The Lone Ranger- 3 July 2017

Dear America,

This week has gone by quickly. We decided that we need to drop a lot of our investigators. They won't be happy about it but they aren't serious about learning the gospel. They just want us to come and talk about our homes with them and be their friends. We can be their friends, but we can't let them waste a lot of our time. 

We got transfer news! I'm leaving Nkawkaw to go to Daban in the heart of Kumasi. I'll be one of the office elders, which basically means that I'll have a lot more stress and a lot less proselyting time. I'm not sure what will happen, but be ready for much shorter emails. I'm excited but nervous at the same time. I'm excited to be busy busy busy. I like being pushed a little bit. I'm nervous about working with so many people and trying to be patient with all of them. I'm also nervous about driving in Ghana. Super nervous. This place is a madhouse and I haven't touched a steering wheel in almost two years. I'm also nervous because the travel plans have fallen in such a way the mission president has asked me to travel to the mission home on my own. On my own. Without a companion. Solo. In a city with millions of people. It's a trip that I've made many times before but it's got my nerves on edge right now. But it's all part of a big adventure! So I'm happy to do it. It will be good practice for when I get home.

Elder Wood wrote this while I was typing a financial report:

Hey this is Elder Wood, Im Elder Nelsons companion ,Transfer  news has come and sadly Elder Nelson will be leaving me ,It was a pleasure serving with your son he is a great missionary I have learnt a lot from him he truly emulates Christ like leadership,He truly loves the Lord I know that because I have seen how he has serves the Lord and His children.

Do you miss anything about home? It's not too bad, but while I've been with Elder Wood I've realized how fast time has passed. He came on mission just before I did and now he's getting ready to go home. Ahhhh! It's made me small nervous to come back.

What is one thing you are praying for? I've been praying for help with Christlike attributes a lot. 

What are you reading in the scriptures? Right now I'm reading in the beginning of Alma with a focus on characteristics of the Godhead and also in the book of Revelation with a focus on getting as much out of it as possible. And I've also been finding scriptures about missionary work throughout the scriptures to help motivate me every day.

Love,

Elder Nelson

Late Nights- 26 June 2017

Dear America,

I'll try to find something that would be good for Sadie. In answer to Tad's questions about roasting pigs, yes. But we only do it because there are Polynesians in the mission. Ghanaians don't really do that. Except for one food where they take cow skin, burn it, soak it in water, bury it, allow it to ferment, dig it back up, and put it in soup. It's not that bad unless you've ever seen how it's made. Then it's really bad.

This week we had some pretty late nights teaching investigators who could only meet us in the evening and getting stranded in Konongo until past our bedtime. Usually we skip lunch or dinner or both and come back to the apartment at 8:00 instead of 9:00 (which are super useless times of day in Ghana). But this week we ended up skipping lunch and dinner and still coming back late. We were working.

I saw these questions last week but didn't get the time to answer them.

Have you met the new senior missionaries yet? Tell us about them. Yeah, we met Elder and Sister Dearing when we went into Kumasi the last time. Elder Wood had to go to the dentist, so they drove us around Kumasi. They were extremely nice and just a few days fresh from the land of white bread. They even took us to the brand new mall (!!!) in Kumasi and we got french fries (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), which I've only had when I chose to make them. 

Give us the recipe of one of last things you made on your own. 

No-effort stew: oil, onions, tomato paste, assorted vegetables to taste, tomatoes, canned sardines, stew seasoning, curry powder, powdered red pepper, salt. Basically just add those things in a pan in the order listed. Then put it on rice or eat it with yam or cassava or plantain.

Does the rain smell the same as in Menan? Nope. Not at all.

Do you have a mirror in your apartment? Yes, depending on which apartment you're in. In some there are big mirrors and in others there are none. So I bought a small mirror that I take with me whenever I'm transferred.

Do you pray in English or Africanese? If I really want to make a point, I'll pray in Twi. But usually I don't do it because I'm expected to pray in English and it's irreverent and distracting for me to pull the Twi card.

Do Ghanians ride horses? What is the equivalent of a cowboy in Ghana? Horses don't exist here. At all. When we went to Paga, all of the whites paid to touch a crocodile. The west Africans paid to ride a horse bareback in circles. So that shows you where the interest of each is.

When is the last time you had a hot shower? bucket bath? I had a hot shower about a month ago when I went to the mission home. I haven't had a bucket bath in a while because the water is pretty good in our apartment.

Do you have any fun activities planned as a ward, zone or district? We played football this morning with some of the members. We do that every Monday morning and it's pretty sweet. It's hard for our zone to have a lot of activities because we're so spread apart that it gets expensive to all come together in one place. But we're managing and we had a nice activity as a district a few weeks ago. We made fufu. I drove the fufu while Elder Wood was pounding. It's unheard of for a white man to drive the fufu in the mortar. People don't believe that I can drive until I show them pictures.

What is your favorite gospel principe to teach? I think that one of the most misunderstood principles here that I like to teach is the difference between the power of the Holy Ghost and the power of the priesthood. People would resolve a lot of their concerns if they understood that one thing. 

What is your favorite way to meet new people? To do service for them. Usually when we meet somebody new, I'll jump in to help them wash or cook or whatever they're doing while Elder Wood talks to them. It's a good system.

Have you discovered a talent you didn't know you had? Apart from being a missionary.... I'm getting a lot better and being friends with people. I also learn things really fast (probably because I hate being wrong), but maybe just because life in Ghana really isn't that hard.

It's been raining a lot, which I love. I don't mind proselyting in the rain.

Enjoy the week and greet the other Elder (Challin) Nelson for me when he gets home! That's crazy!

Elder Nelson

A sickla unto vulcha- 19 June 2017

Dear America,

This week we went to up in the mountains to Mpraeso to do a baptismal interview for an investigator up there. While we were there one of the missionaries told us about a funny experience. His name is Elder Boyce from Montana. While they were visiting a member's house, a man confronted Elder Boyce and said emphatically while pointing at him, "A sickla... unto vulcha... unto you! Obituary." The loose translation of this is that the man was cursing Elder Boyce that he would contract a vulture's sickness and die. Both missionaries laughed and now we all joke about it. So if you ever need to curse somebody, that's how to do it.

On Tuesday we went to zone conference in Kumasi. Elder Wood and I were asked to present and instruct about our zone's efforts last month. We took careful time to prepare for it and did our best to receive inspiration. It went very well. We solidified the trust of many missionaries by the way we taught. Life is good right now. We are surrounded by a lot of hard working, dedicated missionaries who we trust and who also trust us. And that means that the Lord can hasten the work here more easily.

During the zone conference President Cosgrave talked about the importance of faith in planning. Then he said, "I hope you all use faith in your planning. But I also hope that you have plans to increase your faith. Write them down." That struck me. Have I written down goals and steps to develop my faith more? Or do I expect it just to happen while I'm busy doing other things? A quote from Neal L. Anderson says, "Our faith will increase not by chance, but by choice." So that's something I'm working on this week.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about the importance of strengthening our families through daily prayer and scripture study. I'm grateful to my family for doing those things in my youth. It really makes all the difference.

On my birthday Elder Erickson and I made bread and gravy (substitute for biscuits and gravy) and crepes. Other than that, it was pretty uneventful. It rained a lot on that day. So I was happy.

The family looks wonderful! Keep up the goodness wherever you are.

Love, Elder Nelson

Three-Hour Lesson- 12 June 2017

Dear America,

This week I'll just answer Dad's questions:

Have you had a recent teaching moment where something went well… or not well? Well this week we taught a few lessons where I had the distinct impression that the investigators didn't really comprehend everything we taught, but they definitely felt the Spirit. Ghanaians are funny. They aren't really good learners, but they're happy to sit and listen. We had one lesson where we took a return missionary member with us and he talked for three solid hours while we sat. The family that we were teaching probably doesn't remember anything, but they loved the way that he answered their questions and preached to them. They came to church on Sunday, so it all worked out for good.

How do you work with members? Do they open homes for discussions, join you at discussions, invite investigators, or any other support unique to Africa? We usually don't take people to a member's house for a lesson, but we can take them with us to visit an investigator if we plan it. Sometimes we can get them to bring the investigators to church with them.

How many people live in your area? How many members in your ward / branch? Active members? How many youth aged 12-18? Active youth? I have no idea how many people live in my area..... you can access Google maps, so you can probably get a better idea than I can. Just search Nkawkaw. We have an average sacrament attendance of between 30-50 people. 20 at the beginning of sacrament meeting and 50 at the end.

Have you had Malaria? Have you had other illnesses you’ve been advised not to tell your mother about? Are there monstrous bugs, snakes, spiders or other that would be shocking? I still haven't gotten malaria, and it's been a long, long time since I really got sick. The last time I threw up was about a month ago and it happened because I didn't eat enough food with my doxycycline (malaria prevention pill). Yeah, there are weird bugs here. We saw one last week that looked like an alien. It looked like something from a movie.

Have you felt answers to prayer, or seen the hand of the Lord in someone’s life recently? Sometimes when you feel really discouraged as a missionary, something small will happen that is just enough to keep you going. After many failures, you'll be ready to give up but then you get one small success. Often it feels like we don't make a difference in the big picture but then God reminds you that His plan requires simple things. It's like the talk about the currant bush who the gardener cut down. "I don't want you to be a shade tree, etc. I want you to be a currant bush." It's enough to just do what you can.

Any advice for Pace who is living with other teenage boys away from home in primitive conditions? Keep good habits. Things can get sketchy when guys room together away from home, especially when they aren't mature. So don't compromise your habits. Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. Go to bed at a reasonable time. And feel free to tell them when they're being stupid. They probably just need a reminder.

Sorry for the slightly lame email. I'm working on writing better ones.

Love, Elder Nelson

Firefighter -5 June 2017

Dear America,

Face biscuit is a missionary thing and I don't have any idea if the Woods are going to Utah with Eric.

This week went by pretty quickly. We had a meeting in Kumasi, so that took two days out of our schedule. It always drains us when we have to travel because we don't get as much time to help the people in our area. 

One of our old investigators, Kenneth, was involved in a serious accident. He is a firefighter and was called on a scene where a petroleum tanker crashed. There were some explosions and the firefighters were called. When they came, they were trying to keep the fire under control and ward off thieves who were scavenging valuables from the wreckage. When they finally got things at a manageable condition, the tanker exploded again. Those tankers are sectioned into nine different compartments, and they were exploding one by one. They weren't prepared for this and they didn't know how many explosions there would be before it finished. Quite a few people were seriously burned. Kenneth was lucky and escaped with some minor burns on his face and more severe ones on his hands and arms. Not everyone is as lucky as him. We've gone there several times in the last week to show our concern and support for his family. We are praying that this trial will draw his family closer to God.

This Sunday we tried extra hard to help people be able to come to sacrament meeting. We went to their houses to help bring them to church. Before we made it to church, five investigators had already failed their commitment to come. But we were still blessed to have a few other ones show up who we hadn't visited.

I was listening to a few talks this week and they made me think more about the Sacrament. As we strive to improve and become more Christlike, the Sacrament is a great time to look back and reflect on how we've felt the power of the atonement; we can also look forward and set goals with God on how we will become better. The Sacrament is an ideal opportunity to ask our Heavenly Father what we need to improve on. We should really be doing this all week, but there's something special about this ordinance.

Love, Elder Nelson

Picture Week 29 May 2017

Dear America,

We met some very promising people this week but they disappointed us by not showing up to church. That's missionary life. This week the computers are really misbehaving so I have minimum time. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are a few thousand words:) Not necessarily in order....

Helping an old woman grind her cassava to make banku
Filling the baptismal font with buckets last week
Stirring shito (a spicy paste thing) for an investigator
Carrying a baby across the stream because his mother couldn't
Pictures with Elder Dadzie wearing a zalabia (spelling?), one of the northerners' characteristic clothing styles
Watching Elder Mutasi pound fufu for an investigator
Playing face biscuit during FHE with members
District pictures just before transfer
Avacado ice cream made by Elder Gallarde, a Filipino in the zone
The baptisms this week in our branch

Thanks for always emailing and keeping me updated!
Love, Elder Nelson

Seek Truth- 22 May 2017

Dear America,

This has been a productive week in Nkawkaw. We've followed up on some neat people who seem ready to listen and act on the message of the restored gospel. One is a lady named Ellen that lives close to us. We pass by her house every week on the way to chapel cleaning and to church. She usually greets us when we pass and a few weeks ago we invited her to come to church. We were surprised when she showed up at church the next day. She only speaks Twi, though, so it was a challenge for us to teach her. But we've been using Ghanaians to help us and she is very excited about the Church. She had a dream earlier that some white men dressed like missionaries brought her a gift that would bless her life. She's been learning the lessons and feeds us every blessed time we go there. I'm excited for her and her family:)

I wrote about Brother Boateng last week. This week we met him and he had a troubled countenance. We asked him how he was doing and he said that he was confused. His daughter has been sending him some videos that he had questions about. Oh great. Yeah, they were anti-Mormon videos. We've been seeing more and more of that recently even though Ghana is the last place where I would expect those things. It just shows you how widespread it's becoming. But we talked to him about the way to discern truth. Here's what I can advise:

Feelings from Satan

Doubt, fear, confusion, disgust, worry, loneliness, anger, outrage, disbelief

Feelings from God

Love, joy, peace, happiness, comfort, gentleness, faith, certainty, motivation

What feelings do you get when somebody starts talking about the church in a negative way? The Spirit won't ever lie to us. Elder Wood and I were easily able to identify the Spirit leaving as soon as Brother Boateng showed us a video. We stopped it and spent a while talking about how we can really find truth. There's a lot of crap in the world today, and we just. don't. need it. Stay away from it. The lowlifes who make that junk will never tell you to ask God or to learn for yourself. They have no qualms about intentionally deceiving you or manipulating you. 

We went on exchanges with Mpraeso this week. I was with Elder Mbir, a Ghanaian (in the pictures). On Saturday we fixed the signpost for the chapel.

To quote an EFY song, "Life is good, eternal life is better!"

Love,

Elder Nelson