Friends

This is our Sunday evening therapy group. We have about 18 West Africa Area couples that are missionaries. and these are all the ones that live in Alema Court. We used to live there and every Sunday evening we have a dinner and even after we moved they wanted us to come. Yeah! We love the company and some of these ladies are the best cooks every and without a doubt, it is the best dinner we have all week. One of couples, do the auditing, another family history, another self reliance, 2 are Humanitarian, one Public Affairs, and one is Lawyer and we are so sad because they went home this week because of a health problem. These are just wonderful friends we love them all.

Elder Wall busy doing a little bit of everything, I don't know why he is carrying mops and buckets around the area office.

A couple of stories to share with you. One of our Sister's who was going home, told me why she got interested in the church- she had a friend that was a member of the church and had been for several years. This friend had invited her many times to come to church or meet the missionaries and she never would. One time when she was with her friend, she was introduced to the missionaries. That night she had a very vivid dream. She  had a dream that she was in a deep hole and she kept on trying to get out but could not. Suddenly the missionaries appeared at the edge of the hole and they held out their hands and pulled her out of the hole. She decided to take missionaries lessons. This other story I heard from my friend Marva and her husband Lynn who are temple missionaries in Germany. This was told to Lynn by a lady whose children were grown. When she and her husband were young, the missionaries came to their house. They liked what they had to say but, they thought they would check with their Pastor and see what he would say. Well when she asked the Pastor, all he could say was terrible things about the Church. After he was finished berating everything she said to him, she asked, "isn't there anything nice about them". Well he said those young missionaries are certainly fine young men, I hope my sons grow to be like them. The lady immediately thought of the scripture "By their fruits shall you know them" (Matthew 7: 16) come into her mind.  She went home and called the missionaries.  The Lord is collecting his children as they will hear.  

Brother and Sister Bram with their two children from Nsawam.  Bro. Bram is our Young Men's President, the physical facilities representative.  Professionally he produces pineapple juice about 100 US gallons a week.  He employs 7 plus himself.  His story is not unique to those who wish to build Zion in their home areas.  After his mission, he was invited by a friend and missionary companion to join him at school in the United Kingdom, but he felt the need to stay in Nsawam to build up the kingdom and decided to not take advantage of the offer.  He located across the street from the chapel in a rental apartment, next to the missionaries and he aids them with whatever is needed.  Well for those who give as he has, sooner or later their prayers are answered.  His goal is to be able to employ the members who want to go to school or pay back their Perpetual Education Fund loans or start their own small business.  He even offers to teach them the juice business.  His goal is to help the youth in his home branch so they will have employment and stay in the area building the membership and strengthening the branch.  Over the last several Sundays we have driven around looking for lost Aaronic priesthood members and while doing that he expressed the yearnings of his heart to me.  I have been impressed with his dedication, organization and business mind.   Heidi and I made his desires a matter of prayer asking for guidance to know what we could do. About three weeks ago sitting in the bank waiting to cash a check, I visited with a bishop from Tema who told me of a couple from BYU-I Entrepreneurial Center who were in Ghana, "I know them, I said".  Thinking their knowledge might bless this budding entrepreneur, I wondered how to contact them, but had no way to find out.  Once again, prayer was the answer.  The Pothiers contacted me.  We arranged to meet at the Mission office and I shared Bro. B's  story.  A week later we again arranged to meet with Bro. Bram at the Mission office. Subsequently this Sunday we took the Pothiers to Nsawam to see Bro. Bram's operation.         

Brother Bram, Brother Pothier in the fruit squeezing shop.  1 machine, pots that have heat under them to pasteurize the juice.  I believe that this will be a great blessing to the members we so love in the Nsawam Branch.  Another testimony of God's Tender Mercies.  

Schools and more Schools

 There are schools and there are SCHOOLS, how about this you can learn to be a Prophet in just one week!

   I want to talk about schools here in Ghana, there is one on every corner. Everybody who has a little money starts a school  or church to make more money.
   I understand schooling is free through 3rd grade and they are trying to make it free through the 5th grade.There are lots and lots of private schools, with varying price ranges usually their competency level, correlates with the price range. For many people by the time their children are Jr. High age, they do not have enough money for their children to go to school anymore, or they go to a very inexpensive school, where maybe the teachers are not trained well or they are not required to learn. I am very surprised in Primary when I ask an older child to read, how poor their reading is. They learn their school subjects in English, and many children can hardly speak English, especially the girls.
      I think many of the parents of the children in church realize how important it is to educate their children, but I do not think many can afford really good schools, and a lot of the good schools are boarding schools which make them more expensive. Also boarding schools have their own problems , like bullying, sexual experimentation, some of them do not let students go to church, no seminary etc, etc.  When the students do graduate from High School many can not pass the tests to go on to a good University ( there is the U. of Ghana). There are many many signs and schools for remedial learning to past these test. There are hundreds of other College and Universities in town, and some are good and many not so good. The Church has PEF and even BYUI Pathways, but many of the students are not prepared in their previous 10 years for these type of classes.

My idea is that many of our chapels have a Family History Room with computers, also we have 2 Pathway sites, why not use those areas to have the Parents hire a good teacher and have the 14- 18 year olds, with good academic record and tests try an online High School Curriculum from the U.S., paired of course with seminary class and other stipulations.
   

   

Good news my Zucchini plant is coming up. My Watermelon seedlings disappeared overnight when they were about 10 inches high. I can see one of those big snail licking his lips (if they have lips).
The same happened to my cucumber plant. I don't know if it is the soil or the extreme heat. Since I have looked and looked for some fertilizer here, I guess I will never know.
 

When it rains Ghanaian s get undercover.  In fact one of the challenges we find with trying to make or keep an appointment is though the rain may be over, for hours, in trying to follow-up with an
appointment  the response usually is; "it rained".   Which means we will not be able to come out, because it rained.  We hope the rainy season extends itself this year as the water is needed terribly, last year was so very dry and water has to be trucked for drinking and bathing.

More of our rainy season weather ! Rainy season usually starts in June and lasts through July, we hope! It is cooler, usually and the dry sand we have here becomes moist.  Of course the roads tend to fall apart, even the paved ones grow large pot holes sometimes 12-24 inches deep, and as large as a car wide. Things tend to get wet, including us.  I try to hold an umbrella over Heidi, to keep her hair nice, but unless it is a down pour I just walk through it as the temperature being what it is the rain feels good.  

Two weeks ago  it was rumored that the government of Ghana owed a  big bill to the main supplier of fuel, which was owed for 3 years.  As a result of  impending fuel increases and the potential to profiteer from the same, lines of traffic developed of those needing gasoline and diesel.  We took this picture  two Sundays ago coming from Nsawam.  Although you may not be able to see them, the owners of the cars, about 100 are all up talking in raised voices to the station attendant, demanding fuel.   Because the rumor was it was there would be no fuel available we pulled into 6 stations, yes it was the Sabbath, trying to get fuel.  Either the station would not sell what they had or they had no fuel.  About 3 Kilometers away from our office in Accra, I felt to stop into a station where there was no traffic, to that point, those with no traffic indicated they had no fuel.  By chance I asked if the station had diesel, and he said yes, and motioned me to the pump.  While there a motorcycle pulled in and asked for gasoline.  The attendant told the cyclist there was no gas, that caused some serious verbal abuse.   Mentioned in an earlier blog was the long lines, 3 deep, both sides of the road. One station I saw had to have 200 people yelling at the attendants.

BLESSINGS AND TENDER MERCIES 
This Tuesday morning at about 2 am I started with a serious runny tummy, what I call the Ghanaian 2 step, which means you do not get more than 2 steps from "your friend the toilet".  Every few minutes I would visit my "friend".  Because Tuesday we were to attend the Kasoa Zone Training, the office leadership splits up by President Hill's assignment and goes to different Zones.  We felt a duty and responsibility to attend, as we were to assist with a emergency transfer, and we love being with the missionaries in these meetings.  I prayed and asked the Lord to help me, so I could fulfill my duty. I felt impressed to call President Hill and ask if he would give me a priesthood blessing, allowing me to fulfill my duty without complications.  Because of the distance and lack of easily available bathrooms this was a need.  We intended to leave at 7 am but it was about 8 before we felt to leave.  I did not need the bathroom until 4 pm when we arrived back at the office, at which time the runny tummy, pain and all returned for a three day visit.  I am so grateful to our Father in Heaven for this blessing and know he cares and listens to his children's prayers.  (Terry)    

Rainy Season

 June just flew by and here it is the end of the month and we have not posted one blog. This month the Rainy Season started and it seems to me that a lot of rain has fallen. Also some of the days are a little over-cast so it is not so hot.

See this little snail about 6- 7 inches long they like to come out in the Rainy Season. Brother Dalton would just cook him up and eat him. Our Grandchildren would charge me a lot more than 5 cents to remove him/her from my Garden. We just took and picture and let him keep going as he was headed to the neighbors.

 Rainy season is June, July and a little into August. We came this time last year and we did not have as much rain as this year. Maybe this coming year so many cities won't turn off their water and then we won't have to have the water trucks bring water to fill up the missionaries Poly Tanks and the wells we have won't dry up.
We love the rain because it cools things down a bit. One morning when we were taking our walk after a rainy night, it even felt like there was a cool breeze. Many of the Ghanaian people wear sweaters and coats, because they are so cold. It still feels hot to us. Also when it is raining a lot there are less cars on the road as people just stay home. Missionaries will want to meet someone  for an appointment, and they will cancel because it will have rained earlier in the day.

This good looking bunch of missionaries are waiting for their new companions that they will be training. This transfer we received our first missionaries from the D.R. Congo. Our Ghana Missionary Training Center   is now teaching English to French speaking missionaries. They stay there for 6 weeks to transform them into English speakers, the two missionaries we got were having a hard time understanding anything. They must have gone with zero knowledge of  English because they did not understand a thing we talked to them about. These trainers will be good and patient teachers. 

Sister Hill and I went with some Sisters in the Area office to do some Batik cloth. We all made a table cloth. I am the one with a green shirt and green table cloth. It is all done with multiple dyeing of the cloth and stamping the cloth with foam stencils soaked in wax. It was fun to do, and next time I do it I hope to get the blue cloth that I thought I was making.

We are finding joy in Riding for the Savior

   

All our male missionaries ride bikes, purchased by the mission.  At times I wished I was riding one because the bikes pass us as we wait in lines of cars attempting to get from one place to the other.  I think Heidi would look great on the handlebars.  She would still have to wear a helmet, mission rules you know.  Speaking of lines the government decided gas prices should go up on July 1st.  As we drove into Osu, a community just about 3 kilometers from our office, today to do our weekly food shopping we ended up in one of the never ending lines about three blocks long on one side of the roadway and 1 block the opposite.  The drivers were all waiting to access fuel, specifically gasoline, at the local Total station.  As a result of anticipated increased prices, there are gas lines.  two cars deep on each side of the road allowing only one lane in the center for cars going the opposite ways to take turns using the middle to go through.  It reminded me of the gas lines we had in the US in about  1972-3. In the station there had to be 100-200 drivers of taxis, trucks, personal cars arguing with the station attendants trying to get them to sell gas. It seems that the stations have decided to not sell their stock until the price goes up next Tuesday.  We tried one station that had only attendants sitting around the pumps and they said they had no diesel fuel.  Seeing no cars there should have been my first clue as we passed other stations, selling fuel, with similar traffic jams.  

Here we are saying good bye to one of our missionary sons, we love these kids.  Truly God has saved some of his best spirits to come to earth and serve in the last days.  Elder Ogembo was a excellent missionary and served as a wonderful Assistance to the President.  We miss him, but he was ready to go home and start the next phase of his life.  He invited us to Kenya to visit but we think it will cost too much.  It is tempting as he told us how much cooler it is in his home country, he wanted to take us on a Safari.  He worked as a guide before his mission.  He was raised in an orphanage and  is one of the sweetest and gentle young men I have known. 

The upper two floors are one of our newest chapels located in Amasaman.  The lower floors are kisokis selling what ever.  The taxi stand is in front.  The main road to Kamassi  is about 30 feet in front of the chapel.  A portable baptismal font is located on the ground (dirt) to the left.  The Church physical facilities have fixed it up very nicely.  Yes, those are bars on the windows and passage ways.  Already there is almost no sitting in the chapel as the members invite their friends and investigators attend.  

Well, this week there is no end of the tender mercies and simple miracles God continues to perform which personally benefit us.  We know he hears prayers and is a loving Father.  His Son is the Messiah that we all wait on his second coming.                

    

Ghana Stories

On Tuesday Terry and I headed out at 6:00 A.M.  to Asamankese it takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get there. The Elders apartment was pretty clean but this is NOT how you upkeep your water filter. 

They have clean filters, schedules of when they are to change them. Almost every Zone Conference, Terry has a little demo how to change filters and upkeep them. Do Not show this picture to Water Tech People.

We then drove to Kade, the Elders were happy to see us, they are about an hour further away, and not very many people come to see them, they were probably especially happy to see their mail. Terry fixed an important outlet to the water pump that was shorting out. Teach your boys to change electrical outlets, it will be important to know some time in their lives. We then drove on to Oda in a very heavy rainstorm. The Elders there were doing well, except for water, even the well that was dug is dry. We were glad to see the rain, that means the dry season is over and the rainy season is starting. This country needs a good rainy season.

In case you do not know what this building is for (they may not because this is only the 2nd public toilet that I have seen) here is a picture!!

These cute girls all dressed up, someone's ward in the U.S wanted to make pillowcase dresses for these girls, they all wear very nice dresses that are 2nd hand from the U.S. or Europe, but they are very very nice and some of very fancy. the older girls have their's made by a mother, aunt or "Taylor" . They told me they wanted white skin, I told them, that most people like Chocolate, better than Vanilla and they had lovely chocolate skin and I had plain old vanilla.

Here is cute  Michelle she used to be in the nursery now she is too old, but she still gives me hugs all the time.

This is funny event a couple told in our group therapy session ( Sunday night dinner with several missionary couples) They were just sitting in church starting to sing the opening hymn, when a van stopped outside the church and a group of 10 men jumped out , they all had on matching orange T-shirts. They came right into the chapel and started to lift and take the organ away. The T-shirts read - Gaa committee for noise Abatement.  We found out the Gaa's who are a tribe here, have a month that they think there should be silence . The Bishop paid them off and they left the Organ. I hope they are safe this week. We all had to laugh because, there are Muslim churches all over that yell over their loud speakers at least 5 times a day. And then at the makets, there is yelling or "singing" over microphones. And of course all the Pentecostals are playing drums, singing and clapping.    

Now if they had this guy in their congregation, I could see their point. -Shadrak with new sunglasses

This is the Branch President of the new Branch in Nsawam - Aduagyiri  sounds like atta-jury.

He told me last week how he became a member of the church. When he was 8 years old he and his parents were members of the Anglican church, his little sister who was 5 was going to the LDS church with some of their parents friends. When she came home, she told him, everyone got bread for the sacrament, he is a young man that likes his food and he decided that he would go with his sister to church so he would get some bread. So he started going, when he was a teenager, his Mom started going to church with them also, because her boy was such a good boy and was going to go on a Mission.Now many years later his Dad is joining the church. 

The rainy season is supposed to be the coolest time of the year?? Good time for a visit to Accra ! 

New Teeth

Above is our newest group of missionaries (14)  They all look fresh and excited to be here!! We are excited to have them here. What is this, some new kind of super hero - wearing a bike helmet and swim googles? What should we call him?
 We are at a zone conference and Elder Wall is trying to make the subject of wearing a bike helmet every time you get on a bike sound exiting. That talk is followed by how to clean your apartment, especially your bathroom is even more exciting.
Of course Sister Wall gave an exciting talk about following up on referrals and filling out baptism records correctly.

We had a Stake Conference a couple of weeks ago, it was great. There were too many people to have it at the Tesano Stake Center, so we had it at the Christenborg Stake Center. There were lots of people there, our Stake is only 2 years old. We were reminded that 1/3 of all the units created in the church this last year were in West Africa. The conference had some media people invited and they even had the whole conference broadcast on TV.

These are our assistants to the President , one is from South Africa, and the other is from Kenya. They are both going home soon and we will miss them. They take Terry to some missionaries lessons, he likes to go last week, we went to a baptism of a gentleman he taught.

These are our Office Elders. Both of these tall young men are both from Australia. They crash the Aussie breakfast at the Embassy  and they have a Aussie flag hanging up in the van they drive. They do talk a little funny until you get used to words like "bloke" and "shelia". They help us and the President take care of those 140 Elders.

I have Terry sideways - does anyone know how to rotate a picture once it is on the blog. I cannot take it off and start over again, because it took me 4 hours to download 8 picture. Yes our internet is very slow. We are sad because we have not been able to Skype our children and grandchildren this week. Terry took 5 broken fans and made 3 good fans out of them. All the missionaries have to have a fan, it is so hot and they do not have air conditioning.When there is "lights out" then they do not even have a fan.


But Charles does have new teeth! He is very happy with them, the Doctor told him he could eat anything!

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.

You Know Your Are in Ghana When....

When all around you and on the street there is a walking Wal-mart and people taking naps. You can get anything  from a bag of water to an i-pad cover ( where you can get the i-pad that is a different story). I wanted to show you this because this lady has Plantain chips. They are thinly sliced plantains that are fried in Palm Oil and salted. They are Terry's favorite, I really do not eat them too much as they do not agree with my stomach.

But we do both like the peanut candy lady, it tastes like really good peanut brittle. Those are the only two things we buy and eat off the street.

 When all the ladies wear beautiful bright dresses to church, many times with a matching head scarf they they wrap around their head. All the designs are so individual and unique, except many times friends or family have matching material. Beside the ladies is Shadrack, he is always hanging around with Terry or I

.

A couple of weeks ago, Shadrack told Terry and I that his Grandmother had died. We were shocked and worried for Shadrack, because his Grandmother is the one that he lives with. I told the Relief Society Pres. and was really worried about him. I was a little suspicious when later he told me that now he could come and live with us and go to the US with us. I did ask the missionary that knew where Shadrack lived. The missionary called a member that lived near Shadracks house and knew the Grandmother. The Grandmother was just fine, Shadrack had just made it up. We had a little talk to him about lying. He is happy this week, because our 2 oldest grandkids  sent him some gifts (shoes,tie and a book) that I wrapped up and gave to him.

This is the Nsawam Branch Primary, the Branch was just split and we now have a lot fewer children.

I can't rotate Terry's picture, but here he is putting up curtains for the Sisters , they just moved into an apartment that used to have Elders in it. The Elders  did not mind the no curtains windows.  We have lots of different jobs then just the office, on Friday we took a couple of young men that live in the area to the Tema MTC, they were both going on missions.

An almost healed bike accident. it looks like it hurt! But it least it is not Malaria!!!!

In January our Mission had the most reported incidents of Malaria in all of the West Africa Area. At our zone meeting the first week in Feb. we handed out Malaria test kits to all the missionaries, they were to call and then test and see if they had Malaria. We did not have one missionary have a positive test for the last 2 months. There were plenty of sick ones that thought they had Malaria,but they tested negative, but they all felt better up the next day, which they would not have done if it had been Malaria. Last week we saw a missionary that was so sick but had a negative Malaria test, but we found out that he had been invited to come to a wedding  the day before, where all the food is set out in the nice Hot sun for 3 or 4 hours. Terry fixed their water pump, and I got him a big bottle of Sprite. The next morning when I called he was having breakfast and feeling much better.

The best fresh pineapple and mango juice in the world!!!