Snails Taste Like Dirt

Dear America,

Life is a breeze in Nkawkaw. This week was a week of anticipation, transfer rumors, and flying by the seat of our pants. Elder Nuamah has been expecting to go this transfer, but we got a phone call from President on Tuesday evening telling him to pack his things and be at the mission home the next day. FYI We were planning to go to the leadership counsel anyway. We always travel to Kumasi on Wednesday and stay the night in the mission home before the mission leadership counsel the next day. So we arrived at the mission home with all of his luggage to find that about half of the zone leaders in the mission had been told to do the same. Nobody knew what was going on. That night, speculations were flying. It was crazy. Anyways, President Cosgrave did the big reveal the next day and everyone got sorted out. It was the transfer before transfers.

Long story short, I have a new companion now. His name is Elder Wood from Johannesburg, South Africa. He's a nice guy and willing to work and learn. This week leading up to the transfer has been more stressful than usual for everyone (especially President), and Elder Wood has been good to support me while I'm scrambling.

On our way to the mission home, we stopped at the sisters' apartment to give them some supplies. They fed us banku with okro. There were snails in the okro, so of course I jumped (excitedly) at the opportunity to try it. I would definitely eat it again. It has a nice texture. But in case you've never tasted snail, I'll tell you right now that they taste like dirt. High-quality dirt. Like a well-potted plant or a freshly tilled garden. But it only tastes like dirt on the foot of the snail. The inside part tastes like....... snail. All in all a satisfying experience.

We had district conference in Nkawkaw this week, and the theme was repentance. I love listening to talks about repentance as a daily necessity; I'm still trying to apply those talks. As Easter is coming up, I'm sure you've seen the Church initiative #princeofpeace. If you speak Twi, that's Oheneba asumdwea. As I read Moroni 7:3 this week, I was struck by the part about entering into his rest. It's an immediate thing, not an eventual or delayed promise. And I felt like Moroni was at least in part referring to peace. Rest from care and trouble isn't just something reserved for the end of the Plan of Salvation, it's an instant strength. Jesus Christ offers us peace regardless of outside circumstances. It reminds me of a talk called "Then shall thy confidence wax strong" or something like that. You can look it up. So I looked up "rest" in the Topical Guide and read through the quotations, inserting "peace" instead of "rest" whenever rest is used as a noun in the scriptures. It works. And it makes the promise seem more personal and applicable instead of something that will happen after we are dead and gone.

Have a great Easter!

Elder Nelson

Danso's Baptism

Dear America,

This week one of our investigators was baptized! He's the first one in a long time that this branch has had. His name is Danso and he lives in the same house as one of the really strong families in the branch. The missionaries found him quite a while ago, but he kind of resisted efforts to teach him. So we left him alone for a while and eventually he started coming to church with the family because he didn't like being the only one left in the house on Sunday mornings. This is an example of positive peer pressure. He loves church, participates well, gives good contributions, and already has a lot of friends in the church. So we started sneakily teaching him the missionary lessons whenever he came to church and now he's baptized.

Our zone covers a lot of area, so we do a lot of traveling back and forth to take care of business. At first I liked it, but it's getting kind of old. The cars are always sketchy and the drivers are even sketchier. But the funny thing is that whenever I drive in a nice, smooth, air conditioned car (like President Cosgrave's) I get carsick. I'm so used to a bouncy, windy, stinky, packed tro that I feel nauseous in a real car. So life is going to be rough when I get home.

Speaking of spending a lot of time on the road, I'll have almost no time to proselyte this week because I'll be running back and forth from meetings in Kumasi and Nkawkaw. I'm not looking forward to it too much.

Love,

Elder Nelson

The pictures are before the baptism and of a pineapple farm. I'd never seen a pineapple farm before.