Multi-zone Conferences Week

March 24, 2024

On the last post, we more or less caught up for when we were without internet and couldn't post anything.  Here are a few things that happened after that to catch things up a little more.

Our compound has a concrete wall around it with a 6 strand electric fence on top of it for security.  It has an alarm system so that if the electric fence is tripped, a very loud and obnoxious alarm goes off.  Well, on Thursday evening, March 14th, the alarm went off.  Elder Judd walked around the perimeter of the compound and didn't see anything that would be reason for the alarm to go off other than perhaps some palm branches that had grown and were starting to rub against the wires.  Elder Judd reset the alarm and thought nothing more, until on Friday the alarm went off again.  Whenever the alarm was reset, it would last about 10 minutes and then go off again.  Elder Judd put the alarm on silent mode and left it.  On Saturday, he decided he needed to trim the branches thinking that was the cause.  There is a "ladder" that the water guys used to get up to the tank, but it is anything but safe.  So, he decided to fix the ladder.  Baling wire he found, an assortment of odd sized nails, and scrap pieces of wood did the trick.  With the ladder "safe" to use, he climbed up and cut of the offensive branches using the only saw he had--a 3 inch piece of old broken hack saw blade.  After he turned the alarm back on active mode, it went off again!  With a more detailed and thorough inspection of the electric fence, he found an 8 inch lizard stuck touching a hot wire and a ground wire being the culprit!  A piece of PVC pipe was the trick to take care of the lizard and the alarm issue.

 

On Sunday, March 17th we went to Dabanyin Branch for Church to work with a newly called Gospel Literacy teacher.  The Dabanyin Branch meets in the multipurpose room of the "Ghana Make a Difference" shelter for abused, abandoned, and special needs children.  It also was the Relief Society birthday commemoration so the Relief Society sisters all sang a special musical number of "Let Us All Press On" during Sacrament Meeting.  They invited Sister Judd to come and sing with them.  The only problem was that they sang it in their tribal language of Twi!  Sister Judd hummed and smiled and enjoyed the sisterhood!  Several of the sisters had made dresses out of a special Relief Society material.

After meetings, the Relief Society sisters celebrated in the gazebo outside.  It was very festive!

 

We went to the Adom Estate district council with the missionaries in Kasoa on Monday late morning so we could continue into Accra to the mission office for senior missionary staff meeting which we attend once a month.

On Wednesday, we inspected apartments in Kasoa which is between where we live and Accra.  As always we love interacting and connecting with these amazing and dedicated missionaries.  We helped them declutter, haul away trash and unneeded stuff from their apartments, trained them on smoke/CO detectors, replaced water filters, shared a spiritual thought, and left them home made chocolate chip cookies!

At one of the apartments, we saw Isaac who helps to maintain and do repairs in apartments.  We have become good friends with Isaac because of all the times he has been to our apartment to take care of things for us.

We had multi-zone conferences on Tuesday in Winneba, Thursday in Tesano, and Friday in Kaneshie this week.  The focus of the zone conferences was having faith and complete trust in the Lord in the process of finding, teaching, baptizing, and working with members.  President Jacobsen shared a BYU devotional talk by Elder Terence M. Vinson of the Presidency of the Seventy about "Meekly Placing Our Total Trust in God."  He refers to the poem on which "The Man From Snowy River" movie is based and likened the trust the "Man from Snowy River" had in his horse to the total trust we need to have in God.  Here is the link to watch/read his talk.

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/terence-m-vinson/meekly-placing-our-total-trust-in-god/

The last two Saturdays we have had the blessing of accompanying the Elders to teach the father and sister of one of the Awutu Breku Branch members, Daniel.  They have been very sweet visits as we have shared about eternal families, the plan of salvation, and the Restoration.  Sister Judd and Daniel's sister, Navis, have connected.  After the lesson yesterday, Navis slid next to Sister Judd and wanted a picture.  Then, Daniel's father, Stephen, stood up and wanted a picture with Elder Judd.  Navis has been to Church the last two Sundays and brought her 23 year old daughter with her today.  

This morning about 2:00 a.m., another adventure started.  We lost power and thought it was just another of the many power outages we have in a week.  As it turned out, the switching mechanism to change from the Ghanaian Electric Company to the generator during power outages had shorted and blew out the wire and melted the bottom of the mechanism.  We were able to use the generator still until we went to Church at 8:15 a.m.  Then we shut it off and the house was without power for about four hours which meant no air conditioning.  The house was super hot when we got home.  Even with the generator, we can only run one of the four A/C units, so it was a sweltering hot afternoon.  The tender mercy was that Isaac and the electrician were able to eventually find the parts and come and replace the switching mechanism by about 4:30 this afternoon.  We are so blessed that it did not cause a fire or be worse than it was. 

Palm Sunday in Ghana is a wonderful joyful day for the Ghanaian Christians.  We pray that during the coming week you will study and ponder the events of the Savior's last week of His mortal ministry and that it will help strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ this Easter season.  Remember, there would be no Christmas if there had been no Easter morning.  We testify that Jesus Christ lived, died for us, atoned for our sins and shortcomings, was resurrected and overcame death.  He is our personal Lord and Savior and the only way back to our heavenly home.  We hope you have had a joyful Palm Sunday in anticipation of a glorious Easter.

  

Love, Elder and Sister Judd