December 26, 2022 When The Imposter is SUS

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a good Christmas like I did.

There was an imposter among us this week and it was a member. She wanted to give out some Book of Mormons for Christmas and it was a good idea, until she decided to slap a fake sister name tag on, and then put money in the front pages while handing them out. That was mad sus.

This week was mad busy... had an exchange on Wednesday, zone conference Thursday, and then Christmas eve and Christmas. Me and my companion are feeling super tired today haha. 

On our exchange this week we decided that we would try and find as many new people to teach as possible. I was with Elder Sandukira, who is from Malawi. It was a fun day if contacting, and teaching with him. We met lots of new people. 

Our zone conference was super long, but really good. We learned a lot about faith. We also learned we will all be getting phones this next year, so we don't have to share anymore which is cool. I don't care to much about sharing a phone, but it will help when you get a companion who does.

We have two people on baptismal date right now. Sister Florence, and Sister Grace. Florence has a sister who is a member, and Grace's husband is a member. We are working and trying to add a couple more people on to that baptismal service as well. Namely sister Marium and sister Abena. Be praying for them.

Other than that we are sorting through the new contacts we have and starting to teach some new people. 

On Christmas me and Elder Welch made an insane amount of no bake cookies for our members and gave them out after church. They went nuts for them haha. After that a member gave us a fat amount of fufu. We then went up to Mpraeso to eat dinner with the elders up there. We got our hands on some mtn dew and it was fire. Count your many blessings. Being able to crack a cold mountain dew on Christmas was a tender mercy here in West Africa. 

Elder Willden

December 19, 2022 Getting Fat lol

This week was good. We are getting closer to Christmas, so it kinda stinks to be away from family and home, but the work is sweet. Me and my companion have been making Christmas treats too. Even with all the walking we do I think I've gained 100 pounds this week hahah. 

Anyways last Monday I absolutely botched my haircut so I had to go bald. 

Our investigator Deborah, who's mom thinks the BoM is demonic, was able to download the BoM on her phone since her mom took it away. Unfortunately we can't see her, but the seed is planted. When she moves out of her mom's place she will for sure get baptized. 

We have Florence on baptismal date for January 8th. We had to skip over the holidays. Otherwise we would get her baptised thus Sunday. Hopefully we can get more investigators on date to get baptised with her. Hopefully Abena will come to church thus Sunday so we can get her on date with Florence. These two investigators have progressed the most.

On Friday night, me and Elder Welch finished our last appointment around 6:20, and had nothing to do. We decided to go and find around our apartment until 7 instead of going in. We stopped by Nelson's, who had been baptised my second transfer. Him and two of his friends named Mark, and Bismark were there with him playing fifa on an old ps2. It was awesome. Anyways we said hi, and His two friends told us they want to learn more about the church and come visit. Neither of them attend a church already, so that's also good cause sometimes it's hard to get Ghanians to come to church if they already go to another church. I'm super excited to start teaching them this week and see where it goes! 

Other than that we have a lot of investigators who won't come to church and aren't progressing. Me and Elder Welch have set goals to get 8 investigators to church on Sunday, and find 4 new people to teach this week. We will do our best to meet these goals!

Oh, and our Branch President had us over this week, and fed us fufu with goat, and eating the chicken bone after you eat the meat is good, and so is cocoa.

-Elder Willden

December 12, 2022    I Love Coconuts! 

This last week was awesome, but also had some sus stuff go down as well. Tuesday district council was awesome. There's new faces in our district and it's fun getting to know them. It's also been amazing to see the miracles and God's hand in missionary work when you plan according to the spirit, and just are where you are supposed to be at that time of the day. 

We have two new contacts that seem pretty serious. Me and Elder Welch are excited about it. Both of them sought us out as we were walking between appointments. We will start teaching both of them this week. 

One of our referrals, sister Abena who sought out missionaries walking by in our area, actually has a granddaughter that comes to church every week and isn't baptised. So there's major potential there as well. Sister Abena came to church last week, and she believes what we teach is true. There's just one hang up. She thinks the Book of Mormon is the same thing as the Bible so she doesn't want to read. Hopefully we can help her understand why the Book of Mormon is important.

On Tuesday night last week, we were fetching water for Abena, and also helping the other people at the well. Someone named Deborah approached us saying they like how we serve, and wanted to know more about us. We told her we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ. It turns out she had a childhood friend who was a member, and really wanted to learn from us. She wants us to come by and teach everyday which is awesome, and she will definitely be baptised. But later in the week we were teaching her, and ran into a problem. The lesson was going amazing, and right after the closing prayer her mom came out of their apartment and saw that we were meeting with her and gave her a Book of Mormon. The mom proceeded to flip out mostly in Twi. Long story short the mom thinks the Book of Mormon is Demonic and will mess with her daughter. She told us to not come back and took the book from her daughter. Even when we left the complex we could still hear the mom yelling about latter day saints whatnot I don't know the mom is kwas. Anyways she has been talking to us still and we met with her on Sunday. She decided it was a good idea for one of our members, who is a single mom as well to come and talk to her mom about it. We will see how it goes tonight. Deborah is 21 but she lives with her mom still and in Africa that means you don't get to choose what you do until you move out. 

Other than that our neighbors also decided they were gonna start doing juju which is also sus. Sometimes we can see it out the window. It honestly looks fake, and I think they are doing it to try and get money from people I don't even know. It's really weird tho. 

But yeah the week has been good. The food her is nice too. Got some good pics and vids. We had fresh coconut with a member this week which was cool. Right from the tree! We also got another referral on Sunday. A members sister wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon. The missionary work here in Ghana is Golden!

-Elder Willden

Plenty pics and videos this week!

December 5, 2022 I'M BACK! 

Haha haven't been able to write an email in awhile... anyways a lot has gone on but I'm going to keep it simple.

My last companion was a bot.🤖 He got moved from Nkawkaw instead of me for a few reasons, and he guarded the phone from me so that's why I haven't been able to write emails. 

Anyways I have a new companion. His name is Elder Welch and he is a homie. He's from Oregon and wants to work! We have been able to get around and serve to people for his first 5 days here and it's been awesome so far. There was much leaving the apartment with my last companion so it's been nice. We had a few referrals for awhile, and we were finally able to meet with them. We have also been able to meet a lot of new people as well. We have a lot of names up on the white board right now, whether they were referrals or people we met. I'm excited to get out and serve these people and bring them the good news!! 

We had an investigator come to church yesterday which was awesome. She was a referral from the other Nkawkaw missionaries. She stopped them and said she wanted to learn about the church. Long story short her granddaughter is a member at our branch and is in primary right now so that is pretty cool! Her name is Abena and she sells oranges so when we go see her we get some fresh oranges too! We have another investigator named Rosemary who has come to church once a couple of weeks ago, but we've been seeing her and she's been asking awesome questions. She has a friend in the church and she's seen how it's blessed her life and she says she wants to be a member. I have high hopes for her as well. 

There's a lot more people we see but I don't want to write a book today. Those two are the ones we have the highest hopes for. Other than that in between seeing our main investigators we look for opportunities to serve and contact people and it's been awesome. 

My new companion has been awesome to work with. It's been good to get back to doing missionary work. 

Last transfer I started to study through the new testament, and I'm in Roman's right now, and I read a book by Elder and Sister Renlund called the Melchezidek Priesthood. That book as well as studying through the new testament has been amazing. I was able to study a lot though so that should tell you how the last transfer went. 

I learned valuable lessons from my last companion, and they will make me a better missionary. As much as I disliked my last two transfers with Elder Bai I learned things I'm grateful for. Now I'm grateful to apply those things I learned, and being able to get out and serve the people and do what I came here to do. There's always ways we can improve ourselves.

Also we got absolutely yeeted by rain on our walk to the apartment Friday night.

-Elder Willden

October 31, 2022

This week was another really slow with with a lot of challenges. I've really been able to strengthen my testimony though on personal study, personal prayer, and guidance from living Prophets and Apostles.

A young member, who was baptized almost a year ago named Princess, showed us where her family stays and we are in the process of teaching them right now. She really wants them to learn and accept the gospel. It would bless them and their family so much so please keep them in your prayers. We are hoping her Dad softens his heart. 

We are also hoping to baptise Marium this transfer. She has had struggles with her family cause they are Muslim but we are trying to help her work all of it out.

We have two new referrals. Yesterday we were able to meet with sister Jennifer and her brother, Emmanuel. One of our members referred them to us, and they ask great questions and seem very interested. The other referral from one of our members, we will meet tonight.

Hopefully this next week is a little less challenging. Love you all.

-Elder Willden

October 25, 2022 

This week went really slow I'm not going to lie. 

We had transfers on Wednesday so a lot of people got to go to Kumasi, but me and Elder Bai both are staying so I was just a regular day for us. 

This transfer we have 2 people we are really going to focus on. One is Marium, who has been coming to Church for a long time, and we are likely to get her baptized. The second is Princess. She is a member, but her sister comes to church with her and isn't. The rest of her family aren't members as well so we found out where she lives, and are trying to teach her father and brother. Her sister that comes to church with her, Florence, will definitely be baptized. 

We had stake conference in Konongo just yesterday. It was good to see some of the other missionaries in our zone, and President and Sister Kunz came. President Kunz also hinted to me and Elder Beck, who came on mission a transfer after me  that we will be going up to Bolgatanga soon. That would be cool.

Just got to make it through this transfer here in Nkawkaw. I'd be happy for a Change at the end.

-Elder Willden 

Kofi dancing

October 17, 2022 

This week was the last week of my second transfer. I will be staying in Nkawkaw for my third transfer and I am still with Elder Bai. I'm excited to be here for at least 6 more weeks. I love the people here and it's awesome being able to serve them and watch the church grow.

Elder Bai had the opportunity to go to the temple in Accra, so on Wednesday and Thursday I was on exchange with Elder Udoh. I went to the mtc with him so it was fun to catch up and serve with him for a couple of days. He's from Nigeria so that's cool. 

Before that though, on Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder Anderson, and that didn't go so well. Elder Aidoo, who is Ghanaian, made me rice and stew for lunch that day before we went out. While me and Anderson were helping members move wood, I suddenly had to go. Their Chapel was a 10 minute walk from where we were and I couldn't make it so I had to find a spot in the bush to go.... it was not very pleasant, but I'm glad I made it out of that situation without any clothes spoiled. The only thing I lost was a sweat towel.😂😂 Later that night I had cake to find out that Elder Aidoo had heated up a 3 week old stew that had been chillin in our fridge without a lid and threw it over some rice for me. I'm not too upset tho cause my clothes aren't spoiled and the stew was gas!!🤣

Another story from this week... on Friday me and Elder Bai were visiting an investigator, and when you need to pee in Ghana, you just go wherever. Anyways I had to go so I went behind their seam shop on a bush. I came back around and we were chilling for 5 minutes, and then some Ghanaian lady came around and started yelling at me in Twi. I knew what she was mad about but I just acted like I didn't understand what she was saying and why she was mad. I don't know that much Twi, but I caught bits and pieces. The investigator we were with told me the bush I went on was a Yam, so that's why she was mad, but she said that neighbor isn't very nice to anyone so she doesn't even care. It was funny hahah but I felt bad cause I went on someone's food...

Hope yall enjoy the bathroom stories this week.😂

We are making progress with a few investigators though which is awesome. Hopefully we can get a few baptisms this coming transfer.

Our main focus is Sister Marium. She had been coming to Church for a year now, but her parents are Muslim so they wouldn't let her get baptized. She is 18 now so she can decide. The hard part is that she's scared if she gets baptized she will lose support from her family that she needs. We are trying to help her figure out the best way to go about this. The sad thing for me is that her family doesn't know what they are denying her. It also makes me upset because she's coming to Church, so what's the difference to her family if she's baptized? I have faith it will all work out for her.

Also just yesterday we had a less active young lady named Princess come to church. Her sister came with her, and I recognized them both but don't really know them. We got talking to them, and found out that her sister Florence, was never baptized, but was taught over a year ago and has been coming to Church but was never baptized. They said it's because their Dad won't let her. We are going to start seeing them and find out if that's the case. He already let one of his kids get baptized, so why not the other? By the way they are both around the age of 15.

We also are teaching a man named Jordan who I'm hoping will progress this transfer. Me and Elder Gilbert started teaching him during my first transfer, but recently he's started to ask really good questions and keep commitments which is awesome. He teaches Sunday School at some random Ghanaian church which is somewhat holding him back, but like I said, he's actually started to progress small which which awesome to see. 

A week ago we went to go play basketball at a high school. While we were playing woth the other Elders that live in our apartment, these two boys came to play with us. Their names are Lemuel and Solomon. After they invited us to come play Saturday morning with a bunch of people. We went Saturday, and there were about 20 people there. It was awesome. Hopefully we can build a relationship with Lemuel and Solomon and teach them. I also hope we can get some new contacts when we go play with all these people on Saturdays.

Other than that, on Saturday we went up to Rock City as a district and got some pizza before we got transfer news. It was nice to have some real food that's not rice, or something you've never heard of. It was also nice to hang out with our District. 

-Elder Willden

October 10, 2022  This Place Smells Like Feet!

 I really don't know what to title my emails haha. Some places though really smell bad, I have no clue what they are putting in these gutters here in Nkawkaw haha.

This past week was a good week though. On Sunday we were able to have a confirmation service for Nicolas, Nelson, and Bismark during sacrament meeting. A nice added bonus was that we had a ton of members show up for church. We had over 100 people there, and if we are lucky we usually have 50 or 60 people show up. We are having some more inactive members come which is awesome. We are really trying to focus on helping the inactive members come back to Church and having consistent midweek and seminary during the week. 

Every night we see Forsia and Mary, who are cousins, and less active members. Forsia has a 9 year old son named Ishmael who was also baptized with here a year ago. It's been really cool to be able to help them overcome concerns and learn how to study and answer questions for themselves. 

Ishmael has also been struggling in school so we have been able to help him with his homework and become good friends with him. Forsia, Ishmeal, and Mary are coming to Church more consistently now. It's been awesome to see them learn and grow. 

We have other investigators who aren't progressing as fast right now but its all good. 

We are always meeting people and getting referrals so it's setting up well for next transfer. Oh yeah and it's almost the end of the transfer. It's next week haha. I have a feeling me and Elder Bai will be staying together. It will be fun to work with him for a whole transfer without any issues, but we'll have to see if we both stay.

We went and balled this morning at a crusty outdoor basketball court by a high school so that was fun. A couple of teenage kids named Lemwell and Soloman saw us balling and came to join. We got their contact and we hope to teach them. Also I suck at basketball now. You know when you walk into the church on a Monday and the missionaries are there balling and it's just kinda like what is going on here... that was me this morning.😂

-Elder Willden

Ps- I was bad at taking photos this week... again. So here's here's video of us eating some Ghanaian food. It's nice.

October 3, 2022

We didn't have a lot happen this week...

We had the baptismal service last week, and then this wee was conference so we will be having the confirmation service this week. 

Long story short Me and Elder Bai had to work out some issues and it involved President Kunz. We were able to resolve a lot of the conflict that's been going on so that was good. 

Last week in church they never announced conference for the next Sunday. I tried to tell our Branch President that it was conference weekend, but he announced that it was fast and testimony meeting. After everyone had pretty much left I had showed him it was conference weekend and he announced it haha. 

Yesterday we came to church right at 9am, and branch President wasn't there, and his first councilor was trying to start sacrament meeting... Our Branch is broken haha. We proceeded to tell him it was conference, and we should play the Saturday night session for church. As we were trying to find a way for everyone there to watch or listen to it he just dismissed everyone.🤦‍♂️ This story basically sums up my Branch haha. 

Anyways conference was really good! We were able to listen to three of the sessions on our phone, and for the Sunday morning session we went and watched with a member. It seemed to be very focused on Jesus Christ. I loved it. I was missing some to the family conference traditions though.

Anyways we have a referral who has come to church twice, and we want to figure out where he stays so we can teach him. He is awesome guy and super interested so I'm excited about that. He was referred to us by the other Nkawkaw Elders. It turns out he had walked all the way from his place, to their Chapel, which is across town and probably about an hour and a half walk. He showed up and just told them he wants to worship with the Churcu of Jesus Christ. He lives in our area, so they gave him to us. He still lives pretty fat from our Chapel as well, but he's determined to worship with us and learn more. 

I also caught a lizard this week, but it was ancient and about to die haha.

Me and Elder Bai are still terrible at taking pictures.

-Elder Willden

October 2, 2022 

Dear parents and priesthood leaders of missionaries in the Ghana Kumasi Mission:

Your missionary is working hard in the Ghana Kumasi Mission to fulfill their purpose in helping to gather Israel one last time before the Savior returns.  Following a mission tour with Elder and Sister Klebingat, our Mission Leadership Council outlined 17 key points of consecrated obedience (attached).  We would like to ask for your help and support to keep these rules.

One of our biggest issues here in the mission is friends and family back home texting , calling, and chatting with their missionary on days other than Monday.  Monday is our preparation day and there is ample time for them to contact families.  Missionary guidelines from the Church are clear that families and friends are NOT to contact the missionary directly. All contact should be initiated by the missionary.   For any emergency, please call us and we will have your missionary contact you.  Could we ask for your help in this?

Additionally, many of our American missionaries are asking if they can contact families on Sunday rather than Monday.  Since the Church has established our preparation day as Monday, we also ask for your help in carving out time on Monday's to speak/text with them.  The Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ say that it is not anticipated that missionaries will call home every week.  While these weekly calls can be helpful in some instances, they can also be significant distractions for the missionaries.  We encourage emails that can be read over and over as well as texting when email is not an option.  We do not dictate the frequency of calls but want to make you aware of the guidelines given to us by the Church.

We are grateful for the amazing missionaries you have sent to us and we are doing our very best to help them become consecrated disciples of Jesus Christ.  We do all in our power to make sure we return them to you more prepared to meet life's challenges and be kingdom builders for the rest of their lives.

All our love,

President & Sister Kunz

17 points of consecrated obedience in the Ghana Kumasi Mission:

1. We do not hide the disobedience of other missionaries.

2. We never lie to our mission leaders.

3. We never misuse our sacred funds given as subsistence or transport money. We do

not purchase jewelry, bags, clothing, shoes, or electronic devices with our

subsistence (except that which is available through the office elders). Nor do we save

money or send money home. We never forge receipts to get reimbursed dishonestly.

4. We never have a second phone or SIM card. If we have either one on our arrival to

the mission, or at any time during our mission, we immediately give it to the mission

president.

5. We follow the prescribed mission schedule. We get up at 6:30 am and we, and our

phones, go to bed at 10:30 pm.

6. We use technology only to fulfill our missionary purpose. We do not communicate

with friends and family during the week. We do not make private calls that exclude

our companion except to our immediate families on Monday, or when approved by

the Mission President.

7. We never watch, share, listen to, or keep possession of music, movies or other

media that is contrary to the mission standards (only movies and videos on Gospel

Library, Gospel Media, or approved by Sister Kunz). We do not make social media

posts attached to non-mission approved music.

8. We have powerful personal study every day including Monday, and companionship

study every day except Monday.

9. We never “date” other missionaries or members who reside in the mission

boundaries while on mission.

10. We do not communicate with other missionaries in our mission except for OUR OWN

Sister Training Leaders, Zone Leaders, and District Leaders and then only regarding

mission business. The MLC communicates infrequently among themselves as

necessary to fulfill their responsibilities as mission leaders.

11. We never go into public without our proselyting attire except for service projects or

physical activities that cannot be reasonably done looking like missionaries.

12. We do not deliberately disregard any of the standards contained in the Missionary

Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ.

13. We proselyte on Sundays and Mondays per the approved mission schedule.

14. We always stay within sight or sound of our companion (not another missionary)

except on approved exchanges, interviews with the Mission President and while in

the washroom.

15. We never erase or clean message/call/usage history.

16. We never disrespect our mission leaders, our companions, or other missionaries

including the spreading of rumors with an intent to degrade others.

17. We never mentally, emotionally, or physically abuse our companion.

September 26, 2022 

Alright so I'm really happy to share the experiences from this last week. But I will warn the end is going to kind of stink. 

Thus week we finished up teaching Bismark, Nelson, and Nicolas, and made sure that they were prepared for baptism. Watching all three of them grow and progress has been awesome for me, especially since this is the first group of baptisms I've had that were my contacts. Its really special to see how Christ's gospel can change someone's life. I think I've learned more from Nicolas and Nelson than they have from me haha. They are new to the church but both have an extreme amount of faith. All the glory is to God for putting these prepared men in our path. I'm so happy for them.

During the baptism the spirit was very strong. The last one to be baptized was Nicolas and he had a huge smile on his face. He tried to grab my wrists with both hands and I explained to him twice that he needs to use one hand to plug his nose. He didnt plug his nose lol. He struggled struggled most Africans have never been underwater so it's a struggle for them. Anyway he struggled and when he was coming out of the water his face told me he went to heck and back haha. But as soon as he stood up and the hard part for him was over, he got the biggest smile on his face and I could feel the Spirit testifying to him. I was so happy for him at that moment and the spirit was so strong. 

Besides the happy happy baptism story email, I am struggling with my companion quite a bit. I've been talking to him, trying to work things out, and just show him love and hope he will change. Some stuff happened this morning and so I talked to our zone leaders because we live in the same apartment. All four of us are going to sit down and talk today so hopefully that helps but my zone leader still thinks I'm going to have to talk to President about it. 

It's all good though. My companion really is a good guy and has a good heart, so I've been trying to understand him and work with him, the problem is that he won't work with me. 

Normally at home I would probably just be quick to anger, or ignore someone like this and never talk to them again, but I've been working on being more Christ like with him and it's helped me stay happy even though I struggle with my companion at times. I know that God wanted us to be companions so I'm trying to do and act as he would want me to and learn the lessons he has prepared for me. 

This email was like 2 different stories but to sum it all up this last week was awesome. One day I want to have as much faith as Nicolas. He gave up quite a bit to follow commandments, and he's already being blessed for it. 

Love and miss you all. Happy to be a missionary for Christ's true church on Earth.

Love, Elder Willden