Sunyani- 8/7/17

Dear America,

I got the package with everything inside of it! I'm present at the customs counter when they check our mail, so I can supervise. In fact, they ask us to open every package in front of them so that they can check the contents. So I get to see everything. I'm especially glad for the (old) new camera. I'm so happy.

This week has been thankfully less stressful than last week. We were able to take care of all of our police stuff and got the van back and took around to get repaired. It was driveable after we manhandled it a little bit and gave the fan enough space, so it's forecasted to be back within the week. Which would be appreciated because transfers are coming up quickly. To summarize this week: we tested the van for damage,  had two zone conferences, took departing missionaries to the airport, helped missionaries renew their non-citizen identification cards, prepared for mission leadership council, took care of the customs at the post office, distributed supplies to the zone leaders, drove missionaries around, took a last-minute trip to Sunyani, and proselytized for a little while. In his letter to the mission at the end of the week, President Cosgrave gave us a shoutout:

Just a word about ordering supplies. I have observed the office elders (currently Elder Ayim and Elder Nelson) work very hard to fill your orders for supplies. There are times when they cannot provide what is wanted because we do not have any of that item in stock here, but for the most part, the orders are completed and completed joyfully. Please take the time to express your gratitude for the things that you receive and the effort that is made to give you what is needed to share the Restored Gospel and invite others to come unto Christ. There might be a temptation sometime to feel a sense of entitlement that these office elders should be serving us. In fact they are serving the Lord by serving you, so our sense should be one of appreciation and not entitlement. (This is not solicited by the office elders, nor is it necessarily a major problem, but rather just a bit of loving advice from one who is observing).

Sunyani has been on my mission bucket list for a little while now. It's one of the last extremities of the mission that I hadn't been to yet. We went to the zone conference there and then saw some recent converts that Elder Ayim knew. We also bought some nice Ghanaian ties. At the zone conference, they ran into a problem that there were two zones trying to have meetings but there was only one whiteboard. So they made good use of their resources and had each zone on a different side of the whiteboard (see attached photo). It failed. Neither zone had any focus.

I will probably be pulling some money this week in order to buy some things and I might even use my visa card to help my companion get something online. So if there are any small charges, that is why. 

Lately I've been trying to find something small each day to repent of. I include it in my prayers each night to invite the Lord to help me. It's been cool because I get little reminders of those things at key times even days or weeks after I've resolved to fix them. 

Love, Elder Nelson