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