Sangonaa + Missionary = 101% ADVENTURE

Dear Family and Friends, 

What a week! Like the title says, it's just an adventure here that you can't really all take it at once. I'm loving it so much! 

To explain what I mean, everything I am about to say actually happened. 

Tuesday there was a member-family that wanted us to come and visit with them. So we did of course. They live on the beach, an area I hadn't been to yet. Anyways, to get to their house we had to cross parked ships and then get in a little canoe for a boy to take us across a small amount of water. Supposedly that was the only way to get to their house. We told the boy we'd pay him when we come back to get back on shore. I was really sad to see the amount of garbage on the shores. It sounded like Hawaii had a good deal of trashy areas, but don't ever take a clean beach for granted! 

After we got there, we talked and what-not, and then my companion took off his shoes and climbed a coconut tree! Right on a beach! I couldn't believe it! So we enjoyed a few coconuts and walked barefoot around for some time. Then it was time for us to live with Prince, the father, for PEC meeting at the chapel. So we're walking back, and we get to the water where you need a canoe. Well the boy and the canoe were gone. I was seriously contemplating swimming/walking across! But Prince took off his clothes and carried us one-by-one on his back to the nearest ship! I couldn't believe it! Then 20 minutes later we were in PEC meeting. It's just an adventure that is hard to describe! Things that happen to missionaries here don't even come close to happening anywhere else on the planet. I love it. 

You know, just going to PEC meeting... nothing special really. At one point the water was up to Prince's throat... Our shoes and socks got soaked, but the rest was dry! Prince is the man!! 

Friday night Elder Liongitau and I went to Papa's Pizza! We'd been planning it for the whole week, and I was super excited for it. It's really expensive, but boy was it worth it! It was my first American meal since the MTC, and my first pizza in 3 months. I got a 10-inch pepperoni with cheese and pineapple and ate the whole dang thing! It was sooooo good! I'll be honest though, I felt a little spoiled eating expensive food. Like almost worldly? Hard to explain, but I felt different. The next 2 days my stomach was tore up - maybe it had to do with the 1-liter Coke I chugged that night....! 

 30 cedis is outrageous for a meal. I mean, to them it's 30 dollars for a pizza. They don't exchange currencies. You get 2 balls of banku for 1 cedi, enough to fill you for basically the whole day. 

Saturday was Larbi's baptism... and it was a success! She's a bit larger than I am, so it might have been a bit awkward on the coming-up part... ha!  Later that night I asked her about how she felt, and she told me she "felt like a new creature" and that her sins were gone. I thought that was cool. She has great potential to be a solid member in the church. 

Larbi is great. 2 young kids. She's 35 year old

Sunday I gave my talk on the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ. The Stake President told us after sacrament that our branch has the potential to be a ward by April 2016! It seems as though our efforts are paying off regarding the time spent visiting less-actives and recent converts. Sunday we had 95 people in sacrament, the most I've seen yet. Normally we're around 45-70. 

Anyways, it seems as though this is Elder Liongitau's last week in Sangonaa. He's been here all 7 months of his mission, and I got a feeling he's being transferred next week. I'm the one carrying the phone now and giving the numbers to President, so I'm preparing to be a trainer. We will see what the future unfolds soon. I don't feel ready to take on the area and train without his help, but I've gotta take the steps sometime! 

Elder Liongitau is awesome. I actually really like him. He treats me well and is helping me grow. We laugh and play a lot. He's a lot of fun! I will miss him when he leaves a lot. He gives food to someone every single day. 

Pretty good argument for coolest companion ever..... I tried, and it's really hard! I didn't even get 1/4 the way. They do it all time in Tonga.

Never had a coconut till my mission. They're common here. Only 1 or 2 cedis. They used to not be sweet enough, but they're a nice treat now. 

Sounds like Hawaii wasn't all that you hoped it was, but at least you can say you've been there now! Hope everyone is doing well and having a great week. Sorry about the heat in Hawaii. I don't know what weather app you're all using, but the actual temp. here is much hotter. Mid 90's everyday and the same percentage of humidity at night! 

In case I can't get a better Christmas picture... this one's for Cousin Eddy! 

Elder Liongitau has great stories about school back at home. Only till I came here did I FULLY realize how crappy my education was. You wouldn't believe how their schools are ran here and in other foreign countries. Everything these people do here and in Tonga would be "illegal" or "wrong" in the U.S. Everybody loves school here. Teachers beat students in front of the class for failing tests, being late, chewing gum, stuff like that. They have them bend down and touch their toes and "cane" their bottoms... Also, if you are fighting with students in school, the teachers will have you and the other person fight in front of the classroom, and the loser gets beat by the teacher! They have the strictest policies on dress codes. If you aren't dressed exactly according to the uniform, you're sent home. I love my country. It's the promised land. But it's such a joke! The media messes everything up (and the government). Way too many unneccessary rules and regulations.  People here take their education real serious. And they like it too.... I wish we had uniforms. It created a lot of problems at home. 

Gilbert, a super great convert. Blesses the sacrament and comes proselyting with us when he's not schooling.

Keep up the school work and great grades. Thanksgiving Break will be here before you know it! By the way, this week marks 3 months! Hard to picture seasons and holiday's at home. We don't have anything of the sort yet. Fireworks are coming out, so we've bought a few for kids to blow up for us. By the way, next Monday we're having a dual zone activity where we all bring a dish from our country. Since I can't make anything american, I'm going to make PBJ's! But I haven't told anyone yet. It's going to be SO FUNNY.  Oh I am so happy I'm in Ghana. This place is absolutely for me, not even a doubt. 

Love Elder Nissinen

It's called Cacklow. Wrong spelling of course. Not really sure what it is, but i like it a lot.

If I was home, I'd be surprised by actual homes. Running water and clean water sources, and probably just good old american food. I wouldn't take the things I have for granted anymore, like clothes. It's especially hard for me to see children with rags for clothes. I think when I get home I'm always going to handwash clothes and dishes. I saw a little girl this morning with just underwear on (which is normal) but her underwear was tied together cause it was worn out so bad. I felt pretty bad at that one.

 

Our Room!!!

I sleep great actually. Most nights I only wake up 1 time. Sometimes I wake up covered head to toe in sweat. It varies though. One of the other elders wakes up every night and takes a shower to cool off. I've had this reoccurring nightmare: I'm home and finished my mission, and everyone is asking me about my experiences, but I can't remember hardly anything that happened. Like I remember just the 3 months I've been out. I think it's a sign that I should take advantage of every moment of my mission. I've also thought about what I'll be like when I get home. If I was home today, I know for sure I'd be so different. Even what I've been through and see just in this short time have changed me and changed the way I see things. I'm enjoying this way of life quite a bit. On a side note, we lose power every day now. It's 24 hours off 12 on.

Hello family and friends! 

I didn't know it was a 10 hour time change from Hawaii and Ghana, so that's sweet! Sounds like everyone is doing well and having a good time enjoying Hawaii. Good to hear you all are feeling some Ghanaian heat! 

Foosball is popular here. You pay like 20 pesawas for 5 foosballs, so we hop in sometimes and play with the boys. They are good! 

My week was pretty great as well. We are baptizing Larbi the 14th of November, and hopefully a lady named Pascalene the 28th. Our investigator pool has decreased since the recent baptisms, so we are finding and reaching out to get that number back up. It was nice to see both ladies come to church this Sunday all on their own. That tells us they're committed and want the Gospel. 

This week, I've reflected a bit on my calling. There are so many times throughout my week that during a lesson, I can't believe my companion and I, who are only 19 and 18 years old, are giving advice to full-grown adult men and women. Sometimes I feel like a father talking to my child...weird right?! Let me share a story about Pascalene, who is only 23 or 24 and has two children. Below is a story she either wrote or her friend wrote and gave it to me on a piece of paper. I will write it exactly the way it is written: 

'My mum died when I was 8 years old. After the funeral I was brought back to Akusombo. I thought I will be schooling over there but they didn't send me to school. Later, I was brought to stay with my grandfather at Sakumono estate. Also there, I thought my grandfather will be sending me to school but he didn't. When I was staying in my grandfather's house, his sister started maltreating me. When I saw that it was getting out of hand, I decided to run away from the house. When I left the house. I didn't know anybody to go and stay with. I went to where they have been dumping waste. That was where I want to stay. If I will eat I have to beg before they will give me something to eat but sometimes they don't give me. They tell me I'm mad and they can't give a mad person food to eat. I stayed there for about 3 years. I prayed to God to find me a helper through this prayer God sent me someone who later told me she will be sending me to abroad. Luckily the woman's husband was there so he asked his wife to bring me there but at the Airport I escaped. I didn't know what happened for me to run away from the Airport. I boarded a lorry from the Airport to Sakumono estate at there my grandfather sent me to stay with my uncle but what my grandfather's sister did was small. My uncle maltreated me so I decided to run away from him. When I escaped from his house a white man named Elsin proposed to me and I did accepted it. Later he slept with me and at that time, I was a virgin. After breaking my virginity I started living a life full of mysterys that is taking in alcoholic beverages and also smoking of cigarettes.'  This is the full letter she gave me. I wish the story would continue. Can you believe a life like that? Absolutely nothing was fair in her life - yet she was responsible for the irresponsibility of her caretakers. She has also never asked us for a single cedi. I already felt bad for her like I do the rest of the people we teach, but after hearing a bit of her past I felt real bad. I told myself, ''how can I reach to her? I cannot relate to her life in the least bit. I then realized it has nothing to do with me relating to her: it's my message. The Gospel is literally the only thing on earth that can unite everyone in every situation. And that's exactly how an 18 year old white kid from the comfortable United States can become friends with any black person in 3rd world Ghana. It's all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! To finish the story, I went to her the next day after reading and apologized for her suffering. I told her basically what I just said, that us missionaries were sent here to help you specifically, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring you a future of joy and happiness for you and your children. She showed up to Church with 2 little children all by herself last Sunday.

 

We teach some young adult siblings here.

At Pascalene's house - I thought it was cute. 

Right around the corner from our apartment is the lady that sells banku that we eat for lunch most days.

Cool 16 year old kid we are teaching. We see plenty skin out here - I'll just put it that way! 

A few days ago (I think it was Wednesday) we were walking in the normal blistering heat, singing gospel songs and what-not, and I just felt a rush of happiness. I said outloud - ''man I love my mission!''. It's amazing what can happen when you devote yourself to service and feeding His lost sheep. I then thought of the scripture in Matthew: ''For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save find it''. I am so grateful that I can be out here serving. It's the best opportunity I know of to truly find myself as the Saviour taught. 

This is pascalene and her friends. For some reason, just about all our investigators are women.... 

Anyways, that's the spiritual side of things. I learned to catch a chicken yesterday. We stoned a rat to death near the church building. It's so fun living like this! 

I tried taking a few shots of food this week. I forgot to take them most the time, so sorry bout that. This is kelewele (I have no idea how to spell it) but it's fried plantain with spices and pepe in it (really good!)

My tie collection. 

Have a good time on vacation while you can! Joe you're looking pretty tall in those family pictures. Maybe you're as tall as me now....? Jacob, sorry about the breakup. Don't worry though, there's plenty of fish out in that Stormy sea. 😁 Tell Mama and Papa and Grandma hi for me. I LOL'd at the shot of Papa in shorts and Romeos in Hawaii! 

Love Elder Nissinen

Try this Pano shot out.... Love getting near the ocean. 

Elder Bednar Throws It Down!!!!

Hello Family and Friends! 

First off, I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. There is no Halloween here of course, so nobody else around me understood what the heck I was saying when I yelled "Happy Halloween!" in the streets. It sounds like everyone was able to dress up in some fun costumes and most importantly eat a lot of junk food! 

Fast Sunday tie in full-color! I got some shirts tailored, which was a genius move. I don't look or feel like I'm drowning in my clothes anymore! I also got a hair cut. Sunday is the day you have to look A+. I was called to give a talk on the Second Coming next Sunday. 

There wasn't anything super cool or special that happened to Elder Liongitau and I this week, other than Elder and Sister Bednar, some Area of the Seventy, and all 14 mission presidents in the Africa West Area! One thing I thought was funny was that as soon as Elder Bednar walked in, we all stood up, and by the time we sat back down, his (and everybody else with him) removed their suit coats! Just like that! There was tons and tons of missionaries and their investigators there among everyone else. We brought Gilbert, the guy I baptized last week. Elder Bednar used a different approach than what we thought for his talk: he simply had people in the congregation stand up and ask questions to him, and he would respond! But boy did he lay it down! We are not suppose to chastise people, but rather "strongly encourage". I actually think he was chastising! He was wonderful. He really told people the truth, regardless of anything else. He had everyone laughing the whole night. It was great to be within sight of one of the 15 men who hold all the keys of the Priesthood on the earth... I was able to take a few pictures, even though I was far back. It rained really hard though right towards the end of it, so we all stayed inside 'till it stopped. Elder Bednar left immediately, so nobody was able to personally meet him or anything that I know of. 

Elder Bednar! Good luck finding another picture of him without a suit coat on! 

He was sweating!!!!!

Sister Bednar. She's really nice.

The day before (Wednesday), our zone helped out at the eye clinic they were putting on at the stake center. I was amazed to find out that the 4 or  doctors there were 100% volunteer eye doctors from Utah, donating their time and materials to put this clinic on. As soon as we got there, the zone leaders told us to go sing in front of all the people who were in the chapel waiting for their examination! We had no idea! The 4 of us actually sounded really good, not gonna lie . I was able to also help out one of the doctors personally and see what he had to say about all the patients. It was really sad how many people needed eye glasses and had cataracts that could only be fixed through surgery, meaning that they would never be fixed. Even blind people came.

 Sunscreen melts right off! Honest truth you are sweating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's not even funny. The doctors inside the stake center had a thermometer going, and they were complaining because it was 86 degrees inside with many fans running. I was surprised, none of us Elders were hot at all! 

I stare at the moon every night. The sky is awesomely lit up here, especially during lights off! This was at like 5 pm.

Ghana is officially an English country, but it's such a joke. Nobody speaks english! If they do, its most likely broken or hard to understand, so you have to speak reaaaally basic english back. I get really frustated in some lessons because they have no idea what you are saying. Imagine teaching the Restoration (or any other lesson) to a 5 year old. That's about what we do every day. I'm trying to come up with ways or flash cards with pictures to visually teach the lessons.   Nobody carries a conversation with another Ghanaian in english. I'm barely in an english speaking mission.

Richard, a boy who we are going to be teaching soon. He's been to church twice now. We'll see how it goes. Hard to teach many people because of their lack of english. Really challenging.

We did have a baptism this weekend! I baptized Maybell, and it was a success. I learned that Maybell was actually only 8 months older than me, meaning that all those events that happened to her was around the age of 14-15. Tough life. Our other investigator is still not as prepared as we would like her to be, so we hope by next weekend she will be ready. We also have a few other women (all our investigators are women, odd..?) that are really good investigators, so some solid baptisms should be on their way! 

Maybell! 8 months older than me and 2 months younger than Liongitau! She forgot her birth date and how to spell her name... 

it's rather sad. 

The 3 shades of a human being: Brown, black, and white! Got the full racial combo here Mom.

That's about it for my week. Nothing super special besides Wednesday and Thursday. Elder Liongitau and I get along really well. We laugh and tease each other and enjoy our missions a lot. I did receive the package from Ninny today, so thank you for that! After I email you all we are leaving for some banku. I eat 2 balls now! Banku is better than fufu. It's the best. I eat 2 balls every day for lunch typically.  No bucket baths this week. We've had a bit of rain actually, so stuff is all muddy and what-not. I think it's 24 hours off, 12 hours on. Pepe is the spice, and its hot, but not to where you need water. I like it too. They use pepe in a rice dish and it is good. You eat what is given to you, regardless if you are full or don't like it. 

Fufu party! One of the rare "free meals" I've had here. Usually we are the ones giving away our money and food, so we feel really blessed to get free food every once and a while by members. I was sooooo full!!! 

Fufu, chicken, fish, and cow meat in ground-nut soup. Super good! 

To let everyone understand a little bit logistically about things here: 

1) We are to be in the apartment by 9:30 pm each night. We usually get home around 8 or 9 ish, depending on who we are visiting. 

2) It is dark by 5:30 every night. The sun rises very early here! 

3) Baptisms are 100% led by the missionaries. Everything that goes into a baptism is done by us! We don't really have a Branch Mission Leader...?

Crazy young women.... I still teach Sunday School, and one young woman told me after class "You look shiny Elder Nissinen". I didn't understand what that meant, and she smiled and blew me as kiss.... good grief!

I hope everyone is doing well. Keep up the hard work in school and extra-curricular activities. ! 

Hope everyone has a great week and a blast in Hawaii.  Soak up some sun!!!  That is an opportunity nobody gets here. I mean, to be able to go to a different place than your own city. Take plenty pictures. Join a luau . 

 If Joe or Rosie want an awesome song to listen to, listen to Mansa by Bisa Kdei or something. It's my favorite song right now. We hear music allllll the time, so you know all the songs. If you send me money big bills are better. I get a better exchange rate with bigger bills. 10's and 20's are fine. Make sure any money you send is good looking, like no rips or fades. They think that it is fake or something. I think they're nuts. 

Love, Elder Nissinen 

Spanish...........in Ghana????

Dear family and friends, 

This has been yet another rollercoaster-of-a-week out here! Words really can't describe the things I see, hear, and experience each day. Not even 1/10th can describe what goes on around me. It's really unbelievable. 

I was a model.

Joe, sorry about the rough week man. Braces sort of suck, but they are a lot more worth it than they suck. Stick it out, they'll quit hurting soon (I hope). Eat a tub of Tillamook Mudslide for me.

Tuesday was a day I don't plan on forgetting. We were visiting with an investigator named Mabel who has taken all the lessons, has been to church plenty of times before I came along, but didn't show up on her baptismal day. She has been lying to us about coming to church for several weeks now. Tuesday we were trying to get her to open up, explain why she was lying and not wanting to attend church, and trying to find ways to help her. She wasn't answering any questions at all. I knew she needed help, she wanted help, but wasn't willing to tell us how. I became so frustrated at her that I started to cry. I was so frustrated at her. She began to cry, and Elder Liongitau tried calming her down and explaining our thoughts. She still wasn't answering anything, so I just grabbed my stuff and walked away. I sat on a rock by myself and cried for a bit. I was just in a bad mood the rest of the day.   That night I prayed to have Mabel open herself up to us. The next day we visited her, and she explained her story. She's only 20 years old and gave birth to twins a few years ago, of which she hasn't seen since they were born. No communication with the father either. She told us about how her own father used to take her to church every Sunday, but had passed away a few years back. Every time she goes to church she thinks about him, making it difficult on her. I was super happy she opened her story up to me. We have a good friendship now. She came to church all 3 hours Sunday, made a few friends, and is going to be baptized this Saturday. 

We were late to the baptism and covered head-to-toe , so we just got a picture afterwords. This is Gilbert. 23 years old.

Speaking of baptism, I baptized Gilbert Saturday! He's a solid guy, we really like him. He was confirmed the next day and got ordained to Priest too. We plan on 2 baptisms this coming weekend. 

In reference to the title, sometimes people try to be mean or funny and refuse to speak to you in English, so we don't know what they are saying. I resolved this by responding in Spanish! They have no idea what you're saying, and immediately speak back in English. Works like a charm...!

I was told these were gifts for a newborn baby, sort of like a baby shower. The prayer rituals and customs here are a sight to see. I have no idea what's going on half the time! No way to explain it. 

We've had a record number of lights-out hours this week too. It's always off! At one point it was 50 hours off, 7 hours on. Because of that, our pump isn't running much, so we ran out of water the other night. I took my first bucket shower on 2 gallons of emergency water! It's not as bad as you think, but it makes you appreciate your nice shower-head. I mean, bucket showers is how everyone else does it...

During and after the baptism, there was a big institute party at the church. So there was music blasting outside the whole day! Right after the baptism we played volleyball and basketball. It was a lot of fun! Makes me laugh how different the church is here. It's the same doctrine of course, but it's different in its own way. 

The Oreo prophecy has been fulfilled!!!!

Yesterday after church some lady in the other Elder's area was throwing a massive party for her grandson's first birthday. She invited everyone! A ton of Elders, including the Mission President! He didn't come though. Music was blasting and we all had a good time eating good food. 

     The party Sunday afternoon. This party had nothing to do with                  keeping the Sabbath day holy. It's hilarious!

    We had to yell to hear the guy next to us the music was so darn                        loud.... Super fun time!!

 Elder Liongitau and I are doing great. His shoes and socks were wrecked, so we woke up early this morning and went to Accra so I could help buy him some stuff.

Anyways, that's what my week looked like. Again, it's impossible to describe in words or pictures the things I'm seeing. It's so awesome.  I'm sure what the hardest thing is.... It's a constant challenge dealing with the heat all the time.    Sometimes the water isn't even cold enough when I shower! I take frozen water bottles and pour that water on my head to cool me down. There isn't one specific thing that is hardest. Hand-washing clothes is annoying sometimes. Dealing with difficult people frustrates me. Many people like pouring their knowledge on us foreigners so they can think we think they're smart. People still beg for money all the time. Things like that just get old after a while.  Because it's such a different lifestyle, I love it. Kids know how to actually play and work. Everyone is an athlete. I really enjoy the people for the most part and all the fun that goes with it. I love feeling like I'm camping all the time. It's a lot of fun taking the challenges head-on and making solutions out of it. I enjoy that part.   Everything is just so different from home, nothing's the same. Thanks for the emails and pictures. Hope everyone has a great Halloween! There is no Halloween here ,but I plan on dressing up as a full-time missionary this year. We'll see how that goes. 

Mom, have a wonderful birthday this week!!! Thanks so much for all you do and have done to get me to be the boy I am. I love you very much. If I could send a gift, I totally would! Have lots of fun. 

Hope everyone has a great week! Joe, keep those braces shiny.I mean, just EmBRACE them. Jacob, try to have a little more fun ok? I have a feeling you and Storm aren't partying enough. Keep up the good work everyone else!  I just got news that Elder Bednar is coming for a devotional this Thursday! Whoa!! 

Love, Elder Nissinen

Hello family and friends! 

This has definitely been the craziest, wildest, and overall most challenging week of my mission. The stuff that happens is nuts! Tomorrow also marks 2 months...

Since it's all dirt, mud sticks around for days after hard rains...

Wednesday we had a massive, and I mean MASSIVE, rain storm! Of course, me and Elder Liongitau were miles away from the apartment, so we got stuck in it. We were so soaked! The only way I can properly describe it is we were wetter and muddier than Joe's wettest and muddiest soccer game. Head to toe! I dumped 4 shoe fulls of water out that night. Oh yeah, it was also lights out when we got back too, and my battery powered fan had died, so it was HOT!  That sure didn't help my cold. T he rain felt good I guess, but you feel like you just jumped in a lake, so it's not really refreshing in any way. All your clothes and stuff just gets wrecked. 

Dogs and rain.... But it wasn't raining dogs though!

Kids like rats here I guess. They buy and sell them, don't really know what else they do with them....

Thursday rolled around, and we had a great zone training meeting at the stake center, where we met the new fresh elders from the MTC. It feels so nice not being brand new anymore! You're not looked upon as a baby. Our district sang "Come To Zion....Remixed". We had been practicing it for a few weeks prior too. Somehow I was chosen to sing soprano, and everyone laughed when it was my turn to sing the 2nd verse like a girl. Oh well.

We like to goof around!

That night, while walking back to the apartment, I fell into a  3 foot ditch.I wasn't really looking where I was going, and it was dark out. It hurt pretty bad, not gonna lie! My nametag got all scratched up, pants scuffed, and my left arm got a beating. Ironically, I was singing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" right before it happened! So I stood back up, shook myself off, and kept singing! Oh yeah, we also had lights off that night too.... so no fan again...

The bad crash in the ditch. My knuckles, forearm, and elbow.

Everyone in our little area here speaks Ga. So I unfortunately don't know any Twi. I know just a few things in Ga. People go absolutely NUTS when you say something in Ga. They love when you do their culture. Kids will repeatedly ask me to say something in Ga to them, they literally all go nuts.  I don't really know what the men do for work. Everything is really random as for working from what I know. Kids go to school usually 5 days a week. They go for a while then they have a break for a week or something. I don't really know much on that either. School's go for 2 sessions. Like a group will go 6 am to 1 pm, then another group will go 2 to 7 or something like that.

Friday we went on exchanges, so I was with Elder Fayeampah in his area. It was also his birthday that day, so we ate a fun breakfast and had a great dinner and party that night. Thanks Aunt Ninnie for the balloons! We had fun messing around with those. 

This is what we had for breakfast on Elder Fayeampah's birthday!

 So good!

Elder Fayeampah is 25 years old now... old man! 

This was a super fun night.

 Yeah I finally got my haircut Saturday night. The guy litterally spent 45 minutes on it. Like my hair was President's lawn or something. I was getting impatient almost. Looks good though.  There's a good chance I'm going to be training. I'm a bit nervous on that, just handling the phone and baptismal records and all.  Knowing the area is really hard too.  No street names or anything.  So I'm working now to prepare for that.  I feel like there are many aspects I am ready for, but lots I'm not ready for. Training right after you've been trained is a challenge. We'll see what goes down in the coming weeks. We got 2 solid baptisms this weekend, so I'm stoked for that.

Oh yeah, I just remembered. A teenage girl hugged and kissed me on the cheek last week. A friend of an investigator that we see a lot. She hadn't seen me in a few days so apparently she needed to kiss me. Ugh.

Saturday was suppose to be a baptism for Fayeampah and Berguson's candidate, but he didn't show up, which is typical on baptism or confirmation day. So we were bummed out about that. Then, while we were sitting outside the church.... President Heid showed up! He wanted to come to the baptism. He ended up doing a personal interview in his truck to all of us, after which we all piled in and showed him our areas. He didn't have time though to drive around Sangonaa area, which was so nice! President asked Elder Berguson and Fayeampah the names of every road in their area... I don't know a single name of any road in our area! They don't really have names...? So we scraped by on that one by our teeth! 

Saturday was also the hottest day I think I've been here yet. Incredible how hot it gets! 

I just realized the weather here in Teshie! It's been high 90's all week! Whoa! . It is lights off right now, so we hung around the apartment after sports for a few hours until something opened. Elder Liongitau and I decided we'd just go to this cafe  (the one with my bathroom experience). Luckily it's generator operated, otherwise we'd have to come tomorrow.

The food is great. No problems eating anything now.

I'm always sweating especially with the spicy food!

We woke up at 5 am to go buy shoes in Accra for Liongitau, but every tro tro was packed, so it never happened. He has 3 pair of shoes  but 2 of them got wrecked cause that's just what happens out here. I'm probably going to give him some money.

Sunday rolled around and we had 2 great investigators show up. Somehow we lost track of time, so we looked at our watches and realized church was starting in 5 minutes... yikes! While jumping on my bike, I split my new pants clean down the center. So I quickly changed and we made it church in just 3 minutes! Record time for sure, but we weren't late...!  Both of those 2 investigators are being baptized this Saturday. We have 2 or 3 more that are close to baptism, but getting them to attend church without us coming to pick them up is still a never-ending struggle.  Our branch had their Primary Program Sunday! It was absolutely hilarious. The kids were super funny. They acted out the 10 virgins skit.  I was laughing my head off all sacrament long. Super cute and hilarious.  A girl got up in the beginning, 8 years old, and rehearsed the Articles of Faith without a single mess up. I couldn't read it as well as she did. It was incredible!

To sum it all up, this really was a week of trials. I told President that there were so many things that happened to me this week that I could have just thrown the jersey in and gave up for the day. But as for me, it's all about the attitude and how you handle situations. Like Gordon B. Hickley's father said, "Forget yourself and go to work!" I'm grateful for the opportunities I have to better myself and help others come closer to Jesus Christ. I'm working hard right now to memorize the area and where the members live, because the odds are I'm going to be training in 5 weeks. Elder Liongitau is helping with that a lot. 

I've been wanting to do a shot like this since I left home. Finally a good day for it!

Great to hear from everyone this week, like always! Lots of pictures to come your way, as you can imagine from the eventful week I've had. Thanks for your all your love and support! And thanks to those in the ward for their letters too. Have a great week everyone! 

There is one quote shared from a poem we read during Zone Conference that stood out to me: 

"No matter what we go through, when we feel we can't take more,

Just stop and think about Jesus Christ, He's been there before."

Love Elder Nissinen