Dear America,
On Monday we had FHE with a family in the branch and we played "face-biscuit" with them. It turns out that I'm pretty much a pro at moving a biscuit from my forehead to my mouth.
We made a lot of food as an apartment this week, including but not limited to: stew for the whole week, jollof rice to feed the sister missionaries, pancakes for Elder Prior's birthday, and ampesi after church. It all turned out really well. We were also invited over for sloppy joes at the senior couple's apartment. Which was fantastic.
During personal study, I had the chance to watch an old BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox titled "His Grace is Sufficient". It was really good. In it, he made the analogy that the Atonement is similar to a mother buying piano lessons for her child. The lessons are paid for. The child is asked to practice. Practicing does not pay for the lessons at all; it doesn't reimburse the mother at all. Practice only helps the child take full advantage of the opportunity to learn and grow. Christ has paid the debt to justice, it's just up to us to allow that to work a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, so that we can become the best "pianists" possible. Elder Neville shared this same analogy with me years ago, but I forgot about the details until now.
Speaking of piano, Lora Gunderson was right. I'm a music snob. I still am. Techiman zone has been working to prepare a musical number for the upcoming mission tour, and that's been getting me worked up. Especially last Tuesday. By the time we finished practicing, I was angry. I wanted to have some words with Elder Khumalo and let him know that he had no idea what he was doing. But through no small amount of self-control, I convinced myself to wait a few days to think about things. I remember that Elder Antwi taught me that we need to reprove betimes with sharpness, but we don't have to do it immediately. It needs to be the right time and place. I held onto that advice as tightly as I could. A month ago, I wouldn't have hesitated to give him some fire. But the Lord helped me as I took some time to cool down and think about things. That was a good decision. I was able to discuss the situation nicely and I learned a lot from Elder Khumalo about being considerate and working with people. That's one of his strengths. This is why we have companions--to keep our weaknesses in check.
This week we baptised a man named Francis. I think he'll be a strength to the Church here in Dwumoh. We've been working closely with the second counselor in the branch presidency because we don't have a branch mission leader yet. The whole branch presidency seems to be catching a better understanding of what the Church is like. It's slow but steady. We were even able to go on a walk with the second counselor's wife today. She's blind, so she doesn't get out much. It was fun to have her talking and going places with us.
I've been managing my sub really easily these days. We're supposed to use about 80 cedis every week, and I ended last week with 55 cedis left over. Soooooo I'm gonna have to buy more American food or something.
Elder NelsonOn Monday we had FHE with a family in the branch and we played "face-biscuit" with them. It turns out that I'm pretty much a pro at moving a biscuit from my forehead to my mouth.
We made a lot of food as an apartment this week, including but not limited to: stew for the whole week, jollof rice to feed the sister missionaries, pancakes for Elder Prior's birthday, and ampesi after church. It all turned out really well. We were also invited over for sloppy joes at the senior couple's apartment. Which was fantastic.
During personal study, I had the chance to watch an old BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox titled "His Grace is Sufficient". It was really good. In it, he made the analogy that the Atonement is similar to a mother buying piano lessons for her child. The lessons are paid for. The child is asked to practice. Practicing does not pay for the lessons at all; it doesn't reimburse the mother at all. Practice only helps the child take full advantage of the opportunity to learn and grow. Christ has paid the debt to justice, it's just up to us to allow that to work a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, so that we can become the best "pianists" possible. Elder Neville shared this same analogy with me years ago, but I forgot about the details until now.
Speaking of piano, Lora Gunderson was right. I'm a music snob. I still am. Techiman zone has been working to prepare a musical number for the upcoming mission tour, and that's been getting me worked up. Especially last Tuesday. By the time we finished practicing, I was angry. I wanted to have some words with Elder Khumalo and let him know that he had no idea what he was doing. But through no small amount of self-control, I convinced myself to wait a few days to think about things. I remember that Elder Antwi taught me that we need to reprove betimes with sharpness, but we don't have to do it immediately. It needs to be the right time and place. I held onto that advice as tightly as I could. A month ago, I wouldn't have hesitated to give him some fire. But the Lord helped me as I took some time to cool down and think about things. That was a good decision. I was able to discuss the situation nicely and I learned a lot from Elder Khumalo about being considerate and working with people. That's one of his strengths. This is why we have companions--to keep our weaknesses in check.
This week we baptised a man named Francis. I think he'll be a strength to the Church here in Dwumoh. We've been working closely with the second counselor in the branch presidency because we don't have a branch mission leader yet. The whole branch presidency seems to be catching a better understanding of what the Church is like. It's slow but steady. We were even able to go on a walk with the second counselor's wife today. She's blind, so she doesn't get out much. It was fun to have her talking and going places with us.
I've been managing my sub really easily these days. We're supposed to use about 80 cedis every week, and I ended last week with 55 cedis left over. Soooooo I'm gonna have to buy more American food or something.
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