Back in Techiman

Dear America,

I'm not sending this email from Tamale.... nope, I'm back in my town, Techiman. I loved Techiman more than any other place on my mission so far and it's good to be back even if it's just for a day or two. We have a combined zone conference with Techiman and Sunyani so we all came to meet here. Life is good. Each zone was asked to prepare a musical number for the conference. I wasn't informed that I was in charge of said musical number until we showed up to practice. We have some appreciable talent in the zone, though, so we're pulling a nice Christmas medley together. I'm excited.

We had some triumphs this week as far as investigators go. One of our investigators (the Nigerian woman that I've written about before) has decided that God answered her prayers to know the truth. She's had several dreams that she takes to be revelation meaning she should join the Church. I don't have that much trust in dreams, but I'm glad that God talks to each of us in our own way that He knows we'll understand. It's funny that she struggles to understand my companion when he talks, though. He's from Georgia and is still relatively new on mission so his American accent is still pretty strong. And any Nigerian accent is always strong. So she doesn't hear him when he talks. I have to translate sometimes.

I felt blessed this week when we were knocking on gates and the people that met us all spoke English, were Christian, and were mildly interested to listen to our message. We were also able to do a good service project for the district president this week. He invited us to take out some weeds in his compound with cutlassas (machetes), hoes (Ghanaian version), and our hands. It was good work and we had fun talking about what we can do to strengthen the branches. We also ate a lot of fufu while we were there.

I feel like the members are kicking things up a notch right now, which makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE in our work. I'm happy. They're ever so slightly more active and involved--maybe it's just the Christmas season, but I like to think that we're making progress.

I'm planning on calling in the afternoon (for me) soooo before church for you. What time do you even have church? Either way, it'll be before. Just in case.

Thanks for taking the pressure off of the honors housing decision. That would explain why I wasn't feeling any major impressions in answer to my prayers.

Well life is good. I look forward to hearing voices on the phone this week.

Elder Nelson

PS The last picture is me with Elder Antwi!

Elections

Dear America,

I enjoyed the gift idea of the donkey and the good thoughts that came with it on the paper. That was neat. The keyboard courses sound helpful but are more of a job for a senior couple. I am so temporary in the areas that I would basically be handing out free keyboards before I left and that wouldn't be good. 

This week was long at some times and short at others. Transfers went smoothly; my new companion is Elder Maddox from Georgia. He is your typical American home schooled still-getting-used-to-Ghana missionary. No problem. The week has been sweet so far as we've been going around the area to show him off to the members and investigators. The real curve ball has been the addition of two more missionaries in the branch. I've taken them around and shown them their area and I'm doing my best to help them get used to the branch here. Everything has been going smoothly but I was stressed more than usual at the beginning of the week.

And for the most talked-about news in Ghana: NANA AKUFO-ADDO! Ghana will have a new president in less than a month. Probably not as big of a deal as Donald Trump, but it's still all anybody talks about here. The elections were peaceful and nothing noteworthy happened. During the days of the election, we had to come back to our apartment a little early. On Friday night they announced the winner and everybody was cheering and setting off fireworks. We went to the top of the water tower and watched the town rejoicing/bemoaning their fate. 

Among those who are less affected by the elections are missionaries and Nigerian investigators. One Nigerian woman that we've been teaching made some good progress this week. Up to this point, she's had a hard time comprehending some of the things that we've been teaching her. But this time we taught her with a member--or rather, the member taught her while we were there-- and things clicked a lot more. The member bore a forceful testimony and cleared up a lot of unasked questions. There were tears (from the investigator) at one point in the lesson. I don't know if they were good tears or "I'm being bullied" tears, but we can hope for the best.

Our water finally came back this morning! We'll see how long it lasts, but today was the first time in a while that I haven't had to pull my shower out of the ground in a bucket. Life is good.

Love, Elder Nelson

District Conference

Dear America,

Life is cruising right along. This week was Thanksgiving, which I did not remember until Thursday night. Coincidentally, however, my Idahoan instincts must have kicked in because I unwittingly made some mashed potatoes with gravy on Tuesday evening. While we were at a member's house, I saw what appeared to be a very diseased potato. It turns out that it's just an African variety of the potato and it's not the same. I bought some, thinking that I would try to make some mashed potatoes and hoping that if it did not come out to be exactly the same, it would at least reach a level of acceptable comparability. Wrong. They were the worst mashed potatoes and gravy I've ever had in my life. The potatoes were very sweet (sugary) and the gravy was a disaster. I'll include a picture. The irony of the situation hit me two days later when I realized that it was the week of Thanksgiving. Hope you enjoyed your real Idahoan potatoes.

On a better note, we had district conference this week where all the branches in Tamale and Bolgatanga met together (5 branches total). We don't have a chapel in the district that is big enough to hold that many people, so we used the meeting center of a local hotel. It was really good. I especially enjoyed the Saturday priesthood leaders' training and adult session. Three of the best testimonies I've ever heard were borne there. We escorted three of our investigators to the conference. All of them are children under the age of 15 from the same family. Their parents are really nice and don't have problems with their children attending the church, but so far haven't shown a lot of interest in coming themselves. That's ok, though. They're surrounded by strong members, so I know that when the time is right they'll come. They're a really nice family.

Ghana's elections are coming up on December 7, so our transfer schedule was adjusted so that we don't conflict with the elections. Usually they don't get violent, but a lot of Ghanaians have warned us to be on our toes. Either way, it means that my next p day will be on Saturday, Dec 3. And not the following Monday. So when you get an email from me on that day, don't be afraid that I'm breaking any rules.

A few weeks ago I found out that Kwasi Aidoo, who I baptized in Kronum, has recieved the Melchizedek priesthood and has been serving as a Stake High Councilman! That is sweet. Kronum was also recently split into 2 wards, so chances are high that he's part of the new bishopric right now. It made me really happy to hear that he has immersed himself so fully in the culture of the church. He's gone to the temple several times, but he's planning to go with his family in January to be sealed. Bam. Fruits that remain.

You asked for a recipe of something that I've eaten lately. Hahahaha recipes don't exist here. This is the closest thing I can get to a recipe:

Rice

tomato paste

dried fish

meat (beef)

spices

oil

onion

pepper

garlic

ginger

Maggi

cabbage

tomatoes

green peppers

Really. That's how they make things here. It takes some getting used to. Most of the time you just have to watch someone make it several times and memorize everything they do. That's probably why they only have like five dishes to choose from here.

I got the package! I didn't know it was coming, but it made me happy. Unfortunately, it passed through customs so everything had been opened and looked at already. And it cost an extra 37 cedis for me to get but it was worth it. I also got the Christmas SD card you sent, but the format is weird so it doesn't work when I try to listen to it. I still haven't gotten the conference SD card. The package was great. We put the presents under our Christmas tree, but Elder Robson couldn't wait to open his. Thanks!

Love,

Elder Nelson

From Last Week...

Some of the west Africans got to ride a horse, which they've never done before
the crocodile sanctuary
the border to Burkina Faso

Paga!

Dear America,

This week flew by. Today we went to Paga, way up on the border of Burkina Faso and just below the Sahara desert. It's the first time I've felt dry since I arrived in Ghana. Now I'm worried about going back to 0% humidity in Idaho. We went to the Paga crocodile sanctuary, a tourism site where you can take pictures with crocodiles. We sat on it, posed with it, held the tail, and fed it a live chicken. It was sweet. Unfortunately, this internet cafe won't let me send pictures so you're just going to have to take my word for it until I can send them.

We've been teaching some neat people. Coincidentally, we've seen an unusually high number of Nigerians. We're fighting fire with fire when we teach Nigerians with a Nigerian. One Nigerian that we met had spoken briefly with missionaries before. When he stopped us, he was riding his moped with a copy of the Book of Mormon. We were surprised, and he later said that he had gone out that day to find us. He had it in his mind that he wanted us to come tell him more. Either we would set up a return appointment or he would give us our book back. We've met with him a few times and the things that we're teaching him are making sense for the most part. Investigators are funny. They'll give you roller coasters of emotions. One minute everything will be going great and then they'll have a problem and then they'll forget or resolve their own problem and then... on and on.

We had a nice broadcast for the Africa West Area last Sunday. It was interesting. If you read emails from Elder Neville, he also has something to say about it. One part of it was when we were told to abandon the traditions of our fathers and instead adopt gospel traditions. Some area-specific traditions were named, and it gives us a lot of work to do in the future. The traditions here are huge. Elder Renfroe (one of the senior missionaries) said that since the broadcast he's now looking at this gigantic mountain of tradition to overcome and thinking that the only way to do it is a few nuclear warheads. Small small, we'll see what we can do.

I'm enjoying!

Love, Elder Nelson

"Tell them I'm not home"

Dear America,

Wow. Donald Trump. I don't know if an African like me is going to be allowed into the US when I return, but I'm expecting crazy things from America for the forseeable future.

One funny thing happened this week: a rat was trying to reenact the movie "Flushed Away" in one of the toilets in the apartment. He got stuck in there. I hated to end his career in film making, but I killed him.

We've been teaching a really promising family recently. Mostly we've been teaching the fourteen-year-old boy and trying to help his parents catch up. They've been very nice to us. Last Sunday, we went to see the family in the afternoon. As we stood on the veranda and knocked on the door, one of the little girls came running over from across the street. I saw her and moved to greet her when a voice from one of the windows called her over. "Tell them I've gone out," the voice said through the window. The little girl just looked over at me, looked back at the window, and said, "See them! They're just here!" The eyeballs looking through the window immediately withdrew and the curtain flew closed in a haste. I thought it was the mother, but she later called to apologize that the children would do such a thing. I'm still not entirely convinced that the children are at fault, but we laughed over it and we haven't brought it up since. They're progressing nicely.

Teaching is always smooth, but getting people to keep commitments is the hard part--both investigators and members. We're working hard to help the members of the branch become more active in the church and in the gospel. Basically everyone I've met would be considered less-active back at home. Everyone. But we do our best. If you have any tips for reactivating members or enticing them to come to church, let me know. 

Elder Nelson

Q&A with Elder Nelson

Give us Captions to the pictures- The two at the river were just when we were walking. Those kids love to catch fish for fun in the disgusting water. Note that the bank is partially made out of garbage. It just breeds disease. The other one is just me playing the piano in the apartment. I sent it because of the tan line on the back of my neck.

Tell us about he progress of the preacher's son. He's taking us to meet his friends from school next Sunday. He's been distributing the pamphlets as we supply them, but we have yet to meet any of the fruits of his labors. So we'll see.

Have you seen any crazy wildlife lately? Goats

Tell us about some of the people you have been working with and their background.- Dad

What do kids in Ghana want to be when they grow up? American. Haha sad but there are so many people who want to travel and make a lot of money.

How do the people spend their spare time. Watching television. A lot of people complain that they don't have money, but they are always inside watching. Especially these stupid translated soap opera episodal shows from India. I tell you, they're making a ton of money off of Ghanaians. 

Tell us about your new companion. Conversion story, family... He was born as a child of record. His parents were members. He has three brothers and no sisters and he's the third-born.

Describe your apartment. It's actually really big, especially for just the two of us. As far as I can tell, we have infestations of ants, geckos, rats, bats, and doves. But they mostly stay out of our way and we kill a few of them occasionally to warn the others.

What are most people afraid of in Ghana? Lots of things. They're afraid of rain, which immediately stops all outside interaction at the first sign of any sprinkle. They're afraid of juju (black magic). The wicked traditions of their fathers permeate the society so that *almost* everyone is affected by it just a little bit. Even members will ask us funny questions about it. They are afraid of other things, but none are coming to mind right now.

What options do they have for vocational or college education? They can go to college, which they call "university". One interesting thing is that it is relatively common to get scholarships for high school, but there are really no available scholarships for university--exactly the opposite of life in the US. 

What childhood games do they play? I know what they are, but I don't know the names. Some involve clapping and jumping, some involve drawing in the dirt, and some involve catching fish in poopy rivers.

What did you bear your testimony about yesterday? I bore it about how the members are a light to the world. Now that they know the truth, it is their responsibility to learn more and follow what they know. In doing so, it will bless their lives and help lift those around them.

Where do they go for vacation? Recreation? They actually travel a lot more than we do. One of the most common trips to take is "to my hometown", which is the place that their parents reside and they were born. Some of them seriously travel every other week.

Describe what you smell in the marketplace. Rotting meat would be high on the list. Animal poop is also sold in little balls (used for soup (yes, really)) and is also on the ground, emitting a pleasant fragrance. The smell of scone-like things frying is there. The smell of sun is also there.

Do you have a bike? Walk? Trotro? We used to have bikes, but the other Elders needed them more. So now we do a lot of walking and occasionally we take a taxi.

If you could teach one principle and have it stick, what would it be? Easy. KEEP COMMITMENTS. 

What comfort food do you crave? Fajitas.

Well I have to go now, but thanks for the questions. I'm loving mission life and everything that comes with it. Have a great week! 

Elder Nelson

Abnormal

Dear America,

Transfers happened this week. I took Elder Austin to Kumasi and came back with Elder Robson and some other members of the zone. I spent eighteen hours on a bus. It was a nice bus, though, so I wasn't even annoyed. It took two days to go down and come back. It was nice to see Kumasi again. After I arrived at the mission home, I went to teach a little bit with one of the APs. Other than that, the trip was relatively uneventful, which is good. it was better than last time, when the bus broke down:P 

Elder Robson is a Nigerian. He's from the Akwa Ibom state, which is at the very south next to the ocean. He's a lot of fun to be around because he's always laughing and being friendly with people. He's an experienced missionary--he only has a few months left to go home. He has only served in Kumasi for the whole time, though, so he's used to the bigger city and not the far extremities of the mission (like Tamale). When he met the branch president, the branch president told us that Tamale was abnormal. So whenever somebody does something funny, we just call it "abnormal" and laugh about it.

We've come into contact with an unusual amount of pastors lately.... I came up with a theory that God wants us to baptize pastors so that the Church in Tamale will have a strong foundation of committed members. The harder they are to catch, the more they are worth catching, I guess. 

I passed my one-year mark this week. I had a huge celebration by drinking an extra cup of cold water and turning my fan up to the #2 setting. Woot woot. 

Love, Elder Nelson

Enter: Pastor Son

Dear America,

This week turned out to be somehow uneventful. It was the week before transfers, so we had a district activity to celebrate with one of the missionaries that is going home. We ate at Chuck's, the nicest restaurant in Tamale (if you're a foriegner). Elder Austin and I saved and scrounged our sub for weeks to be able to pay for this. We got a real cheese burger and some sort of calzone. They were so good. The calzone was loaded with cheese. Real cheese. In Ghana. FYI I have never ever ever had real cheese since I left America--or milk, for that matter. So this was a huge deal. That's why we saved for weeks to be able to afford it. 

Anyways it was really good. But we suffered for it. Elder Austin got sick for a few days after we ate it. He was down and out for a while. I wasn't sick, but I did get to do some extra study and clean up the apartment a little and take a nap. Unfortunately, that stuff doesn't make for an exciting email. Sorry.

I'm not getting transferred. Instead, I'll be staying here and getting a new companion. Elder Robson from Nigeria. My little American companion stint is over--back to Africans. It was kind of a relief to have an American companion for a while, but I think that I'll enjoy going back to African. Americans just don't make sense sometimes. Haha I've loved being with Elder Austin.

In response to questions from Mom: 

Do you ever eat cat or dog? I know for a fact that there is a place in the area that sells dog meat, but I haven't eaten there yet. Frankly, I can't name some of the types of meat that I've eaten. Sometimes it's just better not to ask. It was worse at the beginning, but it gets to a point where you don't care as much.

Do you ever use the little cookbook? Yeah, it's useful if I want to make some American food. I need recipes for potatoes. Give me a few different kinds of potato recipes because there are people here who want me to show them how to eat potatoes. 

What was the most helpful thing that you learned to cook before your mission? Well.... cooking is different here. I don't know how much carried over. 

I'm not really planning anything at all for my one-year mark. I'm lame. I might make some fajitas or something. That would be sweet. I've been working on writing Christmas letters for the family. They'll get there eventually.

Lesson one with the pastor and his son was interesting. I prayed and prayed for a miracle to happen. We studied and prayed and studied some more in anticipation of this specific lesson. I went in with complete faith that we would see miracles. And we did, although it wasn't the way that we were expecting. We gave it to them pretty straightforward; we explained about the apostasy and restoration so that there could be no misunderstanding. Big boss pastor dad at least understood the implications. We had the district president, who is a returned missionary, with us and he bore a powerful testimony with the two of us. In the end, pastor dad listened but refused to read the Book of Mormon or even accept a copy of it. 

Enter: pastor son. Emmanuel (the son) was the one who originally invited us to teach. So far, the lessons have been going way over his head. I don't know how he was ever planning to be a pastor. It's been kind of in-one-ear-and-out-the-other with him up to this point. BUT HE UNDERSTOOD. He got what we were saying this time. That is a miracle. And he accepted it. He said that he believes that the Book of Mormon is true. He prayed about it and had a dream, so now he says that he knows that everything we're saying is true. Not only that, but he has compelled us to give him a lot of restoration pamplets to give to his friends. He wants to share the message with all of them and give them all copies of the Book of Mormon. It's exciting. We've seen a huge turnaround in his perception since we started teaching him. 

And his father invited us over to have banku tonight. We're still friends, so everything is cool there. We're hoping that Emmanuel will gain a strong testimony and conversion and then begin working on his father. But that's really long-term.

Have a great week! Elder Nelson

P.S. I finally found cinnamon here! So I don't think I'll need more for a while. The only thing I've thought of so far to send in a package is gallon-sized ziploc bags. Other than that, I'm still trying to wrack my brain.

Fire Festival

Dear America,

The week started off with a bang. Literally several bangs. The Muslim fire festival went from Mondayevening on into Tuesday. We've been hearing a lot of buildup to this one. It was rumored to involve fireworks, guns, black magic (basically Satan worship), fire-walking, beatings, anti-Christian killings, etc. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ME I WAS PERFECTLY SAFE. So all of the missionaries in Tamale were instructed to stay in our apartments and go into lock down after we finished zone council in the morning. Well it was super super anti-climactic. We heard a few fireworks and gunshots, but as soon as it started to come up to the time of the actual festival, the rain clouds appeared and dumped a nice monsoon on their parade. So the whole event got thrown off for the most part, from what I can tell. The Christians were happy. We've haven't heard too much more about it.

We also went on a double exchange with the zone leaders in our area this week, so we got twice as much work done and that made up for the day that we didn't do anything.

We've been able to teach big boss pastor dad from last week's letter a few more times. There's been a lot of progress. We've moved from mainly teaching his son in front of him and now he's been seriously asking us questions. He's really sensible. He was especially interested when we explained the Book of Mormon to him, and he caught on quickly to what we were saying. We've developed a relaxed amiable friendship with him, which is a far cry from his first few interactions with missionaries. This week we're going to go and lay out the restoration and all about the apostasy and Joseph Smith, but we feel well prepared and we're praying for the best.

Best story of the week involves Elder Austin, an emergency trip to a member's bathroom, a sudden realization, and a handbook that is now two pages shorter than it should be.

Love, Elder Nelson

I've Already Read That

Dear America,

This week we met some interesting people. We had several unexpected instances where people stopped us on the side of the road and asked us to come and teach them. And not just because we're white. One of them had read the restoration pamphlet before because she saw it and borrowed it from her sister. I don't know how she knew that we were the ones to talk to about it. She said that she just saw us and felt like she should ask us to know more. And then we pulled out a pamphlet to give to her and she said "I've already read that!" We taught her later in the week and she seems like she'll really progress quickly.

Another boy that we've been teaching is the son of one of the major pastors here in town. In the past, his father has confronted missionaries and tried to tear down their faith. It hasn't really worked, but he has always seemed kind of edgy around us. We pass their door often to see a member in the same compound. His son (who is a pastor in training) asked us to come and share something with him. We had a short lesson about what we believe about Jesus Christ. The big boss pastor dad sat quietly across the room for a while and then eventually pulled his chair over to our circle. We were expecting some serious contention from him, but he just sat and listened intently for the rest of the lesson. We finished, asked if we could come back, and left all without him saying a word. When we returned, we taught about the plan of salvation. The father was there the whole time. The boy pastor was asking us some basic questions that seemed like poor attempts to catch us in our words while his father again sat quietly and listened to our explanations. As the lesson progressed, he began to contribute a few words at a time. At one point, his son wasn't understanding the vital nature of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Big boss pastor dad, who had been paying attention to what we were teaching, stopped us and laid out the doctrine plainly to his son. Elder Austin and I smiled at each other and built on his explanation. For the rest of the lesson, the father seemed to be more on our side than that of his son. I'm not sure what's going to come out of it yet, but we're praying for the best. We're still trying to figure out how to handle him.

On a different occasion, we had a slightly less inspirational exchange of words with a Muslim who decided to forcibly stop his wife from coming to church. She has been a member for quite a while, and he's always allowed her to come. He's a super less active Muslim, so he pretty much didn't care. But his wife visited another member's house  for longer than he expected a few weeks ago, leaving her house empty, and she stopped coming to church since. When we went to investigate, he told us never to come back and never to have her come to church again. We weren't happy about that. Women are treated like property in the culture here. It sucks. I never want to be like that when I get home.

We did service at a blood drive on Saturday and got soaked by a huge rainstorm on Friday and ate a really weirdly shaped lemon from our tree out front. So life is normal.

Well I feel like I'm becoming a better missionary a little bit at a time.

Love,

Elder Nelson

Live Conference!

Dear America,

This week was pretty cool. It was unusually difficult to teach a lot, which made the week kind of slow, but general conference made everything better. I got to watch everything except for the women's session and the Sunday afternoon session. I EVEN GOT TO WATCH THE SUNDAY MORNING SESSION LIVE. While it was really happening. At the same time as you (4:00 pm for me). I love to be able to feel the spirit so strongly while I listen to conference. In the priesthood session there was a talk given by Elder Curtis which mentioned the exact place that I am in right now. President Ofosu-hene (mentioned in the talk) was the district president here for a while, as well as the regional police commander. He's since moved to Kumasi to be the regional police commander for all of the Ashanti region and the Brong-ahafo region. Which is a huge deal. If the missionaries have problems with the police, we call him and he talks to the policemen. Then we don't have problems. It's super cool. One time the missionaries were driving to Paga when the tro was stopped by some corrupt policemen who wanted the white men to give them money (actually pretty common here). They wouldn't let the tro past until the missionaries paid up, but Elder Gibson called President Ofosu-hene and gave the phone to the policeman. He got pale (as pale as a black man can get) and gave a lot of "yes, sir", "no, sir" chatter and then promptly let the tro past. Life in Ghana is all about who you know. But aside from that, he's done a lot to build up the church here in Tamale.

I enjoyed the fact that most of the conference talks were centered around repentance and its relationship to the Atonement and the plan of salvation. Repentance is something that always applies to every one of us, no matter our circumstances. One thing I'm learning on my mission is how to better repent. Continual improvement is a gift from God, that's for sure. 

This week we made pancakes and crepes in the apartment. They were good, except we didn't really have anything to put on top of the crepes. So we just ate them plain. We've been on a really strict budget this week in order to help pay for an upcoming zone activity.

Elder Nelson

Additional info from surprise e-mail exchange:

What’s your new companion’s personality like? Does he remind you of anyone we would know? What are your primary methods of finding people to teach? Which ones are working the best in your new area?

He reminds me of every geeky band kid that you ever knew. He's super fun. We get along really easily because we have a lot of the same background. My primary methods of finding people to teach are (1) being righteous and letting those that God has prepared fall into place, (2) becoming really well acquainted with the members of the branch so they feel comfortable introducing people to us, and (3) watching for opportunities to serve people as we walk and usually NOT giving a whole lesson on my first interaction with someone.

I'm in an 80% Muslim community. Christmas doesn't really matter here, even if you are a Christian. Although the festival of fire is coming up, which is super dangerous because of all the violence and black magic and shooting, etc.... The missionaries weren't allowed to proselyte on that day last year. That's a bigger holiday than Christmas.

Do you ever feel like things are dangerous? Do you think it’s harder or easier to talk to people because you are white / american?

Not really dangerous. Just inconsiderate and generally not well thought out. If there is a dangerous situation, we've always been warned by the Spirit before we get into any real trouble. People just try to take advantage of us a lot. 

It's easier to get people to talk to because we're white, but generally those who are readily available to talk to us aren't serious at all about important things. They just want money or something like that. So it has its advantages and disadvantages.

What restrictions do you have regarding Muslims? Has your impression of Muslims changed? Have you found kind and generous Muslims?

We cannot teach a Muslim unless they are first interviewed by the zone leaders to make sure that all parties involved are free from danger. In Muslim law, infidels are free game to be killed without discretion. But it's not as bad here because you have bunch of less-active Muslims living with a bunch of less-active Christians. So they're bound to get along. All religion here is pretty watered-down and mixed with traditionalism, so yes, there are a lot of nice people, Muslim or not.

how much cooking do you do per week? Do you ever eat with members of the church? Can you ever eat somewhere, or do you have to be careful?

We eat more with members here than anywhere else I've been, about two or three times a week. Other than that, it's our own cooking for breakfast and lunch most of the time. Occasionally we buy from shops on the street, but that's usually just small food like fried yam or other semi-filling snacks.

Wonderful Sister Wood

Both my husband and I were sad to hear that your son was being transferred.  He is truly an exemplary missionary.  The people love him and he serves with humility, and exactness to the mission rules.  Elder Nelson is hardworking and we sadly cant say that about all the missionaries we know.

He has been such a great example to two young men who are planning,  and one is going on missions.  He has helped and encouraged them.  Desmond Bakam leaves on the 6^th of October for the MTC in Accra.  He will serve here in Ghana.

Elder Nelson and his companion were largely responsible for Desmond going.  He will be the first missionary to leave from Techiman since the Church was organized in 2013.  He has also taught a young man to play the organ.  Ofosu is at the level that he was able to play the hymns for the Dwumoh Branch conference a few weeks back.  Elder Nelson conducted the music for it.

You have raised a wonderful son and we are very sorry to see him go but Tamale will be blest to have him serve there.

Thank you for your email.  The blogs that I do were intended for my family and friends so I was most surprised when I received a message from Mormon News Room asking if they could republish a blog I had written.  I was flattered and a little embarrassed.  I am happy that you are able to read them.

May our Father in Heaven continue to bless you as you raise your children in the Gospel,  and I know he will.  The fruits of your labors are evident in your son Elder Nelson, and thank you.

Elder and Sister Wood Techiman Ghana.

Tamale!

Dear America,

It isn't tamale like the Mexican food. It's TAHmahlay. Kind of. Anyways, it's been a good week. I didn't really have a lot of time to say goodbye to all of the people I know back in Dwumoh, which is sad. Transfers had extra short notice this time around, so I only had Monday to pack before I left on Tuesday morning at 5:30. Usually we wait until Wednesday. But not this time. I had to go to a meeting in Kumasi on Tuesday morning (a three-hour tro ride) and then I just sat around the mission home all day without doing anything. Which was super boring. But they do have air conditioning there, which we made sure to use. On Wednesday morning we started off for Tamale. The first bus depot that we stopped at told us that they wouldn't have room on the bus for most of our luggage after making us wait for an hour. So we packed over to a depot across town and caught a slightly sketchier bus. Which broke down in the middle of nowhere. So what was supposed to be a six-hour ride from Kumasi turned into an 11-hour adventure in the middle of the jungle between Techiman and Tamale.

But we made it and I'm really enjoying Tamale. It's bigger than Techiman. And A LOT of people here speak English. It's fantastic. The drive was interesting because I watched the landscape move from jungle to the kind of dirt hut/grassland/termite mound Africa that you've seen in nature films. Not quite, but it's similar. I'll take some pictures for you. My companion is Elder Austin, the first white companion that I've had. He's fun to be around and a really good missionary even though he barely finished his training. The next few transfers will be a lot of fun hard work.

The branch here is slightly bigger, and it's under the Tamale District, NOT under the Ghana Kumasi Mission like the ones in Techiman. So we have a real district president and everything. The people here are very friendly. There are several large families that provide the base for the branch. It makes me feel comfortable to be around a lot of large families with crazy children and overworked mothers. Haha that sounds familiar.

It hasn't been very hot yet. Mostly it's been raining. After this, we'll go back into hammatan, the colder season. So I think I'll be fortunate to avoid the majority of the legendary northern heat. But there have been a few occasions that the sun beats pretty hard. I'm out of Twi range. The biggest language up here apart from English is Dagbani. But almost everyone can speak English really well, so I don't have to worry about it as much. Strangely, I'm missing my Twi. That's completely unexpected because I think Twi is an inferior language, but I'm finding myself looking for people that I can converse with in Twi. Weird.

Love,

Elder Nelson

A Little Bit of My History By David Koranteng

A Little Bit of My History

By David Koranteng

I will start from my mom and my dad. My father's name is Jecop Kwabena Koranteng, and my mother is Dorcas Yaa Fabia. Also, I was born on the 23 of December 1984 at Boabeng, Nkoranza. I started KG at Boabeng L/A Primary School. In 1989 my mom and my father travelled to the Northern Region with all of my family, to a village called Saboba (near Yendi) for my father's work as a blacksmith. My mother sold fried yam and ball floats. I continued my education there. When I was in primary class 3, the Conconba and Dagbani and Kusasi peoples started fighting and there was a war between them. So we returned back to our village and continued my education from class 4. I continued JSS at Fiema Anglican JHS, where I completed in the year 1999. After that, my dad told me that he didn't have any money for me to continue my education. So I should come to Techiman and learn to work on cars. My dad brought me to my uncle, who had been trained to be a blacksmith by my dad. His name was Kwasi Fei. It was my uncle who chose that I should go and learn how to repair carburettors. So I resided at my uncle's place from the year 2000 to 2002, when my uncle sacked me from his house without a reason. I still don't know what I did to my uncle or what caused him to sack me.

When I packed my bag and tools to my home town, I met a lady and her husband named Mr. and Mrs. Adjei. They asked me where I was going and I told them that I had been sacked by my uncle. They also asked me the reason why. They told me that they have built their own house and the place they are staying they used to rent and they are moving to their own house. They said that they had a veranda and asked me if I would be able to sleep there and continue my work. I agreed that I would stay there, so they told me that I should go and tell my parents that I had a place to stay and that my parents should come so that they can meet them. I returned back to my village at Boabeng. I went to tell my parents that I had found some people that gave me an offer and they should come with me so that if everything happened, they can go to my home place or they even know my parents. My parents said that they don't have money for the taxi fair so I should return back and tell my landlords that they will come on Thursday. I slept on that veranda from 2002 to 2004, when I completed my learning of the work of fixing carburettors.

From January 2006, God blessed me with two apprentices, Kofi Wonaraa and his brother Kwabena James. Kofi and his brother James told me that I should buy them two bicycles for them to go and farm for me. I decided to buy the bicycles for them for 120 cedis total. I took them to my village, Boabeng, for the farming. We planted maize.  They did work on the farm until the maize was grown up and I wrapped the maize. I got 400 cedis from this. I used 250 cedis to rent a room from Jan 15, 2007 at Tunsuasi.

On 17 June I met a lady called Afia Sarah and proposed to her. She accepted. We did not marry, but we gave birth to a girl, Lovia Fabia Koranteng. When I was a deacon in my former church, Charity Pentecostal Church at Abuoso Techiman, I told my pastor Kweku Michael from Cote d'Ivore my situation, he told me that I should go and pay the bride price for the girl. I also did follow up, but the girl said that she would not allow me to pay the bride price to her father. It took a long time until she gave birth. I and my family met the girl's father to beg the father to give us some small time so I should come and pay the bride price. I took the girl back to Techiman and we just sat for one year and six months. That time, I was residing with my two sisters, Mercy Adubia Koranteng and Agyeiwaa Koranteng. One evening when I returned from work, there was confusion in between Sarah and my two sisters. The same night, Sarah told me that she cannot reside with me and my sisters at the same house, so I should rent a new room for us to go and reside. I also told her that I don't have money to rent a room now. She told me that then she won't marry me but instead pack her things and go to her home town, called Bonte near Busunya. I and my family did follow her to her town and once again met her father and explained the situation to him. My dad told her dad that we had just come to apologize for anything that happened and that he should forgive us so that she will come and reside with me again. Her father and her aunt and cousins all used to beg her to forget and carry on with the marriage, but she refused. My mom and my dad, including her family too, gave her a chance to think about it for her to come back. But she still refused, saying that she would not marry again.

In 2012, I met another girl called Vivian Ampofoh and I proposed to her too. She accepted. After she accepted, she also got pregnant. On December 5, 2012 she gave birth to Freda Adjei Koranteng. Six months later after her birth, I and my family met Sister Vivian's family and paid the bride price of Vivian so that we would become wife and husband on 28 June 2013.

From 15 December 2013 I met some missionaries called Elder Daniel Ekpo and Elder Corbeth Stempfily from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They introduced the Church and I attended midweek for the first time. From that, I started as an investigator. When they came, the English language was a big problem to me. I didn't hear them or understand anything that they were saying, but I knew just to say “Oh, yes, yes. Yo, mati.” But whenever they came, they always told me to pray and ask Heavenly Father whether the message is true or not. The first time I entered into the chapel, it was midweek and they were learning from the Book of Mormon. I came with my apprentice, Collins. When the lesson was going, I only heard, “And it came to pass that...”, “And it came to pass that...”. So I sat down and asked myself if these people were serious. “it came to pass that, king this, Abinidi this.” So I said, “Ah! This church! What is that Abinidi, Abinidi, it came to pass? Ah! No, I haven't heard this in the Bible before.” When midweek finally closed, I had heard nothing. Because English language speaking was very hard for me, I couldn't ask them any question. I was having plenty questions paa, but I couldn't ask them any question. The following day, they came back to my workplace and asked me how the church was last night. So I just said that “Ah! Master! I hear nothing koraa!” So the Elders encouraged me that I should pray and also read the Book of Mormon and a time will come that I would understand everything. I still continued coming as an investigator. After that, Stempfily was transferred out of the area. It was left with Elder Ekpo and Elder Adams. They chose a date for me that I should be baptised, but still I was not happy and I did not even want to baptise because I still did not hear at church meetings or sacrament meetings or anything that they were trying to say. When the date came, I just told myself that I would go and baptise.  It was 5 January 2014 that I was baptised by President Robert Awiisi.

The day that I was baptised I fought them paa. When I came from the baptismal font and they told me to go and change in one room, I fell down serious! No joke! Sister Olsen and her husband called the missionaries and told them to help me stand. They took me to the room to change myself. After baptism, they called me that I should come and bear my testimony. I just go and stand in front of them and I said that “I thank God for me also to baptise in the church. I know that the church is true.” But in my mind, I was planning that “No, no, this church there, in fact, I won't join this church because I just went and fell down in front of my Heavenly Father. So no, I won't join this church.” I was thinking “Why would this happen? I've lost my way. That's why I've fallen down.” But the following Sunday, I did come and they confirmed me as a member. But it was still in my mind that I would not be in this church. I would stop. I would just run away. The day that I was confirmed was the day that I started to pray to ask Heavenly Father if the church was true. From that time, I read the Book of Mormon and also my Bible before I sleep. One night, I just got a dream. It was like somebody was chasing me and I was just running and running. Suddenly, I appeared at a place where I saw a tall old man. He was wearing white clothes. His beard was white. He asked me where I was going. I told him that somebody was just chasing me, but I looked back and I didn't see the person who was chasing me. In the dream, I said, “Please, old man, let me ask you some question because you are old man.” He said, ok, I should ask him. I asked him that I had met some people who called themselves missionaries. They gave me this book and said that it is the word of God so I should read it. The old man looked at my face and he said as he removed a bible from his pocket that “You can continue reading the book, but look, you should remember that this book (the Bible) is also the word of God. But you must know that you will be judged according to the words inside of that book (the Book of Mormon) and those who use this book (the Bible) too will be judged according to its words.” After that I just awoke from the dream. So still, I was afraid, asking myself what I should do. I was confused that night. “Ah! God, what should I do? I know that the Bible is the word of God, but this Book of Mormon, why should I read it? Because I will be judged according to it then. Then it is better for me to stop reading this book or stop this church.

The dream was on Sunday night before Monday morning. On Wednesday I came to midweek. Elder Atandji was teaching the midweek. One guy, also an investigator, asked a question that the Book of Mormon is from where? When Elder Atandji was answering the question, Elder Ward opened the book of Ezekiel chapter 37. When Atandji read that quotation, I still couldn't hear the English properly but I was just getting some understanding. So I just stood up and went over to the other investigator and asked him what he had said. It was like the dream that I dreamed was what we were discussing, The lesson turned as my dream. I also went home and read the quotation from Ezekiel. From that day, I told Elder Adams that I couldn't read English properly. He asked if I could read Twi. I told him yes. They later brought a Twi copy of the Book of Mormon for me. From then, I was getting some small understanding. After that, I introduced my wife to Elder Adams and Elder Ekpo and they also taught her.  That is how I joined the church.

After joining the church, I was called to be a branch clerk. President Opoku informed me that they wanted to give me some position in the church so I should come in for an interview on Saturday. I told him that “Ah, President, you know that as for me I can't read, I can't write, so please, you just search for another person.” He said that my name had already been selected, so I should come for interview whether I like it or not. I said ok. On that Saturday, I was in my workplace and he came. “Hey David, have you forgotten the assignment? Just leave the work and come now.” I left and followed him to the church premise. After two or three people were interviewed, President Holmes sat down and asked me some few questions. I did answer some, so he said that I should go. Sunday morning when we came to sacrament meeting, the announcement was made when President Holmes called my name to stand up. After I stood, he said that I had been found worthy to serve as a branch clerk. The members did sustain me. He said that the following week, he would come and set me apart. After we closed the sacrament meeting, I told President Opoku that no, no, dabi, dabi, I can't read, I can't write, and what even is the meaning of that “clerk”?  Even President Opoku said that he didn't know the meaning. Later he said that when they come and set me apart we should all understand it. It was Wednesday evening that they brought computers to the chapel office. They called me. When I came in the chapel, I met Elder Olsen. He said, “David! These computers—you are coming to use one. You will be having one. You will keep all of the church records on that computer.” Ah! The way he spoke, “BRLBLROSBLEBL” I heard nothing. But when President Opoku heard him, he started jubilating. He was very happy. When the Olsens left, I asked President Opoku what Elder Olsen said. He explained to me that Elder Olsen was trying to say that I would keep all of the records and the finances on the computer and that on Saturday there would be a training so I should come and join them. When the trainers came, I and President Opoku attended the training.

Two weeks later, President Holmes came to set me apart. I told President Holmes that I couldn't use the computer because I couldn't write, I couldn't read, and in fact I knew nothing about the computer. President Holmes just looked at me and asked me one question: “David, do you believe in Jesus Christ?” I said yes. “Ok, then if you believe in Jesus Christ, accept the calling. If you deny the calling, you have denied Jesus Christ.” He also asked me another question: “Do you know me, and the Spirit that I work with?” I said no. “That is why I've come here. I'm coming to lay my hands upon you and set you apart. That Spirit within me that I work with, I'm coming to give you some. So you just have faith.” I said ok. I just nodded my head. I was afraid! My heart was jumping, bep, bep, bep, bep. He called me to the office. He set me apart and still encouraged me that I should read the doctrines of the gospel and always pray. I also started praying and studied the scriptures. I remember the first time that I sat at the computer. I was still afraid, so I called the president to come and assist me. But the president likes the computer paa, so when he came, he told me to get up so that he could sit down. He told me to just stand there and look at what he was doing. Anytime after church, he just came and sat on the computer. So I just sat down and said “Ah! No, I will not let President to do the thing again. No matter how, I will do it.” So when the donations came, I tried to enter them. When I finished, I went to show it to President if it was ok. He said that “you have an error here, and an error here. Go and correct this place.” Since then, when I sit on the computer, I can use it to operate. I can speak English. I can write, probably not all, but small small. I can use it in the internet, Google, Facebook.

Even now, if there is a big English spoken in the church, I am the one  who can translate it. This all is done because of the Book of Mormon. Because I have the English and the Twi. If I read the English and there is big borofo (English), then I turn to the place in my Twi Book of Mormon. So that is what has helped me.

To be continued.

Quoted and abridged in small part by Elder Isaac Bradley Nelson