A Little Bit of My History By David Koranteng

A Little Bit of My History

By David Koranteng

I will start from my mom and my dad. My father's name is Jecop Kwabena Koranteng, and my mother is Dorcas Yaa Fabia. Also, I was born on the 23 of December 1984 at Boabeng, Nkoranza. I started KG at Boabeng L/A Primary School. In 1989 my mom and my father travelled to the Northern Region with all of my family, to a village called Saboba (near Yendi) for my father's work as a blacksmith. My mother sold fried yam and ball floats. I continued my education there. When I was in primary class 3, the Conconba and Dagbani and Kusasi peoples started fighting and there was a war between them. So we returned back to our village and continued my education from class 4. I continued JSS at Fiema Anglican JHS, where I completed in the year 1999. After that, my dad told me that he didn't have any money for me to continue my education. So I should come to Techiman and learn to work on cars. My dad brought me to my uncle, who had been trained to be a blacksmith by my dad. His name was Kwasi Fei. It was my uncle who chose that I should go and learn how to repair carburettors. So I resided at my uncle's place from the year 2000 to 2002, when my uncle sacked me from his house without a reason. I still don't know what I did to my uncle or what caused him to sack me.

When I packed my bag and tools to my home town, I met a lady and her husband named Mr. and Mrs. Adjei. They asked me where I was going and I told them that I had been sacked by my uncle. They also asked me the reason why. They told me that they have built their own house and the place they are staying they used to rent and they are moving to their own house. They said that they had a veranda and asked me if I would be able to sleep there and continue my work. I agreed that I would stay there, so they told me that I should go and tell my parents that I had a place to stay and that my parents should come so that they can meet them. I returned back to my village at Boabeng. I went to tell my parents that I had found some people that gave me an offer and they should come with me so that if everything happened, they can go to my home place or they even know my parents. My parents said that they don't have money for the taxi fair so I should return back and tell my landlords that they will come on Thursday. I slept on that veranda from 2002 to 2004, when I completed my learning of the work of fixing carburettors.

From January 2006, God blessed me with two apprentices, Kofi Wonaraa and his brother Kwabena James. Kofi and his brother James told me that I should buy them two bicycles for them to go and farm for me. I decided to buy the bicycles for them for 120 cedis total. I took them to my village, Boabeng, for the farming. We planted maize.  They did work on the farm until the maize was grown up and I wrapped the maize. I got 400 cedis from this. I used 250 cedis to rent a room from Jan 15, 2007 at Tunsuasi.

On 17 June I met a lady called Afia Sarah and proposed to her. She accepted. We did not marry, but we gave birth to a girl, Lovia Fabia Koranteng. When I was a deacon in my former church, Charity Pentecostal Church at Abuoso Techiman, I told my pastor Kweku Michael from Cote d'Ivore my situation, he told me that I should go and pay the bride price for the girl. I also did follow up, but the girl said that she would not allow me to pay the bride price to her father. It took a long time until she gave birth. I and my family met the girl's father to beg the father to give us some small time so I should come and pay the bride price. I took the girl back to Techiman and we just sat for one year and six months. That time, I was residing with my two sisters, Mercy Adubia Koranteng and Agyeiwaa Koranteng. One evening when I returned from work, there was confusion in between Sarah and my two sisters. The same night, Sarah told me that she cannot reside with me and my sisters at the same house, so I should rent a new room for us to go and reside. I also told her that I don't have money to rent a room now. She told me that then she won't marry me but instead pack her things and go to her home town, called Bonte near Busunya. I and my family did follow her to her town and once again met her father and explained the situation to him. My dad told her dad that we had just come to apologize for anything that happened and that he should forgive us so that she will come and reside with me again. Her father and her aunt and cousins all used to beg her to forget and carry on with the marriage, but she refused. My mom and my dad, including her family too, gave her a chance to think about it for her to come back. But she still refused, saying that she would not marry again.

In 2012, I met another girl called Vivian Ampofoh and I proposed to her too. She accepted. After she accepted, she also got pregnant. On December 5, 2012 she gave birth to Freda Adjei Koranteng. Six months later after her birth, I and my family met Sister Vivian's family and paid the bride price of Vivian so that we would become wife and husband on 28 June 2013.

From 15 December 2013 I met some missionaries called Elder Daniel Ekpo and Elder Corbeth Stempfily from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They introduced the Church and I attended midweek for the first time. From that, I started as an investigator. When they came, the English language was a big problem to me. I didn't hear them or understand anything that they were saying, but I knew just to say “Oh, yes, yes. Yo, mati.” But whenever they came, they always told me to pray and ask Heavenly Father whether the message is true or not. The first time I entered into the chapel, it was midweek and they were learning from the Book of Mormon. I came with my apprentice, Collins. When the lesson was going, I only heard, “And it came to pass that...”, “And it came to pass that...”. So I sat down and asked myself if these people were serious. “it came to pass that, king this, Abinidi this.” So I said, “Ah! This church! What is that Abinidi, Abinidi, it came to pass? Ah! No, I haven't heard this in the Bible before.” When midweek finally closed, I had heard nothing. Because English language speaking was very hard for me, I couldn't ask them any question. I was having plenty questions paa, but I couldn't ask them any question. The following day, they came back to my workplace and asked me how the church was last night. So I just said that “Ah! Master! I hear nothing koraa!” So the Elders encouraged me that I should pray and also read the Book of Mormon and a time will come that I would understand everything. I still continued coming as an investigator. After that, Stempfily was transferred out of the area. It was left with Elder Ekpo and Elder Adams. They chose a date for me that I should be baptised, but still I was not happy and I did not even want to baptise because I still did not hear at church meetings or sacrament meetings or anything that they were trying to say. When the date came, I just told myself that I would go and baptise.  It was 5 January 2014 that I was baptised by President Robert Awiisi.

The day that I was baptised I fought them paa. When I came from the baptismal font and they told me to go and change in one room, I fell down serious! No joke! Sister Olsen and her husband called the missionaries and told them to help me stand. They took me to the room to change myself. After baptism, they called me that I should come and bear my testimony. I just go and stand in front of them and I said that “I thank God for me also to baptise in the church. I know that the church is true.” But in my mind, I was planning that “No, no, this church there, in fact, I won't join this church because I just went and fell down in front of my Heavenly Father. So no, I won't join this church.” I was thinking “Why would this happen? I've lost my way. That's why I've fallen down.” But the following Sunday, I did come and they confirmed me as a member. But it was still in my mind that I would not be in this church. I would stop. I would just run away. The day that I was confirmed was the day that I started to pray to ask Heavenly Father if the church was true. From that time, I read the Book of Mormon and also my Bible before I sleep. One night, I just got a dream. It was like somebody was chasing me and I was just running and running. Suddenly, I appeared at a place where I saw a tall old man. He was wearing white clothes. His beard was white. He asked me where I was going. I told him that somebody was just chasing me, but I looked back and I didn't see the person who was chasing me. In the dream, I said, “Please, old man, let me ask you some question because you are old man.” He said, ok, I should ask him. I asked him that I had met some people who called themselves missionaries. They gave me this book and said that it is the word of God so I should read it. The old man looked at my face and he said as he removed a bible from his pocket that “You can continue reading the book, but look, you should remember that this book (the Bible) is also the word of God. But you must know that you will be judged according to the words inside of that book (the Book of Mormon) and those who use this book (the Bible) too will be judged according to its words.” After that I just awoke from the dream. So still, I was afraid, asking myself what I should do. I was confused that night. “Ah! God, what should I do? I know that the Bible is the word of God, but this Book of Mormon, why should I read it? Because I will be judged according to it then. Then it is better for me to stop reading this book or stop this church.

The dream was on Sunday night before Monday morning. On Wednesday I came to midweek. Elder Atandji was teaching the midweek. One guy, also an investigator, asked a question that the Book of Mormon is from where? When Elder Atandji was answering the question, Elder Ward opened the book of Ezekiel chapter 37. When Atandji read that quotation, I still couldn't hear the English properly but I was just getting some understanding. So I just stood up and went over to the other investigator and asked him what he had said. It was like the dream that I dreamed was what we were discussing, The lesson turned as my dream. I also went home and read the quotation from Ezekiel. From that day, I told Elder Adams that I couldn't read English properly. He asked if I could read Twi. I told him yes. They later brought a Twi copy of the Book of Mormon for me. From then, I was getting some small understanding. After that, I introduced my wife to Elder Adams and Elder Ekpo and they also taught her.  That is how I joined the church.

After joining the church, I was called to be a branch clerk. President Opoku informed me that they wanted to give me some position in the church so I should come in for an interview on Saturday. I told him that “Ah, President, you know that as for me I can't read, I can't write, so please, you just search for another person.” He said that my name had already been selected, so I should come for interview whether I like it or not. I said ok. On that Saturday, I was in my workplace and he came. “Hey David, have you forgotten the assignment? Just leave the work and come now.” I left and followed him to the church premise. After two or three people were interviewed, President Holmes sat down and asked me some few questions. I did answer some, so he said that I should go. Sunday morning when we came to sacrament meeting, the announcement was made when President Holmes called my name to stand up. After I stood, he said that I had been found worthy to serve as a branch clerk. The members did sustain me. He said that the following week, he would come and set me apart. After we closed the sacrament meeting, I told President Opoku that no, no, dabi, dabi, I can't read, I can't write, and what even is the meaning of that “clerk”?  Even President Opoku said that he didn't know the meaning. Later he said that when they come and set me apart we should all understand it. It was Wednesday evening that they brought computers to the chapel office. They called me. When I came in the chapel, I met Elder Olsen. He said, “David! These computers—you are coming to use one. You will be having one. You will keep all of the church records on that computer.” Ah! The way he spoke, “BRLBLROSBLEBL” I heard nothing. But when President Opoku heard him, he started jubilating. He was very happy. When the Olsens left, I asked President Opoku what Elder Olsen said. He explained to me that Elder Olsen was trying to say that I would keep all of the records and the finances on the computer and that on Saturday there would be a training so I should come and join them. When the trainers came, I and President Opoku attended the training.

Two weeks later, President Holmes came to set me apart. I told President Holmes that I couldn't use the computer because I couldn't write, I couldn't read, and in fact I knew nothing about the computer. President Holmes just looked at me and asked me one question: “David, do you believe in Jesus Christ?” I said yes. “Ok, then if you believe in Jesus Christ, accept the calling. If you deny the calling, you have denied Jesus Christ.” He also asked me another question: “Do you know me, and the Spirit that I work with?” I said no. “That is why I've come here. I'm coming to lay my hands upon you and set you apart. That Spirit within me that I work with, I'm coming to give you some. So you just have faith.” I said ok. I just nodded my head. I was afraid! My heart was jumping, bep, bep, bep, bep. He called me to the office. He set me apart and still encouraged me that I should read the doctrines of the gospel and always pray. I also started praying and studied the scriptures. I remember the first time that I sat at the computer. I was still afraid, so I called the president to come and assist me. But the president likes the computer paa, so when he came, he told me to get up so that he could sit down. He told me to just stand there and look at what he was doing. Anytime after church, he just came and sat on the computer. So I just sat down and said “Ah! No, I will not let President to do the thing again. No matter how, I will do it.” So when the donations came, I tried to enter them. When I finished, I went to show it to President if it was ok. He said that “you have an error here, and an error here. Go and correct this place.” Since then, when I sit on the computer, I can use it to operate. I can speak English. I can write, probably not all, but small small. I can use it in the internet, Google, Facebook.

Even now, if there is a big English spoken in the church, I am the one  who can translate it. This all is done because of the Book of Mormon. Because I have the English and the Twi. If I read the English and there is big borofo (English), then I turn to the place in my Twi Book of Mormon. So that is what has helped me.

To be continued.

Quoted and abridged in small part by Elder Isaac Bradley Nelson

Wedding and Transfers

Dear America,

You asked for more stories about members. Here you go. The one attatched is from the "chief clerk" in the branch, David Koranteng. (History in next blog)  I'll send a picture. He's the short one. It's missing some important parts like him attending the temple, his family's baptisms, etc. but I'll never be able to finish it because............(suspense)

Transfers.

I'm still going up. To the north. Tamale. Where it's hot, dusty, and full of Muslims. The church is even younger there than it is in Techiman, so I'll be continuing my journey back into church history. I will also be getting the first white companion that I've ever had. I feel like it'll be refreshing. When I told the branch during sacrament meeting that I would be going, they all looked really shocked and betrayed. It made me feel terrible. It hurts me to leave this branch. They all feel like family.  I've done my best to love them and serve them as much as I can, and there's nothing else I can do now. Well. That's life as a missionary. I'll get to start all over again in Tamale.

By the way, I got the cinnamon! Yes. It's fantastic. I'll try to think of things that I need if/when you send a package. Right now my mind is kind of blank.

The Ghanaian wedding was hectic. It was a traditional marriage, so it's not exactly the way that you might be used to or even imagine a wedding to be. Everything here just feels like you're some type of cheesy comedy. Things are so crazy. But it was a lot of fun and there was a good attendance from the branch. The first counselor (who was getting married) is from Nigeria and he doesn't have any family here. So we represented his family in the ceremony.

Well I have to go.

Elder Nelson

p.s. I DIDN'T KNOW THAT TIA WAS PREGNANT (cousin on the Johnson side). Wow. So apparently I've been gone for a really long time. Insert appropriate chastisement for not telling me. Or maybe I just forgot. That's definitely a possibility.

Not much time, but I'll explain briefly. I can't put these in order, so you'll have to do a fun guessing game.

"looking" for the bride

the bride price

happy couple

the elders of the king's council

Bro. Andoh acting in the place of the father and giving instruction and counsel.

Elder D Bday

Dear America,

This is week twelve of my son's training. The last one. I've been working hard this week to prep the area and my companion for my imminent expected departure. I feel like I've done my part here. I think I'm starting to get an idea of my strengths as a missionary. I spent a lot of this time in this area. I didn't really have a whole bunch of baptisms, but I don't think that's why the Lord wanted me here at this time. I did what I could to strengthen the branch. Dwumoh needed some serious foundation-building when I got here, and it's helped me to develop as a missionary as I've tried to meet that need. In fact, I've thouroughly enjoyed the opportunity to focus more on members in order to pave the way for other missionaries in the future. It's made Dwumoh branch feel like a family to me. It won't be easy to (possibly (probably)) leave soon.

This week the first counselor announced that his wedding would be taking place next Saturday. That's a big step. We've been working quickly to teach his future wife, who isn't a member. So next week you can expect at least a brief firsthand account of a Ghanaian wedding ceremony.

Elder Duaryenneh's birthday was yesterday, so we had a combined celebration with the Vatican City elders because Elder Waihi's birthday was last week. Every elder that has come to this apartment since I got here has had his birthday here. Weird. But we had a member from Vatican make us some waakye. Usually waakye isn't my favorite, but this time it was pretty good. It was also fast Sunday, so that might be a factor....

Waakye is rice and beans. With other stuff.

The other picture is us eating FanYogo, a pretty great frozen yogurt product that they don't sell in first world countries...... suspicious, I know. Look it up and see if it's deadly. If it is, I'm going to die soon. I've had a ton.

Have a great week!

Elder Nelson

Snakes!

Dear America,

This week was smooth. I don't have a long time to email today because I have to go to a YSA FHE this evening, but I'm trying to get in everything that I can.

This week we have some neat progress. Remember a few weeks ago when I told you about the lesson that I was grinding onions and crying in? Well we've gone back to teach that woman several times, and her 10-year-old son has been present every time. One our second visit (the one right after the onion incident), we reviewed the restoration with them quickly and introduced the Book of Mormon. During the course of the lesson, Michael (the boy) opened up to us. He said "last night I prayed over this book (the Book of Mormon) and slept over it. Jesus Christ told me that your church is true." We were all surprised, including his mother. She asked him why he hadn't told her this before. It was sweet, though. We told her that she could get her own answer if she did the same thing. So far, 10-year-old Michael has been reading his copy of the Book of Mormon more than just about anyone in our branch. He's the most solid investigator we have.

We've seen two snakes this week. One was on the bushy path that we always take, so now we're avoiding that path like the plague. The other one came into our apartment. Let me repeat that: A long, dark, skinny snake with dubious intentions had the nerve to come slinking into our apartment. While we were just playing ping-pong and joking around at the end of the day, Elder Waihi got a really surprised look on his face and let out a missionary-appropriate exclamation. I turned around, saw it, and then both of us ran into our rooms to get our companions and our machetes. Pictures of the end result are attached. My companion did a lot of the active snake slaying. After the excitement, we were all super jumpy for the rest of the night. Every room you entered would have be thouroughly examined. Every elder independently checked under his bed before kneeling down to pray (confessed the next morning).

Yeah. Those are the most exciting parts of the week.

Elder Nelson

Drunk vs Crazy Guy

Dear America,

This week was full of interesting days. In fact, it was made up of interesting days. On Monday, pretty much all of the youth in Ghana went to a For the Strength of Youth conference in Kumasi for a five-day church boot camp. It was so fun to see them go and come back with stronger testimonies and a renewed determination to be active members of the church. It made all the difference in the lives of several youth.

On Thursday, President Cosgrave came to proselyte with us.... I'm still not sure why. I've never even heard of him doing that before. But he loves to keep everyone guessing,so I suppose that I'm not too shocked. It was a sweet day. We had some powerful lessons. He even left his car and walked down the street with us. Children were calling him names, singing, yelling..... he got the whole nine yards. It's awesome to see your leader commited with you the whole way.

Sunday was weird. Halfway through church, the Vatican City elders called us to inform us that their baptismal font was out of order so both them and Kenten would have to come and use our font right after church. Five minutes later I was in the font with my slacks rolled up, scrubbing away next to the Relief Society class. We got it filled and cleaned without completely disrupting everyone, so I'm counting it as a success. The font at Dwumoh is pretty much smack in the middle of everything, so I locked myself in the courtyard with the cleaning supplies so that no children or irresponsible adults could interfere. My companion kept everyone at bay pretty well. After church the baptisms came off nicely.

After church we went out to meet with an investigator who turned out not to be there. While we were at his house, a man came up and exclaimed to the woman sitting there that she shouldn't talk to us because we were antiChrists. We all looked at him funny and asked him if he knew what he was talking about. My companion introduced himself but the man refused to shake his hand or talk to us. After a while, it became apparent that he was slightly insane. Everyone started to ignore him and we continued on in our conversation while he raved. It got to the point where the drunk man we were talking to got tired and started arguing with the crazy guy about whether or not we were antiChrists. So here we were pounding fufu in the middle of a full Twi argument between the drunk who was defending us and the crazy guy who wanted to throw us out. The drunk guy won temporarily, so when we had finished pounding his fufu we sat down and thanked him for defending us. We had a really nice discussion with him and he said that he wanted to start coming to church. it was neat. Until the crazy guy came back. The drunk chased him away again. Life is interesting.

We took some youth out proselyting with us, but our Plan A appointment failed. So did Plans B, C, D, and E. Now they know what missionary work is really like.

Again, I will repeat: Life is interesting.

All in all, it was a great week.

Elder Nelson

Elder Bednar

Dear America,

This week was amazing. First things first: Elder Bednar came on Saturday. It was the best. The entire mission met together (a very rare occasion) in Kumasi to await his arrival. By the time he arrived, we were all standing on the hill outside the chapel, ready to take a picture. Then it was straight in for the conference. Elder Bednar is such a powerful servant of God and he's a such a neat person. He reminds me of Dad. A lot. It made me miss my father a little bit. It also helped me to be even more grateful for the great parents I have. He taught us a lot about the most basic doctrines in the gospel. We had plenty of time to ask questions and to answer his questions. All in all, I thouroughly enjoyed it. President Cosgrave also had the opportunity to get up and bear his testimony. He loves us a lot. You can tell every time you shake his hand. I love it. Then we all shook Elder Bednar's hand. There wasn't any personal time with him, so I never told him that I was Nikki Nelson's grandson or anything. I figured it wasn't worth disrupting the entire flow of things because I didn't know if he would even remember or not. The rest of the week since that meeting has been full of the Spirit.

One thing that I thought was cool was how much Elder Bednar really loves his work. He loves being an Apostle and representing Jesus Christ and traveling for insane amounts of time and never being home and talking with millions of people and standing behind a pulpit for most of his life and always being the center of attention and having an immediate overload of work in the spirit world as soon as he dies. OK he doesn't necessarily enjoy those parts, but there is nothing in the world that he would rather do. It made me never want to be an Apostle. It's a lot of..... just a lot.

Another spiritual event during the week: we met a woman who was about to prepare stew for dinner so we jumped in and did it for her. My companion was giving a quick summary of the Restoration while I was grinding onions and pepper for the stew. That short lesson was very emotional for me. There was nothing I could do to keep from crying.

I'm really having fun on my mission right now.

Love, Elder Nelson

No More Sisters

Dear America,

This has been an interesting and stretching week. There used to be two sets of missionaries here in Dwumoh branch (us and the sisters), but they went on transfer and there aren't enough missionaries right now to replace them. So we have our hands full with our area and theirs. This is exactly how I was trained at the beginning of my mission, and it's interesting that my son gets the same treatment. Except these areas are huge. We now have a lot of recent converts and potential investigators to take care of. We're doing our best.

On Saturday we had a big member-missionary football match for all of the branches in Techiman. It ended in a tie, 2-2. Nobody was hurt or offended, which is the best that could be hoped for. Then we had two baptisms. One of them was the referral that I wrote about two weeks ago. He's really neat and powerful. He has had several significant trials of faith, but he stayed true and doubted his doubts before he doubted his faith. It all worked out and now he's on a good path.

Elder Bednar is coming to our mission on Saturday of this week. Anticipation is building all across the mission. Everyone has fresh haircuts and bright spirits.

Martin's Cove looked like a lot of fun. I had to look for a while to spot Pace, while Dad's salt-and-pepper beard is looking more and more salty every day. You're right on about the pioneers. They weren't pioneers because they walked a long way. It's because they sacrificed. Which is something I'm learning in Dwumoh.

Brother Andoh was so happy that you replied. He always asks me questions about my family and my home, so I told him just to ask you. It will not be a form of communication with me. But you are free to ask him questions that you have about the church in Ghana or answer questions he has. He's one of the real pioneers that I have met here. So if you want to learn about pioneers, that's where you'll do it.

I had a really weird fruit this week. The small white part is edible and tastes like a mixture of fresh garden peas and cheese curds. The black part is deadly and if you eat it you won't live long enough to regret it. So that was interesting. Picture is included. My camera works again! Miracle.

Love,

Elder Nelson