DAYS ARE SLOW, YEARS ARE FAST! ( I will explain that in a minute)

Well Good afternoon friends and family.

So for my heading, Sister Simpson said it in our last multi-zone conference and I liked it haha! Sometimes the days are slow but when we look back on this time we we will say it went by too fast!

I'm not going to do the day by day format. I'm going to maybe change it up every once in a while.

Weeellll this week was good/bad I guess you could say. We went out and did a lot of finding this week so that we could make our teaching pool a little bigger and maybe get more success out of our area that way. So we will see how that goes. Sorry dad no goat catching this week.

Something cool this week is we are still teaching my recent converts Sam's sister and her friend. It's awesome to see how a couple of months ago he was in the same position as them, and now when he goes with us to teach to see how he can testify to know that these things are true that we are coming to tell them and how his relationship with Christ has grown. I love to see people's hearts change to the Lord.

I guess something interesting that happened this week was there was a rain storm on like Thursday night, I think. I went like a little kid and played in the rain. It was so cold it felt like back home. I think it was one of the first times I have actually been cold in Ghana.

I am trying to think of more this week. Well Sunday (yesterday) we went and ate at one of our member's houses, she invited us and after we finished eating she showed us her old wedding photos from her and her ex-husband and she kept laughing at how young she was. Now she is like 30 but she got married when she was like 21 or something but she was just laughing at all the funny, old pictures of her. Cool story about her though is one thing with Ghanaian people is that they like Sika (money in Twi) and for her she owns a fried rice shop that does pretty well. Everyone loves her fried rice, before she was baptized (this is the lady I was able to baptize) she didn't understand why working on the Sabbath was a bad thing because Sunday's for her are one of the days she sells the most. Now though, her being baptized for almost two months, s no longer sells on Sundays and understands why it is not good. Which is also awesome to see her conversion and how much she has changed in the short time she has been a member. I love it!

I did, although this week I did not catch goats, I did chase them. I was unsuccessful in my attempts. They are surprisingly fast and agile or I have just been away from sports for a little to long haha. I do weigh 240 pounds now so that should help a little. My mom was asking me about the puppy I found in the picture, he was just chilling at one of the places we eat. Dogs here don't belong to anyone, and they don't really take care of them. Some people eat them and cats, frogs, goats, chicken and sheep. Not too much beef or pork is eaten.

I am really grateful to be serving here in Ghana, I honestly love the people of Ghana, even though sometimes they can be a little stubborn!  

Well peeps. I love you all. I love this Gospel. I am now in Ether 12 Of the Book Of Mormon. SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR AWAY. I love the Book Of Mormon and the knowledge i am able to take from reading and studying it. I encourage all of you who have now read it to heed of its message. I know it to be true. Again I love you all. Have a good day in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Elder Paulson

The view from the tallest hill in our area. 

The front of my apartment.

Cristabel a employee at the american shop and now one of our friends/hopefully investigators.

The front of the American shop where we go. 

A puppy I found. 

A view of my area at night. 

7 Months

Good Afternoon from Ghana friends and family.

This week has been good.

Monday- We first of course washed our clothes. Then we went to the mall to get groceries and eat some good food. Then we came to the cafe and emailed and that was about our day.

Tuesday- We went and saw our investigator Mary, she is doing awesome. Other than that really all our appointments fell through. . Which sucked!  So the day was filled with contacting and visiting members.

Wednesday- First off like every Wednesday, we had District council meeting. It was good. Elder Aiono gave us really good instruction. We then went and saw Evelyn and Eva, Sam's friends who he referred to us. They are also both very interested in the teachings and the church. They are awesome! Then we tried to see our new recent convert, Daniel but he works a lot during the day.

Thursday- The first thing we did is went straight to Mary. She has been meeting with us and Jehovah Witnesses, and she was really confused about some of the different topics we have. Some like the Godhead and how they work together for the same purpose but how they are separate beings. They were good questions and we helped her with all we could. She said it made sense to her about. Then we went to see Sister Doris who we have not seen in a long time because she stopped working at her food joint. So we went and visited her at her new small booth on the road. She is doing good. Then we had to meet Daniel at the chapel for his interview to have the priesthood at 7 and we waited there till about 8:45 but he never came so we just went home. We also had our interviews with Pres. Simpson,  the mission president.

Friday- We had weekly planning for the next week, and then after we had weekly planning we went out and worked! First we saw Joyclen, checked up on her and just saw how she was doing and invited her to church. Then after we went to see Bro.Osbourne and to share with him more about the restoration and answered questions he had. Then we went past John and Joyce and just to see how they were doing. But that was a good day.

Saturday- We went to see Eva and Evelyn but they had to go to a wedding so we were not able to visit with them. We then went to visit Bro. Osbourne and answer his questions about anything and we shared with him more about Joseph Smith. He is doing good.

Sunday- Sunday we woke up and had light out (no power)  then we went to church and it was a good sacrament meeting. The investigators class went well. Unfortunately we had 0 investigators at church. Made me really sad. One day I know that they will come to know that our message is true. Then there was YSA activity and were invited to come. So we went and participated in it. It was a lot of fun. We were there alllllll daaaaaayyyy. We did not get home till about 8:40.

So that was my week. Umm I'm trying to think of funny things that happened to us this week. Honestly nothing really. I'll try to do something crazy this week to write about next week! I love you people. Be safe and have fun this week!


ELDER PAULSON

Good Afternoon friends and family.

Again I hope this letter finds you all well.

So Monday- we went to the mall and I enjoyed KFC and did a little shopping, then we came back and emailed and it started to rain really bad. My clothes fell off the line and got dirty so I had to wash most of them again.

Tuesday- Was a normal proselyting day. First we went to check on this lady named Sewa, who was also baptized this week! She was really excited to be baptized! We also saw Daniel and helped him to prepare to be baptized this week! He is awesome and was so excited to be baptized. We did some contacting and received a referral from my recent convert Sam. He wants us to start teaching his sister. Really excited about that!

Wednesday- In the morning we had a Zone Training, From our Zone leaders Elder Morris and Elder Dini. I learned a lot about how we should teach from the spirit and help out our investigators to know that they are feeling the spirit in themselves. Then we did exchanges. I went with Elder Berthlesen, he is a new Missionary who has only been in Ghana for one week. Which was really cool to help and teach him a little. He is a awesome missionary.

Thursday- I was with Elder Berthlesen all day and we went and saw Joyclen, shared with her a small message. Then the rest of our day all our appointments fell through so we contacted around our area. It was cool to see how well he is doing though. We then exchanged back and I went to be with Elder Hall my MTC comp!

Friday- Was the best day! I was with Elder Hall who makes me laugh so much haha. He has the best attitude about things! We went and visited some recent converts and then ate some rice and then I had to go back and get my stuff at their apartment. We did some contacting, some thing I think to myself while we are contacting is that even though they might not accept this message now, that I am still continuing the work, the work can still progress. We then did one more exchange and Elder Bawden who came to be with me.

Thursday - Elder Bawden and I were together, we first saw some members and recent converts, most of the appointments I had set fell through. We saw this lady Mary who is a new investigator, she is about 27 years old and is awesome, a solid investigator. We then had lunch and saw some members. Then I had a tender mercy from a member who was driving while we were looking for a bus to take us back to his area so we could exchange back, he picked us up and took us all the way to the area which is like 45 mins away. Then we exchanged back.

Sunday- Sunday was missionary Sunday so we were in charge of blessing the sacrament and giving a talk. I was the one who gave the talk. I talked on how members and missionaries can work together to do missionary work. I thought it went well. My companion said I was talking to them not at them so I think that is a good thing. Then we had our awesome baptisms with Bro. Daniel and Sis. Sewa. Both of them were baptized and I really was very happy! A lot of the ward members came to support which was awesome. I'll send pictures. I did not do the baptizing because we had a member do it, which is better for the new member because it helps them to have a someone from the ward fellowship them. That was basically our Sunday though, it was awesome!

In my BOM reading I am in 3rd Nephi now, in about chap 19. These past chapters have been about when Jesus comes and visits the Nephites and he lets them0 feel his hands and the pierce in his side. He calls 12 apostles and tells them to baptize the people who are willing to follow. I love these chapters. The saddest part is when Jesus ascends back into Heaven and you can see how sad the people are.

This week i caught a goat. It was awesome!

Well that's about all I have. I love all you people! Stay safe.


Elder Paulson

Sometimes you wonder why?  Haha!

The road by where he lives. 

Some large bats hanging in a dead tree!

Random guy who wanted his picture taken with me.

Bro. Daniel standing next to me and Sis. Sewa, both baptized by a member of the ward, standing next to my companion.  

These two pictures are the grounds around Elder Paulson's Chapel, which is pretty new.  

#7 Fast Sunday

Good Morning my people,

I hope this letter finds everyone well and safe.

This letter is also going to be short and sweet because the power is also sketchy here like Elder Brown said.

So first off the Week was good we are continuing to find new people to teach. We are also trying to progress our now investigators. We also have been trying to strengthen our members by meeting with them and answering questions and trying to strengthen our relationships with them. This week Daniel will be baptized on Saturday and we are really excited about that! He is really great!

I don't know if I have told you about some of the weird things in Ghana but the first one is, You don't use your left hand for anything. Not to eat, not to give someone money, not to wave to people. It is disrespectful if you do.

Also people carry everything on their heads. Like everything! Water, food, bags. If they can balance it on their head they will carry it haha.

I am staying in my area with my same comp so no changes for us. The other missionaries in my apartment one went home and the other got a new comp from Zimbabwae. He is a awesome missionary!

Nothing crazy going on this week. But right now as I speak there is a huge rain storm coming down right now. That is flooding the gutters. That's about the only crazy thing that has happened this week.

I'm going to end this a little early because of the rain and the power. I love you people. Next week I will write a long letter.

Elder Paulson


Sorry, no pictures this week!