= Sunday during a testimony, I spoke of how God has protected and helped me all my life. After Sacrament, I did a training audit of budget and fast offering expenditures (at President Morgan's request). All accounted for but tough to find. I suggested a filing method and will do this again in two weeks.
= In Come, Follow Me {Sunday School}, we heard how God chastises and forgives and how his work will continue. When asked how some of us joined, one person looked up the church on Facebook; found where we meet but all were away at a District Conference; but was discovered by a couple like us who got him to the conference (!); and he joined quickly. Miracles are all around us.
= Monday, I connected the remaining computers to the office color printer. Steph and Sister Morgan had time to relate more ways they are alike: Each had been a Relief Society President; each had served extensively in Primary; each had spent time assisting a branch of the church; each had performed military relations duties.
= Watching Don't Miss This (scripture commentary), a co-host related that *everyone wants to change the world but no one wants to help Mom do the dishes*. We want to jump in there and expect God to ask us to do some great thing, and He says “Go help your mom do the dishes”, and we take a pass. But God knows what people need, and that’s why they’re coming into your mind and your heart.
= Tuesday, I tried again to get a new virtual address. We mailed a replacement RV registration payment. We shopped at Melcom. Steph dressed in exercise clothes plus hip scarf and worked through an hour led by an instructor’s recording.
= We attended Zone Conferences Wed/ Thurs/ Fri, each for about a third of the missionaries. Discussion of gifts and technology. Zone reports. Video from Elder Cook to all 78,000 missionaries. Lunch. Zoom presentation from Sister Brock, Area Mental Health Advisor. Video animation by one of our missionaries on dealing with stress. Birthday candy. Banana bread awards for clean apartments; testimonies from missionaries on their final transfer. Steph sanitized hands and handed out candy, dewormer, and Doxycycline or Malafan.
= Gifts: God will grow yours as you use them righteously. Technology: It can amplify your efforts or lead you astray. Zone Reports: Finding and bringing many people into church. Elder Cook: Pray; trust; find; invite to church first; teach with members present; repeat. Sister Brock and video animation: stress is usually temporary; act to relieve it and contact the Mission President if it is overwhelming. Phones: They can help or be deadly distractions; seek help for your companion or yourself early. Illness: Do what Sister Ladner tells you.
To church
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..
Perhaps she'll be cold later or carry a grandchild.
Football {soccer}
Waiting for transportation. (Who names a filling station "desert"? We're also looking at slight inflation. The diesel at big chains used to be 14 and change per liter; now the price at this little place is at 15 and change.)
The paint job started last week on the red truck has been completed and looks good.
Barrels on firewood
Dwɛn wome {I wait for you}
Waiting
Football
Sachet water
Hauling water
Going to haul water
A pump with no one using it at the moment; see the handle
The electric line to where we meet has drooped..
..
..
Returning home
Fully packed
You shall not pass - or waiting to cross the street..
..
The blood of Jesus
Water
A camper shell!
From a German advertisement for this model: Momo 6
Many small pipes going somewhere
Nyame Ye {God is Good} Enterprise and Auto Parts
Dirt, anyone?
Be humble
Assessing the crop
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Fake meat..
Extremely good
Heading to the paved road
Su ma wo ho {cry for yourself}
Daniel cleaning the air conditioner in the outer office
Cooking vegetables in the rice in the rice cooker
The result, with some cheese..
Cheese doesn't hurt.
A big bird who decided to interact with a living room window
Pasta sauce made from Tasty Tom and milk. Instead of tomato paste as we would know it in the states, tomato paste is marketed with fiber and sugar added to it (soy fiber and citrus fiber). I don't know why they don't just sell tomato paste by itself, but it works. And of course, you can't go wrong with cheese.
TMT: The Money Team - All the Way.
The end of a road. We can't back up. Blessedly, they left enough space to roll by.
We often see mesh holding items. Melcom's tag line is "Where Ghana Shops". Smaller than a Wal-Mart, bigger than a Dollar General.
Left out, bread dries out. Left in the plastic, bread molds in three days. I will probably give in and buy a bread box. The space around a loaf of bread is a microclimate. It needs just enough moisture but not too much.
Big rocks. Just one could do serious damage. Loading and unloading must be difficult.
The house to the right (not visible from here) has no fence; so, cattlemen let their cattle graze on his "lawn". This is the "road" to our house. The new Audit building for Ghana is on the left.
A quiet moment outside the kitchen (to the left). I don't remember how we wound up here.
Taking stock.
I err on the side of food. (Bagged goods are in an elevated cupboard, not this one, whose outside is treated with bug spray and WD-40 from time to time, the WD-40 to interfere with scent trails.)
On the topic of overpromotion..
Much ado about very little.
Belly dance exercise..
..
A new dress in clean water
Dye went into the water. However, the colors of the dress remained vibrant.
Baked beans (no pork), and chicken nuggets
Still Emmanuel {God With Us}
Missionaries gathering
Steph running down stairs
And celebrating the run
And running up stairs
Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders accounting for their activity
Notice the person on the shoulder.
Cooking. (The person was still cooking hours later when we passed this way again.)
It will fit somehow.
Reversed, it says Rule Your Kingdom
There's not much wiggle room, but they made it work.
American Flag and Eagle
An aboboyaa has squeezed in between us. As Mad-Eye Moody used to repeat in the Harry Potter saga, "constant vigilance". I'd better not drift left when the light changes until we're clear of each other.
When you don't have a minivan [tee hee], you handle the load any way you can.
The light just changed.
Make a lane when you want it.
Respect
The sad part is that he's going away from the only repair place that I know of for miles, and he must know about that place because he had to pass it to get here.
Another breakdown, this one within sight of the main highway (N1)
We'll all get through somehow.
Stylish and functional
Gratitude. (He's 100 now.)
Elder Cook, who through this video is briefing 78,000 missionaries.
Imagine using your coat as a flag to rally men to defend their country.
Putting more than one line in the water (figuratively) to seek people to talk to.
Steph, preparing to provide medication, bug repellant, sanitizer, and advice
Often we'll see a structure, even a completed building, that is marked this way. Ownership is complex.
..
..
Our water meter hasn't moved.
Yes, we have some bananas (or plantains; I can't readily which).
Pedu Junction is always busy.
True God's Power Enterprise
Being walked to school
Coming to conference
We usually see only bamboo securing floors during construction. The building going up next to the Ola chapel has adjustable metal poles as well.
Onyame wɔ tumi o {God has power, oh}
We don't see fire trucks often.
Demonstrating how *not* to act on a date (and in any interaction with other people)
Discussion of Elder Cook's presentation
.. and from a different day, same presentation
Going to lunch.
Sister Brock (Area Mental Health Advisor) via Zoom
Having the room waggle their arms while President Morgan tries to help her see us via Zoom
(Elder Dimmick in the foreground)
..
Stress..
Release
Butterfly hug
Parts of a presentation by one of our missionaries on dealing with stress..
..
..
You have resources available to you.
God loves you
Sustaining anger, pride, and so forth isn't good for you.
Satan wants you to be miserable; fight back.
Elder Huff, who created the entire animated presentation on his phone!
Prints outside the room where we met. Jesus with the woman at the well.
Carrying one of his little ones.
Steph was ready..
The scale brought by Steph is always a crowd-pleaser.
Photos
Steph as photographer
Seagoing canoe
Seen clearly here is the holder for the outboard motor, which is used in a fixed position, not angled back and forth as we do in the States.
Another view
There are many bars/ restaurants along this stretch heading west from Coast Coast.
Birds
A lagoon
AKA The "Ford" Station, sometimes used for transport to or from Accra. It's at the south end of Jukwa Road.
Yes, they're walking home from school by themselves.
That's an appropriate name for the product..
..
Some stuck to the pan and blew out.
Our uphill neighbor's sedan made it over the ditch and up to their house. (That had been impossible months ago until serious work was done on the ditch.)
Catching used wash water to flush toilets
Ewuradze bɛhwɛ wo {Lord will watch over you}
I know you can get this rug to fit.
Hanging on to big brother for dear life
Na God {And God}
Asase Aban {[perhaps:] The government of the earth}
Goodness and mercy.. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. - Psalms 23:6
Acts 1:11 - Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Lovely
Jesus Is Lord
Aware
Regarding technology, good things that came from temporarily cutting back to one phone per companionship (now back to normal: phone per person, one SIM card per companionship)
Some people who join the church sought it out themselves instead of being found or referred.
In just one teaching zone, on average, 40 people per week are found to begin teaching to. The smaller bars are the averages per companionship.
Another zone: baptisms by zone leadership and by the zone as a whole (20 in January for that zone).
Each zone report includes what they have learned as a zone in the previous six weeks..
For the mission leadership council, and for the mission as a whole (finding about 400 per week to teach).
People joining the church
My favorite statement of our purpose. It isn't to tell people something, it's to help them live closer to Christ.
Perhaps the first step should be an invitation to attend church, help people know what to expect, resolve their concerns.
Attending church lets you see priesthood in action, brings you in contact with members, and is an act of faith; God rewards faith. Come to church with me, then let's talk.
It's interesting to me that the graphics are shaped like cell phones:
People gather.
Elder Campbell giving a lift
Fire truck getting a water refill
Where Steph shops more than once..
And where she becomes a captive audience.
Ablaze for God
Not by might... Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. - Zechariah 4:6
I'm fascinated by this, but the photo isn't clear enough and I can only translate pieces of what I do see.
Lemon Lounge: Campbells on the left, Dimmicks on the right
And at the stairwell entrance
Now that our compound lights are working, this ghostly apparition asserts itself on the hill just beyond our fence.
Sister Campbell took this beautiful nighttime picture of us from the top of our compound as it looks back at our neighbors beyond.
This house isn't usually visible from our compound, but I'm on the ladder of our elevated polytank tower.
This gap doesn't look very big, but the squirrels might be finding their way through it. A hole over the back yard light is bigger, but the noise is always nearer here, over our bedroom.
This rock has a purpose: it stops the aboboyaa from rolling while being unloaded in front of the "big house" next door.
Shoes left by another missionary, set aside by me to fill a request.
Our rice left over from conferences. The containers are large, and I can't eat fast.
= We spent time with the Campbells and the Dimmicks on Friday. (The Campbells spent the night with us.) Steph responded to and documented medical issues. I documented and elevated apartment issues.
Someone must find this enticing.
The inscription on the window of the green van faces the inside.
(The artist's rendition in both of these works of art reminds me of Caleb Slagle, whom I don't know how to contact to tell him that.)
But then the Elders reviewing phone usage finished and she was able to use the big table. The yellow box holds Doxycycline, taken daily to resist malaria. The blue box holds Malafan. Malafan to resist malaria is offered to missionaries from African countries if they decline Doxy and is taken once every six weeks.
Asase Aban {[perhaps:] The government of the earth}
And what they will do.
- Focus on your missionary purpose
- Set goals, make plans, and live the principle of accountability
- Effectively find people to teach
- Help friends attend Sacrament meeting
Notice the Catholic rosary in the right window.
Loaded mostly with Tasty Tom (similar to tomato paste, but with fiber)
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