More Sobolo!

Dear America,

The quick email this week was neat. I liked the talk from Elder Holland. My main snack this week was sobolo, the drink that I've written about before. One of the members makes really nice sobolo, so I paid them to make a bunch of it for me. It is so nice. I just sit in my chair in the kitchen at night and sip from my cup of high-grade sobolo and feel sophisticated. Or when I'm taking care of finances at my desk and I drink like two liters of it. Beautiful. The snacks last week were exactly what they look like.... small fried fish. And yes, I bought more and made a small stew that lasted me the entire week. It was good.

We had zone conference this week where we were able to watch the worldwide missionary broadcast all the way through because we didn't the first time. It was a good experience. It also made the conference last forever and a half.

There have been several times this week when investigators sucked at keeping their commitments and made life hard for us, but when you look at it from the point of view of God, we all suck at keeping our commitments. One day in particular, I was feeling pretty grumpy but I'm a servant of the Lord and servants of the Lord can't afford to be grumpy. So I said a prayer that I would feel happier. It worked. My mood immediately started to lighten and the next lesson we went into was the best one of the whole week. The man (a former investigator) was really interested about the Holy Ghost. We taught him pure, basic doctrine about the third member of the Godhead and felt the Spirit bear witness to everything we said. It touched him so deeply to finally learn about what the Holy Ghost feels like and what His role is. And then I had the opportunity to teach and testify about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It's such a blessing to have peace, joy, and guidance from our Heavenly Father constantly throughout our lives. The man's interest in being baptized and receiving this gift was suddenly renewed. We left the lesson smiling. Later in the day, he called us to ask where to find some of the scripture references we used, so I suspect that his interest was genuine.

Another instance was at the end of a long, hard day when we stopped by a stubborn Roman Catholic family that we've met (and argued with) before. We spent a while chatting with them. Pretty soon the subject came to the Law of Chastity and we were informally teaching them about the dangers of pornography. They were as stubborn and contentious as ever, but at the end of everything one of them told me quietly that she had been considering pornography use but after what we had taught, she decided against it. It made me really happy. Even if they never get baptized, I've at least helped somebody's marriage not to fall apart.

Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

I finished the Book of Mormon!

Dear America,

This week went by fast. We were busy in our area most of the time. We taught a lot of good lessons and worked hard, so I was pretty bummed when none of our investigators kept their commitment to come to church. Flaky flaky flaky. But after church on Sunday, one of the members told us about his friend and invited us to come meet him later in the day. His friend turns out to be the MCE for this area, which means that he is the official representative of the President of Ghana here. So all of the government agencies in Nkawkaw and the surrounding villages answer directly to him. Needless to say, he's a busy guy. But he's also been investigating the Church since 1994 and he says that he and his family will be baptized. I gave him my copy of the Book of Mormon Stories because he wants something for his children to read so they can grow up under the influence of the gospel. So I felt like that was a tender mercy from the Lord to show me that my work wasn't worthless to him.

I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission this week. It was so great. At the beginning of my mission, I started to breeze through it like I have done repeatedly in the past. But I stopped and began reading very slowly and carefully to try and milk out as much information as I could. I really enjoyed it this time and I feel like I learned a lot. I should have.... it took me more than a year. Now I'm trying to read through with a specific focus on only one basic doctrine and find as much as I can on that doctrine. It's something that Elder Bednar inspired me to do when he came to the mission. So I guess I'm trying a bunch of different techniques to read through the Book of Mormon and eventually I'll find the one that works best for me.

I don't know if I have any sketchy stories that I'm suddenly going to disclose when I get home... I don't censor my emails very much, so just prepare yourselves so you aren't disappointed. Honestly, I don't even remember the code. But I'll let you know if I send anything confidential.

The pictures are us playing snakes and ladders at a member's house while we wait for the sisters to show up, us eating after they finally do, the food that I've been snacking on all week, and an awesome shirt that an investigator was wearing.

Love, Elder Nelson

P.S. Mom, you can send your response handwritten. That way I'm not limited to reading it on Monday.

Air Conditioning

Dear America,

Good job on focusing on the prophetic priorities. In 3 Nephi 18, Christ teaches the Nephites about the sacrament and then tells them that if they continually participate in this ordinance, they are built upon the rock. Out of everything in the scriptures that makes you a wise man built on the rock, it's the sacrament. And again in Ezekiel 20:18-20, God basically tells us to stop following the foolish traditions of our fathers and start following gospel traditions, first and foremost of which is the Sabbath day. I thought it was cool that it's His number one tradition for us to follow.

The email was obviously from Elder Duaryenneh. I'll be able to use Facebook to talk with them after mission. I still haven't gotten the conference SD. I've given up on that. Thanks for sending the questions. I was wondering what I would write about this week.

Tell us more about your new companion. My companion is Elder Nuamah, a native Ghanaian. He isn't a Fante, but he is from Takoradi. He likes cooking and we never eat food that we didn't make. We work hard together and talk to A LOT of people. He isn't afraid to walk up to anyone on the street and start talking about their salvation. He likes to play the guitar and was in a band prior to his mission. He makes Jack-Johnson-esque songs. He's a good teacher and definitely pulls his own weight.

Who are you teaching? We teach a lot of people, but one of the characteristics of this part of the mission is that people are willing to listen, but not act on what they're taught. So we go through a lot of uncommitted investigators. One neat guy we're teaching is a pastor, but he's the most humble pastor I've met so far. He was so excited to learn about the Book of Mormon and start reading it. He can't read English, so I gave him my personal Twi copy. He said that if he finds out where the priesthood is, he will drop everything and follow the path that God wants him to. 

What is primary like in your branch? I actually haven't visited the primary in our branch yet...I've mostly been working with the youth class and the Sunday School. The primary is the only class downstairs, so they're really isolated and it seems a lot more controlled than any branch I've ever been in on my mission.

What hymns do you sing the most? Probably 194 There is a Green Hill Far Away and 193 I Stand All Amazed because most members don't know how to sing a lot of sacrament hymns. Those are the most widely known ones. 

Do you see any white people, apart from the missionaries? In Tamale I saw an unusually high amount of white people, but they don't really come here at all. I've seen one Chinese since I came down, but apart from that, no. If you're in the cities that have small airports, chances of seeing a white person go up dramatically. Like Kumasi or Tamale.

What is the predominant religion in your area? "One-man" churches. Basically "I need money, so I think I'll start a church!" and then people follow them and go and clap and dance and pay collection and call it church. There are a good amount of Presbyterians here as well. And an occasional JW.

Do you have any problems sleeping on your mission? No. The only thing that sucks is if the power goes out and your fan stops. Then you have to face the mosquitoes and the heat. It will wake you up in the middle of the night just because it's so hot. Lately I feel like pretty pathetic because I'm getting used to turning the air conditioning on for a little while before I sleep (we have air conditioning in our room). It makes it so easy to go to sleep if the room is cold. I'm really going to suffer when I go back to Kumasi.

Love, Elder Nelson