Sounds like you are all doing well. Congrats on making it halfway through the school year! I am jealous of the camping trip. I too have a lot of fun memories at Mt. Hood Village.
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| I thought this picture was a good photo-opp! |
Well, this week was pretty challenging in it's own way.
Tuesday we had our Missionary Worldwide Broadcast. It was way awesome! Elder Bednar and a few others gave talks on our purpose, and how we can be better missionaries. Elder Bednar gave a great discussion about the Holy Ghost, and how critical it is in the conversion process. There were a lot of things he said that I learned. Some other guy gave a great discussion about how we can better teach Less Actives and Recent Converts. He noted that missionaries should treat these people just like investigators, and re-teach them the discussions.That stuck out a lot to Elder Madsen and I. We often just visited the less-actives and said "why aren't you coming to church?" without really teaching them something. If we can rekindle that feeling they felt at baptism, then they will choose to come back once again. So that's been something we've been focusing on: teaching the less-actives.
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| After church Elder Madsen gave me a gnalry haircut! |
As you know, our teaching pool expanded a bit. We had to work pretty hard to see everyone. It was rewarding going from lesson to lesson all day long for the most part of the week. Even still, the most of our investigators aren't progressing much. Last night I got pretty frustrated. The mother of the 3 children we were planning on baptizing this Saturday told us she no longer wants them to come to Church anymore. Something about her pastor not allowing it. It was a real shock and bummer to say the least, but we're praying for the family. We are struggling for baptisms! We must remember that now matter how hard we work, it's the Lord's Work, not mine. Ultimately, it's our investigator's decision to progress or not. They have and always will have their agency. I'm learning to be "ok" with that the more and more I'm out here.
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| Old lady Theresa who can't speak english. She tole me I'm her boyfriend? We plan on baptizing her within a month or so. |
We do have great progressing investigators though. One girl who we planned on dropping a few weeks ago suddenly flipped! She's reading the Book of Mormon twice a day, has a desire to be baptized, and comes to church on her own. We found an old lady who comes to church every week, it's just we didn't know about it. She doesn't know any English, but has a desire to be baptized. With the help of a few neighboring members, we are teaching her in 95% translated discussions! We got her a Book of Mormon in Twi.
That was our week in a nutshell I suppose. The work is hard, and sometimes not as rewarding as I would like it to be, but I need to be content with what I do have. Elder Madsen is growing well. He's talking more, teaching more, and familiarizing himself with all the people we teach quite well. Only 2 more weeks of training! Yay!
Yes, transfers are in two weeks. Jacob, thanks for the advice about transfers. I'm anxious about what's next, but I can't focus on that. There's too much to be done around Sangonaa first. I know whenever I go that I will miss Sangonaa very much! Time goes by too fast. I can't believe I'm almost 1/4th through my mission. Crazy! Yeah, I'm completely adjusted to everything now. Nothing is crazy now. We're going to the regular chop bar for lunch. Probably the normal banku and groundnut soup.
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| We traveled all the way to the mission home to get supplies, including a box full of Book of Mormons! It was fun having the Junior companions carry it home. It's one of my favorite pictures. |
I was able to get a few pictures this week, just so you aren't mad at me Mom.
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| This is our kitchen! |
Love you all. Thanks for the great pictures and emails.
Elder Nissinen
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