Hello everyone! So great to hear from you all, it's always a wonderful refresher to write home and hear what everyone is up to. 

First off, I'm SO jealous of the new Chevy! Man I would kill to ride in that right now. Sort of breaks my heart a little bit. Wax it for me?

Things are going pretty great here right now. I am getting more and more "Africanized" as we say it here each day. It's always going to be hot and I'm always going to be sunburnt, but I'm working on techniques. 

Dad and Joe, don't look! First time eating Fufu basically. I struggle! It comes with time though.

Today, as the title of the letter states, marks the beginning of "Affliction Week". Affliction week is the last week before your subsistance money we get each month, and because we're Elders and 18/19 years old, we can't budget very well. I totally blew all my money the first 2 weeks, so I'm on a budget myself. I went several days on 8 or 9 cedis a day, or like 2 bucks in american money. I exchanged some of my american dollars, so I'm all good now. We get 360 cedis per 4 weeks.

One night while walking back to the church building with some cool recent convert kids - we found a house that had exploded that morning, so it was really smoky! We thought it would be a great photo op. (and it was). But a man came out and chewed out the recent converts in the native language, and so we left. Apparently

 it was his house he was building, and he thought we were making fun of the situation. We didn't know, otherwise we wouldn't had done it. But we still got great pictures.

So last week went well. We had a big multi-zone conference near the MTC, and Pres. and Sister Heid delivered some great stuff to us, a lot of it I needed to hear. I'm learning to become more patient. As a Greenie, it's important for me to just take everything in and not get frustrated. The food, the weather, Ghana itself - will all come with patience. 

                                     This is my shirt after the big rain.

Lights off has been pretty sporadic though. It was 24 hours off, 12 hours on for a few days, but now it's kind of whatever the power people want to do... As long as my fan works, I don't care!!

Our area btw is really close to the ocean! We decided to go near it and look at all the trash. Very sad sight really. I need to get my pants tapered some. I look like I'm wearing my dad's church clothes when he was on a mission in the 90's.

Me and Elder Liongitau are working hard though. Last week I committed 4 people to baptism, 3 of which were in the same day! Our branch struggles a lot with people coming to church, so we are targeting Less Actives and Recent Converts to come, as well as our investigators of course. I feel like the people are receiving me and trusting me more, and will continue to. 

There is one small problem with being a white guy out here -  girls. All of them  in our branch like me, and a nutcase 24 year old too. I get teased about it a lot from the elders. It's just distracting because they'll try and hold my hand, throw their arm around me, and for some reason they love carrying my side bag. It's rather annoying to be honest, cause I can't be rude to people, but I can't let them escort me everywhere either. 

There is an awesome place called Moon Light we love going to. It's just fried rice and a chicken leg! No pepe or spicy stuff or nothing! Genius Ghanaian whoever came up with that idea. We go there nearly every night and get a cold Coke. 

       This is Moon Light. We get a picture every time we go. 

The second is when it rained for my first time here! And man was it nuts! All of the sudden, out of nowhere, BOOM! rain comes slamming down. It was lights out already, so it was dark, nighttime, and really rainy! We were waiting for Moon light to open, so we helped move the big undercover tent thing over the restaurant, but because the top was so dirty and dusty, we got covered in dirt and mud. I was laughing the entire time! Completely soaked but it was so fun. 

That's about all I can think of. My companion says I am working hard, and I think our numbers show for it, but I can't really compare to anything yet of course. 

There was a sponsorship event in the streets the other day. It was a big dance competition, and kids would dance battle each other for some prize. Absolutely hysterical how people dance here. It's so cool because every kid here can dance. Like at home, it means something if you can dance. But here everyone dances! I love watching them dance because it looks like a cross between someone who is having an epileptic seizure while getting tased. So funny!

Kids will hold your hand walking down the street and won't let you go. They like sitting on our laps too. Sometimes it is a distraction teaching an investigator because kids will come up and crowd around, making noise. I love the kids. They've made me cry 2 times this week. 

They'll kill each other ( no joke) to get in a picture. It's a problem because they'll punch and kick just to get in it. Very funny! 

The area isn't hard! It's just a matter of adjustment. I don't have runny tummy anymore, so that is a blessing in itself. Yes, the people are very humble, but they're a higher quality of a people too. Smart, quick, strong, resourceful.  

Quick story for you kids at home that i just thought of: 

Ghanaian kids have no toys, so they make their own fun. They play games where you clap and stomp. They use flat soccer balls. They collect glass bottle caps and use them to play a game like marbles and another game where you stack a few caps up and stand a ways away and throw your sandal and try and hit it. That is their entertainment. Kids will run around with tires a lot too. So kids at home, next time you get tired of your video games or feel like you have "nothing fun at our house to do", just remember they have bottle caps and sandals and dirt for fun. And they're HAPPY. Just a thought! 

Joe there are lots of 15 year old girls here!!! I told some yesterday that i have a 15 year old brother. I showed them a picture on my camera of you, and they love you! they want me to blow up a picture of you for them. Girls love white men, especially if they are good soccer players. ooo la laaa Joe!

I am focusing on finding service opportunities. I give a bit of money away in candy to children frequently. That makes me happy haha. 

I'm so happy the family is getting closer and closer. I think it's a great blessing we've been given. Sorry about the Captain Crimson and the Ducks. Us American elders all know about BYU's hot streak. Keep it alive!  Tell everyone Joe is going to be the best Captain Crimson yet, they just gotta wait a few years!

One of the funniest Elders - Elder Dickson - told me that his companion told him that if you stomp on your clothes, it works well and washes them much faster. Being that I hate handwashing (we have to do it every day or every other) I tried it out. It works so well! I look like a dork but it works! It gets everything out except the collar. Saves time, energy, and cut up knuckles! Who knew right?

Count your blessings, remember who you are, and reach a hand out to those who need help. Never forget that it doesn't cost one penny to be kind. Not one!

Hope you all have a sweet week.

Love Elder Nissinen

            This is Elder Helm, one of my good buddies from the MTC. He's out in the bush a bit. 

Sup!!

My first area is...... SANGONAA! It is at or near Teshie, which is like an hour away from Accra. There are so many things I want to tell you guys about, but I obviously can't, so I am just going to say what comes to my mind, meaning it's gonna be all over the place haha. 

Yeah so my companion is Elder Liongitau  (Lee-on-gee-tau) from Tonga! Super cool guy, I think he's been out for 5 months now. He's a lot of fun, and a great trainer. We get along pretty well. 

I don't want to make it sound bad, but I am in a pretty poor area. It's still in the city, so I'm not out in the bush or nothing, but it's definitely humble! I totally love it though. Already I feel like this is where I should be. It's certainly a 3rd-world country by all means. 

Our area!

The kids: 

The kids here blow my mind. I love the kids so much! They are young, intellegent, poor, and very hard-working. They are amazing. Wash clothes, sell food, make their own meals, etc. Take no offense, but these kids are WAY cooler than kids at home. My hearts go out to the kids. It's funny being basically the only white guy. Kids constantly say "obruni obruni!" which means white man. I get plenty of stares from people as you can imagine. Kids will pet my arms a lot or shake my hands. As soon as you pull out a camera a million kids come out of nowhere. When I'm teaching a lesson, kids will group up and watch us from 20 or 30 feet. Women take their babies up to me and have me hold them or look at them. As soon as the baby sees me they start crying and get really scared, which always cracks me up!

All you gotta do is pull out a camera and kids'll come runnin! Then they want to see the pic on your camera.

Here's for all the girls at home.....

The food:

To be honest, I haven't really eaten much food here. They call it "runny tummy" and yep I've had that for a while. The food is fine, but people don't know how to keep things clean. Germs and diseases are all over the place. But your body adapts quickly. They love spicy food. It kind of drives me nuts. Every stinkin' thing here is got spicy stuff in it called pepe. Can't take the spicy stuff man!! 

Trying goat for the first time. Just takes like chicken, but all my pieces were fat. Goats and chicken are everywhere too. We walk by dozens of them every day. 

Me and Elder Liongitau. Coke is cheaper and more common in bottles here. You buy it and return the bottle. Coca cola refills it (and every other glass bottle beverage company). Some bottles look really vintage! 

My area:

Sangonaa is great. Our area is one long street that branches out to all the homes. Smells like smoke from fires and open sewage. It stinks! I told my companion the other night that I wish I could have grown up here. It's flippin' awesome! We ride bikes to the church building, then walk everywhere else. Lots and lots of walking!!

Open sewage. Basically no such thing as a garbage service. Garbage is literally everywhere. Kind of sad, but I like being able to throw garbage away anywhere I want. People go to the bathroom all over the place too. I only like that when it's my turn haha.

Our shower!

This is our bedroom. We share the apartment with two other elders as well. I like sleeping in mosquito nets. They feel like I'm in a tent. Fans are important here

So Saturday was a crazy day. There is a festival in our exact proselyting street once a year, and people come from all over the country to be a part of it. My guess is there was 200,000 people there that day.SO MANY PEOPLE! So what they do is group together in groups and run down the street or alley really fast and chant songs! It's sooo nuts. And almost every guy dresses like a girl, so you see some really interesting outfits haha. There was no way we could proselyte, so we just watched it and avoided getting ran over, grabbed to run in the street, and staying away from the guys that shoved weed in our faces! It's hilarious!! We did get one lesson in though. They also have HUGE speakers stacked up allllllll over the place. Sometimes like every 50 feet. They just blast music and kids dance and whatever. Great music actually. It was just nuts!! 

Funniest guy i've met. He stood around at the festival in the middle of the street and danced... really good too! Yeah he was probably mentally handicapped. My companion threw a piece of garbage on the ground and he picked it up and ate it! so funny! 

These speakers were all over the place! I really felt like Ghana is my 'home' because they love speakers and great music.

Guys like this everywhere during the festival. I really like how people are poor and never bother to worry about what they wear. It's such a problem at home (like people worry about it and get judged all the time) but here everyone is on the same level, so all their clothes are dirty. So are mine!!! 

The second one is people from the festival that run around and don't stop for nothing! Absolute madness, I love it.

Because of that, church attendance was pretty love. Our branch only had like 50 Sunday. Fast Sunday is indeed hard here. We tried teaching a few lessons after church, but it was really hot and we were getting drained, so we just went back and napped till dinner. The sun is so fierce here. It doens't even have to break through the clouds. I love sunscreen! First day I didn't put some on and my nose was blistered like you wouldn't believe! People don't know what sunburn is here, so they thought it was a vitamin c deficieny. I was like "no it's an overdose of vitamin d "haha. 

Ghanaian sun + my nose = this

Our little district, which doesn't even have a name. I'm working on it though...

That's about it here! Totally loving the area. I committed a lady to baptism, and we are working hard at finding investigators. There's so many people in Sangonaa, finding people to talk to isn't much of an issue. 

Took me an hour and half to do laundry this morning, and I did some Thursday too. You have to appreciate the Whirlpools! Don't have none of that stuff here.

 I stink sooo bad at handwashing!

OH! forgot to tell you, we don't have electricity about 1/3 of the time. So it's just fun! Happy birthday Papa and hope everyone has a fun time at school. Sorry Joe about your knee. Get some crutches and it'll look tougher. Cool story on the bikes! Jeez that would be really fun. Jacob keep up the dating. Sounds like you are having a flippin blast. I talked to some Elders this morning that are leaving soon, and they said "I'm so excited to get home and just smooch some white girls!". So I guess I see where you're coming from. Love you all! Love life like the Ghanaians! Tell Ro thanks for the email and pictures. I love getting pictures! Oh and Bro. Nelson too. 

       We have a Casio keyboard that I am learning to play the piano on. Only works when we have                  electricity of course.... so when I was bored yesterday I had fun with my favorite tie.

What's up Fam?!

We are at our last few hours here at the MTC. Honestly, the majority of us can't wait. We compare this to a prison. It's an MTC, but an MTC that is a "little bit of a fixer-upper". It's good for us, we learn to have fun at boring times, and how be patient with our situation. Luckily all the guys here are super cool and fun to be with. In reality, the MTC is better than how we are going to be living soon anyways, so we're gonna be wishing we were back here soon! 

I am super excited for where I'm going and my first official companion. I hope I get a great companion! President Heid and his wife came and visited us. They seem so dang cool. I was able to talk to them for a second afterwards and they knew the guy that the Arrington's knows Dad. He said they may be coming here to serve in like January or something...? 

Like I said, the food is rough-ish here. You pick and nibble at the things you like. I tried Fufu the other day for the first time. Tastes like nasty thick sticky play-dough mashed potatoes that is hard to swallow because it's so dense. Africans eat messy here haha. 

Other than that, we've just been in classes a lot. We had a big health meeting with the head doctor of the area today. He told us of how to stay healthy and the importance of doxy, cleaning our veggies and fruit with bleach, and avoiding foods like bush meat (monkeys, rats) and drinking clean water.  

I don't have much else to say. I am sending a physical letter home tomorrow, so you should get it in about a week and a half or so....?

I just want to send lots of pics today. 

Oh by the way, I invented a new game called Hymnball. You take a hymnbook and a paper ball and a trash can and you stand in a circle. Everybody hits the ball before someone takes a shot at hitting it into the trash can. Kind of stupid, but it's fun when you're a missionary for some reason. 

2 african sisters like me here. One's staring at me as I speak. It's been driving me nuts. One of them sits right next to me in our district.... really obnoxious! You want to be nice back without flirting with her back but holy smokes I'm a missionary! Never had black people like me..... way weird. 

Everybody has to sing a hymn in the closing devotional tonight. Our district is singing "I hope they call me on a mission" with an added 3rd verse that goes like this: (I helped make it up)

I have been called to serve a mission

Now that I have grown a foot or two

The MTC has got me ready

To teach in Africa the gospel that is true

Elder Nielsen. 20 times a day guys will come up to me and think we are twins, brothers, or cousins. We are both in the same mission. Holy cow if we are companions we can screw with sooo many people hahaha

Have a fantastic first week of school everyone!! Sounds like you guys got some fun classes ahead. Best of luck in everything you do. Mom, I'm praying for that back of yours..... Love and miss you all!!! 

Elder B

At the mission presidents home!

                                            I was the commentator for the soccer tournament

Akwaaba family! I think that means hi or something.! It feels really nice to email home right now. There have been tons of great stuff that I wanted to tell ya guys, but you have to wait! I'm still changing my mindset. 

One of my favorite guys here. He is so cool and nice and humble. One african didn't know what the spots on my arms were. I explained they were freckles! 

First of all, congrats to Joe and Mom for the new calling and the soccer team. Joe you're gonna love being with your friends again, that'll be sweet! Sounds like your back is getting better mom. Hope you guys had a safe flight and are enjoying Utah. Jacob have fun at college this week!

The MTC is way different here. I don't even think it is comparable to the Provo MTC. Very small, very basic. But it is good too. Lots of great guys around. I think it will help me adapt to the culture easier. This MTC is so unique .There are just shy of 100 missionaries, and 16 countries are represented, making this place have so many languages and cultures associated with it. There is arguably no other place on earth like this one, with so many languages and countries in such a little group. The food is pretty foreign. Mom, you'd be surprised by what I'm eating! I'm stuffing some stuff down here that'd I'd gag on at home I bet. 

This was from Sunday. This is proof of how humid it is here! Brand new shirt when I put it on that morning! And I hardly went outside either. The MTC is air conditioned too. Lemme tell yah, that took some time to handwash that out of the collar.

We hand wash our clothes here too. There is only like one washer and dryer that can be used once a week, so the Africans taught us how to hand wash.  Man is it a workout! Especially at night, cause it is really humid. The heat here is different too. I feel very close to the Sun. It is humid!!!

My companion is pretty good too. He's 22 and is from Kenya. We have our differences, probably due to age and culture, but we are doing good when we teach investigators. He's getting better at understanding american culture, and I'm doing better at understanding African culture.  

Yesterday we went to the Temple! It was also suppose to be my P-day too. The temple was awesome. We drive through trash and poverty,, then turn a corner and BAM! we are on temple grounds. Very cool stuff. The temple is tiny! I was on the 8:30 temple session, so when I was going to leave afterwords, the van was full, so the MTC left like 5 of us there at the temple waiting for the 10:30 session to finish. In other words, I sat outside the temple for a few hours. Only bad part was that it was my P-day to do laundry and write, but I'm learning to go with the flow. 

The view outside my window. Ghana is flat and jungley! 

The african guys have sweet ties, so one night I went around and traded ties with a bunch of them. I only have a few ties I originally came out with. I felt bad trading with the guys who only had 3 or 4 ties, so I gave a bunch away too. 

No joke the whitest guy here. My hair looks like gold in some group pictures! 

Quick stats on the church around West Africa: 

People dream of being a missionary here. West Africa is the fastest growing part of the church right now. On average around the world, missionaries get 1.2 baptisms. In West Africa, missionaries average over 10. Every week, a new unit is established. A unit is a bit smaller than a branch. The people are mega receptive around here, making the Gospel flourish. Can't wait to get out and teach. 

                                       The temple trip. Me and my companion Elder Mwetu

Thanks to everyone for the emails and encouragement. Have a blast in Utah! It's amazing being a missionary. I am learning a lot about the gospel and how to be a better teacher. Good luck in college Jacob! I'm stoked to see some pictures of you and your babes. Have a great week!!  

Love Elder Nissinen.

Our district.  A lot of fun guys! All of us except a few are going to Accra.

Probably the funniest thing I've seen yet. Guy carrying a straight up backpack on his head! Gotta love it. 

Just in case you think Africa is small.... The world maps aren't true to size

This was a letter sent to us by a very kind Elder:

Hey! This is Elder Helm! While your son left to teach a lesson i took his computer! haha I just wanted to tell you that your son is a great missionary! I love the spirit that he brings to our district. He and I have gotten to know each other and he always talks about how much he loves his family and misses his family :) and his mommy :) haha! He is great when we need a laugh! He is so funny and makes being here fun! He is going to do great in the field! I can only hope i am companions with him down the road. 

Well he is coming back soon so..thanks for reading my email! 

p.s. did you know your son is a good dancer? haha

Elder Helm

Ghana MTC

Elder B looks happy at the Ghana MTC