Because of Diligence, Faith and Patience

Family and Friends!!!! Ow Fa Na?!

Because of Light Out (they turn the power off in Ghana for 12 hours and then have it on for 12 hours because there isn't enough power for everyone) we are in an internet cafe an hour and a half walk away from our apartment. But I have so many wonderful experiences to share with you that the walk and the sunburn will be worth it!

This week was marvelous as always. It was full of triumphs and struggles. Much happiness as we met with investigators who were doing the things that the Lord asks of them, and sadness as we literally watched a few of our investigators run away from us as they saw us coming. But my companion and I are praying for charity and patience every day and the Lord is blessing us as long as we ask for it. 

My first experience happened on Tuesday when we went to go see the 6 young men who I have named the Boys Club. We were walking up to their housing complex where we saw a few of them sitting underneath a tree. As soon as they saw us they just scattered in every direction, except ours, and in a few moments they were lost in the alleys of Teshie. They literally saw us and they ran! I mean, I know I can be a little scary looking since I sweat like crazy here, but I am a normal human being! I was so disappointed. I had been praying a lot for them that they would accept the message we had prepared for them that day, but they were all gone. There were only about 4 of them that ran away who were investigators. So, my companion and I sat down to call the other 2 young men and see if they were around so that we could meet with them. We got a hold of one and he said he was on his way. While we were waiting this huge, muscular black dude rode up on a bike and was just glaring at us. I smiled, hoping that wouldn't offend him because his arms where the size of my legs, but he just continued to glare. And then he walked over to this shed, unlocked it, and let out a HUGE dog. I mean this dog was easily the size of my Saint Bernard back home, which is something you almost never see in Ghana. The dogs that run around the streets here look more like cats, so I was so excited to actually see a dog that looked like a dog! After some time he chained the dog up near the tree and then sat down on the same bench as us that circles this tree. After some time of me debating on if I should say anything (since he had been glaring at us) I finally said, "Hey boss, what's your name?" He looked and after a few seconds on decided if he should respond, he told me his name was Nee. And then I asked him about his ginormous dog. The dogs name is Champ and he is a 1 year old Bull Mastiff. He told me that he actually breeds them in Ghana and that this dog had all of it's shots (I put that in for my mom so she doesn't get to angry for what happens next). I told him all about Sabra and then asked if I could pet it. He laughed but said that would be fine! We talked while I pet the dog and I asked what he did for a living and he told me that he was a prophet. And so I asked him what he believed. He told me a lot, but my favorite thing that he said was that in this life he doesn't fear anything. He will either fight as hard as he can and die, or he will survive and be stronger because of it. It reminded me of a scripture so I asked if I could share it and then asked if he would read it and he declined and said, "Be careful. I know your people's tricks!" I had to laugh at that one. Because I can honestly tell you that we don't have any tricks as missionaries. Just that we love the Lord and we are there to act as he would act and to say what he would say. Nee had to go and I don't know what will become of him, but he left saying how much he was impressed with me, being an 18 year old American serving a mission in Ghana. All I could think of was how blessed I am to have that opportunity.

This week we experienced another rain storm! But this one came while we were out in the Bush, which means there are only dirt roads and lots of mud if they get wet. It was around 5:30 and we were teaching Kwame, a 14 year old boy who will be getting baptized this week, a lesson.  I noticed that it was getting dark. It doesn't get dark until 6:00 so I was confused and then I got smacked by a huge gust of wind. My companion ended the lesson in a few seconds, which takes some skill, and then turned to me and said, "Elder Bergeson, say the prayer." He was so serious like our life would depend on how fast I said this prayer, and I said a very heartfelt, but very fast prayer because we were about to receive the shower of a life time. We stood up and grabbed our bikes and we were already feeling some small drops. We decided to go to an investigators house nearby where there was cover. We started going and the rain started coming. In Ghana people have metal roofs and you can know the rain is coming because it sounds like a roaring river is about to overtake you, so it gives you some incentive to ride faster! People were running everywhere, closing their stores in seconds; basically just grab everything and run for cover. About 30 seconds from the house we were going to, the rain hit us. I could barely see with the wind blowing the rain right into my face but all of a sudden I saw my companion zip right past me and I just heard him squealing: "Ride Elder, ride!!!!" I can still hear that and it makes me laugh even now. We made it though and waited for 3 hours until the rain stopped and then we slogged and slipped our way through the mud back to our apartment. What an adventure! 

Elder Fayeampah turned 25 this week so we threw him an awesome party! I woke up at 5:00 and got my washing done, then decorated the apartment with signs and balloons and then I made fruit smoothies for breakfast! Then that night for dinner I helped him make Jollofrice and Fried Chicken. And we ate and ate and ate. I am always hungry as a missionary and I think that is the only time on the mission that I can actually say I was full. But we had to finish it off with dessert! The other Elders in our apartment bought some cupcakes and I got some candles and we sang How Old Are You Now and he blew out his candles. We played games and took lots of pictures. It was truly a night of joy.

This week I learned a lot about Faith. In Alma Chapter 32, from the Book of Mormon, a prophet Alma compares Faith to a seed. First, you give place for a seed to grow. Second, you plant it. Third, you nurture it. Then you watch your seed swell and grow into a great tree and you will have the opportunity to taste of the fruit of your tree. Alma says in verse 42, "And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the [seed] in nourishing it... ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet." I read this and it gave me so much comfort. For some reason that day I had been doubting myself and thinking that I might not be able to endure and make it the two years as a missionary. But I read that and I knew that if I wanted to taste the fruit that is most precious and sweet, then I needed to do what the Lord had commanded me. My Savior loves me so much that he died for me. I need to show that I love Him by serving Him with all that I have. A mission is hard. Life is hard. Things don't go as planned. There is suffering. There is pain. There is disappointment. But if we continue with diligence, having faith in Jesus Christ and patience in His timing, then we will be able to taste of the fruit that each of us yearns for. For me that fruit is living with my family forever. I want that with all of my heart so I will continue with faith until that day when I get to partake of that delicious fruit. When life gets so difficult that you think you can't continue, just remember that fruit. "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it."

I love you all. I pray for you and I ask that you continue to pray for me. 

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Elder Bergeson

Elder Bergeson at church

The Elders

"Preach the Gospel to every creature....

Just doing my job Mom"

Fresh hair cut

Birthday Breakfast for Elder Fayeampah

Elder Liongitau and Elder Bergeson

ready to eat their humongous dinner

Windows of Heaven

Malachi 3:10 

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse... and I will... open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

Hello Family and Friends,

The Lord has literally opened the windows of heaven this week for my companion and I, and all of Ghana. It was a marvelous, humbling and crazy week, as always.

I shared the scripture at the beginning about tithing for multiple reasons. First, I paid my Fast Offering last Sunday for this month and last month because I had forgotten to the month before. For those of you that are unfamiliar with a Fast Offering, on the first Sunday of each month the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sets that day apart for fasting. We fast for two consecutive meals and the money that we would have spent on meals that day are given to the Church to give to people that are in need. I had forgotten to pay it in September so I paid it for both months this last week. And I could not believe the blessings that we received this week. I'll talk first about the physical blessings. The first blessing we received happened that day. We were on our way back to Teshie from Accra and caught a Tro-Tro. The price for transportation back was 1 cedi (60 pesso) and we were pulling out our money to pay and I tried to give it to the man who was collecting but he shook his head and wouldn't take it. I asked why and he just pointed to a lady in the front row. This lady was a member from a neighboring town and had paid for my companion and I and when we went to get off she told us how proud she was that we were serving the Lord. It was so kind of her. The next day we were on our way back from Labadi and were again trying to catch a Tro-tro but none were stopping and we needed to be back in Teshie soon for a meeting that we had. I was worried for a couple minutes but suddenly a car pulled up and the person said, "Elders! Get in!" It was our Stake President and he gave us a ride all the way back to the apartment which saved us 1 cedi (40 pesso) and we made it on time to our appointment. The Lord blesses you when you obey His commandments, both physically and spiritually.

The second blessings came spiritually. This week Elder Fayeampah and I focused on finding. Finding is going out and looking for the people the Lord has prepared to hear His message. It takes a lot of Faith and a lot of listening to the Spirit. Elder Fayeampah was in charge and so I followed and learned so much from him. We just started walking and we ended up finding an area that we had never been in before. We didn't see anyone but we kept going and I kept praying. Finally, we see a young man and we stop and ask him if we could share a message with him. We found out that he used to meet with the missionaries but that he had moved and lost contact with them. He knows the Church is true and even reads from the Book of Mormon sometimes. So we bore testimony to him that it was not an accident that we had found him that day. We will be meeting with him more this week. After that we talked to a few more people and we were about to leave the area, when I looked over and saw a group of 6 young men in their 20's sitting under a tree on some benches. In my head I said to myself, "Let's get out of here before they notice us." because the guys aren't super nice and usually just like to argue with missionaries. But then my companion said, "Elder, let's go talk to those guys." They turned out to be some of the coolest guys I have ever met! They had so many questions for us and loved learning with us. It was like a big discussion, not a debate, and we all learned something. We laughed, I cried when I bore testimony to them of Joseph Smith being a prophet called of God in this dispensation, and they truly want to change their lives and follow Christ. By the end of the week we had 15 new investigators. I had been fasting and praying so much for this and the Lord heard me and has blessed me.

Finally, the windows of heaven were literally opened on Ghana. I experienced my first RAIN STORM!!! Elder Nissinen and I had left the apartment to go down the street to buy some salt and fresh vegetables so that I could make lunch. We walked outside to a cloudy afternoon and within 2 minutes the sky was dark and it was POURING! We were completely soaked in less than a minute. We walked back to the apartment (no sense in running since we were already soaked) just having a blast dancing and jumping in the rain of Ghana. I even sang a verse of "Singing in the Rain" as I pranced around the road. We were getting a lot of weird looks but it was so much fun. :) When we got to the apartment we took a shower under the water that was coming off of the roof. The funniest thing I saw was a boy who was outside just taking his shower in the rain! Just standing outside naked, covered in soap, letting the rain wash it off of him. I promised myself I would do that one day when I get home.

This week I learned a lot about Families. The family is kind of like riding a big tandem bike. You start off with a man and a woman who decide that they are going to ride a tandem bike together through the trail of life. They both get on and they start peddling. At first it is a little awkward; they have to get used to peddling together, leaning on the turns together and supporting each other. They travel far together, over hills and mountains, and after some time they decide to add another seat. They welcome a child and this child is very inexperienced in tandem biking. For a long time the parents actually have to do all of the work. They keep peddling with the added weight, without receiving any help from the child. But, knowing that someday the child will be a blessing. Then the parents keep adding seats. And they keep peddling with the extra weight; up hills and through the trails of life. One day the oldest child starts peddling and the younger ones see and also want to try. And we see that the family all starts peddling together on the trail of life. Now the family is not racing against anyone else, they just go their own speed and in the end they will all finish together. 

I loved this analogy so much. This week we were teaching a man named Mark. Mark loves coming to the Church and learning about it, and one night he asked me what blessing besides salvation come from joining the church. And without even thinking I bore my testimony to him of Eternal Families. I love my family so much and the knowledge that I have that this life is not the end. I will be able to live with them forever if I choose the right here on Earth. What a blessing! Our Heavenly Father put us on Earth in families so that we could learn how to love, work hard, grow spiritually, and eventually return to Him. But we will not return alone; we will return together to our Heavenly Father as a family. By the time I ended talking about it, I was crying and Mark couldn't stop smiling and saying how amazing this Church is. And he is right. This is Jesus Christ's church on the Earth and living by its teachings will bring us so much peace and joy.

I love you all and love hearing from you. Keep growing your testimony every day.

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Elder Bergeson

Elder Bergeson in Rain Storm Fun

With Elder Missinen who loves the rain

because he is from Portland!

And, Elder Bergeson, "I'm from the dry part 

of Washington" face!

Apartment Picture during the Rain storm

Family Home Evening with the Otrema Family

(and they fed us after)

Elder Bergeson and Old Soldier

He will now only speak Twi so 

understanding is limited.

A picture of his area in Teshie

The kind of "roads" they ride their bikes on

Waiting for You

Hello Everybody!!! This is Elder Bergeson coming to you live from the thriving town of Teshie, Ghana!

This week was honestly very difficult, but because of it I was able to grow so much closer to my Heavenly Father. He is always there for each of us whenever we need a friend. He weeps with us when we suffer and he rejoices with us when we find joy in this life. I love my Heavenly Father and I know that the only way I can show Him my love is by keeping His commandments. And I have been commanded to serve a mission for His Son so I will serve with everything I have and if I can do that I will be able to live with Him again.

On Thursday I was able to go on my first Companion Exchange. I went with Elder Liongitau, my District Leader, to his area that is right across the street from mine. The area is called Sangonaa and it is almost exactly opposite of ours. But first let me tell you about Elder Liongitau. He is from Tonga and he is 19 years old and one of the best missionaries I have taught with. He has truly mastered the skill of teaching people, not just lessons. He is so great at finding what is truly concerning the people and he is able to answer all of their questions. In Sangonaa, there are people everywhere and little kids are constantly bombarding you. The people have a lighter attitude around them and they always call the missionaries over to ask questions that they truly want to find an answer too! In my area that rarely happens. People already have their own church and they don't want to hear about any more church, so it is very difficult for us to find people who truly want and need this Gospel. Elder Liongitau also takes time to have fun. We were walking through the area and I looked to my right and I saw 3 kids trying to throw around a rugby ball. I yelled for Elder Liongitau to follow me and we ran over to play with the kids. He taught all of us how to throw it right and for a while it was just us 5 playing but slowly kids started appearing from everywhere. And they were all cheering and squealing every time we threw or caught the ball. After some time they wanted to play too so Elder Liongitau started chucking the ball at these kids as hard as he could. He grew up playing rugby so you can imagine that his throw is very hard and very accurate! But these kids just stood and tried to catch it or tried to dodge. It was so much fun and by the end we were picking up the kids and throwing them up to catch some high throws. It was so much fun and we were even able to get five new investigators who wanted to know what we had to teach. By the time we left, there were probably around 60 kids who were all pretty sad that we needed to go.

This week I have been doing a lot of experimenting with food! Which has been super delicious and also terrible. Something they have in Ghana that I really wish they had in America is Plantain. I LOVE Plantain now! I bought some for the first time this week and I cooked Fried Plantain and Boiled Plantain. Plantain is kind of like a banana and a potato mixed. It is in a banana peel but when you peel it, it is very hard so you can prepare it like you would make mashed potatoes, or just fry it in some oil. But I crave it every day now and I am hoping I'll find some when I get home! I also made Jollofrice. This is made by making stew (Oil, Tomato Paste, Onion, Chicken Hot Dogs, Tomato, Pepper, Garlic) and then adding rice and letting the rice just soak up the delicious stew flavor. I really love that now also. And I am getting a lot better at making rice, thankfully. 

Along with food, we ate a member's house this week and she fed us Goat and Banku. Banku is kind of like Fu Fu but it is fermented a little bit so it is more sour. When I first got here I could barely finish a quarter of a ball of Banku but that night I finished TWO BALLS! My companion who is from Ghana finished one but I finished two and the members were really impressed. I was just so grateful that my stomach is being stretched through divine intervention. I also had goat "meat" for the first time that night. I say "meat" because what I really ate was goat cartilage. For those of you that don't eat cartilage on a regular basis, you are quite lucky. My description would be taking a huge blob of fat, making it a little harder, and then covering that with lumpy octopus skin. I hope that gives you a good visual..... Because I had to stick a huge chunk of this into my mouth. It was barely chew-able so I swallowed most of it whole. Sweet is the Work! :D

This week my Stake was able to watch the 185th Semiannual General Conference live in the Stake Center in Ghana. We are 6 hours ahead so the Morning Sessions started at 4:00 pm here. But what a blessing to be able to watch the two Morning Sessions. On Saturday I walked in just in time to see President Thomas S. Monson walk into the Tabernacle and the Spirit bore witness to me that he is a prophet of God. I loved the message given from a sister in the Saturday Morning Session. She said, "It Will All Work Out." Those words have become my new moto. It doesn't say it will all work out now, but it will work out. I was so grateful also for the rest hymn on Sunday. We sang How Firm a Foundation and by the end of it I was not able to sing and I had tears running down my face thinking of my father, mother and I singing this at home quite often. I remember one instance where my father and I sang it together to an old gentleman in our ward that was in a nursing home. I love my dad for his great example to me of a righteous priesthood holder and my parents for truly being a firm foundation for me. 

This week I had the sweet experience of bearing my testimony on the power of Christ's Atonement. Clement is one of our investigators. He sells coconuts for a living and we have become brothers recently. We became so close that he finally told me why he doesn't want to come to church with us. He feels that he is not worthy to be there because he is addicted to Marijuana. This made me so sad because that is exactly what Satan wants you to think. He wants you to feel ashamed, so much that you are afraid to turn to the one source that can help you. Your Father in Heaven and your Savior Jesus Christ. I bore my testimony to him with all my heart that I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and never wants us to feel like we can't talk to Him, that is why he gave His only begotten Son to a world He knew would not accept. Jesus Christ suffered for us. He bled from every pore so that we could get over the feelings of unworthiness, hopelessness and guilt. Through Christ's Atonement we are able to have joy and happiness even in our most difficult circumstances. All he asks of us it to come unto Him. We must come to Him. He is waiting with open arms for you to walk into them and feel of his indescribable love. He. Is. There. Waiting for you.

I love you and ask that you keep praying for me.

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Elder Bergeson

I Love to See the Temple

Ghana, Accra

Elder Bergeson's companions brother they saw

by the temple....fun reunion for them!

Fried Plantain

Action shot of Elder Bergeson riding his bike down the 

main road in Teshie, Ghana