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