2017

Dear America,

I'm glad my talk went successfully last week. (The bishop had the parents of missionaries in our ward give a 5 min. report on their son or daughter) Thanks for doing that for me. I can't say I'm grateful for Porter's relative failure, but at least I can still show my face (and my scores) in public (Porter scored even with Isaac on the ACT). No, I did not get the letter from the Gundersons. 

My companion wasn't feeling too great for the first part of this week. It wasn't malaria (we went and got it tested) but it took him down for a little while anyways. 

This week was full of interested people asking us if they could come to church. It was pretty cool, except for the fact that all of them live across the road in the other elders' area. So we just hand them over to Elder Anai and Elder Mbithi. On Sundayalone we found four new investigators that all live in their area and are very interested in learning more. We got to help roll out bread dough with some random people along the roadside. That was fun and they really enjoyed teaching two silaminga (white men in Dagbani) how to make the bread just right.

Our friend the pastor from a while back has started reading from the Book of Mormon with us. That's a drastic change from when he refused to even take a copy of the Book of Mormon. So we're counting it as progress. We also taught a great lesson about the Book of Mormon to some intoxicated Nigerians at a New Year's drinking party. The best part of the lesson was when they all exclaimed in unison, "Where is your church?". I think I might go back and replay that one after I die and I have the scrapbook of my life. Classic.

The branch pulled together a last-minute activity on Friday. It turned out to be one of the best activities I've ever attended in Ghana. The food was done on time, there was dancing and games, almost all of the members came, and quite a few investigators felt welcome enough to show up. And today we were invited to a special dinner with the acting president of the Rotary Club in Tamale because of the service we collaborated on a while back. We had already had dinner with the branch president and his family, so we were stuffed before we even arrived. It was painful.

It's hard to imagine that 2017 is already here, but there's no going back. Make the time count and have a great season. Enjoy winter for me.

Love, Elder Nelson

Christmas #2

Dear America,

I hope your Christmas was outstanding. I enjoyed this season far more than I ever have before, probably because I didn't once hear about Santa or Frosty or Rudolph. Everything was about Jesus Christ. That's part of the magic of Tamale. Either you're Christian or you're Islamic. Either you celebrate Christmas because of Christ or you don't celebrate it at all.

On Monday this week we traveled to Techiman for zone conference on Tuesday. It was great to see some old places and some familiar faces. I thought that it would be stress-releasing to relive some good times by being there, but all I realized was that we missionaries really don't do much. We come, we teach, we go. Whatever. It's up to the people to make their own choices and reap the blessings. Our missionary work is very temporary if they don't have a deep conversion to the gospel for themselves. It's depressing to think that everything you're doing is basically worthless, but it's not really like that. God does his own work, we just have the opportunity to be instruments in his hands.

On Christmas Eve, we prepared a Christmas caroling program and set up in front of Melcom (the closest thing to Wal-mart here). We sang Christmas carols and watched the short bible videos about the birth of Jesus Christ right in the middle of town. After we finished singing, we did some serious contacting in and around the store. Everyone within eyeshot had a pamphlet or two or five. It was sweet. After the caroling we went to a big district activity with all of the branches in Tamale. The food was well prepared, but the rest of the program was kind of thrown together. Ah, Ghana. The problem is that the party finished super duper late in the night and all of the members were pooped out and didn't come to church the next morning. So that sucked. But church was only an hour so it wasn't too stressful.

On Christmas day we made tin foil dinners with some supplies that we bought the day before. We had real Irish potatoes (that's what they're called here), carrots, bell peppers, onions, and meat. And real off-brand tin foil. It was nice. I was also happy to talk to all of my family. The voices that sounded the most different were 1) Tad, 2) Davis, and 3) Sadie. I can't wait until I come home and don't recognize you people. I am noticing that I'm getting better at slipping in and out of an American accent. When I'm talking to whites I get more western, and when I talk with Africans my English instantly changes. Except apparently I can't avoid talking to little children in my Ghanaian accent, which is why you heard it with Drew. I just don't meet any white children here. At all. So maybe by the time I come back you won't even notice that I have any accent.

Well thanks for your support! Have a happy New Year! Time's a-runnin'.

Love, Elder Nelson

Back in Techiman

Dear America,

I'm not sending this email from Tamale.... nope, I'm back in my town, Techiman. I loved Techiman more than any other place on my mission so far and it's good to be back even if it's just for a day or two. We have a combined zone conference with Techiman and Sunyani so we all came to meet here. Life is good. Each zone was asked to prepare a musical number for the conference. I wasn't informed that I was in charge of said musical number until we showed up to practice. We have some appreciable talent in the zone, though, so we're pulling a nice Christmas medley together. I'm excited.

We had some triumphs this week as far as investigators go. One of our investigators (the Nigerian woman that I've written about before) has decided that God answered her prayers to know the truth. She's had several dreams that she takes to be revelation meaning she should join the Church. I don't have that much trust in dreams, but I'm glad that God talks to each of us in our own way that He knows we'll understand. It's funny that she struggles to understand my companion when he talks, though. He's from Georgia and is still relatively new on mission so his American accent is still pretty strong. And any Nigerian accent is always strong. So she doesn't hear him when he talks. I have to translate sometimes.

I felt blessed this week when we were knocking on gates and the people that met us all spoke English, were Christian, and were mildly interested to listen to our message. We were also able to do a good service project for the district president this week. He invited us to take out some weeds in his compound with cutlassas (machetes), hoes (Ghanaian version), and our hands. It was good work and we had fun talking about what we can do to strengthen the branches. We also ate a lot of fufu while we were there.

I feel like the members are kicking things up a notch right now, which makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE in our work. I'm happy. They're ever so slightly more active and involved--maybe it's just the Christmas season, but I like to think that we're making progress.

I'm planning on calling in the afternoon (for me) soooo before church for you. What time do you even have church? Either way, it'll be before. Just in case.

Thanks for taking the pressure off of the honors housing decision. That would explain why I wasn't feeling any major impressions in answer to my prayers.

Well life is good. I look forward to hearing voices on the phone this week.

Elder Nelson

PS The last picture is me with Elder Antwi!

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

District Conference

Dear America,

Life is cruising right along. This week was Thanksgiving, which I did not remember until Thursday night. Coincidentally, however, my Idahoan instincts must have kicked in because I unwittingly made some mashed potatoes with gravy on Tuesday evening. While we were at a member's house, I saw what appeared to be a very diseased potato. It turns out that it's just an African variety of the potato and it's not the same. I bought some, thinking that I would try to make some mashed potatoes and hoping that if it did not come out to be exactly the same, it would at least reach a level of acceptable comparability. Wrong. They were the worst mashed potatoes and gravy I've ever had in my life. The potatoes were very sweet (sugary) and the gravy was a disaster. I'll include a picture. The irony of the situation hit me two days later when I realized that it was the week of Thanksgiving. Hope you enjoyed your real Idahoan potatoes.

On a better note, we had district conference this week where all the branches in Tamale and Bolgatanga met together (5 branches total). We don't have a chapel in the district that is big enough to hold that many people, so we used the meeting center of a local hotel. It was really good. I especially enjoyed the Saturday priesthood leaders' training and adult session. Three of the best testimonies I've ever heard were borne there. We escorted three of our investigators to the conference. All of them are children under the age of 15 from the same family. Their parents are really nice and don't have problems with their children attending the church, but so far haven't shown a lot of interest in coming themselves. That's ok, though. They're surrounded by strong members, so I know that when the time is right they'll come. They're a really nice family.

Ghana's elections are coming up on December 7, so our transfer schedule was adjusted so that we don't conflict with the elections. Usually they don't get violent, but a lot of Ghanaians have warned us to be on our toes. Either way, it means that my next p day will be on Saturday, Dec 3. And not the following Monday. So when you get an email from me on that day, don't be afraid that I'm breaking any rules.

A few weeks ago I found out that Kwasi Aidoo, who I baptized in Kronum, has recieved the Melchizedek priesthood and has been serving as a Stake High Councilman! That is sweet. Kronum was also recently split into 2 wards, so chances are high that he's part of the new bishopric right now. It made me really happy to hear that he has immersed himself so fully in the culture of the church. He's gone to the temple several times, but he's planning to go with his family in January to be sealed. Bam. Fruits that remain.

You asked for a recipe of something that I've eaten lately. Hahahaha recipes don't exist here. This is the closest thing I can get to a recipe:

Rice

tomato paste

dried fish

meat (beef)

spices

oil

onion

pepper

garlic

ginger

Maggi

cabbage

tomatoes

green peppers

Really. That's how they make things here. It takes some getting used to. Most of the time you just have to watch someone make it several times and memorize everything they do. That's probably why they only have like five dishes to choose from here.

I got the package! I didn't know it was coming, but it made me happy. Unfortunately, it passed through customs so everything had been opened and looked at already. And it cost an extra 37 cedis for me to get but it was worth it. I also got the Christmas SD card you sent, but the format is weird so it doesn't work when I try to listen to it. I still haven't gotten the conference SD card. The package was great. We put the presents under our Christmas tree, but Elder Robson couldn't wait to open his. Thanks!

Love,

Elder Nelson

From Last Week...

Some of the west Africans got to ride a horse, which they've never done before
the crocodile sanctuary
the border to Burkina Faso

Paga!

Dear America,

This week flew by. Today we went to Paga, way up on the border of Burkina Faso and just below the Sahara desert. It's the first time I've felt dry since I arrived in Ghana. Now I'm worried about going back to 0% humidity in Idaho. We went to the Paga crocodile sanctuary, a tourism site where you can take pictures with crocodiles. We sat on it, posed with it, held the tail, and fed it a live chicken. It was sweet. Unfortunately, this internet cafe won't let me send pictures so you're just going to have to take my word for it until I can send them.

We've been teaching some neat people. Coincidentally, we've seen an unusually high number of Nigerians. We're fighting fire with fire when we teach Nigerians with a Nigerian. One Nigerian that we met had spoken briefly with missionaries before. When he stopped us, he was riding his moped with a copy of the Book of Mormon. We were surprised, and he later said that he had gone out that day to find us. He had it in his mind that he wanted us to come tell him more. Either we would set up a return appointment or he would give us our book back. We've met with him a few times and the things that we're teaching him are making sense for the most part. Investigators are funny. They'll give you roller coasters of emotions. One minute everything will be going great and then they'll have a problem and then they'll forget or resolve their own problem and then... on and on.

We had a nice broadcast for the Africa West Area last Sunday. It was interesting. If you read emails from Elder Neville, he also has something to say about it. One part of it was when we were told to abandon the traditions of our fathers and instead adopt gospel traditions. Some area-specific traditions were named, and it gives us a lot of work to do in the future. The traditions here are huge. Elder Renfroe (one of the senior missionaries) said that since the broadcast he's now looking at this gigantic mountain of tradition to overcome and thinking that the only way to do it is a few nuclear warheads. Small small, we'll see what we can do.

I'm enjoying!

Love, Elder Nelson