Did You Say Washing Machine?

Dear friends and family, 

Yep, you heard it! The other day I received a text message from President Heid, informing us that Elder Effiong and I were going to be given a small washing machine as a test-trial for the rest of the mission. The story goes that we are the first missionaries in all of West Africa to be using a washing machine! That includes all of Ghana and Sierra Leone for sure, maybe even more missions in Nigeria. Pretty cool, huh? The washing machine is nice! I don't know how well it works on shirts and things like that yet, but it sure makes washing socks easier!

Barber man went a little happy on my sides last night..

Now I don't feel like the only Ginger in Ghana!

Anyways, the work is still rollin' forward. We've been able to reach out to several less-actives again. It was nice seeing some come to church and even bear their testimony Sunday. People just need to feel loved sometimes, really. We got several new investigators this week also, some we feel are ready for an upcoming baptism!  Our teaching pool is getting really big now, I love that! Elder Effiong and I have crashed on our bikes a couple of times throughout the week, so that's been funny.

Most of these Elders were in our apartment last night. All but 2. 

I'm stoked to hear from you all on Mother's Day! It will be a great time. 

I'll keep this letter short so we have things to talk about. 

The girl who's name is Perfect, invited us to her birthday! She is a great girl.

What it looks like right before a big storm. Heavy wind and very cool. We got soaked! 

By the way, sorry I didn't write yesterday. Our zone had an activity at a beach a few hours away (near the border of Togo), so we got back kind of later in the day. It was also a holiday, so the public cafes were closing.

The drive on the way to the beach. Where we went is Aflao, which borders the country Togo. Far! 

Talk to you Sunday! 

Love, 

Elder Nissinen

(This is a text I received from one of the couple missionaries serving in Elder B's area.  It's always nice to hear how he is serving and how well he is being taken care by some amazing couple missionaries! This is a picture of Elder and Sister Bondie with Elder B. He said he will miss them a ton)

 "As moms we know how absolutely wonderful our sons are. When someone else sees what we know...it warms our heart:). I want to tell you that my husband and I have seen how incredible your son is! Elder Nissinen is such a hardworking, obedient, patient, thoughtful, mature, and fun young man! We feel so blessed to have him serving in Ho and have this chance to spend time with him. He is a great missionary!" -Sister Bondie.

Lion King and Kung Fu Panda

Dear family and friends, 

We're working hard here in Ho! I'm starting to learn how to work smarter and not harder. The other day I was cleaning out some cabinet spaces, and I found an old membership record from over a year ago. I got excited at it, and went through and called every single member on that list that we did not know. Many of the numbers didn't exist anymore and several people have relocated since, but there was many we got a hold of that still live in the area. Since then we've had a renewed focus on strengthening the inactives/less-actives in the branch. It's fun! It also opens the windows up for more investigators, as many of these families are only part-member families. The field is white already to harvest! 

Some cool kids after seminary we taught the other night.

I am almost at the point where I can state every person's name in sacrament now, which is nice. 

Elder Effiong hasn't been feeling too good this week, so that's been a little hold-up for us. Actually, there must be some kind of sickness going around, because everyone is getting sick. We've given more blessings this week than I've ever given in my whole life. It's nice being able to have the opportunity to use my priesthood when people need it. After all, priesthood is all about service, right?

Last night. One of my favorite families. Cool kids, cool parents. Both girls are super nice and kind. We're going over there Friday night for one of the girl's birthday.

Yesterday our first counselor gave a talk. It was one of the coolest talks I've ever heard. He related the gospel to Lion King and Kung Fu Panda. It was incredible! Everybody was engaged. He told me I'm giving a talk this coming Sunday, so I'm working on relating the gospel to Frozen. We'll see how it turns out! A member brought 3 of his friends to church, and they were all really interested in the investigator's class. We're excited to meet with them tomorrow.

It's called Kente. It's a local african fabric but it's hand weaved. So it's tedious and takes a very long time. A member makes it. Check out dropbox for a video. One of the cooler things I've ever seen. Very talented! 

Yeah my skin feels better. Actually, my arms are getting really dark! This picture doesn't do it justice, but maybe you can tell

Well, that's about it for my week. Sounds like everyone is doing great. Good to hear the family is all back together again. I hope Jacob passes his drug test. Best of luck to you all! Enjoy this time together. 

Love always, 

Elder Nissinen

Ga, Twi, or Ewe?

Dear family and friends, 

Another week has come and gone here.... Things went GREAT this past week! Elder Effiong and I put our shoulders to the wheel (or legs to the pedals) and got some serious missionary work done! Every week, we write goals for what we want to accomplish that week in our weekly planning session. Well, for the first time in my entire mission, we met or exceeded every single goal we set! It was so great! We were so motivated to meet those goals, it was pretty dang cool! 

We have mid-week, where everyone is invited to come for like a Wednesday family home evening at the chapel. Well the mid-week here sucks, and nobody comes. I decided it was because it wasn't fun. Elder Effiong and I decided to make it fun! We played a bunch of games I remember Harward used on us when I was in seminary. It was a hit, and pretty soon more people will come. 

A guy pulled us over last week as we were crawling on our bikes up a big hill and wanted to know more about Joseph Smith. We set up an appointment and met with him a few days later. The man had met with missionaries several years ago. I could tell his heart was ready and I dropped a baptismal date on him... the first lesson! He accepted it and came to church yesterday. 

My first area spoke Ga, my second area spoke Twi, and my third area (here) speaks Ewe! Not easy!  I am working very hard, and it's paying off! I was up at 6 this morning. Did all my wash and cleaned the apartment.

I was scared to death of this monkey!

While street contacting the other day we found a girl who was a less-active. We met with her the next day, and she told us her story of why she wasn't coming to church or seminary. Her mother and step-father are against the church, so they don't allow her to come. She tries hard to come. She wasn't in church yesterday so I felt we should visit her. Her step-father is not a very nice man and treats her poorly. She was washing everybody else's clothes, so we helped her with it. She told me how she is working on Personal Progress by herself as well as studying the scriptures each day because she can't attend seminary much. I've thought about that a lot. Let's not complain about church, seminary, or church responsibilities because there's people in the world who WANT those things but can't because of circumstances they cannot control.

 Termite hills! 

I gave this ram the parable of the lost sheep....

"I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep"

"Teach all nations, kindreds, tongues, people, and species" 

I miss my old area, but this one is great too. You can't have the same area twice. Things you like, things you don't like. But I'm excited that i am establishing myself here. I'm determined to learn every single member's name in the branch. 

Thanks for all you do. Sure sounds like everyone is busier than heck with sports, piano, school and work. Congrats Rosie on your piano test! Good to hear Mormon Prom went well and it's over. Have a great week. 

Love always, 

Elder Nissinen

The Hills Are Alive.....

... with the sound of panting pedaling missionaries. 

Things are going great here. I'm really starting to adjust to this new area. We used bikes all this past week. Let me tell you, these hills and our bikes don't work well together! Some of these hills are ridiculous. In fact, Tuesday we went up a super steep hill that stretched for a long ways. I felt so accomplished going all the way to the top and not stopping! These hills are something else! 

We had a great Zone Training Meeting Tuesday. Elder and Sister Bodine gave great talks about maintaining a positive attitude amid the negatives that happen each day. It's a pure choice to be happy. 

The Ho Zone!

Elder Effiong and I get along real great. He's awesome and has a real desire to work hard and see the people. We teach in unity and enjoy each other a lot. I'm now seeing how being submissive really has an impact on a successful companionship.  I told Effiong how much I like him, and he told me he likes me too. We're gonna get some serious work done around here...... (hopefully)

Wednesday we went with a Branch missionary to show us as many people as he knew in the branch boundaries, including members, less-actives, and former investigators. Our teaching pool is small, and the both of us are somehow new to the area. We were biking all day, and I forgot to wear sunscreen on my arms. They got burnt real bad! I learned that lesson. 

This poor single mother works really hard to support her family. She's awesome and super talented. Her kids are cool too. We gave her service the other day to help out. This mother and I were talking about conveniences, and she'd never heard of a vacuum before. I've never seen one here yet either. We also explained how a washer and dryer work. It was a unique experience looking back. Life is so different here than at home. It's hard to even explain to people.  I just forget my past life and focus on appreciating theirs.

We set a goal to extend some baptismal dates this week, and we did. There's this boy that always comes to church and seminary, but we didn't know he hadn't been baptized. Immediately we started teaching him, and plan on baptizing him the beginning of next month. He's got a hard home life with basically no parental support. He's a good kid though. 

Some legitimate Jordans I found the other day. 

Size 10 so I didn't grab 'em. Tempting though! 

Found this at a little store near our house.. 1 cedi a piece!
 I bought 50 of them, but already ate more than half.

I'm learning a lot about leading and being an example. I love the church. It's so true! Teaching others about our simple life-changing message is so fun. 

Sounds like everyone had a great week.  Love and miss you all. Have a wonderful busy week. Enjoy the Prom Rosie. 

Love, 

Elder Nissinen

I'm a Bushionary, Mom!

Dear friends and family, 

Hello! 

You're all wanting to know about Ho and such. It's a very nice city that is in the middle of some small mountains. It's a regional capitol, so it's quite nice. I don't really know much else besides that, because I'm still really new. It's a bit cooler here too, which is nice! 

We call it the "bush" because it's away from the city and I'm surrounded by trees and green. If you want an idea of what I see this place as, it's somehow like North Plains...? We were walking down a little road the other day, and it reminded me of North Plains. I guess you can take that for whatever it's worth. 

My companion is Elder Effiong from Nigeria. He's a great guy, and I am already getting to like him. Even though he's still new on his mission, he knows the gospel well and is teaching me the area and people. We're going to get some serious work done here! 

Sunday was a great day! They announced that we'd be viewing the broadcast LIVE! I was really surprised at that one. It was the first time Ho has ever had the capabilities to watch Conference live before. They confused the time difference, so we ended up waiting for 3 hours before the conference started. I got interrupted a few times for District responsibilities, but what I did see was awesome! Some great talks were given. I'm excited to go back and download all the talks, especially from the Priesthood Session, which I missed. 

Transfers are hard for me. Everything is new, but I know time will help. The branch is really strong, and the work is here to do. 

I'm so grateful to have been able to watch Conference and here what our Prophet and his apostles had to say. What a blessing that is, huh? 

I know God loves us and looks after us, simply because we are His sheep. All we need to do is lift up our hearts to Him, as Elder Uchtdorf said. 

Tomorrow we are having a Zone Training Meeting. Our zone is so spread out that a lot of us have to sleepover here. The Zone leaders called me this morning and said that 12 elders are coming to sleep in our apartment tonight! Whoa! Our apartment has a few extra rooms, but I think this is not the best idea.... hahaha

Sounds like everyone had a phenomenal week! Great job Joe in winning it for Glencoe (that's rare, Glencoe winning). Rosie, keep having fun. Congrats on getting asked to the dance! Jacob, have a wonderful happy 21st birthday!! Thanks Mom and Dad for your love and support. I feel so overly blessed. 

Love you all, 

Elder Nissinen

"Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Ho I Go"

Dear family and friends, 

Hello! Thanks for all the sweet letters and pictures from Easter. Glad to hear you all had a wonderful time enjoying each other's company these past few weeks. Quick question: was anybody able to bop the Easter Bunny on the nose? Just checking. 

Well, the work has been great here as always. I received a call from the mission office yesterday afternoon. I'm being transferred to Ho, an area about 3 hours away from where I am now. It's one of the farther places in the mission. I will be serving with Elder Effiong, a Nigerian and finish his 2nd half of training. I will also be a District Leader there.  Yeah it's going to be sweet. Like this is where villages and huts and things are.  I am over 4 of us guys, maybe 6? I make sure companionships are doing well, and I receive all their weekly numbers and send them to the Zone Leaders. I lead district council meetings and other things. it's not bad, but it's a bit of responsibility. I don't feel ready for it in a new area and all. but I believe I'll be in the bush for a while, so it'll be sweet.  It was a surprise for sure. I don't know why I'm suddenly going. I've been in Nungua for only like 4 weeks. Elder Winborg and I were getting along great! However, I'm excited for what lays ahead in "the bush". I leave tomorrow afternoon. Cool, huh?

 This morning I was playing a game with those kids in this picture who stay next to us. Their house is so humbling. Our shed in the backyard is nicer. It's just so cool being able to experience that kind of thing.

As for Elder Madsen, he is leaving tomorrow night to get medical help in the States. He'll probably continue his mission in the States after. I will miss Elder Madsen. He's my son! His heart is in serving the Lord, and he'll be blessed with whatever happens to him. I learned a lot from him. 

One of my favorite pictures! At a member's house eating dinner the other night. This lady is my age. I really really liked her! Her personality is something I'll have to remember for when I'm looking for a girl myself when I'm home. 

Easter in Ghana isn't quite much. It's hardly celebrated at all. We had regular church meetings. I just ate some sugary snacks from packages and packed my clothes. I was a bit sad from it yesterday, but I'm over it now. New things in store! Hey Mom! Don't worry about my skin. I was able to get some connections and get a hold of a wide-brimmed hat that I'll now be wearing. I just got fed up with dealing with the burns the other day when my scalp got burnt, causing me to have a migraine for like a full day. So I'm wearing a safari hat from now on! Cool huh?

Massive banku dinner the other night!

Great to hear Jacob and Kimberley are doing well. I need her email address. This letter is suppose to be read by all family and close friends. She fits somewhere in the middle of those two. Congrats on the sweet job Jacob. You're enjoying!! 

Back to school this week huh? Hope everyone does well adjusting back to the normal life. I've been adjusting for a while now too. Take care!

First hamburger in 7 months! Probably the last one too!

By the way, I won't be watching conference next week. I'll be a bit far from the city, so I'm not sure on the accessibility of that one... President said we'll have to wait until October.

Love, Elder Nissinen

Easter

Dear friends and family,


Elder Winborg and I are doing great! It's been yet another exciting
week here in Nungua.

One of our focuses is to reach out to less-active members. Because our
ward is new, there aren't many that attend sacrament meeting, but the
membership records is huge. We went with our awesome Bishop Wednesday
afternoon for 4 hours as he showed us several less-active's homes. It
was a great success! Several less-actives attended church yesterday.
In Elder Nissinen's book, having a less-active come back to church is
just as good as a convert baptism!

Our teaching pool continues to grow. Elder Winborg and I worked pretty
hard this week to keep ourselves busy teaching somebody as often as
possible. The work is here to do! I'm familiarizing myself with the
area and ward better. Our ward is called Nungua 3.

The other day our ward mission leader needed help moving his new
mattress home. It was quite the sight seeing two white guys carry a
mattress on their heads down the road! Hopefully you'll be able to see
a little clip of it...

Easter is celebrated here, but I don't think it's anything like home
(chocolate, African Easter Bunny - sorry Jacob - or Cadbury Eggs).
Everyone will probably go to church and have a big party or something
I imagine.

Thanks a lot for the pictures! Jeez you guys have too much fun! Those
are some pretty awesome scenic spots there. A+ on the photography
guys. Hope you guys enjoy having Kimberly over next week. Jacob I give
you permission to drive her in the truck for some time.

7 months yesterday!

Keep having fun as a family, soak it up! Enjoy Spring Break, and most
importantly enjoy Easter. It's amazing that even here in Ghana, one of
the most Christian countries in the world, people don't know that
Christ was resurrected, body and spirit. What a blessing it is to be
able to share that message with those I see. The sky is blue, the
Church is true.

Love always,

Elder Nissinen

Dear family and friends, 

I apologize for not letting you know I wouldn't be able to email home yesterday. We had Elder Rasband come! 

Elder Rasband is AWESOME!

Let me first set the scene for who was present: 

1) The entire Africa West Area Presidency (Three Area Seventy's) and their wives

2) Ghana Accra Temple President and his wife

3) Ghana Accra and Ghana Accra West Mission Presidents and their wives

4) 300+ missionaries, and

5) Elder Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve, and his wife! 

That alone was amazing. Just being in their presence was outstanding. Luckily, all of us were able to shake all of their hands yesterday! Elder Rasband was awesome. He has so much love for the missionaries. He talked a lot about the process by which missionaries get their call. It's so cool how divine this mission is for me. Literally, I am exactly where the Lord wants me to be and exactly with who He wants me to be with, right now! Once Elder Rasband got this into our heads, I realized that there is no need to complain, because everything all the way down to my companion is by divine revelation. The critical part is for me to learn WHY I'm here. I've partly grown to understand that one. 

Elder Rasband proposed this question to us: "Who is your most important convert?" He said it was ourselves. I've thought of this much. I am my most important convert. If I go home and haven't changed anything about myself or my relationship with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His Gospel, then my mission benefited me but little. Before I can convert anybody, I need to make sure that I myself am converted. 

Well, being in the presence of another Apostle is quite the unique opportunity, of which I am grateful for. 

Outside our apartment yesterday going to Elder Rasband. All the rain is kind of nice, but it gets everything muddy and
 you can't wash your clothes. 

Saturday was one of the best days of my whole mission. The 3 convert baptisms that Elder Madsen and I left from that emergency transfer were baptized Saturday. It was such a special day, seeing them all again and watching them be baptized. It was so cool cause they were baptized by Seth, a recent convert. I couldn't stop smiling the whole program. Elder Madsen got pretty sick again the night before, so he wasn't able to come with me, unfortunately. It was an awesome day that I'll never forget! 

Theresa, Rose, Matthew were all baptized by Seth! What a day, what a day. Rose came late, so she isn't pictured here. These are the two Nigerian Sisters that replaced us. 

My joy was full :)

The rest of last week was similar to the one before: rain, water problems, and normal teaching. I fasted last week that Elder Winborg and I would be a successful companionship. It was one of the hardest fasts I've ever done, but I'm seeing the blessings of it already. We get along great, and are starting to teach in unity. Our teaching pool is big. We've got some work to do! 

I took a bath last Monday on two of these! We ran out of water completely. We still have water problems. I've taken bucket showers for about 10 days now. 
Great to hear everyone is doing well at home and in school. I received the package from Ninny yesterday. I will just say it was quite the treat! Thanks so much! 

Have another great wet week! 

Love always,  Elder Nissinen

Water Week!!!

Dear family and friends, 

As you all know, I've been transferred to an area near my other one. It's a bit nicer in some ways. I do miss the people I served in Sangonaa, but this new area gives me the wonderful opportunity to "start over". I get to re-start my relationships with my companion, the ward members and leaders, and investigators. It's a nice feeling being able to "start over" again from scratch. 

I don't really know the area yet, or many people for that matter...! Elder Winborg is a great guy, and has a strong desire to work hard. He's showing me the people and the area patiently. I will soon learn it! 

It was my first Sunday in the new ward... It is a newly-formed ward actually. It was split from a bigger ward just recently. There aren't many people in it (we might even become a branch) but I'm excited to get the work rolling again! The ward is great. President Heid is encouraging us to build strong relationships with the auxiliary leaders and the bishop, and that's something I would like to do better at. Many times missionaries get caught up in contacting and tracting, but there's better ways of going about it: the members! Receiving referrals from members is such a gold mine for us. 

Tuesday we got dumped on! It rained really hard, and unfortunately we were a bit far from our apartment, so we got stuck out in it.

Rain Storm!!!  Everything got wrecked.  Oh well! Elder Winborg has a waterproof camera. 

 Saturday we had 2 baptisms! One was a convert, and the other was an 8 year old kid who's family is already members recently. We asked the kid who he wanted to baptize him, and he pointed at me... the kid doesn't really even know me! I was happy to baptize him of course... funny!

Anyways, the church building didn't have running water for some reason, so we had to run hoses through some windows to fill the font. Then the font became too full by the time we started, so when I was baptizing little Junior, the water reached his neck! Everyone was laughing at that one. It started to rain a bit that evening again, so we got wet again. Our water tank accidentally broke, so there was a little pipe spewing water that had to get fixed soon. It got fixed that evening, but the city water somehow was shut off. The city water is still shut off, we've been doing everything by buckets the past few days... We are almost out of water, so I don't know what's going to happen from here haha. It was a water week!

Played rugby at the beach last Monday! Way fun! 

That's really about it for Nungua. I've been humbled a lot the past few days, just for one reason or another. I'm trying to change the ways I think and talk: I get better reception from others when I talk about THEM instead of ME. I love my mission. Transfers (especially emergency transfers) are hard, but as long as I am being an aid and not a burden, the work will continue.

A game we play. Yes my skin is burnt a lot.  I use sunscreen but it's incredibly hot all the time.  I sweat from 7am to 9pm, and wake up sweaty again.  It's really hard, but I'm trying. 

Sounds like you all had a great weekend camping! Lucky! Congrats Jacob on your new girlfriend. You're a pretty smooth guy! Pandora charms?! Jeez. Best of luck to everyone this week in school and what-not. Remember how blessed you really are (seriously). Have fun! 

Good news!  Elder Rasband is coming next week to visit us missionaries!!!  It's cause our mission is the best!!! 

Love always, Elder Nissinen