that's all for now. Hopefully we'll get to know the ward better and get some referrals. Until then, it's contacting, contacting, contacting.

Have fun in Idaho!

Love,

Elder Nelson

Note on Packages and Letters

Dear Parents,

 We have had challenges with the retrieval of large packages from the post office.  It has been both time-consuming and expensive.   Generally, all of the contents are removed and recorded. A large customs duty may be assessed on the contents at the discretion of customs officials, which ultimately comes from your missionary’s personal funds.  We kindly request that you do not send any large packages or boxes.

Just send padded envelopes or USP flat rate envelopes and make sure they are secured with PLENTY of clear packing tape.  We are unable to pick up boxes from the Kumasi Post Office so please send only the padded envelopes so your missionary will receive the goods you send.  Anything can be sent in these envelopes.

Please note the following additional points:

1.       Do not send any electronic equipment in parcels.  They can generally be purchased here at reasonable cost. 

2.       Sending packages as registered parcels is unnecessary.

3.       Sending temple garments is unnecessary as the Mission supplies these at a subsidized cost to missionaries. Sending them in packages often results in inappropriate handling by officials.

4.       Do not send an excessive number of parcels to your missionary, whether at Christmas or any time during the year.

The Ghana Kumasi Mission is part of the church pouch mail system. (But several of the missionary mothers say that normal mail takes 3 weeks, but pouch mail take 4-5 months!!! I am not including the pouch information for this reason.- Karie) 

                                                                                                                                                             

Regular Mail

Letters and packages can be sent to the missionary through the Postal Service using the following address:                                                                                                                                                                                

 GHANA KUMASI MISSION

               Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Elder/Sister (Missionary’s Name)

P.O. Box PMB KS 16333

Kumasi, GHANA

We thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Sister Cynthia Cosgrave

Wife of the Mission President

 He is in Kumasi for real! He is in the Bantama area with Elder Antwi.

In Kumasi

I'm alive and well in Kumasi. They were about an hour late picking us up from the airport, but other than that, nothing super exciting or dangerous happened. Besides driving. Driving is always a near-death experience. But I'm so excited and the mission home is really nice. We get to meet our trainers and move out tomorrow. And then I'll be able to email again next Monday.

Finally! Here it goes!

Love, 

Elder Nelson

Interact to edify

Prepare to Learn

Interact to Edify

Invite to Act

Temple Day at Ghana MTC Wednesday, Nov. 4

Where do the missionaries come from?

According to the Ghana MTC Blog-

Missionaries in the Ghana MTC come from various countries in Africa and a few countries out of Africa.    The top five origin countries for our 1441 missionaries this year are:

Nigeria        312 
Congo         298
Ghana         222
USA            205
Ivory Coast   112


Here are the 44 countries they came from:

AUSTRALIA

BELGIUM

BENIN

BOTSWANA

BURUNDI

COTEd'IVOIRE

CAMEROON

CANADA

CHINA

CONGO (DR)

CONGO (REP)

ETHIOPIA

FIJI

FRANCE

FR POLYNESIA

GHANA

INDIA

LESOTHO

KENYA

LIBERIA

MADAGASCAR

MALAYSIA

MALAWI

MOZAMBIQUE

NAMIBIA

NEWZEALAND

NIGERIA

PHILIPPINES

REUNION

RWANDA

SAMOA

SIERRA LEONE

SINGAPORE

SOUTH AFRICA

SOUTH SUDAN

TOGO

TONGA

UGANDA

UNITEDSTATES

ZAMBIA

ZIMBABWE

THAILAND

UNITEDKINGDOM

VANUATU

Dear America- Nov. 4, 2015

Dear America,

It's so fun to see all of the big changes at home! Sorry that I can't reply to every email that comes, but I had fun reading all of them. I laughed about leaving the mats at the dump. I arrived at the MTC after a day-long flight from SLC to NY and then to Accra. I only slept about two hours on the whole ride, but today was so exciting that I was able to keep going. Ghana is so green and red, with all of the tropical trees that I can't name and the red dirt. It's muggy here. Kind of like taking a hot, steamy shower. Except I don't take hot showers. The heat feels nice at first but you overheat after a while.

The native elders are so friendly and fun. They have it when I give them their snap handshake (it's a real thing). You shake and then slide off their middle fingers and snap as you go. The elders always greet you like an old friend, even when you've never met before. The portion sizes at meals here are huge. Little breakfast, HUGE lunch, and little dinner. Fruit is amazing in the extreme. So sweet and full of flavor.

My companion is Elder Peterson. He's nice and easy to get along with. He's also committed to keeping the rules, which is great. Traffic is crazy here. So crazy. Everyone is like Dad times ten but with no common sense and all in a hurry to get somewhere. If I die, it won't be from malaria. It'll be if I have to drive. The native elders are really good at soccer (football). Pdays are fun. Ghana is way less organized than the US. It'll definitely take some getting used to.

I got Elder Neville's letter in the MTC. I'm still looking for Elder Hepworth's. Dr. Bronner's mint soap is the best, when combined with a cold shower. The MTC here definitely isn't as structured as the one in Provo. It's more... basic. Everything is. The food is very good. They feed us so much food. Lots of rice, chicken, and bread. It's like white bread with some nutmeg in it. It's all very good. The rice is always flavored with a drumstick or something on the side. And there's a lot of it. It isn't too different than some of the flavored rice that mom makes, there's just more. Some of the Americans are having a hard time getting used to it, but I feel like I've been specially prepared to be here.

Elder Peterson and I are in charge of the music for the whole MTC because we're the only two who play the piano. It isn't too bad. But we sing like six times every day. It's actually fun because they sing so enthusiastically. Like yelling. And all down the halls, people will just burst into hymns. English and French are the only two languages taught here, but we also mix Twi, Fante, American slang, and movie references (the last two because the Americans felt left out without our own secret language). Being in charge of the music  also means that we are lead the "doxy song" at dinnertime. Doxycyclin is the pill we all have to take every day to prevent malaria. It goes to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it": "If you've taken your doxycyclin, clap your hands!..." and so on. Just so everyone remembers.

The temple in Accra is the most beautiful building I've ever seen. And I've been to a lot of temples. The inside is by far the most beautiful out of any temple I've ever been in. I'm coming back to Ghana, if only to visit the temple here.

I'm so happy to be here! I really am loving the MTC. A lot. I could stay here for two years. But I only have a week left! I'll tell you about all the crazy things in the outside world when I get there. I feel pretty sheltered here in the MTC. 

Love from Africa,

Elder Nelson