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.
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