Missionary Work

It has been a month since our last blog, partly due to being busy with trips to the hospital for a ward missionary serving full time in one of the mission areas.  He did not wear his helmet and had a serious bike accident, knocking out 4 front teeth and breaking his pallet. He spent almost two weeks with us, Heidi trying to figure out what he could eat and blending or mushing everything for him while regulating his pain medicine and for the first night waking him for medication and observation for a possible concussion.  Thank heaven he is on the mend and is home.  I do not know about Heidi but I for one am still very tired.  We do have a new poster in his honor: "Charles says; wear your bike helmet".  This week we had a day without bikes to reinforce the need to wear helmets and be safe with safety equipment.  We hope the missionaries will respond.  The Lord is good and merciful as we had two other bike accidents this week, one involving a Trotro.  Nothing major, like Charles, just scrapped arm and banged-up shoulder. and we are so very grateful.

Our Saturdays( Preparation day) have been full with Branch activities, and we have had some wonderful teaching opportunities.  I have been teaching in the evenings with our Assistants to the President, a wonderful brother Steven Kwaku, he is planning on becoming a member of the Church on the 10th of May.  He is about 62 years old and is so very open to the gospel teachings.  He reads his bible faithfully, attends to his family that all live in a compound, with 3 dogs, 12 cats (no mice) some rabbits and chickens and as near as I can count 6 grandchildren.  We teach in the confines of the compound sitting around in 4 plastic chairs.  His wife is often found doing the dishes in a baby bath bucket just outside their door.  I am sure because of so many feet in the compound it is void of anything green growing, except happy and sweet grandchildren.  Their home and his 3 children's homes, attached to one another, are built out of lap wood siding with the wall of the compound being one of the walls, the roofs being corrugated tin. The compound walls here are made of a cinder block.  Bro. Kwaku is a plumber and has the broadest smile but no front teeth, he lost them when he fell 4 stories and the platform boards he was standing on fell on his head.  I called him Abraham as he is a man of faith.  When taught the Word of Wisdom and challenged to live it, he responded yes, my wife doesn't want me to drink anyway.  Because of his love for others and being anxious to share his happiness he went to the bar where his friends meet and told them drinking alcohol was not good for them, they of course ridiculed him but that slid off his back.   Last night when taught about eternal marriage, he simply ask about Adam and Eve's marriage, and pondered on the blessing of family forever together. He asked about taking multiple wives, a practice common here, and then answered his own question by stating two wives bring twice the headaches and laughed. He is a man who loves people.

On Thursday Heidi and I had the blessing of sharing a gospel message and answering questions for Hannah, one of the temporary guards here at Coco Palms.  Elder and sister Curtis had taken her to church and shared gospel teachings, when she was a full time guard here.  She had wonderful questions and we were happy to share the story of the restoration of the gospel with her.  We are arranging for the missionaries in the Accra Mission to take her to church.  It is obvious that she reads the bible.          

   I thought I would mention that Charles will be back this week as he is getting a bridge made.