Two Week Update

It has been two weeks since posting a blog.  We lost internet on Good Friday, March 29th and did not have internet until yesterday, Friday, April 5th.  It was very disappointing not being able to connect with any of our family over the Easter weekend!  Yesterday, the mission installed a cellular signal booster to improve our connection to the cell tower and hopefully better internet connectivity.  The internet is still irregular because of the under the ocean cable issues.  So, we have internet through the router at times and not at other times.  However, with the much better cellular connection, the mission phone has reasonably good connection to the internet through cellular.  We use it as a hot spot for our other devices.  It is not perfect, but is much better than we had before.  

We will try to briefly catch up on the last two weeks.  We have a regular routine of going to district council meetings on Mondays and doing apartment inspections on Wednesdays.  Thursday is usually busy with unloading all the trash and unusable items collected from the apartments on Wednesday, sending the apartment inspection reports to the mission office, and getting caught up from being gone all day.  

We went to the district council in Asamankese in the Asamankese Zone on Monday, March 25th and to the Asuom district council in Asunafo in the Abomosu Zone this last Monday.  These are the two zones furthest away from our apartment taking 3 to 3 1/2 hours to get there.  These missionaries are also furthest from the mission office and are wonderful, committed servants of the Lord.

                         Asamankese District                                                   Asuom District

We did apartment inspections on Wednesday, March 27th in the Oda District of the Asamankese Zone.  We did five apartment inspections that day.  Two of the apartments did not have power.  One did not have water, and the missionaries had just purchased bags of water (each bag has 500 ml or about a pint of water) which is the most common way to purchase water for personal use.  They were going to use it to “bath,” cook, and have drinking water until the community water was available to fill their water tank.  In spite of such daily challenges, the wonderful missionaries are happy and dedicated to their purpose.  We left at 6:00 a.m. that morning and got home around 6:30 p.m.  It was a long, but productive day.  

                    Elder Tannahill and Elder Tanner                               Elder Ngozo and Elder Kouassi

                                   Elder McCallister and Elder Tingey carrying their water

                Elder Tingey and Elder McCallister                             Elder Museka and Elder Ondongo

                                                            

                                                                  Elder Ehelofun and Elder Matondo

Because of transfers and departing and incoming missionaries this past week, we did not do apartment inspections on Wednesday this week.

On Friday late afternoon the 29th, we received a call from Elder Divis, the mission nurse.  He said that Elder Mengesha who is in the north part of the Swedru Zone was very sick and needed us to take him to go Accra to the hospital.  Elder Mengesa and his companion took a taxi to Winneba.  We drove the half hour west to Winneba to meet Elder Mengesha and his companion.  Elder Mengesha was terribly sick.  He had a high fever, was extremely chilled, threw up on the way, and was very weak.  Traffic was horrible getting to Accra which did not help things.  Even though he had taken two malaria tests from the local pharmacy which were negative, the more thorough test at the hospital was positive for malaria.  He was in the hospital for five days and would have possibly died if he had not gotten to the hospital when he did.  It was starting to get dark when we left Accra to return home.  Driving in Ghana at night is another adventure!  In addition to the usual driving adventure are motorbikes without lights, hard to see cars, roads without painted lines, people walking along the edge of the road in dark clothing, and police checkpoints with police officers in dark uniforms and nothing but a regular flashlight that can’t be seen until you are about to them.

The Accra-Cape Coast Highway is the main highway from Accra through Kasoa to where we live and beyond to the Ivory Coast.   After Kasoa, this is a two lane road with plenty of potholes.  Shortly after we arrived here, construction was started to make the section of the road from Kasoa to Winneba a four lane road.  Road construction in Ghana is not at all like in the U.S.  No allowance is made for accommodating traffic flow.  Traffic backs up for miles.  It can take an hour to drive 6 miles.  The heavy equipment operates next to the existing road without safety concerns, and people are walking everywhere.  Markets, shops, and houses have been removed to make room for the road.  We will never complain again about road construction after we return home.

  

On Easter Sunday, we went to Apam for church.  Apam is the branch furthest southwest in the mission.  It is on the coast and is a fishing village.  The branch has a struggling gospel literacy class, and we went to get acquainted with the teacher and see how we could support and help him with the class.  They meet in a small rented building off the street.  The pictures below show that it is quite a humble setting.  Even though it is a small branch, the attendance filled the small chapel and overflowed out the door.  There was a good Spirit in the Sacrament Meeting.  Like a lot of the smaller branches further out, the talks and everything is often done in a mixture of English and either Twi or Fante, the two main tribal languages in this part of Ghana.  

Sisters in the Apam Branch.  The sister holding the green baptism and confirmation certificate was recently baptized.

On the way to Apam, we passed many villagers walking to Easter services at their different churches.  Many of the men, women, and children were wearing all white clothing. 

At the end of Sacrament Meeting, Elder Judd received a call from President Sam (first counselor in the mission presidency) and then from President Jacobsen.  One of the sister missionaries, Sister Sudilla, in Winneba had collapsed at church.  They asked us to pick her up on our way back through Winneba and take her to the hospital in Accra.  Her companion is Sister Wilde.  We had Sister Wilde’s brother in our mission in Tennessee, and their relatives, including Buck Wilde who was auto mechanic for Elder Judd’s father, are from the Kamas area.  We were going to Accra anyway to have Easter dinner with the Jacobsen’s and the other two senior missionary couples, Elder and Sister Divis and Elder and Sister Topham.  After a series of tests which were all negative, Sister Sudilla was released from the hospital with the determination that she was dehydrated from not taking the daily hydration formula like she should and was somewhat anemic and needed iron supplements.  After she was released from the hospital, she and Sister Wilde came to the mission home where they were able to get a good meal.  Then, we took them back to their apartment in Winneba.

                                                             Sister Wilde and Sister Sudilla

This past week was busy on Wednesday and Thursday with transfers, departing missionaries, and incoming new missionaries.  We drove to Accra on Wednesday morning to help with these, stayed over at the mission office, and drove home on Thursday late afternoon.  As we have gotten acquainted with so many of the missionaries, it is becoming more difficult to say goodbye as they finish their mission and return home.  They are such valiant young men and women.

One of the responsibilities President Jacobsen has given us is to work with the non-African missionaries going home with their "My Plan."  "My Plan" is where they record the most important spiritual truths the Lord has taught them, the Christlike attributes the Lord has helped them develop, their vision and goals for the next year, what they will do to continue discipleship to Christ, make plans for employment and education, and make plans for dating and marriage, and what their life's vision is.  We worked with four missionaries who went home this week as a resource to help them with their "My Plan."

    

                                                               Missionary Transfers

     
                 

Departing Missionaries

                                                      Incoming New Missionary with Trainer  

We have enjoyed and been renewed as we listened to/watched General Conference yesterday and today.  We are grateful for prophets and other Church leaders who have shared inspirational, uplifting, and instructive messages.  We know God is aware of and loves each individual and desires to bless and help each or us to draw closer to Him.  As we do so, we will find and feel greater and greater joy and happiness.

We love you all!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Judd