Becoming an Office Elder

​​​​​​​​Dear America,

To add to the list, I haven't been getting Porter's emails either. I love Tad's costume! ***(not sure what the code is)I don't know if I'll be free for all of Thursday night...... Maria has reserved a first date on that night, so I might be open for a while but I can't make promises.***

We had some interesting moments this week. One instance was late one night after we had finished teaching. An investigator we had met that day called us in tears and asked us with broken English to come right away. We were temporarily without a car, so we speed walked over to her house with many worst-case scenarios running through our heads. It turns out that her husband/boyfriend had smoked weed and come back to beat her. He left and she decided that she had taken enough over the years and was going to move out with the children. We felt she was in a dangerous situation, so we paid for a taxi to take her to her family's house. She then proceeded to do her best to fit the refrigerator, all clothing, utensils, children, and cleaning supplies inside the taxi. We weren't sure if she was stealing all of his belongings, so we advised her to take only what she needed and then we had to leave. On our way back we met a man smoking who started a conversation with us by promptly denying that he was crazy......very convincing.

We got the area maps back this week! They're finally finished. Our next big project is to finish compiling a document that outlines all of the responsibilities of the office elders. This is to help future missionaries adjust quickly to this assignment and help the mission as much as possible. Elder Crane and I, along with the current assistants Elder Nygren and Elder Osei-Kuffour have done a lot to standardize things in the mission. Before this, it was mostly missionaries running around doing things the best way they could think of. We're trying to record things so there's a better system. The pictures attached are all from the "Becoming an Office Elder" file that we're creating. We wanted to be in every picture, but quickly realized that it wouldn't be possible. So we pasted ourselves in. Enjoy!

Love, Elder Nelson

Toe Surgery 10/23/17

Dear America,

This week we finished our preparation for the hard copies of the area maps. They are being printed by a better machine at the West Africa Area Office in Accra this week and then we'll finally be done. It was a huge relief to be able to relax small after we finished those.

We met with Jeffrey again this week. He has been coming to church and loving it. We extended a baptismal date to him, and he is on track to be (hopefully) baptized just before I leave. 

Also, I've been fighting the progress of an ingrown toenail for a while now.... they're pretty common here. Well I finally got up the nerve to talk with President Cosgrave and he did some sugery. It hurts like nothing else right now. 

We are trying to help Jessica develop a consistent habit of reading the Book of Mormon. We've made it as far as 1 Nephi 11. When we read chapter 8, we all got paper and drew each object as we read about it. She was not excited for that at all but she enjoyed it after we finished. When we went back we read chapter 11 and labeled all of the things we had drawn with their meaning. It was fun and now she'll never forget about Lehi's dream. So far she's doing great at reading on her own and understands the story very well. She laughed when Nephi's brothers ran away from him after seeing him dressed as Laban. It's little things like that that make us happy with her.

Sorry for the short email. Time is playing weird tricks right now. Monday was just yesterday, but it seems like the things we did this week were forever ago.

Love, 

Elder Nelson

4-a-days 10/16/17

Dear America,

On Monday we went on a fun visit to the cultural center with Sister Cosgrave and Sister Schow. They showed us all of the best places to find culture. This week was a historic round of zone conferences. There are 11 zones in a mission the size of a state, so usually zone conferences take a few weeks to get through. Not this time. We did 8 zones in 2 days at the beginning of the week. It was crazy and awesome and a complete success. We have also entered crunch time for the area maps. Our deadline is to have them done and ready to print by the end of next week, so everything is pushing until then. I won't have time to sleep until I come home. The next three weeks are already booked with things and I'm sure we'll get loaded with more.

All the same, we were able to spread the gospel this week in many different places. When we went to the post office, there was a security woman there named Bernice who wanted us to teach her small. We pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon and told her about it and it ended up being perfect for her. Not too much to lose her attention. She was really happy that we would teach her.

A big highlight of the week was stake conference. It was presided over by Elder M.T. Ben Davis, an area authority. He's from Ghana and has a really passionate personality. If you think that Elder Holland is passionate, then you haven't met very many Ghanaians. Elder Davis is very bold but not overbearing because he shows enough love to back it up. Sometimes I think it would be extremely difficult to be a leader here because everything you teach is taken through the filter of "traditions of their fathers". But he did a wonderful job of adding just enough pepper and just enough substance. One thought I had while he was teaching had to do with a combination of his instruction on the parable of the sower and Elder Bednar's teachings about testimony and conversion. In the parable, there are four categories of seeds: those by the wayside, those in stony places, those among thorns, and those in good ground. I determined that the ones in the wayside are people who refuse understanding and thus never gain a testimony or conversion to the gospel. They choose to be absolute party poopers on their mortal journey. Those in stony places gain some degree of understanding but do it to satisfy curiosity and never let that grow into a testimony, much less conversion. Those among thorns end up gaining a testimony, but that is not enough in this world. Gaining a witness from the Spirit doesn't really do much unless you choose to consistently act on it. Those in good ground have chosen to understand, gain a testimony, and become converted through continuing gospel living. And it can be noted that even they still bring forth differing yields of fruit.

THE biggest highlight of this week was by far was going to pick up Elder Walch and Elder Larson (who are going home) after the conference. On the way there, we stopped in Kronum and visited some of my old peeps from the days of my training. It was so amazing. We were able to see Rebecca (I've emailed about her before), Osei Bonsu (I've emailed about him before), and Sister Ahsar and Sister Owusuaa (I'm pretty sure I've emailed about them before). It made my whole mission worth it. I was so happy to see them and how strong they've grown in the gospel. I guess I have made a difference here! Life is awesome.

Elder Larson is the first of my TC group to go home. We came together from the MTC and he's going back a little early for school or something. It feels so strange.

Have a great week! Love,

Elder Nelson

* I'm pretty nervous to come home these days. I've mostly been happy about the thought on my mission, but now I'm not feeling excited about it at all.

Stuck in the Mud- 10/9/17

Dear America,

Well it sounds like you've got life figured out. It's good to hear about Dad's new calling and career decisions. When we talk about family sayings, I think of Mom's "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." That was my whole childhood.

I've noticed myself becoming less and less shy to share the gospel. At the beginning of my mission, there were some teachings that I felt the need to "ease into" with an investigator so it didn't sound too foreign to them. Now it really doesn't bother me. As long as they understand what we're teaching, it doesn't really matter if they're convinced or not. The Spirit clearly testifies of truth regardless of how well we explain doctrine to appease argument. And I'm feeling more and more joy as I share the gospel. I wish I could have had this hang of missionary work long ago. It's a good thing that I'll have chances to be a missionary for my whole life!

We tried to maximize proselyting time this week in between leadership council, office council, and other meetings. When we got a chance on Wednesday, we took some of the zone leaders out with us. I was with Elder Ridell, who is from Sweden. He is the only European in the mission right now. He. Is. Smart. I enjoy conversations with him a lot.

The assistants got stuck in mud pretty badly late on Friday night. We spent a few hours trying to get them out and finally succeeded. We also helped a member move to their new house that night. On fast Sunday, we pounded fufu for an investigator and it was super easy. Whenever I've pounded while fasting before I've felt like dying. You'll get weak and shaky after a few hits. But this time we beasted through it. I think it has to do with our huge fufu workout last week.

Love, Elder Nelson

Fufu and Chicken Noodle Soup- 10/2/17

Dear America,

This week was transfer! The last time I'll have to deal with it during my mission. It was crazy as usual. On Monday we were preparing everything for missionaries to depart on Tuesday morning. We spent hours trying to help the sister missionaries get their luggage below the weight limit. After we took them to the airport, there was a district leader training and we took their companions out proselyting with us. We split up and found several former investigators who we never knew about before. Then in the early afternoon we went to pick up the new missionaries from the airport. We always take the new missionaries to street contact for about an hour on the way to the mission home. It's a lot of fun to see how enthusiastic and innocent they are. 

Wednesday was up and down, up and down. On transfer day, President and the assistants are always in meetings so the office elders are in charge of making sure that all of the missionaries get where they need to go. At one point in the day, we ended up dividing our companionship with some other missionaries so that we could take two cars instead of one. The missionaries from Tamale arrived at the bus station during the most hectic part of the day, but we were able to pick them up in the middle of everything. The best part of transfer day is watching everything click into place because the Lord really helps things work out. We always start out with a plan, but then it gets messed up over and over again. But I'm learning to be more patient with it because those mess-ups always come together to provide a way for us to deal with everything.

On Saturday we woke up to the sound of a wedding engagement party right next door. Our landlord's daughter was the one getting engaged and they were making big preparations that morning. These celebrations are a huge deal in Ghanaian culture and usually involve a lot of food and dancing. We noticed that they were preparing fufu in the morning and we offered to help pound it. We did not know what we were getting into. They made the most fufu I have seen in my life with the biggest mortar and pistil. We took turns pounding but after my first turn I was finished paa. Then there were fifteen more cycles like that. I've never been so sore from pounding fufu before, but it really helped us be good neighbors. There was one guy there who pounds fufu in a chop bar for a living, so he made us all look like wimps. My muscles are still sore from that.

After the fufu ordeal, we took some chicken noodle soup with rice over to Jessica and her family. They are very poor, but whenever we come in the evening time they feed us out of their own food. It always makes me feel terrible to accept food from people who have nothing else, so we told her that the next time we came we would be the ones giving food. I don't know if they liked the chicken noodle soup--Ghanaians are very picky eaters--but it made us feel a little better.

Conference was awesome. I got to watch almost all of the sessions live at the mission home, with the exception of the women's session and the last half of each afternoon session because they were broadcasting in the night. I loved the Saturday morning session. Maybe it was fantastic because it was the first session I saw, but I loved the speakers in it. The gospel just makes sense. I thought that the themes of service, continuous gospel living, and hope were really well pronounced by many speakers throughout the sessions.

Love, 

Elder Nelson

Also, Elder Motloung taped my head while I was talking on the phone.

Area Maps 9/25/17

Dear America,

It's been a sweet week full of long evenings in the office and afternoons trying to keep up with our new and old investigators. Our latest project is to redo all of the mission's area maps. Each companionship in the mission is supposed to have a map of their proselyting area in their area book, but most of the maps are confusing or lost. This has been a plague for my entire time on mission, and missionaries have had a constant struggle with the rumor that the office elders are working on it. We've found out that the maps haven't been updated since 2013 and a lot of areas/wards/branches/stakes are not accurate at all. So we're redoing everything. It takes a lot of time, but in the end it will be a huge landmark that has not occurred for many years. It will help so many missionaries who don't even know where their area boundaries are.

We had some good lessons this week. I've been reminded of the great value in sharing the gospel with the people that you associate with and not only random strangers. The more they see that you care about them as a person, the more likely they will be to listen to you. The same is true even if you are a missionary. For example, we knocked on the door and sat down with two brothers named Isaac and Timothy who probably aren't used to showing much interest in learning the gospel; we laughed around with them for a while and then answered their questions with the restored gospel when they asked us. Another example are a few stubborn neighbors that we met at an investigator's house. They like to ask questions without listening to the answers, and we weren't experiencing very drastic success with them. But over time-- as we go to help them cook or just to chat or teach the other investigator there-- they have started to listen in to what we're really saying. And one young man named Prince asked us a very important question the last time we met him: "How can I know which church is true?" Which is what we've been trying to tell him ALL ALONG but I guess he's getting more and more ready to listen a little bit at a time. Small small a chicken drinks water (Ghanaian proverb).

Have you had the opportunity to give many blessings in Ghana? Yeah, we get the opportunity to perform priesthood ordinances quite a bit. Many priesthood holders don't have a lot of practice or confidence in carrying these things out, so we fill in last-minute in a lot of instances. We do, however, do our best to involve members and teach them how to do it. But it is more often a desperate cry for someone who can do it on the spur of the moment.

Does Elder Crane remember Challin (Elder Nelson) who served in Gilbert? No. He might have left before Elder Nelson was there.

Where do most of the native missionaries in your mission come from? Nigeria makes up a good portion, followed by Ghana and then other African countries. There are a good number of polynesians in the Ghana missions as well.

Anything still on your mission bucket list? Yes, I still would like to teach an entire congregation and have a mass baptismal service. But I don't know if I'm spiritual enough to do that or if God even plans on that happening anytime soon.

Love,

Elder Nelson

Ask the Assistants- 9/18/17

Dear America,

One of the things that isn't fun about being in the office is that you never get time to prepare on preparation day. You're always running errands for other missionaries. So today is another one of those days where my emailing is late and last-minute and short.

We met with a recent convert family that was baptized at the beginning of the year. Elvis, the father, told us about how the gospel was helping his family, especially his little boy named Kofi. In Kofi's school, they have a mandatory religious service on Wednesday and afterwards the teacher takes collection from the children. She was dismayed when Kofi wouldn't put in his coin. When she called his father to inform him about it, Elvis was pleased and told her that his son attends the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we don't believe that we should have any paid ministry. When the rest of the class stood up for a good old "praise and worship" dance in the service, Kofi remained seated. His father again explained that we believe in being reverent. Elvis was so happy that his son was only three years old and already free of many burdensome traditions that are a part of most religion here. Kofi also enjoys praying at home. It was sweet to be with them and hear their testimonies.

We met an unusual number of people that speak French this week, so we took time to print off the pamphlet about the restoration in French. I don't know if that will help them, but if the really want to know more then at least now they can. Pertaining to office work, we also made huge strides in the realm of area maps for the mission. Each companionship is supposed to have a map of their area that they can use to mark members' houses, important locations, landmarks, and things like that. For my entire mission, we've been suffering with inadequate area maps. They just aren't good. I've always had the desire to make a better system. Well I got my wish and now we're overhauling mission maps that haven't been updated since 2013 and the best part is that it's working. 

We had our own zone conference this week, where we were instructed in portion about using the Book of Mormon effectively. When we were in Tamale, the assistants made the bold invitation to proselyte without the Bible for a week. I don't recommend this in every situation, but we felt that it would improve our work by accepting the challenge. The Bible ends up dominating our teaching here because everyone is so rooted in it. We've spent most of our teaching this week trying to pull every answer out of the Book of Mormon, and it has really helped us feel the Spirit, if nothing else. I'm noticing things inside that I've never considered before.

We also got custom football jerseys to play in. We play every Monday against a different apartment in the mission. Missionaries relish the chance to beat Daban FC. The front of the jerseys is a clever play on a common frustration that we always refer problems to each other. Missionaries will come with a question or problem or complaint and they consistently ask those whose jurisdiction it does NOT fall under. So we are forced to redirect their concern to the other companionship and it becomes frustrating for those who lack patience. See attached pictures. 

Love, 

Elder Nelson

We also had some awesome adventures when we went to pick up luggage from the missionaries that will be departing tomorrow. It had just rained pretty heavily and the road that we were planning to take got swallowed by a river.