First Transfer

Dear America,

It's been a good week for me. Last Monday, the elders from Offinso came to stay in Kronum overnight so they could come to zone conference the next morning. We put all the mattresses in our apartment on the floor together and had a big sleepover. It was pretty neat. They enjoyed the rice and stew that I made, which I'm pretty proud of. The zone conference the next day was good. I learned a lot, but none of it came from what was spoken. The Spirit impressed me with some unrelated things that I can improve on while I was listening. So I just need to work on putting them into practice.

On Thursday, Elder Akpan came on an exchange to be with me in Kronum. He's from Nigeria and he's even newer in the mission field than I am. It's strange to think that I'm not the youngest one here anymore.

Well, transfer news has arrived. Elder Antwi and I are both leaving Kronum. We are being replaced by four sisters. A lot of sisters came to the mission this transfer. Elder Antwi is staying pretty close by in Boukrom, but I'm going all the way to Techiman in the Brong Ahafo region. That's pretty far away. I'll be with Elder Khumalo from South Africa. I'm not sure what the area is called, but I think it's Ptumadwo or something like that. I've heard some interesting things about the area, but I'll wait until next week so I can tell you what it's really like. Since it's in the Brong Ahafo region, they'll hopefully speak more English. There'll also be more Muslims. President Cosgrave has really shaken up the mission this transfer, doing things that we've never heard of before. He isn't afraid to take a risk and try something radical and learn from it. I admire that about him. I just hope it pays off for us.

I've enjoyed my time here in Kronum. It's been a great place for me to get the hang of missionary work. I feel like I've been able to learn to be more patient with people here. I've also become more humble and less impulsive. This Sunday it really took a lot of control for me not to chastise some people in Elders' Quorum when they were trying to disrupt the class with stupid questions. It's something that I've been working on, and I was kind of surprised that I managed to keep my cool. I've learned a lot, and I'm grateful for the people here.

I don't know what this transfer is going to bring. I don't know if I'll be able to send pictures or write letters or anything, so we'll see what the future has next week. At least I'm not in Bolgatanga. 

Love, Elder Nelson

Toilet Paper

Dear America,

Sorry it's going to be short this week. There was a storm and the internet is being slow so it's hard for me to write anything. But I'm trying.


Well this week was productive for me. Yesterday we were able to explain the story of Adam to a man as we taught about the Plan of Salvation. He knew the story, but he didn't understand why things needed to happen that way. I think he's been bothered about it for his whole life without really realizing it. We read from 2 Nephi chapter 2 with him, and it was marvelous to see the light that came into his eyes as he was able to make the connections for himself. Sometimes I wonder why the Plan of Salvation isn't the first lesson that we teach to investigators, but Elder Antwi reminded me that whenever we happen to teach the Plan of Salvation to a pastor, that's the subject of their own preaching the very next Sunday. They like to copy us, which is useless without the priesthood. But I really enjoy teaching the Plan of Salvation and seeing people understand it. It makes me feel like an effective missionary or something.

We went to buy some things for the apartment, including some rolls of toilet paper. The shopkeeper asked in all seriousness what I was going to use them for because we don't need to poop in America.

It was fantastic to hear about Braden Boyce's mission call! Congratulations to him. I saw that Elder Neville has permitted me entrance into the "fufu driving club", because we're going to make and chop some nice fufu when we get back. He's lookin good.

I'm also sorry that there aren't pictures this week, but I have them and they'll come eventually. I've been taking scenery pictures for mom, trying hard not to look like a tourist while I do it. So those are coming.

Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

Zoo

Dear America,

Well this would be the last week of the transfer if we weren't on an 8-week transfer schedule, but things are cooking along as usual. The rainy season has finally arrived. It's my favorite. I've been missing the rain. I made spaghetti this morning for a change. It was nice.

Elder Antwi and I had the opportunity to instruct in Sunday school this week about 2 Ne chapters 31-33, "Press forward with steadfastness in Christ". I taught mostly from chapter 32, about feasting on the words of Christ. I was looking through past issues of the Liahona and found this quote:

"Don't yield to Satan's lie that you don't have time to study the scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!" --Elder Richard G. Scott

And one of my favorites:

"Your faith will grow not by chance, but by choice." --Neal L. Anderson

We went to the Kumasi Zoo today. It was super neat. Hopefully I'll be able to send pictures in a little while.

On a different note, it's a well-known fact that we don't always get what we expect when we pray. Even Nephi prayed to burst the bands with which he was bound, but took it as an answer when they were loosed a little so he could get out. I don't know if he was disappointed when that happened, but it must have been a little anticlimactic. The primary song "Holding Hands Around the World" says, "when I pray for help, he will give me strength". It doesn't say, "when I pray for help, he will give me help". It's true. Most often, we just get enough divine assistance to continue on a little bit further.

This week I went on an exchange to be with Elder Larson, on of my TCs from Arizona. He's cool. While in Afrancho, I saw some children walking flies. They had caught these huge flies, as big as American quarters, and tied yarn onto them. They were walking beside their flying pets on the dirt road. It was probably one of the coolest things I've seen so far.

I'll send some pictures separately. Have a good week!

Elder Nelson

Finally, Rain!

This week I had the opportunity to instruct in district council about how we can better invite the Spirit into our lives and into our lessons. My teaching wasn't really that inspirational, but I have been learning this week that repentance is for everyone every day. The really great people in this church are the ones who are good at repenting.

Speaking of the church, I'm not sure that on my mission I've been able to convince anybody that the church is true. But it sure has convinced me.  I feel I can strongly identify with the song "We'll bring the world his truth" (Armies of Helaman). And I'm really grateful for that, especially how I was raised.

Here's a short fact about pounding fufu that I've learned: The heavier the pistil, the easier the pounding. If the stick is too light, it's really hard to pound effectively. Your hands get blisters and eventually calluses and they hurt for days. But if the stick is heavy enough, gravity does most of the work for you. If you think about that in relation to "there must needs be opposition in all things", I'm sure that you can pull out some sort of spiritual parable.

The weather is changing! It rained for the first time in months on Monday night last. It was so wonderful. I've been missing overcast weather. It's been so hot and scorchy lately. But hopefully the rainy season comes in full force quickly and gives me some relief.

We made some nice ampesi in the apartment this week. It's boiled yam (NOT sweet potatoes) dipped into a stew of some sort and eaten together. Elder Antwi likes a lot of red pepper in his food, so I've quickly built up a tolerance for fire. But I'll bet that Pace has me beat in that department.

On a scale of one-ten, last week was about a three. I was also kind of seeing exactly what I would get if I asked for advice. I'll include a number with my future requests for advice.

On last week's questions:

Really HOW HAPPY are the Ghana people?

They're....... happy. As a disclaimer, anything I say is limited to the Ashanti tribe because I haven't been anywhere else yet. They don't like education. Or English. Or understanding things. They're totally proud to sit in the dirt for their whole lives. So we have the monumental task of changing the way they think. Not just what they think, but the way they think about things. You have no idea how ridiculously hard that is. They are really good at accepting "the word of God". It's easy to get numbers here. But it's hard to get powerful converts.

Have you faced the "superstitious" part of the culture? What are 2 or 3 examples? How do you differentiate between gospel and cultural traditions when you are teaching people. 

Yes, we've had a few funny experiences. I told about teaching in the home of a fetish priest a few weeks ago. Elder Antwi's father used to be a fetish priest. There are some weeeiiiiiirrrrrdddd things that happen with that stuff. But generally not around us. And people's poor understanding of English leads them to believe that Latter-day Saints perform blood rituals to summon evil spirits that give them money. Which is funny because everyone wants money here, so why not come and get money? But apparently we worship mammon and we call evil spirits in our funny-looking churches. You just have to teach them what the English words "saints", "mormon", etc... mean.

Have you gotten past the overwhelmed/stressful feelings of doing something new in a new place and felt the joy of being a missionary in Ghana yet? When and where?

There are still things that I don't understand about the culture, but I'm getting better every day at being charitable and Christlike. I love seeing people progress and have their lives lighted by the gospel. It's really wonderful to see.

I had a good week this week.

Elder Nelson